The Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of my favorite credit cards in my wallet. Whenever friends or family ask for my suggestion on which travel rewards credit card they should apply for, I always tell them the Chase Sapphire Reserve. In order to save some time, I decided to write about the benefits of the card so I can quickly share the information in the future. This post is also the first in a series covering premium travel rewards credit cards.

Premium Product

This card falls into the premium category because of its exhaustive benefits and hefty annual fee of $450. It’s targeted towards travelers so if you don’t travel too often then you probably will not maximize all the benefits. The first benefit is that Chase provides an annual $300 travel credit. This immediately reduces your annual fee to a net $150. The $300 credit is automatically triggered whenever you make a qualifying travel purchase. This means you could buy a $300 flight and immediately receive the full statement credit. You could also pay for 10 different Uber rides at $30 each and get reimbursed $30 per transaction over time.

             The Chase Sapphire Reserve is a staple item we ALWAYS take abroad with us

Points flexibility

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to nine different airlines and four different hotel brands. They even transfer at a 1:1 ratio. This provides incredible flexibility rather than simply opening a credit card with one specific airline and only earning their miles. Combine these airline partners with their respective alliances, then there are even greater opportunities to redeem. For example: United is a Star Alliance member which includes nearly 30 airlines. You can transfer 30,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United. Then redeem the United miles for an economy flight from the US to Europe on Lufthansa. You can read more about how I previously did that here.

Chase Ultimate Rewards airline transfer partners:

• Aer Lingus
• British Airways Executive Club
• Flying Blue Air France and KLM
• Iberia Plus
• Korean Air SKYPASS
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• United Airlines MileagePlus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotel transfer partners:

• World of Hyatt
• IHG Rewards Club
• Marriott Rewards
• The Ritz-Carlton Rewards

We transferred 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for two Virgin Atlantic Upper Class tickets on their 787 Dreamliner to fly from London to Johannesburg. It was super special because my husband is South African and also designed the bar for Virgin Atlantic. Two friends even joined us on the journey. It’s special moments like these that are made possible because of points.

If you’re new to all of this and the thought of transferring points to different loyalty programs makes your head spin, there are easier options for redeeming. When you book through the Ultimate Rewards Travel website you can use points to book any available flight or hotel. No restrictions or blackout dates. Using this method is a redemption rate of 1.5 cent per point. This isn’t the absolute best value, but it’s still a good option in certain situations. For instance, if there is no award availability you can still make the booking using your points this way.

Accelerated Points Earning

You will earn 3 Chase Ultimate Reward points per dollar spent on all travel and dining purchases. This includes everything from fast food to fine dining, public transportation to first class airfare, and Airbnbs to five star hotels. No matter if you’re a budget-conscious backpacker or a bougie high roller, you can take advantage of these bonus categories. Every other purchase will earn 1 point per dollar.  

        Here you can see both travel and dining purchases that received the 3x category bonus

Global Entry / TSA Pre-Check Fee Credit ($100 or $85 value)

If you’re not already a member of either Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check, then you can use your Chase Sapphire Reserve to pay the application fee and get reimbursed. These programs are valid for five years after approval and Chase allows you to re-use this credit every four years so you can re-apply.

Global Entry is an expedited way to clear immigration when returning to the United States. It requires a background check, interview, and fingerprinting. In saves valuable time when returning home from an international trip and possibly catching a connecting domestic flight. Global Entry membership also entitles you to TSA Pre-Check. So you might as well apply for it since it provides the most value.

If you already have one of these memberships, don’t rule it out as a benefit just yet. You can easily gift these to someone else (spouse, parent, child, friend, etc.). As long as the application fee is charged to your Chase Sapphire Reserve card then you will receive the credit.

Worldwide Lounge Access

Additionally, Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders automatically receive a Priority Pass Select membership. Priority Pass gives you access to a global network of 1,000+ airport lounges. You can bring two guests into these lounges with you complimentary. Then it is $27 per additional guest. Priority Pass even partners with restaurants in certain US domestic airports to allow their members $30 food and beverage credit. Be sure to download their free app to discover where all their lounges are located.

Lounges are so convenient that I honestly cannot remember the last time I purchased food or alcohol in an airport within the last six years. Not to mention there’s nothing quite like taking a refreshing shower in a lounge before or after a 10 hour flight.

  Section of free food buffet available in the Priority Pass Lounge in Koh Samui, Thailand airport

No Foreign Transactions Fees

Sure, most travel related credit cards offer this. However I find the most value in the fact that Chase Sapphire Reserve is a Visa which is probably the most widely accepted card on the planet. So you won’t run into issues where you have a fancy American Express that is usually only accepted in major international cities. The mom and pop restaurant in Thailand is going to accept your Chase Sapphire Reserve, if they accept credit cards for payment.

This benefit applies to both transactions made outside of the United States as well as purchases made with foreign companies or in foreign currencies online.

Travel Insurance Coverage

Whenever you use the Chase Sapphire Reserve to book your trip, you are entitled to the following:

• Trip cancellation/interruption insurance (up to $20,000 per occurrence)
• Lost luggage reimbursement (up to $3,000 per passenger)
• Delayed baggage insurance ($100 per passenger per day)
• Trip delay reimbursement (up to $500 per trip), and travel accident insurance
• Travel accident insurance
• Primary rental car insurance (plus other rental car perks and discounts)
• Emergency medical, dental, evacuation, and transportation coverage

This includes delayed baggage coverage which we happened to need when our luggage was lost immediately prior to our Mediterranean cruise.  

Additional Benefits while at Home

• Roadside assistance
• Purchase protection
• Price protection
• Return protection
• Extended warranty program
• Access to VIP events

If all of these benefits sound appealing to you, then you can apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve here. Like I always tell everyone when I make a credit card suggestion, do NOT open a credit card if you plan to carry a balance. The value of the points and miles goes completely out the window the moment you start paying interest fess. Pay your balance in full every month! I also recommend you check out our Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about leveraging your credit responsibly, credit scores, and more.

Ability to Combine Points

Lastly, if you are already a Chase customer you can combine Chase Ultimate Rewards points. For instance, the Chase Freedom is traditionally a cashback credit card. If you open the Chase Sapphire Reserve, then you can opt to earn points instead of cashback on your Freedom so you can combine the points. If you already have a Chase Ink business card you can do the exact same thing. It took me YEARS to convince my dad to stop redeeming his Chase Ultimate Rewards by simply applying them to his statement balance for cash. IT’S THE WORST REDEMPTION RATE EVER. Now that he stopped doing that it’s time for him to open a Chase Sapphire Reserve and actually make a travel redemption for the first time. Baby steps.

Full disclosure: If you use the link provided in this post to apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (and Chase approves the application), then I will receive 10,000 bonus points, too.

The post Why the Chase Sapphire Reserve is Unbelievably Valuable appeared first on Seize the Globe.

How/why we booked Le Méridien Resort and Spa Koh Samui:

Continuing from my Thailand Honeymoon – Part 1 post that detailed the first half of our trip…

Full disclosure: the honeymoon was super high on the priority list. To put it in perspective, we booked the tickets four weeks after our engagement and before I put a single wedding dress on my body. Our strategy for flights was a little out there for most people, but since Sean and I like to maintain several different types of elites statuses we wanted to turn it somewhat of a mileage run as well. I have status with oneworld carriers and Sean is Star Alliance Gold originally through Aegean, but now also using Turkish Airlines. That is a whole different blog post altogether, but if you want to learn a little about the details you can read my old post here (it’s outdated since Aegean restructured their loyalty program shortly after). Therefore we knew we wanted to travel on a Star Alliance carrier so we could not only rack up tons of miles for Sean to maintain his elite status, but also for the fabulous lounge access during our connections.

First lounge stop of the trip. United Airlines Red Carpet Club at NRT

As for the hotels, we decided to split the duties for choosing our lodging. Sean selected the resorts for the first week and I decided on using Starwood (SPG) points to book our second week. The reason why we did this is because Thailand is very inexpensive. Although we could have stayed in Conrad and W hotels the entire time we simply did not wish to spend all of our points because it would not be the best value of redemption. The Starwood property I chose was the Le Méridien Koh Samui Resort and Spa. Sean and I have stayed at several SPG properties and both hold Gold elite status with them. Sean once missed earning Platinum status by 2 nights one year and that’s hopefully a mistake we’ll never overlook again. Our elite status not only gives us extra points each time we stay at a property, but it frequently means free upgrades to suites at check-in. Additionally, the Starwood Preferred Guest program is one of the few travel loyalty programs that allow spouses to transfers points between accounts for free!

After I confirmed the availability of our preferred dates on spg.com, I called Starwood in order to hold our reservation because I did not have enough points in my account to cover the stay. The rate was 12,000 SPG points per night for the standard room and the fifth night was free. When I called the Gold Service Desk and spoke to a customer service representative, he helped me both transfer points from Sean’s account to cover the balance and put the reservation on a 7 day hold until the transfer fully processed. The agent on the phone asked me about the purpose of our trip and after I told him it was a honeymoon he made sure to document that in the reservation. This piqued me interest and I proceeded to ask him about the potential of getting a complimentary upgrade since I noticed that I could not book a suite for that particular week. He gave me a blanket statement that there’s always a possibility when there are special events like honeymoons involved. That’s when I really started to investigate. You see, honeymoons are an incredibly memorable time in people’s lives. Hotels absolutely love going above and beyond for honeymooners in order to establish a brand loyalty. Hotel chains know that if they can make a good first impression on your honeymoon then it is very likely that you will return to either the same property or similar resorts within their portfolios for future trips such as anniversaries.

From there I took it a step further and decided to directly contact the resort’s General Manager. I used a combination of researching on TripAdvisor and LinkedIn to locate her name and contact information. Then I sent the following e-mail:

Hi Xxxxxxxxx,

I recently booked an award booking for my upcoming honeymoon at Le Méridien Koh Samui Resort & Spa in April 2015. We were really looking forward to booking the Plunge Pool suite, but  unfortunately it was not an option for an award booking. I am an SPG Gold member and my account number is xxxxxxxxxxxxx and the reservation confirmation number is xxxxxxxxxxxx (15 – 20 April 2015). We are beyond excited to be celebrating our honeymoon at your property. We just wanted to connect with you and see if anything could be done in terms of an upgrade to the plunge pool due to our Gold status and since it is our honeymoon? Please let us know! We absolutely cannot wait to begin our marriage at your beautiful resort.

She responded within a few hours and said that she would be happy to help. She explained that I would need to follow up with her as our check-in date approached because I had contacted her 7 months in advance and did not have enough visibility to predict the capacity of the hotel. Additionally, she also told me how to properly secure the Plunge Pool Suite option using additional points in case we felt more comfortable knowing it was confirmed beforehand. I decided to risk waiting to see what type of complimentary deal SPG could offer instead.

Over the course of the next few months of wedding planning, I periodically kept in contact with the General Manager and was feeling pretty good about the situation. I knew that no matter what happened, we still had an incredible honeymoon planned and an entire week in the Gulf of Thailand and three other resorts to visit!

Final Stop: Le Méridien Resort and Spa Koh Samui

It was hard to believe that our honeymoon was close to complete, but we still had five more nights to enjoy at this gorgeous SPG property! Everything at this resort was calm and serene—even beginning at the check-in process. After taking a short ride from Mantra, we arrived at Le Méridien and were escorted through the breathtaking outdoor lobby to wait in a comfortable lounge area and served mocktails. After a few minutes of decompressing from the hotel transfer, a front desk employee approached and began to inform us about the resort’s amenities while checking us in. Unfortunately, the General Manager was traveling in Bangkok but she made sure to annotate our reservation with a complimentary upgrade to THE PLUNGE POOL SUITE.

We couldn’t believe it actually worked. Here we were with the opportunity to stay five nights in a private, luxury suite for free thanks to the SPG program! Needless to say, it was a spectacular stay. The staff was incredible and they really took time to take care of the details. This included complimentary drinks for our elite status as well as surprise room service desserts to celebrate our new marriage. Since the previous week was non-stop adventure and exploring different resorts, we took the few days to just relax together and enjoy the glorious pool and island of Koh Samui.

The post Thailand Honeymoon: Part 2 – Le Méridien Koh Samui appeared first on Seize the Globe.

This is long overdue, but I figure better late than never. We traveled to Thailand a full year ago as a honeymoon celebration and the reminders of the memories on Facebook and printing photos for Sean’s US permanent residency interview all prompted me to write this. So here is a review of our itinerary and the resorts we enjoyed. I’ll also detail how we managed to score 5 nights in a suite at the Le Meridien Koh Samui for FREE in a follow up post (Part 2).

Why Thailand?

The first question I usually hear is, “Why did you choose to go to Thailand?” My husband suggested it since he traveled there in 2012. He originally visited Bangkok, Chang Mai, Chang Rai, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Phuket, and a few other locations. While he was there he actually joined his best friend who worked full time for many years rescuing underage girls from sex slavery. He helped with that for a short period of time and the rest of it was a holiday. Since Sean took advantage of seeing several parts of the country, I trusted him to pick the top destinations he thought would be suitable for our honeymoon. He chose Koh Phangan and Koh Samui!

First Stop: Salad Beach Resort – Koh Phangan, Thailand

Now, you’ve probably come to realize that I love my points and miles. I really don’t like spending money on travel–especially accommodations–because I know I can stay in baller 5-star hotels for next to nothing by maximizing my points strategy. So you can imagine I was skeptical of what Sean’s surprise hotel choices for the first week would be. However, after we arrived to Salad Beach Resort, checked-in, and been escorted to our PRIVATE BEACH BUNGALOW, I politely waited for Sean to tip the bellman and waited for him to leave before turning to him and saying, “Are you kidding me right now, SEAN?! Just how much did this cost? We were supposed to use POINTS for this trip! We just paid for our wedding and now your graduate school tuition is next. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?” He replied with,

“You’re not going to believe me. We get this air-conditioned, private beach bungalow and breakfast buffet every day for 5 nights all for $30 USD a night.”

Come again? I knew I married this man for a reason. Salad Beach Resort was an excellent surprise and a fantastic way to kick off our honeymoon in Thailand. We were right on the beach with a fabulous pool and massage/spa area right outside our door. Thanks to the excitement and jetlag of our trip, we were awake super early each morning to maximize our time at the buffet and the food was incredible. Not to mention we enjoyed dinner on the beach every single night and even had live entertainment with fire dancers.

Truthfully, Sean and I are terrible about remembering to take photos and even worse about posting them online. Hence why this blog is so neglected. You can’t really just write blog posts with no photos! Who would want to read that? So forgive me as I’m still getting used to the idea of taking proper photos and videos. I only have a saved Snapchat video of right outside our bungalow, and no photos of the actual room itself. However, we did manage to progress in the photo department as the trip continued.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I recommend going to Koh Ma beach down the road for at least a day. Also, be sure to go scuba diving with Sail Rock Divers. Their information is always posted at the resort. We had a blast with them! I’m a certified PADI Open Water diver, but Sean was a complete beginner during this trip. Sail Rock Divers usually advertise at the resort and that’s how we discovered them. They charged 2,500 THB ($70 USD) for certified divers and 3,500 THB ($100 USD) for beginners to do two dives and this included breakfast, lunch, equipment, all taxis, and beginner instruction. Such a steal!

I have previously dived in Maui and the Great Barrier Reef  and found Sail Rock to be just as exciting and an instant favorite due to all the various schools of fish and the WARM water (no need for anything more than a rash guard). Sail Rock is essentially a large rock in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand and can be described similar to an ice berg as the rock is MASSIVE below the surface and teeming with sea life. Unfortunately, even though it was during whale shark season we did not see any during either of our dives.

Brad was our personal instructor and he gave me a quick tune up (because I had not dived in a few years) and taught my husband the basics for his discovery dive. He was incredibly friendly and professional. We had an absolute blast and it was a great environment for a wide range of ages as there were a few pre-teens present as well. They did not overload the boat with people which made it a very comfortable trip. Breakfast consisted of small, assorted sandwiches and lunch was mild thai food, lady fingers, and cake. Sean said the only improvement he would say is if they could provide a beer after all the dives were complete for the return boat ride.

Second Stop: Milky Bay Resort – Koh Phangan, Thailand

We only stayed here one night for a quick stay in order to have a convenient place to sleep after the Half Moon Festival (which is essentially a rave in the jungle on the lunar calendar). They greeted us with sweet mocktails upon check-in and immediately helped us rent a motorbike. We stayed in a private bungalow right next to the beach and pool area and found it to be quite lovely. It was air conditioned and included a lit candle underneath an aromatherapy oil tray–which was a nice touch.

The included breakfast featured various options and was incredibly good. I have to highlight that the staff is VERY friendly, polite, and professional. Yu, in particular, is personable and remembered our names from serving us lunch the day prior. She spoke great English, made us feel genuinely welcomed, and was willing to help with absolutely anything. The only true downside to this resort is that the beach is not that great…although if you walk far enough into the water there is a sandbar where you can sit. But back to the PARTY!

These people also knew how to cater to the Half Moon partygoers. They hosted a pre-gaming party at their bar on the beach and gave free shots of tequila at 10:00 PM just before the taxis arrived to take us. This was great because it allowed us to meet four other travelers from Wales and party with them the rest of the night.

Free Shots at Milky Bay Resort

The best part about the timing of this particular Half Moon Party was the fact that it was the beginning of the Thailand Water Festival, “Songkran” which is the celebration of their New Year. So in addition to our free Red Bull and Vodka bucket that was included in our ticket price we were also given free squirt guns to help celebrate the festival beginning at midnight. That leads me to one of my most critical tips about traveling in Thailand during this time of year.

 

The post Thailand Honeymoon: Part 1 appeared first on Seize the Globe.