Flying for Fitness

Amazon is offering their Prime members a free Explore session of up to $50 for their first booking with promo code FREEFUN at checkout.  Explore is Amazon's new beta platform that allows you to book virtual experiences across the world.  Experiences are live and one-on-one, with the ability for you to talk and interact with your host. How do Amazon Experiences work? The Experiences include site-seeing (cities, landmarks, nature, etc.), cooking, shopping, wine tasting, magic shows, and more.  You book a time slot for the Experience and call in virtually with your host at the specified time.  You'll be able to see your host and the physical tour on their end, though your host won't be able to see you, so you actually don't need a webcam.  It looks like most of the Experiences run anywhere between 30 and 80 minutes. What can you do during your Experience? During your Experience, you can take pictures virtually by clicking on a camera icon.  You can also indi...

American Express will be cutting guest privileges at Centurion Lounges for Amex Platinum cardholders starting February 2023.  Amex Platinum cardholders have been able to bring 2 guests into Centurion Lounges free of charge, but starting February 2023, Platinum cardholders will now need to pay $50 per guest.  Amex Centurion cardholders will still be able to guest 2 at no charge, along with Amex Platinum cardholders who spend at least $75,000 in a calendar year. The why Amex Centurion Lounges have been some of the best airport lounges in the U.S. with their hot food and alcohol selections.  However, pre-pandemic, crowding has been a significant issue at pretty much every lounge in their network.  Amex has gone to great lengths in attempting to reduce crowding, including only allowing Platinum cardholder access within 3 hours of departure and disallowing access on arrival.  In addition, Amex has been actively renovating and expanding existing lounges to increase ca...

Priority Pass has added the ANA Lounges at Tokyo Haneda (HND) and Tokyo Narita (NRT) airports to their network.  The ANA business class lounges at HND and NRT are the most visited ANA Lounges, and they represent the first ANA Lounges to be included in Priority Pass.  This will be the first Priority Pass lounge @HND, and the 4th @NRT, along with the following: IASS Executive Lounge (Terminal 1) IASS Executive Lounge (Terminal 2) Korean Airlines Business Class Lounge I went really carb-heavy during my first visit to the ANA Lounge @HND back in 2011 Although the ANA Lounges are pretty good with noodle soup counters, crowding has been a factor pre-pandemic as all Star Alliance business class passengers and Star Alliance Gold members have access to these lounges, and both HND and NRT are major Star Alliance hubs.  Priority Pass will likely add to the overcrowding once Japan starts allowing visitors again post-pandemic, so it remains to be seen if Priority Pass members will ...

Today, Chase released the new United Quest credit card with a tremendous 100,000-mile sign-up bonus.  You get 80,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 within the first 3 months, and another 20,000 miles after spending an additional $5,000 within the first 6 months.  So $10,000 in spending within 6 months will get you the 100k bonus.  I value United miles at a penny a piece, the the sign-up bonus is worth around $1,000.  This limited-time sign-up offer ends on June 2, 2021. Quest card benefits In addition to the generous 100k sign-up bonus, the new Quest card comes with the following annual credits to help offset the $250 annual fee: $125 annual United Airlines purchase credit Up to 10,000 award miles back on United-operated award flight redemptions annually - receive 5,000 award miles back per award redemption, up to twice annually The $125 is automatically credited back to your credit card for United purchases, whether it be a single flight purchase or several <...

MasterCard has just updated their benefits for their World and World Elite cardholders to include up to $10 monthly credit for Doordash DashPass orders and 5% off HelloFresh.  Let's take a look at the changes, which could be a mixed bag for some and an improvement for others. New: Doordash DassPass monthly credits Both World and World Elite MasterCard holders will now be getting $5 off each of their first 2 Doordash DashPass orders every month through September 30, 2022.  In addition, carholders who are new to DashPass now get 3 free months of DashPass, which is Doordash's paid subscription that gets you reduced service fees, 5% credit on pickup orders, and free delivery on orders $12+. One of the potential downsides of this benefit is that you must use your World Elite MasterCard in order to be eligible for the $5 off.  For many who already get free DashPass via their Chase Sapphire cards, DashPass benefits only kick in if you're using your associated Chase Sapphire card...