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Spencer Howard | Luxury Travel & Loyalty Program Expert

@straighttothepoints

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🛫 Maximizing your points for business & first class
🥂 Booking your hotel with VIP perks
🏝️ Elevating your travel experience (and making it easy)

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Romanticizing my life on my 40th birthday trip ✨

This is a very late post, but my 5 days in Yountville, Napa Valley were worth documenting. Honestly, I couldn’t have planned a better way to celebrate 40. 🤍

I stayed at @theestateyountville, booked through @straighttothepoints, and the stay was exactly what I wanted for my birthday; a beautiful room, balcony, daily breakfast, thoughtful turndown service and all the little touches that made it feel extra special. The complimentary rides within 5 miles were the cherry on top.

Day 1: Dinner at @ciccio_napavalley was one of my favourite meals of the trip.

Day 2: Spa day at @bardessonohotelspa . The treatments didn’t quite live up to the price point for me, but dinner at @bistro.jeanty absolutely made up for it. That tomato soup in puff pastry was EVERYTHING.

Day 3: Wine tasting at @cliffledevineyards, a quick stop at RH, and an early birthday dinner at @clementineyountville, where I was surprised with a complimentary dessert. The hospitality throughout the trip was genuinely lovely.

Day 4 : My actual birthday 🎂: Breakfast, the @winetrain , and birthday dinner at @botteganapavalley. The Wine Train was fun, although longer than I expected, so I’m not sure I’d do it again. 😂 Dinner, however, was exactly the celebration I wanted.

Day 5: Checked out, headed to SFO and flew home well rested, very well fed and extremely happy. 😂

The hot air balloons taking off from the property and seeing it from the gym was so lovely and was one of my trip highlights.

40 feels like a pretty good excuse to slow down, enjoy beautiful places, eat really good food and celebrate myself.

And that’s exactly what I did. 🥂✨

Yountville, you were lovely. I’ll be back.

#FiniFinds #Yountville #NapaValley #solotraveller

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📍 Pier Sixty-Six
Fort Lauderdale, FL

⭐ Ambience: 10 | Room: 9.5 | Service: 9 | Food: 9.5 | 💰$$$

Memorial Day weekend was amazing! I kicked things off in Miami South Beach with the Hyundai Air & Sea Show then headed to Fort Lauderdale, where @piersixtysix completely blew me away!

The resort is stunning, the room was gorgeous and there was a bidet 🤍 The balcony view though? That was the real showstopper. It looked like a screensaver not real life 😩

Breakfast had me jumping out of bed every morning, and Sunday brunch? Easily one of the best meals of the weekend.

What made it feel truly special were the little touches like the art installations throughout the property, welcome room amenity, nightly turndown treats, a resort shuttle, and ice cream served from the cutest Dolce Vita car. 🍦The staff were warm and genuinely kind every single time.

Found this gem through Spencer @straighttothepoints my go-to plug for hotels with the extra perks. 🙌

✨ Would you book a weekend here?

#finisfinds #piersixtysix #fortlauderdale #florida #hotelreview

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Look forward to this every year!

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What points are you earning this month?!

Let’s take a look at this month’s best credit card bonus offers that can help you book flights and hotels.

💬Comment #bestcards for a link to my best offers page.

I link to the best bonus offer I can find on my best cards page regardless of whether I have an affiliate link to it.

If you’re applying for a card, using my links is an easy way to support my work. I appreciate it when you do!

🛑Personal Cards

Bilt: Earn points on rent. No brainer for renters.
#biltpartner

Amex Platinum: 150k points via select referrals or 100k + 10x at restaurants (up to $25k in 6 months) via Rest

Amex Gold: 90k points via select referrals or 75k points + 20% back at restaurants (up to $250 back for 12 months)

Capital One Venture X: 75k miles

CSP: 60k points (5/24 applies)

Capital One Venture: 75k miles

Citi Premier: 60k points

Barclays Aviator Red: Up to 75k miles

Avios: Up to 125k Avios (5/24 applies)

United Club Infinite: 90k miles (5/24 applies)

Aeroplan: Up to 100k points (5/24 applies)

Alaska Card: 70k miles

Hilton Amex Aspire: 180k points

Hilton Amex Surpass: 170k points

IHG (personal): 140k (5/24 applies)

Marriott: 3 free night certs (5/24 applies)

🛑Business Cards

Ink Biz Card ($95 annual fee): 100k points (5/24 applies)

Ink Biz Cards (no annual fee): $750/75k points (5/24 applies)

Capital One Spark Cash Select (no annual fee): $750. 75k miles with a Venture, Venture X, Venture X Business, or Spark Miles.

Amex Business Platinum: 150k points via select referrals

Amex Business Gold: 130k points via select referrals

Capital One Venture X Business: 150k Miles

Alaska Business Card: 75k miles

CitiBusiness Advantage Platinum Select: 65k miles

United (biz card): 75,000 miles (5/24 applies)

IHG (business): 140k (5/24 applies)

Hyatt business card: 60k (5/24 applies)

🛑What card are you getting next?!

If you see a better offer than one listed, DM me!

#creditcards #creditcard #travelhacks #pointsandmiles #frequentflyer #entrepreneur #smallbusinessowner Sitting in Qatar Airways first class on an Airbus A380.

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Flew the Etihad 1st Class Apartment today from London to Dubai. Booked through Air Canada. Absolutely ridiculous. Also, the Etihad lounge in Heathrow has a dining room with an ala carte menu. First time seeing that.

I had 3 different flight attendants helping me at all times. But Mira (pictured here) was my main one. Service was fantastic, best I’ve had so far.

This is on the Airbus A380 plane, so you’re on the upper level of the plane. The apartment is pretty large, and has decent storage space and a built in vanity.

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Amazing

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Comment “Leg Day” and I’ll send you a DM with a link to sign up for my good buddy Spencer’s @straighttothepoints award alert newsletter. If you go premium remember to use code MonkeyMiles to save $10 until August 31st but it’s free to register either way. #travel #travelhacks #traveltips #pointsandmiles

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How I Booked ANA First Class "The Suite"

🛑Save this post if you like first class flights!

A couple of months ago, I booked Japan Airlines first class from Tokyo to New York. I’d never flown JAL and was excited to finally give it a try after hearing great things!

Four days before I was scheduled to depart, I scrapped my plans and rebooked my flight home.

Why did I do this and how did this happen?

Let’s talk about it!

I was sitting at dinner in London with my friend @theluxurytraveller and, as chance would have it, discussing Japan Airlines first class.

Toward the end of dinner, I noticed one first class seat on All Nippon Airways had opened up from Tokyo to New York the day after my JAL flight.

Not only was this a chance to fly ANA first class, but it was a chance to fly their new first class “The Suite”.

I’d previously booked this for March 2022 but Japan wasn’t open yet so I had to cancel the trip. Needless to say, I’d been looking for a chance (excuse?) to try it!

Once back at my hotel, I moved quickly.

While ANA is a Star Alliance carrier and can be booked via partners such as Air Canada Aeroplan, Avianca LifeMiles, and United MileagePlus, Virgin Atlantic is also a partner.

I had points sitting in my Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account from my previously canceled booking, so I called to confirm they could see the award space.

Note: Virgin’s online search doesn’t show ANA space. You can search with Aeroplan or United to find space.

The phone agent confirmed the space and that it would be 85k points + ~$446 taxes/fees for the one-way ticket. The entire call took exactly 6 minutes 9 seconds. Amazing!

I originally transferred Amex points to Virgin during a 30% transfer bonus in 2021 so I really only needed ~65k Amex points to book.

The flight was fantastic, but I'll share more about the experience in a future post.

For now...

🛑What questions do you have about booking ANA first class?

#firstclass #luxurytravel #creditcard #travelhacks #frequentflyer #luxurytraveler Sitting in ANA first class "The Suite"

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𝟓 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐈 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥😎

Since it’s what I enjoy most in life, I wanted to share 5 of the reasons why I absolutely love travel.

Swipe left to see each reason and some fun photos from my adventures around the world.

Thanks to everyone I’ve traveled with and met along the way for leaving me with such great memories.

𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬! Singapore hawker centre with friends

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All aboard the 1 month old #KLM #787-10 || Brief pit stop in #Amsterdam, then onward to #Zurich!

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Throw back to a few weeks ago and speaking at the #chicagoseminars to 400 of the most die hard points and miles fans in the US.
Giving speeches and kissing babies, the #PointsPolitician.

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Thank you #CardCon ✈️family for the warm welcome! Thanks for inviting me to speak as the #keynote. 🥰 Loved meeting so many incredible travel and points pros. Chalking this one as one of my favorite communities! ✈️🚗🥗🥑🔥

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