Disclaimer: I had a not so great experience in Cuba. The country itself probably isn’t a terrible place to go to if you’re into adventure, mediocre food, lack of internet, overpriced hotels and horrible currency exchange rates. 

Planning & Travel

In the past month or so, the capacity of US-Cuba flights has increased dramatically. With almost every major carrier flying to some city in Cuba, fares have become very competitive. For example, our flight from Los Angeles to Havana via Miami cost around $140 one-way. We booked the flight about 12 hours before departure and started packing. Little did we know that even though airfare is cheap, you should really do more research as to which airline charges the least amount of money to get a Cuban visa. As it stands, if you don’t have a visa, you will have to buy one at time of boarding. These fees can vary wildly as I experienced when we got to the gate in Miami. Currently, American Airlines charges $100 to obtain a visa at the gate, whereas JetBlue charges only $50. That can be a huge cost savings if you’re flying a family of 4 to Cuba and it can also be somewhat of a shock if you’re not aware of the fees. We paid the fees at Miami and boarded our short 40 minute flight to Havana.

Arrival

I cannot begin to explain how excited we were to disembark and step foot onto Cuban soil. Everyone was taking pictures and snapchatting their new journey into the unknown. We said our final goodbyes to our friends over text message in Miami as we were aware of the internet situation in Cuba. Little did we know that what was originally planned as a 3-day phone escape would turn into a measly 24 hours of hell.

Almost immediately after landing, we were ushered to what is literally a clusterf*** of an arrivals hall. Although immigration moved rather quickly, our bags took more time to come out than the flight from Miami did. Actually, our bags never made it to Havana. We waited for 2 hours at the baggage carousel after repeatedly asking anyone who looked like an airline agent to help us. Everyone just responded that baggage is slow to arrive in Havana. Another 30 minutes passed and it was only the three of us and the human version of the elderly couple from the movie Up waiting for bags. At this point, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that my friend’s bag wasn’t going to arrive.

I’d like to think our adventure started before we even left the airport but maybe that’s just because every possible force was working against us. Between one of my friends having the smallest bladder in the universe and my other friend trying to find non-existent wi-fi, I thought it was time to make an executive decision and go in search of the baggage office. What transpired was beyond comical. We were told by 8 different people that the office was either on the first, second, or third floor. As we set out to find the office, I saw a booth that was titled “Information.” As I walked up and asked where the American Airlines office was, I noticed a group of people in a glass elevator just banging on the door. I quickly ran up to the desk and informed them that I thought people were stuck in the elevator to which the lady just responded, “Yes.” I chose to fight my own battle instead of continuing to try to get help for the people stuck in the elevator.

As soon as we got a clear understanding of where the office was (Level 3, in a very small corner that isn’t labeled at all and at the end of a tunnel), we were able to submit our report to a very genial AA agent. He was genuinely sorry for the mishap and offered to upgrade us on our flight out for the trouble.

When the baggage issues were sorted out, it was down to the arrivals hall again to exchange some money and hail a cab. Something I did know in advance was that Cuba has a 10% penalty and 3% fee to exchange US Dollars to Cuban Convertibles (CUC). For every $100 you exchange, I got around $87-90 CUC. We all exchanged some money and left to find a cab that could take us to our AirBNB.

Our Non-Existent AirBNB

Upon finding the taxi dispatcher, we gave her the address of our AirBNB. She took a couple minutes and came back to tell us that the address doesn’t exist. In fact, it seemed the address Cuba Apto. 6 Playa La Habana didn’t really exist anywhere in the world. I had a feeling we might run into this issue so I took a screenshot of the AirBNB address, phone number and confirmation. However, when the dispatcher called the phone number, it turned out that the person conveniently disconnected their phone. We all now faced the grim realization that we were in Cuba with no place to stay and a lost bag that had 99% of my friend’s clothes/essentials in it.

“Let’s not freak out,” I exclaimed while my other friend suggested that we head to the main hotel in Cuba, the Hotel Nacional. Our taxi driver brought us to the hotel where we promptly ran upstairs in search of the business center. Wi-Fi at the hotel was $10/ hour but it didn’t seem that bad considering our impending homelessness. We quickly logged on and frantically messaged the AirBNB host. Alas, there was no response. I mean, come to think of it, there’s no way that person would see the message until morning unless they were standing at one of the Wi-Fi poles installed throughout the city.

Accommodation

As our hour of internet started dwindling, we decided to buy another hour only to be told that the hotel had just sold us the last code. I quickly logged back on and looked up places to stay. Although we were in a hotel, they wanted $600 CUC to stay for the night and didn’t accept credit cards. I found a Casa Particular (someone’s home that they open to tourists) nearby and decided that it would be the best course of action for the night. Once we arrived, we were informed the fee would be $45 for that night to house all three of us. It was actually a steal considering this room had an A/C, power outlets and private bathroom. I actually have no complaints about the room and the hosts were really nice. For reference, here is a link to the place where we stayed.

Nightlife

Once settled in and calmed down, we decided to go explore Havana’s nightlife. Everyone back home exclaimed that Havana has some of the best nightlife in the world. I later realized that those people were probably on drugs because Havana is so boring at night that it’s just ridiculous. We first stopped by the Hotel Libre to grab a quick bite from their restaurant. Being managed by an international hotel chain, you’d think that the food would be okay. Well, to no one’s surprise, it was terrible. Whatever my friends ordered wasn’t edible so they just ate what I ordered and to be clear, I ordered spaghetti without sauce. It was just white spaghetti. By that night, we were now reveling at how good this white spaghetti was. Cuba officially destroyed us.

As soon as “dinner” was over, we walked around and followed some locals to the top floor of the Hotel Libre where there was a rooftop club. Cover was $10 and that seemed like an OK price to pay for a night of fun. As we walked in, it became apparent that we were the only ones in the club. As we waited for more people to come in, I could sense that this was going to be a lost cause. Although I had a couple more friends in Cuba at the same time, we never were able to get online at the same time and that made it impossible to find them.

About 40 minutes of waiting later, we decided to just leave the club and walk around the city. I did read about a quaint little cafe called “Woohoo” and it happened to be along the way that we were walking so we walked in and got a table. I didn’t know this at the time but most of these restaurants and places are government owned. It seems the only way to get real food is to go into someone’s home and have them cook meals for you. To cut it short, the food was also terrible. I mean, how does one mess up a brownie anyways?

Currency Issues

Mulling over the entire experience we had, one thing that really irritated me was the currency. For a country like Cuba to value their currency on a 1:1 basis with the US Dollar or even 10% less than the Euro is absolutely appalling. For the infrastructure, transportation and even food to be as expensive as it was, everything should have been leaps and bounds better than what it was. This only means 1 of 2 things, in that the country is either a massive tourist trap or that the government is skimming money and not reinvesting it to build a country up. By the end of the night, we decided that it was both. With dinner at the Hotel Libre costing $50, a 4 block taxi ride costing $13 and internet costing $60, we blew through almost $240 the first 6 hours alone. At this point, we were getting worried as to whether or not everyone had enough money to stay the entire 3 days/2 nights. The numbers for their currency exchange simply don’t add up and it’s just annoying to spend that kind of money and not even get value out of it. I can’t even begin to imagine how others who actually pay $300-500/night for hotels in the city feel.

Sightseeing

The next morning, we were woken up and asked to checkout by noon, which was totally fine considering the fact that we showed up almost unannounced the night before. It was decided that if, by 5PM, we weren’t satisfied with the city, we’d just book ourselves onto the short 1 hour flight to Cancun. With our carry on bags, we started walking around the city until a very nice taxi driver offered to show us around. He was the highlight of our trip due to the fact that he took us all around Havana and pointed out some important monuments. We asked him to take us to the best seafood restaurant in Havana, which he said was at the Hotel Saratoga. Once there, we were actually quite happy with how the place looked and the rather small menu. Lobster, shrimp, steak and much more were available. While it was pricey, it didn’t seem like a terrible cost after what we paid for noodles the night before. I don’t want to say that the food was bad but it wasn’t good either. I guess the word I’m looking for is mediocre.

Things were actually looking up at this point. The weather was pretty good, the food was edible but we had yet to find another place to stay. At this point, our bill for the food came out and it was $110. For a lobster tail and salad, I was shocked. Regardless, we paid and decided that we’d probably need to get out of this city due to the fact that we couldn’t just go take more money out of an ATM or use credit cards to pay for things. Be it what it may, the city just didn’t appeal to us the way we thought it would.

Departure

After booking our flights to Cancun, the three of us left for the airport only to find it even more confusing than the city. Check-in surprisingly was a breeze and Interjet agents were very nice and accommodating. Instead of exchanging back whatever we had left in Cuban Convertibles, we instead opted to buy some cigars from the gift shop past security. Everything was running quite smoothly and it seemed like we’d be able to leave on time as well.

However, our flight that was originally scheduled for 5PM hadn’t even landed by 5:30. I understand that flights can get delayed but what made it worse is that the airport is just terrible and ill-equipped to handle this new influx of flights. For example, the monitors never reflected the delay and at one point, started changing gate numbers for flights. This led to a literal mass confusion as passengers for one flight were running to another gate only to be told to go somewhere else. I can only describe it as a real life maze because everyone was on their own. There were no gate agents from any airline anywhere to be seen. To top things off, only one small fast food shop sells wi-fi cards at the airport and not surprisingly, they were sold out.

At about 7PM, we saw our plane land in the distance. Eventually, passengers started to disembark and for some reason, I will never forget the look on their faces. Excitement, curiosity and bewilderment were some ways to describe it. Meanwhile, I caught a glimpse of the three of us in the glass. Defeated, exhausted and battered – one of us still wearing the same clothes as the day before. I was ready to leave to a place where I could take a vacation from my vacation.

Edit: It seems as though many people are fixated on the baggage issue. To further note, we did not intend to check any bags to Havana. Upon arrival at the gate, the agent would not let us board with the bag due to “space constraints.” We were not given an option to take the bag along with us. If you’re able to read past the comments of people that swear they know it all because they “backpack” that have little to no value, you’ll find some amazing advice from people who have been to Cuba on where to stay, eat and how to get around! 

Read the rest of this article at Cuba Can Be a Terrible Place to Go.

Booking

To stay at the Andaz Mayakoba, there are a variety of ways to go about paying. While room rates were hovering around $300/night, I opted to use points. The Andaz Mayakoba is a category 5 Hyatt hotel and thus requires 20,000 points per night or 10,000 points & $125 if using their points+cash option. Currently, there is a promotion to stay 2 nights and get the third free which represents a phenomenal deal but it isn’t the best out there. To get the best deal at this hotel, you’ll want to use the Citi Prestige card and book using the concurrent promo to actually pay for 2 nights but stay for 4. Citi lets you combine discounts and promotions so that would effectively make a standard room at this hotel around $150/night!

PSA: This is the first time i’ve ever seen anything like this but the Andaz Mayakoba has a variable resort fee. 15% of your nightly rate will be the resort fee, which is different from the usual set price resort fee that other hotels have. 

Getting to the Hotel

We arrived from Havana, Cuba somewhat late in the evening. Although the hotel reached out to me earlier about transportation, I opted to take a taxi to the property. Current costs for a hotel provided transfer are about $120 each way while a taxi cost me around $60 each way.

Playa Del Carmen & the Andaz Mayakoba are about 45 minutes- 1 hour away from the Cancun Airport. The hotel itself is located about 8 miles away from Downtown Playa. If you’re looking for a hotel that is close to the downtown scene and nightlife, I would recommend the Grand Hyatt Playa Del Carmen over this hotel. However, if you’re looking for a nicer beach, less people and more tranquil environment, this is the hotel to be at.

Arrival & Check In

Upon arrival at the hotel, we were immediately greeted by almost every single member of the staff. It was sort of like a whirlwind because I couldn’t remember everyone’s names or what their job title was. However, every single employee who greeted us was extremely friendly and generally giddy as we later learned that we’d be the only guests at the hotel for the next couple days. To be clear, I had no clue until I arrived that the hotel was empty. A couple hours before our arrival, the Andaz threw a grand opening party and many other hotel employees and concierge members stayed back to get more acclimated with the hotel.

The check-in process was fairly smooth and like all other Andaz properties, there’s no desk to go stand at. We were seated in a nice lobby area and offered all different sorts of drinks. Once check-in was complete, I was shown around the lobby and introduced to the head concierge as well as the social media manager and rooms director. I scheduled a tour of the property the next day and was then led to our awaiting golf cart.

Getting around the Hotel

The Andaz Mayakoba is not a mega resort. with only 200+ rooms and 40+ suites, the hotel is actually quite small compared to the other resorts nearby. However, the hotel is split up into two sections: Beach & Lagoon. The distance between these two areas is astounding as they are around a mile apart. This leaves a huge logistical issue to which the Andaz has employed the use of about 60+ golf carts and 6+ boats to shuttle people back and forth. Check-in is done at the Sanctuary (Lobby) and then you are either given a room at the Lagoon side or Beach side. Although we never had any issues getting a golf cart, I’d like to hear from guests later on when the hotel is at capacity to see how efficient they are with transportation. In addition to the employee driven golf carts and boats, (we tried to drive them and they said no) there are also bicycles that guests can use to ride around throughout the property and neighboring hotels.

The Room/Suite

While riding to our room on the golf cart, the Andaz host mentioned that they had upgraded us to the best available room they had. While the Andaz is open for business, their two largest suites (Bi-level Villa & Presidential) are not completed yet. This left us with the Andaz King Beach Suite. When I checked later that night, the suite was going for around $750 and it was easy to see why once we arrived. The suite is the closest to the beach and is quite literally 15-20 feet away from the shoreline.

There is direct access to the beach from the outside patio and it is truly an amazing location for a room. Once inside, our host gave us a tour of the suite, which included a separate large living area and king bedroom. The total square footage is right around 1,070 ft. The bathroom is split in two with the sinks and shower on one side and then another sink and toilet on the other side of the room.

I think it was a great touch as our friends utilized most of the space to do their makeup while other were able to shower. Inside the master bedroom was a large king bed and walk in closet.

Everything was done in a very contemporary look that also brought along a couple local Yucatan touches. All suites at the hotel including ours have a plunge pool on the patio that comfortably seats around 5-6 people.

There’s also a couple loungers outside along with a small table. Each room had what looked to be a 55-inch tv.

The living room had a couch that could honestly double as another bed along with a desk to work at. The mini-bar at Andaz is always a cool little treat and this one didn’t disappoint. As usual, all non-alcoholic drinks are complimentary and replenished daily. I got a little obsessed with a lychee soda in the minibar and asked them to stock extra by the 2nd day. The suite also featured a Nespresso machine!

When all was said and done, we noticed a nice bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne as our welcome gift. To be clear, this isn’t the diamond welcome amenity, yet i’m sure some people will see it in their room as a gift. The welcome amenity was actually two different types of wine or points. My friends chose the wine over points, which turned out to be a terrible decision later on as some people drank too much.

Breakfast/Diamond Benefit

As a Hyatt Diamond Member, one is given free breakfast daily. When I was walking around the beach the morning after arrival, I was approached by the head of food/restaurants and asked where i’d like to eat breakfast. It was almost too surreal as he then (jokingly) said that they would open whichever restaurant for us to eat that day since we were the only ones there. Diamond members get the choose where to eat breakfast at this hotel and it is either between the restaurant by the beach, OllaTaco or the restaurant by the Lagoon, Cucina Milagro. There is no set breakfast that one has to choose as everything on the menu is included for Diamonds. The first day, we chose the restaurant closest to our room but the subsequent days, I went to the more internationally themed restaurant by the Lagoon. Both restaurants had wonderful food but Cucina Milagro had more options like waffles and what not.

Property Tour

Following breakfast the first morning, I was brought to the lobby and introduced once again to the rooms director and social media manager. We had scheduled a tour of the property and offerings which took about an hour. Throughout the tour, I was given a glimpse of the Andaz King Room, Andaz King Suites and Studios and another suite that was on the beach side but didn’t open up to the shoreline. I do want to confirm that they are making the same Andaz King suite and calling it different names like Lagoon View and what not. This serves the purpose of potentially restricting more rooms to people who book on points kind of like what the Andaz Maui does. The rooms are the same sq. footage but are called different things. Not a huge deal but at peak times, it could be a tad frustrating.

Continuing with our tour, I was shown the kids center that was still under construction. There have been many conflicting reports as to whether there will be a kids center at this hotel. The answer is yes there will be a kids center but it will be split into two, parental supervision and paid supervision. However, the kids center did look very nice and even had a nap room!

Once I was shown the kids center, we left for the gym. Brand new workout equipment including treadmills, cycles and other things i’ll never use were waiting to be used. I almost felt bad for the place. It was really beautiful and dawned floor to ceiling windows to help bring in more natural light. There was also a separate section where guests could lift weights or do yoga/pilates.

The tour then took us along the path to two of the 4 restaurants. Like I stated before, two restaurants are on the lagoon side and two are on the beach side. The more formal restaurants are located in the lagoon section and feature everything from international to very authentic Yucatan inspired food. In addition to being a great breakfast spot, Cucina Milagro is open all day to serve those who are swimming in the nearby pool and those who come by for dinner. Across from Cucina Milagro is another restaurant called Casa Amate. I really was blown away by how well designed this restaurant was. It is inspired by a family home and looks as such. Guests will dine in two different areas which is either an actual library or another open room concept. Pictures don’t do this place justice as it really was somewhere I could sit all day. The other two restaurants that are located by the beach are more Mexican themed with one being more of a bar than a restaurant.

Like I mentioned earlier, the two lagoon restaurants are located near one of the two main pools. I thought the pool near the lagoon was actually nicer than the pool by the beach. They even scattered around some cool air blown floaty animals. However, the coolest part about the main pool was the no-touch sunscreen machine being installed. All you had to do was step in and sunscreen would be sprayed on to you! When asked, it was confirmed that there would be a small fee to use the machine but that the hotel was open to possibly include it as a benefit for some guests.

The tour then concluded right back at our room to which I promptly ran into the beach. Due to the hotel opening the day before, they didn’t put out umbrellas and loungers on the beach like the other hotels but they did offer to bring some should I ask.

Included Activities/Surrounding Area

The Andaz Mayakoba has an extensive list of included activities for guests. The rooms director insisted that we take him up on his offer to give us an eco-boat tour of the Mayakoba area and lagoon so the next day, he met us across our room to take us on the Andaz Duffy. Mayakoba itself is a manmade lagoon that connects directly to the ocean with underground cenotes. Due to this fact, there is a tremedous amount of wildlife that resides within the confines of the lagoon. This is also why guests are NOT allowed to swim in the lagoon as there are crocodiles and other animals. While on the eco tour, we were told of how all guests are able to walk around to the other surrounding hotels and eat at their restaurants/ hang out should they want a change of scenery. It was a cool little feature as the surrounding resorts included The Fairmont Mayakoba, The Banyan Tree and The Rosewood. He even let us know that there is a boat shuttle that will take you from one resort to another. There is also a golf course tying all of the resorts together and it looked as though a couple people were getting their rounds in. At the conclusion of the tour, we all went back to our room to take a quick nap before heading to the front for restaurant suggestions.

Service

I cannot stress enough how well the service was during our stay. Now I can’t say for sure but i’m certain that every single employee knew our name due to the fact that we were the only ones there. However, glancing past that, everyone was so warm and eager to help. We were given amazing suggestions for places to eat every night and on our 2nd to last day, the hotel went above and beyond to help us secure a private snorkeling session off the coast of Playa Del Carmen. I cannot rave enough about how great everyone was. The word “No” literally was not in their vocabulary and every single person we met made sure that we were taken care of. I like to think that we were their guinea pigs on opening week as almost every employee had a chance to interact with us in different ways.

Conclusion

To be honest, I would go as far as to say that this is the best non-inclusive Hyatt in the area. It is leaps and bounds better than the Grand Hyatt, yet it costs the same amount. I predict that as time goes on, this hotel will most probably go up a level to a category 6. There is no way that they can sustain the same category as the Grand Hyatt with the size of the room, location and service provided. I loved everything about this hotel and wouldn’t hesitate for a second to book this property again.

I want to give a special thank you to Moises the rooms director and Aldo the Andaz host along with the rest of the amazing staff for making our stay so extremely memorable and comfortable.

Have you stayed here yet? I’m curious to know if my thoughts echo yours. Leave a comment below!

Read the rest of this article at Review: Andaz Mayakoba Resort Riviera.

Between car rentals and rental units, something or another has always tied me down. When I saw an opportunity to visit my friend in Melbourne for the day, I knew I had to jump on it right away! I purchased a ticket to Melbourne via Sydney on American Airlines for $500 one way and applied a systemwide upgrade to it.

For the return, I found space on the new Virgin Australia 777-300ER Business Class. It worked out perfectly because the retrofitted plane had been flying for 2 days on the new route before I was scheduled to take it. The flight to Sydney and Melbourne were uneventful but I was super excited for the return flight some 16 hours after I landed into Australia.

On the morning of my flight, I booked a separate British Airways Avios ticket from MEL-SYD due to the fact that it wasn’t pricing out the same if I tried to do it all on Delta.

Upon arrival into Sydney, I realized that the transfer process from the Qantas terminal to the Virgin Australia was much harder than expected. I almost missed my flight because I didn’t realize you had to take a separate paid shuttle bus 20 minutes from one end to another. For reference, it’s called the T bus and costs 6 Australian Dollars.

After rushing into the terminal and through security, I looked for the Virgin Australia lounge only to find out that they don’t have one in Sydney.

Virgin Australia uses the Air New Zealand lounge in Sydney and it is a beautiful place to sit and wait for your flight. Between the design used and on call chef, this lounge definitely exceeded my expectations.

I didn’t have time at all to hang around the lounge as my flight already was in the final stages of boarding. Luckily, Virgin Australia boards right next to the lounge so it wasn’t a far walk at all to get onto the flight.

The Flight

Virgin Australia 1
Boeing 777-300ER
SYD-LAX
May 8th, 2016
Duration: 12:30
Business Class, Seat

As I boarded, I immediately noticed the new bar installation. It was outfitted with a couple barstools and a backlit Virgin logo. The layout and design of the bar itself were stunning and I couldn’t get over how contemporary it looked!

Boarding finished up rather quickly and our captain came on air to let us know that our flight time would be about 12 hours and 30 minutes. When I finally got the chance to sit down, I couldn’t believe how nice the seat and decor was. Virgin went for a very purple and modern feel throughout the entire plane and it really showed in their business class cabin where the seats were in a reverse herringbone style.

When it came to the features of the new seat, Virgin Australia had a guide to help passengers distinguish where everything was located within the suite/seat.

In addition to the seats colors and design, I noticed that were was a lot more storage space for small electronics like phones and tablets. This came in handy when I needed to charge my ipad as they had a designated slot for tablets.

I can’t stop raving about the seat and the colors used for it. As most of the suite was grey, the tabletops and sides were almost like a matte white. It looked absolutely stunning and pictures honestly do not do it justice.

When it came to inflight entertainment, the TV screen was of some out of this world HD quality. Couple that with the modern design of the screen software and I had a really top notch entertainment system. From what I saw, there was an adequate selection of movies and tv shows. The system could be controlled by the remote or by touching the screen. This was fairly indicative of most of the seat as the actual controls for the seat were also controlled by a separate touch screen.

If there was anything I didn’t like about the seat, it was that the table never fully stowed away. It’s very much like the Qatar Airways 787 seat in the sense that the table never just goes away, its just pushed to the far end until you need to use it.

After takeoff, we were offered lunch with a variety of options and the ability to choose when to eat should we want to sleep. I thought it was a nice touch for the crew to come and pre-reserve meals just in case we wanted them later. As far as the menu goes, here it is:

I ended up choosing the seafood option and it wasn’t as good as I thought but then again, I’m not a huge fish fan. I also opted out of dessert so I could sleep.

I think what really helps to make this seat stand out is the fact that Virgin Australia has mattress pads for this flight. It was just one more small amenity that really made me feel like I was sleeping in a real bed. In fact, I slept for a really long time after breakfast. It was also a nice touch that the attendants made the bed while I was changing into the pajamas they provided.

I woke up about 8 hours into the flight due to the light that was shining from the bar. It wasn’t a huge deal for me but they currently don’t have curtains to separate the bar entrance from the seats right behind it so all that light essentially shines onto the first few seats. I eventually got up and headed to the bar where I was able to chat with some other passengers on the flight. Everyone was equally impressed with this new business class and the crew even had rave reviews about it.

The Service

This is one part of the flight that I can’t give enough praise for. The crew, just like myself were taking their first flight on this new product. Although they were figuring out the new plane, the service never faltered. Everyone was super professional and personable. Between always checking up on me and other passengers and constantly manning the bar, they did a really excellent job at managing and meeting expectations. In particular, the purser constantly came through the cabin to make sure that everyone was making the most of the seat and helped to clarify any questions about the plane if necessary. He also spent close to 2 hours manning the bar and chatting with other passengers about how Virgin Australia runs the routes it does and his schedule.

Final Thoughts

As we landed in LA, I really couldn’t pinpoint anything I didn’t like about this flight. Everything was beyond my expectations and the seat really was as beautiful as it was advertised to be. This is a real contender in the USA-Australia market and i’m really excited that it’s flying constantly between Los Angeles and Sydney. I’m really happy with Virgin Australia and the service provided onboard. It’s no doubt that they cater to a younger more millennial crowd but others won’t have an issue with flying them at all either. I wouldn’t hesitate at all to every consider them on this route, especially considering that Qantas doesn’t have nearly as good a seat and American Airlines is well, American Airlines.

Read the rest of this article at Review: New Virgin Australia 777-300 Business Class.

The first bus made its inaugural trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles on Monday night. The startup sold 11 tickets in its first trip, each for $48, on the 20-bed Volvo sleeper coach. The bus picks up passengers from the Caltrain station in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood at 11 p.m. and drops them off at Santa Monica Pier at 6 a.m. Passengers can sleep in until the 7:30 a.m. checkout.

The process for booking the tickets is dead simple and fast. Within a minute, I had a ticket and confirmation in hand. And at the $48 price point, it’s competitive for last-minute travel. 

The vehicle boasts a lounge area, free coffee and tea, free WiFi, and sheets from mattress startup Casper on its twin-sized beds. For those of you that haven’t heard of Casper, their products are superb and it definitely made the difference for me. Service on Cabin is direct so you can get a full night’s sleep and skip on the extra hotel night. It’s an economical and unique alternative to existing options between the two cities, especially if you consider that the pickup and drop off point in Los Angeles is Santa Monica rather than Union Station where the other bus companies go.

Hao went on to explain that existing bus options between the two cities don’t necessarily prioritize the experience. He and his co-founders hope that by providing amenities like Casper sheets and only operating at night, Cabin can create a new, reliable option for travelers. Air travel on the other hand can be expensive last-minute and inconvenient given factors like consistent weather delays at SFO and unpredictable traffic to and from LAX. Hao has told us that there are plans for fixed pricing, meaning that the price won’t change for the day of week or if one bus service begins to sell out.

One Cabin vehicle is contracted to make the ride between San Francisco and Los Angeles for the next two weeks. At the end of the two-week trial, Cabin plans to bring on additional vehicles. The company ultimately plans to retrofit double-decker Van Hool buses for a capacity of 28 to 32 beds per vehicle.

I’d check them out next time you’re traveling between the two cities if flight options prove to be too expensive or there’s no award availability left.

You can find them at https://www.ridecabin.com/ or their Facebook page to book a ticket. Feel free to also reach out to Hao on Twitter for more details.

Read the rest of this article at Cabin Service (Previously “SleepBus”) between San Francisco and Los Angeles Plans to Disrupt Existing Options.

Background

As many of you know, I spend a lot of my time dabbling into Manufactured Spending. In a typical day, it’s not unlikely for someone to see me with upwards of $20,000 in gift cards that I buy and liquidate. Recently, I leased an apartment in Texas to continue my MS activities. For some reason or another, Texas is a great place to MS because there are a variety of grocery stores and a ton of Walmarts. While MS isn’t my full time “job”, it is a cool thing to do because all of my other businesses are more automated and this makes me feel like i’m doing something.

The Incident

Yesterday, I spent a couple hours buying and stocking up on gift cards. After gathering a good amount of cards, I went to a local Walmart near my apartment. From prior knowledge, I was led to believe that this particular Walmart allowed a very high volume of money orders to be bought with VGC’s. Usually, the Walmart customer service desk will limit people to how many money orders someone can buy based on how busy they are or some made up local store policy.

Disclaimer: When buying large amounts of money orders, I always clarify my intent to do so and ask for the Money Order Transaction Form. This form takes down my information so that Walmart can keep record of my purchase. 

At first, I bought $5,500 in money orders with the approval of the assistant store manager. My friend, who was with me then proceeded to buy his money orders, which would have totaled $15,000. After the first money order was printed for him, another cashier came over to our station and loudly proclaimed “No Gift Cards Allowed” to which we simply stated that there was already an approval by the assistant manager. At this point, instead of looking for further clarification, the cashier simply stated, “Do you want me to call the police?” I responded with a one word “What?” and she immediately walked away murmuring something. At this point, I didn’t think much about it and just stood there waiting for someone to come and tell us what was going on. Eventually, Walmart Asset Protection walked over to us followed by two police officers. The following conversation ensued:

Asset Protection: “Sir, you cannot buy anymore money orders here today. You have reached your limit”

Me: “Okay, no one told us there was a limit, they didn’t actually even tell us anything, the cashier just walked away and it was a cashier that wasn’t even helping us. She didn’t even ask for any clarification from the assistant manager who approved us to do these current money orders.”

Police: “What’s going on here? Let’s step away from the counter”

Asset Protection: “You can’t buy anymore money orders here, you’ve reached the limit.”

Me: “Okay, no one told us the limit but if there is one, I wont do anymore but no one told us anything”

Police: ” Can I see those cards? Where did you buy these from? Why do you have so many?”

I then explained the entire process of Manufactured Spending but clearly he wasn’t paying attention because he asked me again right after why I have so many cards. Meanwhile, the Asset Protection agent was busy looking over the forms I filled out for any discrepancies between the information and my ID.

Police: “I’m going to call my friend who is an agent with the IRS”

Walks away with my ID..

Me to 2nd Police Officer: ” I understand you guys are really weirded out by this but that other officer just took my ID and is calling a random IRS agent over these gift cards that I bought legally.

2nd Police Officer: “Well at this moment, you’re officially being detained so he can do whatever he needs to.”

I’m not gonna lie, when I heard that, I kind of got worried mainly because I was so confused at how fast this entire event escalated. The police didn’t even give enough time for the Asset Protection agent to even make sense of what was going on let alone try to understand what was going on. Regardless, I soon came back to reality and realized that I did nothing wrong. A few minutes passed and the original officer came back to us to let us know that we were free to go and that he legally has nothing to hold us on. He added that the IRS agent he spoke to was “around the corner” and driving over to the Walmart to speak to us but we could leave if we wanted. This kind of made no sense to me but I chalked it off as him implying that I should stay. In addition, I actually had some questions for the IRS agent about taxes on Manufactured Spending so I decided to stay. It was probably the worst decision I made that night.

The IRS agent showed up within 10 minutes and proceeded to introduce herself and explain that at no time were we being held and that everything we did going forward was voluntary. The conversation as follows was captured in my mind to the best of my knowledge:

IRS Agent: “So, explain to me what you’re doing because this looks extremely suspicious.”

Me: “Well, I speak at events for something like this-“

IRS Agent: “What? Fraud? Identity Theft? Money Laundering?”

Me: “Manufactured Spending…”

IRS Agent: “Let’s go to a room and chat, I also need one of you officers to act as my second interviewer.”

I think that this was one of the best parts of the night because both the officers weren’t expecting to be tied up in this issue any longer and this IRS agent just basically asked them to sit in on two interviews that could very well take hours. I almost wanted to laugh because both the officers looked at each other and were mentally playing a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who had to suffer. Eventually, the original officer decided to be the second interviewer.

The reason I say that staying was one of the worst decisions of the night wasn’t because they wanted to interview me but because it was around 8PM by this time and I realized that my money order deposit cut-off time was 9PM. In my head, I realized that I just screwed myself from MS-ing the next day because these funds wouldn’t clear in time. The thought of that made me a little sad and for a second, I forgot that I was being led to a room to be interviewed.

Due to the fact that I was with my friend, the agent decided to interview us separately. This process took forever. She probably spent close to 40 minutes with both of us individually asking us questions about what we do for a living, how we make money, why we were in Texas, etc..

I had previously tweeted that I was being detained and used the time that they were interviewing my friend to catch up on tweets and snapchat what was going on. I honestly was laughing really hard at some of the clever things people did on twitter like this:

@WhiskiBravo@ValueTravelerOz@TahsirAhsan@ftupic.twitter.com/iZH47sM16F

— HereAndThere (@TravelNSO) February 4, 2016

Eventually, my interview concluded and I have to say that by the end of it all, the IRS agent and police officer were sort of laughing at everything that was going on and the whole concept of Manufactured Spending. While leaving, the asset protection agent actually apologized to me for what happened and said something about the fact that usually, she deals with things like this and that the police shouldn’t have been called in the first place, let alone the IRS agent until she was better able to gauge the situation. She also went on to explain to me that they were also extremely prone to fraud at that exact location and everyone was being very cautious.

I did ask the IRS agent some questions about taxation with MS and other things but as usual, most government agents want straight answers but will never give any back to you. Either way, it was very interesting to talk to her and see why they are so worried about people using fraudulent gift cards. I can’t stress enough that both the IRS agent and police officer were extremely polite after they realized that I wasn’t a drug dealing, money laundering, identity thieving…guy.

If you’re interested in knowing whether MS is taxed, I will point you to THIS site which states:

The reason credit card rewards have typically not been counted as taxable income is because they are viewed as a rebate. For example, if you spend $100 with a card that gives 1% cash back, the $1 you receive is merely a rebate on the money you spent.

And this IRS document which states:

A rebate received by a buyer from the party to whom the buyer directly or indirectly paid the purchase price for an item is an adjustment in purchase price, not an accession to wealth, and is not includible in the buyer’s gross income.

The same IRS document came to the conclusion that:

The portion of the credit card purchases that Taxpayers can either receive back in cash or request Company to pay to a charity does not constitute gross income to Taxpayers under § 61.

I will not take a side in this argument but am simply giving you links to make your own conclusion as to whether MS is taxable. 

On a side note, I used to have a high school teacher that was extremely sarcastic. While I was talking to the agent, I noticed a sense of sarcasm and instantly was reminded of my teacher. If it helps, she was really nice but seemed like the person who would be like:

Me: “Can I go to the bathroom?”
Agent: “I don’t know, CAN you?”
Me: “Ugh, MAY I go to the bathroom?”
Agent: “Yes.”

What I Learned (Some I Already Knew)

• As someone who spends a majority of his day at Walmart, I see the good, bad and gross. I also see the different types of people that work there and while most are really nice, there’s always that one person who thinks they know it all. I ran into this entire issue because a single cashier overstepped her boundaries and got involved in a transaction she wasn’t part of. This led to a chain reaction of events that ended up wasting a police officers time and an IRS Agent’s night but more importantly, my ability to deposit money orders.
• I didn’t get flagged at any point because of the amount that I did, I got flagged because someone thought I was being uncooperative with them, which wasn’t the case. I know a ton of people are going to say it’s because I was doing too many money orders but it wasn’t.
• Even though I wasn’t guilty of doing anything except being best dressed inside of a Walmart, everyone sure made me feel like it for a little bit. I guess there is something really difficult about believing a guy who can prove that he legally purchased gift cards to earn points.
• You need to be calm and collected. Make valid arguments and tell the truth. I told my story 4 times before anyone decided to listen and on the 4th time around, the officers were actually amused by what I was doing.
• Keep records. This was reiterated to me by the IRS agent and one of the only things she was pretty clear about.
• Be fearless. People see fear in your eyes and capitalize on it. If you know you did nothing wrong, stick with it. Don’t ever change your original story because of something new you learn in the middle of an interview. Tell the truth to the best that you can.
• The people of twitter are amazing. The whole reason I was so calm during the whole process was because I was reading the responses from some followers and just taking my mind off of the entire issue.
• If you get flustered or nervous, breathe and start fresh. I know a lot of people that get really nervous around law enforcement and it makes them look kind of weird. Remember to breathe. If you actually get arrested, remember your rights and call an attorney. You may also seek the services of a bail bondsman if you need bail bonds assistance. You can even find a late hours bail bondsman if this situation has occurred at odd times.

Some Things I’ll Never Understand

If the government is so worried about illegal activities and money orders, why do they allow places to sell money orders with cash only? Why do they let stores sell gift cards with cash only? I don’t understand the fascination of places that are CASH ONLY. If I was a criminal with black money, why would I take it to a store to buy a gift card? Wouldn’t I just take that cash and get a money order directly? Wouldn’t it be easier and safer to only allow gift card purchases with Debit or Credit so that it would be traceable all the way back to the buyer? How is cash so technologically traceable that you can pinpoint where exactly a dollar bill was at 4:31 PM on a Monday? These are things i’ll never understand. I do understand that processing fees play a big role in Cash Only establishments but they should say that from the beginning instead of training their employees to give a blanket statement of “money laundering.”

Is Manufactured Spending Illegal?

No. Simply put, in no sense is manufactured spending deemed illegal. Just because someone else doesn’t understand what it is doesn’t make it illegal. If anyone says that manufactured spend is the same as money laundering, walk away if you can and if you can’t, ask for a lawyer because you’re not going to change that person’s mind. You should always be very wary of choosing a lawyer but checking online reviews can help a great deal there (fake ones are usually easy to spot). We found https://www.newjerseycriminallawattorney.com/hudson-county/ by checking their reviews and there were really good (and much better than any competing local criminal defense lawyers), so this just shows how this works so well. The most you can do is look at them with the stupidest face you can ever make. In all honesty though, although money laundering has very similar traits to how some people MS, there is one key word that sticks out and helps to deem whether it’s legal or illegal: Illicit. Last I checked, I wasn’t selling myself on the street corner and using those funds to buy a gift card and then buy a money order.

The worst thing that could possibly happen is that this post can turn people away from manufactured spending. Being able to game this so called “hobby” is one of the reasons i’ve seen so much of the world. It’s the reason i’ve made some amazing friends. To push away people from trying to MS is wrong and i’d rather be the one to educate them on how to do it if they truly are interested. I realize that it’s not for everyone but neither is mooing. Not everyone is going to accept it and I learned that it’s better to walk away instead of wasting time trying to teach someone who doesn’t want to know.

What Will I Do Going Forward?

I’m going back to that Walmart tomorrow and returning some items one-by-one to the cashier that decided to waste my time.

Honestly though, I won’t be doing anything differently because I didn’t even do anything wrong. I will keep buying gift cards and I will keep buying money orders. I’m going to keep MS-ing and if I run into any other trouble, i’m going to write about it.

I will not be giving tips on how to manufacture spend on an online level anymore. I will only be doing so at the conferences I speak at because it’s just too detrimental to others to write about online.

Please feel free to share your experiences if you have any in the comments below. Haters welcome as always!

I’m free guys. No one will stop me from MSing. I didn’t even have to buy cards but now I’m gonna because I can. pic.twitter.com/UkpufwndAA

— BengaliMilesGuru (@TahsirAhsan) February 4, 2016

Read the rest of this article at I Was Detained by the Police for Manufactured Spending.

In my quest to live a 9-to-5 free lifestyle, I often look to scale up different ideas to their maximum potential. Many people know me for presentations that I give on Manufactured Spending but the truth is that there is more to me than meets the eye.

In my most recent post, I was able to give an insight into an app that I’ve been using for the past year to make a bit of additional passive income and what happens when something goes wrong. In this post, I’ll be writing of my analysis of the company Turo and help shed some light into how I make a profit from renting out cars. If you’re interested in renting out your Audi car, take it to a nearby Audi service shop and ensure that it is in pristine condition.

Getting Started

Turo is an app that enables people to rent out their cars to others. It’s quite a simple concept: you aren’t using your car so why not rent it out? Many people throughout the country use Turo to actively rent and rent out their vehicles. The process is fairly simple and once you signup (my referral link, thanks!) for an account, you can immediately list your vehicle for rent.

Turo does take 25% of revenue from every rental but that covers insurance and the cost to list cars on the app. You still have to have your own insurance, but if a renter damages a car or anything else, Turo insurance will take over.

Make sure to have a good description of your car and write about the features that might help your car stand out from others. Some that come to mind are GPS, Ski Racks, Satellite Radio, etc. Once you complete the listing, your car will be active in the market city for where the cars location was set.

Hint: Set the cars location as close to the city center as you can. I won’t spoon-feed you every detail because you need to do some work but I’m sure you can figure it out!

If you did everything properly, your car should show up online like this:

It’s very important that your listing shows up close to or at the top of the search. If people can’t find your car, then it obviously won’t get rented.

Market Research, Pricing, Calendar & Preferences

Knowing what car to list is crucial when it comes to renting. In order to do this, you need to do some research in the area that you live in. The best performing cars at the moment are mid-size, large SUVs and luxury sports cars. However, if you live in San Francisco, chances are that no one is going to rent a large SUV. Be smart about your surroundings. You’ll also want to check on the prices of current listings and see if it’s possible for you to undercut them by a lot.

Undercutting the market is the key to making a ton of money on Turo. Like I stated earlier, I have seen people list their Civics and other cars for around $90/day. A more realistic price for a car like that is $30-$40/day. If you’re able to obtain a vehicle and rent for that amount, chances are your car will be rented around 22+ days a month. People will also frequent your rental more often and you’ll get a bunch of repeat renters.

It’s also pretty hard to undercut the market when you can’t get a good deal on a car. For our first few cars, we leased them. Negotiating a good deal from the start is extremely important to the success of your soon to be rental empire! For example, high-end sports car rentals can in certain cases go for $120/day but to maximize your profits, you shouldn’t have a monthly payment over $1,000. The idea behind this is that you want to make more money per month on the car than it depreciates so you can sell it in the coming months.

Pricing

Important Tip: Make sure you price your cars manually. Turo has a feature that auto prices your car based on market data but do not do that! When you initially list your car, it will automatically default to this option! Keep the price of your cars consistent. Their market data tool is cool but doesn’t work well if everyone else is listing their cars for $90 and you want to list yours for $40.

Many people mess up when it comes to pricing. Like any other business, you need to leave your personal sentiments and emotions for something aside. I see tons of cars that are far too overpriced either because the owner thinks that their car is worth more or because it is their only means of transportation. If you are renting out the same car you use to get around, DON’T RENT OUT ON TURO. It just isn’t worth it.

Pricing is something that you can fumble around with whenever and it varies drastically by car.

Not A Real Example (or maybe it is real…):
BMW 3 Series
$69/Day
Utilization (Days it’s rented out): 90%
Monthly Cost w/Insurance: $400
Profit: $69*30 Days * 90% = $1,863 Revenue – 25% Fee = ~$1,400

As you can see, it is possible to make anywhere from $1,000-1,500 per month in profit off of one BMW. The price can vary a lot though because you can give discounts to renters if they rent for a week or a month.

Calendar

It’s important to take a look at the calendar feature in the app and mark any days that the car won’t be available. If you’re able to, make the car available every day. Once the car is rented by someone, the app will automatically block out the times so you don’t have to. It’s important to maybe go in and extend the unavailability by 1 hour just in case the renter shows up late or something. If you don’t, the app will rent your car out at the immediate drop off time from the past rental, and that can cause the second customer to be unhappy about having to wait.

You can also change the price of your car day-by-day if needed. This is important because through previous research, we’ve noticed that people will pay more on weekends for a leisure car versus the weekly renter who needs your car for some other reason. If you have a more expensive car, go ahead and change the price on the weekends to $10-30 higher per day. Holiday weekends are also prone to price increases. Use supply & demand to your advantage!

Tip: Remember to raise the price accordingly but don’t get too close to another owners price or else you’ll make it easier for renters to pick a car that isn’t based on price. If you get too close to another owners price, renters will start thinking about colors, options, features, etc. You want to make the renter think solely on price so that your rentals stand out. 

Preferences

In the preferences section of the app, you’ll want to make everything look like this:

It is up to you to set the maximum mileage on cars. Usually on more high end cars, the mileage should be set to 150 miles/day, 1000 miles/week and 1500 miles/month. On more basic vehicles, I just leave it at unlimited miles. This won’t work that great on cars that you lease with low mileage leases except for some conditions (I will explain below).

It’s important to clarify the mileage limits on your description. Turo charges 75 cents per mile over the allotted limit but I’m usually not a stickler for miles and usually let renters go 25-30 miles over before charging them. Even if I do charge them, I tend to ask them to pay me for the miles in cash increments of $20/100 miles over the limit. It’s much more reasonable and makes the renter feel at ease. In addition, while doing some research, I found that my cars are driven MUCH less when I set them to unlimited versus setting a mileage limit. The reason for this is because when people are paying for something and are given a limit, they try to get as close to it as possible. It’s just human nature to maximize — you’d try to get the most bang for your buck too! My theory is that if the car is set to unlimited, people usually don’t go out of their way to drive the car more and just forget about it.

Setting the advance notice is important because this determines how soon a renter can book your car. You can set it as soon as 3 hours or as far as a couple days. I personally set mine to 3 hours because most people who use this app are last minute travelers who cant find a good deal with traditional car rental companies.

Turo also lets you set up an option to deliver the vehicle to the renter for an additional fee. I really don’t recommend this for any amount only because the first month of deliveries sucked the soul out of me. No amount of money will make me deliver another car again! I put $60 for delivery but that’s only to cover either paying someone to drop my car off with TaskRabbit (an app that outsources small jobs to people willing to do them) or sending an Uber for the renter to come pick up the car. You should, however set delivery prices for all major airports near you because the bulk of your rentals will come from people that are flying in.

Additionally, it’s very important to list your pickup instructions clearly. I can’t stress this enough. Most renters skipped grade 1-7 and forgot how to read instructions. If your car address and pickup address are different, make that clear. When I say clear, it should be the first sentence in your description. Even then, you’ll have the occasional goobers that will still ask you where to pick up the car.

Customer Service

For years, you have been on the receiving end of customer service. Whether it was dealing with a clueless agent when booking awards or calling for retention offers, customer service was key for you. That is why you need to make it key for your renters. Simply put, if you are rude and don’t care at all about people, don’t rent out cars. Remember that this app mainly exists because people are fed up with high prices and robotic customer service offered by major rental companies. You are a human and need to act like one when renting your cars out. I cannot stress this enough! If a renter is running 30 minutes late, there is no reason to try and charge a late fee. Not only will you lose that renter for life but also might get a bad review. If you get too many bad reviews, you’ll either be kicked off the platform or people just won’t rent from you. You need to be the person that understands issues and can deal with them properly.

Depending on what cars you rent out, the type of people will also vary. If you rent out cheaper cars, expect more lower income renters to rent from you. In the past this has caused issues for me because some people will try to find a fault with anything and ask for reimbursement. The same applies with higher income renters and high end vehicles. They will bring their own tire tread depth tools to make sure the car is perfect. If it isn’t, be prepared to reimburse! I do notice that I’m made aware of more trivial “issues” on my base level vehicles versus my higher end ones. As I just started renting out more base level cars, this trend is pretty new to me and I’m not quite sure I know exactly how to deal with it yet! I have been looking into Professional auto glass repair services and other repair shops that I can strike a deal with so that I can deal with any issues quickly though. You should be prepared to deal with these issues as they will come up.

Accounting

It’s important to keep proper accounting of your rentals. Turo has a pretty cool earnings sheet that updates after every rental. I recommend you make a new bank account and link it solely for payments from Turo.

Turo pays out a rental 3 days after it is completed. If your rental is 2 weeks long, you’ll get paid per week, not all at once. The same goes for monthly rentals. If you have a $600 monthly rental, you’ll be paid $150/week instead of the entire month upfront. Keep this in mind when accounting for rentals that start mid month and continue into the next month! All payments already have 25% deducted from it as the Turo fee.

Making Thousands

The key to making thousands from Turo is to get a really good deal on cars. Everything starts and is based on your cost, so naturally they have to be low.

You need to scour the interwebs for good deals on cars. I will share one deal that I took advantage of. It is now dead so there’s no point in looking for it.

In December 2015, it was possible to lease a Chevy Cruze for $18/month with $0 Down. There was no catch – it was real and I added multiple Chevy Cruzes to my “fleet.” You did need to have a pre-existing lease but even if you didn’t, the payment went up to $60/month. The terms were 10,000 miles a year for 2 years for a total of 20,000 miles over 24 months. Total cost: $700 with tax, title, license out the door, which coincidentally was refunded to me because Costco was giving out $700 gift cards if you bought a Cruze at the time. There was also the monthly fee of $18, which I also paid fully in advance. In addition, my monthly insurance on the car is about $8. I don’t know how that happened but it did. I also sit around and constantly look for new lease deals too on my free time.

Now imagine leasing a Chevy Cruze for $18/month and renting it out for $35/day. You don’t have to imagine it because that’s pretty much what I’m doing.

Here’s the math:

Chevy Cruze
Daily/Weekly/Monthly Rate: $35/$169/$550
Profit after Fee: 25% = ~$27/$127/$412
Profit Margins Avg Per Cruze: 2,500%

A big question on your mind might be what happens if you go over miles on a lease?

Answer: On the Cruze, I am making an instant profit. After the first month, I have quite literally paid off the entire car lease – a 2500% profit in one month more than pays off 24 months of payments.  The average monthly miles racked up are around 3,000. With that calculation, I will hit 20,000 miles during month 7. The day I hit 20,000 miles, I will simply give the car back or park it at my house for the next 13 months. The car will have made me a profit by month 2 at the latest, so I have nothing to worry about. Even at the bare minimum of $400/month in profit, I will have made $2,400 per Cruze. The numbers are closer to $600-800/month though because most people rent for 3-4 days at $35/day versus the $169/week or $550/month.

Scale Up

Scalability is important with this idea. Once you scale to 5+ cars, the pressure rises and you have to keep track of all these cars and rentals. I’ve made an agreement with a parking lot to house all my cars. When renters land or go to pickup, the attendants handle all of the transfer work including taking pictures of any damage and handing over the keys. In addition, I couldn’t have done this without my partners who also invested into this idea of mine. I’m grateful that they believe in me.

If you have any questions that you feel I didn’t cover, feel free to ask in the comments below. Please direct yourself to support@turo.com for any insurance related questions as I can’t answer them.

If you find yourself in Los Angeles, take a look at some of my cars for rent! They’re pretty cool.

Read the rest of this article at Make Thousands Each Month Renting Cars with Turo.

Like Airbnb does with houses, Turo (formerly known as RelayRides) is an application that enables people to rent out their second car that they might not be using to other users. I stumbled upon this app last January and immediately saw the potential in it. While buggy, the interface is very easy to use. Many people list their cars on the site but at the same time, don’t really know how to price them. I suspect it’s because they think their car is worth more than it really is. This actually helps me out because I’m able to undercut the market and rent out my cars more often. A car that isn’t rented doesn’t make me any money.

In January 2015, I started to list my cars on Turo. Initially, I listed my BMW 3 Series Hybrid on the site and it started to get rented quite often. By the end of February, my BMW was rented 29/30 days and continued that trend till December 2015. Often times, it was rented on a monthly basis to some users. From January 2015 to January 2016, I was able to add 13 new vehicles to my “fleet” and business seemed to be booming. With a combination of market research and smart pricing, my cars were getting rented with around 90% utilization.

The Theft

Fast forward to my rental on December 20th, 2015. A d*****bag man by the name of Peter sent in a request to rent my vehicle at 2AM. I responded to him immediately and told him that the lot in which we keep our cars would not open until 8AM and that he would have to wait until then. Initially, he paid extra to have my car delivered to an address, but I wasn’t in California and had no means to do this. I explained that I would call him an Uber to the lot from his house so that he could pick up the car. He responded by saying, “No worries, I’ll go pickup the vehicle myself.” I tried calling him to explain the details but the phone line went straight to a busy tone. I didn’t think much of it and fell asleep.

In the morning, I got the email that my vehicle had been picked up from the lot and that everything was good to go. The rental was for a duration of 2 days and on the 2nd day, “Peter” asked for a date extension. I happily agreed to the extension and didn’t think much of it until later that night when I re-checked his rental and noticed that there was no extension made. I called the number listed in his file and no one answered. At this point, I should have gotten more worried but I genuinely thought that the renter was confused or busy as many people who rent from me are first time users and don’t quite understand how Turo operates.

I let the rental go into the next morning and when I realized that the vehicle hadn’t been returned to the lot, I started to get worried. All of my vehicles are equipped with tracking systems except for the BMW 3 series. I assumed that because the car already had tracking through BMW, I didn’t have to buy a supplementary system.

Around 3PM on the 24th, I sent out an email to Turo and also called BMW to see whether they could track the vehicle for me. Unfortunately, BMW seems to be one of the worst companies to deal with when you either have your car stolen or if you get locked out of your car. I have a Chevy Cruze that not only tracks the location of the car in real-time but also lets you unlock the car from your phone. However, this BMW that costs 4 times more will not let you track or unlock the vehicle in the app. It’s absolutely ridiculous and, in my opinion, needs to be changed.

At 5PM on December 24th, I received word back from Turo that the renter in question was in fact trying to steal my vehicle. They built an entire case file on “Peter” that showed he used a fake ID and tried to use a bunch of different stolen credit cards until one of them approved. He also didn’t pass the verification test so he was forced to take a picture of himself next to his fake driver’s license.

The Recovery

I immediately took this information to my local police station and filed a stolen vehicle report. Within minutes, I received a stolen vehicle ID number that BMW wanted in order to process my claim. After giving BMW the ID number, they were able to start tracking the car and easily found it within 10 minutes. However, they still wouldn’t tell me where it was and wouldn’t even tell me that they found it. I had to call the police station again for them to tell me that the vehicle was recovered and taken to the impound lot.

The next morning, I drove over to the impound lot to retrieve my car, paying the $280 fee to get it out. It was immediately towed to the service center, where the technicians found a number of items missing and burn marks from cigarettes on both seats. In addition, the outside bumpers were damaged and the side door was bent inwards to the point where it didn’t close properly. The wheels were scraped and the tires were bald to the thread.

All in all, the car seemed like it didn’t take on too much damage and I was lucky that this guy didn’t take the entire engine and other parts from it.

Dealing With Turo/Insurance

Many people wonder about how insurance works with Turo. The truth is that you have to have your own insurance on the car like a bear river insurance policy and at the same time, Turo has its own insurance. Not only does Turo offer a $1 million liability policy, but they also cover all damage to your vehicle when it is rented. I didn’t have to notify my insurance or go through them at all for this claim. Many people will ask me what happens if a renter hits someone else and the claim goes over $1 million. My honest answer is that “I just don’t know.” I also have my cars contracted out under my business corporation so that it forms another barrier against something like that affecting me personally. I will not get into the process of those questions in the comments so please do not ask me. If you have questions about what happens after the liability policy expires or if your car is totaled, please email support@turo.com instead.

Throughout the entire process, Turo was constantly emailing me and following up with me. Mike, the agent assigned to my case, was extremely understanding and caring to the point where he even gave me his personal number in case I needed anything. I’ve heard horror stories about insurance claims with Turo and getting them to reimburse people but I felt nothing of that nature. Everything was going smoothly. Since it was Christmas, I didn’t want to bother him too much and waited a couple days till he got back to work to continue the claims process.

Mike immediately reimbursed me for the impound fee and the cost of a new key that I had to buy from BMW. He also gave me $250 towards cleaning the car and getting the smell of smoke out. The following day, he gave me another $300 to rent a car for the week.

Eventually, the estimate came in and it was north of $10,000 to fix all the damage. I sent it over to Mike, who had to have his appraiser come out and assess the damage. Once the appraiser approved the amount, Turo sent out the check to me for the repairs! It was completely pain-free and incredibly easy to deal with. I’m also really happy they sent the check to me instead of the repair shop because now I can pay for the repairs with my credit card and earn points!

What Now?

Once my car is fixed, I’m going to sell it. I don’t know why but I just feel weird driving a car around that someone else purposely stole from me and violated. Even though it’s repaired, I’m still weary of any issues that might pop up in the future. The car also racked up a number  of miles from the rental process since I left my driving limit at unlimited miles. In any case, I’ve been wanting to get the new Stormtrooper Range Rover and this might be the perfect opportunity once I sell!

Overall Takeaway & Advice

I never thought that a car would be stolen from me. Regardless of how it happened, someone took my car. It’s a very odd feeling but at the end of the day, things like this happen. My biggest advice would be to stay calm and think rationally. Investing in a towball lock can also be very helpful in keeping your vehicle from being stolen. My mom was going absolutely crazy and kept trying to make me go crazy with her. She had her conspiracy theories that he was using my car to rob someone and it would come back to me or that somehow, someway, I would get arrested for the crimes committed using my car. Just distance yourself from crazy people who freak out more than you and know that cars can be replaced. I realized early on that I had to be super calm because eventually, my car would be found — and if it wasn’t, well, that’s what insurance is for. If you deal with things in a passive manner, you’ll see that everything just falls into place regardless. When it comes to dealing with Turo, I am extremely satisfied with their response and how they handled the situation. No doubt, it must have been tough for them to see something like this happen on their app after they verified and let someone blatantly steal a car. However, I’m really pleased with how everything worked out.

In the coming days, I’ll be posting about my analysis with renting cars out on Turo and how the process works.

In the meantime, here’s my referral link to rent a car on Turo. I don’t refer people often so i’m not sure what it really gets you. It’s probably a credit towards renting a car for some amount off. I also most probably earn the same amount as you after you complete the rental. Feel free to also rent one of my cars if you’re going to be in Los Angeles soon. Don’t worry, the stolen one isn’t going to get rented for a while.

Whether you’re in need of jump-start assistance, lockout services, or you’ve been involved in an accident and need a tow, you will always receive the best Classic Car Towing dispatch service in San Diego, California from Expedite Towing.

Read the rest of this article at My Car Was Stolen While Renting through Turo!.

The standard deal is simple: Buy $300 in gift cards and get $20 back. There is no hard coded limit to this promotion and it seems like most Officemax locations will let you buy up to $2000 in gift cards inclusive of fees.

Most people would instantly think to use their Chase Ink to get the coveted $200 gift cards that Officemax sells but there is actually another way to game this that I haven’t seen anyone talk about.

Officemax sells variable load gift cards and they are also included in this promotion. The only issue is that variable load cards are CASH ONLY. If you take $1,800 in cash into Officemax, you can make $96 in profit each time you walk in there and buy 3 cards for $500 & 1 card for $300. Chances are, everyone will be clamoring for the $200 cards and that the variables will still be sitting there because no one is buying them with cash. The magic number to buy is $1800 because that is the highest amount you can get a discount for without going over $2000. For every $300 you spend, you’ll get $20 back. If you spend $1800, you’ll get $120 back.

The Math

$200 Option
$6.95 Per Card X 9 Cards = $62.55
$120 Discount (6 $20 discounts)
Total Cost: $1,742.55
Total Profit: $57.45
Total Points: 8,715

$500 Option (Cash Only)
$5.95 Per Card X 4 (Last Card Will Be $300) = $23.80
$120 Discount (6 $20 Discounts)
Total Cost: $1,703.80
Total Profit: $96.20
Total Points: 0

As you can see, regardless of whether you want to earn points or not, you can still walk out a winner at Officemax. The best way to take advantage of this promo if they run out of $200 cards would be:

Step 1: Buy gift cards at a grocery store with a 5% cash back card
Step 2: Load to Bluebird or Gobank
Step 3: Take out money from the ATM $740/day PER Bluebird, $500 PER Gobank.
Step 4: Go to Officemax and use that cash to buy 3 $500 gift cards and 1 $300 gift card
Step 5: Liquidate those cards however you like to earn a $96 profit.
Step 6: Repeat at another Officemax.

Read the rest of this article at Quick Deal: It Pays to Think Outside the Box.

What Does it Cost?

Normally, JetSuite sells memberships that start out around $50,000. That buys you a pre-blocked amount of flying hours depending on which plane you choose. At the moment, the cheapest rates are on their Phenom 100 aircraft and go for around $4,000/hour plus airport fees. Similar to many other private jet companies like NetJets and Magellan, JetSuite is somewhat seen as the cheaper of the bunch. They are all trustworthy companies and they make sure to keep everything in check, all the way from their maintenance to their finances, or else they’d be dealing with an airplane repo attorney if they didn’t.

One interesting option that JetSuite offers to everyone regardless of membership is called Suitedeals. These deals pop up extremely last minute and offer people a chance to book a private jet from one set destination to another for as little as $536. When booking these deals, you are renting out the whole plane and not just a seat. This enables you to bring along 3-5 other people for a total cost of $536. They are able to offer this because someone with a regular membership has already booked that flight and the plane needs to fly to that certain airport to pick them up. You are essentially buying a one-way ticket in which you have to arrange the way back.

Often times, these flights can be very short. At the minimum, I’ve seen flights be blocked for 7 minutes of flying time and at the longest, I’ve seen flights blocked for 3 hours. JetSuite has two different types of aircraft that they fly on all of these routes and they are the 4 seater Phenom 100 and 6 Seater CJ3. Usually, the Phenom 100 is always $536 whereas the CJ3 is double that price.

On the night of July 13th around 11:55PM, I was drawing a blank as to what to do for my friend’s 21st birthday. I’m not the best gift giver and I’m pretty certain I bought her a phone charger for her last birthday. Make no mistake, it wasn’t because I was cheap but because I seriously didn’t know what to get her. Either way, I remembered a friend that mentioned JetSuite’s Suitedeals and how easy they were to book. I hopped onto my computer and headed to their deals page, which was pretty easy to find. From there, they listed all of their flights that were flying out the next day and I managed to find one that worked perfectly for us.

Booking a Private Jet

When booking flights on JetSuite, you’ll need to sign up for an account. This is completely different from their membership and can be found on the actual Suitedeals website. Once your account is made, you can then login faster and book these deals. In addition, you can set up email alerts for whenever a new deal is loaded onto their site from the airport you want to leave from! I applaud JetSuite for being probably the only site that makes it this easy to book empty-leg flights.

Once you start looking, chances are that you’ll see a ton of different flights. Their highest concentration of flights tend to be from John Wayne Airport or (VNY) Van Nuys Airport (VNY) on the west coast and Chicago Wheeler (MKC) in the midwest. There are a bunch of flights from random airports as well so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see your airport listed.

One important thing to remember when booking these flights is whether or not commercial service is offered or whether you have arranged alternate transportation to get back. This is really important as some of these airports only offer municipal service and can be hundreds of miles from a commercial airport. JetSuite DOES fly into major airports but most of their travel is focused on smaller private airports. For both of my flights, I made sure ahead of time to book alternate transportation.

The booking process is fairly easy once you make an account and all they usually need is just a credit card and the names/date of birth for the passengers traveling. Once booked, you’ll receive a confirmation email of the booking and a couple hours after that, you’ll get a final email stating where to go for the flight. It’s important to note that private jet companies use fixed based operators (FBO) to manage their bookings and flights. This is just another term for smaller terminals that will handle all aspects of your flight. The FBO’s change every time you book a new flight so if you are booking multiple, make sure to check where the flight is leaving and landing from. Once you book, you’ll want to call JetSuite as they’re open 24/7 and ask about the details of your flight by providing your name and destination. The phone number is 1-(866)-779-7770. 

Disclaimer: Although I heard of this, it hasn’t happened to me yet. Sometimes, the Suitedeal you book may be canceled due to the member not needing the flight anymore. In this instance, you will be notified immediately and all of your money will be refunded. JetSuite makes this very clear on their site:

CHANGE OF ROUTE BY JETSUITE: SuiteDeals may experience a last minute change or cancellation, due to operational demand or a Client request. Should a SuiteDeal be changed post-purchase, the Customer will have the option to either fly the new route if operationally possible or shall receive 100% of the paid fare amount in a form of a credit to the credit card account which was used to purchase the seat(s).

The Flight Experience

On the day of the flight, we left my house at the ungodly time of 5 am to catch the flight that was slated for 6:30-7AM. My friend was unaware of what was going on until we actually got to the terminal and when she found out, she was ecstatic! Our flight was quite short and had us going from Santa Monica Airport in Los Angeles to San Diego International. The flight itself was scheduled for about 15 minutes. Once we arrived at the FBO, an attendant showed us where to park and led us to the entrance of the terminal. After checking in with the front desk, we were immediately escorted outside to the plane. It was a great feeling not to have to wait in line or go through security at all. We were met by the two pilots outside of the plane and they helped us take some photos before ushering us onboard.

When we finally made it onboard, the pilots went over some safety instructions and also directed us to where the drinks and snacks were incase we were hungry. They also made us aware of a delay due to departing air traffic from LAX. Santa Monica airport is very close to LAX and they share the same airspace all the time. Often times, planes at Santa Monica airport can be held up to 30 minutes due to incoming and departing flights from LAX. Today, we were only held back about 20 minutes but we didn’t mind it at all!

When it comes to the plane, it is a four seater jet plane in which all seats face each other. There is no flight attendant and the snacks are neatly packed under each seat. Complimentary drinks including alcohol are stocked in a small compartment by the front of the plane. There is no door between the cabin and the cockpit and we were able to see ahead of us the whole time! There is a restroom in the back of the plane and is only separated by a curtain. Bose noise canceling headphones are provided for all seats and there are power ports at 2 of the 4 seats. Free Wi-Fi is equipped on all of their jets and powered by Gogo!

The seats themselves recline but not that much. They are all leather seats and have pretty decent legroom since they face the other seats. I could see the plane getting cramped if 4 big people get onboard, which it did the second time I booked a flight. It’s never uncomfortable but you do have to play a little bit of Tetris to get everyone seated properly.

After the flight got off the ground, it was generally smooth and took around 30 minutes for us to get to San Diego over the scheduled 15. I don’t necessarily know why but we were too busy enjoying the sights of the coastline to care.

Upon landing, a small cart was waiting to take us from the plane to the front of the private terminal where our rental car was waiting. I pre-booked the rental car from a company called Go-Rentals, which seems to offer car rentals to private jet terminals. They gave me a brand new Escalade ESV for a daily rate of $179 and included a one way drop off back to Santa Monica the next day. The rental itself was a bit pricey but all other agencies were sold out that day due to San Diego transitioning from Comic-Con to Pride Week. I have to say that the agents at both FBO’s were very courteous. It was almost scary to hear how they spoke to me and I couldn’t help but smile every time! Within a matter of minutes, I was out of the terminal and headed to San Diego for lunch. The day was a success and my friend was thrilled!

On our second flight from Van Nuys, California to Oakland Airport, we rented a car from National and I finally got use a little known feature in which Executive Elite members can have their car delivered to an FBO for free. This was very helpful as we didn’t have a way to get from the FBO in Oakland to the National Car Rental lot. It was even more amazing to land in Oakland see the rental car waiting right outside the plane! Before we knew it, our bags were already in the back of the trunk and the keys were in the ignition ready for us to go.

Overall, this is at the minimum, private jet service. You don’t get an attendant or anything like that but it is beyond what you’d expect from regular commercial airlines. It’ll be interesting to see how Delta’s announcement of private jet service will compare with JetSuite.

Memberships

After flying with JetSuite twice, I looked into more options for some sort of membership to gain access to these empty legs on a regular basis. For me, it’s easy to head to San Francisco for lunch then use Avios or another empty leg to head home. One option that I’ve been considering is an app called Jetsmarter. Membership costs $9,000 a year and lets you fly unlimited empty legs and regular unlimited scheduled service on private jets between:

• Los Angeles – Las Vegas
• New York – Fort Lauderdale
• Los Angeles – San Francisco
• Helicopter Service: New York/Hamptons

Bottom Line

As an aspirational booking, JetSuite can be a really fun deal to buy. If you’re someone who travels frequently between two major points that JetSuite services, it might be worth it to keep your eye on the Suitedeals page. I only say this because often times, last minute travel up and down the coast of California can be cheaper with JetSuite rather than buying a commercial ticket. At $536, that’s only $134 per seat. When booking last minute, the legacy airlines can charge in upwards of $300 for the same route! Purchasing one of these deals means that you must be very flexible with timing and also must have a plan to get back. I would say that is the biggest downfall with booking empty-legs. If you’re able to get past that, booking a private jet will be one of the most memorable experiences you’ll ever have!

Have you ever booked a private jet? What was your experience?

Read the rest of this article at Review: JetSuite Private Jet Membership.

I was browsing through Slickdeals and managed to find a post that stated a ridiculous lease offer for a brand new Fiat 500e Electric Vehicle. At first, I really didn’t want to believe it due to how low the price was but 3 hours later, I was driving off in a Fiat for theoretically $0 down and this is how I did it!

How it works:

• MUST LIVE IN CALIFORNIA
• MSRP: $32,600
• Tax, Title, Registration : $415
• Federal Eco Credit/Rebate: $7,500
• California Eco Credit/Rebate (In form of check later, Goes Toward Down Payment): $2,500
• Fiat Motor Credit/Rebate: $2,100
• Existing Lease Credit (Goes Towards Down Payment): $1,000
• Residual: $18,000
• Number of miles/year: 10,000

If you add these numbers up into THIS lease calculator, the number comes to $82-97.

Armed with this information, I went to my local Fiat dealership and presented the numbers. At first, the sales person was in total disbelief and merely stated that it was a mistake but upon further inspection, the manager came to me and let me know that it was indeed doable.

The Catch:

There really is no catch to this offer. If anything, you must put $2,500 down today and wait for the rebate to come back to you in the form of a check about a month later. In addition, Fiat is offering $1000 towards the car if you can prove that you’re currently leasing another vehicle from another brand. If you are not leasing another vehicle, I believe you can negotiate a reduction in price of $1000 but I don’t know for sure. When considering to get a new recreational vehicle, see here https://www.articleinsider.com/macerating-toilet/.

The Car:

Read more about the car here! Fiat is a relatively new brand in the US and they’ve been trying to penetrate the market for a couple years now with their quirky looking vehicles. I admit, this car might not be pleasing to the eyes but it is actually a very fun car to drive! Satellite radio is also included for 1 year at no charge. It is an all electric vehicle that gets a range of about 80 miles per charge. A charger is included in this offer and so is a portable TomTom GPS unit. If you wish to have this car, a knowledgeable electrician can help you power your electric car at home.

Fiat’s website also lists a bunch of perks with having the car in California:

FREE METERED PARKING IN SAN JOSE⁺

Free parking at San Jose meters and regional park and recreation parking lots for battery electric vehicles, such as the FIAT® 500e, that have been issued a White Clean Air Vehicle Decal by the State of California.

FREE METERED PARKING IN SANTA MONICA⁺

100% electric vehicles, such as the FIAT® 500e, carrying the White Clean Air Decal may park at any meter in the city of Santa Monica for free. The time is limited to the time limit as posted.

FREE METERED PARKING IN HERMOSA BEACH⁺

Free metered parking at silver poled meters for vehicles with the White Clean Air Decal in downtown Hermosa Beach. Vehicles may park for the maximum time limit. This includes plug-in hybrids as long as the state of California recognizes the HOV sticker.

FREE EV PARKING AT SACRAMENTO PARKING LOTS⁺

Electric vehicles that are owned or leased by individuals or small business certified by the city, Emerging Small Business Development, such as the FIAT® 500e, are eligible for free parking and recharging in designated parking facilities.

FREE EV CHARGING AT LAX⁺

Free EV charging is available for electric vehicles, such as the FIAT® 500e, at charging stations located in the lower/arrivals level of Parking Structures 1 and 6 for up to a maximum of 30 days per visit.

DECAL FOR HIGH-OCCUPANCY VEHICLE (HOV) LANE EXEMPTION⁺

The 2015 500e is eligible to travel in the HOV lanes designated for High Occupancy Vehicles in California.

The Verdict:

I wouldn’t have gone for this offer unless I thought it was a really good one. At the end of the day, I was able to negotiate a great lease offer of less than $90/month with theoretically $0 down. Not to mention, they took credit card so I met some minimum spending along the way!

Thoughts:

As this offer is only available in California, it isn’t for everyone. The car itself should be used as a secondary car, not a primary one. If you work within 20-25 miles of your home, this car is great! Any farther and you might be exhausting the range. The included charger plugs into your wall and can take hours to charge but there are pretty cool alternatives like charging faster at the mall or signing up for a membership that enables you to go to high voltage chargepoints around you. The biggest cost here will probably not be the car itself but the insurance that you have to purchase as well. As this vehicle is leased, you MUST get full coverage insurance and that can raise rates quite a bit. My advice is to call your insurance company first and find out how much extra it will be to add this vehicle to your policy.

Are you going to go for this deal? Why or why not?

H/T to Slickdeals

Read the rest of this article at HOT DEAL: Get A Brand New Fiat 500e for $82/month with $0 Down!.

UPDATE: DEAL IS DEAD

In what can probably be called the easiest way to make $1000 in an hour, Lyft is offering a ridiculous deal that rewards new drivers with $1000 after they give their first ride. This is one of the most lucrative promotions i’ve ever seen from a ridesharing company! It takes about 10 minutes to sign up for Lyft as a driver and another 30 minutes to meet up with a mentor and complete the application process. There are special promotion codes for this offer. My personal code would be MUHAMMED84. You can follow this link and continue the signup process. You must complete your signup and first drive by March 5th.

You must live in one of these cities:

Using Code Muhammed84: Los Angeles

Using Codes Thousand or Benjamins: Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Denver, Seattle, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, San Jose, Miami, Nashville, San Francisco

Many people have been asking me if there is a catch but I honestly don’t think there is one. I signed up for Lyft with a smaller promo but they gave me my bonus the week after I did my first ride so I have full faith that they’ll come through with this one. Lyft is betting that most people who sign up will enjoy driving others enough to either make them more than $1000 or just spread the word. They might also be looking for a tax write-off as well.

As for taxes, you will most definitely receive a 1099 from Lyft but even after paying taxes on this, it’s essentially free money and I wouldn’t pass it up!

After your first drive is complete, You and I will both receive $1000. If that is an issue, you can use promo code BENJAMINS or THOUSAND to forego giving me a referral credit.

As always, your vehicle will need to meet the qualifications of Lyft which include:

You must be at least 21 and own an iPhone or Android phone. As part of our approval process, you’ll undergo a DMV check, plus a national and county background check. This will require a Social Security number, in addition to an in-state driver’s license that is at least a year old. Learn more about our background check standards on our Safety page, and our comprehensive driver requirements in the Help Center.

Your car needs to have four external door handles and at least five total seat belts. You must be a covered party on your car’s in-state insurance, and have in-state license plates. We’ll confirm all of this during your 19-point vehicle inspection. Cars have Lyft age requirements too, which can vary by state. See your state-specific requirements.

BONUS: If you are driving to TravelCon OC this weekend, there will be a Lyft Mentor at the event from 9AM-5PM to help new drivers become Lyft certified and inspect their vehicles!

Here are the full terms and conditions:

$1,000 Double-Sided Referral Bonus

Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Denver, Seattle, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, San Jose, Miami, Nashville, San Francisco, Los Angeles

• Apply on or after midnight on Wednesday, Feb. 25
• Complete first ride on or before Thursday, Mar. 5
• Must enter MUHAMMED84, BENJAMINS OR THOUSAND on signup
• Expect payment in 1-2 pay cycles

H/T to The Reward Boss & Pixie Dust

Read the rest of this article at Make $1,000 in One Hour or Less with Lyft.

As a recap, TravelCon OC is being held at the Embassy Suites Anaheim-South from 9AM-5PM on February 28th, 2015. Tickets are on sale for $129 still and will rise in price as the date gets closer. We have capped the sales to 125 attendees and only have about a dozen or so tickets left.

As a reminder, there are plenty of hotels within walking distance of the Embassy Suites. It looks as though rates range from $109 – $189 per night throughout the area hotels.

We will have a lot of new and exciting speakers at TravelCon in addition to plenty of time to socialize and discuss different topics. The organizers have set up a multitude of topics so that we don’t all stick to one. In addition, a representative from Hotel Tonight will be speaking and have some great giveaways!

Read the rest of this article at TravelCon OC Schedule & Updates!.

If you’ve heard me speak at recent frequent traveler events, i’ve voiced my reasons for why I became an Uber driver. I don’t generally drive a lot with Uber as I use them more as a passenger but I received an email this week that was pretty eye-catching. Uber sent out an email to their drivers (partners) encouraging them to refer other rideshare drivers to make the switch to Uber. As an incentive, they are offering $500 for you and the new driver after signing up and completion of their first ride. 

This is one of the best promotions to date that I can recall. Usually, Uber asks people to do 20 rides before offering some sort of credit. Currently, there is a promotion anyone can sign up for of $100 per referred driver after 20 rides so this offer is really tremendous.

There is, however a catch. You must have been a driver with another ridesharing company like Lyft before January 8th, 2015. The regular offer let’s anyone sign up and earn $100 after their 20th trip.

This offer goes to show how aggressive Uber is when it comes to taking away business from Lyft or Sidecar. Uber has been expanding rapidly in new cities but recently, they announced massive cuts in certain cities that irked some partners the wrong way.

If you have been a driver for another ridesharing company and were considering making the switch, now is probably a better time than any to do so. Uber no longer makes you “rent” a phone to pickup passengers and is now also available on Android devices.

To give you an idea of how the revenue is, I am currently participating in a program Uber has introduced in some high density cities called UberPlus. So far, it has proved to be quite valuable for me but I simply don’t have as much time to drive people around as much. Generally, I make a minimum of $8 per ride and my highest ride has been around $150 after the 20% Uber takes.

Promotion Terms

To signup for this promotion you must have these criteria:

• 2004 or Newer Vehicle
• Current Registration
• Android or Iphone
• No Crazy Colored Vehicles
• Must Have Been Another Rideshare Driver
• Insurance

It wouldn’t be wise to sign up for the $500 offer because Uber will ask for proof that you worked for another rideshare company. From the site:

After signup, you’ll have to prove that you drove for a rideshare company before 1/8/2015. Once activated, you’ll have 30 days to do your first trip.

If you want to sign up for this promotion, I would greatly appreciate if you used my referral link. You can also ask any Uber partner for their link as well.

Sign up Here!

If you have never driven for a rideshare company and would still like to sign up for Uber, you can sign up with this link and earn $100 extra for me and you after doing 20 rides with my referral code PW6RA

If you are an Uber driver/partner, feel free to leave your referral link in the comments below!

Read the rest of this article at Get $100-$500 if You Sign Up to Become an Uber Driver.

Currently, you can call American and ask for a challenge to a certain status level given that you have status with another airline. Generally, it is very hard to get them to grant an Executive Platinum challenge as they just go up to Platinum usually. Not only do you have to pay $200 + to enroll in the challenge but you also have to earn a set amount of elite qualifying points. These are different from qualifying miles as they are based on the fare class you book on.

For those that weren’t able to get into the US Airways Challenge, this is extremely similar to it when it comes to the Executive Platinum/Chairmans level.

What’s Different Today?

Today’s offer is a bit different as it seems to be targeted and offering the challenge for free without needing status on other airlines. You must fly between now and May 15th, which is also a lot longer than the usual 90 days to qualify. The biggest benefit of this challenge comes in how you can complete it:

Fly American, US Airways and other select airlines* between the date you register and May 15, 2015, to earn the required elite-qualifying miles or points and you’ll receive status through February 29, 2016.

This is huge because you can fly in any fare class and earn the amount of miles instead of EQP’s!

Here is what the chart looks like:

It’s important to note that you will not receive status until actually qualifying for it. The benefit with paying the $200 in the beginning of the other challenge is that you automatically are granted that status level when trying to complete the challenge.

You must register for this offer by February 11th, 2015.

This offer seems to be targeted, so remember to use code HV1T1 and see whether you were part of this offer!

Here’s the email in it’s entirety:

Read the rest of this article at Are You Eligible? Free American Airlines Executive Platinum Fast Track!.

Safely Transmit Data

As if putting in your credit card numbers online was worrisome, the last thing you want to do is have to think about whether your internet connection is private and safe. A VPN helps to eliminate that worry as it connects like a one way road to another network thus making it almost impossible to let anyone else compromise that data. This is extremely important as many areas of the world are ripe to computer hacking and data theft. This doesn’t just have to be for credit cards either because VPN’s help to protect any passwords you type into social media and banking accounts as well. It’s a good feeling to know that no matter where you are, at least you have a safe and private internet connection.

Connect to Social Media & Other Blocked Sites

For many including me, social media is an addiction. I’m constantly on it and even though I haven’t posted anything to Instagram in 4 months, i’d like to know I can whenever I want. However, a lot of countries ban different types of social media. China blocks Facebook and Instagram throughout the country and it’s a bit difficult for many westerners or others to be removed from posting on social media while there. A VPN is a great workaround as it lets you bypass these restrictions and log into sites that would otherwise be blocked. In addition to social media, many countries and hotels also block pornographic websites from being viewed. In the UAE, blocked sites often show a menacing warning from the actual government about how the site you’re trying to access is illegal. However, by activating a VPN client, you can bypass this and browse whatever you’d like safely and privately.

Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube & Hulu Access

If you have ever tried to access any of these three sites outside of the USA, you probably noticed that viewing isn’t allowed until back in the country. Netflix and Hulu have network restrictions and contracts in place where they can’t show certain shows or any depending on the country. In Asia, you will generally be locked out of Netflix and told that the video selection is restricted. Like Netflix, Youtube and Hulu also block access to certain videos outside of the USA. The best way to get around these is by using a VPN that lets you connect to a network in the USA. Most VPN networks offer a selection of countries to connect to like England, The Netherlands, Germany, etc. Keep in mind though that Netflix just got a lot more strict when it comes to logging in through a VPN. They will now start banning users from using Netflix at all if caught!

How to Get a VPN Subscription

Generally, the best way to gauge the best VPN subscription is to do some research. Do you care about internet speed? Do you have a set price? These questions are what make the difference between which service provider to choose. I personally use a company called ExpressVPN and have had no issues with them when connecting to a VPN. They do offer a 30 day trial and then the cost is about $12.95/month after that. I think it is pretty reasonable and they offer a hassle-free way to cancel the subscription just in case you don’t see yourself flying every month. Their service also works on your laptop, tablet and phone so you’re not just restricted to one device.

Some VPN Tips

• The biggest tip I can give is to download the VPN software BEFORE you get to your destination. I made this mistake and tried to download the software in China where the site was already blocked. That is partly the reason I got ExpressVPN because it was one of the only providers that weren’t blocked in China.
• Do your research. I picked my software mainly because I was desperate and because everything else was blocked. If that wasn’t the case, I probably would have found cheaper options.
• Make sure to look at the speed and data allowance. Many VPN networks limit the amount of internet traffic and the speed. You might be getting a super fast internet connection from your hotel but the VPN network might limit that to a crawl. The same goes for streaming movies and music. You may have unlimited Netflix access but the VPN can limit the data to a certain size. For what it’s worth, ExpressVPN doesn’t seem to do that.

Read the rest of this article at Three Reasons Why Travelers Need a VPN Subscription.

The goal of the program is not only to teach through sessions, but also to encourage attendees to connect with each other to create groups of people to bounce ideas off of. We want to stress the social aspect of the event, since that’s where many of today’s travel deals come from!

Another goal for us was to line up a diverse group of speakers that are experts in a given field. Given my experience having spoken at multiple conferences, I feel like we were able to create an atmosphere that ensures attendees will truly benefit from each session.

What Will You Learn?

Here’s our current lineup of tentative speakers:

• Greg, Frequent Miler
• Tahsir (AKA Bengali Miles Guru), Travel Codex (That’s Me!)
• Omar, Travel Summary
• Fabio, Passageiro de Primeira (Brazil)
• Matt, Saverocity
• Jamison, Points Summary
• More to be announced!

Sessions will be structured such that each speaker will discuss a particular topic in depth, including manufactured spending, airline award bookings, hotel programs, and more. Attendees will also have the ability to speak to presenters one-on-one throughout the conference. We plan to provide a more detailed breakdown of each session in the coming weeks and months.

What’s Included?

Tickets will go on sale immediately but will increase in price in the coming days, so be sure to get your tickets ASAP if you’re interested. Tickets will be Non-Refundable but transferable.  Sales will be conducted with the following prices:

• Early-bird special: $119 per person. (Update: SOLD OUT!)
• Regular sale price: $129 per person.
• Last chance: $139 per person.

Purchase Tickets Here!

All tickets will include lunch on the day of the event, and attendees who choose to stay at the Embassy Suites Anaheim – South hotel will also enjoy a free breakfast buffet for each night they stay. In addition, the hotel will offer free daytime parking for all attendees, while attendees staying at the hotel will be charged ~$13/night for overnight parking.
We tried to secure a special room rate at the host hotel, but unfortunately we couldn’t find anything to make it worthwhile for attendees. Thankfully there are a dozen other chain hotels within walking distance (Sheraton, Marriott Suites, Wyndham, Hyatt Regency, Doubletree all just steps away) so there will be plenty of options.

The host hotel is a Hilton Category 5, with rooms at 40K points per night. Rooms are spacious like other Embassy Suites hotels, so it’ll be a great place to stay if you bring the family. Speaking of family…did I mention Disneyland is a 15 minute walk from the hotel?

There are only 125 tickets for sale, so make sure you get yours early before prices increase to the next tier. I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Note: Unfortunately no one will be allowed entry without a ticket. Significant issues have arisen in previous conferences because of non-ticketed drop-ins, so we’ll be checking tickets and ID at the door and will hand out special tickets for lunch.

#TravelConOC

Purchase Tickets Here!

Read the rest of this article at TravelCon: A New Miles & Points Conference Coming February 28.

Check In

Due to the fact that I was connecting in Seoul, I never had to go to a check-in kiosk. There was transit security to clear after landing but after that, it was smooth sailing to the Asiana First Class Lounge. I also want to note that Asiana has no ground escort for arriving passengers like Thai and other airlines do for First Class passengers.

Asiana First Class Lounge

Upon entering from the connecting bridge, I was greeted by two agents who promptly scanned my boarding pass and escorted me to the inside of the lounge. At first glance, it looks as though one is stepping into a library.

When it comes to seating, there is more than plenty as the entire area is designed as semi-private living rooms. I was very impressed at the homely vibe that was being given off by all of the decor.

Farther down the lounge was where the dining area was located. There was a selection of hot and cold dishes throughout the day but when I arrived, there were only soft drinks and light snacks.

Beyond the dining area were a few shower rooms and a silent room with a couple of massage chairs. Both areas were extremely clean mostly empty. From my understanding, this lounge is never more than 20% full at any given time. In fact, between the 4 hours I was there, I saw a total of maybe 15 people.

As my boarding time was approaching, I was wondering whether anyone would come to escort me to the plane as previous reports stated so. With about 30 minutes left till gate closing, I started walking to the exit of the lounge. A lounge attendant noticed me walking and ran over to inform me to wait a few more minutes as they would escort me to the gate. Sure enough, 5 minutes later, a very nice attendant started to escort me to the plane.

Asiana Airlines A380 First Class Suites

Asiana Airlines OZ202
First Class Suite 3D
11 Hours and 0 Minutes
2:50PM – 9:20AM
Airbus A380

Upon boarding, I was immediately greeted by 4 attendants including the purser. They showed me the way to my seat and also informed me that they would be keeping my bag in one of the designated lockers. I noticed that First Class was on the bottom deck of the A380 whereas on other airlines, it is upstairs. There was also a beautiful entry sign at the front door.

My first impressions of the suites themselves were that they were exact copies of the Etihad First Class cabin. Everything was practically the same except for the color of the seats and the larger than life television. I cannot begin to explain how massive this screen was. In reality, a 32 inch TV isn’t that big but from a distance of about 6 feet, it looks enormous.

The doors of the suite are not automatic like Emirates but it was fairly easy to open/close them. I find closing doors on planes to be one of the coolest features available and it adds a lot of privacy to a seat.

For this leg of the flight, I was flying in First Class with Travel Summary. We chatted for most of the pre-departure and managed to pass time before the doors were shut.

Throughout the pre-departure process, the purser and attendants came around to my suite about 5 times to offer me drinks and amenities. I was handed very comfortable pajamas and a Salvatore Ferragamo amenity kit for the 11 hour flight. The quality of the pajamas surprised me as they were extremely heavy. The packaging it came in made me feel like I was dressing up for a Vanilla Ice concert but thats another concern. The amenity kit was also quite surprising as they were the same items that some Hyatt Hotels offer in their rooms.

Of course, Travel Summary was a bit disappointed that for some reason, he wasn’t receiving the same level of service as me. All I could do was sit and laugh at how the purser would pass by him every time without offering anything. I joked that he wasn’t well dressed enough to be taken seriously but we’ll never really know why there was such a lapse in service.

For the next 5 hours, I do not remember anything that happened. I remember taking off but I was too tired to even recline my seat. As pictured below, my friend who was flying with me managed to get an accurate image of what I looked like.

With about 6 hours left of flying time, I woke up and unsurprisingly, there was an attendant with a water bottle and the menu at my door. She asked me if I wanted to go freshen up while she prepared the Korean option I chose for dinner.

The Lavatory downstairs was very spacious and even featured a nice changing area where the toilet was completely covered by a leather seat. Overall, it was a nice lavatory but I personally think the size could’ve been bigger upstairs.

Once changed into my 55 pound pajamas, I dragged myself back to the seat where the attendant was already waiting with ginger ale.

The menu for the flight was separated by Western and Korean. I managed to choose Korean because I heard great things about Bibimbap.

Dinner service was exceptional and I thoroughly enjoyed my Korean selection course. Every item was delicious and had that slight hint of kimchi! Overall, it was probably one of my most favorite meals on a plane ever!

I wrote about how massive the screen was before but it really became overkill when I started to play a movie and realized it was probably a better experience than the theaters. Coupled with the Bose Noise Canceling headphones, this suite turned into the ultimate home theater. The selection of movies lacking a bit but I don’t think it was horrible. The fact is that I fly a lot and often time, I watch a ton of movies on other flights. Most airlines entertainment selection is the same throughout so people who don’t fly as often will probably find a few things to watch. I do have to say that Lufthansa still takes the award as worst entertainment selection ever.

At this point, we were about 5 hours away from Los Angeles and I decided to tour the plane. This plane has First Class and Economy downstairs and Business Class upstairs. There is also a lounge in the front of the upstairs cabin in lieu of a lavatory. This one was a bit basic and was just two sofa areas which faced an empty wall. It reminded me of Thai’s A380 lounge but less colorful. The business class cabin on this A380 features fully flat seats. They look the same as Thai Airways Business Class as well.

When I returned to my suite, the attendant came to me and asked if I would like a snack. Seeing how we had a few hours before breakfast was served, I decided on the Spicy Ramen. Within minutes, the table was again set up and I was soon enjoying my soup.

After eating the Ramen, I decided to nap again so I informed the attendant that i’d like to be woken up in a couple hours. She managed to wake me up just in time for breakfast, which I had with my friend in one suite.

The breakfast, like most other meals onboard was delicious. It was a tad bit spicy for the “morning” but I enjoyed it.

Once breakfast was finished, I looked around the seat and some of the controls. I absolutely loved the closet that was built into the seat. Unlike on some other A380’s, the closet had a pull our garment rack which made it easy to store clothing.

I noticed that the only power outlet for this suite was on the opposite side by the ottoman. At first, I thought that surely, it couldn’t be the only one but it was. This power outlet doesn’t make sense where it is and makes it kind of difficult to plug things in without a long cord. If you do have a spare USB cable, there is an option to charge your phone in the storage compartment of the seat, however i’ve noticed that it generally takes a bit longer for things to charge without plugging it into a real outlet.

Storage space was plentiful within my suite and I found it to be adequate to hold my passport and other items.

There was also a separate touch screen controller that was used to control all the seat features and one to control the entertainment. I found the travel map to be very intuitive while the do not disturb feature from the other controller was pretty cool too.

The seat itself was a bit bland in color but is in line with the rest of Asiana’s fleet. I was hoping that they would change the colors but they didn’t. The A380 also had a very nice starlit ceiling.

My friend did have his bed made but I never got around to getting mine made. It seems as though there was some confusion between Travel Summary and the attendant about making beds but we seemed to have no such issue. My friend informed me that he was actually escorted to the lavatory to change while the attendants made his bed. Travel Summary had a different experience where they didn’t even understand his request to have the bed made.

We all spent the last hour before landing talking about the service and overall quality of the seat/suite.

My takeaway from it all was that the service aboard this flight was in line was all other Asian carriers. I loved the attentiveness of the attendants and also the warm hospitality shown every time I had a request. There was never a time where I had to ask for something twice and at time, they anticipated most of my needs. I truly loved the service aspect of this flight. At one point, I managed to count how many times the attendant went through our cabin in a 10 minute period. It was somewhere close to 13 times. I was absolutely shocked and amazed that they had so much energy! I just think I got lucky with this crew as they were beyond friendly and treated me with the utmost respect.

Once we landed at LAX, we taxied for a bit before parking at the new Tom Bradley International Terminal. Alas, our trip had come to an end but I will probably be remembering this flight forever.

Asiana has done an amazing job with this First Class product and I was glad to be one of the first people to review it.

Read the rest of this article at Asiana Airlines A380 First Class Review.

Looking on the Aeroplan website, it looks like most of their routes are wide open in Business Class and that no fuel surcharges are being added to the tickets. I don’t know how long that will last but maybe it will be permanent?

Take a look for yourself:

At 75,000 miles one way or 150,000 roundtrip, Aeroplan is a great option to get to India and now you can do so without those hefty fuel surcharges. The availability makes it possible to go non-stop from the US-India. Only United flies that route within Star Alliance and their availability isn’t that great at the moment!

Air India has a great Business Class product on their 787 Dreamliner and it looks like their service isn’t that bad either.

Air India also offers a First Class option on some routes that fly the 777-300/200LR. At the moment, I was able to find space for Delhi-London in First Class with the hefty UK duty tax added. There is also First Class Space to Chicago, New York and Newark!

As with all new Star Alliance members, this availability will not last! I suggest that you put something on hold soon if you do plan on going to India or beyond!

Read the rest of this article at Air India Joins Star Alliance, and Awards on Aeroplan Have No Fuel Surcharges!.

US Airways has had a stellar award chart for the past few years and they offer amazing sweet spots throughout. A lot of people don’t always have good things to say about the agents but I don’t blame them because every time they learn something new, US Airways either buys out an airline or gets bought out! The agents are generally grumpy but you can find some really awesome ones as well. I know Ben has outlined booking with US Airways before, so I wont do that. Instead, i’ll list some of the different places you can use your miles to get to on the “cheap”.

Option 1: US Domestic Tickets (25,000-50,000)

US Airways has a great domestic chart for intra-US travel. Remember that if you fly exclusively on US Air metal and have their credit card, you’ll get 5,000 miles off. That comes out to 20,000 miles roundtrip in economy and 45,000 miles roundtrip in Business/First Class. Keep in mind that US Airways will devalue their North America chart soon.

The major benefit for the intra-US chart right now is the pricing for transcontinental First Class on American Airlines new A321T. Essentially the same as Cathay Pacific Business Class, AA has tried to capture the high profile clientele on their LAX/SFO-JFK routes. For 50,000 miles, you too can experience this level of service and comfort. It might seem like a steep price until you realize that American currently charges 65,000 miles in their own award chart for the same route.

Option 2: Mexico – South/Central Asia (60,000-90,000-120,000)

If you need to go to most of Asia, leaving from Mexico can save you a ton of miles. A family of four who starts their trip in Mexico can save upwards of 160,000 miles! As it is stated at the moment, Mexico to South/Central Asia is 90,000 in Business Class and 120,000 in First Class. I recently used this benefit to fly from Cabo San Lucas – Dhaka, Bangladesh in First Class with Cathay Pacific. It was a great redemption and it ended up saving me a total of 32,500 miles as I used 7,500 avios to get to Cabo.

US Airways still allows one stopover so you can use it up in your home airport. For example, if someone lives in California, they can buy a one way ticket down to Mexico for a vacation. Once finished, they can start their US Airways trip from there and head back home. Then they can create a stopover and depart to Asia whenever they have to. I’ve personally used this method to save 120,000 miles for my family. You must keep into account the costs of the tickets to Mexico. It was easy for us as there is plenty of avios space. It doesn’t make too much sense, however for people on the East Coast.

The way I think about these trips is the fact that USA-South Asia is 80,000 miles in Economy Class. If you head down to Mexico, you can literally fly in Business Class roundtrip for 10,000 more points. To me, it is a no brainer but to a family of four, it might be a nightmare to fly to Mexico and incur extra costs.

Keep in mind that Mexico – North Asia is priced higher in Business Class at 110,000 miles. It is a subtle change that mirrors the American award chart and shows that they are slowly coming into line with them.

Option 3: USA – South Pacific (80,000-110,000-140,000)

This is a great way to get to Australia. By far, one of the cheapest ways to get down under! Another great benefit of US Airways is that you can fly through Asia to get to Australia. Although there were more partners to Australia when US Air was part of Star Alliance, I have seen Cathay Pacific open up a lot of space to Melbourne and Sydney. There isn’t much availability with Qantas unless it is 11 months out or 1 week before travel. The best option is to actually fly through Asia now or keep checking the Dallas – Sydney flight as Business Class usually opens on that flight. If you want to travel in First Class, look for flights from USA-Hong Kong and then flights from Hong Kong and Singapore to Sydney with Qantas. For those who travel in Economy, there is usually a great amount of space from the US directly to Australia. Unless you want to fly Economy Class to Asia and have a stopover, you should try to fly the most direct flights possible.

To compare to American Airlines, it is often very hard to get seats because they do not allow you to transit through Asia on one award! They normally charge 75,000 miles in Economy, 125,000 miles in Business and 145,000 in First Class. Overall, US Airways will still be cheaper on this route in two of the three cabins! Couple that with flexible routings, international stopovers and you’re pretty much set to save a ton!

Option 4: USA – Middle East (80,000-120,000-180,000)

If you need to get to the Middle East, Dividend Miles are a great option to consider. There aren’t many Middle Eastern carriers with One World but Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian are your best bets. Although they don’t open up a ton of space, Qatar Airways has flights from Chicago, Washington DC, New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Montreal, Dallas and Houston.

For 120,000 miles, you can also try to get across the pond on one of American Airlines or British Airways flights and have a nice stopover in the city of your choosing. After staying, you can catch a Qatar Airways flight to the Middle East. I have generally seen that there is a lot more open space from Europe than the US.

Subsequently, you can also try to book through Asia. This is beneficial as Cathay Pacific has just recently launched flights to Doha and more of the Middle East. There is also a ton of open space with Qatar Airways from Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Option 5: Intra Asia – Intra Asia

The final option for using Dividend Miles is to use them for Intra Asia travel. The stopover benefit can be amazing when combining them with different flights in Asia. Cathay Pacific and some other Oneworld partners have fifth freedom flights within Asia and can greatly reduce costs when booking trips.

For 30,000 miles, you can fly in Business Class from Singapore to Bangkok with a stop in India for an extended period of time. This is super beneficial to people who like to travel Intra Asia or people who want to add on a few more cities to their other award trips.

Often times, this can have a financial benefit as well because Intra Asia flights can cost in upwards of $500-1000 per segment on Business Class. You can potentially get great value out of your miles and people who travel these routes often might even want to buy US Air miles when they go on sale.

Bonus Use: Save Them

If you don’t have a particular use for Dividend Miles, you should consider saving them. US Air and American will eventually merge frequent flyer programs and you will be able to transfer between both or to one program. The added risk that comes with this option is that either airline can devalue at anytime. By doing this, you can pool together your miles and save for a family trip or larger redemption.

If you do decide to save miles, chances are you can only transfer to American Airlines. By doing so, you actually forego some benefits like stopovers and routing rules. American is a bit more strict and they also manage to charge fuel taxes on some of their partner airlines.

Do you have any other suggestions about other redemption opportunities with Dividend Miles? Leave them in the comments below!

Read the rest of this article at 5 Best Ways to Use US Airways Dividend Miles.

Originally, I was booked on the inaugural flight for the Qatar A380 but that flight got postponed till July 1st and now till even later. Initially, Qatar switched me to a 777-300ER and as cool as they are, I really wanted to try out something newer. At check-in, I was able to convince the agent to switch my grandmother and I into the Qatar 787 from Doha – London.

My complete routing started off in Bangkok, went through Doha to London and then after a 23 hour stop, headed to Chicago. The entire itinerary was on a paid (D) fare which earned 125% with American Airlines. The total cost per person came out to around $470.

Check-In

Check-in was fairly smooth and the agent helped me change some flights around and eventually checked my bags for me. She also handed me two lounge passes to their partner lounge. In Doha, the Business Class lounge isn’t fully completed yet so she offered to give me some vouchers to use around the airport. I previously wrote a post on my thoughts about Hamad International. I was actually connecting in Doha from Bangkok and had about 6 hours to hang around the airport. Around 5AM, we headed to the gate to start boarding our flight.

Qatar Airways QR 7
Boeing 787 Dreamliner
6:45 AM – 12:00 PM
Seat 6E (Business Class)

Boarding began promptly at 6AM with Business Class and elite members leading the pack. Once onboard, we were escorted to our seats, which are very weirdly placed. The Qatar 787 has 5 rows of seats, then a break/walkway and then 1 more row of Business Class. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me but the seats did make me feel more excluded from the rest of the cabin. I did however feel like I wasn’t part of Business Class at times and was scared that these seats would affect service. At first, it seemed as my fears were coming true when the flight attendants started handing out amenities to all other seats but us. They eventually made it to our seats and handed us amenities and informed us of the flight time of 6 hours even.

Boarding was completed 15 minutes early and we managed to pushback about 5 minutes early. As we were taxiing, I realized how quiet the 787 is and what a marvelous job Qatar Airways did with fitting their plane! The 787 itself is absolutely beautiful. Between the lighting and electro-chromatic windows, this plane was a spectacle in and of itself. Our seats didn’t have windows so I couldn’t see anything on take-off. Instead, both sides of our seats were fitted with closets and storage space. Right behind us was Economy Class and it seemed to be quite full.

After take-off, the purser came around to introduce himself to us. He made sure to let him know if we needed anything at any time. After our purser left, another attendant came by to take our dinner orders. She informed us that my main selection was unavailable so I decided to try out the Indian Selection instead. I was pretty surprised to see some menu items that were created by Chef Nobu!

Meal service started very quickly and we were presented with an Arabic Mezze to start off with, which included chicken and two samosa style appetizers.

The main course was then presented and was actually very tasty.

After breakfast, I declined any dessert option and decided to take a nap. As I was awake for pretty much all 6 hours in transit, I was pretty tired. The seat on the Qatar 787 is a reverse herringbone that turns into a fully flat bed. The bedding provided with the seat is also comfortable and features a down comforter with a semi-plush pillow.

After taking a nap for about 2 hours, I couldn’t sleep anymore and chose to browse the entertainment system. Qatar calls their entertainment system Oryx and has hundreds of shows and movies to choose from. The fact that I was flying for close to 24 hours beforehand meant that I watched most of the movies offered. Instead of watching anything, I connected to Wi-Fi, which cost around $5 per 10 MB. It was a bit pricey but I found out that if you purchase with your laptop and create an account, the price gets knocked down to $10 for 25 MB. I used that plan to log into my phone and communicate with my awesome Whatsapp travel group.

After my internet space ran out, I went and spoke with some of the attendants working the cabin. Their work seemed to die down around halfway in and I spoke to them about how it is to work with Qatar Airways. They reacted positively and told me that they really liked what they did and the company they worked for. She went on to talk to me about the controversy that surrounded them a few months ago and explained that the employee in question was wrong for what she did. The attendant told me that everything is mostly explained at training and before they accept the position so to complain later is quite useless. She also mentioned to me that after that post, Qatar Airways pushed the employee curfew to 4AM instead of midnight. Overall, I got the sense that this crew at least liked working for Qatar Airways.

I managed to snap a few pictures of the lavatory and it seemed to me that it was a bit small and dull.

About an hour and a half before landing, a light meal was served. It was actually very light as it was some pastries and other small items. It was quite tasty and wasn’t too heavy.

The cabin was then prepped for landing and the purser invited me to sit at a window seat for landing. We landed into London Heathrow a few minutes early and I had the chance to take pictures of some heavy aircraft!

Overall, I really loved my flights on Qatar Airways. The service was impeccable and other than a few hiccups, I would definitely fly with them again. The crew on both my flights were extraordinary and took great care of my grandmother and I throughout the flight. Kudos to Qatar Airways for great service on some really incredible planes! They have set themselves up for success in the future and the addition of the 787 and A380 in conjunction with their new airport is the next step to gaining more market share.

Read the rest of this article at Review: Qatar Airways 787 Business Class Doha – London.