How MilesHusband’s Biggest Points Redemption Ever Waited Behind This Hotel Door
Points redemption.
Two words that give MilesHusband goosies.
Basically, it’s the math you do to figure out how much value each point or mile brings you when you cash it in for a flight, a hotel, or heaven forbid, a camera or magazine subscription.
And off the top, I have to say, “Thank you, Chase Ultimate Rewards!” as these points made this great story possible.
More on how to earn those at the bottom of this post.
For now back to our latest international trip.
Where we flew Etihad Airways First Class Apartments from JFK to Abu Dhabi.
MilesHusband dropped by my “apartment” on Etihad Airways First Class service. Dinner prepared to order by the private chef. This JFK-Abu Dhabi leg would cost $14,500 per person. MH paid $15+ 115,000 American Advantage miles for each of us.
From there we hoped over to Muscat.
Took a two hour car ride up into the mountains of Oman.
Had a lovely stay at the Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar resort.
Breathtaking views from the Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar resort. 6,500 feet above sea level in the middle of Oman.
The twist of this trip was that we booked as far as Oman without booking a way back.
Miles Husband scrambled to work his burning miles magic from our Omani balcony and came up with Italy.
Milan, Italy.
The peg–he found two nights opened up at the Park Hyatt Milan.
He was also able to secure us seats on Lufthansa First Class from Dubai to Milan which made the next leg all the sweeter.
Lufthansa First Class. Dubai to Milan, through Frankfurt. Two tickets would cost $5,000 per person. MH splurged,paying $120 and 60,000 United miles for each of us.
Milan was lovely.
We did the touristy stuff like seeing The Duomo.
Eating incredible food.
Took a train ride up to Lake Como for the day.
Beautiful Lake Como, Italy.
All possible because we stayed at the lovely Park Hyatt Milano for free.
Well, we paid 30,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points per night for a room that would’ve cost us $820.
We also had to pony up a five euro a night city tax.
Here’s yet another twist.
The hotel room was only available for two nights, while we planned three nights in Milan.
We woke up the last day with fingers crossed that space would’ve opened up.
Sadly, the travel gods did not appear to be with us this day.
Not that big of a deal.
Let me give you a glimpse of how we roll, Miles Husband and I.
We travel light.
He has a “Carry On Only” luggage rule.
One of our travel secrets. If it doesn’t fit in a backpack or carry on suitcase, it stays home.
After a day out in Milan, MilesHusband agreed to check the Park Hyatt one more time.
“What do you know,” he said. “It looks like a room has opened up. Might even be the room we just checked out of.”
Off he went to see what he could do at the front desk.
After what seemed like a long time, he came back with a smile. “We have a room,” he said, just mildly pleased with himself.
“Same room?” I asked.
“No, it’s one floor down. We should go check it out,” he said using what I now realize was the best poker face ever.
We’ve been upgraded before.
Nothing ever like this.
Have a look.
They call it, “The Imperial Suite.”
Almost 1,900 square feet of ultimate luxury.
One master bedroom.
Three bathrooms.
A living room, office, dining room and butler pantry.
It’s so big, it had two different entrances from opposite ends of the hotel hallway.
I think we giggled the whole time we were there.
That is, when we weren’t getting lost.
Not too shabby.
$6,000 hotel suite for 10 euros.
A night to remember, for sure.
A good value of frequent flyer miles is two cents per mile.
This night, this Imperial Suite brought a value of 20 cents per mile!
I spent a lot of time on this post sharing some of the incredible burn of our miles.
The shower in the Park Hyatt Milan Imperial Suite is the fanciest I’ve ever seen. Nine different jet options and a computer to run it all. I had to put on my glasses to figure the thing out.
“How do you EARN them?” you ask.
A number of ways.
We earned the Chase Ultimate Rewards using a business card called Chase Business Preferred.
If you have your own business and are interested in getting targeting for this card, send your email to [email protected] and he will pass it along to Chase.
You’ll earn 80,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 within the first three months of having the card.
You also get 3x points for every dollar spent on travel, shipping, internet, cable, and phone.
Good example–we use this card to pay our internet and phone bills. It’s money we’re going to spend anyway. Now it brings us miles and experiences like this. How many miles did your cell phone bill earn you this month?
Full disclosure: We get some miles kicked back to us for every person we refer who is approved for the card and completes the initial spend.
This is kind of like a win-win. MilesHusband only recommends cards we actually use ourselves and that are the current best deals available.
Off to earn more!
