Starwood Platinum for 2015

As mentioned in an earlier post, we just renewed my father's Starwood Platinum status for another year (ending February 2016) by reaching 25 stays this year.

We wouldn't have been able to reach this level of hotel loyalty status without (a) having the Starwood American Express business and personal credit cards which give 2 stay/5 night credits for each card and (b) Starwood giving elite earning credit for award stays (i.e., stays using points).

Our 25th stay in 2014 actually came on Thursday night at the Sheraton Suites in Elk Grove Village. Having Platinum status with Starwood really enhances our travel, primarily because we often get a room upgrade to a larger room, including suites, access to club lounges (if available), as well as complimentary (continental) breakfast.

For a list of some of the Starwood hotels we've stayed at this year, check out:

• Four Points San Antonio
• The Westin Austin
• The Westin O'Hare (Chicago)
• Sheraton Salt Lake City
• The Westin New Orleans
• W New Orleans
• St. Regis Grande Rome
• Grande Bretagne Athens
• The Westin Costa Navarino

However, our 25th stay only gave us 48 nights for the year. While 25 stays can earn you Platinum status, only way to get the 10 Suite Night Awards is to hit 50 nights. Fortunately, we needed to stay 2 additional nights before we came back home, so it worked out perfectly.

So yesterday morning, when our 50th night at the Four Points O'Hare posted to our account, we received another email.

Cheap Chicago Weekend

Well, to be completely fair, we didn't actually go into downtown Chicago. We spent 4 days (3 nights) in the Northwest suburbs for my father's small business and to visit my friends Jack & Connor.

Nevertheless, including flights, transportation and hotels, we got through this weekend trip having spent just $143 out of pocket. Here's how we did it.

Taxi
We had to get from our apartment in Manhattan (Flatiron/Chelsea) to LaGuardia at 6AM. LGA Airport is the closest NYC airport and has the shortest security lines, though it also has the least amenities. But to save time and money, we prefer flying out of LGA. We just caught a regular NYC Yellow Cab and it cost us $41 including tolls and tip. Since it was a business trip expense, we put it on my father's Business Starwood American Express.

Cash out of pocket: $41

Flights
From LGA-ORD, we used 7,500 Avios + $5.60 for each one way tickets on American Airlines. We were lucky that the aircraft used was one of American's newer configurations, with a revamped main cabin seat and sleek touch screen in-flight entertainment system. Unfortunately, they charged for most shows and movies, so we just caught up on our sleep.

Our return flight home used the same British Airways Avios redemption scheme. So another 7,500 Avios + $5.60 per person. Unfortunately, the return flight was less than ideal: (a) not on the new aircraft with no entertainment system, (b) we were seated in the very last row, (c) it ended up delayed 2 hours and (d) being 2.5 years old, I had a screaming fit for a good 30 minutes for an unknown reason. But it still cost us just $17 in taxes for 3 passengers.

Cash out of pocket: $34

Hotels
Given my father was just 3 nights away from hitting 2015 Starwood Platinum status, we decided to focus all our hotel stays with them. Fortunately, we had a Sheraton Suites nearby in Elk Grove Village and they had availability to book with points. Thursday and Friday nights were 3,000 and 4,000 SPG points, respectively, for a free night award. So 7,000 SPG points got us 2 free nights with no cash out of pocket. Because my father was a 2014 SPG Platinum elite, we also received (a) 500 SPG points as a welcome gift, (b) free wifi, (c) free access to the Sheraton Club Lounge where we could have complimentary breakfast and evening snacks and soft drinks.

For our final night, we decided to stay closer to O'Hare Airport given we didn't want to be rushed in the morning. So we stayed at another Starwood hotel - Four Points O'Hare in Schiller Park. While not the most glamorous location, behind an office building construction site and BP gas station, it served its purpose of having a clean place to sleep the night before our flight home. For just 3,000 SPG points, we had another free hotel night with (a) 250 SPG as a welcome gift and (b) free wifi internet. The Four Points did not, however, have a lounge for free breakfast in the morning, but they did offer a free airport shuttle every 20 minutes.

Cash out of pocket: $0

Taxis
To get from our friend's place to The Four Points in Schiller Park, we used my father's Uber account. They're currently giving away Free Rides (up to $30) for new sign ups. We weren't entirely sure how much the ride would be, but it ended up being just $23 (including tolls)! By way of comparison, a few months earlier when my father took a regular taxi from ORD Airport to Rolling Meadows (15 miles or about 20 minutes), it ran him about $55 (more than double).

And after we landed in NYC, to get home, we took a regular NYC taxi from the "secret" taxi stand and it ran us another $45 (including tip and toll).

Cash out of pocket: $68

Conclusion
So for a 3 night long weekend vacation/work trip, we only spent $143 in cash in travel (of which $86 for NYC taxi rides to/from LGA Airport). That's just $48/night! Obviously, we spent money on food, but we would have spent that anyway had we stayed at home. But it was a great way to see my best friends for a very reasonable amount of money.

Chicago for $6/person

Flight #94 – American Airlines 315
New York (LGA) – Chicago (ORD)
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Depart: 7:29AM / Arrive: 8:59AM
Seat: Economy
Earned: 0 miles (733 miles flown)
Cost: 7,500 Avios / person + $6
Regular Price: $160 / person
Mile Redemption: 2.1 cents/mile
Lifetime Miles: 186,217 miles

After a month off, we're finally back traveling. While this is more of a work trip for my father's small business, my mother and I are tagging along to visit our friends Jack & Connor and their parents. Because we're so points/miles heavy these days, we decided to use one of our favorite mile redemptions -- the short-haul flight on American Airlines using British Airways Avios.

Booking

Remember, British Airways Avios is a distance based program. Since NYC-Chicago is about 733 miles apart, this would fall into the 7,500 Avios redemption band for our one-way flight. We only had to pay cash for the associated taxes (about $5.60/person).

Just 83 miles closer and it would have saved us 40%!!! But compared to the typical 12,500 frequent flyer miles it would normally cost on American, United or Delta, we're very thankful to pay only 7,500 Avios and $6 per person.

We did this Avios for AA redemption back in December when we flew NYC-Puerto Rico roundtrip for just 20,000 Avios miles (vs. 35,000 AA miles). My father also "used" this redemption when he was trying to get his lost passport replacement expedited. You can read those other posts if you want the details behind the Avios program and how to redeem them on American Airline flights.

Post-Booking
Now, since my father has his new Citi American Airlines Mastercard, he gets the benefits associated with the credit card on his American flights, including free checked bags and priority boarding, but only when his AA frequent flyer # is on the reservation. But when you make an Avios booking, it automatically puts your BA frequent flyer # on the reservation and AA's website can't update it.

Last time, he still got TSA Pre-Check and priority boarding without having this AA number on the reservation. But just in case, my father went to Finnair's website (a OneWorld partner of American Airlines and British Airways) to find his reservation and update his frequent flyer #.  It's important to note that BA has its own reservation code and American has a different one. But to find it on Finnair, you use the BA one.

Now when it came time to selecting seats, my father remembered why he liked having elite status on United. We weren't able to pre-select seats together, and had to pick from a variety of middle seats in different rows. So we picked seats 21B, 22 B and 23B. Since he knew that the airlines alway keeps a few seats together for families traveling together, he knew we'd get re-seated at check in. And worst case, I'm sure someone would give up their aisle/window seat to avoid being seated next to a 2.5 year old sitting by herself.

Conclusion
We were able to get a direct flight on American Airines for a fraction of the miles normally required. So thanks to BA Avios, we're able to spend some quality time with our good friends in Chicago. Unfortunately, this Chicago trip is just a long weekend. In fact, we didn't find great availability on the return back to NYC, so we're flying back home Sunday at 12:30PM. I suppose that will be good for us to get back to our apartment by 4PM, but it would have been nice to spend all day Sunday relaxing with my buddies.

People You Meet in NYC

This has absolutely nothing to do with Traveling or Credit Cards, but it was too big not to post. When she's not being an amazing mother of the year, my dear mother works a part time job. This job has the good fortune of having a lot of foot traffic...celebrity foot traffic. In fact, here's a recent photo of her and UK soccer player footballer / global superstar, David Beckham.

I think he was in town for NYC Fashion Week since his wife, Victoria Beckham (aka Posh Spice), is a fashion designer now. The photo even got around to Victoria's Instagram feed.

You gotta love New York City!  Maybe the Beckhams could stop by my father's small business too.

IHG Into the Night Promo

InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) is a great secondary or tertiary hotel chain to have in your rotation. While my parents and I prefer Starwood as our primary, the simple facts are:

(a) They don't always have a hotel you want to stay at in every location you want to go

(b) Free/easy points from another chain shouldn't be overlooked out of "loyalty"

I know...I know... No one loves staying at a Holiday Inn, but I have to say, the brand is quite stellar outside the United States. For example, we had a great one-night stay at the Chiang Mai Holiday Inn in Thailand last year. And since we had Platinum status (that came with the Chase IHG credit card), we were upgraded to a massive suite.

But of course, IHG has more premier brands, including their higher end InterContinental Hotels. This is the IHG brand that we usually stay at when we don't find a Starwood or Hyatt. For example, we were lucky enough to stay at the InterContinental Hotels at Berchtesgaden (Germany), San Juan Puerto Rico, Hong Kong and De La Ville Rome.

 Most of these stays were on points or free night certificates. But how did we get all those points?

1. Chase IHG Visa (80,000 points plus a free night award certificate every year)
2. IHG Seasonal Promotions (~150,000 points)

The biggest promotion of 2013 was called the IHG Big Win. From signing up and completing a series of customized challenges (staying 5 nights at 3 different hotel brands in 2 cities), my father earned 91,700 IHG points - with about half of them as a super bonus for completing all the tasks. We used those points to stay 2 nights at the InterContinental De La Ville in Rome (worth ~$1,000 at $499/night).

This year, IHG kept the same concept but called it their "Into the Night" Promotion. This year, my father has an opportunity to earn 30,000 points PLUS either (a) 30,000 bonus points or (b) 2 free nights. Assuming the Free Nights are not restricted, that's probably the better bet than the 30k points, given my family's travel patterns often take us to hotels that cost over 15,000 points/night.

Unfortunately, this year, my father's personal challenges require (a) 7 nights instead of last year's 5 nights and (b) 2 international stays. Given we're not planning to travel internationally in the next several months, it looks like my father won't be able to complete the full list. And the smaller individual bonuses aren't worth going out of our way for.

My mother's challenges, however, were a lot better. First, she only had to complete 4 of 5 tasks to win, and second, a single $113 (including tax) stay at the EVEN Hotel in Norwalk, CT could net her 27,700 IHG points. Then one more Saturday night stay anywhere else (let's just say at $100/night), would get us another 8,000 IHG points + 2 free nights.

However, if someone were to sign up for a completely new IHG account with a different email address, then they would receive the "standard" offer for all new IHG members (see below), which is a lot easier to achieve for those coveted 2 free nights.

So under this "new member" scheme, staying just 3 nights at 2 different Holiday Inns (for about $100/night) over a few Saturdays  would earn us 2 free nights at any IHG property, including those expensive amazing InterContinentals we mentioned above or even the one in Bora Bora. Sounds pretty compelling now, doesn't it?

What scheme were you given this year? Are you going for it?

100,000 Page Views

It kind of snuck up on me, but my little LCD blog has just surpassed 100,000 pageviews sometime yesterday. Now, I'm not that excited, because it just means my parents hit F5 refresh about 50,000 times, but 100,000 is a nice round number.

Since we haven't been traveling at all in August, I've been posting more about our credit card rewards and strategies.

Thankfully, we're off to Chicago next week to check up on our friend's small business, Five Star Painting IL. But until then, I thought I'd check out Google Analytics and see which of my 360+ posts were the most viewed.

10. US Airways $99 Companion Pass (January 13, 2014) - 599 views

9. Hyatt Diamond Challenge Update (April 18, 2013) - 605 views

8. Flying Asiana to LAX (March 9, 2013) - 647 views

7. Flight to Tel Aviv Part 2 (January 17, 2013) - 657 views

6. Israel trip Intro (January 14, 2013) - 666 views

5. Global Entry Interview (May 24, 2013) - 774 views

4. Amex Platinum (January 6, 2014) - 790 views

3. Looking Hard at Hyatt (March 12, 2013) - 829 views

2. Travel Credit Cards - Chapter 5 Meeting Minimum Spend (April 15, 2013) - 1,082 views

1. Getting to Railay Beach (March 5, 2013) - 1,381 views

Rethinking Family Travel Strategies

In a few months, I will turn 3 years old. Wow. I feel so old!

But turning 3 won't be nearly as big of a deal as when I turned 2 years old. As you may know, that's when I officially turned in my Lap Child status and had to start paying for my own tickets. Well, rather, my parents had to start paying for my own tickets.

After several months of traveling in my own seat, I've flown just over 49,000 miles, visited 11 places in 7 different countries and secured "lifetime" Star Alliance Gold Status through Aegean Airlines. Many of these trips were subsidized or enhanced by my father's relentless pursuit of frequent flyer miles and reward points.

However, as we look ahead to the future, we may have to rethink our travel points strategy now that we're going to consistently be traveling as a group of 3.

We still have a ton of American Airline and United Airline miles (500,000 and 300,000, respectively), but we'll probably only find 2 award seats available in business/first class on long haul flights to Europe and Asia. In fact, our last premium cabin trip to Europe was actually two separate bookings (one using United miles for 2 seats and another using bank points for a "paid" seat).

Since I am my father's daughter, I've done all the math and looked at every possible combination and permutation. Unfortunately:

• My mother will refuse to let me sit by myself in economy while my parents are up in business/first
• My mother will refuse to sit by herself in economy while my father and I sit in business/first
• My mother will refuse to let my father relax sit by himself in economy while she deals with me by herself in business/first

So I guess that means we're going to be flying together all the time in economy. Not the worst thing in the world, and it will allow us to have more frequent flyer miles in our accounts (since business awards are about 2x the cost in miles of economy awards). But that just means that we'll be left with a lot more airlines miles than we're likely to use each year.

With that dynamic shift, my father's been transitioning his credit card spending to cards that will accrue him either (a) cash back, (b) hotel points or (c) flexible bank points. Fortunately, he's well equipped with the right credit cards in his wallet to use on our regular monthly spend.

For cash back, we're going with our Amex Blue card that gets us 5% cash back on all gas, grocery and drugstore spend. We also take advantage of the fact that CVS, Duane Reade and Rite Aid sell retailer gift cards, so we're also earning 5% back on our Amazon and Best Buy purchases among others.

For hotel points, we're continuing to build up our beloved Starwood SPG points using our personal and business Starwood Amex cards. After all, when we go on vacation, we spend a few hours on the plane, but we'll spend multiple days enjoying our Platinum status benefits at Starwood's St Regis, Westin or W properties. The SPG Amex only gives us 1 SPG point per dollar spent on non-Starwood purchases, so we usually limit this card's usage to non-bonused spending (my father's small business expenses, shopping at retailers that don't sell gift cards and other random spend). Plus, as I get older, I think we'll need more space, so we'll have to use more SPG points to redeem for suites if we don't get a complimentary upgrade.

Of course, Starwood isn't always an option to every place we go, so we like the fact we can bank Chase Ultimate Reward points as well using our Chase Freedom and the Chase Ink Bold cards. Right now, we use the Freedom for our gas and 7-11 spend (they have a 5x bonus this quarter) and the Ink Bold for our cell phone, cable/internet and office supply spend (hint: Staples also has a lovely gift card rack). Since we have at least 1 premium Chase UR card (the Ink Bold), our UR points can be instantly transferred to Hyatt Hotels and Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG). And if we wanted, we could even use our UR points as currency to book hotels at a fixed value of 1.25 cents/point through their Chase Travel portal.

So despite just being approved for our new Chase United Explorer Visa and Citi American Airlines Mastercard, we're probably only going to reach the minimum spend required to unlock the sign-up bonuses and then put the cards away until their annual fees come up 12 months from now. No urgent need for a ton more airline frequent flyer miles.

Sorry guys, looks like you were just a One Night Stand Card!