What a coincidence. Was coming in here to comment on my experience at the Capital One Lounge at DFW yesterday. It was phenomenal. Quiet. Clean. No line. 10% capacity. 3x as many food options as Centurion. BBQ sliders. Bourbon glazed meatballs with cornbread. Deviled eggs. Bruschetta. Mac n cheese with bacon. Chicken tortilla soup. Chickpea salad. Arroz con pollo. List goes on. A full pastry/dessert bar. Multiple soft drinks on tap that were available for self serve. Nitro cold brew. I had a frozen Irish coffee from a machine. Since I was in a hurry I grabbed a juice, parfait, and BLT from the grab & go section.
Do you guys daily spend with a CSR or plat? I want to do the plat if/when a big offer aligns with a spend-heavy time(maybe this summer), but I don't want to keep both and I'm going to be better off with the CSR personally.
I use a bi-weekly rolling budget on Sheets that I could share with you if you want. Requires a bit of manual work to set it up (probably about an hour I'd say), but then each 2 weeks you basically just delete a column It works for me better than doing it on Quicken, by comparison. But it's really just for budgeting/planning your main checking/savings vs expenses
There is no centurion lounge at CVG. We’ve got an escape lounge which you can get into with Amex Plat but CVG isn’t big enough to warrant a full centurion lounge.
CVG is my home airport but I've never actually been in any lounge there. It's so easy to get through security there I'm never early enough to warrant going to a lounge. I really only go to them on layovers.
The escape lounge is nice to grab a quick drink before a flight especially if you’re flying Delta because it’s right by all their gates.
When are they anticipating more Capital One lounges? If I’m not mistaken, Dallas is the only location. The Venture X loves to advertise access there, but unless you use that one airport, it’s a useless perk
Pfft that’s a silly qualifier, literally says “Centurion partner” and I feel like the sign outside the door said Centurion but I didn’t stop enough to notice. Yes was right across my American gate and wasn’t busy so it’s exactly as I would want it. There’s a priority pass lounge in A I think but since SW doesn’t want to fly direct to DAL from CVG I may never see it.
Anyone know if Amex is still offering a 90k bonus for the Gold card? Bout to switch over from the Sapphire reserve
Anyone know if chase prorates their annual $300 credit? If I use all of it in January, then downgrade or cancel once the AF hits in March, will they try to take some back?
They advertised opening the DEN and IAD locations by the end of last year, but that hasn’t happened. Hopefully we see those open in Q1. I never use DFW, but fly thru DEN frequently, so that will be nice. Also interested to see what the Chase Sapphire lounges will look like. Not sure if I agree with them making the lounges open to Priority Pass members.
The Plat is shit for daily spend. Other than their 5x on airfare, they don’t offer much else in terms of spend multipliers. A number of folks choose to combine it with the Amex Gold, which has great multipliers on most peoples common spend categories.
Daily spend with CSR isn’t terrible with the dining being at 3% but I’m about to move over to the Amex Gold. Lower fee and 4% for grocery and restaurants, which is where I spend the vast majority on the card
Also looked at the Amex Platinum, but just doesn’t make sense, even with all the added perks. I’ll double my benefits on Amex gold if I am running the numbers correctly
Love that place. Have to go to DC in a few months and was bummed that the only layovers I saw were in Charlotte or Atlanta. I don't fly a ton, but the last time had a DFW stop.
IIRC it's the non-"select" variety of PP, which should keep that impact down? (No AMEX folks, for example...)
Probably been asked a million times but is there a good place to find a somewhat comprehensive list of the best cards? Looking for a better card for daily spend, typically just use points for cash back on the card.
Frequent Miler has some good resources. https://frequentmiler.com/best-cash-back-credit-card-offers/ A few follow up questions: Are you willing to pay an annual fee? Do any traveling at all or just want 1 card to keep it simple for cash back? Any particular categories have high spend (grocery, restaurant, etc)?
I would prefer to not have the annual fee but that’s just based on the fact I’m not sure I’d “break even” on other perks. That said I know some cards have enough random perks that it pays for itself, so just kind of depends. Minimal travel, so I’d obviously take what I can get, but not someone who is constantly booking flights/hotels (2-3x a year if that). That’s why I’d lean one card/cash back. Highest spend would probably be groceries/dining. So a boost there would be great. Current card I have now is 2% on everything.
Dining aside (I use CSR as my Daily Driver) - I combo it with the Blue Cash Preferred from Amex. 6% groceries, 6% on all our streaming, 3% gas stations, and $84/year for the Disney bundle credit which practically negates the $95 AF.
Catching up but I’m with Where Eagles Dare on this. I almost never use the Centurion or Admirals Club lounges at DFW, and at many domestic airports I prefer a restaurant to the overcrowded lounges since I’m usually traveling for work and can expense the meals/drinks. Case in point I was traveling AUS-FRA on Lufthansa and they share the United lounge which was jam packed and had free bags of potato chips and smart food popcorn, so I enjoyed one of the great food options in the terminal instead. In Delhi a couple of months ago the Priority Pass Lounge had a line of 100 people to get in, so I sat a a sports bar for my flight. Internationally it's usually clutch, especially on layovers or in situations where there's a welcome lounge (like Lufthansa has in Frankfurt and Munich) because I'm usually going right into the office and a shit/shower/shave/hot breakfast is key. My long standing hypothesis on “elite” benefits is that no one likes to feel special more than airline travelers, so if you put them in a crowded room with packaged snacks but tell them it's exclusive people will congregate there regardless. I have Admirals Club through frequent flying and Centurion/Priority Pass lounges with my Amex Plat but the places where it's truly a benefit are few and far between, though DuffandMuff has me intrigued by the Capital One lounge...
At a previous (and current) company, if the flight is over 6 hrs, you can upgrade to business class. However, the expectation is that you hit the ground running once you land. Tried that once and never again. I even had access to my hotel room really early in the morning and was able to shower and change and whatnot, but it didn't matter as I was completely exhausted. Put me in economy or economy plus and give me an extra day. The extra night at the hotel is normally much cheaper than the upgraded seat on the flight.
Closing in on 1M Amex points (business cards)....what is this thread's opinion on how best to use? First class upgrades and / or tickets? Hotels? Have a honeymoon coming up late this year / early next and want to blow it out
Might get bashed for this, but the Service members Civil Relief Act (SCRA) allowing all active military members to obtain credit cards without any annual fee definitely increases lounge attendance. I know the Delta lounge in San Diego is frequently loaded with local military. The SCRA does provide many useful and deserved benefits though.
1st/business class on international flights are where you get the most value value with Amex points. Hotels seem pretty average imo, but I'm not an expert in MR conversions. You can also cash them out with a little maneuvering at 1.25 cpp currently.
When you say cash them out, you mean using at statement credits / giftcards or a notional value based on a redemption to a flight / hotel?
Sale on LM purchases rn - up to a 165% bonus. You could fly *A biz between US and Europe for like $800. Confirm availability first!
Chase is offering a promotion to pay yourself back with Aeroplan points at 1.25 cpp for travel purchases. So you would need to: 1. Sign up for an Aeroplan account 2. Apply and get the Chase Aeroplan card and link it with your Aeroplan account 3. Make travel purchases (rental cars, hotels, etc) with your Aeroplan card. 4. Transfer your MR points to Aeroplan 5. Pay your travel charges with your transferred Aeroplan points at 1.25 cpp
You can transfer your Amex points to Aeroplan, then use them to pay travel stuff from your chase card, see #4 in that list. Kind of convoluted, so it may not be worth it for you, but it is an option.
Aeroplan is partnered with both cards/companies, so you can send Amex points to Aeroplan and pay for Chase expenses.
Haven't checked Amex MR travel partners but you should be capable of doing a handful of days in Tahiti/Bora Bora or Maldives exclusive of local transfer flights without having to pay out of pocket. As with any redemption, you'll be best served if you compare dates/airfare classes/room types to maximize your value. We did Moorea and Bora Bora (Tahiti) and would recommend it completely unless you have to spend thousands in cash. My write up is somewhere in here but the cliff notes: 73% of the legwork was done by a couple hundred thousand MR points. United flights in Premium Economy + Hilton suites.
yeah a hotel should be a fraction of the cost of the difference between Business and Economy. For me it's just time. I don't want to leave home just after noon on Saturday to be there for a Monday meeting if I can help it. my company used to have a policy that if you chose Economy over Business on flights over 6 hours you could get 25% of the difference paid out, which was a win/win. Nearly everyone did that since it was a $1000-$1500 bonus every time you flew internationally. Wish they still had that.
Quick glance I’m debating between the Amex Blue and the CapitalOne SavorOne. Thinking the AmexBlue perks might offset the $95.00. Will do a little more research later though and see if there’s any referrals for whatever I go with.
Probably doesn’t help you with DFW being your home base, but anybody else flying through AUS, the Delta lounge is new and I think pretty nice (hokey Austin cliches and all). I fly for work every 4-6 weeks and will show up early to get in there to take conference calls that bump up against my flight. Never had a wait to get in or any trouble finding somewhere to post up. Other than long layovers, that’s the only time I go into a lounge.
Has anyone else had issues with (or simply hate) the Chase travel portal? I was looking at hotels tonight and the prices are almost always higher on Chase than on other sites like hotels.com or even the hotel directly. Also, the search function is terrible and crashes often. I have this issue every time I use it. I've tried using different browsers and still have the same issue... it just seems like a very shitty website. It seems better when searching for flights, but for hotels it is about as bad as I've ever used. Wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences?
Yep, UR points are transferred out to Hyatt like 90% of the time. I feel like the portal used to be decent value for lower tier hotels and economy domestic flights, but its trash now.