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Fancy Famous Fantasy Friday: Belmond Luxury Trains
I’m starting a new weekly series: Fancy Famous Fantasy Friday. Each Friday Miles and I will explore hotels, locations, planes, cabins, etc that are fancy, famous, and a fantasy…at least at this point. The objective isn’t to set a timeline on these places or experiences, but to implant them into the psyche. We believe in a little thing called Imaginaction: Imagine + Action. You can not realize your dreams without having them in the first place. This week’s Fancy Famous Fantasy Friday is dedicated to Belmond Luxury Trains
There’s just something about a luxurious train ride that feels like you’ve entered a time machine. They’re grand, formal, and you have dress up for dinner. In 2015, I took my first luxury train ride on the on Iconic Blue Train from Johannesburg to Cape Town. I fell in love. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. So I’ve put the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express luxury train on the list of things I would LOVE to do in my lifetime.
A little Video to whet the palate
Here’s a list of where Belmond offers routes…
I’d love to take one of the two night European tours.
One of the reasons I really love points is that is creates room in the budget for splurges. If you aren’t throwing down a $1000 for a flight to Europe and even more money for hotels you can take a look at things that were once completely out of question. I really loved the Blue Train, and would love to save up the money and make a splurge again, at some point, for a Belmond Train.
Here’s a look at one of the itineraries: 2 adults for £4730.
Have you taken a luxury train ride? Would love to hear about your experience
*title image courtesy of Belmond.com
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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