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The weekend prior to Thanksgiving I flew, with my buddy Dave, halfway around the world to Shanghai for a quick #weekendwarrior trip. It was my first time to Shanghai ( loved it ), and I used a SWU for both he and I to fly AA’s 787-800 in business on the way over, but needed to find a way back home. I wanted us to be able to fly in something amazing to add a final stamp to a really cool weekend away. I’d been considering Korean Air First, Asiana First, but a few weeks before the trip I found a Cathay flight from Hong Kong to Chicago with a completely empty first class cabin. I had a nice stash of Alaska miles and called quick to book the trip from Shanghai through Hong Kong to Chicago. Exactly 7 days prior to the flight, Dave was able to redeem some Asia miles for his ticket. Ultimately, we were able to land both 1A and 2A, and the only other seat that filled on the flight was 1K. We could hardly ask for anything more. Here’s a sneak peek of our Cathay First flight from Hong Kong to Chicago.
The Enviable “A” line
Notice the wall to the right. With a full cabin I think these are the two best seats, how it ended up, with just three people in the cabin, I’d have taken 1K and 2K. We could have then used the middle seats for beds, and had that whole area to ourselves.
I took seat 1A . First time? uhhhhh, no…I’ve done this like a thousand times. Why?
Yes, why we would like some Krug. Thank you.
Miles took to GoPro-ing immediately. The cabin lit up beautifully, and the shots over Hong Kong were incredible.
Nice take-off flight path.
Caviar and champagne for two. In the same suite. Love it.
Then we had food and wine and tried some scotch, but we weren’t convinced so tried a different scotch, and that made us confused so we tried the first soctch again, and we topped that off with some stchoc with sotccthh to end the night with scotothc. This bed was very much needed.
Woke up and we were in Chicago.
Couldn’t have been better.
Dave and I basically bro’d out for 8 hours of the flight. Kicked it eating great food, drinking fine wines, champagne, and scotch that we’d never pay for in real life, and sleeping like fat pampered babies. I highly recommend splurging to fly the best, and do it with people that are lifers. You won’t regret it. I’ll have a full review up sooner than later.
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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