Over the past year, I’ve lamented the fact that rising ultra-premium card annual fees have made me melt. Over the past week and a half, I’ve enjoyed some of the benefits of those ultra-premium cards immensely, reminding me that although the cost of admission has increased, the benefits of ultra-premium cards can be incredibly valuable in the right circumstances.
Two trips last week
For context, I was on the road for two separate trips last week:
- From Monday, May 18 to Wednesday, May 20: I traveled solo from Albany, NY to Reno, NV (outbound on Southwest, return on United) to make a run for Caesars Diamond in a Day.
- From Thursday, May 21 to Tuesday, May 26: My family and I flew from Albany, NY to Orlando, FL to spend the Memorial Day weekend at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress (booked before it moved up in category) and the JW Marriott Grande Lakes
Below, you’ll find how I/we benefited from ultra-premium credit cards in terms of lounge access, flights, elite status, and a coupon book benefit.
Lounge Access
American Express Sidecar Lounge, Las Vegas (LAS), access by Platinum card (consumer or business)
At the beginning of last week, I had a connection at Las Vegas International Airport (on my way to Reno/Lake Tahoe). While my connection was originally only scheduled to be about 1.5 hours, my connecting flight was delayed, first by 20 or 30 minutes, and then progressively by one hour, two hours, three hours, and then more than four and a half hours.
As soon as I landed, I headed to the Chase Sapphire Lounge, which is in Concourse C at Las Vegas International Airport (the terminal mainly served by Southwest Airlines), but there was a massive line of people waiting just to get on the waitlist to get in. I added my name to the list, but didn’t expect that I would actually hear back. As I expected, I never did clear that waitlist.
However, since I had four and a half hours, I headed over to Concourse D via the airport train. Concourse D houses the Capital One Lounge, the American Express Centurion Lounge, and the new American Express Sidecar lounge. Both Amex lounges were accessible to me via my Amex Platinum cards (both business and consumer).
I was particularly interested in checking out the new Amex Sidecar Lounge. The Sidecar Lounge is a mini-restaurant-style concept lounge with very limited seating. On my way over to Concourse D, I pulled up the American Express app to go to the lounge finder and see if I could join the waitlist from the app.
Sure enough, I was able to join the waitlist from the app, though it did require uploading a copy of my boarding pass since the Sidecar Lounge only offers access up to 90 minutes before departure. I uploaded the original screenshot of my boarding pass that I had taken when checking in for my flight (which showed my original flight time), rather than a copy of my boarding pass that showed my new delayed departure time.
That turned out to be a wise decision; as I was sitting in the sidecar lounge, after ordering my food but before having received it, I got my seventh Southwest notification of the day, indicating a new departure time. Unlike the previous six notifications, which each indicated a further delayed departure time, the seventh notification indicated that our departure time had been moved up significantly. We went from being about four and a half hours delayed to only forty minutes delayed. Boarding was now due to begin in just seventeen minutes.
Luckily, within just a few minutes, I received both my drinks and my food. Food options were relatively limited, though drink options abounded.
I ordered a charcuterie board, Parmesan truffle fries, and what was essentially a fancy-sounding chicken sandwich. I don’t know whether it was the sandwich itself or the centurion branding it to the top of the bun, but I found it quite enjoyable.
The Parmesan truffle fries were a delicious accompaniment, quite a nice complement to the chicken sandwich. The charcuterie board probably would have made a good alternative if you’re only looking for some light bites. A nearby table ordered one after seeing mine.
As my time was limited, and I hadn’t eaten much yet that day, I did my best to eat as quickly as possible. To drink, I ordered a Grenache, which was great, but I only got a few sips of it before leaving. I left the lounge 9 minutes before boarding was due to begin.
The wait for the airport train back to Concourse C was so long that I couldn’t even get on the first train. I had to hustle to get to the gate, only to find out that we were short a flight attendant, so it ended up being another hour. I was disappointed to have rushed through at the Sidecar lounge, but glad to get a taste of it.
The bottom line is that the Sidecar Lounge is just a restaurant-like experience with QR code ordering. It’s well-decorated, and the small size makes it feel somewhat “exclusive”, but in reality, it’s the same thing you’ll get inside a Chase Sapphire Lounge or in many of the premium airline lounges around the world. Frankly, I’m surprised that Amex hasn’t made that type of experience available in their Centurion Lounges before now. Still, I’m glad to see the Sidecar created, particularly in such a small footprint. That gives me hope that Amex could create other very small lounge dining concepts like this in airports that don’t otherwise have available lounge space.
Escape Lounge Reno
Reno airport is quite small, so the lounge scene is understandably limited. However, Amex has an Escape Lounge at Reno/Tahoe airport. That Escape Lounge is not available to Priority Pass members, but it is to Platinum cardholders, so I was able to access the lounge before my flight and grab lunch. The Escape lounge was tiny (maybe even smaller than the Hartford, CT location), and it was so crowded that I didn’t get any pictures, but it served its purpose. They were serving a delicious pork loin dish with mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini. I passed on the turkey sandwiches, but still left reasonably full and ready for the ride home.
Flights
JetBlue status for the win, thanks to having used Membership Rewards points to complete 25 for 25
This one is very indirect, but last summer, my family completed the JetBlue 25 for 25 promotion, which gave us a boatload of points and 25 years of Mosaic 1 status. We did that in large part because we were able to use Amex Membership Rewards points at a value of just over 1.5c per point, thanks to having an The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, since it offers a 35% pay-with-points rebate when using points to fly on your chosen airline (up to 1 million points back per year). I previously wrote about essentially turning 600,000 Amex points into 1.4 million JetBlue TrueBlue points and 25 years of elite status for my family of four. Last week, that paid off.
I flew United from Reno to Albany, NY via Denver. My connection in Denver was only scheduled to be 42 minutes. That meant that boarding would be scheduled to begin right around the same time I was scheduled to land from Reno.
I was really grateful that the United/JetBlue Blue Sky reciprocal elite benefits finally went live last week, because that meant I was able to select Economy Plus seats at check-in when flying United using my JetBlue elite status. I settled for a middle seat on the first flight to be in the first row of economy class on the way into Denver. That turned out to be a great decision, since that flight was delayed, shortening my connection even further.
Group 2 boarding was also huge in this case. I flew United just last month, before reciprocal benefits went live, and I had to gate check my bag. That would have slowed me down more than I thought I could spare. Thankfully, with Group 2 boarding, there was no thread of needing to gate check.
I reached my next gate just a couple of minutes before boarding was scheduled to end for my flight from Denver to Albany, though we ended up delayed after boarding, spending nearly an hour and a half on the ground. That worked out fine for me, as I had an emergency exit tow seat and an empty middle seat on the ~3.5hr flight to Albany. Again, that was thanks to the BlueSky partnership with JetBlue and my Mosaic 1 status; I was able to select Economy Plus at check-in, which meant an exit row that United had been offering for $104 before check-in began.
If I weren’t able to use American Express Membership Rewards points at a value of just over 1.5 cents per point, thanks to the Business Platinum card, I probably wouldn’t have paid out of pocket for my family to pursue the 25 for 25 challenge. As such, I wouldn’t have had any particular benefits on this United flight. Although it’s an indirect stretch, it’s really an ultra-premium card benefit that made that possible (or at least plausible) for me, and I’ll be reaping the benefits for a long time to come.
Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite for a small win onboard United
I ordered a snack box on my second United flight of the day, but I used my Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa so that I could send a secure message afterwards and ask for the card’s airline incidental fee credit to be applied toward the purchase so that I wouldn’t come out of pocket for it.
Southwest: Extra Legroom, Priority Boarding (mixed success)
The Southwest seat selection and boarding process is still a complete mess, in my experience.
On the one hand, things worked out well for my flights from Albany, NY to Reno, NV. As a Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business cardholder, I was able to “upgrade” to Extra Legroom seating on all 3 of my segments from Albany to Reno at 48 hours prior to departure, and I had Group 2 boarding for all of those flights. My solo travels went smoothly.
My family’s trip to Orlando over the holiday weekend wasn’t quite as smooth.
Southwest has made what was probably a change to its boarding process, which now happens in the following order:
- Preboarders (folks who need extra time going down the jetbridge)
- Priority Boarding (those who have paid extra for Priority Boarding)
- A-list Preferred (top-tier status) and Active duty military
- Groups 1-8 (A-list members are supposed to be in Group 1, and Southwest credit card holders get no later than Group 5; the boarding benefit is the same across all cards)
I guess maybe my Group 2 boarding position on the flights to Reno was due to my extra Legroom seats, though we’ve found that to be inconsistent (sometimes getting Group 3). I was happy enough with Group 2, though I was frustrated that the first few economy class bins were filled with things like snacks, crew luggage, and safety equipment. Since I was in the bulkhead row on one of my flights, I had to put everything in bins. The first bin that could accommodate my rolling bag was in Row 6, despite my having Group 2 boarding. That’s really annoying because it is quite a pain to fight backwards through 5 rows of people to get to the bag at the end of the flight.
Later in the week, I flew to Orlando with my family (and then back home yesterday). As Southwest credit cardholders, my wife and I each received Group 5 boarding (the boarding benefit is the same regardless of which credit card you hold). We had selected seats near the back of the plane. Just as at the front, the last couple of bins were filled with flight attendant luggage and gear. We managed to get everything we needed in overhead bins nearby, thankfully, so Group 5 boarding came in handy in that regard.
Seat selection was again a snafu. My wife and I are both Southwest Companion Pass holders, and our sons (ages 8 and 5) are our companions. Credit card benefits are meant to extend to others on your reservation, including linked companions. I previously wrote about the inconsistency of seat selection between my wife and me and our sons on a Southwest trip under separate PNRs.
This time, we used the tip in this post to book my wife and me under 1 PNR while adding both of our sons using the Southwest app (Southwest Companion Pass companions are always under separate PNRs as that’s just how Southwest does it).
About a week before the flight, we all received emails notifying us of an equipment change on our Southwest flight from Orlando to Albany that changed our seating assignments. I went to make sure our seats were still together, but my 8yr old had been assigned a middle seat nine rows away, and I was unable to change it. It said that as a Southwest Companion, seat selection would open for him at check-in. That wasn’t right, so I ultimately had to call Southwest. The phone agent looked at the reservation and immediately saw what was wrong — she said that his reservation wasn’t properly linked. It only took her a couple of minutes to link that up properly, which enabled me to select seats.
But that wasn’t quite the end of it. I selected him the seat next to my wife, but then I went to check the seat selection for my five-year-old. He was assigned the same seat. In fact, I was able to check in with both of them assigned to the same seat, and both of them were issued boarding passes for seat 28E.
I ended up fixing that, but it wasn’t intuitive. I ultimately had to have my eight-year-old select a seat in some other row, save it, complete check-in, and then go back and change his seat and complete check-in again in order for it to assign him a different seat from my five-year-old.
We did ultimately get free seat selection for all four of us, and that had worked as expected on the flights to Orlando. I guess this was all a net win, but the process still isn’t as smooth as I’d like it to be.
Lodging
Marriott 85K Free Night Certificates (and points) for the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes
We stayed at (and reviewed) the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes during last summer’s JetBlue 25 for 25 trip. We went back again over Memorial Day weekend, in part because it was a decent (if not quite full) use of a Marriott 85K free night certificate (we also used points for a couple of nights).
I believe the points price for the night we booked with a free night certificate was 72K points per night, which isn’t quite a full use of the 85K free night certificate. However, with standard rooms running north of $600 per night, I was glad to use a Ritz card free night certificate. I recently used the $300 in airline incidental fee credits on one of the cards to cover fees for a Ryanair flight in a few months, so getting that $300 plus a free night at the JW Marriott for the $450 annual fee feels like a nice win!
My kids had a blast once again in the pools, lazy river, and waterslides, along with the Aqua360 wet ropes course. This time, my 5yr old was tall enough for all of the waterslides, so he was thrilled that he could even do the “fast” one (though once was enough for him).
Unfortunately, Marriott still charges a resort fee on “free” stays, so we had to pay the $55 daily resort fee plus $42 per night for self-parking (which was full when we arrived, so we had to wait a bit to find a spot for self-parking even though there were a couple of empty lots of empty valet spaces available). Food is resort-priced. However, I redeemed Capital One Shopping rewards for a Marriott gift card that covered our food and most of the fees.
We had a small issue during our stay: an ice machine from the hallway leaked water into our room. We had noticed in the morning that the carpet in our entryway was soaked, and we didn’t understand why. The hotel proactively reached out to us to say that they had extracted the water but to offer a room change if we wanted it (luckily, none of our clothes or belongings got wet, so it really wasn’t a big deal apart from the wet carpet).
We decided to move to a room with a balcony so we could enjoy the fireworks show you see above, but we got back to the hotel just before the fireworks, and I connected with the rooms manager and I told her that since we didn’t have much time to switch, we’d watch the fireworks from our window and then switch. To my surprise, a staff member knocked on our door a couple of minutes later and offered to usher us through an employee area to the staff elevator in order to get us to our balcony room just in time for the fireworks to begin. That worked out perfectly. I was really impressed with the follow-up, both from Judy, the rooms division manager with whom I spoke on the phone, and the manager on duty who helped us move.
We also stayed a couple of nights at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress and very much enjoyed our stay there again this time, but the JW Marriott represented a good use of an ultra-premium card benefit in the free night certificate.
Sixt Platinum via match from Hertz
We rented a car in Orlando through Sixt using a Capital One Shopping offer for 45% back. I haven’t yet seen that track, but I’ll monitor it to see what happens.
From a premium credit card standpoint, we enjoyed Sixt Platinum benefits on this rental. We booked the rental car directly via Sixt in my wife’s name. We did that because she usually prefers to drive, but my wife didn’t have any elite status with Sixt. I remembered that Sixt offers a status match, and she has Hertz President’s Circle status thanks to her Capital One Venture X Rewards card. I went to the Sixt status match form (a link is found on this page) and filled out her information, uploading a copy of her Hertz President’s Circle status. Sixt instantly approved her match to Platinum status.
That Platinum status came in handy as we booked a full-sized car and were upgraded to a Ford Expedition, which was massive.
We didn’t really need quite that much space on this trip, but we all enjoyed a very comfortable ride for the price of a full-sized car. Additionally, I was impressed as we drove out of the lot, and the attendant provided coloring books and colored pencils for both of my kids. That was a really nice touch.
Speaking of driving out of the lot, I noticed the Sixt has an AI scanner set up that looks the same as what Hertz is now using in many airports. It didn’t seem to be operational yet, but this is obviously coming soon.
Coupon Book Activity
Cirque du Soleil Drawn to Life thanks to StubHub credits
We went to see Cirque du Soleil – Drawn to Life, a Disney collaboration that plays at Disney Springs. I bought our tickets for the show via StubHub, using a combination of StubHub gift cards I got by redeeming Capital One Shopping Rewards and the $150 semi-annual StubHub credit on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card (available once from January to June and once from July to December, enrollment/registration required). I opened the card a couple of months ago and hadn’t yet used my January-to-June credit.
This is something we probably wouldn’t have done if not for the ability to use those shopping rewards and the $150 StubHub credit, but we were excited about it, thanks to the ability to do it without spending cash out of pocket. It was a terrific decision. We absolutely loved the show. We had fantastic seats, just four rows back from the stage, which meant we could see all of the performers’ expressions and stunts up close and personal.
The theme of the show follows a young woman whose father was an animator and passed away when she was young. Now, she wants to finish one of his animations, but she is struggling between her dreams and self-doubt. It was a really nice theme, and it was really well done. My wife and I enjoyed it at least as much as our kids, if not more. That’s saying a lot because our kids really loved the performance. At one point, my son leaned over to me and said, “Wow! You really can do anything!” I think he was referring to the incredible athletic feats of some of the performers, but I was glad that the theme was getting through on some level :-).
My wife and I have seen several Cirque shows in Las Vegas over the years, including “O” at Bellagio, “LOVE” (the Beatles show) at what was the Mirage, “Ka” at MGM Grand, “Mystere” at Treasure Island, and “Michael Jackson ONE” at Mandalay Bay, and we’ve seen some cirque-adjacent shows like La Reve, which played at Wynn years ago. My wife said Drawn to Life might be her favorite, and we aren’t overly into Disney. I’m not sure I’d put it all the way at the top, but I have difficulty ranking those shows.
CLEAR thanks to Platinum cards
I should mention that Clear came in handy on the way out of Orlando. My wife hasn’t yet updated her license to a “Real ID”, so we’ve been having to carry her passport for domestic flights. When we dropped off our checked bag before our Southwest flight, I asked if she had her passport handy. She began to fish through her bag to find it when I remembered that Orlando Airport has CLEAR. I knew they would scan her eyes, and unless she got selected for a random ID check, she wouldn’t even need to go through the hassle of fishing out her ID from her bag.
Sure enough, we went through the Clear lane and didn’t even have to pull out our ID. That was a small win, but it’s one that we’ve been able to enjoy thanks to maintaining Platinum cards that cover the CLEAR membership fee. I don’t know that we would pay for Clear if we didn’t have credit cards that reimburse the fee, but it’s often nice to have it in order to skip the line, and particularly in this case, so she didn’t have the small hassle of finding her ID in her carry-on.
Bottom line
Over the last week and a half, I took a run to Reno/Lake Tahoe for Caesars Diamond, then immediately turned around to enjoy a weekend in Orlando with my family. Along the way, we were able to make use of a number of ultra-premium credit card benefits. I’m still melting at the ever-increasing annual fees and the heated competition to see who can add the most coupon features, but I have to admit that we enjoyed a lot of this stuff over the past week (and we do many times over the course of a year, sometimes without thinking about the sources of the fun). Do I think that everyone should have all of these ultra-premium credit cards? Absolutely not. They won’t be worth it for everyone. But this week, some of these cards pulled their weight in providing benefits that proved very useful.
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