Brisbane on a Delta One Flash Deal, Points & Miles Wins, Koalas, Hyatt Perks & News | Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast
Justin Vacula returns home to Pennsylvania after an exciting trip to Brisbane, Australia, booked on a Delta One flash deal for 255,000 SkyMiles round-trip plus $123.51 in taxes and fees, routing Philadelphia–Las Vegas–Los Angeles–Brisbane. Frequent co-host Darren joins this episode.
In this episode, Justin shares highlights from the journey, including his Delta One experience with a lie-flat seat, plus time at the Delta One Lounge at LAX with private security access. He also explains why he intentionally built extra buffer time into the trip to reduce the risk of delays and disruptions.
Once in Brisbane, Justin uses a gifted Blacklane credit for airport transportation to the Hyatt Regency Brisbane, where he enjoys World of Hyatt Globalist perks such as an extensive breakfast and daily tasting plate. He also talks about saving money abroad with Starbucks gift cards, packed snacks, and other simple food strategies.
The trip recap includes walks around downtown Brisbane, a visit to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and encounters with koalas, free-range kangaroos, and other Australian wildlife.
Justin then shifts into points and miles news, covering topics like the Rove 20% SAS transfer bonus, upcoming meetups and Frequent Traveler University Dallas, Bilt credits for Miami, a possible Vermont hotel credit play, American Express retention and downgrade decisions, Caesars and MGM payment-method limitations, and upcoming travel including Virgin Voyages and Calala Island.
This episode is packed with award travel insights, airline and hotel strategy, loyalty program updates, trip report highlights, and practical ways to save money while traveling.
Timestamps
00:00 Podcast Intro
00:44 Trip Setup Brisbane
02:11 Flash Deal Delta One
03:52 Delta One Lounge LAX
04:29 Vegas Pit Stop Strategy
05:49 Delta One Flight Review
07:16 Blacklane Airport Transfer
09:28 Hyatt Regency Perks
10:55 Food Hacks Abroad
13:17 Exploring Downtown Brisbane
14:35 Koala Sanctuary Visit
17:46 Kangaroo Point Views
19:16 Airport Lounge Return
20:21 Show Announcements
20:50 Meetups and FTU Dallas
21:47 CardPointers and SaveWise
22:33 SaveWise Grocery Wins
23:37 SAS Transfer Bonus
24:13 Rove Meetup Plans
25:01 Bilt Miami Pre-Cruise
26:10 Vermont Hotel Credit Play
28:03 Amex Retention Decisions
31:32 Caesars and MGM Negative Changes
34:37 Work Travel and Spring Break
35:24 Upcoming Trips and Calala Island
36:30 Amtrak Lounge Status
37:40 MGM Iconic Credit Card Increased Offer
38:37 Wrap Up and Support Links
39:31 Outro Credits and Theme
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Rough Transcript:
Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures tales to be told, make and save money, the world will unfold.
Fight the war on happiness. Pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold.
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world, at next to no cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty programs. I’m back home at Pennsylvania, returned from one of my most ambitious trips yet Brisbane, Australia, a long flight from Philly to Vegas to Los Angeles to Brisbane.
Learn why I went, how I flew in style and encounters with koalas and [00:01:00] kangaroos. On with today’s episode recorded March 9th, 2026. Welcome back to the show, Darren. Thanks Justin. Great to be back. Excited to hear about all the adventures of your trip. Get our listeners caught up on what you’ve been up to.
I’ve been uploading videos from Brisbane to my YouTube channel, Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on YouTube, you can see the travel videos, including Hyatt Regency and many encounters with Animals, downtown walks and more that we’ll talk about on this podcast. Some listeners have said, oh, you could have a visual component to the podcast.
You’ll have a visual component with the trip videos, but not us talking. Justin, I’m a firm believer that I have a face made for radio and no one’s gonna convince me otherwise. Yes, hopefully the listeners are listening for the information and the entertainment rather than our faces. Get your camera set up, get some video, share some of your experiences with listeners and followers.[00:02:00]
I think it’s a great opportunity to share all the cool things you’ve been doing. Yes, the Dell credits used for the Insta 360 camera for the travel videos, but let’s get into it. I am very high on the openness to experience, five factor personality trait, and I saw from Delta an email that they were discounting Delta one to Brisbane Australia.
It was 255,000 Skymiles round trip and taxes and fees of $123 and 51 cents. Because America loves math, we have 255,000 divided by two. Only about 127,500 sky miles for a one way. I think this was a really good deal. Delta often gets a bad reputation for international trips, but for this being Delta one and it close to maybe 14 hour flight, I think this was a really good one.
I’ve been spoiled in the past. I had 75k for trips from [00:03:00] boston to London, Boston to Amsterdam, and so on. So for 255 round trip or 127K one way, I think a really good deal with Delta sky miles. This was a flash deal. This was a special deal.
Does Delta deserve a little bit of the reputation they have received in regards to their low valued sky miles? I would say yes. And that doesn’t mean there’s not good value if you’re looking for it. And to your point, have the flexibility and the open mind to take advantage of an adventure when it presents itself.
Yes, and I also booked for Taiwan. That’ll definitely be an upcoming episode. I’ll go from Taiwan to China, take a cruise, and I got really good deal with Delta one, to and from Taiwan as well. Looking for the sweet spots, the better valuations is the way to go. I had a really good experience with Delta, with the Delta One Lounge, particularly in Los Angeles.
[00:04:00] This was a private secured area. They had their own security and I didn’t have to wait in a TSA line, a clear line, anything like that. You find Delta one curbside. There were signs to it, a little bit confusing. The lounge was really nice, made to order pizzas, sushi, drinks, and much more.
That came with the Delta One booking, getting access to the lounge. You didn’t need any status for that. But to back up a little bit, I flew from Philly to Vegas, used Vegas as a pit stop. I stayed four or five nights in Vegas, and I even adjusted the trip to avoid a snowstorm. It’s the second time this happened where I adjusted my trip earlier to dodge the snow, not get caught up in the bad weather. Instead of going directly from Philly to la I used Vegas to pit stop, stayed redeemed many offers and had a good experience there. Yeah, all the listeners are shocked, Justin, that on the [00:05:00] way to LAX to the West coast, that you would stop in Las Vegas, whoever would’ve guessed.
It’s right on the way. Yeah, I’d have to pass over. And it was that part of the Delta deal, Justin, or was that just to LAX to Brisbane and back? No, the Vegas was independent. The trip was LAX to Brisbane direct, so I booked AA from Philly to Vegas at a really good rate. But breaking it up is good.
And with the international trips, I’m more cautious. I don’t want to try to do it all in the same day, especially if the times are close because flight may get delayed, canceled. There could be all kinds of problems. So I flew from Vegas to LAX and gave myself several hours in the layover, and I had the assurance that if my particular flight was delayed, there would be other flight options.
I don’t think too much of a risk there. The flight itself, the direct flight, 14 hour flight or so, it was easy sleeping. It was the lay flat bed with the mattress pad, [00:06:00] blankets, pillows, and it was very spacious with the Footwell, I was able to sleep pretty easy. There were multiple meals throughout.
One weakness is that there was no wifi, or at least there wasn’t wifi until the end of the trip. Unfortunately, they said they’re working on adding starlink, I believe, to the fleet. I had my Nintendo switch, so now I’m on Final Fantasy six and I got many hours in with that.
It’s a great again, another Dell credit, Justin, if I’m not mistaken, right? Yes. You could use the Dell credit for the switch two and the older versions as well. I’ll be using mine for a switch two in the future. The plan, but I just have this, Switch mini at the moment, a while back. I got that. Yeah. A nice addition to the entertainment arsenal.
Something to do on the plane other than being held captive by, I’m sure there were dozens and dozens of movies, but sometimes it’s nice to have your own entertainment, something you’d like to do instead. They did have a big screen [00:07:00] with the in-flight entertainment and they also have a partnership with Crunchy Roll now, so you could watch anime.
I’d highly suggest attack on Titan to listeners who haven’t watched it. Really amazing show. The flight went by pretty well, and when I landed I was feeling well rested. I took a black lane from the airport to Hyatt Regency Brisbane. Podcast listener Beth did not have plans for using a black lane credit that she had with a Citi strata elite.
She gifted me the black lane credit that was nice of her. It was approximately 127 USD, so I was only responsible for paying 27 out of pocket, and I thought that this was a much better deal than using Uber or using public transit to try to get to the hotel, especially given that I had just flown for 14 hours and may have been very groggy on landing.
And the BILT card has an opportunity to redeem some BILT cash for Black Lane in the future.
I was there in [00:08:00] early March and it was still saying coming soon in the BILT app. Hopefully Black Lane will be here soon. I was planning on using my BILT cash for a return to the airport, but it wasn’t available, so I had to uber back to the airport. I had a promotion for $10 off my first ride, perhaps in Australia.
It was pretty cheap, unfortunately can’t use Amex credits, can’t use gift cards, anything like that, but a low cost out of pocket. And the black lane went really well. There was a driver at the airport communicated through the Black Lane app and said that he would be near a coffee shop, had a sign with my name on it and it was a short walk to get to the parking area.
Very good service. I would definitely use it again. It sounds like for listeners that are interested with either the Citi Strata Elite or the BILT card, they need to download in a Black Lane app. Is that accurate? Justin? Yes, you download the Black Lane app, it asked for flight information and you could adjust the time.
I [00:09:00] gave myself a cushion of about an hour and a half from when the plane would land, and I’m happy I did because baggage claim took quite some time. The customs lines were long. It took some time to actually get to the coffee shop where the driver was. But yes, very good experience with Black Lane and I suppose a quality of life upgrade versus using the transit, using Uber, you already have a driver who directs you where to go. I was happy with it. I got to the hotel early. They checked me in, even around 10 or 11. They told me about the benefits that Hyatt globalists get at the property. They communicated beforehand as well, sending me an email, asking about my tasting preferences as they offered something called a tasting plate.
Once a day you were able to go to the main restaurant at the hotel and they would give you complimentary food, various starters. One was arancini. I didn’t see that on the menu. There were spring rolls, salads, cabbage, [00:10:00] and much more as I requested the veggie options.
That was a good snack, not a quote unquote full meal or something that was extremely filling, but that was nice. There was complimentary breakfast on the future days, not the day of arrival. The breakfast was very generous. A huge spread made to order egg station pancakes, french toast.
There was an Asian section with steamed dumplings, seaweed salad, kimchi. So many things for breakfast. I think the international breakfast are much better than the American counterparts, especially the new breakfast buffet at Rio Las Vegas that people have been disliking. I was gonna wait and see if you were gonna bring that up.
Justin. I know the recent change there has brought the ire of many. So glad to hear that. Hyatt Regency brisbane not following in Rio’s footsteps. Other food as some listeners have lamented in the past.
Justin, you go to all these countries, why don’t you try the local cuisine? I mostly don’t [00:11:00] try the local cuisine wanting to save money, and if I have opportunities for complimentary food, different gift cards, different outs to save on food, I do that. Certainly with the complimentary breakfast. There was some local cuisine there.
But another interesting thing that came up was a Starbucks near the hotel. I have a few hundred in gift card balance in the Starbucks app from past conversions, past gift card deals, and I was able to try local cuisine. They had a baked pumpkin and falafel wrap.
That was a good taste. It had an interesting sauce to it and it was filling. I also brought some snacks of my own using, of course, Acme Grocery Rewards, so I was packed with sunflower seeds, granola bars, tuna, and much more. But the Starbucks was a good addition.
Yeah, the pumpkin wrap sounded very interesting, so I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m not sure I would’ve dared. Ah, I would’ve dared. I would’ve dared, I’m [00:12:00] sure, but it’s not probably what I first would’ve would’ve tried. So most importantly, Justin, I’m glad you’re able to find an opportunity to use those Starbucks gift cards. I figured there will be a time where I use Starbucks gift cards and I have used them before
in Canada on cruise trips and other locations. Nice to be able to use them. Not all places accept them, though I’ve heard before. Oh, we don’t accept, we’re just a franchise location, whatever they might have to say. But in most cases I was able to use the Starbucks gift cards internationally. A small hack there.
There were other options near the hotel. There was a place, I believe, called Thai on time. That was something like 30 USD for all you can eat thai food, a Thai buffet. That wasn’t horrible for an all you can eat. Maybe have your breakfast and just wait for the later dinner time and then you’ll be full through the day.
Have a big breakfast. That’s usually what I do at the hotels. And of course there were many other [00:13:00] smaller places. There was a place called Hungry Jacks, which appeared to be like a Burger King, but something about the naming rights, I’m not sure. Lots of cafes, lots of Korean food, Chinese food in the area, and of course the Australian venues.
I walked around Central Brisbane or downtown Brisbane on day one. Lots of interesting buildings, skyscrapers, lots of interesting architecture, colleges. There was the city botanical gardens where I saw many of the Australian IBIS Ibises. They were interesting birds with this long curved black beak.
I have some videos of those on the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast YouTube channel, including the botanical gardens, lots of bridges to walk through. There was the Goodwill bridge that led to the South Bank area that had a river walk, an aquatic area. There was a rainforest walk, a Ferris wheel, the wheel of Brisbane, [00:14:00] and a Nepalese pagoda.
Lots to see and do. You said earlier about having a big breakfast and I think when you’re gonna spend the day walking around, it’s nice to fill yourself up, right? So you’re not walking around and looking for the next place to eat. Those are cool looking birds. There’s some down I think in Florida, although I may be wrong about that. See them out and about in various places. But the ones in Australia, I’m sure are somewhat different given its proclivity to develop unique species of animals.
There was the eastern water dragon. People asked about spiders. I didn’t see spiders, and the highlight of the trip was the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary. A bus ride cost less than a dollar one way, leaving the hotel. It was different in my experience. You had to tap on and tap off to pay and the price didn’t calculate until a few days later.
Maybe it was based on distance, I’m not sure, [00:15:00] but it was a direct bus to the koala sanctuary from a station near the hotel walking distance. The koala sanctuary I really liked so many animal encounters, all different types of birds, bats, there was a platypus, koala, of course, kangaroo, kangaroos.
emu, goats, sheep, Tasmanian devils, and the kangaroo or the kangaroos were inside of a free range area. You had to enter two doors to get inside. There was a fence, and you were able to feed kangaroo and pet them. You could get very close. There wasn’t a barrier in between.
They just come up to you and they’re just walking around the grounds. I have a video of that will be released on the YouTube channel as well. Really cool to see all the different kangaroo, different colors. There are wallaby there as well. And you avoided trying to gather any of the kangaroos, [00:16:00] Justin or any other animals, and bring them back to a hotel room with you.
Unlike someone that we saw on social media doing something similar. Yes, A man in Las Vegas abducted a flamingo from the Flamingo Wildlife habitat in Las Vegas and said that he had a lot of alcohol that contributed to that. Banned from Las Vegas. Big fine. Lots of problems. You don’t wanna mess around in casinos.
Who would’ve guessed all the cameras, right? Yeah. Come on. Yeah. I didn’t attempt to take a koala back to my hotel room. That just never crossed my mind. But they were nice. You get to see different koala stations where they’re climbing trees on the ground.
Some were sleeping, some were more active. You got to see lots of them. Some of these animal encounters, some of the animals are just sleeping or they’re not in their areas. But the koala and the kangaroo definitely were prominent throughout this. They also had some guided demonstrations. There was one with a bird handler who had an owl, and I [00:17:00] believe a falcon.
There was a crocodile and they would talk about the crocodile habitat and more. You could easily spend hours there. It was hot though. It was 75, 80 degrees even in March. I was sweaty walking around, but there were many places to sit, take a break, a cafe area. I brought water with me, so I was good.
Nice for everyone. Lots of kids, lots of groups that were there, adults of course as well. Yeah, it sounds like a great spot to visit. Brisbane is on the east coast of Australia north of Sydney. It sounds like it was a great place to walk around and see some of the local wildlife that we don’t get to see here in the US or don’t have native here in the US at least.
Yes. Lots of different animal species for sure. There was also the kangaroo point. There was a kangaroo point bridge and cliffs, and they welcomed or perhaps accepted climbers. They said be careful on coming in this area. You must have [00:18:00] climbing equipment so you’re able to climb the cliffs if you were brave enough to do or had the equipment to do hopefully no amateurs falling off. Lots of cool views from there. And a park very high up. Lots of sites. I think with the three nights that I had, it was a shorter trip I got to see and do a lot. I don’t think I missed out on much, although some listeners were saying that I could have gone to Sydney, I could have gone to the Gold Coast area, but it was okay.
And with Delta, this was a limited opportunity. You had to return at a certain time. I also bundled in Vegas, so I was away from home for about a week and a half to two weeks total with the trip. I would definitely recommend it to listeners. I think it was a really good experience.
Yeah, Justin. I think the nice thing about the points and miles World is some folks would say that’s the only time I’ll ever get to go to Australia. But you and I both know that’s probably not the case, that there’ll be more opportunities and whether it’s [00:19:00] Sydney or some other part of Australia that you can visit for a couple days or a couple weeks that’s the real joy and benefit of being in this hobby.
That’s right. The once in a lifetime experiences as people think of, but we can do multiple in a lifetime. Finally, I got back with the Uber, as I mentioned, and there was an escape lounge in the airport. There was also a Plaza Premium lounge, but usually those weren’t as good, so I just hung out in the escape lounge and that was just the benefit of flying with Delta One, although I believe Priority Pass or maybe Amex
gave entry into that. The escape lounge wasn’t anything special, but I was there for the breakfast spread and they had a coffee machine. There was ample seating. It wasn’t crowded. Hung out there and took the flight on the way back. And once again, good service.
I hear great things about Delta one, Justin, this is what, the second time you’ve flown Delta one or more. [00:20:00] Italy was definitely one. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe one other. Not Poland, though. That was lot, right? Yes. Poland was lot Polish. Yeah.
Delta miles you can need a lot of ’em to afford the Delta one space. But for everyone that I have heard experienced Delta one, they’ve really enjoyed it. Nice to take advantage of it when the price was right.
Very good. We’ll take a break for some announcements and then get into some news and upcoming items. For more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and x. Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram. Subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips and posts.
Find more information including select episode transcripts at HurdyGurdyTravel.com. Visit meetup.com/philly miles and points to RSVP for monthly Greater Philadelphia Travel Credit Miles and Points meetups I host in Willow Grove, [00:21:00] Pennsylvania. The next meetups in 2026 are March 22nd, April 19th and May 9th.
May 9th is a special meetup featuring Rove and Carissa Rawson. Find a link in the show notes. I’ll also be speaking at and helping organize frequent Traveler University conference in Irving, Texas near the DFW airport. Join me May 1st through the third 2026 at the NYLO Las Colins Hotel by Hilton for social events and educational sessions.
Take a sales are live. You can also grab an FTU annual membership for online courses, monthly virtual seminars, member perks, event discounts, and more. Use my affiliate link in the show notes for membership and conference tickets. I’m also a proud affiliate with CardPointers if you have multiple credit cards like me, the CardPointers app and browser extension automatically activates bank offers and knows which card to use. For maximum rewards [00:22:00] CardPointers saves me time and money. Use my link in the show notes CardPointers.com/HurdyGurdyTravel for a discount on annual and lifetime plans. Finally, I’m also an affiliate with SaveWise.
Listen to past podcast. SaveWise helps you automatically clip grocery coupons at Acme, Kroger, and about 5,000 other stores. SaveWise also helps you compare shopping portals and offers and has many other features. Use my referral link in the show notes. GetSaveWise.com/HurdyGurdy. I’ve started using SaveWise, Darren, it’s helpful for the Acme runs.
I’m going there anyway to get groceries. I’m usually using that $20 off coupon, but SaveWise is also clipping other coupons. I’ve had various spontaneous discounts at the register and it’s led me to bring extra items as typically I aim to spend about $21, get the $20 off and not go over. But there’ve been times where
coupons have come up, other discounts have [00:23:00] come up, and then I needed to add more items to the order. Extra free stuff, basically thanks to SaveWise. Wow. Yeah. I’ll have to go back and listen to that episode. I only listen to the episodes that I’m not on Justin, so that’s certainly, oh, there you’re doing that’s in scope.
I could take a listen to that one. Good to know that there’s another tool out there that we can use in our grocery adventures. Okay. That’s right. Let’s get back to the show. I’m here with Darren Frequent podcast co-host. We’ve talked about the Australia trip, the Brisbane trip, and let’s close talking about some recent news items and some upcoming events.
First Rove, a transfer partner, a new transfer partner with SAS a 20% transfer bonus through April 8th. Yeah. More great news from Rove as they continue to expand their transfer partners.
Scandinavian Airlines. Yeah. I think recently a lot of folks became familiar with it, with the challenge that they did what was a [00:24:00] million miles, if you took a certain number of flights and trying to get more business in the US, So it makes sense that they would continue to look for ways to attract US-based flyers. Exciting that the 20% bonus transfer bonus. I don’t have any plans to transfer to SAS at the moment, but I do have plans to go to the Rove meetup in St.
Louis, May 16th. I’m using United Travel Bank funds to get to St. Louis, as I have many from past Amex adventures. I’m excited to go there. I’m going to stay at Hyatt Regency at the Arch by the Arch and get some Hyatt qualifying nights in as well.
Rove has been on the world tour. There’s gonna be a Rove Las Vegas event before FTU Dallas and Rove is going to be in Willow Grove as well. Nice to go to the Rove meetups, meet some listeners and people in the Points and Miles community. A professional podcast host right there, [00:25:00] Justin, that transition very well done.
I also have been using the BILT Palladium card and I booked a stay in Miami. This is the Miami River Inn near Little Habana, the Cruise Port, ocean Drive, and Bayside. The idea is to position before my virgin voyages cruise that’s coming up. This is a complimentary cruise thanks to Ocean Casino, not Oceans No s, no apostrophe S, and it’s my plan to always be in the area the night before the cruise to avoid issues of flight delays or cancellations.
Usually I just stay one night, but I think this is a good opportunity to use this BILT $200 hotel credit. And a hundred dollars in BILT cash. The total was about $320. The $200 credit taking off 200, the 100 taking off of course a hundred. It’s only $20 out of pocket for two nights [00:26:00] before the cruise and a different area of Miami I haven’t been in.
I’ll get some content out of that and take a little travel before the travel. I love it when a plan comes together. Justin. Podcast listener Beth says that she’s gonna be staying at the Kimpton Teconic Hotel by IHG, and that’s in the Manchester, Vermont area. It looks like the all in price is about $492 for dates that I checked.
You get $250 off with the edit credit, and since it’s a particular property on the list. I believe Kimpton does it. You get an extra 250. So because America loves math, $500 off and the all in price appears to be around that $500 price point, at least for dates that I was looking. I think I might take that four or five hour drive to Vermont and maybe make a lot of stops on the way as well.
It’s a pretty area up there. Justin, when did you say you’re gonna be [00:27:00] going? I didn’t book it just yet. I’m going to wait on her experience, make sure she got the credits. It’d be sad to drive five hours and then have to pay something like $250 out of pocket for a hotel stay.
But I don’t have other plans for the edit at the moment. I’ve used it in Vegas in the past, and there were other opportunities to get discounted rooms, use other points. It’s not super appealing in Vegas if I can use edit in another way and have a different adventure. It’s not a 14 hour flight this time, about a four or five hour drive.
I could do it for sure, and you could time it and either could do it in the fall when leaves are really pretty up there. Or in the summer when might be a little warmer down here in the Philadelphia area, but a little nicer up there in that part of the world. Yeah, lots of good ideas and options there, so enjoy it.
We’ll be looking forward to hearing the podcast all about it. Kimpton t Taconic Hotel by IHG, and it should give some IHG benefits too. I do have status with them [00:28:00] simply from holding a credit card.
And you were looking at upgrading and downgrading some of your American Express annual fees recently posted. Always in the upgrade downgrade business, Justin as much as American Express, at least will tolerate. My P two and I have a number of American Express business platinum cards. Two came up for annual fees.
We’re beyond their last upgrade downgrade restrictions. I chatted of course to ask what sort of retention offer I got. Justin, I think I shared what I got, but I was disappointed. 10,000. Very small. 10,000 MR for 5K spend on both cards. I don’t think that’s gonna be something I’m going to take advantage of or accept for at least 12 months, maybe 13 months of additional membership. I’m trying to decide whether I downgrade to the green for $95 and see if I can get an [00:29:00] upgrade offer down the road, or if I just cancel those cards and save the extra $95. I think I’m leaning towards downgrading, but I haven’t decided yet.
What do you think, Justin? What would you do? Yeah, maybe downgrade one, cancel the other, free up a slot and hopefully there’ll be more no lifetime language offers to get more cards with American Express. I was thinking the same thing.
I couldn’t decide what to do and I thought, like you said I got two cards, I could do one of each, if I don’t get a offer it’s no big deal. It’s 95, a hundred bucks. I can cancel it the next time it comes around. And like you said, it opens up another slot and that I could look to fill up down the road.
I did go ahead and cancel that one because the annual fee is due in four days and it didn’t have any outstanding credits to burn off of that one. I still have my $10 Verizon and some Dell credits I was thinking about using, I have a couple weeks, not a lot of Dell options at this point. Gotta get that Nintendo switch two.[00:30:00]
I’ll probably take a look and see what’s out there. Give us a shot. Yeah. Yeah. Donkey Kong, bonanza. Just what I need in my life. Another distraction. During flights, man it’s really nice when you don’t have wifi. Yeah, I think during flights is about the only time I don’t feel bad.
Maybe I’ll relent on that. The other nice thing is, of course, if I downgrade the Dell credits should still post, right? Ooh, that’s tough. Maybe make your order sooner rather than later. It’s on like Donkey Kong and I really like the Octopath Traveler games.
I played the Octopath Traveler one and two on Switch, and now they have a new game, Octopath Traveler Zero, A prequel that has Nintendo Switch two. You get the enhanced graphics. And surely many more games to come. I played Final Fantasy Tactics, the Ivalice Chronicles that was on switch one, but they also have a Switch two version.
Many good [00:31:00] games. Yeah I’m not surprised. Nintendo does a great job. And the final fantasy pixel remaster, I mentioned, I’m on Final Fantasy six now. I’ve played one through five and now on six, definitely a lot of hours on that with the Australia flight. Oh, I’m sure. 14 hours Even with some sleep.
Maybe it is something I should consider. We have Singapore flights coming up at 19 and a half hours from Newark to Singapore, so that’ll gimme a time to read a book and watch a movie and play some Nintendo Switch if I want to. I like it. Get those Dell credits out.
We had another devaluation. This happened when I was away, it seems like Caesars online gambling dropped the hammer.
There was another wave of shutdowns with no specified reason and pennsylvania implemented, at least on the Caesar sites, a three card limit is my understanding. For the people that weren’t shut down, they’re only allowed to have three payment methods stored, and that was even problematic, let’s say, because [00:32:00] some went to enter a card and it said an address is required.
As far as I know, there’s no way to register the gift cards and add an address and when they tried the second time, that took up another slot even though the card wasn’t accepted. I’m highly recommending against buying Caesars gift cards at this time, given all those issues. But I think some in New Jersey have had success recently.
But even in New Jersey with the loads, I believe they restrict you to five or six cards in about four or five weeks. The mighty have definitely fallen with Caesars. It all works until it doesn’t justin. That’s the game we play, unfortunately. MGM followed suit, not with shutdowns, but with limitations with this three card limit, and I’ve deposited many cards on BET MGM over the last few years.
I log in, it says, in order to add a new payment method, you must delete existing payment methods, and it’s quite the graveyard of prepaid cards. I would go to delete and a new one would populate and I sat there for about [00:33:00] 45 minutes clicking and deleting cards, multitasking, and there were still cards to delete.
It’s gonna be quite the archeological dig, getting rid of all these old cards. But I’m still able to deposit with the MGM credit cards, the no annual fee card and the iconic card. They are saved on my account still, and I’m able to deposit. I just can’t add new deposit methods at this time until
I go through the graveyard and turn undead or do something. Where is AI when we really need it, Justin, come on now. That seems like a perfect job for Lila. Are you listening? Lila? Get in the game. I did ask chat GPT for help and said, unfortunately, I cannot help with this task.
And they recommended minimizing the screen so that you don’t have to scroll as much to go through the cards or to stay near the bottom and delete, but it’s going to be a lot of clicking and not a lot of fun to get back into the game. But bet MGM and Borgata in New Jersey seemed to be okay [00:34:00] with the multiple payment methods.
Hopefully it stays that way and we’re able to continue to play on Justin. Yes, game on play on all the things. We have the new segment here at the end as it’s been a while since we recorded and a lot’s going on. The game of miles and points changes a lot, so we’re here to provide some of those updates and talk about what we’re up to, and the edit credit.
I think there’s some promise in that as many simply didn’t use those credits last year. But now with a possible stack of two 50 and two 50, it’s more appealing to me. Absolutely.
Anything else going on your end? It’s been a busy time. I haven’t been doing much fun travel, but some work travel and have some more coming up here. Next week we’ll be going out to Idaho for some work and then coming back. And then my family plus or minus me, are going to Florida for spring break.
My oldest daughter’s gonna do her open water checkout dives to become scuba certified. So that should be fun. Nice warm [00:35:00] weather here for spring break. Excited about today on March the ninth, first signs of false spring, Justin.
70 degrees today in southeast Pennsylvania and grateful flow of the sunshine. Yes. And the warm weather. It went from 40 to 70 pretty quickly, and the snow has melted. For now, Justin.
It’s good to catch up. Good to hear about your adventures in Australia. Sounds like it was a fantastic trip and you really enjoyed your time on the ground there. Yes, and Virgin Voyages, it’s May 25th through the 30th Dominican Republic and Bimini Beach Club.
At the end of the month here in March, 2026, I’ll be going to Calala Island. I had a previous episode about that. The hotel representatives have been in touch. I had to send my wire information to receive my $2,510 incentive for going. I’ve used the Hilton free night certificates to book that. Listeners who missed that episode, you can go back and listen.
Lots coming up. Lots of miles and [00:36:00] points adventures.
Excellent, excellent. You looked for one hotel and found it for your Miami trip, right Justin, for the stacking of credits. Maybe you can find another one for the edit or like you said. Venture up to Vermont.
I think I’ll do Vermont unless someone tells me a better idea of what to do with the edit credit. I haven’t been there either, so I’m up for taking a four or five hour drive to get there and make some stops on the way. There you go. I like to hear it. Use a little giant gas on the way. Yes, all the gas.
Unless I can Amtrak there. Oh, that’s a possibility. There you go. That’s the way I will be taking Amtrak to Washington, DC in a few days, and I have now select plus status with Amtrak, thanks to a lot of spending on the Amtrak credit card, and that gives me lounge access before departure and on arrival. Using the lounge in Philly, and then when I arrive in DC I get to use the lounge in DC as well.
It’s a cool perk. And I get guest access [00:37:00] as well. I spent a little time in the lounge maybe it was a different lounge than you spend time in Justin. I was not overly impressed with the plastic 1970 seats, but maybe I just wasn’t at the right tier to get the real lounge.
I had the fake lounge or something like that. Still a benefit place to sit, maybe some drinks, maybe some snacks. I hear from past podcast guest Deker that the Moynihan Hall in New York City is a really nice Amtrak lounge, but we’ll see what Philly and DC have to offer. And for those folks that are interested, stay tuned for another podcast episode in which Justin describes his Amtrak lounge experience.
It’s likely. And finally your destiny is here, Darren, because there’s a The Points guy, A TPG heightened offer on the MGM iconic credit card. The signup bonus is now at 40,000 points, $400 in comps, and a 15,000 tier credit bonus. A great time to get the MGM [00:38:00] iconic credit card for your future trips to Las Vegas, Atlantic City National Harbor, and other MGM locations.
Strong. Maybe on that Justin Strong, maybe 15 K bonus tier makes it easier. It seems like a good idea in theory, it’s probably a couple seats behind the rest of the miles and points I’m accumulating, until at least I find a better way to get down there more often.
The answer to everything is more credit cards. It is. I just need to buy more time with my credit cards. Haven’t figured out how to do that yet, ah, that’d be nice. Yep. Yep. Alright. Thanks for coming on today. My pleasure, Justin. Always a pleasure. Appreciate you having me and look forward to doing it again soon.
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