2023 — A Year in Review
I can’t believe its 2024. 2023 flew by and was filled with many ups and downs. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to hit a handful of bucket list destinations. I want to take a moment to reflect on the highlights, share my favorite redemptions, and explain my credit card strategy as I look forward to the new year.
When you’re 27 everyone around you is getting married. If you open Instagram on a weekend, then half of the stories are people at proposals, engagements, or weddings. Its a little spooky when two people you know from different parts of life have stories from the same wedding. A huge part of my 2023 travels were 1-day or 2-day weekend trips for bachelor parties, engagements, and weddings. For some reservations I booked with points, and for other it made more sense to pay cash. Regardless, it was great seeing old friends and making new experiences.
Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay
At the end of October 2022, I received my 2023 free-night certificate from Marriott. Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay has been on my list for a while, but with the old certificate and the number of points it required, I didn’t think it was worth it. Given the new rules around the certificate (85K certificate + 15K top-off), I knew immediately that I was going to book a night at the Ritz.
The staff and the service were great. I was welcomed to a wine bottle in our room and nice ocean view. To be frank, for the number of points required and how highly rated the hotel is I was a bit underwhelmed. You could very clearly feel the age of the property, it just felt a bit too old for me. However, the surrounding area and scenery are breathtaking and I’m still very happy for the experience. If you happen to be in the area, you must stick around for sunset!
Alila Ventana Big Sur
Alila Ventana Big Sur is an adults only all-inclusive Hyatt resort just off of Highway 1 near Monterey; its roughly a 3 hour drive from San Francisco. A night here will cost north of $2,000 and easily $3,000 depending on the season. As a Category 8 property, a standard award night will cost 45K points during peak season, meaning a redemption value of 4–6 cents/point. Plus, the property restricts award availability, so you can imagine how difficult it is to book with points. My reservation was for October 2023, but I had to make the reservation a year in advance — that’s right I booked October 2022.
There are plenty of videos online of the property and everything it has to offer, so all I will say is that I was blown away by everything. I will forever remember the green juice at breakfast — by far the best green juice I’ve ever had. Goes down as my favorite weekend getaway trip :)
Family India Trip
The trip of the year is hands-down my family’s India trip. As a family we haven’t gone back to India in 9.5 years, and after months of planning & coordination and about 50 changes in flight plans, I’m happy to say the trip was a success!
This was my first time booking international flights with points, so it expanded my understanding of airline alliances, international carriers, and optimal routing.
American Airlines is part of the One World Alliance, so you can use AA to book partner flights on Qatar, Etihad, British, etc. What’s nice about AA is that they still have a fixed award chart for partner redemptions, this means you’ll know exactly how much a redemption is going to cost.
For this trip, my family had to book 8 one-way flights (two flights for each member of the family), and each family member was departing from different parts of the country. I booked 3 of the flights through American (transferred points from BILT):
- Father: IAD — HYD traveling on Etihad Airways (IAD — AUH — HYD)
- Sister: SEA — HYD traveling on British Airways (SEA — LHR — HYD)
- Myself: SFO — DEL traveling on Qatar Airways (SFO — DOH — DEL)
Each of these flights were 40K points plus taxes and fees. I really didn’t want to book British because they are notorious for high surcharges. However, a week before my sister’s departure there was a schedule change to her original flight and this was the only feasible option available last minute, despite $300+ in taxes & fees.
Singapore Airlines and United are part of Star Alliance, so you can book Singapore flights on United. Thankfully, my sister and I booked our return tickets prior to the United devaluation, so our award tickets were also ~40K points each.
- Sister: DEL — SEA traveling on Singapore Airlines (DEL — SIN — SEA)
- Myself: DEL — SFO traveling on Singapore & United (DEL — SIN — SFO)
The remaining flights were booked via Virgin Atlantic. Virgin is part of the third major airline alliance, Sky Team. They frequently have 30% transfer bonuses from Chase & Amex and BILT had a crazy transfer offer to Virgin in August. Given the transfer bonuses, I was able to affordably book business class for my parents :)
Overall, I was incredibly satisfied with everyone’s flight reservations. We got tremendous value across the board and saved thousands of dollars, especially given the number of times we changed itineraries and rebooked.
SNA — IAD
Probably my most favorite redemption this year was my SNA — IAD flight. The reservation was during a very expensive time of year. What’s also not ideal about this route is that a stop is required, since there are no direct options between SNA & IAD, which further drives cost up. I started looking 7 months in advance and very happy to say that I was able to find an itinerary for 15K points.
The reservation was done on AA, but whats interesting this is how AA does domestic pricing (this is not a partner redemption). I was watching the itinerary for a couple of days, and the number of points required was just going up and up. First started at 16K, then went to 17K, then 17.5K, then all of a sudden it was 19K. Finally, I saw it drop back down to 16K and immediately initiated the transfer from BILT. For some reason, there was a delay in the transfer and by the time the points came it, the price dropped to 15K. Worked out for me! (I unfortunately lost the screenshot I took of the redemption)
What’s in my Wallet & Moving Forward
I only had a few changes to my wallet in 2023:
- June: Applied for the Hilton Honors card
- August: Upgraded my Amex Gold to Platinum (80K upgrade offer)
- November: Finally out of 5/24, so applied for the CSP
- November: Downgraded Surpass to Hilton Honors
I’ve made comments about the Platinum’s value in the past, but regardless it is a net positive in the first year due to the upgrade offer. I will reevaluate August 2024 if I still want to keep it.
After getting the SUB on the Hilton Honors, I could finally begin the upgrade/downgrade journey. Despite the changes to the Hilton cards earlier this year, I still believe there is high upside with my strategy. As of writing this post, I already see upgrade offers on my Hilton Honors cards, however, they are not that high for me to pull the trigger yet.
If I’m not going after a SUB or utilizing an offer/benefit, then my go-to card is still BILT. I have sufficient points in Chase and Amex, and after Alila & the India reservations, I want to build up the BILT stockpile in 2024. I have a lot of travel planned for 2025 so just trying to build the reserves.
