re: Credit Card Rewards and Points Discussion

quote:

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SW almost turned me + wife away for my Jamaica trip due to my passport "condition". It is a ~10YO passport with some textbook wear and tear but no tears, no holes, no water damage and all stamps are clearly readable


It was absolutely absurd.

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If it were me and that "almost" wouldn't have been in there, I might have burned the motherfricker to the ground

Two round trip tickets from Baton Rouge to Tokyo, 11 nights booked at various Hyatts throughout Japan (still working on hotels in the smaller cities), all on points.

God bless America.

Hyatt Regency Tokyo. Hyatt Regency Hakone Resort and Spa. Hyatt Regency Kyoto.

Went with the standard king, though I considered the club. Decided it wasn't worth 5k per night (it's 17k for the club, not 15k. Maybe it went up at some point?).

Though I'm open to being sold on the upgrade

Can't believe I just let a stranger on the internet talk me into dropping an extra 20k points on rooms I had already booked...

Meh, I'm not sure it's worth trying to call and set that up over 20k points

Nov 1 Tokyo (Tokyo) - Hyatt Regency 17k *
Nov 2 Tokyo (Tokyo) - 17k *
Nov 3 Side trip from Tokyo to Kamakura (Tokyo) - 17k (Total Tokyo 51k) ***
Nov 4 Leave Tokyo for Nikko (Nikko) ???
Nov 5 Leave Nikko for Hakone (Hakone) - Hyatt Regency Hakone Resort and Spa 25k *
Nov 6 Hakone (Hakone) - 25k (Total Hakone 50k) ***
Nov 7 Leave Hakone for Kyoto (Kyoto) - Hyatt Regency Kyoto 20k *
Nov 8 Kyoto (Kyoto) - 20k *
Nov 9 Kyoto (Kyoto) - 20k *
Nov 10 Kyoto (Kyoto) - 20k xxx
Nov 11 Side trip from Kyoto to Nara (Kyoto) - 20k (Total Kyoto 120k) xxx
Nov 12 Leave Kyoto for Miyajima via Himeji Castle (Miyajima) ???
Nov 13 Leave Miyajima for Kanazawa via Hiroshima (Kanazawa) ???
Nov 14 Kanazawa (Kanazawa) ???
Nov 15 Leave Kanazawa for Shirakawago (Shirakawago) ???
Nov 16 Leave Shirakawago for Takayama (Takayama) ???
Nov 17 Leave Takayama for Tokyo (Tokyo) - Hyatt Regency 17k *
Nov 18 Leave Tokyo for US

That's my current itinerary. Any of you intrepid travelers have any experience with lodging in any of my smaller cities? Anything marked with question marks doesn't have lodging yet (and I'm still working on trying to catch an opening for my last two days in Kyoto, though I'd be open to switching hotels after my Hyatt stay).

So I'm ready to start planning for a California trip late next summer or early fall and looking for advice on how to handle the card game. I'm mostly interested in just going to Napa with the wife, but I'm thinking we might could go to the Ritz Carlton on half moon bay(I think that's the name) for a few nights and then three our for nights at a Marriott property somewhere in Napa.

Probably going to pull the trigger on the Chase Saphire Preferred soon and then at some point it looks like it would be a good idea to get the Marriott visa, which is offering the 80K bonus.

I just finished up with a Hilton American Express and Hilton visa run over the last year or so and worked that into Diamond status with Hilton for this year and earned around 300K points, which I've already used.

So in summary I'm not loyal to any brand starting next year and due to the Marriott in Napa along with that Ritz being nearby, I'm thinking this is my best bet.

Been using southwest points recently, but I want something better for this trip.

TIA

Just finished my trip to Haytt Zilara Rose Hall in Jamaica, ill have to write a quick review later but wife and I enjoyed it

Damn. That is very tempting

Idk if this is a weird day but Orlando airport is making me go back through TSA for my connecting flight

They have trains from each concourse and if you switch concourse you go back through TSA. This is unbelievably shitty

I get that/expected it. I didn't expect having to do it when. I went to the priority pass lounge near gate 91 then tried to swap over to the 100+ gates