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IHG Intercontinental Dallas in Pics

DaninMCI hotels, Travel, Uncategorized , , , , , , , ,

So I had the chance to stay on business at the Intercontinental Dallas this week. As a Spire Ambassador I was able to get a club floor suite upgrade that was really nice. Overall I’d say that I like this hotel. The service was great. This hotel is a little older but well kept. The photos don’t do it justice really. The furniture is nicer in person that it shows in the photos. I’m not a fancy guy so my room service meal was simple. I’d say the only major draw back is that it’s located in such a busy location but that’s a double edged sword as there are a lot of restaurants and shopping in the area as well.

img_20170110_081747263_hdr

Lounge floorimg_20170109_173735456

View from roomimg_20170109_172739093img_20170109_172731514

Downstairs powder room in suiteimg_20170109_172704036

Mini bar (too bad I’m not a Royal Ambassador)img_20170109_172710155

View from room.img_20170109_172731514

First floor of suite.img_20170109_172750314

Second floor of suiteimg_20170109_172857368img_20170109_172917667img_20170109_173111824

Second floor sitting area. It seems that this suite would easily sleep 6 with the large bed and 2 sofas. img_20170109_173123173

Upstairs main bathimg_20170109_173145821

Amabassador welcome gifts.img_20170109_173559727

Happy hour in the lounge.img_20170109_174111668

Room service back in the suite. img_20170109_182413545img_20170110_081747263_hdr

Simple tip for multiple email sign-ups

DaninMCI Contest, credit cards, miles, Uncategorized , ,

One thing I run into with points and miles is the need to have various email addresses for accounts. Stuff like contests, E-miles accounts, etc. One simple tip I saw today HT to CavemanCircus is:

You can use @gmail.com and @googlemail.com interchangeably. Perfect for signing up to a website twice without setting up two accounts.

 

 

KLM changes St. Maarten Aircraft !! No more 747’s

DaninMCI cruise, Travel, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , ,

airport beach insel air

 

Big fans of Maho Beach (Airport Beach in St. Maarten) are going to be disappointed that KLM is splitting the service to St. Maarten and Curacao and more shocking (but not surprising) is that they are replacing the 747-400 with an A330-200.  This is still a large jet but not as special as the 747 in my opinion.

This was reported by www.routesonline.com which is a great source for this sort of news. HT to Jim Liu for finding this.

KLM Splits Curacao St. Maarten Service in W16 Routesonline

airport beach waiting for planes

Maho Beach patrons waiting for the 747. The highlight of trips to this beach for sure.

Hacking Citibank EMV chip card in France videos

DaninMCI credit cards, shopping, Travel, Uncategorized , , , ,

So I’m online today confirming my new Citi Costco card and decided that I have no life and clicked on the EMV chip card videos.  The first one on train travel in France cracked me up. I was expecting (or maybe not expecting) them to show me some work around for the train kiosks since Citi fails to let you use Chip & Pin. Check it out. Pay close attention to how they give you the Hack to be able to buy train tickets, it’s awesome.

Citi Credit Card with EMV Chip Technology Citi.com

There are also 3 other videos that will teach you some other good travel hacks using your Citi card in France.

How to shop in France and confuse the shop keeper

Have a man show you how it’s done

How to impress two women with your “French” skills

Oh and my review of the new Costco Citi card that kicks in on 6-20-16. It’s awesome except it charges foreign service fees of 3% 😦

Of course the smart folks in the videos won’t fall for the Dynamic Currency Conversion I’m sure….

 

 

 

New American Airlines Elite Level

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Welcome to Platinum Pro the new AA elite level. Funny how they mask this with the $$$ EQD requirements.

 

Platinum Pro

Elite status in 2017

New status level

In 2017 you can start earning toward a new level, Platinum Pro, with benefits like:

  • Complimentary upgrades on flights within North America and between the U.S. and Central America
  • Earn 9 award miles/U.S. dollar (80% bonus)
  • 2 free checked bags
  • oneworld Sapphire status

I’m sure the many other bloggers will beat this to death. Here is the link to see more.

Most likely the ability to use 500 mile coupons by Ex Plats for Award ticket upgrades may be the most interesting.

AAdvantage program updates AAdvantage American Airlines

Delta Status Match, Maybe…

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If you hold status on another airline you can “try” this Delta Corporate status match link to get status with Delta for 3 months plus the challenge to keep it beyond. On top of that if you complete the challenge you get 10,000 miles or Skypesos.  Beware your miles may vary. The biggest hurtle is that you have to enter your corporate email address. If you work for a large corporation this “may” work for you but no promises. Don’t come kill the messenger.

delta capture

Good luck.

My attempt to get the other 10k SPG points from AMEX

DaninMCI credit cards, miles, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

I recently got the SPG Amex card with the 25,000 bonus points. They are now offering 35,000 SPG points. I used the Amex live chat feature to see if they would pony up the other 10,000 points or would call my bluff on canceling my card. Here is what happened

amex chat 1

Amex chat 2

amex chat 3

Amex chat 5Amex chat 4

Oh well. I’ve never had good luck with American Express. I guess I need to keep my business with Citi, Chase and BofA who treat me way better.