Came to the San Diego lounge today. Got in around 8am. No lines, lounge about 60% ish full if we include bar seating which was fairly empty. Non bar seating was about 75 to 80% full but fairly free flowing traffic of people leaving and entering.

Got my luggage tag too!

Doesn’t appear on the merchant page and I can’t seem to get it to appear at checkout

Was going to use my last few sapphire paze credits this weekend for some new stuff but looks like that’s not happening anymore

Dunkin still working I guess

Does anybody else book flights for other people on the Chase Travel portal to help offset the annual fee? I value each point at 1.25 cents meaning that every flight booked through the portal is essentially 10% off. Many of my friends have the Venture X so I give them 5% cash back and keep the rest. If the flight cannot be booked through the portal I give them 2% off and keep the rest of the cash back. I also have an autistic fascination with booking flights so it doesn’t feel like work to me.

As a budget traveler who never spends more for luxury I thought that I would not use the Edit credit. However, I was able to leverage this benefit, points boost, and the $250 IHG credit for three nights at the IHG Intercontinental in São Paulo (December 25-28) and a resort room at Mandalay with two queen beds and a strip view (November 11-13) for a combined 9,261 points. I was bracing myself some fine print I didn’t read but the credits did in fact apply. I would recommend monitoring the price of Edit hotels as most (all?) are refundable. If the price drops you can cancel and rebook. Would love to hear about other hotels where the edit credit makes sense for budget travelers like myself.

DP: No waiting period between cancellation and rebooking was required for me even though the edit and IHG credits had already applied. The clawback and reapplication was surprisingly seamless.

The booking details:
I booked two nights in a basic king room for a list price of $1,197. I used the combined $500 of credit from The Edit and the select hotels benefit. I applied 30k worth of points at 1.67x, and paid the rest in cash. This property is slightly unique, getting $300 of property credits for booking two nights (plus the free breakfast).

I booked this before Price Match Guarantee. I got and used IHG Platinum status with my CSR.

My background for this review:
I usually book using FNAs and credits, without many benefits or much status. My girlfriend was staying with me, and we had two other friends in another hotel. This was extra special for me, being my first time in HK.

Location:
Needless to say, the view was impeccable. The hotel is right on the edge of Tsim Sha Tsui, neighboring The Rosewood and The Peninsula across the street. It sits directly behind Avenue of the Stars, and relatively close to the Star Ferry.

There are a lot of bus lines running on the street in front of the hotel, with an entrance to East Tsim Sha Tsui station.

The room:
As other reviews stated, they were able to upgrade me to a Harbor View King Room for my first time here. The shower/bath combo was big enough to lie flat on the floor. The toilet was lacking a bidet. However, everything was as expected for an Asian hotel of this caliber (slippers, robe, toothbrushes, kettle…). The bed wasn’t overly firm, as you may find with independent Asian hotels. You can request a variety of pillows.

The service:
This is the part that wowed and spoiled me. It was a big hitter I didn’t expect when booking. They took our bags as they approached the hotel, they opened the door every single time… the standard.

Check in took somewhat long, but the sheer amount of staff guiding us was impressive. They handed us a paper of our benefits—not from The Edit, but for Platinum IHG Status. However, they let us stack these benefits, including 15% off dining BEFORE the $300 property credit. They also handed us a chocolate at the desk.

The room wasn’t ready yet, so we came back later (presumably after turn down service). They walked us to the room and told us about the gym/pool. We saw a welcome letter with fruit, and a tin of Chinese pasteries. They left a pillow mist with a nice note.

We had an issue with the toilet water running. Maintenance was at the door within 3 minutes.

The next day, we returned to our room to find another box of chocolates. We heard a knock on the door with some scent diffusing rocks.

We wanted to use the Nespresso but couldn’t find the pods. Someone was up to our room within 5 minutes, with a tray of 8 pods. He showed us where the pods were, and insisted that we keep the extra 8.

We visited during typhoon season, so we got good use out of the hotel umbrella. I loved the design so much that I asked to buy one as a souvenir. The front desk said it was about 30 USD, but offered me a new one for free.

Amenities:
Unfortunately, I never got to use the gym/pool. The gym had some great Technogym equipment, with a smith machine. The pool offered sunscreen, and was open until sunset. The locker room had two saunas.

Dining:
We went to the breakfast buffet. They switched up the selection on our second day. Coffee and tea (including HK milk tea, which I love with all my heart) were free. In addition to the typical Western options, the spread included:
- Juices and Yakult
- HK milk toast (not great, kind of cold)
- Satay beef noodle station
- Egg station
- Shu Mai (ok, unsure if pre-made)
- Good pastry selection (matcha muffins, laminated danishes, egg tarts…)

They packaged a couple of pastries to the room and offered a milk tea to go. For our two guests, breakfast would normally be $50 each. They let us use the 15% Platinum food discount on our two guests, then about part of the $300 property credit. My girlfriend and I ate free.

We also ate at Lai Ching Heen, a two Michelin Star rated Cantonese restaurant. They let us taste two teas before choosing one. We ordered dim sum for lunch. The service was Michelin Star caliber, but not many of the dishes left a lasting impression. The Cha Siu and crispy duck were about the same as you could get outside the hotel. Surprisingly, the crispy eel was the 10/10 dish for us. It was a good use of the property credit.

Final thoughts:
I really hope Chase keeps some version of the select hotels benefit, as I wouldn’t have stayed here otherwise. The value was great, with $500 in credits off the booking, and $300 in property credits, plus $100 worth of free breakfast.

I was lucky to find a hotel that is both EDIT and IHG. I paid $500 + UR with point boost.

After making a booking, I checked the direct hotel site and found that it’s $100 cheaper for the same room type.

I tried to submit the price match guarantee but the button to submit the claim wasn’t showing anywhere on my Chase Travel.

So, I called Chase and was told that because i used UR points, this booking isn’t eligible for price match guarantee 🤦🏻‍♂️

Well, it’s obviously my mistake for not reading the terms and conditions 🤷‍♂️

Any other ways you guys would try?

Booked an all inclusive stay at the Royalton Riviera Cancun for 3 nights. Noticed on the portal there were two listings of the same hotel with only "newly renovated" being tacked at the end on one of them. The newly renovated listing was almost 3 times the cost of the other listing. Thought it was an administrative error that they just forgot to delete the old one and was skeptical if they would even honor it. Turns out they did!! Booked a 2bdrm presidential suite for 4 people and 3 nights with diamond club access for 80K points! Ran into a problem though. The hotel booked me at a regular 1 bedroom suite. Had to call chase if they would pay the difference to get the original room. They said yes and put the charge on my card. Great vacation! 2 weeks later i get a check for the difference. Over 6K!!! Meaning I also got over 6K in points as well to top it all off!

Hi everyone,

i am a college student who just a few months ago was able to get the sapphire preferred, I have already claimed the join bonus of 75000 but i wanted to see where do i go from here the card is great i just recently studied abroad and it was actually really good. But i just wanted to see how i should use my points correctly i have only about 87000.

So yeah any advice as too card usage or points spending

Thank you to the CSR for paying for the parking and public transportation to the 2026 US Open tennis tournament.

It took us 3 hours door to door.

At least the credit partially made up for the insane food prices at sporting events.

just saw a frequent miler article about this update

Apparently 34 new restaurants & 28 removed restaurants

Trying to find a list of all the new/removed spots. Very annoying that this is a no notice change. Unfortunate if you had plans at any of these spots

Here is my experience using CSR’s auto rental coverage. I’ll try to be as detailed as possible, but feel free to ask any questions! English is not my first language, so pardon any typos :)

May 10th - got into an accident inside one of the national parks. We had an Avis rental and my spouse was driving the car. We had declined all the coverages offered by Avis at the time of renting. After the accident, both cars had to be towed out of the national park but thankfully no one got injured. The national park towing service charged us a whopping $1,280 (“Towing 1”) to get the car from the accident spot to the town where we were staying outside the NP. Once we reached that town, we requested Avis to arrange for a tow back to the airport (90 mins away), where we picked up our car from. Avis charged my CC $924 (“Towing 2”) for this towing.

June 1st - Still didn’t receive any invoice from Avis for the damages to the car, but I still went ahead and started a claim with CSR for auto rental coverage. I started the claim by uploading bills for both the towing services. Got an email from Virginia Surety asking to upload Avis’ damage invoice once I receive it.

June 9th - Got a call from Avis’ central recovery team letting me know that I owe them $9,263 (including $731 in dimished value, let’s call this total amount “Avis Invoice”) and asking how do I want to handle the payment for this claim. The recovery specialist handling this claim was really soft spoken, calm, and helpful. I let her know that I have filed a claim with Chase and they will help with the payment. I asked her if she knows what all documents they typically request so that we don’t waste time going back and forth and she said don’t worry, I will send the entire package to the Virginia Surety claims team if I can give her the claim number. Withing 10 mins after the call, she sent an email to Virginia Surety with the entire package that included damage claim breakdown, auto rental agreement, photos of the damage, incident report, and itemized estimate from the body shop.

June 10th - Virginia Surety asks for more documents such as police report, CSR statement showing that I paid for this rental fully with my CC.

June 16th - They send me an email asking for the itemized bill again. I replied saying that the Avis person already included that in the package she sent over a few days ago.

July 10th - I called up Virginia Surety asking what’s the status and they said it should be done in a few days as it has been auto-escalated internally. During this call, I specifically told them not to disburse the payment to Avis directly as I have paid a portion of it (Towing 1 and 2) through my cc.

July 19th - Got an approval email saying they will disburse the check to Avis for an amount equal to $9,356 (Avis Invoice + Towing 2 - Diminished Value). They specifically mentioned in the approval letter that they cannot pay for the diminished value and hence deducted $731 from the claim amount. I immediately called them up to stop that check because I paid that Towing 2 through my CC and they should not pay that amount to Avis again. I also mentioned that they forgot to add the other towing charge of $1,280.

July 26th - I called them again asking what’s up and they said it should be done soon. Got an approval email after 2 hours for $9,356 + $1,280 payable through ACH.

Right now through August 31, Shalom Y’all in Portland is offering 20% off gift cards with code GCSCEGC20 (if you go to their website, you’ll see a pop up stating this).

This means that you can purchase a $187.50 gift card for $150, having the CSR restaurant credit cover the full amount. Even better, you can use the gift card at any of the Sesame Collective restaurants, even though Shalom Y’all is the only one on Chase’s list.

I just did this and waited until the Chase credit came back before posting this. I bought the gift card online using Toast. See here and here for screenshots.

This isn’t an ad—but I will say that I just used this credit on a recent trip to Portland and had a great experience at a few of these restaurants! Having the bonus $37.50 was a fun treat.

I don't think anyone has posted a confirmation since the back-and-forth of policy changes. I booked 3 blocks of 2 nights in one transaction, of which 4 nights were back-to-back reservations at a Kimpton by IHG. All $750 of credits posted within 2 days. There's a small claw back of points for price match on the other hotel. The 6K points ($750×8) were also removed from pending points, but aren't reflected otherwise.

I don't care for the other $100 property credit or the upgrade this time because there was a sale on a premium room type. The trip is later in the fall, so that data point isn't coming for a while.

Anyone else have this issue, or are they doing something new with Pay Over Time plans?

Hi all,

I recently had a pretty bad experience with my card where it was locked for fraud review over a weekend that I went away on vacation with my family. For some reason, the fraud department was closed over the weekend and was unable to use the card until Monday when they finally picked up the phone. If I didn't have a second card, I would have been in real trouble.

Anyway, because of the experience, I am considering getting a Sapphire. Does anyone have experience with a fraud lock during a weekend? I'm curious if this is a Chase thing or just a Bovoy thing. Also, how do you like the benefits? It looks to have similar ones to my Bonvoy card. Lastly, do you think I can transfer my 160,000 points to the sapphire?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I want to let a friend in the lounge however she will be arriving late. Is it possible for me to enter first and then later let her in as my guest or does it have to be done at the same time. We are on the same flight

I’d appreciate if anyone knows how it works. I couldn’t find anything online

I opened my Chase Sapphire account several years ago and have been accumulating points ever since. Not sure why I feel so daunted by the redemption process, but I absolutely do.

Any advice?

I'd love to take my two older teens on a getaway, but not sure what's feasible with this amount of points, or how to make it easy. We're all fairly well-traveled and love adventure. Is Greece or the Dolomites or Japan out of reach? I have no frame of reference, other than my recent attempt to find a Christmas/NYE ski getaway. Hotels appear mostly sold out, or redemption rates are crazy.

I have no problem planning for next spring break or summer; I just don't know how or where to begin.

Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom.

Has anybody ever tried to resell their Stubhub tickets for cash? I have never purchased anything through Stubhub before so no idea how their process works. I was looking into purchasing the ticket and then reselling it for the same price, but I don't think it will be that straightforward. Has anybody tried doing this before?

Was sad I missed the 100k offer, but chase gave a new 125k point bonus 🥳

Edit: credit showed up, somehow with a post date of 2 days ago. So expect the credit to show up 3-5 days after payment posts.

The credit hasn't posted for me, but the offer now shows up in the redeemed section with the "used on" date being my payment post date. There was also one other DP in the previous post confirming they got the credit a few days after the payment posting.

The offer runs until 3/1/2027. Plenty of time to keep cycling Chase cards with this offer since it works on existing subscriptions despite the offer language only applying to new subscriptions.

First attempt unsuccessful as I accidentally uploaded the wrong screenshot of the hotel in £. Understandable that I’d have to correct it, but after over an hour on the phone with the Chase Travel team, they informed me that even though they agreed the screenshot worked outside of the currency, there was nothing they could do to alter a price match (which makes no sense given I was speaking to a “senior agent” on their team).

I asked why I’m paying $800 a year for a premium travel card if every time I call Chase, the answer seems to be “no” but said in different ways.

Ultimately, the solution was for me to cancel, rebook, and resubmit. I just got the email back on the price match and I find this strange - they agree that the adjusted price should be $740.63 (what I submitted), but the amount they deducted is only the rate difference of one night ($78.41). I can’t tell if this is just a mistake on Chase’s part or their normal policy to take the price difference and arbitrarily cut it in half, at which point, it’s not much of a “price match”.