Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Hidden Ireland
If your a fan of old houses like Mrs. Pointsninja and I am, Hidden Ireland is a great resource for lodging in Ireland. Out of the six nights we spent in Ireland, three were in Hidden Ireland properties: Lismacue, Clonalis, and Rossnaree. All three stays were quite satisfactory and the houses themselves are lovely. Not inexpensive, but quite memorable. Full reviews will follow.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Chase Ink CDW Benefits - A money saver in Ireland
One of the great money-saving features of most credit cards is the availability of Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) insurance for rental cars through your card. By paying for the rental with a card that offers CDW coverage and waiving the coverage sold by the rental agency, you can save a considerable amount of money.
However, through some odd quirk of international law, Ireland is one of an elite group of countries (along with Israel and Jamaica) that most credit card CDW policies specifically exclude, e.g.: http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/benefits/bft_dmg_waiver_personal.html#anchor_10
This fact creates great confusion and angst to folks renting cars in Ireland, that is only exacerbated by Irish driving conditions. An example can be found on in this Flyertalk thread.
However, some (but not all) World Mastercard cards do offer CDW coverage in Ireland! This includes the Chase Ink Bold card that I happen to carry. By contacting Chase and Mastercard, I obtained a letter of coverage that enabled me to waive the CDW coverage offered by Avis. This saved me at least $150. Thank you Chase!
If you're interested in the card, sign-up links can be found on the pages of three of my favorite bloggers: Gary Leff, Ben Schlappig, and The Frequent Miler.
However, through some odd quirk of international law, Ireland is one of an elite group of countries (along with Israel and Jamaica) that most credit card CDW policies specifically exclude, e.g.: http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/benefits/bft_dmg_waiver_personal.html#anchor_10
This fact creates great confusion and angst to folks renting cars in Ireland, that is only exacerbated by Irish driving conditions. An example can be found on in this Flyertalk thread.
However, some (but not all) World Mastercard cards do offer CDW coverage in Ireland! This includes the Chase Ink Bold card that I happen to carry. By contacting Chase and Mastercard, I obtained a letter of coverage that enabled me to waive the CDW coverage offered by Avis. This saved me at least $150. Thank you Chase!
If you're interested in the card, sign-up links can be found on the pages of three of my favorite bloggers: Gary Leff, Ben Schlappig, and The Frequent Miler.
Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt, County Wicklow, Ireland
Mrs. Pointsninja and I just returned from a week-long trip to Ireland. Travel to Ireland presents a number of challenges that I'll address in the coming days. The first is that the major hotel chains have relatively few hotels in Ireland, and almost none out in the countryside where we were. An exception to this was the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt in County Wicklow.
I booked our rooms through Amex's Fine Hotels & Resorts program. The rate for a Standard Suite (Garden View) was 260 Euro. The rate included breakfast, a space-available upgrade, and an 85 Euro hotel credit. The FHR rate was not much more than the Best Available Rate and considerably less than the Breakfast Inclusive rate. Considering the 85E credit, booking through FHR was a no-brainer. In the end our bill, including dinner, came out to around $425 for the night.
Early check-in was not a benefit, but when we arrived after an early flight into Dublin, the hotel had our room ready. That was an especially welcome touch. We were upgraded to a Mountain View Suite (1 level upgrade).
I was quite pleased with the view, and, as you can see, the suites have a walk-out balcony (with room for a couple of lounge chairs).
The Mountain View Suites are good sized, with 1 1/2 baths and a (huge) walk-in closet. Guest bath:
Master bath:
Walk-in closet:
The bedroom was also large and featured bedside controls for the lights and curtains:
The spacious living room area had a couch, desk, and television:
Overall my impression of the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt was favorable. We were only there for a night, but the hotel would make a good base for exploring County Wicklow. It's a bit far out to make excursions into Dublin very practical, though. The hotel also has extensive grounds and sits adjacent to Powerscourt House and Gardens. Guests can borrow bicycles from the concierge to explore the grounds, including the quite lovely River Walk:
I booked our rooms through Amex's Fine Hotels & Resorts program. The rate for a Standard Suite (Garden View) was 260 Euro. The rate included breakfast, a space-available upgrade, and an 85 Euro hotel credit. The FHR rate was not much more than the Best Available Rate and considerably less than the Breakfast Inclusive rate. Considering the 85E credit, booking through FHR was a no-brainer. In the end our bill, including dinner, came out to around $425 for the night.
Early check-in was not a benefit, but when we arrived after an early flight into Dublin, the hotel had our room ready. That was an especially welcome touch. We were upgraded to a Mountain View Suite (1 level upgrade).
The Mountain View Suites are good sized, with 1 1/2 baths and a (huge) walk-in closet. Guest bath:
The spacious living room area had a couch, desk, and television:
The hotel also features the Gordon Ramsay restaurant where we had dinner. Frankly, I was a bit underwhelmed. The food was quite good and the service was excellent, but it wasn't the best meal I had in Ireland. Breakfast is served in the restaurant and was also quite good. This is a hotel that I would definitely return to.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Manufactured Spending
Even dilettantes in the miles & points world know that the big points offers come from credit card signups. However, these offers often come with sizable spending requirements. A couple of years ago, I signed up for an Amex Business PRG card for a 75,000 MR point bonus. That card required $10,000 in spend over 3 or 4 months. Others may require $5-10,000. That's a lot of money for the average household. Even putting as much ordinary spending as possible on cards, many folks might struggle to reach $2,000 in monthly spending. That's where "manufactured spending" comes in.
"Manufactured Spending" is a term-of-art that's arisen in the miles & points world to denote various techniques for artificially inflating the amount that you spend on credit cards in a given month. There's a whole forum devoted to it over at Flyertalk. "Manufactured Spending" can take several forms, from "moving forward" spending by purchasing gift cards that you intend to use later to buying cash equivalents and using them to pay off your credit card bills.
The single most useful tool for the beginning points-seeker is Amazon Payments. A few years ago, Amazon introduced "Amazon Payments" in a move to compete with Paypal. AP will allow you to send money (using your credit card) to anyone else who has an AP account. You can send up to $1,000 per month without paying any fee at all. I've heard that some people even have "AP clubs" in which someone sends a payment to a friend, that friend sends a payment to a third friend, and the third friend sends a payment to the first friend. All-in-all, AP is very simple way to manufacture spending to meet credit card sign-up offer requirements.
Other methods are more esoteric and are discussed at great length on Flyertalk. One that recently ended was Wells Fargo's Prepaid Visa card. Wells Fargo allowed the card to be funded up to $2500 with a credit card. They charged a $5 fee to do so. That worked out to a 0.2% fee. Since the card was a debit card, the loaded funds could be quickly liquidated through ATM withdrawals and money order purchases. Sadly, Wells Fargo changed the rules so that the card can now only be funded with Wells Fargo credit cards.
The lesson to take from this is that you needn't be scared off from taking a card offer simply because the initial spending requirement is high. Of course, before manufacturing any spending yourself, be sure that you have the discipline to pay off your cards every month. The Banks count on CC users paying interest. Once you start doing that, the points & miles game quickly becomes a losing one.
"Manufactured Spending" is a term-of-art that's arisen in the miles & points world to denote various techniques for artificially inflating the amount that you spend on credit cards in a given month. There's a whole forum devoted to it over at Flyertalk. "Manufactured Spending" can take several forms, from "moving forward" spending by purchasing gift cards that you intend to use later to buying cash equivalents and using them to pay off your credit card bills.
The single most useful tool for the beginning points-seeker is Amazon Payments. A few years ago, Amazon introduced "Amazon Payments" in a move to compete with Paypal. AP will allow you to send money (using your credit card) to anyone else who has an AP account. You can send up to $1,000 per month without paying any fee at all. I've heard that some people even have "AP clubs" in which someone sends a payment to a friend, that friend sends a payment to a third friend, and the third friend sends a payment to the first friend. All-in-all, AP is very simple way to manufacture spending to meet credit card sign-up offer requirements.
Other methods are more esoteric and are discussed at great length on Flyertalk. One that recently ended was Wells Fargo's Prepaid Visa card. Wells Fargo allowed the card to be funded up to $2500 with a credit card. They charged a $5 fee to do so. That worked out to a 0.2% fee. Since the card was a debit card, the loaded funds could be quickly liquidated through ATM withdrawals and money order purchases. Sadly, Wells Fargo changed the rules so that the card can now only be funded with Wells Fargo credit cards.
The lesson to take from this is that you needn't be scared off from taking a card offer simply because the initial spending requirement is high. Of course, before manufacturing any spending yourself, be sure that you have the discipline to pay off your cards every month. The Banks count on CC users paying interest. Once you start doing that, the points & miles game quickly becomes a losing one.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Amex Sync Offers
Amex has a new Sync offer @ Whole Foods:
"Get a one-time $10 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to make a single purchase of $75 or more at Whole Foods Market by 6/30/13."
The offer was available on my Amex account page, on Amex Sync's Facebook page, and on twitter:
"Tweet#AmexWholeFoods, get $10 back 1x on $75+ purch at Whole Foods w/synced Amex Card! (RegLtd, Exp 6/30) Terms: http://amex.co/17UI0rV"
If you shop at Whole Foods, this is a great offer!
"Get a one-time $10 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to make a single purchase of $75 or more at Whole Foods Market by 6/30/13."
The offer was available on my Amex account page, on Amex Sync's Facebook page, and on twitter:
"Tweet
If you shop at Whole Foods, this is a great offer!
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Hilton Honors Amex AXON Award Chart Changes
Lots of fun stuff in my mail today, euros bought at below face on ebay, my Royal Ambassador welcome kit (through a referral), and a letter from Amex detailing the new AXON award chart. On second thought, that last one isn't so fun.
As everyone in miles and points land knows, Hilton recently devalued their general award chart. No announcement about AXON (multi-night rate for Amex HH cardholders) or GLON (multi-night rate for elites) was made, but we all knew changes were coming. Well, they're here.
On June 15, 2013 AXON 4-night awards will be "enhanced" as follows:
Category 5- up by 5,000 points to 130,000
Category 6- up by 35,000! points to 160,000
Category 7- up by 45,000! points to 190,000
Of course, as part of the devaluation, Hilton Honors added three new hotel categories, Categories 8-10. The AXON awards for those levels will be as follows:
Category 8- 220,000
Category 9- 260,000
Category 10- 300,000
That means that a four night stay at Hilton's top level hotels will run you 75,000 points a night. And that's the discounted rate. The crazy thing is that Category 10 properties on Hilton's regular award chart run from 70,000 to 95,000 points per night. So in some cases, AXON awards could end up costing you more! Thanks, Hilton.
As everyone in miles and points land knows, Hilton recently devalued their general award chart. No announcement about AXON (multi-night rate for Amex HH cardholders) or GLON (multi-night rate for elites) was made, but we all knew changes were coming. Well, they're here.
On June 15, 2013 AXON 4-night awards will be "enhanced" as follows:
Category 5- up by 5,000 points to 130,000
Category 6- up by 35,000! points to 160,000
Category 7- up by 45,000! points to 190,000
Of course, as part of the devaluation, Hilton Honors added three new hotel categories, Categories 8-10. The AXON awards for those levels will be as follows:
Category 8- 220,000
Category 9- 260,000
Category 10- 300,000
That means that a four night stay at Hilton's top level hotels will run you 75,000 points a night. And that's the discounted rate. The crazy thing is that Category 10 properties on Hilton's regular award chart run from 70,000 to 95,000 points per night. So in some cases, AXON awards could end up costing you more! Thanks, Hilton.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Trip Planning- Ireland
Mrs. Pointsninja & I will be travelling to Ireland next month, and I'm doing some furious last minute planning. Ireland presents a special challenge for the points enthusiast, because (outside of Dublin) major chain properties are either thin on the ground or undesirable. For instance, Priority Club only has four properties there. Hilton has a whopping five clustered in Dublin and Belfast. So, my go-to programs don't do me much good. In fact, we'll only be staying at one chain property, a Radisson Blu in Dublin (thanks to the Club Carlson card).
Ireland is, however, very heavy on B&Bs. We found a number of interesting places through Hidden Ireland, a site that features historic and architecturally interesting B&Bs and self-catering houses. I plan on doing stay reports for each of them, so that will hopefully make for some interesting reading.
Getting to Ireland isn't too hard. Back in December when I started planning, I was able to find Delta business award seats into Dublin with pretty good availability in May. Finding them at 100K Skypesos apiece made my day. Unfortunately, Delta flies 767s with the old-style "recliner" business seats. I suppose we'll have to make do.
So, look forward to some "off the beaten path" stay reports in a couple of months.
Ireland is, however, very heavy on B&Bs. We found a number of interesting places through Hidden Ireland, a site that features historic and architecturally interesting B&Bs and self-catering houses. I plan on doing stay reports for each of them, so that will hopefully make for some interesting reading.
Getting to Ireland isn't too hard. Back in December when I started planning, I was able to find Delta business award seats into Dublin with pretty good availability in May. Finding them at 100K Skypesos apiece made my day. Unfortunately, Delta flies 767s with the old-style "recliner" business seats. I suppose we'll have to make do.
So, look forward to some "off the beaten path" stay reports in a couple of months.
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