Points And Miles News You Can Use

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Spirit Airlines disappears, Hyatt pricing shifts again, and we map out how we keep our family travel plans steady when loyalty programs and flight options change. We also share updates on three international trips and the exact points and miles moves we’re making right now. 

• Mother’s Day recap and the economics of buffet pricing versus hotel status value 
• Orlando work trip at the Disney partner Swan and Dolphin and how Marriott free night certificates can help 
• Why losing Spirit Airlines hurts competition and what it can mean for fares 
• How points create flexibility when low cost airlines reroute or disrupt trips 
• London and Scotland itinerary pivot after award availability changes, plus a Paris overnight to make business class work 
• Switzerland and Italy planning, including Wengen lodging sticker shock and backup hotel strategy for Rome 
• Marriott Homes and Villas promo basics and using points to offset cash costs 
• Capital One Shopping versus Capital One Offers and how targeted cashback emails can show up 
• Hyatt devaluation deadline, booking 13 months out, and dealing with missing standard room availability 
• Chase Sapphire Reserve 150K offer, new eligibility rules, and how we think about credits versus the annual fee 

Any questions, as always, DM me on Instagram at travelpartyof5

Transcript

Big Travel News Headlines

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Spirit Airlines is gone. Hyatt is about to get very expensive, and we've got three international trips in the works. Today we're talking all the points and miles things, so let's get into it. Hi, I'm Raya.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

And I'm Dwayne.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family, but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

So welcome to our podcast where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Hello, friends.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Thanks for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Welcome back to Travel Party if I podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

And happy Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yes. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Yes. Hope you had a wonderful day yesterday. Um, and hope that you were spoiled rotten. Um of our three children, our daughter, who is the youngest, she is six, she has been planning her Mother's Day gifts and cards for days now. And I'm pretty sure our boys had no idea it was even Mother's Day until maybe last night or this morning. So fun times.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

He had a great card for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

One of one of them is very mad at me, uh, just because I was, you know, I don't know, being his mother and not letting him do whatever he wanted to do. And so he made me a card. And the the card is very rude.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Pretty funny.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

It was really funny. We Duane and I both laughed pretty hard when we read it. Like I had tears coming out of my eyes. It was quite funny. But yeah, he's big mad. So um, yeah, fun time. So hope all the moms out there had a great day. Dwayne, we did go to breakfast. Dwayne made a breakfast reservation. We went to like a uh breakfast place that had a buffet, and I think we just realized that we just can't eat enough food for the buffet to be cost effective. It was what,$45 per adult?

SPEAKER_02 2:38

And yes,$25 for kids under$10.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah. So we had to pay for three adults and two kids. And I was telling him, I was like, this is the price of a buffet at a pretty nice hotel that would normally be covered with our status if it was a Hyatt. And I'm like, it just doesn't feel worth it to have to pay for it, you know. And it was only like drip coffee included. And uh, they did have an espresso martini bar that was included. So I guess that was something, but anyways, it was fine, it was great. I appreciated that Duane put the effort in, made a reservation. There were people waiting over an hour for a table. I'm really glad we didn't have to do that. So we had a nice little morning and it was relaxing. Nobody had to cook or clean.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

So happy Mother's Day.

Orlando Work Trip And Disney On Points

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Thank you. Um, I just got back from a work trip. And um, before we get into that though, I'll just briefly cover where we stayed and because it's it's a place you can book with points to stay at uh Disney World. But last week I did an episode all about travel insurance and how I think through the coverage that we need and that sort of thing. And I shared the details of our claim from all uh Allianz, Alliance, Allianz, and how they covered everything, which was fantastic. Someone asked me on Instagram why I didn't go through the Chase Sapphire Reserve. And I was planning to actually for the luggage specifically. And again, I would go back and listen to the episode if you're kind of unsure on travel insurance and what coverage is available on certain credit cards versus whether or not you should get a standalone policy or more. Um, but in general, what I said was I book everything in terms of flight taxes and fees on my Chase Sapphire Reserve so that we have the coverage that comes with that card. And my plan was to go through the credit card to get the cost reimbursed for the lost bag and luggage and clothes that we had to buy. And so, in fact, we even paid for everything on the Chase Sapphire Reserve to make that easier. However, when I was starting the medical claim, which I just happened to start first, I realized I could submit it all through the Allianz policy. So my plan was that I was gonna start with that, and then if they came back and somehow didn't pay for it, then I would have moved on to Chase. But fortunately, they did pay for it, so I didn't have to do any of that, and it was easy. So someone asked, that's the answer. Figured I'd share that with all of you.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Okay, so let's get into your work trip.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Dwayne has apparently started telling all his co-workers and friends that I'm going on an air quote work trip when I go on work trips, and I just learned that the other day, and I thought that was kind of funny. Um, so I had a conference in Orlando, Florida. I've done this conference before. My company goes every year, and it is at the Dolphin Hotel, which is a Marriott hotel, but it is also a Disney partner hotel or whatever it's called. And so it's a fantastic property. I've stayed there several times. Um, there's the Dolphin and the Swan, both are bookable with Marriott Points, and I only just mention it to say that if you are planning a Disney trip and you want to book on points, the Marriott 50K certificates that come with all some of the credit cards you can open are a really good use for this property. And you now that Marriott has the ability to top up with 25,000 points, it actually opens up a little bit more availability at these properties to book them with points to stay at Disney. So keep that in mind. Um, if you're planning a Walt Disney World trip, that this could be a really great option. Um, it's like walkable to a couple of the Skyliner stations, so you can take that to the park. There's also you can walk to the boardwalk and there's boats there that you can take. So if we were gonna do Disney World again, this is likely where we would stay because everything else is just wildly expensive. Um, keep in mind with Marriott, even when you book with points or free night certificates, you do still pay the nightly resort fee. So you'll want to factor that into your budget. Um, but all in all, I think this is a really solid option for families. So I mean, yeah, where did we stay when we we stayed um at the Art of Animation? We've that was with all three kids. Yeah, and that was expensive, it was very expensive, and we were in a car for the points of miles game. Yes, yes. This matter of fact, this was the vacation that we've talked about this a few times, but where we spent$10,000 and I just thought, like, I don't know how people afford to do this every year because we cannot. And the kids fought the whole time. Well, our two boys did. Our daughter was pretty young, so yeah, we stayed at Art of Animation in a car suite, which was great. It was a perfect room, but it was so expensive.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah, and a great hotel.

Spirit Airlines RIP And What It Means

SPEAKER_00 7:52

It was, yeah. Um, we also previously stayed at the All-Star, one of the all-star hotels. That was when it was just the boys, and our daughter was not born yet. And that was also fine, but it was pretty basic. And I remember it being very small for a family of four. Like I just remember being like, whoa. Oh, and you know what else is funny? For the for the trip where all five of us went and we stayed at the art of animation. I I worked with a Disney travel agent, and two things about that. One, I think Disney travel agents are fantastic, and the one that we used was great. Okay, this is not a like knock to her at all. Um, it is more of just an example of how I am a super control freak. And so she booked like a lot of our reservations and stuff for meals, and I pretty much went behind her and rebooked everything to different times because it just felt really overwhelming to have to tell her everything that I was thinking, and then she wasn't able to do it. So she like, because you know, the reservations open at a certain time, and it's like you got to be on it to book it right away, or they sell out. And so if she couldn't get a certain reservation, she would have she had like a plan B. But the like I, you know, I redid the plan three times. So um, the other thing was before we paid the deposit, I remember thinking that I should open up a credit card to earn points. I don't think I've ever talked about this, but I was like, I should open up a credit card to earn points on this because, you know, this is a lot of money. And we the tickets and stuff were gonna be like, I don't know, like$5,000. And that didn't include the hotel or anything yet. That would, you know, we would pay that when we got there. And so I opened up a discover card that was like 1% cash back. And then I realized that the 1% cash back on$5,000 was$50. And I was just like, I don't understand why people do this. Like, this is$50 is nothing. And I was like, it didn't seem worth it to me. So I do still have that discover card, I do not use it, but yeah, a little sneak peek into us before points and miles, just doing all the all the wrong things. Um, next up, let's talk about spirit airlines, R.I.P. Did you ever fly in Spirit Airlines ever in your life?

SPEAKER_02 10:15

No, but no, I'm assuming it's like frontier.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah, I have I only flew them one time. I went to Vegas to visit a friend who happened to be there on a work trip. A work trip. And I actually ended up staying in her room with her, which so it made it like a very cheap trip. Cheap trip, yes, cheap trip. And uh, I think she was staying at the aria actually. So it was a really nice hotel. And I flew over. I was, I I mean, I still work remotely, but at the time I was working remotely for a different company that I work for now. And I flew over on like a Tuesday morning. I worked all day from like the lobby, I think. She flew in that afternoon. I hung out with her that night, uh, next morning, woke up, worked all day in her hotel room, and then flew back. So I was really just gone like 36 hours. But the ticket was like$40 on spirit total.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah, and it's like a 39-minute flight from here. So it's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

It was fine. I mean, the flight was fine. It was everything was on time. Like I had no issues actually with with that flight. I think for I think that's where a budget airline can sometimes make sense, is when it's just like a super quick, like less than an hour flight. When we flew front frontier to Disney, actually, on that same trip where we it was a shit show. Yes, that was the same trip where we spent the$10,000. Um, and the flights were not even a big chunk of that because we did like the I don't know what it was called, but it was like the Wolf Den something. So the tickets were fairly inexpensive for a round trip, but they added the like they added stops, they changed our layover in Denver from like a two-hour layover to an overnight layover. It was just it was a giant cluster. And at the time I didn't really know anything or have any other options because we didn't have money to buy regular flights. So it was like at one point we landed in the middle of like BFE, Arkansas, flying home from Orlando to Phoenix. And we were supposed to go to we went to Michigan and then back to Phoenix, but between Orlando and Michigan, we literally landed in Arkansas and we were like, What? Like, what are we doing here? And they were like, Oh, you don't have to get off the plane if you don't want to. I was like, What? We've got two little kids. Like, of course we have to get off the plane.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

I said so.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

They're gonna give us an explicit rating if you keep saying the S word. Anyways, I digress, but Spirit going under is is bad because the more competition, the better for the consumer in terms of pricing, right? So if there's less competition, the especially the routes where Spirit regularly flies, all the bigger airlines, the Deltas, the Americans, the United's of the world, have less incentive to lower their price because they don't have as much competition. So it is disappointing, as terrible as uh these budget airlines can be. I I would have ranked Spirit as the the top of the budget airlines, in my opinion. And I probably would have put Frontier at the very bottom. So um, Southwest is maybe considered a budget airline, but I really don't think it is a budget airline when you look at the either both the cash and the points costs, I think are fairly high. Um, so if if you were a big spirit flyer, I would say a couple things. One, get yourself some Southwest companion passes, um, because that can make traveling as a family on Southwest significantly more affordable. And if not, if if Southwest is not your GM, that's why we have points, guys. That's why we have points so that you can fly a regular airline with a regular route network where they have more than one flight a day into certain airlines. And if something goes wrong, you know, there's other flight options to fix it. So it is disappointing. I do not, I do wish it had not happened, but they try they tried to merge with JetBlue, they were shot down. So I was shot down is a bad bad phrase to use for that. Um, okay, what's next? What's next on our outline for the day?

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Trips we are planning.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Trips we are planning.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

And by we, I mean you.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yes, trips I am planning. So we have a few upcoming trips for the remainder of the year, and one is mostly booked and the other one is almost not at all. So we're going to London and Scotland over the summer. I'm I've said that so many times that I'm sure if you are a regular listener, you are sick of hearing me say that. So I apologize. But I did have to rework the entire trip. So originally the plan was we would fly into London, then we would take a train to Edinburgh. We would spend a few days in London, a few days in Edinburgh, and then we would go into the Scottish Highlands and fly out of Inverness. That was my plan. However, flights out of Inverness, uh the availability and how I wanted to book them has changed drastically since a year ago when I originally came up with this plan. And so we had to do a pivot, and that pivot was when I found flights from Paris back home to Houston. No, no, I'm sorry, back home to Denver. No, no, no, it's Dallas. Jesus, yes, it's Dallas. Back home to Dallas. Take three. Um, on Air France in business class for six people on the same flight. So booked that for points. Taxes and fees were exorbitant, but still booked it. And then realized that the only direct flight into Paris from any of the places we were gonna go is Edinburgh. So now what we will do is spend a few days in London, fly to Inverness very early in the morning, actually, which I don't like to do, but it was cheap. And then we will venture into the Isle of Sky and the Scottish Highlands, and then we will go back to Edinburgh, return our car and spend a few days in Edinburgh before we get on a flight to Paris, where we will stay overnight and then fly out the next morning to Dallas. I had to change Airbnbs, I had to change all the things because everything I had booked previously was not available for the different dates that we needed, which is makes sense. This is their high season, and we have a group of seven. So it was just a lot. And now our days are mostly planned with a few things I still need to book. Like I want to book an afternoon tea in London and a couple other things.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

I had a coworker tell me or give me a recommendation for a tea spot. Apparently, it's like the oldest one in the world or something.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Oh, really? Do you remember what it was?

SPEAKER_02 17:12

I don't.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Okay. Well, let me know, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Yeah, I can ask them tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

The one that I was gonna book was an Alice in Wonderland themed tea, which I thought would be fun for the kids. Because otherwise you have to dress pretty fancy for tea. Like if we go to the oldest place in the in the country that serves high tea in London, we have to put on our Sunday vest.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

Which we won't have.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

So uh well, we we need to bring one nice outfit because we are gonna do family photos. That's one of the things still left that I have to book. And we're gonna do that in Edinburgh.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Partial family photos.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 17:53

I'm just saying I mean your mom and sister will be there, but yeah.

Switzerland Italy Costs And Lodging Options

Hyatt Devaluation Deadline And Booking Tactics

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Oh, but like my dad and my brother won't. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, I I was thinking our family, but you know, yes, fair. Um okay, so the other trip is Switzerland and Italy, and I the only thing that's booked is the flights into Zurich and the flights out of Rome. And I have a few days booked at the Hyatt Regency Rome. Uh, however, that hotel has been opening for a year, and it was supposed to open like last December or November, and it is still not open. And as of now, they're take they're accepting reservations uh starting in September. And our reservation is at the end of September slash beginning of October. And I do not have faith that they will be open. So I'm going to keep my reservation, but I'm also going to book a backup. And then if they do end up, you know, needing to cancel our reservation, we're not scrambling at the last minute to have something booked. And maybe they'll give us some extra points or something. I don't know. I've already looked at so the plan, okay. I'm sorry, let me back up. The plan is a few days in Switzerland and then um maybe Lake Como and then Florence and Rome. That is the plan. And we fly out of Rome. So in Switzerland, I was looking at Marriott Homes and Villas because there is a they have a promotion going on right now for 40,000 Marriott points. When you um register for the promotion and book a stay by uh I forget the the booking date. Maybe it's May 14th. But I looked at the Marriott Homes and Villas in the Wengen area of Switzerland, which is likely where we want to stay. And they are easily like over a thousand dollars a night. Like we'd be looking at almost$4,000 to stay for four nights, and that is about double the budget I had in my mind. So that's a problem. That's probably not gonna work. That's a lot, that's a lot, that's so much. So I need to either check out VRBO or Airbnb. As a side note, if you regularly use VRBO instead of Airbnb, send me a DM because I've never booked on VRBO, but I've heard that their service can be a little better than Airbnb. And they're also on a lot of shopping portals, so you can earn some points or whatever or cashback on your spend, which Airbnb doesn't really have. The other thing to note that I'm trying is I did visit the Marriott Homes and Villas thing through the Capital One shopping extension. And I am hoping that they will send me like an elevated uh cashback offer for Marry at Homes and Villas that will maybe make booking this chalet in Switzerland more affordable. So I will report back on that, but it hasn't happened yet. If you're not familiar with Capital One shopping, so Capital One has Capital One shopping and Capital One offers. Capital One offers earn Capital One points, and you have to be logged into your Capital One account in order to access the offers. Capital One shopping is different. You also have to have a Capital One shopping account, but it is cashback and cash back in the form of gift cards. So I guess you know your mileage may vary on how useful you find that. Um, but I find it fairly useful for a number of reasons. And uh I have noticed that if you visit a site and you don't buy anything, they will typically send you some sort of an offer via email within the next 24 to 48 hours. Matter of fact, it just happened. I just um I booked or I booked, I bought my mom some flowers for Mother's Day. And I wasn't I have the extension installed, but I actually went through the American Airlines shopping portal to book them or to buy them. And I ordered the flowers and I sent them and they got delivered yesterday. But I also wanted to order my sister flowers for her birthday, which is in a few weeks. And I hadn't done that part yet. And then the Capital One Shopping emailed me like a cash back offer for the same website that I had just ordered the flowers from. So then I used that to order her flowers. So, you know, as long as everything tracks, it was a it was like$40 cash back or something, which was around half price. So I thought, heck yeah, it's a great deal. I want to go back to the Mary at Homes and Villas promotion for a moment because um, if you don't follow Adventure Parks on Instagram, highly recommend them, especially for Switzerland content. They are uh an American content creators, um, they have two kids, but they have been to Switzerland, I want to say five times. And they actually did a um partnership with Marriott Homes and Villas and stayed in a Swiss chalet in Switzerland. And that's where I learned about the promotion. So the 40,000 points plus, and if you have Marriott points, you can use your Marriott points to offset the cost of the homes and villas. I don't have, I have like 39,000 Marriott points, so it's not a lot, and so I can't really offset much with that. But if you have a lot, or I guess if you wanted to transfer in some points, then that could be uh a beneficial way to save some money on it as well. Um, but I will put a link to their Instagram in the show notes. I really I like their content, they do a lot of points and miles stuff, but they are not opening a ton of cards. And so um I think their content is really, really helpful, and especially for families because they do have two younger kids that they travel with. So the other thing that we need to talk about that is very important that you know in the next week, if you're listening to this the day it comes out or maybe the day after, is Hyatt devaluation goes into effect, I believe May 20th. So you want to book everything you can for the next 13 months by May 19th. So we did a whole episode on the Hyatt devaluation. If you like quick recap is basically Hyatt currently has three pricing tiers, and now they're jumping to five different they're keeping their one through eight categories, but within each of those categories, there's going to be five different tiers: lowest, low, moderate or middle, upper, and top. First of all, the names are ridiculous. Dwayne likes to call the top one the tippy top. So within each category, there could be five pricing options, which means there's eight. No, there's 40. 40 different pricing options. What were we gonna say?

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Do I call it tippity top?

SPEAKER_00 25:09

You did call it tippy top on the previous episode, yes. Yes, you did. Um, they also released some category changes recently. It was a pretty small list compared to what we normally see. I think because the majority of the pricing, uh price gouging is gonna happen within these ridiculous tiers. Um, there were a few categories, or I'm sorry, a few properties that went down in category and they were all in China. So if you're going to China, great news. Otherwise, not so great. Um well, sorry, they weren't all in China. There was a few that were not, but most of them were in China. So you want to make sure that you are booking any Hyatt that you potentially could want to stay at for the next 13 months before May 19th, 2022. So now. So now, yes. And a lot of people have already done this and have speculative bookings, which is actually a little annoying to me because, for example, I wanted to book us at Il Tornebuoni in Florence. It would be a splurge with current prices, so I can only imagine how much how like it would be unattainable, I think, to have to get two rooms at the uh elevated prices that are coming in a few days. But there are no standard rooms available, only suites, and I would use a suite upgrade award, but I can't because there's no standard room available to even start the process. Okay, some Hyattes that we're planning to book before the time is up. Uh the Hyatt Regency Grand Cyprus is moving from a four to a five. And we've never stayed there, but fun fact, my sister used to work at that property.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

I'm sorry, we're gonna we're gonna book there for what?

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yeah, so my plan is when we do spring break next year, because we're gonna go to Turks and Caicos. My plan is to fly to Orlando, spend a few days just hanging out at the hotel, not not doing Disney or anything like that, and then fly from Orlando to Turks and Caicos.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Did you see they're opening up a Hyatt in Turks and Caicos?

SPEAKER_00 27:10

No, I didn't. They did. It's not open yet, but they're opening one after so I did not see that, but that's exciting. I'm gonna have to look into that.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Also Grand Gaiman.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Yeah. Well, they the the um, first of all, it's still not open. When were we there? Two years ago.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

But it was still they were still building it two years ago.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

I know, but it had been still, I think, coming for a while at that point. Because remember, our server at the Kimton was like, oh yeah, that they've got a long ways to go. Well, that Hyatt, when they announced all these category changes, there was like five or six Hyatt properties that they changed immediately without any note any notice at all. And that was one of them. I think it's a category eight, actually. And it had a previously been a six or a five, maybe. So yeah, it jumped up multiple categories and it it's not even open yet. Still crazy.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

It's gonna be fancy.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

I mean, maybe, but the beach area in front of it doesn't look very good. So I don't know how I don't know what they're gonna do. I just struggle to think that it could be better than the Kempton. The Kempton Seafire was a fantastic property.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah, one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah. Okay, so yes, Higher Regency Grand Cypress. I do plan to book a few nights there, probably using a mixture of points and free night certificates because that's what we have right now. Um, the other thing that I tried to book yesterday, actually, this is, I mean, I'm late to the party, so my expectations were low, but I did try to book a Leela Ventana Big Sur for just a couple of nights, maybe like next May or June, and there is zero availability. So I am sure that that property is gonna be like 75,000 points a night, probably going forward. Whereas today you could get a standard room for 45,000 points a night if you, you know, are flexible on the date or book immediately as the calendar opens. What else do I need to book? Well, if we're gonna stay at a Hyatt in Rome or in Florence, I need to book that in the next few days also. What I am gonna try to do before I give up completely, because I don't want to book directly into a suite because we again we need two rooms, even the suites at that property only sleep four. So I am going to try to call my uh the Hyatt Concierge Globalist line, and I'm going to ask if they will open up a standard room so that I can book it and apply a suite upgrade award. That that's what I'm gonna ask for. I don't know if that will work.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Hopefully it will.

Chase Sapphire Reserve 150K Offer Math

SPEAKER_00 29:48

It will, but I already emailed my concierge and asked her to do it and she said no. However, the quality level of the Hyatt Globalist concierges, whatever the plural is of that, varies greatly. And mine is not a great one. One last thing to talk about is if you are low on Hyatt points, Chase has recently come out with an elevated offer for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, along with some new rules that I think are really important. So if you have never held the Sapphire Reserve in the past, even if you currently or in the past have had a Chase Sapphire preferred card, you now can get the reserve as well and you can hold them both at the same time. The elevated offer is 150,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, which is the highest that it's ever been. And you know, we're both over 524, but we would for sure be applying for it otherwise. So if you've never had the card, uh, I would highly recommend applying for this elevated offer. It is a personal card, so you do want to be under 524, but there have been a decent amount of people saying they're over 524 and still being approved. So I don't know. I would I would probably give it a shot, even if I was over 524, if you haven't already had the card or don't currently hold the card. Uh, we do have referral links, and I will put those in the show notes so it's the very first thing you see, because I will not turn down a referral, um, some referral points for that if you're gonna get it. We would so appreciate you you using our link. And the annual fee on this card is high. It's$800 a year, which can feel, I think, really daunting. However, when they announce the changes to this card, a lot of points and miles people think that the juice is not worth the squeeze for this card specifically. I actually disagree. We have so I have had this card personally for three years. It was one of the first cards I ever got, jumping into points and miles, and I've never downgraded or changed it. Um, it is what I my reserve is the one we use for all travel bookings, and I have no plans to get rid of it anytime soon. And Duane got the card last year when they had an elevated offer, but the elevated offer at that point was only 100,000 points. And so he's his annual fee is actually just coming up in about six weeks or so. I just got the travel freely notification earlier today. Um, so keep in mind that we have two of these cards, which means we are paying$1,600 in annual fees just to have these cards, but we have used all of the edit credits for the year already, plus the$250 hotel credit per card. We used all that in Thailand for money that we were going to spend anyways. So that was money well spent or saved, I guess. It also comes with a StubHub credit of$150 every six months. So first half of the year and second half of the year combined together, you get$300 per card. Um, and the other thing that it comes with is a Chase Sapphire Reserve Tables credit. So you'll have to look up and see if there are restaurants near you that participate in that program. It's kind of like Rezi, but like a little bit fancier. And there's a few restaurants here that participate that we really like. So we use that as like a date night kind of a situation. The Mission in Scottsdale is one of them. Big fan of that restaurant. There's also one called the Fat Ox, which we haven't been to yet, but we will, and a few others. So you'll want to check based on where you live, if that is a good option. But all in all, all of those credits wildly offset the annual fee. And that doesn't include the$300 travel credit that each card comes with or the points that you earn. So I I find that way easier to use credits on than like an American Express card, personally. So again, 150,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. You can transfer those directly to Hyatt. Depending on which Hyatt you're wanting to book, that could maybe get you two nights at a very fancy hotel once the devaluation is complete, or like a bunch of nights at a regular hotel. I'll put our link in the show notes if I didn't say that. Okay. Anything else?

SPEAKER_02 34:16

I don't know. You tell me. I think we're wrapping up.

Next Guest Tease And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Yeah, I think that's it. Some points in miles news, some trip updates. Um next week, I'm going to have a guest on the podcast. Yep. First guest. Dwayne won't be here. Actually, I need to record it next weekend when you are at the birthday party.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Who's the guest?

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Melissa. Oh. She's gonna talk all about um her trip to Turkey and uh booking on a very strict uh work schedule where she really can't afford to miss any work at all. So I'm really looking forward to it. She puzzle pieced together a really fantastic trip, and the goal is to have more guests on the podcast, and this is gonna be the first one. So I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

I mean, you two should just collab and do the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Are you just trying to get off the hook?

SPEAKER_02 35:10

I was saying, I mean, I bring no value to this.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

I mean, she would bring a lot of value.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

That's that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Yeah. So um, okay, well, yeah, we'll have that to look forward to next week. Um, any questions, as always, DM me on Instagram at travel party5. And if you are gonna apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve, I will put our link in the show notes and we appreciate you using it.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Yes, thanks for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Thank you. Catch you on the next one.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Have a good one.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Bye.