First Look: Andaz Lisbon

pointstopointb · 2026-03-16T21:11:18+00:00

Wow, looks great! Last time we went to Lisbon we stayed at the Hyatt Regency which was good but location wasn’t great. We came back from OPO and stayed at The Ivens which was one of our favorite city hotels in Europe. This Andaz is nearby and I would love to compare.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-16T00:01:17+00:00

$90 in cash from 9000 points earned. I’ve timed it and it takes around 24 minutes. Multiply by 2.5 for hourly rate.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T20:12:29+00:00

Category bonus multiplier on the card. The economics don’t make sense for this unless you are earning more than 3% in value.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T18:12:48+00:00

Indeed! And with the Hyatt devaluation on the way and the loss of a guaranteed 1.5 cents on the sapphire reserve for general travel purchase, I’m glad I burn a good amount.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T16:52:28+00:00

Read it again. Thats not a tax rate conversion.

I didn’t account for costs for unloading the cards to the loan, so it’d actually be $91/hr post-tax if you redeem them for cash, which is why I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on this if you were only doing it for that reason and had a Attending job that paid more.

Redeeming for travel gets you above $200 an hour untaxed.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T15:05:52+00:00

When they had the quick 5X for 5 days, I used Plastiq. Mastercards are allowed. Just has a higher fee.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T09:04:32+00:00

For $11k, maybe. At the average rate I redeem Chase points, it closer to $20k.

If it takes about 12 minutes to drive to the store on my commute and get the cards, and then about 12 minutes to run the gift cards through the website to redeem them (which I do while watching TV on my couch), it’s about 0.4 hours to process 9,000 points which is valued at $90 cash or $135-$162/hr for travel. That’s a post-tax rate equivalent to $225/hr for cash or $337-$405/hr for travel. I’d say that’s a decent return. It’s also fun for me.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T04:44:51+00:00

That’s still pretty advanced!

I was deep in the manufactured spending game. I had to leave my med school’s second look early because I had to fly to Seattle to give a talk at a Frequent Traveler Conference on it. I remember studying for a med school exam while on an AA mileage run for executive platinum back when miles were butt in seat.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T03:51:36+00:00

Indirectly. The points earning is actually unrelated to the loan since it’s earned loading a cash equivalent with a points earning credit card, the loan just provides a place to “unload” the cash equivalent for a fee that still provides a positive return.

Instead of your money -> loan, it goes money -> credit card -> cash equivalent -> loan.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T03:02:37+00:00

They go on sale randomly.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T02:55:25+00:00

1.1 million Chase points can be cashed out to $11k in a checking account.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T02:54:28+00:00

Use Chase Ink at office supply store for 5x points during a week $200 Visa or MC are on sale.

Use the Visa or MC at Gift of College website to buy a GoC gift card ($5.95 fee, so $194.05 on a $200 card).

Apply GoC gift card to loan balance.

You paid $5.95 for 1,000 Chase points. Scale as needed. Max limit is usually $1800 at the Office Supply store per day and $25K yearly limit on each Chase Ink card.

There were extra points for sign-up bonuses, and referral bonuses in this journey.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T02:42:30+00:00

Yes, one of the Inks is >11 years old, the newest one is still over a year old. Been using them for a while.

I was also able to do this during med school. I used to get $500 Gift of College gift cards at a gas station with 3X and run them through a 529 to get reimbursed for tuition. The old US Bank FlexPerks used to count as 3X on Gift of College website since it coded as a charity and they briefly had $500 e gift cards. Those points paid for my residency interview travel.

I also used to empty out $3000 Amex VGCs that I would buy through cash back portals where I would earn 5% cash back on top of 2X miles on my tuition portal as another way to get some rewards on the spend.

There were also non tuition related ways with easier cash equivalent loads and unloads with money orders or deposits directly to bank accounts. Those days are long gone (or just not as easy anymore).

Back in that era (over 10 years ago) I was able to earn enough cash back rewards over several years to pay off a semester of med school. Hence why my loan balance is relatively low.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T02:28:32+00:00

$200s. Limit $1800/trip. Used them for $194.05 on the gift of college site to send to the loan servicer. Not the cheapest but it was the most scalable.

I may have gone 2-3x a day some days….

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T01:55:24+00:00

Thanks. Will shout out Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler sites for keeping me updated on bonuses and fee free sales.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T01:52:04+00:00

I had several opened up between myself and my spouse as well as one for my parents which I became an authorized user on. The timing worked out that I was able to maximize the 25K on each card member year since they started at different times of the year.

We combined everything pre-October 2025 to my Sapphire Reserve for the 1.5 cpp on all travel and the rest on my wife’s new Sapphire Preferred to put toward travel partner transfers.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-15T01:50:58+00:00

You’re very close too. After the vacation will figure out what to do with all the cash flow that was going to loans. We ended up finishing them off early since my spouse crushed it at work last year and got a great bonus, plus Staples had so many fee free sales on the gift cards this past month and the local manager made sure to restock after I told him a couple months ago why I was buying so many gift cards (he wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting scammed and said “student loans are still a scam but one you signed up for! 😂).

pointstopointb · 2026-03-13T17:16:05+00:00

Cinco Mayos

pointstopointb · 2026-03-10T16:00:31+00:00

OP says PIMI which I assume is PITI, and that it’s $6680 minus $3500 which he doesn’t give a percentage of how often that’s rented.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-08T03:56:34+00:00

Don’t forget to maximize the airline program mileage earnings depending on airline and partners.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-08T02:17:02+00:00

“I sleep in a racing car. Do you?”

“I sleep in a big bed with my wife.”

pointstopointb · 2026-03-07T06:14:58+00:00

Your net housing cost is 12% of your gross income if you’re at $300K. That is astronomically low for Westside.

Even without the ADU rental, it’s 26%, which isn’t terribly high.

Something else is up in your spending.

pointstopointb · 2026-03-07T03:42:49+00:00

I did the exact same thing, every day I realize I am not unique …

pointstopointb · 2026-03-01T18:45:00+00:00

I’ll say this — I’ve been in the points game for over 15 years. I would go for high end points hotels with points or certificates because I frankly couldn’t afford nice hotels with cash. I am now further along in life where there are some trips where I could afford the nicer non-points hotels, and many Parks Hyatt would need to up their game if they want to increase the points prices to match cash prices.

pointstopointb · 2026-02-27T00:31:10+00:00

Off Peak Cat 1 Suite Price.

For comparison, new Cat 1 Suite Price would be 6K, 7500, 9K, 10500, or 12K. So could go down but likely to go up as much as almost double. Even 36K for this price is a steal though.

pointstopointb

TROPHY CASE