00:00:00:01 - 00:00:08:14 Chris The big hotel programs. Keep devaluing your points. Hyatt, Marriott, IHG, Hilton, they're all doing it. So today we're going somewhere else. 00:00:08:16 - 00:00:16:07 Katie There are three programs that most people completely ignore, and some of these stays are genuinely bucket list travel. 00:00:16:09 - 00:00:23:11 Chris Yeah, we're talking castles, Lake Como, a hotel made entirely of ice in Sweden, bookable for just 20,000 points a night. 00:00:23:16 - 00:00:34:00 Katie So if you've got City or Capital One points, you're going to want to stick around for this episode. 00:00:34:01 - 00:00:37:07 Chris Hey, I'm Chris. Welcome to the Upgraded Points podcast. 00:00:37:09 - 00:00:57:08 Katie And I'm Katie and today we have some bad baggage news. We've got some good news from Rome, and we're talking about three hotel programs that you're probably not paying enough attention to. Before we get to all of that, of course, don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you're watching or listening. And be sure to share us with a travel loving friend. 00:00:57:10 - 00:01:01:13 Katie So, Chris, let's dive into the bad news first. What's going on? 00:01:01:15 - 00:01:25:05 Chris Yeah. Delta raised bag fees. This, went back on, April 8th. The raise, the check bag fees. The first bag just jumped from $35 to $45. Your second bag went from 45 to 55. And if you're checking a third bag that now costs $200. JetBlue and, United already did this. Delta just followed. And they're not alone. 00:01:25:07 - 00:01:46:23 Chris Like, we always see this when these negative changes comes. It starts with one airline and they all really do start to follow. Airlines are blaming higher fuel costs. And yes, that is real. But the problem is that these fees never come back down once the fuel, prices drop. So it's frustrating. As a traveler. We get it. If you're flying first class in Delta One, or if you are a medallion member. 00:01:47:01 - 00:02:07:17 Chris Long haul travelers. You guys are all fine. This is really aimed at the domestic economy. Passengers, those with the least amount of flexibility. The good news is that the fee, takes effect when you book your ticket. So if you booked before April 8th, you will not be subject to these new fees. And then, of course, if you have a Delta co-branded credit card, you don't need to worry about this at all. 00:02:07:19 - 00:02:29:09 Chris And this just really highlights how important these co-branded cards that are becoming. We cover this in depth in episode 48, and this is just another example. And right before we started recording, southwest just announced the same exact thing. Their bags are going up $10 apiece as well. This is retroactive to April 9th, so if you book for that, you are good. 00:02:29:11 - 00:02:44:05 Chris After April 9th, you will now be paying an additional $10. Again, if you're holding that co-branded southwest credit card, that's the easiest way to get a free bag. A listening is preferred. Guests also get free bags. So sorry. 00:02:44:07 - 00:03:13:04 Katie Really, if you're checking bags, you need a co-branded airline card. It's just. It makes sense now, even if you're flying 1 or 2 times a year and checking bags. So not awesome news, but I guess not too unexpected. Okay, so let's do some good news. Rome Travel is one of our favorite travel tools. It's an award booking search tool so you can type in all of your, destinations and dates and all that good stuff. 00:03:13:09 - 00:03:37:15 Katie And it helps you find those amazing awards that we love to book. So starting today, April 20th, you can save 25% off a Rome subscription using the code up 20. So up to, excuse me, up to five, up 25. It's a 25% discount, and we will drop the link directly to the subscription page in the show notes. 00:03:37:17 - 00:03:57:15 Katie The discount starts today. I reached out to the Rome people because there is no, specified end date, and they did inform me that it will be live for at least four weeks. So you have at least a month. It might be extended after that. As soon as we do get the end date, we will make sure we get that, published. 00:03:57:15 - 00:04:23:18 Katie But, take a look at that tool. It's one I really, really enjoy. Last bit of news is if you are listening to this episode on the day it drops. So April 20th, you have until midnight tonight eastern time to enter our one year anniversary giveaway. We talked about that last week. Go back to that episode if you haven't listened to that one yet, to hear about all the prizes we're giving away, and you can get the entry form on upgraded points. 00:04:23:18 - 00:04:51:06 Katie Dot com. And as soon as that closes, we will pick the winners and we will reach out to the winners shortly. So let's move on to some interesting hotel programs. So like Chris mentioned earlier, those main for hotel programs have a tendency to devalue over the years. It's just part of the game, unfortunately. And Hyatt's latest award chart devaluation really set a lot of people off. 00:04:51:06 - 00:05:11:06 Katie And I use the term award chart very loosely now. So we are talking about three programs that many of us just overlook, and we want to show you how to use those flexible currencies. You already have to get serious value from some of these slightly more niche programs. 00:05:11:08 - 00:05:36:20 Chris Yeah. Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton AG, they have all made it harder to extract that really good value from their loyalty points. Dynamic pricing award chart overhauls, creeping devaluations. And they're pushing savvy travelers like us and like you to explore alternatives. And, we're going to go over three programs that aren't replacements, but they're absolutely worth adding to your strategy. 00:05:36:22 - 00:05:44:11 Katie Okay. The first one is a core. And I have a question for you, Chris. Is it a core live limitless or a core Live Limitless? 00:05:44:15 - 00:05:48:17 Chris Oh my goodness. I've always just assumed it was live. 00:05:48:19 - 00:05:54:21 Katie That's not I don't know, I don't know. I've heard it both ways. I've always assumed it was live. 00:05:54:23 - 00:05:58:01 Chris Oh my goodness. Okay. Well I don't know. I figured that I'd drop it in the show. 00:05:58:01 - 00:06:23:13 Katie From here on out. We're going to refer to it as a core. Just the core, which is going to stick with the core. If you know the actual answer, let us know. That's. Yeah, dropping that. But I think it's one of those it's, you know, does anyone actually know the real answer I don't know. So anyways, a core has over 5000 locations across 53 brands worldwide, and it's one that you're going to see a lot more in places like Europe or even Canada. 00:06:23:17 - 00:06:49:18 Katie So it's not quite as prevalent here in the U.S, but they do have plenty of U.S. locations. One of the great things about this program is its simple redemption structure. And these days there is value in simplicity. So for every 2000 points you redeem, you are going to get €40, which is about $47 off of your stay. So that works out to where each point is worth about €2 cents each. 00:06:49:20 - 00:07:14:09 Katie To earn a core points, you can use, transfer partners that you already have points in. I'm sure Bill rewards has the best ratio. You'll transfer built points at a 3 to 2 ratio. Rove actually has kind of the same ratio, but they listed as 1.5 to 1 works out to the same thing. But it is a lot harder to amass a lot amount of points in Rove. 00:07:14:09 - 00:07:35:01 Katie So builders tend, generally thought of as sort of the best rewards, transfer partner for a core city and Capital One aren't far behind, though. You can transfer those at a 2 to 1 ratio. And those are great because those are programs that we use all the time. I'm sure you probably have a lot more points sitting in City and Capital One than you do in built or Rove. 00:07:35:01 - 00:07:54:16 Katie So city and Capital One is where you want to go here. So you're actually getting slightly more than $0.01 per point in value when you transfer City and Capital One to a core a little bit more with built in rove. But we're going to use those numbers from City and Capital One just to kind of show you real quick the value you'll get. 00:07:54:18 - 00:08:07:18 Katie So you transfer two points from city or capital One that will get you one or core one, a core point, which equals about €2 cents, which equals about 2.3 U.S. cents. 00:08:07:20 - 00:08:09:03 Chris So my notes. 00:08:09:05 - 00:08:31:02 Katie You know, so for every two points you're getting about 2.3 US cents, which works out to be a little bit over $0.01 per point, which is solid value. It's not earth shattering by any means, but there's value again in that simplicity that we talked about. And sometimes that is just great. And, you know, you're always getting that value. 00:08:31:04 - 00:08:52:22 Katie Your points do expire in a year if you don't have any qualifying earning activity. So let's talk about some of the places that you can stay with a core. There were a ton. It was really hard to pick just a couple to mention. One of our writers, Laurie, who actually wrote the article. That sort of inspired this episode, mentioned the so Bangkok or is it the so Bangkok? 00:08:52:22 - 00:09:14:13 Katie I don't know, I think it's SL, but we'll see, she said. That is like one of her favorite hotels in Bangkok, and she can get it for 9000 points per night. Like, what a deal. I know for something a little bit closer to home for most of us. Look two Fairmont in Canada Fairmont is has some amazing locations in Canada. 00:09:14:13 - 00:09:38:22 Katie The Fairmont Banff Springs is like one of those bucket list hotels. I'm sure you've seen a picture of it. You probably didn't know it was a Fairmont. It's called The Castle in the Rockies and it looks like a magical castle, you know, next to the lake and with the mountains. And it just looks spectacular. It's been on my list for years, and I keep every time I get a trip to Banff, like, almost scheduled, something happens. 00:09:39:05 - 00:09:57:10 Katie So one of these days, I'm going to make Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. I think I'm pronouncing that maybe right, I don't know, so great. Thank you. It's a lot of French. And I still don't speak French, but. And it is in Quebec. It's an iconic hotel. If you've gone to go back or seen pictures of Quebec, it's probably one of those. 00:09:57:10 - 00:10:20:10 Katie You've seen a picture of this. And I do think we have a review of that on the site as well. It's been on my radar for a long time. And then, earlier this year, I was at a, a media conference and learned more about the Jasper, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, which looks just gorgeous. It's family friendly up in the woods and nature in the mountains, up in Canada. 00:10:20:10 - 00:10:27:22 Katie And it just looks spectacular. There are a ton more. But Fairmont in Canada is a really sweet spot in that a program. 00:10:28:00 - 00:10:32:17 Chris Okay, good to know because, you know, I've seen the nice Fairmont, I think in Hawaii as well. So. 00:10:32:18 - 00:10:35:23 Katie Oh yeah, there's a really nice one in Hawaii. 00:10:36:01 - 00:11:03:12 Chris With just plenty of options for, for us without having to go to Asia. Let me head over to Choice Privileges. Another one that we know is there, but I just haven't spent enough time getting to know the choice operates more than 7500 hotels. That's across 22 brands in 50 different countries. And those brands, you may know them already, but their Radisson, Cambria, Ascend Collection, Clarion Comfort and Wood Springs Suites. 00:11:03:17 - 00:11:31:06 Chris The program was overhauled this year and the changes were actually positive, which is not something we see very often, and that includes an easier path to elite status and the new Titanium Elite tier. So in general, this program is on the up and up. Redemptions use dynamic pricing. They range from 6000 275,000 points per night, and points do expire after 18 months without activity. 00:11:31:06 - 00:11:54:14 Chris So keep that in mind. But your those elite members will be exempt. If you want to earn some choice points, you can transfer them from Amex or Capital One at a 1 to 1 ratio. Citi also transfers at a 1 to 2 ratio, but if you have a Non-Premium Citi card, that will drop to 1 to 1.4, still pretty good compared to, Amex and Capital One. 00:11:55:01 - 00:12:23:08 Chris You can also transfer from Wells Fargo at a 1 to 2 ratio. So really nice options there. And you could just earn on the choice cards themselves. They have a choice privileges Mastercard and a choice privileges select Mastercard. Some nice location to put on your bucket list. They have the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort, the emotions all inclusive in the Dominican Republic, Radisson Blu Aruba and the Ice Hotel in Sweden, which Ryan just visited. 00:12:23:10 - 00:12:33:15 Chris And he spent 20,000 points per night. And these cash rates are over $500. So get some really cool properties and you can get some really good value out of these points. 00:12:33:17 - 00:12:53:20 Katie Yeah, I mean, you can stay at a hotel made of ice for 20,000 points per night, and it's actually kind of nice. You get a warm room for 20,000 points per night, but you can get a, complimentary tour of the ice part to the hotel, and you can visit the ice bar. Ryan described how everything worked in his in his review. 00:12:53:20 - 00:12:59:16 Katie It looked like a really cool place. Like I so saw my cool, cool. It's very cool. 00:12:59:18 - 00:13:00:18 Chris Cool. 00:13:00:20 - 00:13:23:21 Katie Nice one. Okay, let's move on to Preferred Hotels. In the I prefer program. This is a collection of independent boutique hotels in 650 destinations across 80 countries. This is another one, kind of like a core where their footprint in the U.S is not quite as big as it is elsewhere. There are fewer than 100 preferred hotels in the U.S, but there are some. 00:13:23:21 - 00:13:48:11 Katie For those of you who don't want to travel far, they do have a dynamic pricing starting from 15,000 points up to an eye watering 150,000 points per night, and your points expire after two years with no earning or redemption activity. So the good news is you can earn these points through transfers. Capital one miles transfer at a 1 to 2 ratio, which is really nice. 00:13:48:12 - 00:14:11:08 Katie And Citi thank you. Points transfer also at a 1 to 2 ratio which is great until you realize that you could transfer one to for up to what yesterday. So we lost that amazing 1 to 4 ratio which is really disappointing. But 1 to 2 is still solid and you're still going to be able to get some nice value out of that. 00:14:11:08 - 00:14:35:07 Katie So I think it's a program we should still look at. There are also about 300 locations that are bookable through choice. So if you have a better, avenue for a lot of choice points, and one of the locations is actually bookable through choice, that could be a good option too. As far as those bucket list locations that you might want to look at, Lori pointed out in her article the Condado Vanderbilt in Puerto Rico. 00:14:35:07 - 00:15:03:04 Katie So one that's easy to get to for a nice quick trip. The Grand Hotel Tromso on Lake Como in Italy looks fantastic. And then when I was looking, I found one called the, Drama Land Castle in Ireland. Like it's a flippin castle that you can book with for it called amazing. And so it's really cool when you see some of these really interesting hotels in these niche programs. 00:15:03:04 - 00:15:19:14 Katie And sure, you can find these really cool, interesting hotels in the big ones, you know, the Hyatt and Hilton and all that. But there are a lot of these just gems in some of these programs that we're not paying as much attention to. So I think that's a a great thing to look at. So let's take a quick break. 00:15:19:14 - 00:15:30:06 Katie And when we come back we're going to talk about sort of your strategy on how to approach these three programs. 00:15:30:08 - 00:15:40:10 Chris You. Hey, real quick, before we jump back in, if you're listening to this podcast, you're exactly the kind of person we built our free newsletter for. 00:15:40:12 - 00:15:50:14 Katie We broke down the best credit card offers, transfer bonuses, award alerts, and travel news that actually matters. No fluff, no spam. Just the stuff we text a friend. If something big dropped. 00:15:50:16 - 00:15:55:13 Chris A lot of the deals we talk about on the show don't last long. The newsletter is where we fly those fast. 00:15:55:15 - 00:16:04:07 Katie It's totally free, and you can sign up at upgraded points.com/newsletter. 00:16:04:09 - 00:16:31:07 Chris Yeah. Okay. Welcome back. Let's talk about building a strategy around these programs. You don't have to pick one program to go all in on. These work best, as you know, kind of opportunistic plays. Follow the deals, follow the transfer bonus, and try to book a sweet spot. So city thank you. Points in this situation is going to be the MVP currency across all three. 00:16:31:19 - 00:16:51:02 Chris You get 1 to 2, points that I prefer. I know it's not 1 to 4 anymore. But 1 to 2 is still solid. You'll get 1 to 2 a choice, and then 2 to 1 at a core. That's three completely different hotel ecosystems from one card, the City Street elite or the city Premier. 00:16:51:05 - 00:17:11:10 Chris Those are going to be your best options here for earning those points right behind that is going to be Capital One. You'll get a 1 to 2 ratio with I prefer 1 to 1 with choice and 2 to 1 with the core. Your venture and venture X, you'll have access to all these programs built in Rove again, solid at 3 to 2 with a core watch for transfer bonuses. 00:17:11:15 - 00:17:31:04 Chris Built. Ran a nice promotion where you could get that up to 3 to 4.5, depending on your status. So there's definitely opportunities out there to get even more value. And city and a core if had had, transfer bonuses in the past too. So that's it's one of the nice things about having a flexible currency like that. 00:17:31:06 - 00:17:51:13 Katie Absolutely. And if you are a domestic budget traveler, choice is going to be a great option for you. You know, the Radisson brands there, the Ascend Collection on the higher end has some really interesting properties. And then, you know, on the budget end, you can earn, I'm sorry, you can book a, hotel for just 6000 points per night. 00:17:51:15 - 00:18:12:10 Katie And if you're transferring from city, that's 3000 city points. All right. And when you're, you know, on a road trip or just, you know, need a place for one night, you're just passing through, that's a great deal for a hotel. So I think that's one that, there's really some solid value in there, especially on that lower end, which we don't talk about that much. 00:18:12:10 - 00:18:38:00 Katie So if you're more of a budget traveler, choice is going to be a great option for you. Okay. We actually have a question this week, for you, Chris. So we got this, through email from Mark. And Mark says with the recent Hyatt devaluation, I'm debating chasing globalist status and elite status in general. Should I just chase the best transfer deals whenever they are and forget about status entirely? 00:18:38:06 - 00:18:43:05 Katie And this is a great question. It's one that a lot of people are thinking right now. 00:18:43:06 - 00:19:07:20 Chris Yeah, fair question. You are not alone. I feel like we get this question every once in a while when people start mapping out their their plans and their goals for the year, which is awesome. I think every listener and reader should be doing this as well. It's really going to depend on your 2027 travel, right? Whether you're going to be, you know, you're going to be spending now in 2026 to get those benefits that are going to last you all next year. 00:19:07:22 - 00:19:28:03 Chris So if you're going to be traveling a lot in 2027, you could use these benefits like upgrades and free breakfast. Okay, if you already know that maybe 2027 is going to be a slow year for you and maybe it's not worth it. Maybe you save that money for actually, you know, booking the room that you want and booking any of the suites and paying for the breakfast that maybe you'll have to run the numbers. 00:19:28:05 - 00:19:33:08 Chris Katie and I both love globalist. I'm not chasing it currently. Are you Katie? 00:19:33:10 - 00:19:53:21 Katie I'm not. I'm debating whether I should it all kind of depends on when I can plan my Japan trip. So I'm right in this boat right now trying to figure out is my 2027 travel going to be enough where it makes sense for me to chase globalist, and I'm kind of in the middle right now. It's it's a it's a tough spot. 00:19:53:23 - 00:20:21:07 Chris Yeah. So that's it's a very common question. And it's really going to depend on on every individual situation. If you decide to not chase it. Yeah. You could keep an eye on these transfer bonuses. Being a free agent is a great way to catch these deals and, you know, get to know these different properties and don't forget about programs like Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts and Virtuoso that will get you elite like benefits just by booking through them. 00:20:21:07 - 00:20:31:12 Chris It won't cost you anything extra. We cover these programs in episode 18, and so maybe this could be a good fit for you if you're not really actually chasing elite status. 00:20:31:14 - 00:20:55:18 Katie Yeah, I'm finding I have a lot of those, credits now, like fine hotels and resorts and, chase the edit. And the more I use those programs, the less I need elite status. So it's kind of an interesting time for elite status, because, like you said, with a lot of those programs, you can get a lot of those benefits without going through the whole rigamarole of earning elite status. 00:20:55:20 - 00:21:19:17 Katie Yeah. So but yeah, great question Mark. Thank you so much for sending that in. If you have a question you'd like to submit for us to answer on air, you can reach us at podcast and Upgraded points.com. And be sure to share this with a travel loving friend on Spotify YouTube. We're all over the place, so make sure you are subscribing and liking and sharing with a friend, and that's going to do it for us this week. 00:21:19:17 - 00:21:20:20 Katie We will see you next week.