This article looks at lodging and transportation in trip planning from the perspective of a credit card points enthusiast. There are already plenty of travel write-ups focused on attractions, and chanye is not particularly good at writing that kind of trip report anyway, so instead I’ll share the thought process behind how points were used on this trip for everyone’s reference, so we can all learn together.
Trip Planning
Gathering Information
As the saying goes, don’t fight an unprepared battle. When traveling to a new place, it is very important to do enough homework in advance. If you know what to expect, you are much less likely to get flustered during the actual trip.
When gathering information, chanye usually checks three websites before leaving: two Chinese sites (Qyer/Mafengwo) and one English site (trip adviser). For popular cities and attractions, both Qyer and Mafengwo offer downloadable guides such as “Qyer Guidebooks” and “Travel Guides.” In chanye’s view, these materials generally cover the basics of a destination, such as attractions, dining, and suggested itineraries. That said, their itinerary recommendations tend to reflect the travel style preferred by domestic Chinese tourists, with a heavy emphasis on sightseeing rather than vacationing and relaxing, so the schedules are usually fairly packed. You can adjust accordingly based on your own preferences.
When traveling, chanye usually prefers a more relaxed schedule, because nobody wants a vacation that is even more exhausting than a workday.
Planning the Itinerary
Generally speaking, trip planning usually follows this order:
- Set the trip start and end dates
- Search for flights (award tickets / paid tickets booked with points / paid tickets booked with cash)
- Reserve a rental car
- Choose the hotel location based on the places you want to visit
- Adjust the itinerary based on the hotel location
Of course, this is only a suggestion.
Buying Discount Sightseeing Passes (City Pass / Go City Card)
In many destinations, you can buy attraction passes in advance. Here, chanye will talk about two passes that have been used before: City Pass and Go City Card.
- City Pass
- It usually includes several of the destination’s best-known attractions, with some being either-or choices. The pass expires nine days after you first use the City Pass at an attraction.
- Go City Card
- There are two types: all-inclusive or build-your-own. The build-your-own option is similar to citypass, except that you can select attractions based on your own needs. The all-inclusive option gives you a package covering dozens of attractions, with the price varying based on the duration of the pass. During the validity period, you can visit any number of included attractions on the pass, though whether admission is single-use or multiple-use depends on the specific terms for each attraction. Simply put, the all-inclusive pass is like a buffet.
One more point about these attraction passes: they can all be purchased online in advance, often with email delivery, and then you can just print them out. Also, when buying online, don’t forget to go through a portal, since you may be able to get a decent amount of cashback (5%-10%).
Flights
Southwest Companion Pass
If you have a Southwest Companion Pass, it is often a no-brainer choice. It is basically the equivalent of half-price airfare, and at least for chanye, that is absolutely true. After all, when we travel, chanye is really just the porter / photographer / information desk / tour guide / driver / pillow... Although Southwest points have been devalued over the past few years and are currently worth about 1.5c/pt, once you factor in the Companion Pass, that effectively becomes 3.0c/pt. And in terms of availability, Southwest is usually quite good, even if the pricing is not always ideal. Add in the allowance of two checked bags per person, and it is often an easy choice.
It is worth noting that Southwest points have a fixed value, and award tickets (Award Ticket) and paid tickets (Revenue Ticket) do not come from separate inventory buckets. Aside from the fact that award tickets do not earn points, they are otherwise no different from paid tickets. This is different from the types of tickets discussed below.
Of course, the fastest way to earn a Companion Pass is to apply for two Chase co-branded cards. For details, see (Chase Southwest Plus Credit Card — Apply Together, Fly Together) and (Chase Southwest Premier Credit Card — Apply Together, Fly Together).
Buying Tickets with Citi TYP (with Prestige) / Buying Tickets with Chase UR (with CSR)
- Citi Prestige cardholders can use Citi TYP to buy AA tickets at 1.6c/pt, or tickets on other airlines at 1.33c/pt (note: on July 23, 2017, this was unified to 1.33c/pt).
- Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can use Chase UR to buy tickets on all airlines at 1.5c/pt.
It is worth noting that tickets purchased this way are treated by the airline just like tickets bought with cash (Revenue Ticket), and they also earn the corresponding airline miles/points with the airline program. That is one of the key differences between these tickets and award tickets redeemed with miles (Award Ticket).
In addition, these tickets differ from award tickets (Award Ticket) in terms of availability as well. They do not come from the same inventory bucket. Generally speaking, the Award Ticket inventory bucket is smaller, and once the seats are gone, they are gone, except for the so-called non-saver tickets offered by North American airlines. By contrast, because this type of redemption is tied to the cash price, in theory, as long as a ticket can still be purchased with money, it can also be redeemed this way, though the number of points required will vary accordingly.
AA Reduced Mileage Awards
As for AA Reduced mileage awards, chanye already covered them in an earlier article (American Airlines Miles Guide (4) - Using Miles (Advanced Part 2)), so here is just a quick summary. AA Reduced mileage awards are a benefit for AA co-branded credit card holders. When departing from or arriving in eligible cities (the list changes monthly), you can save up to 7k5 miles on a round-trip award ticket, or 2,000 miles for flights under 500 miles.
Using BA to Book Short AA Flights
As everyone knows, BA is a powerhouse for short-haul redemptions. Although it recently eliminated the very shortest distance band, which reduced the value somewhat, it is still one of the best options for nonstop short- and medium-haul flights. In addition, there is a hidden perk when using BA to redeem AA award tickets: all of the tickets come with “priority access.” PA can get you into the priority security line at the airport, and it also gives you priority boarding.
The most direct way to earn BA points is naturally through a Chase co-branded card. For details, see (Introduction to the Chase British Airways Co-Branded Credit Card). Of course, transferring Chase UR / Amex MR points is also an option, although the ratio for the latter is a bit less attractive when there is no bonus. For details, see (Points Programs 101 (3): The Three Major U.S. Credit Card Points Systems).
Delta’s Hidden Low-Points Redemptions
Ever since Delta removed its award chart, SkyMiles redemptions have become pretty opaque. But from time to time—especially on routes departing from competitor hubs like DEN/DFW/IAH—Delta does sometimes release low-level award space. chanye once found a DFW-MCO one-way award for 7.5k miles, which absolutely beat everyone else. So if you have Delta miles or AMEX MR points, it’s worth checking Delta’s website once in a while—you might find a pleasant surprise.
UA/AA Short-Haul Discount Awards
Perhaps to compete with distance-based programs like BA, both UA and AA introduced short-haul award discounts: AA charges only 7.5k one-way for flights within 500 miles, while UA charges 10,000 for flights within 700 miles. The value is still not especially compelling, particularly compared with using BA points for AA flights. However, UA/AA redemptions do not require nonstop flights, so in some cases they are still worth considering, especially when AA can be stacked with Reduced Mileage Awards.
Hotels
Redeeming Points Across Hotel Programs
This really depends on what points you have. For chanye, the priority order for using hotel points is IHG (when PointBreaks 5K is available) >> Club Carlson >= Hilton > Hyatt > IHG > Marriott > SPG. There are a few reasons for this. First, when IHG has PointBreaks (see the IHG PointBreaks introduction), any hotel on the list costs just 5k per night, which is an amazing deal and very easy to justify. Next come lower-value currencies like Club Carlson and Hilton—better to use them sooner rather than later. Also, Club Carlson has a smaller hotel footprint in the US, so its redemption priority is higher than Hilton’s. After that comes standard IHG redemptions. Since IHG has so many properties, it can often save the day when other programs have no award availability. Then come Marriott and SPG. The reason these two are saved for last is that both can be converted into airline miles (Marriott Hotel + Air Packages or SPG 20k->25k). On top of that, SPG can now transfer to Marriott at 1:3, which makes points in both programs even more valuable when combined with the package option.
For the hotel credit cards mentioned above, please see AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Credit Card — The Versatile Queen, Chase Marriott Premier Credit Card — A Great Card Even Without Spending, Chase IHG Rewards Club – A Great-Value Hotel Card, AMEX Hilton HHonors Surpass Credit Card, AMEX Hilton HHonors Credit Card, Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve
Citi Prestige Fourth Night Free
Citi Prestige used to have an extremely powerful perk: stay three nights at any hotel and get the fourth night free, regardless of that fourth night’s room rate. This benefit has since been weakened so that the fourth night is reimbursed based on the average nightly rate of the first three nights. Even so, it remains a very strong benefit.
Priceline Bid, Priceline/Hotwire Blind Deal
Finally, when it comes to hotel stays, Priceline bidding and Priceline/Hotwire “Blind Deal” bookings deserve a mention. Both can definitely save you quite a bit of money. I won’t go into too much detail here, since there are already plenty of articles about how to use these tools, and chanye does not claim to be an expert in this area. Just one reminder: don’t forget to use a portal.
Car Rentals
AMEX Plat/Citi Prestige Benefits
Among the benefits of AMEX Plat/Citi Prestige are elite status with certain rental car companies, and those statuses can often be matched across companies. chanye used a status match to get Hertz Five Star status. It may not feel especially useful, but Hertz is indeed chanye’s first choice for car rentals.
Using Discount Codes
Using Hertz as an example, there are many CDPs available, which are similar to corporate discount rates. Some CDPs do require you to have the corresponding eligibility, though. I won’t say too much more here; for reference, here is a previously written car rental article.
My Choice
For this trip, chanye chose a Southwest Companion Pass ticket, for a total of 27,137 points plus $22.40 in taxes and fees.
For the hotel, chanye chose the Double Tree by Hilton near University at Buffalo, category 4, for three nights at a cost of 90,000 points. Since chanye also had Hilton Gold status, a breakfast voucher for two was included.
As for the rental car, chanye once again went with Hertz, using an AMEX PLAT CDP and booking the lowest car class (Cheap ass, LOL). The final cost was 114.71. The $40 adjustment on the receipt came from a compensation voucher Hertz issued after chanye waited two and a half hours for pickup at the San Juan airport in Puerto Rico late last year.
Enjoy the Vacation
Finally, here are some photos from this trip to Niagara Falls and Ft. Niagara. Enjoy!
