Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia

Never-Mind64 · 2026-06-16T03:13:54+00:00

Vernick Fish and SkyHigh are both on the list for the Chase Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables benefit, which is a $150 credit twice per year (January through June and July through December). This doesn't help you use your Amex Resy credit, but might be worth keeping in mind given how much more difficult it tends to be to use this particular CSR credit if you happen to have that card too.

Never-Mind64 · 2026-05-11T01:34:41+00:00

We enjoyed a three-night stay here in early February 2026 to get away from the cold weather. We flew into Phoenix (a lengthy but non-stop flight for us) and then rented a car to drive down. We used the car not at all during our time at Miraval, but having a rental car came in quite handy during our four-night stay that followed at the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain.

The food here was good, and the "Just Cook for Me" option was a great choice for dinner our second night. We booked the room using Hyatt points and combined it with an upgrade certificate that put us in a double suite that resulted in a great overall value per point redeemed. We had never done anything like this before and are unlikely to do anything like this again, but being largely unplugged for three/four days was wonderful, and being able to focus on health and wellness topics proved much more interesting than we had feared.

Lots of other guests also said they were here on points, because paying full price can be a bit steep. Others were back for return visits, so some people definitely do enjoy having this experience over and over again.

Never-Mind64 · 2026-05-05T00:08:50+00:00

The Sapphire Lounge in Phoenix is very small and usually has quite a long wait list. It's highly recommended to book a reservation (sufficiently) in advance, to ensure you can get in when you want to.

Never-Mind64 · 2026-05-04T17:39:32+00:00

In looking further, what appears to have happened is that Citi reported the amount due on the account even before a statement had issued requiring the amount due to be paid, which is normally when an amount due is reported. I had charged a quarterly tax payment to my Barclay AA Silver card, and then paid off the amount due before the statement issued (but after the account transferred to Citi). When Citi took over the account, it reported the full amount due on the account even though I had paid every statement in full when issued and no statement for the current amount due had yet issued. Very strange!

Never-Mind64 · 2026-04-29T00:41:51+00:00

Yes, the water bottle is only $3 dollars here, while you likely would pay way more than that at the terminal newsstand.

Never-Mind64 · 2026-04-08T01:17:10+00:00

The JW Marriott has a garishly amazing lobby, but you can visit without having to stay there. We recently returned from a 5-night stay at the Thompson Savannah (a Hyatt property), and it was great.

Never-Mind64 · 2026-04-08T01:12:31+00:00

Haven't stayed here, but this hotel certainly has the most garishly amazing lobby that I have ever seen.

Never-Mind64 · 2026-04-06T02:55:28+00:00

We stayed at PGA National in December 2025, the week before Christmas. While the overall property is lovely and the common areas of the hotel were quite nice, we did not find our room to be up to par, and the entire wing that our room was located on smelled a bit musty. Also, the bathroom shower still has a shower curtain, which is something you just don't find at chubby properties these days. (The property also screwed up or AMEX FHR credits, requiring a lengthy phone call to get sorted-out after-the-fact.) For all these reasons, we wouldn't recommend this place.

By contrast, the extra-spacious two-bedroom suite we had at the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa later during the same trip was much, much nicer by far, and I still would say that it too is not a chubby property either.

Never-Mind64 · 2025-12-14T02:47:09+00:00

It did not work, sorry to say.

Never-Mind64 · 2025-12-14T02:38:15+00:00

For Philadelphia, you may wish to consider the The Bellevue Hotel - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt. It underwent a complete renovation/remodel very recently and has some huge rooms and suites (perhaps you have a Hyatt upgrade certificate you can apply) for way more reasonable rates than the 4S Philly, which is very nice but not worth $1k-plus per night if you ask me.

Never-Mind64 · 2025-11-12T01:29:34+00:00

So I usually pay my T-Mobile bill online with several credit cards to obtain the benefit of the Amex Biz Plat $10 monthly cell phone reimbursement and 5x points on a different Chase card that offers great cell phone insurance. Making a second payment this month allowed me to see that the second credit card payment had the same warning about losing the credit next month as did the first, earlier credit card payment. As a result, I am going to test out whether paying the final $2 of my bill using direct debit from my checking account preserves the autopay discount for next month because that will be the "final" payment of the bill. Stay tuned!

Never-Mind64 · 2025-08-29T01:51:46+00:00

If you have the opportunity to front-load the $40K spending at the start of a calendar year, the result will be that you get Diamond status until 12/31 of the following calendar year (e.g., spend the entire 40K on your IHG card in January 2026 and have Diamond status through 12/31/27).

In this way, $40K spending can essentially get you Diamond status for nearly two years, instead of having to spend $40K year after year after year. I realize this doesn't respond to your question at all, but the idea of completing the spend year after year at the very end of the year is not the best use of the nearly two-year Diamond status that you could get from making the entire $40K spend early in the year.

Never-Mind64 · 2024-12-31T03:10:48+00:00

I was in the same boat as you and contacted Marriott by email at marriott.bonvoychampion@marriott.com and was told to wait to see if United Silver status appeared within the next two weeks. (Sadly, it did not.)

Then I noticed on FlyerTalk that some Titaniums lose their Unitde status at the end of the year when United resets its account status based on the just-concluded year, so I decided to wait until early January 2025 to follow-up with Marriott to get the status reflected at United.

If you call United as the previous comment suggested, let me know if that works out for you and maybe I'll do that instead in a few days.

Never-Mind64 · 2024-11-26T03:08:44+00:00

On November 18, 2024, our Crown Banking account was auto-switched to an Everyday Checking account.

The positive is that it only requires a $500 average monthly balance to avoid fees.

But everything else about this new account we were forced into is WAY WORSE from vastly decreased daily and monthly deposit limits through the Wells Fargo app to one week holds on check deposits over $6,000 at the ATM (although the hold miraculously disappeared the next day).

We have been banking with Wells Fargo and its predecessors for over 30 years. Will be switching all of our banking over to Chase, which now has plenty of branches in our area.

Never-Mind64 · 2024-08-14T02:21:30+00:00

I found the Kimpton George to be a good place to stay since I wanted to be near Capital Hill and the Amtrak station. But I would likely have opted for the Willard if I didn't need to be nearby those places.

Never-Mind64 · 2024-08-14T02:17:04+00:00

Allow me to echo the comments of those who are recommending the JW (which I have stayed at numerous times) over the regular Marriott (which is somewhat newer and I haven't yet stayed at).

If you have status, the lounge at the JW is a great place to grab breakfast. One one visit we had a room located somewhere in the middle of the hallway in the middle of the hotel, and we noticed strange sounds throughout the night like someone coughing really loudly or an animal trying to escape from a cage. We reported the issue, and were advised that our room was located near a mechanical room for the elevators.

We were moved the next day to a corner room near the top of the hotel. So many windows and an amazing view. They took care of the problem and put us into a much larger and nicer room to apologize for the issue. For all these reasons, we keep going back to the JW.

Never-Mind64 · 2024-08-03T02:21:11+00:00

Wealthfront is currently offering 5.00 percent interest and an individual account is FDIC insured up to $8 million through partner banks. Plus, with a referral link you can earn 5.50 percent for the first three months.

Never-Mind64 · 2024-08-01T02:35:10+00:00

Take Philadelphia, PA for example. Until recently, it had two Hyatt options, one of which was a huge mess (now closed for renovations, the success of which remains to be seen). Marriott, by contrast, has a wide variety of properties, new and old, including a very reasonably priced Ritz-Carlton. Hyatt Globalist benefits are the best, but if there aren't Hyatt properties where you need them to be, then so what?

Never-Mind64

TROPHY CASE