A new use for Ultimate Rewards, living on $0.40/hr, Emirates F for 27K and more

In today’s Frequent Miler week in review around the web, we have news that Chase will soon bring a new option online for redeeming Ultimate Rewards points that has me kind of excited, read a story about a couple that lived for a year on less than twenty bucks a day, find out how to score a (very short) ride in Emirates First Class for 27K points and more.

Chase Will Soon Let You Book High-End Restaurants, Bars and Wineries with Points

I am excited about this. As Danny the Deal Guru reports, Chase and Tock are going to partner to make Tock reservations bookable somehow through Ultimate Rewards. I hope that they offer 1.5c in value for CSR cardholders. If and when they do, I will be thrilled if I can book the kitchen table at Alinea (pictured above) using points. I splurged on it with friends a few years ago and do not at all regret the exorbitant price. Any potential for regret would quickly be erased if I can MS my way to dinner at a big discount. While the kitchen table at Alinea is an experience, I may have enjoyed the food at French Laundry even more this past fall. This partnership could be what keeps a CSR in my household if it shapes up well.

How We Lived On $7,000 ($3,500 each) All-Inclusive for One Year

At the total opposite end of the universe from dinner at Alinea and The French Laundry, Screw the Average: Be an Outlier brings us a FIRE-y post about how they lived on seven grand for an entire year — for two people. That’s crazy. I am obviously not a FIRE guy, but the maximizer in me finds this fascinating. Do the math and you’ll see that it comes out to just over nineteen bucks a day. Can you imagine a life that only costs you $0.80 an hour to maintain for two people? That’s $0.40/hr per person. While I think their lodging experience may be difficult to replicate or unappealing for some, I still think this makes for a good read and a good reminder that we could all probably play the game just a little bit better.

‘Ghost kitchens’ are popping up in malls amid retail’s decline

If you got hunger pangs and it’s cold in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? Maybe a ghost kitchen. We’ve covered this phenomenon before: restaurants that don’t really exist are popping up on UberEATs, GrubHub, DoorDash, and the like. But where are they cooking your food? Yahoo Finance tells us that the answer may be your local Simon Mall. I’m just glad to see Simon innovating — whatever it takes to keep the lights on and register ringing up gift cards, Simon.

2020 CAESARS REWARDS GUIDE (PLUS EARNING AND REDEEMING TIER CREDITS, REWARDS CREDITS AND BENEFITS)

I used to spend some time in casinos, but as a poker player I never paid much attention to casino loyalty programs. These days, when I have a question about casino loyalty, there are a few friends I reach out to. One of them is Bethany Walsh at Bougie Miles, and here she writes a timely guide to the Caesars Rewards partnership. It is of course timely since many of us have successfully matched back to Diamond status again and because we can now add Capital One —> Wyndham –> Caesars as a method of earning rewards credits.

27,600 miles for 90 minutes of luxury? Emirates award space to Penang now available

Fun. If you’ve always wanted the Emirates experience but don’t want to shell out for the long haul prices, Mile Lion has the scoop on you can now get yourself what is likely about a 1-hr flight in Emirates first for a relatively small number of points (especially if you catch a transfer bonus to Qantas). Especially if I were booking a trip to Asia with a friend who has never experienced something like this, I could see getting crazy and making this redemption.

That’s it for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.

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