Triangle Trip

In response to Captain G’s post regarding which is the best Visa/Mastercard available for business travelers, here’s my take on why the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is my Visa/Mastercard credit card of choice for travelers:

1.  I find myself charging at least $1,000 a month on my existing Visa card for places that do not take American Express and only earning 1% on restaurants. With the Chase Sapphire Preferred, I get 2 points per dollar spent on travel and restaurants. They also have special weekly promotions for dining out.

2.  I paid about $150 in foreign transaction fees annually since I travel abroad quite a bit. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa does not charge foreign transaction fees which justifies the $95 membership fee after the first year.

3.  Lastly, I like the feel of the card. It’s extra heavy and doesn’t feel cheap like other credit cards.

Here’s more information about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card:

• Earn 40,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months – that’s $500 toward travel rewards
• Additional 5000 bonus points for additional cardholder
• 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining at restaurants & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases
• Get 20% off airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises when you redeem through Ultimate Rewards
• No foreign transaction fees
• 1:1 point transfer to participating frequent travel programs (Including British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air, United, Virgin, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriot, IGH, Ritz Carlton)
• Direct access to expert service advisors anytime
• Introductory Annual Fee of $0 the first year, then $95

While the answer should be “direct flights only,” sometimes work sends us to places where we don’t have the luxury of options.  I’ve become an avid user of Hipmunk when it comes to booking complex travel, but have run across issues with what they deem to be appropriate layover windows.

While Detroit (DTW) is a perfectly fine airport and getting from gate A1 to A77 is a surprisingly easy affair when utilizing the indoor tram, getting from Concourse A to Concourse C requires no less than several sherpas and a dune buggy.  On a recent layover (connections on the same airline) I had 32 minutes to get from an A gate to a C gate.  Only for the providence of a flight delay did I make my flight.

So I have three questions for this community:

1. Can flight aggregators better predict sufficient layover times based on historical gate placement of flights?

2. What is generally the right time threshold for a layover?  45 min?

3. What airports are your personal torments when it comes to bad layovers?  (ORD, LAX and ATL are too obvious)

I’ve been avoiding this sector of social networking for so long… and now I’ll have to sign up for a foursquare account.

Our favorite hotel chain, Starwood (SPG) is offering 250 SPG bonus Starpoints when you check in via foursquare with a confirmed SPG reservation. The offer is from now through July 31, 2011.

Click on the picture below to be linked to the SPG promotion site. You’ll have to sign in using your SPG login then link your SPG account to your foursquare account.