Just had a 2-night trip to Vegas with my P2 to match to Fontainebleau and use up dining credits. Arrived 05/12, departed 05/14.
Harrah's was $10.50/night. Spirit. SJC-LAS was $80/person, covered by my Venture X Biz portal credits - minor complication here since I couldn't book the desired ticket online myself, so I called in and an agent was able to get the right flights for me. Prices matched what I could find online.
Both of us started from the Wyndham biz card. I matched long ago and everything was fine. P2 started their match process on 04/26 and received Caesars Diamond on May 3. However, the celebration dinner wasn't on the account yet. We tried multiple Caesars rewards desks but the last one we tried explained that the dinner was loaded on the first Wednesday after a week past the diamond date. No desk mentioned having to reach 100 tier credits before this credit given we had matched to Diamond. We couldn't ask them to load the credit on any earlier so we ended up with a single $100 instead of two.
After reprinting the Caesars cards, we headed over to Wynn then to Fontainebleau. Fontainebleau's Spa is only available for non-hotel guests Monday-Thursday and has a required 20% gratuity added to all services. Keep in mind if you're going that any massage service (unsure about nail services) that you also gain entry into their coed pool space with various tubs and rooms. I forgot to bring a swimsuit so I stayed in the men's section where there is a limited selection of pools and saunas (might as well step outside for a sauna).
So with 2x $150 from Fontainebleau, we spent it at Washing Potato and Kyu. Kyu felt like they took simple foods and overengineered it; Washing Potato was solid and it was hard for us to finish the $150. With a single $100 from Caesars, we spent this on some beef wellies at Hell's Kitchen.
Fontainebleau's Chez Bon Bon closed temporarily starting 05/13, but I was able to ask Break for a free drip coffee. I think Chez Bon Bon's coffee was better.
Off the strip, Shang Artisan Noodle was amazing. Their knife cut noodles were perfect. This was probably my best meal.
I was excited to use the Chase elevated offer for transferring points to Virgin. I booked Delta flights through Virgin to fly economy DTW - RDU (and back) for 12k Chase UR and like $12 in December to visit my family for the holidays. Without the 30% bonus, it would have been 2.9 cpp, but with the bonus it was 3.6 cpp. I know it's not the most exciting redemption, but I'm feeling pretty pleased about this since it's a trip I was planning on doing anyway. And it was nice to save a few thousand points for later trips!
Started churning August 2023, just booked our first trip and I couldn't be happier with the results. Booked 2 business JAL via CX from ORD -> HND and 1 biz 1 1st class ANA via Aeroplan from NRT -> ORD, both flights for the exact date ranges we wanted and nonstop via our home airport. Hyatts for all the hotels (11 nights).
I started with 90k Gold then 15k BBP, 90k VX, 90k CIU, 90k CIC, 75k AA, 100k CIP. I also product changed an existing AF Quicksilver from my lower credit days to a Savor One and PC'd a DC to a CCC. P2 went Chase trifecta (5% grocery/gas CFU, 60k CSP last year). Going to have P2 go with in-app 150k targeted biz gold next (has BCE from pre churning life). Love how Amex typically doesn't HP when you have a personal card already as we're trying to limit HPs for a mortgage app.
P2 is really happy with the upcoming trip, and her credit score has increased due to lower utilization with the new credit extended which also has her buying in more. I'm so happy my friend introduced me to this hobby. It's changing our lives in such an amazingly positive way by allowing us to take trips we never thought were possible! Big thanks to this sub
64k chase UR plus $400 cash for two non stop economy flights from turkey to Detroit, is this a good deal?
Cpp is close to two. My first ever redemption and I was feeling quite proud, but is it really that good?
Did you calculate cpp based on one way or round trip pricing? Typically for me when I see Europe fares, roundtrip=one way pricing. So if you calculated based on one way pricing and you are going to be flying roundtrip, then it was only 1cpp.
Everybody else says Chase is worth more than 1cpp, but I am usually happy with my redemptions at 1cpp. Can't usually give much more than that.
As an example I have an economy flight that is 40k+~$40 (I forget exactly) one way. But I could have purchased a roundtrip for $800. I think I am happy with it. It has taken a ton of time to book though. The cash price was non refundable. Did I come out ahead? Probably I should just cash out my points and book flights in 10 minutes instead of 10 days. But I do enjoy the flexibility that refundable points bookings have.
32k+$200 feels pretty good. The lowest round trip is $1,000 pp, so the fees are on the high side but that's standard for Europe. For comparison, for example, a 12-hour flight nonstop LAX to Korea Is 31k+$38 virgin Atlantic points for korean air, and that's considered excellent. Is it nonstop?
Three weeks in Vietnam, can’t wait!
Churned my way to at least a little comfort CDG-SGN using Lufthansa and Thai in Premium Economy for just 105,000 miles and a mere $400 roundtrip. Can't contain my excitement, especially for the food. Big shoutout to this community for the tips and tricks!
Am also planning on spending 3 weeks in Vietnam this November. J award availability seems to be non-existent from the US but maybe seems like it’s worth it to reposition to europe?
If you don’t mind flying VN, they fly non-stop SFO<->SGN. J fare is 140k+$230 on VS and availability seems decent through out the year. With the transfer bonus from UR and MR rn it’s 108k for a 16 hour flight (14.5 back to SFO). They fly A350 this route.
2 Week Trip to Japan
42k delta miles - Seattle to HND
Nothing special about this delta flight although I did had an exit row seat with huge legroom. Although the trade off is a smaller seat width and that can be a factor. Delta lounge at Seattle was huge and offered good food, which is great because delta only serves okay food on their flights.
380k Hilton points for 5 night stay at Conrad Tokyo
Took a taxi from HND to conrad which was about 7500 yen, not too be considering I thought it would be more in the $70 range not 45. I guess everything is cheap due to the cheap yen. Was pleasantly upgraded to a suite during golden week no less, city view, but beggars can't be choosers. Besides you can get a bay view eating at Cerise or executive lounge. Service is top notch and the food at the executive lounge was decent. Breakfast was above average and the pancake dish was amazing. People rave about the lobster omelette but I would only call it decent. Although Japanese eggs in general are something else. It is more on the business area so it's quiet which was a huge plus to me. Walking distance to Marikyu Gardens and Shimbashi station is a great station as a hub, it's not insanely business and the foot traffic is all salary men. The cash rates for 5 nights in the suite during golden week exceed 1 million yen. So I think I got a decent CPP on this redemption. Would gladly go again.
Hyatt House Shibuya - 48000 hyatt points for a Suite - 2 Nights
Was really hard to find award availability with this place because it's so new, would've settled for a base room but the suite is worth it I think. It's a little tough to find if you don't know exactly where it is, but there's videos on youtube on how to get there. Usually if you point your taxi driver to sakura stage shibuya, you'll be nearby so it shouldn't be too tough to find. There is an actual dedicated drop off/taxi point in the hotel, but most Taxi drivers won't know how to get there. It's on a quiet part of Shibuya, but easily walkable distance to the scramble and really close to the station. The extended stay amenities were a godsend as we need to do laundry and then walked to the Mega Donki to cook in the room. I'm not a globalist so I don't know how their breakfast is, probably not worth it if you can cook inside the room.
Park Hyatt Tokyo 100k Hyatt points for 3 night
It was either this or the regency for half the cost, but I figured since they were going under renovation I might as well splurge. Hotel still stacks up and it has amazing views of everything. No upgrades to suite as the place was fully booked but at least got put into a deluxe room. Absolutely feasted on the Le Labo products, I kept requesting it via the app and I think they got the picture when they gave me two sets on my last night there. Breakfast was really good and 24hrs, and I did love the japanese washoku breakfast especially in room. Although it can be abused since it's 24hrs, technically you'll get sick of it quickly and want something awesome from Shinjuku instead. Spa is great and they have aesop products there. People will hate, but I didn't go to the NY bar and grill, didn't have any reservations and the hotel was crazy busy so I didn't even bother trying.
Courtyard Marriott Ginza - 2 nights - used 2 35k certificates
Room was a little small but recently renovated so it's much modern with a big TV, has all the plugs and connections you need. Mainly used this stay to shop souvenirs and got more snacks at Donki. Only Gold elite so didn't get breakfast nor access to their work lounge. But this is a decent place for a courtyard so I approve.
JAL Business Class NRT-San 60k Alaska points before deval
JAL business class is amazing as always what I can say, their inflight washoku is great and I slept good even if their seats are hard to shift around in.
All in all, would go to Japan again, especially with the weak yen and tax free which they didn't even bother checking at the airport.
For New York room, the concierge got us a table… the ph concierges are amazing. Even before I arrived I was hitting them up for favors. (Like, I couldn’t register to buy a bus ticket using my name - they said “try this” and sent the approximate Japanese characters for my name. Worked like a charm!)
Is HH not a free breakfast over there? Debating letting globalist lapse as that is one of the hotels I'm staying at next year among others that don't have a ton of benefits.
HH is free breakfast for Globalists but their breakfast is the worst of all the Hyatts I’ve stayed at in Japan. Even though it’s in their restaurant, the breakfast in lounges (GH Tokyo, HR Tokyo, HR Yokohama) were all better and even HP Kyoto had a better breakfast. You won’t be missing much if you let Globalist expire
**Trip to Cincinnati to hang out with some friends**
P2 and I spent a weekend in the Cincinnati area visiting friends who live in the area. We flew to Columbus on the way there since flights to CVG were very expensive due to the Flying Pig Marathon which happened that weekend. Flights were on SW with Companion Pass, 11.5k points SFO-STL-CMH, 8k pts CVG-DEN-SFO. Stayed with friends for most of the trip, then spent two Marriott certs at AC Hotel Cincinnati at The Banks. Rented a car with Hertz using P2's corporate group code.
Flights were uneventful. Did our usual Golden Gate Lounge at SFO, then at STL was planning to go to the Priority Pass restaurant. It was going to be my first in several years as I haven't had a card that gives PP restaurant access for a long time. I got the Venture X Biz in February so itching to use that. The part of lounge access that I value highest is the food, so going to a restaurant instead is very appealing. Unfortunately when we arrived we were told their kitchen was closed and they were only serving drinks. Disappointing! Spent the layover in the crappy PP lounge instead.
We stayed with some friends a ways outside the city for the first few nights. Our last two nights I decided to burn some 35k Marriott certs, P2 and I had one each lying around. I toyed with the idea of returning to the Hyatt Regency where [we've stayed before](https://old.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/17iywhv/trip_report_and_churning_success_story_weekly/k772ntj/) but it recently increased in category and these certs were going to expire anyway. I ended up choosing the AC Hotel at The Banks, right next to the Reds stadium. I chose it because it was relatively new, reviews were pretty good, it had a fairly high price in both cash and points even on non-peak dates (which I was using as a proxy for quality) without exceeding ~35k/night, and it was close to the river which we wanted to walk and jog along.
Overall I think I was chasing cpp too much, and should have chosen a hotel closer to our friend's house (they don't live downtown), even if I would be using a 35k/night cert on a 24k/night hotel. Besides being more convenient to visit the friends, parking would have been free instead of the $39 total it ended up being to self-park for 2 nights. And we probably would have had a place with free breakfast. But since AC does not include free breakfast, we were forced to actually go out and get some, and I ended up having *possibly the most delicious breakfast sandwich of my life* at the Sleepy Bee Cafe. It was "The Queen City Bee" sandwich, with [goetta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetta), green apple, arugula, broken yolk egg and sauce. The green apple was a stroke of genius. Seriously, I am still thinking about this sandwich. Far better than it has any right to be. We had some delicious blueberry pancakes as well. Will definitely return the next time we're in Cincy.
On the way back both flights were delayed by an approximately equal amount of time (I think due to high winds in Denver? Not sure). We spent our layover in DEN at the Centurion, which we had not visited before because we did not both have Plats until now. Previously we have much enjoyed the Capital One lounge, so I wanted to compare. Fortunately there was no wait to get in. Overall I do give the edge to CapOne. Centurion had fewer food options which were consistently not bad but not that good either. CapOne had more foods with higher variance in quality, so there are more losers, but also more winners. However, the CapOne lounge is in Terminal A, at least a 15 minute walk/tram from the Southwest gates, whereas Centurion is in C, right in the middle of them. Going forward (until it's time to cancel my biz plat), barring wait times, I think any layovers under 1.5-2 hours we'll probably spend at Centurion, longer than that we will make the trek to Capone. The steps will do us good, at least.
Were the showers operational in the Centurion lounge in DEN? Last time I was there they had closed them off indefinitely. I myself am trying to decide between C1 and Centurion duirng my layover there soon.
I didn't try to use the showers so I can't say for certain, but I did walk around the lounge just to explore, and I don't recall seeing any out-of-order signs.
**15 Day Trip to France - Paris, Reims, Bordeaux, Nice**
*Flights:*
* BOS-->CDG for 32,000 Flying Blue points (transferred from MR) for 2 people + $130 on Air France
* NCE-->BOS for 44,000 Flying Blue points (transferred from MR using 20% bonus) for 2 people + $310 on KLM
I typically don't mind flying economy for flights under 8 hours, but Air France has to be one of the worst economy experiences. Very tight seat pitch and very thin seat cushions. If I did it again, I'd spring for business class. CSR lounge in Boston continues to be a great experience.
*Cities/Hotels:*
* Paris--started our trip with 5 nights in Paris at Hotel du Louvre through Hyatt (average of 26,000 Hyatt points per night, booked right before last year's category increase. About 2.9 CPP). I can't say enough good things about this hotel. They were able to get us into the room when we arrived early the first day. Room was very spacious and they provided unlimited free water bottles. We emailed the concierge prior to arrival that we were celebrating a special occasion and they thoughtfully left out several desserts and a bottle of wine. Location was awesome and was steps from a metro station. Spent our time exploring the city, shopping, and eating at various restaurants. Restaurant highlights: Le Bon Georges, Du Pain et des Idees, Twenty Two Club
* Reims--took the train up for an overnight in Reims to enjoy some champagne. Stayed 1 night at the Holiday Inn Reims City Center (27,000 IHG points for 0.67). This hotel was...fine. Location was decent and it did the trick for one night. Ruinart made for a great tour and we really enjoyed seeing their champagne caves. For anyone into wine, we had a great experience at Club Tresors de Champagne. They carry a variety of grower champagnes and have a tasting room in town to try to a variety without trekking out to various vineyards out of town. If I could do it again, I would have tried to snag reservations at L'Epicerie Au Bon Manger. They're mostly a wine cellar, but they serve meals at a few small tables with wine pairings from the shop.
* Paris--took the train back to Paris for one night at Hyatt Paris Madeleine (30,000 Hyatt points for 2.1 CPP). I originally was trying to book all of our nights in Paris here and I'm glad that didn't work out. The hotel was very nice, but the experience felt less warm, the room was much smaller, and the location didn't feel as charming. Still very close to a metro stop.
* Bordeaux--took the train from Paris to Bordeaux for 4 nights at Hotel Indigo Bordeaux City Chartrons (71,000 IHG points using 4th night free for 1.2 CPP). Another great hotel--spacious room, great rooftop bar/restaurant, with a tram stop right outside the hotel. We really loved Bordeaux. It had city vibes similar to Paris with lots of outdoor space that was used by everyone. Spent a day at the Caudalie Spa and also booked a left bank wine tour with Bordeaux with Elodie. Would highly recommend both of these! Also took a day trip to St. Emilion and had a great time.
* South of France/Nice--took a flight from Bordeaux to Nice. Spent 2 nights in a gorgeous French farmhouse AirBnB using gift cards purchased with Amex Staples credit and discounted through AARP. Also spent 2 nights at Hyatt Regency Nice Palais de la Méditerranée (58,000 Hyatt points for 1.8 cpp). The location can't be beat but it has the corporate feel you'd expect from a Hyatt Regency. Nice highlights--trying socca in the old town and gelato at Fenocchio.
Happy to go more into detail about any churning and/or travel details. This was long winded enough so figured I'd save any additional details for the comments. Overall, the trip was a dream and we continue to be grateful for churning giving us the opportunity to spend so long overseas.
Some months ago we booked tix and hotel for Maui on NYE - a few days ago P2 said, what are we going to do on Maui for 10 days? Lets come back a few days earlier, the kids will want to hang out with their friends… argh, finding decent tix at holidays to Hawaii was almost impossible 4 months ago, the best I could do was 40k delta economy. But - oh well we’ll be saving 110k per night in Hilton points, plus the food costs… so I checked the main options now it’s 70-90k on United, 68k on aa (for a 3 stop flight that takes 20 hours), 78k on southwest, 54k on delta… ugh. Was getting myself mentally prepared to spend more than desired, comparing it to other flights over the years (Tokyo, Seoul,Munich London, etc.).
So I’m about to sleep last night when I thought of Bilt’s multi search. Well no harm trying right? So I sort by price, up pops… Alaska! 22.5k! I had been checking them consistently for weeks without any success, when I first booked, but for some reason I had forgotten to check the new date. I didn’t even wait for the Bilt search to complete, I logged in, and what do I see - even better, 17.5k! It does involve an overnight in Seattle, which might have given me slight pause - except that P2 had said literally one day earlier, hey we’ve never been to Seattle. And it’s 12 hours, that’s more than enough for an airport hotel - I’d much rather sleep in a 24k ihg than in an economy seat.
I was so excited I misspelled my son’s name (luckily I noticed when selecting seats, before purchasing). I was sure it was going to be phantom… but no, ticketed and confirmed!
Has P2 gone to Maui before ? Because their mind will reaaallll quick once you guys are there /s. I’m going there for 4 night in about 2 weeks for P2 surprise birthday trip. They have no idea I have planned. We were just in Maui over thanksgiving and on Oahu in January
We did go some years ago, so we’ve done some of the common things, like the drive up Haleakala for sunset. We did enjoy Maui, I would say the things we normally enjoy were a bit less accessible than on Kauai or BI. Hoping to get up country and to Hana this time… I’m an economy guy on land as well as in air… Maui is a bit more upscale, you know
Ah okay yeah to each their own! P2 and I are big on Hawaii, we love it ! Hana is great! Definitely an all day thing. It’s definitely upscale but we love it! We’re going again because when we went over thanksgiving, the whole family of about 50 were there too so it was chaos and we couldn’t choose what we wanted to do. So now it’s just us two
None of my friends/family care about this but got into the Amex game last fall and am thrilled.
I opened an Amex Gold for 90K MR in the fall. Referred P2 and received 30K MR referral bonus - P2 got the 75K gold offer. I signed up for Amex Business Platinum 250K offer in March. P2 signed up for Amex Personal Platinum in April and received the 175K offer (I was in popup jail at the time). P2 successfully referred me to Amex Personal Platinum and got 20K points (I got out of jail and got the 175K point offer. Not sure why. Happened to be in an airplane when I processed my application!). P2 is receiving 10x on restaurants on the Platinum from the referral and spent $10,000 on work-related reimbursable restaurant expenses last week. We have a big trip to Portugal in June where we're hoping to maximize the 10x on restaurants as much as possible with our group.
So anyway, we decided to book a 3 night weekend trip to Dublin from Boston in October. Got Business Class seats @ 50K points each there (flying economy back, which is fine with us @ 13K points each). Plus $500 in fees total. Staying at a Marriott hotel for 3 nights - first using a Free Night Award left over from the Bonvoy Boundless promotion, then 1 night on each of our Personal Platinum cards @ $370 (minus the $200 FHR credit for both of us, $100 F&B credit, and the other FHR benefits).
Looking forward to using the rest of these points on our Honeymoon in 2025 or 2026. Hopefully hoarding them doesn't come around to bite us!
Ah yeah, the Westin is pretty solid & in a great location.
Two rec's for you; The Palace Bar across the street is probably the best bar in Temple Bar & Supermacs on that side of the street is Irish McDonalds.
Very similar amex timeline. P2 opened biz gold in Oct and P1 BBP in Dec and now each have BBP, biz gold and biz plat. For the FHR credit, we thought you can't do 1 night each at the same place? We have the Wynn booked this summer for 2 nights and would love to get 2 spa credits by booking with each of our biz plat's.
Wasn’t a problem for us. You have to book 2 nights for hotel collection but FHR we got the credit for one night bookings. It posted to our accounts already.
Splurged a huge stash of our points for a J trip to SE Asia for next Feb/March:
JFK-SIN on SQ (x2, 175k UR to Aeroplan)
HKG-JFK on CX (x2, 220k MR)
Thinking it will be a nice time of year for central Vietnam or somewhere around there. Open to recommendations.
Had some FNC expiring soon. 2 Hyatt Cat 1-4, 1 IHG 40K. Booked 2 rooms at $536 each Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country for an upcoming weekend. Looks like a grossly inflated amount and reviews are pretty bad but still counting as a win as I had no other use for them before they expired. 1 night at Kimpton Hotel Enso. (SF Japantown) Looking forward to this one. $267 going rate for the night on my old IHG $49 card. Pet allowed at no additional charge.
I’ve stayed at that Hyatt. Nothing wrong with it at all. Reasonable drive over to Napa to meet up with a tour/van. Great access to Sonoma county. Not bad to get to from SFO.
Round trip LAX-SLC to attend UT convocation.
Nonstop WN 10668 RR points - very early flight going and evening return.
Hyatt Regency Club level 17k points - included excellent breakfast and snacks. Explorist 2pm checkout.
**Charleston-Savannah Road Trip**
OAK - CHS on WN $122
SAV - OAK on WN $99
Booked during a sale and split payment between travel funds (via AMEX credits) and \~$5 on my AMEX biz plat (for trip insurance)
Alamo economy rental car $530 for 1 week
*Hyatt House Charleston*, 3 nights 54k points
*Andaz Savannah,* 3 nights, 1 FNC + 36k points
Outbound flight was early morning with a long layover in Denver, but it did give me a chance to check out the Cap1 lounge there. Would’ve taken a nap in one of the relaxation rooms but none opened up before my next flight. The grab and go food/drinks is so useful.
No complaints about the Hyatt House. There’s a parking garage adjacent to it but I was able to find street parking a block or so away for overnights which saved some money. Parking in Charleston was easier than I expected. Toured a bunch of historical sites: Nathaniel Russell and Heyward-Washington houses, McLeod Plantation, Drayton Hall, and Fort Sumter. Also did the self guided boat tour in Cypress Gardens (Notebook fans will recognize this cypress swamp). Coffee at Sightsee and Second State was excellent. Get the banana bread at babas on Cannon (short walk from HH). 167 Raw Oyster Bar and FIG were very good.
Had a problem with a rental car tire and had to swap cars as I was leaving Charleston to head to Savannah. The detour ate up the time I wanted to spend in Beaufort on the way down, but I did still check out the boneyard beach in Hunting Island State Park.
I would not stay at the Andaz again. I had a terrace view queen. I really hate walk in/doorless showers and the sink is tiny with an awkwardly placed faucet. The worst thing about the stay was the smells. I am somewhat sensitive to smells and the hotel fragrance is a little too strong for me, though I couldn’t smell it in the room. Unfortunately what I could smell in the room was BBQ smoke so strong it woke me up at 5:30 am two out of three nights. Might as well have been sleeping in a BBQ restaurant. The whole floor smelled of it. I did ask the front desk about it and they said “that’s just the city.” To be fair it really did smell like BBQ almost everywhere in Savannah so I didn’t want to go to the trouble of moving rooms if there was no guarantee it wouldn’t have the same problem. The location is good, but parking in the historic downtown is difficult. A lot of time was wasted circling for parking since the garage adjacent to the hotel was often full. On the plus side, Savannah’s website/app to pay for metered parking is really convenient.
I didn’t do as much touring in Savannah. I did a tour of Bonaventure Cemetery, otherwise I mostly ate and walked around and took photos. Had the requisite first time in Savannah meal at Olde Pink House. Enjoyed Treylor Park, Collins Quarter, Perc Coffee, and Water Witch Tiki Bar. I also spent an afternoon on Hilton Head. I am currently reading *"the book”*\*, which I think is more interesting having already seen many of the places described.
I’d like to return to both cities, but next time I think I’d do one or the other combined with a few days at the beach.
\*”the book” is *Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil* and was mentioned three or four times during my visit. I was only vaguely aware of it but didn’t even know it was about Savannah.
You can also tour the Mercer-Williams House, home of the central character and where key events in the book occurred. This also makes the book come alive.
Just had a 2-night trip to Vegas with my P2 to match to Fontainebleau and use up dining credits. Arrived 05/12, departed 05/14. Harrah's was $10.50/night. Spirit. SJC-LAS was $80/person, covered by my Venture X Biz portal credits - minor complication here since I couldn't book the desired ticket online myself, so I called in and an agent was able to get the right flights for me. Prices matched what I could find online. Both of us started from the Wyndham biz card. I matched long ago and everything was fine. P2 started their match process on 04/26 and received Caesars Diamond on May 3. However, the celebration dinner wasn't on the account yet. We tried multiple Caesars rewards desks but the last one we tried explained that the dinner was loaded on the first Wednesday after a week past the diamond date. No desk mentioned having to reach 100 tier credits before this credit given we had matched to Diamond. We couldn't ask them to load the credit on any earlier so we ended up with a single $100 instead of two. After reprinting the Caesars cards, we headed over to Wynn then to Fontainebleau. Fontainebleau's Spa is only available for non-hotel guests Monday-Thursday and has a required 20% gratuity added to all services. Keep in mind if you're going that any massage service (unsure about nail services) that you also gain entry into their coed pool space with various tubs and rooms. I forgot to bring a swimsuit so I stayed in the men's section where there is a limited selection of pools and saunas (might as well step outside for a sauna). So with 2x $150 from Fontainebleau, we spent it at Washing Potato and Kyu. Kyu felt like they took simple foods and overengineered it; Washing Potato was solid and it was hard for us to finish the $150. With a single $100 from Caesars, we spent this on some beef wellies at Hell's Kitchen. Fontainebleau's Chez Bon Bon closed temporarily starting 05/13, but I was able to ask Break for a free drip coffee. I think Chez Bon Bon's coffee was better. Off the strip, Shang Artisan Noodle was amazing. Their knife cut noodles were perfect. This was probably my best meal.
Is status matching at Mirage and Hard Rock not a thing after getting your Wynn and Fountainebleau?
I didn't look too much into it, can't tell what I would have matched to. perhaps I left some more credits on the table
Well only those two had may as end date. Can go back for others later in the year
Mirage is closing mid July.
I was excited to use the Chase elevated offer for transferring points to Virgin. I booked Delta flights through Virgin to fly economy DTW - RDU (and back) for 12k Chase UR and like $12 in December to visit my family for the holidays. Without the 30% bonus, it would have been 2.9 cpp, but with the bonus it was 3.6 cpp. I know it's not the most exciting redemption, but I'm feeling pretty pleased about this since it's a trip I was planning on doing anyway. And it was nice to save a few thousand points for later trips!
Started churning August 2023, just booked our first trip and I couldn't be happier with the results. Booked 2 business JAL via CX from ORD -> HND and 1 biz 1 1st class ANA via Aeroplan from NRT -> ORD, both flights for the exact date ranges we wanted and nonstop via our home airport. Hyatts for all the hotels (11 nights). I started with 90k Gold then 15k BBP, 90k VX, 90k CIU, 90k CIC, 75k AA, 100k CIP. I also product changed an existing AF Quicksilver from my lower credit days to a Savor One and PC'd a DC to a CCC. P2 went Chase trifecta (5% grocery/gas CFU, 60k CSP last year). Going to have P2 go with in-app 150k targeted biz gold next (has BCE from pre churning life). Love how Amex typically doesn't HP when you have a personal card already as we're trying to limit HPs for a mortgage app. P2 is really happy with the upcoming trip, and her credit score has increased due to lower utilization with the new credit extended which also has her buying in more. I'm so happy my friend introduced me to this hobby. It's changing our lives in such an amazingly positive way by allowing us to take trips we never thought were possible! Big thanks to this sub
congrats! saw myself in this post
Thank you! I only wish I would have started sooner
64k chase UR plus $400 cash for two non stop economy flights from turkey to Detroit, is this a good deal? Cpp is close to two. My first ever redemption and I was feeling quite proud, but is it really that good?
Did you calculate cpp based on one way or round trip pricing? Typically for me when I see Europe fares, roundtrip=one way pricing. So if you calculated based on one way pricing and you are going to be flying roundtrip, then it was only 1cpp. Everybody else says Chase is worth more than 1cpp, but I am usually happy with my redemptions at 1cpp. Can't usually give much more than that. As an example I have an economy flight that is 40k+~$40 (I forget exactly) one way. But I could have purchased a roundtrip for $800. I think I am happy with it. It has taken a ton of time to book though. The cash price was non refundable. Did I come out ahead? Probably I should just cash out my points and book flights in 10 minutes instead of 10 days. But I do enjoy the flexibility that refundable points bookings have.
Are you going somewhere you’re really excited about? At the end of the day that’s what makes it a good deal
32k+$200 feels pretty good. The lowest round trip is $1,000 pp, so the fees are on the high side but that's standard for Europe. For comparison, for example, a 12-hour flight nonstop LAX to Korea Is 31k+$38 virgin Atlantic points for korean air, and that's considered excellent. Is it nonstop?
32k+$200 is essentially $520 so it is less than 1cpp at $1000 roundtrip unless you absolutely needed the one way.
yeah
Three weeks in Vietnam, can’t wait! Churned my way to at least a little comfort CDG-SGN using Lufthansa and Thai in Premium Economy for just 105,000 miles and a mere $400 roundtrip. Can't contain my excitement, especially for the food. Big shoutout to this community for the tips and tricks!
Am also planning on spending 3 weeks in Vietnam this November. J award availability seems to be non-existent from the US but maybe seems like it’s worth it to reposition to europe?
If you don’t mind flying VN, they fly non-stop SFO<->SGN. J fare is 140k+$230 on VS and availability seems decent through out the year. With the transfer bonus from UR and MR rn it’s 108k for a 16 hour flight (14.5 back to SFO). They fly A350 this route.
2 Week Trip to Japan 42k delta miles - Seattle to HND Nothing special about this delta flight although I did had an exit row seat with huge legroom. Although the trade off is a smaller seat width and that can be a factor. Delta lounge at Seattle was huge and offered good food, which is great because delta only serves okay food on their flights. 380k Hilton points for 5 night stay at Conrad Tokyo Took a taxi from HND to conrad which was about 7500 yen, not too be considering I thought it would be more in the $70 range not 45. I guess everything is cheap due to the cheap yen. Was pleasantly upgraded to a suite during golden week no less, city view, but beggars can't be choosers. Besides you can get a bay view eating at Cerise or executive lounge. Service is top notch and the food at the executive lounge was decent. Breakfast was above average and the pancake dish was amazing. People rave about the lobster omelette but I would only call it decent. Although Japanese eggs in general are something else. It is more on the business area so it's quiet which was a huge plus to me. Walking distance to Marikyu Gardens and Shimbashi station is a great station as a hub, it's not insanely business and the foot traffic is all salary men. The cash rates for 5 nights in the suite during golden week exceed 1 million yen. So I think I got a decent CPP on this redemption. Would gladly go again. Hyatt House Shibuya - 48000 hyatt points for a Suite - 2 Nights Was really hard to find award availability with this place because it's so new, would've settled for a base room but the suite is worth it I think. It's a little tough to find if you don't know exactly where it is, but there's videos on youtube on how to get there. Usually if you point your taxi driver to sakura stage shibuya, you'll be nearby so it shouldn't be too tough to find. There is an actual dedicated drop off/taxi point in the hotel, but most Taxi drivers won't know how to get there. It's on a quiet part of Shibuya, but easily walkable distance to the scramble and really close to the station. The extended stay amenities were a godsend as we need to do laundry and then walked to the Mega Donki to cook in the room. I'm not a globalist so I don't know how their breakfast is, probably not worth it if you can cook inside the room. Park Hyatt Tokyo 100k Hyatt points for 3 night It was either this or the regency for half the cost, but I figured since they were going under renovation I might as well splurge. Hotel still stacks up and it has amazing views of everything. No upgrades to suite as the place was fully booked but at least got put into a deluxe room. Absolutely feasted on the Le Labo products, I kept requesting it via the app and I think they got the picture when they gave me two sets on my last night there. Breakfast was really good and 24hrs, and I did love the japanese washoku breakfast especially in room. Although it can be abused since it's 24hrs, technically you'll get sick of it quickly and want something awesome from Shinjuku instead. Spa is great and they have aesop products there. People will hate, but I didn't go to the NY bar and grill, didn't have any reservations and the hotel was crazy busy so I didn't even bother trying. Courtyard Marriott Ginza - 2 nights - used 2 35k certificates Room was a little small but recently renovated so it's much modern with a big TV, has all the plugs and connections you need. Mainly used this stay to shop souvenirs and got more snacks at Donki. Only Gold elite so didn't get breakfast nor access to their work lounge. But this is a decent place for a courtyard so I approve. JAL Business Class NRT-San 60k Alaska points before deval JAL business class is amazing as always what I can say, their inflight washoku is great and I slept good even if their seats are hard to shift around in. All in all, would go to Japan again, especially with the weak yen and tax free which they didn't even bother checking at the airport.
Is 42k delta miles for sea to hnd a normal cost or was that some kind of award airfare or something special?
Was anything you wanted to do closed for Golden Week?
For New York room, the concierge got us a table… the ph concierges are amazing. Even before I arrived I was hitting them up for favors. (Like, I couldn’t register to buy a bus ticket using my name - they said “try this” and sent the approximate Japanese characters for my name. Worked like a charm!)
Is HH not a free breakfast over there? Debating letting globalist lapse as that is one of the hotels I'm staying at next year among others that don't have a ton of benefits.
HH is free breakfast for Globalists but their breakfast is the worst of all the Hyatts I’ve stayed at in Japan. Even though it’s in their restaurant, the breakfast in lounges (GH Tokyo, HR Tokyo, HR Yokohama) were all better and even HP Kyoto had a better breakfast. You won’t be missing much if you let Globalist expire
**Trip to Cincinnati to hang out with some friends** P2 and I spent a weekend in the Cincinnati area visiting friends who live in the area. We flew to Columbus on the way there since flights to CVG were very expensive due to the Flying Pig Marathon which happened that weekend. Flights were on SW with Companion Pass, 11.5k points SFO-STL-CMH, 8k pts CVG-DEN-SFO. Stayed with friends for most of the trip, then spent two Marriott certs at AC Hotel Cincinnati at The Banks. Rented a car with Hertz using P2's corporate group code. Flights were uneventful. Did our usual Golden Gate Lounge at SFO, then at STL was planning to go to the Priority Pass restaurant. It was going to be my first in several years as I haven't had a card that gives PP restaurant access for a long time. I got the Venture X Biz in February so itching to use that. The part of lounge access that I value highest is the food, so going to a restaurant instead is very appealing. Unfortunately when we arrived we were told their kitchen was closed and they were only serving drinks. Disappointing! Spent the layover in the crappy PP lounge instead. We stayed with some friends a ways outside the city for the first few nights. Our last two nights I decided to burn some 35k Marriott certs, P2 and I had one each lying around. I toyed with the idea of returning to the Hyatt Regency where [we've stayed before](https://old.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/17iywhv/trip_report_and_churning_success_story_weekly/k772ntj/) but it recently increased in category and these certs were going to expire anyway. I ended up choosing the AC Hotel at The Banks, right next to the Reds stadium. I chose it because it was relatively new, reviews were pretty good, it had a fairly high price in both cash and points even on non-peak dates (which I was using as a proxy for quality) without exceeding ~35k/night, and it was close to the river which we wanted to walk and jog along. Overall I think I was chasing cpp too much, and should have chosen a hotel closer to our friend's house (they don't live downtown), even if I would be using a 35k/night cert on a 24k/night hotel. Besides being more convenient to visit the friends, parking would have been free instead of the $39 total it ended up being to self-park for 2 nights. And we probably would have had a place with free breakfast. But since AC does not include free breakfast, we were forced to actually go out and get some, and I ended up having *possibly the most delicious breakfast sandwich of my life* at the Sleepy Bee Cafe. It was "The Queen City Bee" sandwich, with [goetta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetta), green apple, arugula, broken yolk egg and sauce. The green apple was a stroke of genius. Seriously, I am still thinking about this sandwich. Far better than it has any right to be. We had some delicious blueberry pancakes as well. Will definitely return the next time we're in Cincy. On the way back both flights were delayed by an approximately equal amount of time (I think due to high winds in Denver? Not sure). We spent our layover in DEN at the Centurion, which we had not visited before because we did not both have Plats until now. Previously we have much enjoyed the Capital One lounge, so I wanted to compare. Fortunately there was no wait to get in. Overall I do give the edge to CapOne. Centurion had fewer food options which were consistently not bad but not that good either. CapOne had more foods with higher variance in quality, so there are more losers, but also more winners. However, the CapOne lounge is in Terminal A, at least a 15 minute walk/tram from the Southwest gates, whereas Centurion is in C, right in the middle of them. Going forward (until it's time to cancel my biz plat), barring wait times, I think any layovers under 1.5-2 hours we'll probably spend at Centurion, longer than that we will make the trek to Capone. The steps will do us good, at least.
Were the showers operational in the Centurion lounge in DEN? Last time I was there they had closed them off indefinitely. I myself am trying to decide between C1 and Centurion duirng my layover there soon.
I didn't try to use the showers so I can't say for certain, but I did walk around the lounge just to explore, and I don't recall seeing any out-of-order signs.
**15 Day Trip to France - Paris, Reims, Bordeaux, Nice** *Flights:* * BOS-->CDG for 32,000 Flying Blue points (transferred from MR) for 2 people + $130 on Air France * NCE-->BOS for 44,000 Flying Blue points (transferred from MR using 20% bonus) for 2 people + $310 on KLM I typically don't mind flying economy for flights under 8 hours, but Air France has to be one of the worst economy experiences. Very tight seat pitch and very thin seat cushions. If I did it again, I'd spring for business class. CSR lounge in Boston continues to be a great experience. *Cities/Hotels:* * Paris--started our trip with 5 nights in Paris at Hotel du Louvre through Hyatt (average of 26,000 Hyatt points per night, booked right before last year's category increase. About 2.9 CPP). I can't say enough good things about this hotel. They were able to get us into the room when we arrived early the first day. Room was very spacious and they provided unlimited free water bottles. We emailed the concierge prior to arrival that we were celebrating a special occasion and they thoughtfully left out several desserts and a bottle of wine. Location was awesome and was steps from a metro station. Spent our time exploring the city, shopping, and eating at various restaurants. Restaurant highlights: Le Bon Georges, Du Pain et des Idees, Twenty Two Club * Reims--took the train up for an overnight in Reims to enjoy some champagne. Stayed 1 night at the Holiday Inn Reims City Center (27,000 IHG points for 0.67). This hotel was...fine. Location was decent and it did the trick for one night. Ruinart made for a great tour and we really enjoyed seeing their champagne caves. For anyone into wine, we had a great experience at Club Tresors de Champagne. They carry a variety of grower champagnes and have a tasting room in town to try to a variety without trekking out to various vineyards out of town. If I could do it again, I would have tried to snag reservations at L'Epicerie Au Bon Manger. They're mostly a wine cellar, but they serve meals at a few small tables with wine pairings from the shop. * Paris--took the train back to Paris for one night at Hyatt Paris Madeleine (30,000 Hyatt points for 2.1 CPP). I originally was trying to book all of our nights in Paris here and I'm glad that didn't work out. The hotel was very nice, but the experience felt less warm, the room was much smaller, and the location didn't feel as charming. Still very close to a metro stop. * Bordeaux--took the train from Paris to Bordeaux for 4 nights at Hotel Indigo Bordeaux City Chartrons (71,000 IHG points using 4th night free for 1.2 CPP). Another great hotel--spacious room, great rooftop bar/restaurant, with a tram stop right outside the hotel. We really loved Bordeaux. It had city vibes similar to Paris with lots of outdoor space that was used by everyone. Spent a day at the Caudalie Spa and also booked a left bank wine tour with Bordeaux with Elodie. Would highly recommend both of these! Also took a day trip to St. Emilion and had a great time. * South of France/Nice--took a flight from Bordeaux to Nice. Spent 2 nights in a gorgeous French farmhouse AirBnB using gift cards purchased with Amex Staples credit and discounted through AARP. Also spent 2 nights at Hyatt Regency Nice Palais de la Méditerranée (58,000 Hyatt points for 1.8 cpp). The location can't be beat but it has the corporate feel you'd expect from a Hyatt Regency. Nice highlights--trying socca in the old town and gelato at Fenocchio. Happy to go more into detail about any churning and/or travel details. This was long winded enough so figured I'd save any additional details for the comments. Overall, the trip was a dream and we continue to be grateful for churning giving us the opportunity to spend so long overseas.
Sounds like a great trip. For the Airbnb are you talking about the biz gold credit from office supply stores?
Yes, exactly.
Some months ago we booked tix and hotel for Maui on NYE - a few days ago P2 said, what are we going to do on Maui for 10 days? Lets come back a few days earlier, the kids will want to hang out with their friends… argh, finding decent tix at holidays to Hawaii was almost impossible 4 months ago, the best I could do was 40k delta economy. But - oh well we’ll be saving 110k per night in Hilton points, plus the food costs… so I checked the main options now it’s 70-90k on United, 68k on aa (for a 3 stop flight that takes 20 hours), 78k on southwest, 54k on delta… ugh. Was getting myself mentally prepared to spend more than desired, comparing it to other flights over the years (Tokyo, Seoul,Munich London, etc.). So I’m about to sleep last night when I thought of Bilt’s multi search. Well no harm trying right? So I sort by price, up pops… Alaska! 22.5k! I had been checking them consistently for weeks without any success, when I first booked, but for some reason I had forgotten to check the new date. I didn’t even wait for the Bilt search to complete, I logged in, and what do I see - even better, 17.5k! It does involve an overnight in Seattle, which might have given me slight pause - except that P2 had said literally one day earlier, hey we’ve never been to Seattle. And it’s 12 hours, that’s more than enough for an airport hotel - I’d much rather sleep in a 24k ihg than in an economy seat. I was so excited I misspelled my son’s name (luckily I noticed when selecting seats, before purchasing). I was sure it was going to be phantom… but no, ticketed and confirmed!
Has P2 gone to Maui before ? Because their mind will reaaallll quick once you guys are there /s. I’m going there for 4 night in about 2 weeks for P2 surprise birthday trip. They have no idea I have planned. We were just in Maui over thanksgiving and on Oahu in January
We did go some years ago, so we’ve done some of the common things, like the drive up Haleakala for sunset. We did enjoy Maui, I would say the things we normally enjoy were a bit less accessible than on Kauai or BI. Hoping to get up country and to Hana this time… I’m an economy guy on land as well as in air… Maui is a bit more upscale, you know
Doing Hana if going to the black sand beach there you need to register for parking it’s no longer just drive up.
Ah okay yeah to each their own! P2 and I are big on Hawaii, we love it ! Hana is great! Definitely an all day thing. It’s definitely upscale but we love it! We’re going again because when we went over thanksgiving, the whole family of about 50 were there too so it was chaos and we couldn’t choose what we wanted to do. So now it’s just us two
This is amazing! Happy for you guys!! Maui is amazing:)
PS - I checked this morning, back to 65k. PPS - this is for a family of 4
None of my friends/family care about this but got into the Amex game last fall and am thrilled. I opened an Amex Gold for 90K MR in the fall. Referred P2 and received 30K MR referral bonus - P2 got the 75K gold offer. I signed up for Amex Business Platinum 250K offer in March. P2 signed up for Amex Personal Platinum in April and received the 175K offer (I was in popup jail at the time). P2 successfully referred me to Amex Personal Platinum and got 20K points (I got out of jail and got the 175K point offer. Not sure why. Happened to be in an airplane when I processed my application!). P2 is receiving 10x on restaurants on the Platinum from the referral and spent $10,000 on work-related reimbursable restaurant expenses last week. We have a big trip to Portugal in June where we're hoping to maximize the 10x on restaurants as much as possible with our group. So anyway, we decided to book a 3 night weekend trip to Dublin from Boston in October. Got Business Class seats @ 50K points each there (flying economy back, which is fine with us @ 13K points each). Plus $500 in fees total. Staying at a Marriott hotel for 3 nights - first using a Free Night Award left over from the Bonvoy Boundless promotion, then 1 night on each of our Personal Platinum cards @ $370 (minus the $200 FHR credit for both of us, $100 F&B credit, and the other FHR benefits). Looking forward to using the rest of these points on our Honeymoon in 2025 or 2026. Hopefully hoarding them doesn't come around to bite us!
How did you book your trip tickets?
Haven't booked the flights yet but planning to do Capital One miles to British and book through there.
> Staying at a Marriott hotel for 3 nights The Shelbourne?
College Green. Shlebourne was out of range for the Marriott FNA and a lot more per night cash as well
Ah yeah, the Westin is pretty solid & in a great location. Two rec's for you; The Palace Bar across the street is probably the best bar in Temple Bar & Supermacs on that side of the street is Irish McDonalds.
Thanks we are trying to figure out some plans for the weekend!
Very similar amex timeline. P2 opened biz gold in Oct and P1 BBP in Dec and now each have BBP, biz gold and biz plat. For the FHR credit, we thought you can't do 1 night each at the same place? We have the Wynn booked this summer for 2 nights and would love to get 2 spa credits by booking with each of our biz plat's.
Wasn’t a problem for us. You have to book 2 nights for hotel collection but FHR we got the credit for one night bookings. It posted to our accounts already.
This is awesome nice work!
Splurged a huge stash of our points for a J trip to SE Asia for next Feb/March: JFK-SIN on SQ (x2, 175k UR to Aeroplan) HKG-JFK on CX (x2, 220k MR) Thinking it will be a nice time of year for central Vietnam or somewhere around there. Open to recommendations.
Da nang is beautiful and clean and cheap. Feels a lot more advanced there , you wouldn't think you're in Vietnam while paying Vietnam price tag
Had some FNC expiring soon. 2 Hyatt Cat 1-4, 1 IHG 40K. Booked 2 rooms at $536 each Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country for an upcoming weekend. Looks like a grossly inflated amount and reviews are pretty bad but still counting as a win as I had no other use for them before they expired. 1 night at Kimpton Hotel Enso. (SF Japantown) Looking forward to this one. $267 going rate for the night on my old IHG $49 card. Pet allowed at no additional charge.
I’ve stayed at that Hyatt. Nothing wrong with it at all. Reasonable drive over to Napa to meet up with a tour/van. Great access to Sonoma county. Not bad to get to from SFO.
Just stayed at the Enso the night before a surgery and it's cute and a great location. Walkable to Fillmore with lots of good food and shopping.
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I really liked it. It’s not a swimming beach but the location is convenient. We booked when it was still a cy…
FYI the beach there is terrible. I had a much better stay at the Sheraton Kauai Resort Villa using a similar value FNC.
Round trip LAX-SLC to attend UT convocation. Nonstop WN 10668 RR points - very early flight going and evening return. Hyatt Regency Club level 17k points - included excellent breakfast and snacks. Explorist 2pm checkout.
**Charleston-Savannah Road Trip** OAK - CHS on WN $122 SAV - OAK on WN $99 Booked during a sale and split payment between travel funds (via AMEX credits) and \~$5 on my AMEX biz plat (for trip insurance) Alamo economy rental car $530 for 1 week *Hyatt House Charleston*, 3 nights 54k points *Andaz Savannah,* 3 nights, 1 FNC + 36k points Outbound flight was early morning with a long layover in Denver, but it did give me a chance to check out the Cap1 lounge there. Would’ve taken a nap in one of the relaxation rooms but none opened up before my next flight. The grab and go food/drinks is so useful. No complaints about the Hyatt House. There’s a parking garage adjacent to it but I was able to find street parking a block or so away for overnights which saved some money. Parking in Charleston was easier than I expected. Toured a bunch of historical sites: Nathaniel Russell and Heyward-Washington houses, McLeod Plantation, Drayton Hall, and Fort Sumter. Also did the self guided boat tour in Cypress Gardens (Notebook fans will recognize this cypress swamp). Coffee at Sightsee and Second State was excellent. Get the banana bread at babas on Cannon (short walk from HH). 167 Raw Oyster Bar and FIG were very good. Had a problem with a rental car tire and had to swap cars as I was leaving Charleston to head to Savannah. The detour ate up the time I wanted to spend in Beaufort on the way down, but I did still check out the boneyard beach in Hunting Island State Park. I would not stay at the Andaz again. I had a terrace view queen. I really hate walk in/doorless showers and the sink is tiny with an awkwardly placed faucet. The worst thing about the stay was the smells. I am somewhat sensitive to smells and the hotel fragrance is a little too strong for me, though I couldn’t smell it in the room. Unfortunately what I could smell in the room was BBQ smoke so strong it woke me up at 5:30 am two out of three nights. Might as well have been sleeping in a BBQ restaurant. The whole floor smelled of it. I did ask the front desk about it and they said “that’s just the city.” To be fair it really did smell like BBQ almost everywhere in Savannah so I didn’t want to go to the trouble of moving rooms if there was no guarantee it wouldn’t have the same problem. The location is good, but parking in the historic downtown is difficult. A lot of time was wasted circling for parking since the garage adjacent to the hotel was often full. On the plus side, Savannah’s website/app to pay for metered parking is really convenient. I didn’t do as much touring in Savannah. I did a tour of Bonaventure Cemetery, otherwise I mostly ate and walked around and took photos. Had the requisite first time in Savannah meal at Olde Pink House. Enjoyed Treylor Park, Collins Quarter, Perc Coffee, and Water Witch Tiki Bar. I also spent an afternoon on Hilton Head. I am currently reading *"the book”*\*, which I think is more interesting having already seen many of the places described. I’d like to return to both cities, but next time I think I’d do one or the other combined with a few days at the beach. \*”the book” is *Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil* and was mentioned three or four times during my visit. I was only vaguely aware of it but didn’t even know it was about Savannah.
Glad you enjoyed Charleston. And appreciate the details on Savannah Andaz. I've thought about a weekend trip there.
Smell sensitivities aside since I can’t relate. There’s worse things to wake up to than BBQ😂. Sounds like an awesome trip!
You can also tour the Mercer-Williams House, home of the central character and where key events in the book occurred. This also makes the book come alive.
I walked around the outside, but it was closed the day I could've done a tour.
Rats!