Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Montreal in...January?!?!

• Raya & Duane

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Thanks for finding our podcast! We are a family of 5 who does most of our travel using credit card points and miles and we share how we leverage credit card offers to earn a ton of points/miles so we can afford travel as a larger family.

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Alternate title - Points for Poutine! :) In this episode Raya is sharing about a work trip to Montreal, highlighting the charm of the city and detailing how to effectively use travel points for hotel bookings. 

• Reflections on the Montreal experience in January 
• Insights into opening new credit cards for travel rewards 
• Experience at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth during a workers' strike 
• Exploring Old Montreal and its unique winter charm 
• Understanding the Accor loyalty program and point transfers 
• Tips for navigating customs and travel delays effectively

Speaker 1:

Hi, friends, today's episode is all about my recent work trip to the winter wonderland that is Montreal, canada, and while I did not stay on points, I'm going to tell you how you can. So listen in. Hi, I'm Raya.

Speaker 2:

And I'm Dwayne.

Speaker 1:

And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Speaker 2:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Speaker 1:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

Speaker 1:

Hi friends, welcome back, welcome back. Thank you for joining us today. Yes, we appreciate you. I am going to share about my recent work trip, which took me to Montreal, canada, in January, which, if you're thinking, wow, that sounds really cold, you would be correct. But before we get into that, I wanted to share a couple of updates. We've already opened a couple of cards this year, so we're going to talk about that, and we're also being targeted for a bank account bonus that I think we're going to take advantage of, which is pretty good. So, number one, let's talk about how we accidentally opened two credit cards by like January 11th of 2025, somewhat unintentionally. Do you want to start the story? Do I know the?

Speaker 2:

story. Yeah, because remember the car insurance, or the car insurance, or yeah, the car insurance was due oh yes, so you applied for a card and it wasn't going to be here on time to pay a bill which you thought was due next month, next month, but yeah.

Speaker 1:

So our car insurance. We pay it once annually and I thought that it was due in february and I think that's because last year I paid it in February but it's really not due until but it was due January 14th. And so when I signed in and I realized that I thought, oh shoot, I had just gotten approved for a Chase Inc We'll talk about that in a second and my plan was to use the Chase Inc to pay the car insurance, which was $3,000., so that's half of the minimum spend right there. However, I didn't have the card and I was pretty sure it was not going to arrive by the 14th in time to pay it. So I then went down a rabbit hole of trying to find a card that I could apply either you or me for that would give me a card number right away, and generally that is going to be an Amex card, like they'll give you a temporary card number, a Capital One Venture X card, which I already have, but you didn't. Or there were some data points of like a city advantage business card giving you the number right away.

Speaker 1:

So I first tried all the Amex offers I could find for you or me, and we kept getting the pop up for every single one, which was like you're not. You know that's when you're in Amex pop up jail you're not eligible for the welcome offer, but you can still get the card if you want for the welcome offer. But you can still get the card if you want. No thanks, I'm not interested in that. And so I probably tried 10 different offers for Amex and couldn't get one to work. So then I moved on to the Capital One Venture X, and I already have that card. So that only left you to apply for it. And I applied you for it and you got denied. You got denied for too many inquiries, which is not surprising, and that card also takes up a 524 spot. So I didn't really love that. That's why I was really trying to get a business card. But it takes up a 524 spot. But I was willing to risk it if it would mean I could use that card to pay for this insurance. So anyways, that doesn't work. You're denied.

Speaker 1:

So then I try the city advantage. I think it's a city advantage MasterCard. Let me just look at my travel freely app and I can confirm you already have that card. So that only left me to apply for it. It was a business card, so I knew it wasn't going to mess up my 524. It's the city advantage business world elite master card, and so you already have it. So that only left me, and so I applied for that card.

Speaker 1:

I got approved, but they did not give me an immediate number to use and I was at this point so frustrated. So then I just sign in and I figure I'm just going to use my Capital One Venture X card to pay this bill and at least we'll earn 2x on it. That's my thought process. So I sign in, I go to update my billing information and that's where I see on the screen like the option to move my payment date out 10 days. And, mind you, I've already spent a solid two plus hours on this on a Sunday trying to get a card number. And then I realized that I could have just moved the payment date out, which is what I ended up doing. I moved it out 10 days, from the 14th to the 24th. I knew my chase ink would be here by then and that's all I ended up doing. I moved it out 10 days from the 14th to the 24th. I knew my Chase Inc would be here by then and that's all I had to do.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so two credit cards later, here we are.

Speaker 1:

So we're halfway to meeting the minimum spend on the Chase Inc. As soon as it came in, I activated it and I updated the payment info and paid that. But yes, so funny story. The payment info and paid that, but yes, so funny story. We've got another card to work on the minimum spend for now, which is the American Airlines card, and by then I'll have a good chunk of AA miles, which I guess is good, but I don't have a plan for them at the moment. So that is our saga as to how we ended up with two cards already, and it wasn't even the middle of January.

Speaker 1:

Going back to the Chase Inc really quick. I know a lot of people have been getting Chase Inc denials. A lot of those denials are coming because you've already opened too many. Duane and I both got those denials last year at least once, if not twice. All that I did from then to now was not apply for any other Chase cards, only stick to business cards with other banks, and I did go through and close any inks that we had that had been open for longer than a year. I didn't do it all at once, but generally when the I use travel freely and when that app tells me like your annual fee is coming up, I wait for the annual fee to post. I go into either mine or your Chase account. I do the secure message and I say I have an account inquiry and I basically say I'd like to close my account, ending in 1234, whatever the last four digits are.

Speaker 2:

And you don't have to pay the annual fee.

Speaker 1:

If it's within 30 days of the annual fee posting, they will refund the annual fee back. So no, and so I will continue to do that. I think there's another one coming up, maybe under your name, that's going to post soon, and so then I'll go in and close that one and then probably wait 30 days and try to apply you for another one. So our goal this year is to get a few more inks, if we can and towards the beginning of the year, and then give chase a little bit of a rest, because towards the end of the year we are going to be going for the Southwest companion passes us again, and those are all chase cards, and so I need to make sure that we can get approved for for those. So that's the plan.

Speaker 1:

The other thing I wanted to talk about is I have been getting really heavily targeted for an American Express business checking account, and I've seen various offers out there on the internet, but the one that I'm being targeted for is I will earn 70,000 membership rewards points if I apply by January 31st. That's the highest that I've seen. And not only am I getting targeted in the mail, but also in my Amex app. It's popping up when I sign in. And so, given that I'm in Amex pop-up jail for personal cards, I cannot get an Amex personal card, for whatever reason we are spending on our existing cards. I cannot get an Amex personal card, for whatever reason we are spending on our existing cards. You can't get a Amex business card. So you're in pop-up jail for business, I'm in pop-up jail for personal, so I guess it works out that at least we, you know, you can get personal and I can get business. But in lieu of that, since they're targeting me for this, I'm a hundred percent going to do it, I believe. Let me open this mailer real quick.

Speaker 2:

Is there a certain amount you have to deposit in the account?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you have to deposit. I'm pretty sure it's $15,000. Yeah, so these are the requirements. So deposit a total of $15,000 or more within 30 days of opening your account, maintain an average account balance of $15,000 for the next 60 days and make five or more qualifying transactions within those 60 days. The qualifying transactions I already looked into this are, like you know make a deposit like into the account, like another deposit, so like you can deposit $20 and that would be one qualifying transaction, I believe.

Speaker 2:

So what? We're going to deposit 15,000 in this account and just not touch it. For what? 60 days.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we'll just take it from our high yield savings and put it into this account and leave it there for 60 days Well, a little more than 60 days get the points and then move it on out. That's what I'm going to do. The 70,000 membership rewards points are going to be worth more than the interest that that $15,000 would earn in our high yield savings account. So that's kind of how I justify that. So if you have the money and you can find this offer somewhere on the internet, I would highly recommend. We've really been. I've really been finding that American Express points have been the easiest to earn. Lately In Q4, I have earned over 100,000 MR points just through Rakuten alone. We are heavily spending on your Amex Gold personal card you just got the sub for that but we're also using that for any grocery or dining spend and so we're earning 4X on those categories as well.

Speaker 2:

So really just trying to Does that last the entirety of the life of the card?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, I think there's a limit of maybe $25,000 for the year per category, but we won't hit that. We don't spend that much on groceries in a year, so, yeah, it's pretty good. Um, so yeah, in addition to new cards this year, we're really trying to focus on maximizing our everyday spend, if we can. I just went to staples this morning and bought a $1,200 in MasterCard fee free gift cards. We will use that at Costco and maybe to pay some utility bills. I also got you a $50 Starbucks gift card to load into your app. I need it and I also got an Amazon gift card for $200 to put into our Amazon account, just for whatever we need for the month. All in all, I think that'll earn us around 6,000 points 7,000 points, something around there. So, chan, that's chase points. So always trying to maximize however I can.

Speaker 1:

Okay, let's get into today's main topic, which is I had a work trip last week. I was in Montreal, canada, for my company's annual sales kickoff, and I'm not going to talk about the event or anything like that, because we don't talk about work stuff here, but we stayed at a hotel that you can book with points, and it's a program that isn't often talked about, and so we're going to go a little bit into that and I've got a few funny stories about the trip and the stay in general. So first of all, when I found out that I had to fly to Montreal, canada, in January, was I excited.

Speaker 2:

No.

Speaker 1:

We live in Phoenix where it's generally quite warm. The fact that I even own a winter coat is somewhat of a miracle, and I was not excited to fly into the cold winter weather. I even had to ask someone like how do I do that? Like how do I pack a winter coat? And basically they were like, oh, you're so cute, like that's adorable. You wear it on the plane and then you put it in the overhead compartment. And I said, oh, and you wear your boots on the plane? And I said, oh, okay, so that is what I did Wore the coat on the plane when it was like 60 degrees outside here with my winter boots and put the coat in the overhead bin.

Speaker 1:

And that worked just fine actually. So the hotel that we stayed at was the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in Montreal. This is an Accor property, so any Fairmont is under the Accor umbrella. Accor is more popular in Europe, not super popular here, although we do have a Fairmont Princess Hotel here in Scottsdale that I've heard is quite nice and they put on like a christmas festival every year so.

Speaker 2:

So, what are those? The tears, princess, queen, and there another one, um, or is that just the name?

Speaker 1:

I think yeah I think that's just the names of them, because I also I have another work trip coming up in um march, april, and it's just that it's in Austin, it's the Fairmont Austin, it's not called anything special. So um built had a promotion, I think on January 1st, where you could get um, like you could basically bump up your status with a core one level. So I had zero status with them and then I was able to do this promotion and I got silver status, okay, and so basically that entitled me to priority check in, late checkout and a free welcome drink. So nothing fancy, but, you know, nice perks.

Speaker 1:

However, here's the funny part the hotel that we went at during the time we went was on strike, and so that was the other reason that I was not super excited to go to Montreal and stay at a hotel that didn't have any food service. So, being on strike, the hotel is part of a union and the workers were striking and, yes, they were picketing in front of the hotel from like eight to five every day. The expect expectations we were given to stay there was we should expect a light housekeeping, so that's someone that's going to come in and maybe change the towels and the trash but not do much else, and um absolutely no food service in the hotel in terms of like restaurants or room service.

Speaker 2:

I was going to say because banquets, that's how you got your food while you were there.

Speaker 1:

Yes, all of our food was served from banquets and the strike was the banquet part was not affected by the strike. So breakfast, lunch and some of our dinners were done by their catering service, which was fine. Actually it was quite good. Like on a scale of hotel buffets I would say it was a slightly above average and yeah so but I really wasn't sure what to expect. Going in it did end up being fine. We didn't really see the picket line much. There was kind of a side entrance where you could enter the hotel and that is where we went in and out all the time.

Speaker 2:

I mean it was probably too cold to be out there chanting and hollering.

Speaker 1:

Oh, there were people out there. You could see them from the back, like when you walked by the main entrance, but it was never a disruption for us. So the hotel also has it can underground, so you can basically just go down these escalators a few levels and there is a whole mall under there. So there was a Starbucks very close, a McDonald's, and I tried to look at the McDonald's menu but it was all in French because Montreal is French first. So, uh, but there was a bookstore down there, a pharmacy, like really anything you could want, and you could also get on the Metro from, like, directly there, so you don't even have to go outside.

Speaker 1:

So I would recommend the hotel. Actually, I rather enjoyed it. My bed was comfortable, my room was warm, it was quiet, I never needed earplugs, which is unusual for me in a hotel, and so I mean I would stay there again. I am a little disappointed, though, because I thought I was going to earn points for my stay, and in my loyalty account it even told me the number of points I was going to earn. But then when I just went in to check it told it now says, like my receipt says, my stay was not eligible, and I'm pretty sure that's because we booked with a like a conference rate, you know, and so that is a little disappointing. Um, but I'm, we're going to tell you how you can book these hotels with points in just a second. Um, the other funny part is that I did get a free drink, a little ticket with my room key when I checked in, except there was no place open in the hotel to use it because everything was closed because of the strike.

Speaker 2:

It's funny, they even handed those out.

Speaker 1:

Well, I don't think everyone got them, because I'm pretty sure it was only because I did that, built promotion and upgraded to the silver status because the free drink was part of that, and I'm pretty sure no one else at my company did that. I'm sure that I'm the only weirdo who loves this hobby and and gay and treats it, treats it like a game. So, um, yeah, so got the free drink coupon but there was nowhere to use it. So they did honor my status. I'm going to put that air quotes my status. Um, but it didn't really benefit me in any way.

Speaker 1:

Um, Montreal itself was actually quite beautiful. Um, I like. We did go out a few times. It was very cold, Like it was in the negatives at night, several, several nights Fahrenheit. It's too cold for me. My, my winter coat is quite warm, though. I have it because I got it at Costco a couple of years ago when our oldest son and I took a trip to New York City. That was when we first started getting into points and miles and hadn't really earned a ton of points yet. But we went to New York that was his birthday gift to see the Christmas lights Shout out to Costco.

Speaker 2:

I love you.

Speaker 1:

And I'm telling you, my coat was pretty warm and people kept saying, whose coat did you borrow? Or they would say, how does someone from Phoenix Arizona have a coat like that? And I was like, hey, I'm prepared, and it was pretty toasty. So, yeah, I would recommend. Anyways. Okay, so you can book a core hotels using points, Both Capital One and City. Thank you. Points transfer to a core and they transfer at a two to one ratio. So for every 2000 Capital One points or City Points you transfer, you'll get 1000 a core points. Okay. So it's, it's not the best, it's not the best. Redemption Okay. And then a core points are like they have a set value and we've actually talked about this loyalty program, I think, once before on the podcast. They have a set value. The value is roughly every 2000 points gives you around 40 euros, which is roughly $44 US off of your stay.

Speaker 2:

So if you have 4000 points, you can like like turn that into basically around 80 to 90 off your stay um, which isn't a ton, it's not especially for a hotel like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think the the rate that we paid was like 300 a night for this property, not including taxes or anything, and that was like a conference rate, a group rate? Yeah for sure I would expect the regular rate to be much higher. This, like in full transparency, while you can use points to book these properties, I probably would not. I think that's what I said on the last time we talked about this too. I just don't think it's the best use of your Capital One or your City Points. But I think if your goal is like a cheap or as close to free as possible trip and this is like a bucket list hotel for you, then sure go ahead. But yeah, and I mean they have a shopping portal and they have all the things that other loyalty programs have but I just don't think, especially in America, you're getting like the best value.

Speaker 1:

There was several Marriott hotels. Um, within walking distance of this property, there was a Hyatt that I considered staying at actually, uh, because of the strike. What kind of Hyatt was it? I think it was a Hyatt Centric, I'm pretty sure, sure, and I almost booked it. I'm glad I didn't, because all of our meetings and stuff were in the hotel and it was nice to be able to go back to your room on a short break, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And poop and whatever you want to do Sure, yes, okay.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, that was nice and not have to go outside. But all in all, nice hotel Would totally stay again, but probably wouldn't use points to book it. I would just pay cash and not go in January. And also not go in January, yeah, I will say, though.

Speaker 1:

So a friend and I we did take a I'm calling it a winter, a wintry Wonderland walk. We had a couple of hour break one day, and so we walked from the hotel to, like old Montreal, which was, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes, and we kind of walked around there. We walked by the St Lawrence River, which was covered in snow and also frozen. You could see footsteps where people had walked out onto the river. So that was. That was cool, because I grew up going to the Thousand Islands when I lived in New York and we would camp there, and that is also the St Lawrence River, so that was kind of cool to see it frozen. I don't think I've ever seen it that way before, and we saw, you know, we popped into a cute little cafe. We had some hot chocolate. It was cute and fun. Old Montreal is really beautiful. We also had a couple of events there at night and if you want to go, if you want to feel like you're in Europe but you don't want to go to Europe, I think Montreal is a good bet.

Speaker 1:

They also had a Canada-themed Canada themed like dinner for us one night. So they had like a poutine bar. I love poutine. I probably ate it four times while I was there and I was only there four nights. It was three, three times and I was there four nights. It's delicious. If you don't know what poutine is like, my mom was like what is that? It's french fries covered in brown gravy and cheese curds, 10 out of 10. They also had beaver tails, which is like a kind of like a fried dough pastry, similar to like funnel cake or like a Native American fry bread and that's like a very Canadian thing. They had a lot of smoked meat. They had a s'mores bar which was cute, and then I was telling Dwayne, when I was a kid growing up again in New York, we went on a field trip to Quebec and Montreal and I remember two, three things about that field trip.

Speaker 1:

I remember riding in the back of a horse drawn carriage in the cold. I remember going to an ice castle and I'm talking like a legitimate full size castle made out of ice that you could walk through. And I remember being in a big like I don't know cabin type thing where they had these long rows of snow, slash shaved ice and they were drizzling maple syrup on it and then the maple syrup kind of like freezes and then you eat it and like vividly. I remember that and how good it was and they had that. They had like the this I'm calling it snow, but it's really shaved ice sounds very can and they drizzle the maple syrup on and it like becomes like a sticky candy, delicious, so good, 10 out of 10. So that was fun for me and I think I mean overall. They sell Christmas lights out.

Speaker 1:

So it was. It was really beautiful when you looked around at night and it has like this old world charm. So I didn't end up disliking it as much as I thought I was going to. I actually really enjoyed it and it was beautiful and the event was done well. So I hope. I don't know if that was interesting or not. I hope it was.

Speaker 1:

But if you're planning a trip to Montreal in January, I would say, do it. I think it was. It was a good time, we had fun. Just plan on, you know, bring hand warmers, warm clothes and boots, because it was very icy. What was it like for you while I was gone? Oh, and the funny part is not funny.

Speaker 1:

But when I traveled back, my flight out of Montreal oh, I need to talk about this because I did not know this about the Montreal airport. So when you fly out of Montreal, you go through and fly into the US, you go through customs in the airport before you leave you. If you have global entry, like I do, you can use your global entry. I was able to do that. It was super quick and easy.

Speaker 1:

But once you go through customs, you are stuck in this terminal that you cannot leave. You go through customs, you are stuck in this terminal that you cannot leave and there are no lounges in that terminal at all. I there were two lounges I could have accessed using my priority pass membership and one of them was the Air France lounge and I could. I could get as far as like I could see the entrance to the lounge, but I could not get to it because there was a glass walls all around me and I even asked someone like hey, do you? Sorry this is dumb, but do you know how I can get over there? And they were like oh, we have no idea. And then I googled it and Reddit told me you can't because you've gone through customs. You are now penned into this like weird terminal where you cannot leave, and so that was that yeah, that's weird that they do customs before you get to the US.

Speaker 2:

I've never heard or knew that that was.

Speaker 1:

That was a surprise to me. So, um, and then my flight out of Montreal was delayed three hours, so not only could I not access a lounge, but I was stuck sitting and waiting for a good four hours at the gate and it just kept getting pushed back, which then caused me to miss my connecting flight out of Dulles, which then caused me to have to spend the night in Washington DC, and I didn't get home until Friday night instead of Thursday night, so that was also disappointing. The only saving grace of that is that I got to spend a good amount of time in the Capital One Lounge in the Dulles Airport on Friday morning, so that lounge is still one of the best that we've ever visited.

Speaker 2:

I forget which one that is.

Speaker 1:

When we went to see my sister and then we flew out. They have the barista right when you walk in. They make your cappuccino or whatever. Yeah, and the little plates they had. The foodista right when you walk in they make your cappuccino or whatever. Yeah, and the little plates they had. The food that was good.

Speaker 2:

That little buffet on the wall, yes, and the kitchen, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so it's a really good lounge. If you haven't been Capital One, venture X cardholders get unlimited visits. And, fun fact, I realized the day before that Duane had my Venture X card, so I was panicking for a moment because I thought I wouldn't be able to get in. But you can get in using your app. I have the Capital One app. I just went in and went through lounges and it basically says, like you have unlimited visits and you can use your app to. It says you know, view my pass, I click that and they scan that and let me write in. So nice, that was a little pro tip for you, so you don't have to carry the card if you don't need to.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I think that about wraps it up for today. As always, we appreciate you listening and would very, very desperately, greatly, deeply appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen. Sorry, I just bumped the desk, but we would greatly love a review If you get any value out of this podcast or any feedback. Even you know also that too, yes, any feedback. Um, send me an email, find us on instagram or leave a podcast review that helps more people find our podcast and our pod. We are growing, but it is slow growth, so we greatly appreciate any support yes, we appreciate you.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening yes, we will catch you on the next one have a good one bye.