Limited Time: Nordic Choice Status Match
For a limited time the Nordic Choice hotels program is offering a complimentary status match to members from various elite programs, including Hilton & IHG.
This means if you hold a credit card that gives complimentary elite status, such as the IHG credit card, you’ll be able to match your status with Nordic Choice.
You can submit your match request here. Do note the page is in Finnish but you can easily use google translate.
I was able to match my Hilton Diamond status to Nordic Choice Platinum.
While Choice hotels in the US may have a bit of a jaded reputation, the Choice brand in Scandinavia is quite strong with hotels catering to business travelers.
Many Choice hotels in Scandinavia offer complimentary breakfast, which is no small benefit considering the high cost of food in the region. This isn’t your typical toast and egg spread either, with the food selection more in line with a brunch buffet.
Breakfast at the Clarion Stockholm
Benefits for Elite Choice members
Benefits for Gold & Platinum members are quite strong, with a late check out up to 6 PM, 125 KR (around $20) food and drink voucher, and even guaranteed room upgrades for Platinum members.
Not only that, platinum members can use any Choice hotel gym for absolutely no charge, even when not staying at the hotel! If you happen to be living near a Choice hotel, this could work out to hundreds of dollars in saved gym membership fees!
Benefits for US domestic travelers
If you’re not planning on traveling to Scandinavia in the near future, you may still find value with Choice’s partnership with Hertz. Gold and Platinum members are eligible for a status match to Hertz President’s Circle.
You can apply for your status match here.
This is a nice little backdoor way to free car upgrades and guaranteed availability.
Using Points
Choice Hotels Scandinavia hotels can be booked with Choice points, which open quite a few redemption opportunities. It’s quite common to see hotels costing around 10,000-15,000 points per night, which is quite reasonable.
There is a Choice credit card, although with a sign up bonus of only 25,000 miles, I personally wouldn’t apply for the card.
Instead, I’d recommend directly purchasing points from Choice. Choice frequently runs promotions of 30% bonus points or more.
I was able to stay at the Clarion Stockholm for only $70 worth of Choice points, a bargain considering the going rate was over $200 a night.
How to Status Match:
Simply go to this link and submit your details, along with a screenshot of your current hotel statement. The page is in Finnish so just use Chrome and translate the page to English. The process is quite simple and should take only a few minutes.
I was able to get status matched within 48 hours.
Overall Thoughts:
I’d highly recommend submitting a status match, especially if you’re planning on going to Scandinavia in the near future. The complimentary Hertz Presidents Club status is a nice perk for those who aren’t planning going to Scandinavia anytime soon.
Trip Report: Watching The Tuna Auction At Tsukiji Fish Market
If you’ve read any travel book or searched online on things to do in Tokyo, the Tsukiji tuna fish auction is one of the few things that everyone can agree is a must see. Before the crack of dawn, hundreds of tuna buyers converge in a non-descript warehouse and participate in a unique tradition complete with hand gestures, cowbells, and a song like chant.
The release of the film Jiro Loves Sushi only helped further increase popularity of witnessing this live choreography. With only 120 spots made available for tourists each day the auction is held, arriving hours earlier is a must.
Getting up at 2:30 in the morning to watch the Tuna Auction at Tsukiji Fish Market
If you’ve read any travel book or searched online on things to do in Tokyo, the Tsukiji tuna fish auction is one of the few things that everyone can agree is a must see. Before the crack of dawn, hundreds of tuna buyers converge in a non-descript warehouse and participate in a unique tradition complete with hand gestures, cowbells, and a song like chant.
The release of the film Jiro Loves Sushi only helped further increase popularity of witnessing this live choreography. With only 120 spots made available for tourists each day the auction is held, arriving hours earlier is a must.
My friend and I woke up bright and early at 2:30 AM. Since public transport wasn’t open until 5:00 am, we grabbed an Uber ($30) and arrived at the Tuna Auction around 3:30 AM. It turns out we made it in the nick of time and we were given jackets for the second tour group.
No sooner than 20 minutes later, all the jackets had been handed out, and the unfortunate tourists who came afterwards were turned away. After going through an adrenaline rush to get there, it was time for us to sit down and wait for the auction to begin 2 hours later. The room is as old school as it gets with no chairs and just a few cones marking where we were allowed to sit. Eventually everyone succumbed to their tired legs and sat on the floor.
Being crowded in a small room with 100 other travelers was helped somewhat by the jovial mood of everyone who managed to make it on time. It honestly felt like one of those summer camps from back home, except hearing different languages from around the world. Most of the tourists were American or Chinese, with an also healthy sprinkling of Europeans.
At 5:05 AM, the first group of 60 tourists was called up and we were moved next to the door. By now the tired expressions of our group were replaced by one filled with adrenaline. Finally at around 5:30 AM, the doors were open and we marched outside in a single line to the Tuna auction warehouse.
Tip: If you want to be in the front row to get a clear view of the auction, make sure position yourself next to the exit door.
On the way there, you’re guided through a beehive of activity as the market is in full swing, with forklifts flying through in a coordinated movement, only to screech to a halt when an unsuspecting tourist gets in the way.
When you walk in, you’re directed behind roped off corridor. For the first 10 minutes or so, we watched as potential buyers sampled the fat content of each fish by taking a small chunk from its tail using a specialized hook.
Each fish buyer has his own technique to tell how good quality the tuna is and mentally calculates their highest bid.
The cowbells soon began ringing and multiple auctioneers climbed their platform and began chanting in a song like fashion.
The process is a bit complicated, with buyers using a system of hand signals to make their bids.
Within seconds, bluefish Tuna changes hands for as much as $10,000 each. As soon as the tuna is sold, it is marked with red paint and a yellow piece of paper is placed on top indicating the price paid.
The doors are then opened and tuna are loaded into waiting forklifts & trucks.
The entire auction happens at a blistering pace and before we knew it the auction was over and it was time for us to leave.
As the sun rose over Tokyo, we headed to the outer market for some of the world’s freshest sushi. The lines for the famed Sushi Dai was rumored to be at least over two hours long, so we decided to wait in shorter but still quite lengthy line for Sushi Daiwa. Our long wait was rewarded with the best sushi I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.
ESSENTIAL INFO:
To visit the auction, you’ll need to head to the Fish Information Center which is located on the southeast corner of the market.
If you’re taking an Uber, I’ve marked the location below:
https://goo.gl/maps/VLyZhWvD3Jw
Tsukiji market is only open on certain days of the week, so make sure to check the calendars below before you go:
http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/etc/calendar/2016.html
Transportation Options:
There is no public transport in the early morning, so you’ll either need to walk or take an Uber.
When to Arrive:
It is highly advised to get here by 3:30 AM at the very latest as tourists are scrambling to visit the market before it moves to its new location across the river.
Cost:
Entrance is Free.
Hot Deal – Wyndham offering 4x transfer bonus for SPG Points & Free Status Match
UPDATE: Wyndham has pulled the offer as it was apparent you could easily manipulate screenshots.
https://a.pgtb.me/dBfc49
Wyndham is about to launch an incredibly lucrative points transfer promotion to try and woo SPG loyalists.
Between 12 PM EST to 11:59 PM EST on October 11th, for every 1 SPG point you donate, you’ll receive 4 Wyndham points, as well as a status match to your current SPG status.
If you hold the American Express Platinum card, this means you’ll be matched to Wyndham platinum status.
For those live internationally, Wyndham hotels is a hotel conglomerate concentrating on the low to mid tier with brands such as Days Inn & Howard Johnson. However, they do have a few high end properties that are worth looking at.
Wyndham does have an interesting rewards program where it costs 15,000 Wyndham points to stay at any Wyndham hotel, for any given day. That means a stay at your local Days Inn costs the same as an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas.
With the 4x transfer bonus, this means 3,750 SPG points will give you one free night at any Wyndham hotel in the world.
While most Wyndham places domestically are on the lower end of the spectrum, internationally you’ll find many four star hotels that are definitely worth 3,750 SPG points per night.
There are a few rules:
<!–![]()
–>1. <!–![]()
–>You must have less than 499 points remaining in your account. You’ll need donate ALL your points to charity.
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–>2. <!–![]()
–>You can’t have any external transfers in the past 24 hours. This means you can’t merely transfer most of your SPG points to Marriott and then donate the rest.
Once you’ve donated away your points, you’ll need to send the screenshots confirming your points donation and one showing your account activity page to wyndhamrewards.fulfillment@wyn.com.
While this is quite the lucrative promotion, I’m quite stunned that Wyndham merely requires screenshots for proof.
It’s quite easy to edit HTML code and with Wyndham unable to actually verify any donations, I’m afraid this promotion is ripe for abuse, so I’m curious see how Wyndham responds to any fraudulent fake transfers.
Using Chrome’s Inspect Tool in less than two minutes
Shanghai Noon till Night – 8 Photos of Shanghai
I originally intended TopMiles to be a site that focused solely on aspirational hotel & air travel using miles. However, the best part of any trip is not the unlimited Krug or free lounge food, but rather being able to explore different cities and soak in their culture, albeit only for a brief moment.
As there is a ton of information out there on what to do in Shanghai (I’d highly recommend using WikiTravel to plan your trip), the following photos are just a sample of what Shanghai has to offer.
World’s first Maglev Train
Old French Concession
Straight out of New York
Jiang’an Sculpture Park
A rare blue sky day in Shanghai
Night View
View of the Bund from Pudong
View of the Bund from Huangpu
Review: Cathay Pacific 747 First Class – Singapore to Hong Kong
This past Saturday, Cathay Pacific officially retired its last Boeing 747 from its fleet.
Having flown in countless types of aircraft, some of my favorite aviation experiences came from flying inside the tip of nose of the “Queen in the Skies”. Before Cathay finally retired its last jumbo jet 747, I managed to fly in the 747 in first class from Hong Kong to Singapore.
The cabin itself was quite spacious, with the size of the seating quite similar to the 777 that Cathay Pacific typically operates.
The cabin has nine first class seats stead, but due to the extended width of the 747, the difference was just slightly noticeable.
Unfortunately, the first row was already assigned, but users flyers along with its uniquely curved windows providing a slightly panoramic view of the outside skies.
I was offered a glass of Billecart-Salmon Brut champagne, which is typically served in long haul flights for Cathay’s business class passengers.
We soon taxied onto the runway which provided some gorgeous views of various aircraft lining up. The captain of an Air China plane next to up even caught me taking a picture of his aircraft and gave a smile!
Close Up
After takeoff, a small lunch was served consisting of a plate of fruit, bread basket, and dim sum.
I finished up my meal with some hot tea.
The highlight of my flight on the 747 was the first class bathroom. To my knowledge, Cathay Pacific’s 747 is the only commercial aircraft to have two windows inside a bathroom.
As a result, the bathroom felt extremely spacious and has probably the best view from a bathroom you’ll ever see.
Afterwards, I had another glass of champagne before taking a quick nap.
We soon began our descent into Singapore and just like that my brief, but wonderful flight was over.
Previous Post: Cathay Pacific First Class – Hong Kong to Manila
Complimentary Marriott Gold Status for American Express Platinum Cardholders!
Hello from Japan! I am currently heading back to the US to visit my family, but wanted to give you a quick heads up that Marriott & Starwood hotels have just finalized their merger.
With two huge hotel rewards program to combine, it will take a while before everything is finalized. However, you can now link both your hotel reward accounts. If you are an elite member you will be automatically upgraded to the highest elite level status between both accounts.
You can link your accounts here:
https://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/benefits/marriott/index.html?language=en_US&EM=VTY_SPG_LINKMARRIOTT
What makes it interestingly is that Starwood Gold status is matched with Marriott Gold Status. Since all US American Express platinum card holders receive complimentary SPG gold status, you can link your Marriott Rewards card and instantly upgrade your Marriott account to Gold status.
As my flight is about to depart, I’ll dive more into this later, but I’d highly recommend you link your account now.
This is the World’s Best Credit Card for Travel
For last couple of years, there has been a debate among miles enthusiasts on which travel card was the really “best”, with the answer fluctuating between a few select cards.
However, the miles world was recently lit up in a storm when Chase launched its newest card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card. I’ve gotten quite a few messages asking me about the card, so I’ve decided to break down all the card benefits and whether you should apply. (The answer is a resounding yes!)
Here are the major benefits of the card:
Amazing Bonus Category Spend
Earn 3x Chase UR points on all travel and dining expenses worldwide. This is incredibly generous as the travel category is quite broad, covering everything from airfare to your Uber ride.
Complimentary Priority Pass Membership
Receive complimentary Priority Pass membership as long as you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. If you travel a lot, especially abroad, Priority Pass membership grants you free lounge access to over 600 airport lounges worldwide. This is a huge benefit, especially if you fly in coach quite often.
Even better, you’re currently allowed to guest in your traveling companions, with no current limit to the number of guests.
Priority Pass Lounge in Singapore
$100 Global Entry Credit
If you apply for Global Entry, Chase will refund the $100 application cost. If you are approved for Global Entry, you will automatically receive TSA PreCheck, which allows access to expedited security lines. 
Skip the lines with TSA PreCheck
Roadside Assistance
Receive free roadside assistance for calls up to $50, four times a year.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve is currently one of two Visa Infinite cards offered by Chase. This means you also receive a slew of other benefits. Here are some of my favorite ones:
Purchase Protection
If you purchase any item with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card and happen to have that item stolen, broken, or even lost within 4 months, the cost to repair or purchase a new item will be fully reimbursed, up to $10,000 for each claim (up to $50,000 per year), which is 20 times higher compared to other high end cards.
Extended Warranty Protection
Card holders also receive complimentary extended warranty protection which allows you to add a year on all warranties less than three years. We all probably know someone who had their portable electronic malfunction right after the 2 year mark, so this allows you to be worry free for another year. Even better, the maximum amount per claim is a very generous $10,000.
There are quite a few other ancillary benefits, which Chase has posted online.
Annual Fee:
The Chase Sapphire Reserve Card does have a hefty $450 annual fee. However, this is offset by the $300 annual travel fee credit, which can be used for anything from flights to hotel rooms. This also means you’ll receive $600 in travel credits before your annual fee is due, as the $300 travel credit resets at the beginning of each calendar year.
View Point Reward Cards Offers Here
What can Chase UR Points get me?
A round trip domestic ticket in coach will cost typically cost 25,000 miles through United, while a domestic first class ticket will run you 50,000 miles.
Here are some of the other potential aspirational trips that you can redeem on Chase’s travel partners:
Singapore Suites from US to Europe: 57,500 miles one way
United Business Class to Europe: 57,500 miles one way
Short haul flights for as low as 7,500 miles through British Avios
Korean Air First Class from US to Asia: 80,000 miles one way
You could also use your points for stays at some of the world’s most luxurious hotels through the Hyatt program, including the Park Hyatt Maldives, which is 25,000 points a night.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to the hassle of searching for award space, Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can convert their Chase UR points to receive 1.5 cents per mile when booking flights through Chase. For example if you had 100,000 Chase UR points, this would be equivalent to $1500 in travel credit.
Verdict: The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is currently the best high end travel rewards card on the market. If you are eligible for the card, I’d highly recommend this card to be one of your first applications.
View Point Reward Card Offers Here
Complete List of Card Sign Up Bonus Rules
In the past, a common practice among miles enthusiasts was to apply for cards, cancelling them after a certain period of time, and after a short period reapply to receive lucrative sign up bonuses again.
Over the past two years, banks have been taken notice and as a result these days the rules on who’s eligible for a sign up bonus have tightened up significantly.
The following are the current sign up bonus rules for each of the major three card providers:
Citi
Applicants are only eligible for a sign up bonus in each product category every 24 months from your last open or closed account. Effectively this means if you opened any one of the Citi American AAdvantage card products, you’re ineligible for a sign up bonus for all other Citi AAdvantage cards.
The same rule applies for the Citi Thank You Preferred cards.
Chase
Applicants who have opened 5 or more cards in the past 24 months will not be approved for most Chase credit cards. The good news is business cards with Amex and Citi do not count towards this rule. The jury is still out there whether Chase business cards do count. Also, there are a few cards that this rule does not apply to including the Chase IHG, Hyatt, and British Airways card.
American Express
Applicants are only eligible for a sign up bonus once per card product. This means if you decide to cancel your American Express card and reapply, you will not be eligible to receive a sign up bonus.
Bank of America
Applicants are only eligible for a sign up bonus once every 90 days per card product.
Inside a Pokemon Go Stampede in Taiwan
If you haven’t been living under a rock recently, you’ve probably heard about the Pokemon Go, which took the world by storm two months ago. In Taiwan the Pokemon craze is in full swing, with everyone from grandpas to school children joining in on the action.
I headed to Beitou Park in the outskirts of Taipei, which was rumored to be filled with rare Pokemon to experience the craze full hand. Not surprisingly, the park was quite teeming with Pokemon players, however you could still freely move around.
While I was casually strolling through the park, I spotted a small contingent of players slowly streaming southward out of the park. The stream soon became a flood as the world trickled down that a Snorlax was nearby.
The tranquil crowd quickly turned into a mild stampede as various Pokemon fans ran across traffic, with one guy almost being run over by a motorcycle.
Eager to catch a Snorlax myself, I decided to follow the crowd and talked to various fans, including one lady who was holding her dog while playing Pokemon Go.
Talk about multi-tasking!
After quite a hike I arrived at the main spawn point where the Snorlax was. Hundreds of Pokemon Go fans were taking up the entire block, with a lone policeman trying to control the crowd.
It seemed like most of the crowd was jubilant having just caught the rare Pokemon, with a smattering of grim faces of those who weren’t able to catch Snorlax.
But I’m sure they’ll get another chance soon.
See Related: My $3500 flight on Eva Air’s business class for $270