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Chase cutting Priority Pass Select benefit?

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A friend forwarded me this screenshot from a Chase Facebook group and it looks like Chase is going to cut the benefit which allows Priority Pass holders to access certain airport restaurants, cafes, and markets effective July 2024.  I haven't seen this anywhere else but I could have easily missed the news. I googled and couldn't find anything about it online, either. *Shrug* I really hope this isn't true. Often the restaurant/market option is the only choice you have what with all of the recent lounge overcrowding and subsequent restrictions placed on visitors. My original hometown airport was PDX and their Capers Market was such a great place to use this benefit. I usually popped in there on arrival and departure whenever I went back to visit my family.  "As of July 1, 2024 you will no longer have access to restaurants, cafes, and markets participating in the Priority Pass Select network as part of the Priority Pass SelectTM Benefit associated with your Card. Access

Trip Report: Asiana A350-900 Sydney to JFK via Seoul in Business Class (SYD-ICN-JFK)

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A quiet, efficient, reasonably-priced option for getting back to New York from Sydney. It's a bit longer in the air, but a guaranteed lie-flat seat sure beats doing 14 hours in a United Premium Plus recliner to SFO followed by 6 crowded hours in Economy to NYC. pros good lounges Seoul airport has Toto Washlets in the lounges AND in the terminal  very attentive service split boarding and deplaning (aka, separate jetways for Business and Economy) the A350 has decent wifi for $21 (full flight) transiting thru Seoul you can bring sealed duty free items (liquor) through transiting thru Seoul you don’t need a K-ETA visa like you do to enter Korea  bathrooms have toothbrushes and lotions and mouthwash so you don’t have to open the amenity kit to get just one thing out of it  seat is quite long when in flat mode  espresso! cons no personal air vents   ran out of korean style menu  fairly limited liquor selection. and like who’s ordering Drambuie?  neutral food was good, not great. IFE w

Changing a PlusPoints flight without having to call

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This one definitely falls under the category of "if I don't make a note to myself right now, I'm going to immediately forget how to do this next time." It's a super-specific problem:  I have a flight leg with a confirmed 40 PlusPoint upgrade into Polaris.  I need to change this leg to a different day/time.  I know that my new flight has PlusPoints ✅ instant-upgrade seats available. (I used Seats.aero and then manually verified the availability on United.com) I'm using United.com to change my flight and the search results only show me one option: a deeply-discounted fare + 80 PlusPoints to upgrade I would prefer an option with a less-discounted fare that only requires 40 PlusPoints I would prefer not to call United to have them sort this out. (In my case, the Australian United phone center is only open normal business hours, not 24/7) The solution: Change the flight on United.com (from a desktop browser) and manually set the 'Search by Fare class' fiel

Elite strategy for 2025

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As previously discussed , we're doing 3-player mode for 2024 (one of us United 1k, one is Plat, one Gold), but as I'm currently booking travel for July, I'm already thinking about status for 2025.  Status match to Qantas? Tim's work visa for the US is delayed ( sigh ), so he likely won't be moving to New York until mid-2025 at the absolute earliest, so there's still going to be lots of trans-Pacific flying happening. Qantas is supposed to launch their new nonstop New York – Sydney service in 2025 , but that will likely be on an unpredictable time schedule much like Tim's work visa. I mention this because I thought that route might make it worth it for him to do the "secret" status match to Qantas (Oneworld) from United 1k.  But even if all of the economics of that worked out, will that flight even be pleasant? With our current situation, I really don't mind the 14 hours between Sydney and the US West Coast, but having to then immediately get o

She giveth and she taketh...

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I mentioned recently that I made the absolute rookie error of not hitting the minimum spend on a new card. It's definitely the kind of thing I'll kick myself about over and over and over again. But then I'm looking at my statement for a different card I was churning and noticed this:  the big work expense I was using to hit the minimum spend unexpectedly coded as one of this card's bonus categories -- meaning that this single transaction yielded me 88,000 more points than I was expecting. This definitely made me feel a bit better about my stupid mistake on the other card. 

Well, i effed that up

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Looking over my account and realized that I never got the sign up bonus for a United Quest card I got back in February.  I called.  The rep looked it over. I'd spent $5060 dollars. "Oh but sir, the annual fee of $250 was part of that $5060, and it doesn't count toward the bonus" %#!@ Of course I knew that.  I even have a blog post here telling people to always overshoot the goal by a decent amount to account for returns and unexpected chargebacks and what-not. Such a rookie mistake and I feel like an idiot. I put in for a reconsideration from their marketing team but I'm sure I'll get a no. It's so hard to keep up with the details when you're in the middle of a bunch of travel. 

Craziest sane thing I've done recently

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Update 27 Sept '23 (six weeks after initial post): my favorite email just arrived! The PlusPoints upgrade we requested for my early November flight from SFO to Sydney cleared! The current price difference between Polaris Business and what I paid for Premium Plus is $4470. So we have an upcoming heap of travel for my friends' wedding in Palm Springs, including legs to and from Australia (where the three of us will spend the end-of-year holidays again). I'm looking at our 2024 travel plans, our elite status, and the results of what that elite status got us in 2021-2023. Long story short, I think we're going to voluntarily pay $13,000 for a round-trip Business Class flight to Sydney to get one of us over the finish line for United 1k status .  It's hard for me to even type that . Yes, one of us has had 1k status since the pandemic, but spending $10k to get through Australia's harsh Covid restrictions was our only option back then. Now that it's voluntary, I wan

United DIDN'T hold the plane...

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Well, last summer we had an amazing moment of the marketing matching reality when United held Tim's SFO-SYD flight so people on his belated Newark-SFO flight could make their connection. Fast forward a year and the very same thing happened but with an odd twist... Tim's flight into LAX from Newark is an hour late. We then (happily) get an alert that the Sydney flight is also going to depart late. Upon landing at LAX they ask all Sydney passengers to raise their hands and tell them they have to make a run for it and everyone else on board should stay seated while they disembark.  They rush to the gate, and... the door is shut, jetway pulled back, and the plane is leaving without them. They head over to customer service to see about rebooking and Tim's handed a new boarding pass for the Melbourne flight that's about to leave and lo and behold his Plus Points upgrade to Polaris (from Premium Plus) survived the rebooking and he ended up in row 12 behind Tyra Banks.  Not su

Montreal food

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We love Montreal. So much good food and drink. Here's a few of our favorites: FIRST off, we love that LOTS of places are BYOB-only and they'll even give you an ice bucket. The state-run liquor stores are called SAQ. (there's also SQDC for recreational cannabis) Fairmount Bagel . Montreal style bagels are a different animal than NY bagels. Comparisons are tiresome. Just enjoy the difference.  Kem Coba ice cream Wilensky's light lunch. C'mon half-sours and a pineapple soda.  St. Viateur bagel Smoked meat ("Viande Fumée") poutine and sandwich at Schwartz 's Summer fireworks festival viewed from Sky Bar Pizza bouquet   Foie Gras poached eggs at Le Passé Composé   24/7 poutine at La Banquise Reuben pizza at Amelias!  pastries from Mamie Clafoutis Crepes (and beautiful produce  and unpasteurized cheese ) at  Jean Talon  market if you couldn't score a table at Joe Beef, you can still eat their amazing food at Liverpool House Cafe Chez Teta has amazi