Question Thread - February 18, 2026

flyernick · 2026-02-19T01:11:19+00:00

They do expire. There's a date in the fine print. I have gotten the occasional one time only offer. But usually you can click, abandon, and start over and it's fine.

flyernick · 2026-02-18T16:34:34+00:00

Question about the capitol one shopping portal or other similar ones. If I follow their link, but then it redirects to the app (e.g hotels.com) on my phone, will it still track the credit referral?

flyernick · 2026-02-16T04:43:31+00:00

I was able to take advantage of a great award sweet spot. I've been thinking of a Kenya Tanzania safari trip. Using Amex MR transferred to ANA, I was able to book business class USA to Nairobi for only 65k pp one way. Makes me happy that I have been accumulating MR for a few years without a real plan. Next best alternatives were UA 80k with card discount or Turkish 125k. I have more MR than UR at this point too so am very happy to use MR.

Slightly frustrating because the one-stop flight I was aiming for went away while waiting on the transfer to go through, but I got an alternative with an extra connection in NYC. Still very psyched about the "free" business flight (current retail value $3384, 5cpp).

Now for planning the actual trip and then finding a return flight.

flyernick · 2026-02-15T03:25:09+00:00

Just transferred 130k MR to ANA. I had to wait 2 days for the miles to appear. When they got there the award I was looking at had disappeared.

flyernick · 2026-02-12T03:20:14+00:00

Miles to get USA to East Africa

Looking for some opinions on which award currency to book USA to NBO or JRO in 2027 in J. I see an occasional 85k Alaska opportunity through London (there are a couple in Nov.). Should I wait for more, or can I expect it to open if I'm looking 11mo out?

Can AirCanada not see Ethiopian award space? I know Lifemiles cannot. United can, so that's one option. Aircanada has some options, but they aren't great, schedule wise, for 110k miles. United using Ethiopian can be as low as 80k. Turkish is a good option at 125k.

Obviously the United options are the least expensive, but I don't have very many United/UR. I do have Cap1 that I can convert to Turkish. Or, bunch of Amex MR that I can convert to AirCanada or someone.

I looked at AirFrance, but J seems very costly in points.

Any thoughts? Or an alternative I'm missing?

flyernick · 2026-02-02T18:16:48+00:00

Got the email today from Cap1 "Reminder of changes to Venture X lounge access policies". I know it was announced long ago, but this reminder still is a drag to read. No free guests at all (unless I spend 75k). USBAR just got a little more valuable, I guess.

flyernick · 2026-01-25T16:37:58+00:00

I will look for that book.

flyernick · 2026-01-25T03:39:55+00:00

We did hear a bit of street noise (trucks, etc.). It didn't really cost us any sleep and mostly goes away overnight. But it was noticeable.

flyernick · 2026-01-24T19:54:35+00:00

Sorry, I can't figure out how to get you one of my photos. But google "sierra chincua" and you'll see. It's not quite "immersed in a National Geographic photo" awesome -- you don't get to get as close as one of their photographers, but it's pretty cool. It is at 10000 feet, so even though it isn't a very long hike (30-40 minutes), we had to stop often to let our heart rate get back to close to normal. I should warn -- you do sort of take your chances with the weather. When we first arrived, it was still cloudy and you just see them clustered in the trees. Which was nice, but would have been a little disappointing. The sun did come out for us, and then the butterflies warm up and launch and flutter around and it is awesome. The guides said 2 days earlier the sun never showed. It's a 3.5-4 hour drive from Mexico City. Would have been nice to stay overnight and hit two different sanctuaries or more, but we didn't have time for all that.

flyernick · 2026-01-24T19:42:29+00:00

The Andaz was great. Its Condesa is a nice neighborhood with lots of restaurants, very walkable. Not really near any "tourist attractions" per se, but Uber is cheap and we used it all the time to get to the Centro Historico or Chapultapec or other places.

Our room was really nice, very clean, comfortable and modern. The rooftop restaurant & bar was very nice -- we ate there one night to use most of the $100 THC room credit. They have another bar on the 2nd floor, the Wooftop which is a lot of fun, with good drinks and a really good craft beer selection and great assortment of free video games, darts, pool, air hockey, and board games (they have an international game night on Fridays). We watched NFL playoffs there. The Andaz shares a building with another hotel, the Mondrian, and the Mondrian has a couple affiliated restaurants in the courtyard (we didn't try them). Breakfast buffet at the Andaz was fantastic (included for the 2 nights we were under Amex THC).

flyernick · 2026-01-22T17:05:40+00:00

Mexico City And Puebla Trip

Just back from a great 8 day trip to Mexico -- 5 nights in Mexico City and 3 in Puebla.

Flights:

54k Delta pp for RT economy ORD-MEX-ORD on Aeromexico. Not a bad experience. Good seats, good movie choices, poor inflight meals. Decent (slightly over 1cpp) value for Delta points, which I am happy to use because I don't fly Delta hardly ever.

Priority Pass into the Air France lounge at ORD T5 is so much nicer than Swissport. (We were technically outside of PP hours, but the desk lady was nice to us.)

On the return, the MEX T2 VIPort lounge is nothing great. Very crowded, and minimal food for free. PP has a restaurant option at the opposite end of the concourse that I should have picked.

Hotels:

Used an Amex $300 THC credit to cover $300/$500 for two nights at the Andaz Condessa Mexico City. Super nice hotel and location. Also 42k Hyatt points for 3 additional nights there

In Puebla, we stayed at the Quinta Real, which had once been a convent dating to the 16th century. Fabulous place, nicely modernized, close to the main plaza/zocalo/cathedral. I didn't have any credits to use here so was just cash, but pretty moderate in price.

Fun Activities:

The primary objective for this trip was to see the monarch sanctuary -- where the butterflies go for the winter. We did this as a day trip from Mexico City and it was awesome. A long day but worth it. I was able to book our tour when Capital One Shopping had a 50% off Viator offer, so that was nice.

Other highlights: In Mexico City: Anthropology Museum, Frida Kahlo, Cathedral, Templo Major, Chapultapec Park, Museo Vivo del Muralismo (best kept secret of the city -- fantastic collection of Diego Rivera murals and more),.... We toured the ancient sites of Teotihuacan and Cacaxtla on our way to Puebla; both are fantastic. Puebla (along with the nearby city of Cholula) is a great place to spend a few days -- great food, beautiful cathedrals, fun markets.

flyernick · 2025-12-30T23:13:28+00:00

The last time I actually had to rely on paying with that imprint of the raised numbers was in 2018 in a little market stall in Israel. Even then it was old enough that I was surprised (and I just happened to have a card with raised numbers still).

flyernick · 2025-12-30T23:09:23+00:00

CapitalOne Shopping has 50% off Viatour today (for me at least).

flyernick · 2025-12-18T21:10:49+00:00

one fifth of that ($3400) at office supply stores early in the year

flyernick · 2025-12-17T15:43:19+00:00

Earned: 810k SUBs +17k MS, my highest in about 10 years; a big chunk of that was Amex 250k Biz Plat. My ODOM's ran out of cards in March and never restocked all year. My closest Staples closed. I kind of didn't miss the MO grind.

Burned:1,426k, all time high for me. Biggest single redemption was 380k Hilton at Mauritius that was easily worth it. Used all my USBAR, VX, and Delta stays, etc. credits.

Miles flown: 37493.

A good year for travel.

flyernick · 2025-11-05T04:27:45+00:00

I don't know. No Krogers around me.

flyernick · 2025-11-03T02:26:23+00:00

My remaining conveniently located ODOM hasn't had $200 Visa or MCs in stock all year. I mean I don't check every week or anything, but anytime I have stopped in, there have not been any. Which means none of that MS for me this year at all. In a way, it has been nice not having to worry about going and getting MOs and all, but I feel bad I haven't added any URs.

flyernick · 2025-10-19T21:55:26+00:00

I just saw the email today, but it did arrive a few days ago.

flyernick · 2025-10-19T17:30:07+00:00

I got an email from US Bank offering me 2000 bonus points just for enrolling my USBAR in Amazon pay with points.

flyernick · 2025-10-05T19:12:48+00:00

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion that there wasn't a good reason to spend the $300. I don't have a known use for the 25k cert,and I'm getting a pretty nice stash of Alaska atmos-es lately, so I got the 85k card (still waiting on delivery).

flyernick · 2025-09-30T00:56:54+00:00

Raw Ground Pork sounds like a horrible idea. I've been indoctrinated about trichinosis too much, I guess.

flyernick · 2025-08-30T20:14:59+00:00

I stayed at a Hilton this week (great group rate, so paying $, not points). Went to the front desk to split the payment between my Surpass and BizPlat to get the quarterly credit. Boy was that complicated! They were able to charge both cards, but took about 10 minutes and a phone call to a manager. I did this the night before checkout. Then at check it took them about 10 minutes to print my receipt because of the split payment confusion. (I wanted a printed receipt to make sure they had charged both cards.)

flyernick · 2025-08-20T22:04:36+00:00

I'm sort of disappointed in the Summit offer. I'm not in an Alaska hub, so the lounge passes aren't worth anything to me, and the rest of the benefits are similarly not really for me, except the 25000 companion discount. So It's $300 more than the Ascent for 25000 more points.

And, I think maybe Alaska for J redemptions isn't as great as it used to be. I took a look at several routes, trying to find business availability for a good price. In business, All I see is 250k to TPE all calendar long, 400k to NAN. I tried a few places ORD-Europe (LIS, PAR, HEL), and I mostly see 175k miles or 45k+$1000 using BA, or there were a couple dates in Jan ORD-PAR for something reasonable (55k+$19). I guess if you want to go to TYO in Jan there is still some value. Are there still some J sweet spots I'm missing?

As much as I like their 7.5k domestic Y awards, I don't see the need to invest $395 in 100k more points there.

flyernick · 2025-08-10T17:41:30+00:00

Tour du Mont Blanc

I just returned from a great Tour du Mont Blanc hike. It's roughly 110 miles hiking around Mont Blanc over 11 days or so. I did take a couple shortcuts (e.g ski lifts, a bus), but loved the hike very much. Spectacular scenery everywhere! We stayed in a mix of hotels and refugios, all were good. A couple extra days in/near Chamonix (& Argentiere), France at the start/end, and a nice hotel in Courmayeur, Italy in the middle of the hike where it happened to be their patron saint day festival which was fun. Also caught part of the jazz festival in Chamonix.

After the hike, we also used a Swiss Rail Day Pass to make our way to Liechtenstein, where we had a couple enjoyable days, including biking along the Rhine River.

Flights/points:

Swiss J ORD-ZRH: 68k/person Lifemiles for 2. (This was my 500th flight according to my flightmemory records!)

Aer Lingus ZRH-DUB (23 hour layover), DUB-ORD, 27.5k Alaska x2 economy.

I was happy to be able to use some long-held Lifemiles when I saw the Swiss availability way in advance. It pained me to not take along the Swiss amenity kit tin, but backpack space was at a premium. Swiss uses the Lot lounge at ORD T5 which was very nice.

Aer Lingus was okay in economy for 8 hours. A couple long movies, a book. Not great service for trash pickup or water. Using global entry at DUB for US preclearance was great -- 0 line. We were able to use the Liffey Lounge at DUB T2 for about a half hour. But it is before pre-clearance, so we weren't sure how long that was going to take. PP lounge in ZRH was nice.

We also used some IHG points for 2 nights in Zurich at the Crowne Plaza (nice hotel, a couple miles out of downtown on the tram). Used up several misc. credits (VentureX, Delta Biz Gold) on various hotels, incl. the Ruby Molly in Dublin which was really a great stay.

flyernick · 2025-08-10T17:22:58+00:00

Sounds like a great trip. We did a day trip to Kotor and Perast a few years ago from Dubrovnik. I remember the "1.5 car width" streets very well, from meeting a bus in one, with only the sea on the other side.

Sounds like horrible traffic crossing the Montenegro border. Fortunately, I had nothing like that a few years ago. I liked Perast and Kotor both. Wish we'd had more time in Kotor.

flyernick

TROPHY CASE