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A few days ago the opportunity came about to go to Saudi Arabia. The country recently opened its borders to tourists and I honestly have no idea what to expect, but I’m quite excited. On top of that, two seats opened up in Emirates First to fly from San Francisco to Dubai, en route to Riyadh, on the A380. Bucket list check.
I’ve been writing this blog for over 4 years now, and Emirates first has been a huge aspirational trip for me. I’ve had many opportunities to fly it, but I’d always chosen another option because of the massive points needed or heavy added surcharges. I was planning on flying the 77W from EWR to ATH this year, but alas, plans kept changing, and it looked as if another year would go by without an Emirates booking.
Then Saudi Arabia popped up.
It was super last minute and lo and behold…2 seats in first were available out of SFO to DXB on the A380 ( OMG!!! ) with a couple days stopover, and then a continuation on to Riyadh on the 77W. Currently, that’s on the older first class, but fingers are crossed that they open up the DXB to RUH space on their new flagship First. Needless to say…I’ll be happy to start using my own images instead of this one provided by Emirates 🙂
We booked it all with an enormous grip of Alaska miles. 150k each and $77 in taxes and fees. It’s an enormous outlay of points, but we had them, and you only live once, right?
If you wish to follow along on Emirates First, Dubai, and check out Saudi Arabia – I’ll be posting on my personal and Miles instagrams. Not exactly sure how much I’ll be able to photograph/film while in Saudi so stay tuned!
https://www.instagram.com/zacharyburrabel/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/monkey_miles/?hl=en
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.
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