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Never trust the concierge
OK maybe that’s an overstatement, but I recently finished a stay at the Ritz Carlton Abu Dhabi and had a story to share. The Ritz is right across the street from the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, has breathtaking views of the Mosque, and is 30k points per night. While we were staying at the hotel the cash rate would have been $300+. It’s showing it’s age in places and could use a facelift, but considering you can sign up for a Marriott personal and business card right now and get 180k points…I thought it a steal. One little bump in the road occurred when I called to make reservations for Afternoon Tea at the Emirates Palace. See In order to enter the Emirates Palace you need a restaurant reservation, stay at the hotel, or schedule a tour ( more on this later).
I’d contacted the Emirates Palace 2 days prior to our preferred Afternoon Tea and they’d requested I fill out a credit card form to hold the reservation
I don’t really like doing this, plus we were out and about a lot in Dubai with very slow internet. They emailed twice and I ultimately didn’t send the form in and we lost our held reservation at 4pm. I know, I know. But, I really wasn’t too worried because how many people could possibly be going to Afternoon Tea on a random Monday, AND I figured the Ritz Carlton Concierge could lock us a reservation.
The Ritz Concierge told me no such reservations could be made until 6:30pm.
Tea stops at 6…
When I asked him about it he told me that we could just do a la carte at that time. I didn’t want A la Carte and neither did my parents who were asleep when all this was happening. At this point I was kicking myself for not just sending in the credit card form. I also suspected something wasn’t quite right, and maybe the Emirates Palace was mad at me for not responding to their credit card email and blocking anyone with my last name from making a reservation…Paranoid, right?
Then I discovered that the Emirate Palace does tours for 100AED. Then we could at least see the place and stop by the cafe for a TWG tea and a scone.
I called the Emirates Palace for a tour.
Sold out for a week. Crap.
I called the Ritz Concierge asking for help maybe squeezing us in.
Sorry sir, they don’t do tours anymore…
Wait, what?! I just spoke to them on the phone and they said they did…maybe this concierge is trying to keep us and our spend on site.
I hung up and skyped the Emirates Palace myself about Afternoon Tea.
“Yes, I’m inquiring about Afternoon Tea for 3.”
– We have availability at 4pm sir…
“We will take it…”
Then I gave them a different last name and they never asked for a credit card.
Two lessons I learned. If in doubt, call yourself. The 2nd…I’m mad I didn’t know about the Emirates Palace Tour ahead of time because it’d be awesome. They tour the Suites and everything! I’ll try and sweet talk my way in 😉
- As a funny aside…I went to my parents room in the morning. Mom asked if tea could be comved from 4 to 2. HAHAHA after all that! Called over – 2 pm tea was no problem.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.