Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for September 2014.

Eurotrip 2014: Day Two – Lufthansa First Class Lounge and Radisson Park Inn Munich

by Harlan Leave A Comment

Made it to Munich safely! Writing this from the fantastic Lufthansa First Class Lounge at MUC. About to get my bearings with a shower and maybe order some breakfast and a beer – I am here for Oktoberfest after all!

Meeting a friend around 1pm – might go ahead and head into the city proper and try to check in early to the Radisson Park Inn where I will be based throughout my Munich adventures.

From this, I can review the First Class Lounge and the hotel – and of course Munich.

So jazzed to be here. Will add more posts with pics soon!

Eurotrip 2014 – Day One: LGA-YYZ-MUC

by Harlan Leave A Comment

Writing this from YYZ right now, in the Maple Leaf/Star Alliance Gold Lounge in Terminal 1.

I booked this flight months ago when Lufthansa (accidentally?) released First Class award space with the launch of their new YYZ-MUC route.

Now, the day has finally arrived.

I woke up this morning and made my way to LGA. The flight to YYZ was a little over an hour on a small aircraft, hardly worth talking about, other than the fact that it DID position me to take the YYZ-MUC flight.

I am meeting my friend Angie in MUC for Oktoberfest, and from there going to Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Berlin. I want to try to share my impressions “on the road” (or “in the sky” or “in the hotel” as it were) instead of writing after the fact. God knows I have so many neglected reviews and my memory gets so rusty so quickly. I will be out on the road for two weeks and will tag each of these posts as Eurotrip 2014. YESSA!

The Air Canada flight was basically a shuttle service. Toronto is REALLY close to NYC – I was kinda shocked by how quickly we got here. And YYZ is a really nice airport! Super efficient and really nice employees.

The weather today was/is perfect and the flight was smooth. I have 45 more minutes to enjoy the lounge and wifi, then will get to experience Lufthansa First Class for the first time.

Expect a review of the Maple Leaf Lounge in Terminal 1 and of the Lufthansa flight. As you guys know, I’ve had mixed experiences in their famed business class cabin. :/ AUH-FRA was kinda meh but FRA-JFK was rather pleasant. Let’s see how First compares. Trying not to get my hopes up but also expecting miracles… kind of a strange mix of emotions to have to hold inside of one.

If anything, this trip already makes me want to visit Toronto again. I’d love to before it gets too screaming cold.

So here is Day One. I am challenging myself to post each day then to do a mega recap. Godspeed to me!

FoundersCard Promo: $395 a year forever and a new AA promo

by Harlan 4 Comments

Screenshot 2014-09-26 15.58.56
Worth mentioning since I’ve posted about FoundersCard before.

When you join FoundersCard, you get to enjoy the initial rate you paid… forever. I joined when the rate was $495, and have gotten that much value out of the card despite only being a member coming up on a year. Here’s a chance to do even better than the deal I got in on.

You now can join FoundersCard for $395 a year, and you’d get to keep paying that rate every year you keep the card.

Here is the link to the promo and the promo code to use is FCHARLAN818.

If you’ve been deliberating about whether to join or not, this $100 off the usual lowest rate ($495) might be the thing that makes this deal a little bit better.

Also, if you’re an AA flyer, their current AA promo is 5% off most fares on American. You will receive a discount code that is good for unlimited use. If you heavily fly on American/OW and are trying to meet some sort of status before the end of 2014, you’d get to take advantage of the fare discount and start earning your $395 back right away.

That, combined with the multiple other discounts and freebies offered by the card, as well as the fantastic global networking events, makes this card a great investment for entrepreneurs in major cities.

AA’s last quarter promo was a free Gold status challenge, and bonus Business Extra points. They’ve featured 5% off fares before, and that seems to be a hit with most members of FoundersCard.

Read my full review to learn about the other discounts offered and to decide whether this membership might be worth buying.

If you have any questions, email me at zynner@gmail.com or feel free to post a comment below.

Free Caesars Total Rewards Diamond Status with FoundersCard

by Harlan 17 Comments

Screenshot 2014-09-01 23.39.08Also see:

Update: You can lock in a FoundersCard membership for $295 a year through May 12th, 2016 when you sign-up with my link. This is $100 less than the usual rate!

(To begin, if you are not at all into gambling, please skip this post!)

I’ve written about FoundersCard in the past, and, about six months in, am really enjoying the benefits of the card. Click this link to read my review of the card and to learn about some of the benefits. So far, I am loving it. The AT&T discount alone nearly pays for the card, and when you throw in all the perks it offers along the way, it makes this card a really nice companion to urban living. Next month, I will be attending my first networking event here in NYC sponsored by the card and will be sure to write about the experience.

FoundersCard has done a great job at stepping up their benefits package lately, like offering American Airlines Gold status, giving 10% off British Airways fares, and, most recently, offering free Diamond Status with Caesars Total Rewards.

Now, I’m not a gambler and don’t even live near a casino (unless you count Atlantic City), but I went ahead and made myself Diamond with Total Rewards just because of the “why not?” factor. A list of all their casino locations is included here. When I was in Las Vegas earlier this year, I got preferred treatment thanks to Hyatt’s relationship with MLife, and most of those benefits are duplicated with Total Rewards. The biggest ones are lounge access and priority treatment in just about every corner of the hotel and casino.

Diamond benefits

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The Points Game is free today for Kindle downloads! 9/1-9/3!

by Harlan Leave A Comment

As a thanks for reading the blog, I decided to make The Points Game e-book free for three days starting today, Labor Day.

It’s the exact same content as what’s in the NEW? section of this website, but formatted for Kindle – in case you’d like to download and read on-the-go.

Feel free to pass the link along to anyone you know who might want an intro to the points and miles world. There’s a lot to know, and it can seem daunting at first, but readers here will know that it is all very worth it!

Without further adieu, here’s the link: bit.ly/pointsguide

Feel free to copy and share anywhere. Enjoy.

Thanks for reading and happy Labor Day!

Trip Report: British Airways Business Class ORY-LHR-JFK

by Harlan Leave A Comment

Also see:

I won’t spend as much time on this one since I just outlined BA/OpenSkies biz class in the link above. That post talked about flying there EWR-ORY, but in this one, I want to talk about getting back.

It cost slightly more Avios points because we flew ORY-LHR-JFK instead of direct. Since it’s priced per segment, I spent 49,000 Avios + ~$400 on these flights, which would’ve retailed for over $6,000.

The differences

For the ORY-LHR segment, we got the usual intra-European “business class” which is just regular seats with the middle one blocked out. The flight was only an hour, and I wasn’t expecting much, if anything. To my surprise, we were served a course of afternoon tea.

BA tea service - SO CUTE!

BA tea service – SO CUTE!

The other big difference was that instead of a Boeing 757-200 like the flight over, we flew back on a 747-400 for LHR-JFK which had… Read More