Stick around at the end for an extra clip from a patreon show!
0:20 Citi announces JAL as 1:1 Transfer Partner for Strate Premier and Elite
- The rumor has come true
- 1:1 on their higher end cards
- 30% transfer bonus between now and October 24 to celebrate
- Discuss what we think of this
- Will this put pressure on Capital one to match 1:1
- Plenty of places to earn JAL miles now.
- Aligns with JAL’s guidance that they want to double the number of miles they issue by 2030 (source, in Japanese)
10:32 Citi Strata Elite Retention Offers
- This card seems to have been populated with retention offers now (wasn’t before)
- 12,500 TYP -or- $100 statement credit for $2k spend per month for 3 months
- Limiting to one Strata welcome bonus lifetime (across their entire Strata product family)?
14:20 Chase Sapphire Reserve Personal 10 Year Anniversary
- Direct Link
- Chase celebrates 10 years of this card with strange collection of perks, each leaving me slightly concerned they’ll not work as I hope..
- DoorDash
- NEW: $15 monthly promo on any qualifying DoorDash order (starts Oct 1, 2026)
- Two $10 promos each month for groceries, daily essentials and more (is normal takeout included?)
- Offers (require activation)
- Cardmembers who activate the following Chase Offers®, then complete payment on the partner’s website by Dec. 14, 2026 will get:
- $250 back on $1,000 Miraval/Alila (would this work in person?)
- $200 back on $200 JSX semi-private jet (what if the jet is fully private?)
- $125 back on $500 Sixt premium car rental (would this work for a standard car rental?)
- $350 back on $1,500 Wander exceptional vacation home (what if it’s just a regular vacation home?)
- $125 back on $500 IHG (US only, expires earlier than the rest, Oct 16)
18:52 Chase Sapphire Reserve *Business* Increasing The Edit Credits to 4x $250
- Starting Jan 1, 2027 (visible in T&Cs online)
- Still requires 2-night minimum stay
- Still requires paying cash (rather than points) for minimum of $250 of each stay
- For some reason I thought this was broken up into 6-month increments, but I think you can use these all at once, so you could conceivable book an 8-night stay by stringing together four 2-night stays
- But $250 off 2-night stays at expensive The Edit hotels doesn’t seem like a very good discount 🙁
23:36 Chase 70% Transfer Bonus to Marriott
- Have seen utility in this for both Marriott bookings (in ideal situations) and for transfers to airlines for miles
- With JAL news at the top end of the show might not be worth doing vs. using TYP
25:36 Amex 175k Personal Platinum NLL (̶l̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶now dead)
- These come and go and seem to appear when Amex needs new cardholders
- This lasted just 3-4 days before being pulled
- Does indeed bypass lifetime language and can auto approve and include a sign up bonus even if you have had the card in the past.
- Shutdown risk? Are these legitimate?
Patreon Show Exerpt:
28:10 SF Trip Report, or: How Sonesta is taking over our worlds
- Sam: Family trip
- Talked about this quick getaway and how the hotel was a sticking point
- Ended up seeing some hotel collection options with 3rd night free. This helped eliminate the issue of overshoot on a 2 night stay combined with not wanting to string multiple stays together.
- Settled on The Clift hotel which just so happens to be a Sonesta property.
- Was in Union Square and my wife was not happy about hearing that.
- Booked with a Schwab platinum that had ~700 in FHR credits. Hotel was about $710 plus $120 in incidental tax and fees when we check in.
Robert: Booked via work, stayed at the Sonesta Silicon Valley 5 nights.
33:02 Sam Outbound: AA booked with 4,500 Alaska miles.
- Interesting wrinkle, this flight earned 500 Alaska status points which I wasn’t expecting. Apparently award travel earns this.
- Booked and selected more space seats because of my wife’s AA status.
- Never split the record locator to try to get an upgrade. Decided it wasn’t worth it.
- 55 minute flight, left at 10pm, arrived 11:20pm
- Flight about 60% full. 9pm went out full but a regional jet.
- Uber pickup was better this time because I assumed a longer wait than the app showed, and I knew how long the walk was.
- Still not on the Waymo Airport pickup list 🙁
37:15 Robert Outbound: JetBlue EvenMore Room
- Mosaic 1 can now select EvenMore Room seats 36 hours prior to departure
- This can strike at odd times of day and sneak up on you, and often creates dilemma of whether you want middle seat up front, a window/aisle with nobody currently showing next to you etc
- Ended up getting a window seat on a packed flight
- Pushed back on time, sat on tarmac for an hour, returned to gate for mechanical, ended up departing 2.5 hours late
- 8.5 hours in Economy is unpleasant, but they wanted a lot more for Mint than I was willing to pay
45:06 The Clift, a Royal Sonesta Hotel
- This is a brand I know NOTHING about. In fact I had no idea there are 20+ of these around the country, including one in Kauai.
- Prior to the stay I did the same Hilton Diamond status match as Robert. In about 3 days I was matched to Platinum with Sonesta.
- At checkin my status was recognized by………a broken link between the hotel and TravelPass.
- The hotel is nice, I think it is absolutely better than the two hilton options in the area, and it sits a little further north and west than those hotels.
- I’d compare it to a Westin Brand.
- 325 or so rooms, renovated down to the studs in 2020-2021. Retained a lot of charm from the original hotel built over 100 years ago, including the lobby bar.
- Amex Hotel Collection $100 credit recognized and stacked with some $10 daily credit.
- Be careful, the lobby bar is closed Sunday and Monday
- Everyone was impressed with Union square. Higher end shopping than we remember and plenty of foot traffic with visitors walking the streets even as late as midnight. Felt very safe to be out and about.
- Even the hotel is minimizing the Sonesta wording:
47:37 Robert Hotel: Sonesta Silicon Valley
- A week after stay, I still haven’t received credit for the stay. What a joke of a program.
- Was mildly entertained by the notion of flexing my Sonesta Travel Pass Platinum status on this work trip
- Used to be an independent hotel, remodeled then rebranded as a Sonesta in 2018
- It’s not a particularly nice hotel, slightly worse than the not-so-nice Sheraton nearby
- Interacting with Sonesta’s loyalty program relative to this stay left me appreciating what Marriott/Hilton/Hyatt do. Sonesta felt downright amateurish to me.
- Stay was booked by corporate travel
- I logged into my Sonesta travel pass to see if I could confirm the dates, but my reservation didn’t show up
- I tried to add my confirmation number to my Sonesta Travel Pass account online. You can’t do that. Their site doesn’t support it. Says to fill out a form to contact them:
- I fill out the form and immediately get an email back telling me to visit their website or call 1-800-REDLION (ha!)
- Figured I’d call the hotel directly rather than mousing around with some flimsy corporate phone tree. Guy answered right up, confirmed my dates of travel, and while I had him on the phone had him add my loyalty number.
- Upon arrival, after briskly checking in I asked if my loyalty number was on file. Desk agent said it was not, but then added it.
