Tag: travel-tips

Mexico City 3 day Trip with Points

We visited Mexico City for a quick 3 day trip to catch the Monarch Butterfly migration.

Parking at the Airport: We used cheapairportparking.com to book 4 days of parking at VPNE parking near LAX. It includes a shuttle and was only $27 for 4 days. A trick is to buy a cheap refundable parking reservation. When you cancel it they will offer you additional credit if you refund as an account credit versus to your credit card. Afterwards, you can use the credit for your booking. Make sure to add a coupon code for additional savings.

Flight to Mexico City: We only had 3 days in Mexico City so we wanted to catch the midnight flight out of LAX so we can arrive in the morning. The price of the flight was only listed as $88 but we added the carry-on package. They also charge a significant tax for non-residents of Mexico, bringing the total to almost double the listed price. Despite booking two people on the same PNR, they did not seat us together so we also paid extra for a seat assignment.

Hotel in Mexico City: Although the Andaz Mexico City was an option was 42k points, we opted for a cheaper option on Expedia. It was only $184 after a personal Capital One Shopping offer of 16% back. The Apartamento Suites Londres 212 was basically an AirBnB studio that was very centrally located. Two of our tours started within a 7 minute walk of the hotel. The lobby was staffed 24 hours but they only spoke Spanish and they had no AC in the room. At the end, we were happy with the choice because of the convenient location. We arrived at the hotel at 6AM the first day and just left our luggage with the staff at the lobby and proceeded to breakfast, followed by the first tour.

GetYourGuide Frida Kahlo Tour + Xochimilco + Coyoacan Tour: The tour was originally priced at $162 for two people but we had 40.5% cashback from the Capital One Shopping Portal. We gathered at the meeting spot and took our tour buses between locations. Fortunately, we were able to sleep on the bus between locations since we arrived that morning from LAX. This was a full day tour and lasted until around 7PM.

GetYourGuide Teotihuacan Balloon Tour: The tour was originally priced at $336 for two people but we again used the cashback from the portal. We were picked up at the hotel and drove about an hour to the meeting area. There were hundreds of balloons that go up each morning and we were in a basket with 8 total people. We flew for roughly an hour and a half and got really close to the pyramids. Definitely a great experience and worth the price. Afterwards, we had breakfast in a restaurant in a cave and then proceeded to spend an hour on foot at the pyramids. We could have used about an hour more but we had to get back to the van.

GetYourGuide Monarch Butterfly Tour: The tour was originally priced at $234 for two people but we had the 40.5% cashback offer. We walked to the pickup spot and the van took about 4 hours to get there, including one rest halfway. The van was incredibly bumpy (I logged 10k steps each way just from the bumpiness of the ride). The El Rosario sanctuary was the highlight of the trip and we came at a good time to watch millions of monarch butterflies in the sanctuary.

Food and miscellanous: We ended up withdrawing 3500 pesos (About $180) and used all of it for food and miscellanous expenses. We used the Charles Schwab debit card which reimbursed our fees at the end of the month (about $6 reimbursement). Some highlights:

La Casa De Tono: Breakfast place close to our hotel. Really hit the spot when we first arrived. Only about $10 for two people. 9/10
Taqueria Los Coyos: A Bib Gourmand taco place. Really good tacos. Was only about $8 per person. 9/10
Terraza Los Pérez Carbón y Comal: Rooftop Restaurant with views across from cathedral. About $20/pp. 8/10
Taquería El Califa de León: Michelin star taco place. They really need better signage for the pickup vs order line. Worth a shot if you’re visiting but took us about an hour to order and wasn’t as good as the other taco place. About $15/pp. 8/10
Centurion Lounge Mexico City (terminal 1): Food is free for platinum card holders, plus tip. Pizza and tacos were great. 9/10
Centurion Lounge Mexico City (terminal 2): Only had the pizza here, and it seemed like it was microwaved. The lounge seemed fine otherwise. 7/10

Flight back Aeromexico via AA: We originally booked a 6AM AA flight award from MEX-PHX-LAX for 12k points per person. However, a day before, availability opened on AA for a 3PM direct flight for the same cost so we just cancelled the first one and rebooked for the later flight. It allowed us to wake up at a reasonable time and also enjoy a couple hours more in Mexico City. When we arrived at the airport, we spent an hour or so at the Centurion Lounge which offered a la carte meals that were quite good. We walked to the gate and they needed about 20 volunteers to change flight due to weight limitations. They offered $800 credit per person and offered to rebook us to the Aeromexico flight that was leaving just 3 hours later so we jumped on it. It took us about an hour to switch to the other terminal and get our new tickets from the Aeromexico counter. We were able to save about 30 minutes by using the skyteam priority line because of the Bilt status match to Air France/KLM. After clearing security, we went to the other Centurion lounge for awhile and then boarded the flight.

Totals: Our total cost for the trip was about $1800 for two people. Broken down it was flights: $774, Hotel: $184, Activities: $477, Food/Misc/Ubers: $371. They flights were pretty expensive because we had date/time restrictions. We also received $800 of AA vouchers per person for changing a flight by 3 hours. However, they were archaic paper vouchers that had some booking limitations and expire within a year.

Effect of Points: The points/miles hobby saved a couple hundred dollars for this trip and gave us lounge access. It allowed us to book refundable award flights, and change our flight to a better one at the last minute. We also received $280 cashback from the capital one shopping portal. There were points options for the hotel and flights, but they just did not make sense given the lower cash prices for acceptable alternatives.

Caesar’s Diamond Elite 2023-2024

The Caesar’s Reward program often has promotional days where you earn 5X, 7X, or 10X Tier credits. It’s possible to achieve Caesar’s Diamond, Diamond Plus, or Diamond Elite status with a minimal amount of gambling. With a 10X Tier Point multiplier, someone can reach Diamond with 14k coin-in , Diamond Plus with 24k coin-in, and Diamond Elite with roughly 65k coin-in in video poker. With a 99.54% RTP Jacks or Better machine (e.g. at the El Dorado in Reno), the expected loss is only $64, $110, and $299 respectively for each tier.

In early 2023, I played enough to reach Diamond Elite until 1/31/2025. I significantly underperformed the expected value of roughly $300. The real cost for me was $2887, divided up into:

Car Rentals $177
Hotel Stays: $55
Gambling Loss: $2655

In return, I received over $2900 in benefits:

Monthly Sports Bets, returned $670
Reward Credits: $75
Airfare Credit: $1200
Reno Freeplay: $100
Atlantic City Freeplay: $275
Uber Eats Credit: $100
Two weekend nights in a Caesar’s Palace Suite: $300
Tier match to MGM Platinum: $200
One night at Caesar’s Atlantic City: $50

So even though I was unlucky on the gambling side, the value of the benefits still outweighed the cost. I also did not redeem the 5 free nights for achieving 25k tier credits, or the 4 free drinks per day in Vegas. I also had offers for 3 stays in Las Vegas that I booked but ended up canceling.

Diamond Elite requires significantly higher play than just Diamond but is well worth it if you can handle the variance. For about $250 more in expected loss, you get $1200 in airfare credits and roughly $800 in free bets on Caesar’s Sportsbook, in additional to better comp offers.

SAS Eurobonus Millionaire Challenge

SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) joined Skyteam and issued a challenge for the end of 2024. If you fly 15 Skyteam airlines, and credit the points to SAS, you will receive 1 million SAS miles. I decided to do this challenge to exercise my flying/planning chops. This would be the first time I’ve flown outside of North America for about 15 years. The 1 million mile bonus (worth maybe $8000-10k to me) meant the entire trip was essentially free or negative cost.

Some stats for the trip:

15 Days
24 Segments Flown
25 Airports Visited
17 Airlines Flown
30+ Airport Lounges Visited
27966 miles flown, 9546 miles in business class
$2921, 75k Aeroplan Points, 40k AA Points Spent on Flights
$316, 33k Hyatt Points, 10k Marriott Points Spent On Hotels
$539 Spent on Misc (Food, Sightseeing, Ubers, Visas)
Total Cost: $3776, 75k Aeroplan, 40k AA, 33k Hyatt, 10k Marriott Points

Some thoughts:

I programmed too much time for layovers, especially in Europe. Since it was my first time flying internationally in 15 years, I didn’t know how efficient the transfer system was and added too much buffer time.
I didn’t want to just fly, I wanted to spend some time at some of these cities, which increased the cost. I spent a day or two in Barcelona, Bucharest, Jakarta, and Seoul.
I flew out of Incheon right as a huge snow storm hit. The flight was delayed 2 hours but I got lucky and many other flights were canceled that day.
I got lucky and immigration at Fuzhou let me through on a temporary stay for transit, even though they didn’t have a 24 Transit Without Visa Policy. They were highly professional and let me through without an issue.
I unfortunately got a terrible cold/cough/diarrhea/night sweats halfway through the trip.
Best flight: Qatar first/business from Dubai to Doha to Jakarta.
The daytime flight from TPE-SFO in United Polaris wasn’t worth the points. I was awake for all but 3 hours so the lie flat seat wasn’t worth the price premium.
All but one of the flights was on time. The only issue with the flights was with Kenya Airways, which was canceled/rebooked, which cascaded to about $290 in fees.
It’s been 7 days since the last leg and I’ve gotten 13/15 flights credited to SAS.

Overall it was a fun experience and I would do it again. I learned a lot about flying international and it made me more confident to book complicated trips in the future.

Planning a Trip to Madison, WI with Points

We were planning to visit Madison, WI for about a week in November. We had fairly strict boundary conditions: We had to arrive on Monday, November 4th and leave on Saturday or Sunday.

Flight to MSN: The lowest priced option was to Uber to Ontario airport (about $60) and take a cheap Frontier flight to MSN. We looked at a variety of permutations (from all the Socal airports to Madison, Chicago, or Milwaukee) but it’s hard to beat $46 per person. I had diamond status on Frontier, which includes a carry-on, seating, and priority boarding. If we had no points we probably would have booked the same flight, but added the carry-on bundle for about $60.

Hotel in MSN: Our best option turned out to be booking direct with Choice Hotels at a Mainstay Suites for $516.38. There was also 10.5% cashback through a shopping portal. The points alternatives were Fairfield Inn and Suites (126k Marriott points), Hyatt Place (72k points), or Hilton Home2 Suites (180k points), none of which seem to be a wise use of points. There was also an interesting option with Marriott using 2 Amex offers for $140 off $350. The lowest rate would have been $590 after Amex Offers, but would have been a nonrefundable. In this case, points weren’t very useful.

Car Rental in MSN: We booked a refundable $30/day weekly rate. Presidential Circle status from Amex Platinum or the Venture X card may allow us to pick a larger car from the lot. I had about 800 Hertz points expiring this year, so this rental would earn enough points to get another free rental day. Without points, I would have booked the same rental, but wouldn’t have gained the free rental day.

Flight from MSN: We booked a Frontier flight back that would stop overnight in Las Vegas. We had to book each leg separately because Frontier doesn’t allow long layovers. Any alternatives would have been about $250 per person or 18.5k AA points.

Overnight in Vegas: This would allow us to do a mattress run at the Rio and use some of the dining credits from various offers (e.g. Fointainebeau status match). We had waived resort fees at the Rio and used some expiring Hertz points for a 1-day rental. With cash, we would have booked $40 Budget rental through Autoslash and stayed at the Excalibur or Luxor for roughly $58/night with resort fees.

Additional Flights: We had 2 people coming from PHX and their flights would have been $307 pp on American Airlines basic economy. We used Alaska points to book the exact same flights for 15k points + $36.20 per person. The points flight would be mostly refundable (minus the $25 partner booking fee) and include seat selection.

Totals: Our total expected cost for the 6 day trip for 4 people is: $1238 and 30000 Alaska Airlines points. Without points, it would have cost roughly $2000 for the entire trip. Although we used points for only 2 flights, we were able to use some elite status perks. The savings for this trip is mostly from the Alaska points on American flights, extra perks from Frontier Diamond, and Hyatt Globalist.

Future New York City Trip with Points

We were planning to visit NYC for about a week sometime later in the year. This is one of the instances where points didn’t really save much money, but did elevate the trip.

We wanted to leave at night from LAX and arrive in the morning in New York on specific days, which limited our flight and hotel options.

Flight to NYC: I had 4 Move to Mint certificates from the Jetblue/Delta Status match so Jetblue was really the only choice with points. There was also a 25% off promotion, which brought the flight down to $130.

If I didn’t have points, I would have booked Jetblue Basic, which would have cost $30 less per person.

Hotel in NYC: With points, the first option was the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, at 18000 points per night. I applied a suite upgrade to the Hudson River Suite. Another option was to get a suite at Hyatt House Jersey City for $131 + 6k points per night. There was also a double point promotion at Hyatt Houses at the time. Either choice would include breakfast and would have early check-in (if available) and late-checkout. The Regency room and breakfast should be nicer, so we opted for the HR option.

Without points, we would have booked the Doubletree at Fort Lee, which was $689 through id90travel. It wouldn’t have a view of NYC, wouldn’t have breakfast, would be a less nice room, and would be less convenient to public transportation.

GoCity Explorer Pass: The explorer pass includes touristy options like the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty. It’s available as a Hyatt Find Experience so we opted for the $150 and $300 find credit as a 50 and 70 night milestones on Hyatt. I would value them at roughly 50% of face value, so $350 find credit cost me roughly $175.

Without points, I would have purchased the passes from Groupon with a gift card and cashback portal for roughly $147 per person.

Flight from NYC: We booked a Jetblue Blue fare for $168 per person and used move to mint certificates. It was originally $204 but the price dropped.

Without points, we would have just booked the blue basic option for $153 per person.

Other expenses: We would have paid less for food since breakfast is provided at the Hyatt hotels. Other than that, the other expenses should be the same with or without points.

Totals: Our total expected cost for the trip for two people is: 90000 Hyatt Points, $1304, and 4x Move to Mint Certificates that was free from the Delta status match last year.

Without points, we would have paid about $2117. In this case, points didn’t really save us much money at all, but gave us a more luxurious experience. We would have lie-flat seats both ways and better accommodations that were closer to public transportation.

The sticker price for all the options would be some nonsensical number that has no bearing on reality since we would never pay that amount. The personal value of the trip (the amount I would have paid out of pocket) was around $2700. We would have paid $100 more for mint each way and about $300 more for the better hotel with breakfast. So we got a trip that we value at $2700 for $1304 and 90000 Hyatt Points.

Stacking Hertz Offers for Discount Car Rentals

Usually, car rentals are the hardest part of a trip to get outsized value with points. Right now, until June 30th 2024, there’s some interesting offers for Hertz rentals that can be stacked.

1) Sign up for Hertz Gold Rewards (free) and you get 3500 points after 3 rentals. A free rental day on a non-blackout date is 950 points, so this is worth 3 rental days. If you spend $300 you will get a 4th rental day. The free points expire at the end of 2024.

2) Amex Offers has $40 back after $150 for Amex Platinum members as part of their 40 year anniversary promotion.

3) Rakuten currently has 15% cashback for Hertz Rentals.

I do a lot of 1 day rentals, and each rental day costs $55. So, after 3 rentals for $125 out of pocket, I should get 3 free rental days and 2500 Amex Rewards Points through Rakuten. That’s about $100 for 6 Rental days, which is as good as it gets for rental car deals.

Free Spirit Travel More Mastercard

A week ago, I applied and was approved for the Spirit Airlines Mastercard. I was assigned seat 30B on a flight (literally the worst possible seat) and thought that maybe it could be worth it to get Spirit status since I fly short Spirit flights regularly. Unfortunately, the status match isn’t open right now, and I wasn’t able to status match last year because I had status matched previously.

The credit card actually offers decent bonuses for first year. The first year annual fee is waived, but you get:

45k points, worth roughly $400
$100 companion voucher, worth roughly $80
$100 statement credit, worth $100
Transferred the credit limit to another card with a 0% APR until June 2025. With a 10k limit, this is worth about $500
$100 companion voucher after spending $5000, worth roughly $80

So with zero first year annual fees ($79 after), you get roughly $1160 in value.

Since it is a Bank of America credit card, it should be possible to pay the balance of this card using a debit card over the phone. This should help liquidate excess gift cards and is part of my overall points strategy.

It would take $1000 spend to get the sign up bonus, at $5000 spend I get a companion voucher, and at $20k spend I get silver status. The major (only) benefit of silver seat assignments, including exit-rows close to check-in. I usually fly <2 hour flights, so the value of the exit-row is, according to seatbid, about $5 per flight. The cost of spending $20k on the card, versus a higher earning card, is about $400, so it’s debatable whether it’s worth it and will likely depend how many qualifying points I earn organically. In addition, there have historically been plenty of status match and fast track opportunities so I’m debating whether or not it’s worth it.

Easirent Rental Car experience at LAS

I rented a car from Easirent for $27 per day, which was reduced to $2 after using credits, through the Hopper app. The next lowest price was three times higher, so I figured why not.

It was early in the morning and I was first in line. It took about 10 minutes to pick up my car because they required an unusual amount of documentation. They required:

ID and credit card
Proof of insurance with declaration page
If you don’t have comprehensive insurance, you need to buy their insurance or
Show that you have primary Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) through your credit card, which requires showing that the credit card was used for the rental car purchase, and the benefits guide for the credit card
A confirmation of an outbound flight – if you don’t have one then you will considered a local rental

For some reason the CS person insisted that it must be primary CDW, even though secondary should work just as well. The local rental restrictions are severe: a cap of 150 miles/day, and you have to show documentation matching the driver license address. Of course, you can bypass this if you buy a refundable outbound ticket.

They gave me a relatively new Nissan sedan with 9000 miles, but with only 25% left in the tank (55 miles). It needed an oil change and wiper fluid replacement but otherwise ran fine. I would strongly recommend recording the car before and after pickup in case you’re charged for any damage.

The return was pretty smooth but there was an additional 15 minute wait for the shuttle. There was also a long line for pickups at 1PM (roughly 10 people), and 3 people working the counter, or roughly a 40 minute wait.

Trip Report: Rio Las Vegas as Hyatt Globalist

Beginning March 1st 2024, the Rio in Las Vegas was bookable through Hyatt. For globalists, you get:

Waived Resort fees (saves $45+/night)
Free breakfast at Hash House A Go Go, for 2 adults and 2 children
Elite Qualifying Nights
Upgrade to a renovated room in the Ipanema Tower

I arrived on 3/4 and tried to do mobile check-in (both on phone and at the kiosk) but they both failed. I manually checked into my room after waiting about 5 minutes in line. I was told that globalists could do elite/VIP checkin but there wasn’t a dedicated line for it. They provided 2 waters at check-in. The resort fees seem to be manually removed at check-in so it seems like ghost stays aren’t an option. I also asked about upgrades but I believe they consider the renovated room as an upgrade and didn’t want to push it.

The room itself was surprisingly nice given the price point. The renovated rooms are about the same level as NYNY or Park MGM, but much larger. They have an empty refrigerator, which is a nice change compared to strip hotels. Even though the hotel is huge, everything seemed centrally located in relation to the Ipanema tower. The front desk, gym, and restaurants were all within 5 minutes walk from my hotel room door.

I ordered 2 entries for $54 for takeout from the bar at Hash House and charged it to the room. They were efficient and took only about 20 mins to get my order ready. The portions were large enough that I could probably make 4 meals out of it.

My only hiccup with the hotel came when going to the fitness center. I called the front desk to confirm that the fitness center opened at 5AM. I went down at 6AM but they were still closed. I asked the front desk what the hours were and they said 7AM. However, they still weren’t open at 8AM.

I stayed from 3/4-3/8 (4 nights). My total for the 4 nights should be $36 + $40 + $24 + $24 = $124. In return, I get 4000 points from bonus journeys, an additional 750 points from Hyatt spending, and card points. I was able to book the points plus rates before they were removed so I should be receiving an additional 5000 points. So $124 for a total of about 10000 points and 4 EQN. Oddly enough, the bill for my first day said I had earned 2 EQNs but will see if they post.

In the future, weekday nights at the Rio should be around $24 per night for Globalists. Currently, Hyatt Bonus Journeys offers 1000 points per night until April 30th. There is also a new hotel promotion April 1-June 30 where nights earn an extra 500 points.

In theory, if you’re local to Vegas or visit often, you can get 60 night globalists for:

March: 17 days at $24/night, earn 17k points from Bonus Journeys, 4k from spend.

April: 14 nights at $24/night, earn 4k points from Bonus Journeys, 7k from New hotel bonus, 3360 from spend. April is the month where both promos stack.

May: 8 nights at $24/night, 4k from new hotel bonus, 1320 from spend.

June: 21 nights at $39/night, 10.5k from new hotel bonus, 8190 from spend. The June nights are more expensive, but may potentially go down (or up).

Total: $1755 and you receive 60k points, a Cat4 Award ($150), 2x2k Next stay award, 3xGOH award ($150), 5x SUA award ($250), and a Cat7 Award ($350). The total value of the milestone rewards is roughly $900. The values are estimated from certain websites. You would also get breakfast (with plenty of leftovers) every day, as well as a place to stay off-strip.

I don’t know how long this will last. It seems like they are losing money for each stay, especially if people take full advantage of the breakfast benefit.

Since the MGM/Hyatt partnership ended, I didn’t have a reasonable way to attain Globalist status but this was even better than expected. This would actually be perfect since I prefer to stay off-strip and I travel to Vegas monthly anyways.

Trip Report: Vegas Trip

Flew out to Las Vegas with some expiring credits I had with Frontier. Not a full flight and we left and arrived on time. They closed the gate exactly at T-15 minutes because, supposedly we would have to wait an hour if we missed our landing slot at LAS.

Rented a car via Hertz – they had about 6 Mustangs and a Mini in the Presidential Circle Lot and a couple sedans in the gold lot. I chose the Camry with 5000 miles. Pro-tip: you can drive a Toyota for about 50 miles before the fuel gauge goes below full.

Stayed at the Four Queens hotel because I had a vegas.com $100 off code and they don’t charge resort fees. It’s a very basic hotel but has free parking for guests and is right in the middle of Downtown Las Vegas.

Walked around various Downtown LV hotels and used about $250 worth of freeplay/sign up offers/Las Vegas advisor offers but only returned about $190.

Ended up doing the status match at Fontainebleau to their gold status from Diamond Elite. There was a line of about 10 people and many seemed to be signing up or doing status matches.

I left Downtown LV at 11:08 for a flight that was scheduled at 12:43. Drove to the rental car center, hopped into the shuttle as it was about to leave, and arrived at the departure gate at 12:05, leaving about 15 minutes for the Priority Pass lounge in the E gates. They upped their food game a bit. They had rice, mashed potatoes, pulled pork sandwiches, shredded chicken, broccoli, and a salad bar. Previously they only had the sandwiches.