Five weeks of training is done for the Athens marathon and in order to keep myself honest and motivated, here’s my weekly diary of all things marathon.
Here’s what happened this week:
I skipped the pivotal 14 mile run to golf. I had some great shots but didn’t win the PGA Championship. So that’s not good for my training though I did walk the course.
Earlier in the week on speed day, I ran splits of 10*400 with each coming in around 1:35. That was good.
11 more weeks to go. Can’t be so damn lazy lest I end up looking like this guy:
The Internets is a buzzin about St. Nick dropping off a present to holders of the US Bank Club Carlson card which underwent an ugly makeover a few months ago. I just wrote about how one of my Club Carlson accounts was credited 7500 points without me having to call in and complain about the devaluation. Immediately thereafter, I read the news that US Bank was offering one night free at any Club Carlson resort in a hand delivered letter.
Though I checked the mail religiously, I had yet to receive anything. All my credit cards are set to paperless so it didn’t cross my mind that I failed to update my mailing address for this card before moving to Ulaanbaatar. Sure enough, it still says Arizona.
Maybe that’s why Christmas didn’t come early. Anyone else not receive a letter?
How do you use your points to plan a trip to Tahiti? Undoubtedly, it is one of the most challenging rewards to pull off even if your time availability is that of Santa Clause in July. Hotels simply don’t release award space and even when they do it can only be for one night at a time.
I speculatively booked two nights at IHG Bora Bora using a trick that worked for me then but is of no help now as the IHG calendar shows zero availability through July 2016. From there, I had to find Hilton availability, a topic for another post. Assuming you’ve cleared the huge hotel hurdle, the next challenge is to find all of these concurrently: award space.in business.for realistic points.
Not only has TPOL done it but I believe like my $77,000 Trip Heard Round the World and my Hyatt Diamond Challenge that I have done it better than anyone has before. Of course I have to thank MileValue who originally posted about the possibility of flying from North Asia to Oceania, stopping in New Zealand and back to North Asia in business all for 30k each way.
Here are the details of how I am flying from Shanghai to Tahiti to Auckland and back to Bangkok/Shanghai for 60,000 United Miles and $103.80.
The Planning
Find availability from PPT to AKL for 2 on Air New Zealand: Done but only in economy. There was business class last year for one so I’ll have to set an alert or ride coach for 5 hours.
Find availability from AKL to PPT for 2 on Air New Zealand: Same as above.
Find availability from PVG to AKL: There’s plenty of availability. This is the best part of the trip. I am flying for the second time the Dreamliner via Air New Zealand direct from Shanghai to Auckland.
Find availability from AKL to PVG: I chose to fly an indirect route to New Zealand so I could fly Thai Airways business class and review the lounge in Bangkok. I also am indecisive if I want to continue on to Shanghai or jump ship in Bangkok.
The Call
Calling United to book complex itineraries is not a horrible experience. The agent is patient and accommodating though she did try to say that the ticket was 62,5000 each way. I had to explain to her that the award chart clearly shows that North Asia to Oceania is 30k and there’s no way of getting there without stopping in New Zealand. I also had to point out that my 2 night stopover on the way back to Shanghai via New Zealand was permissible.
After an hour on the phone she successfully booked the tickets for 60,000 miles/person and $103.80.
The FAQ
Why are you staying for only 2 nights in New Zealand? Seems like a missed opportunity to see a lot more of New Zealand.
I could’ve stayed and maybe I will stay longer in New Zealand but I’m guessing 2 nights in Auckland is enough to see that city specifically and I don’t have the time and probably won’t have the budget following Moorea and Bora Bora to explore the nicer parts of the country. I did visit Windy Wellington as part of the RTW trip mentioned above.
Why are you flying RT to Shanghai? What about open-jaws?
First, the ticket has to originate from and return to North Asia which includes China, Japan, South Korea, and MONGOLIA! Shanghai is the best city in the world so I have no problem starting my adventure from there. As for the return, I’m giving myself the option to continue on to China or end my trip in SE Asia, naughty, naughty, hidden city style.
How many hours of glorious business class are we talking here?
Assuming no business class space opens from AKL-PPT in either direction and that I return to Shanghai, that’s over 28 hours of business class.
How far you going?
Great question. Let’s consult the Great Circle Mapper.
Did I read that correctly, all this for 60,000 United Miles? I thought there was a devaluation.
Yes my friends, that’s correct. For only 60,000 miles you can fly round trip from Shanghai to Tahiti stop in New Zealand for as long or as short as you want then return to North Asia or stay in Bangkok. As a point of reference, DTW-FRA one way on Lufthansa post devaluation is 70,000 miles and only 8 hours of business class on a zzz A340.
Taxes?
$100!
Did this really ticket? I want to see the itinerary.
Bored as usual, I scanned my AwardWallet balance to see what was new. My Club Carlson went up by 7500 points. I logged in and found the following:
The bonus has only shown up so far in one of my accounts, either the personal or business. While it doesn’t do much in restoring the free night benefit that was shamelessly taken away, who is going to refuse free points? Others have written about filing a claim with the BBB to get the annual fee refunded but I have yet to try that. Maybe I’ll call to complain for more points since my new balance is 26k which is basically useless.
It’s been a down and down month for TPOL. First, I got the royal rejection by Amex for the Delta bonus. Then Wells Fargo refused to credit my account my payment without faxing in proof. Finally, BOA said that there was no record that my application for the AlaskaEmirates Shower Class card included a $100 statement credit after spending 1k in 3 months.
Instead of arguing, I spent the 1k and am glad to see the credit reflected in my statement. Still, I have to advise to take screenshots for everything because no one is to be trusted!
Get this offer, grab that offer. Maybe I bit off a bit more than I could chew in the last app-o-rama last round of applications. However, I am happy to say that I have come out on top thanks to a few ill-conceived purchases, too many trips to the pharmacy, and Nino Brown purchases at the grocery store.
If you look back at the history of manufactured spending, you’ll agree that it is more challenging than ever to spend without spending. Today we are left with few options to hit those pesky mins and more fees in order to get there. Sure you can purchase Amex gift cards on topcashback then try your luck at purchasing Vanilla Visas at your local drugstore. But is that really worth the hassle of it not working or the $5.95 to simply buy the card outright? If you’re a cheapskate devout frugal traveler then the answer is yes.
My situation is a bit different. My closest Target is 100 miles away meaning I can’t risk jumping through the hoops of buying this card, waiting for that card, and then hoping that it all goes down without a hitch. I have to unload $7500 on theBIRD all in one day because of the pain of getting to Target.
Although I’m not happy at the amount of fees I had to pay, I rationalized that the 45k I previously spent for free before little Red died offset the costs this time around. Furthermore, the benefits I receive from completing this MS will far outweigh the incidental costs. Finally, as I alluded to in the opening, not all my spending was manufactured. (see membership at the country club.)
Here are the cards, the, mins, then the rewards that TPOL +1 collected.
In the past, I’ve written about the top places to get pho in the world. Now, I am inadvertently beginning to compile a list of the world’s most disappointing. Those include New York and Mongolia and even this place in Saigon.
Missoula may have great burgers but it doesn’t have good pho, at least that was my takeaway from dining in at the Vietnam Noodle Restaurant.
I don’t enjoy writing bad reviews especially when it’s a mom and pop business but as the pho king I owe it to humanity to tell the truth. So what happened?
The Spring Rolls
The spring rolls came shrink wrapped. They tasted pretty fresh but it was obvious they had been refrigerated. There were cold spots within the roll that threw off the taste. The peanut sauce was runny and not appetizing.
Shrink wrapped?
The Price
A good hint that a pho restaurant won’t be great is if they specialize in all sorts of Asian cuisine, Chinese, Thai etc. Either live and die for pho or make takeaway Chinese food. Another tell-tale sign that a pho restaurant won’t be good is the price. Though I would pay $20 to have pho from Hanoi here in the United States, my experiences have proven that more expensive means less quality. Here, the bowls were around $10, a bit steep for broth and undercooked meat.
The Bowl
The Sprouts: They lacked life.
The Broth: If the broth is opaque, try the steak, said the former pho king, Johnnie Cochran. The broth was dark and tasteless. It got better as the bowl went on but truly great bowls go from great to epic, not from bland to meh.
The Steak: Cheap cuts, lacking flavor.
The Noodles: Not the right taste either.
Can’t see the bottom, not a good sign.Looks can be deceiving.
I’ve been trying to get my hands on an Amex Gold Open because it provides 3x points for advertising spend. One of my twelve jobs is online marketing for business professionals making this card worth getting. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I hit refresh the only offer I see on the Amex page is a 25k welcome bonus (a few times it did say 50k). In need of that hot 75k offer, I dug into forums hoping the savvy experts would show me the way to get the targeted offer. Though a few posted links, none of them worked.
I came across some people who were willing to sell their invite code for $50, $75, even $100. I think it would be worth the expense to pay $50 to get such an offer but something is off-putting about a random stranger profiting because they were lucky enough to be targeted.
That’s why I’ve went back to hitting refresh and hoping that the cardmatch tool one day gives me 100k MRs after $25 spent.
Four weeks of training is done for the Athens marathon and in order to keep myself honest and motivated, here’s my weekly diary of all things marathon.
Here’s what happened this week:
I ran 12.25 miles ate a pace of 9:26/mile and ate a bunch of pasta after.
Why? First, take a look at the struggle to get the Propel card. That should tell you all you need to know about the bank. That post describes the hoops I had to jump through for a simple credit card with a whopping limit of $2500 and a bland rewards program. To get the $400 sign up bonus customers have to spend $3000 in 3 months. From there the level of rewards depends on how much money you have in your checking account or something to that effect. But that’s not why Wells Fargo is the worst. Here is why:
I spent $2470 of my $2500 limit as quick as I could to reach the minimum spend and avoid their antiquated online banking system which they hype as a free feature for banking customers. I immediately paid my balance two days ago and was ready to top off the rest of my account. However, each transaction no matter how small kept getting declined. Frustrated, I called the bank to ask if there was a fraud alert on my account. They said there wasn’t but added that my available credit was only $30. I told them that the online system showed a payment for the balance so that doesn’t make sense.
“Although we see the payment, we cannot free up your credit until August 21st when the funds are cleared. Alternatively, you could fax (that’s right they said fax) proof from the institution that they released the funds.”
Has anyone ever heard of something so stupid? I paid my bill with my checking account and they want proof that the funds are on their way. Why are they acting like the year is 1985 and that I’m presenting an out-of-state check? This is a national bank not a mom and pop convenient store. Surely they cooperate with other banks on much larger transactions than this.
![[Manufactured] Spending $44,000 in 3 Months](https://thepointsoflife.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/unnamed-768x432.jpg "[Manufactured] Spending $44,000 in 3 Months")
