OBSERVATIONS FROM MY RECENT TRIP TO NEW ENGLAND

Introduction

My daughter is in that exciting stage of her life where she is evaluating which college to attend. To that end, she and I traveled from Washington D.C. to New England to look at a couple of schools, just before a heavy winter snowstorm was forecasted to hit. The trip provided some interesting opportunities to take advantage of what credit cards have to offer.

My Capital One Venture X card was the star of this show, though I also took advantage of some benefits from both American Express and Chase on the way. This article breaks down where I was able to take advantage of credit cards (or not), and how much I saved along the way.

This article includes:

• Stacking with Lyft

• Airlines

• Capital One Landing

• Rental Car

• Hotel Credit

• Escape Lounge

• Max’s Take

Stacking with Lyft

I had rarely used Lyft, even with the $10 monthly credit through my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. In the Washington, D.C. market, we have Empower available, which usually turns out less expensive than Lyft, even with the credit.

However, I recently picked up a Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business card because I know I’ll have a large tax bill upcoming, which also offers a $10 monthly credit. When assessing rideshares, I saw that the two credits actually stack for use on the same ride. With the stack, Lyft becomes the lowest priced alternative once per month. My ride fare to the airport, normally $27 plus tip, came to a total of $12.40 with tip included. The trip was off to a great start!

I now need to look back through the credits for my other Chase card credits to see if there are any additional credits that may stack on top of these two!

Tip From Max:

If you haven't heard of Empower, you will soon. It is an app which streamlines the Uber and Lyft processes and puts more money in the pockets of both you and the driver. It is currently available in Baltimore, New York City, Washington, D.C., Winston-Salem/Greensboro, and South Florida, and it is growing.

Capital One Landing

This lounge recently opened in DCA, and it is a terrific one. Reservations are recommended. I went without, and while there seemed to be available seating, I was informed that the lounge was full, but there was space available at the standing bar. Perfect. I paid the $45 adult guest fee for my daughter and in we went.

The Capital One Landing does not look particularly chic or luxurious, but that is not what makes it worthwhile. What does is the food. They serve a variety of excellent tapas style dishes dreamed up by head chef José Andrés like Gambas al Ajillo and Carne Asada con Mojo Verde, which is incredibly tender and delicious.

I ordered the latter after munching on some assorted olives, homemade potato chips, and Caesar salad that was turned into finger food by putting the dressing and parmesan cheese into a single leaf of romaine lettuce. I washed it all down with a couple of craft beers and we were on our way.

Airlines

We scheduled my daughter’s school visits on a weekend, so we did not have any flight flexibility. There were no saver fares using points, so I purchased the tickets. While our inbound flight was reasonable, our outbound was not. It turned out that the coach fare for economy was only $40 less than first class, so we flew first class on the outbound. This was a bit of a splurge for a short flight, but well worth it for the boarding convenience, extra space, comfort, and complimentary cocktail and snack. Total round trip fare: $650 apiece.

Rental Car

This is where American Express came into play. The platinum card provides President’s Circle Status and a corporate discount rate with Hertz, which is where we booked. We were informed the space in which our car was waiting for us, and the return couldn’t have been easier. We just left the keys in the car were on our way.

I priced out the car both as a guest and using the American Express corporate discount, and surprisingly found absolutely zero difference between the two. It would seem this is always worth a check.

Hotel Credit

We had two separate, single-night stays for convenience to check out the University of Massachusetts and University of Connecticut. There are plenty of hotels in nearby towns, but NONE of them will be found in Chase’s The Edit or American Express’ Fine Hotels and Resorts or The Hotel Collection. This is where the Venture X card stepped up again.

We stayed at Hotel Northampton the first night, and I was surprised to find that the rates there were comparable to several of the lower tier chain hotels in the area, despite boasting a guest list including Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, David Bowie, and Bob Dylan amongst others.

For our second night I booked The Goodwin Hotel in downtown Hartford through Capital One Travel. The Goodwin is a boutique hotel which is similar to a Hyatt Centric. All in with taxes and fees, the charge for the night was $342. I applied my annual Capital One hotel credit of $300, so I paid a net $42 for the night.

Max’s Take

Visiting potential colleges is an exciting time for a young adult. The visits can be enhanced by the little perks credit cards can provide us. For this trip, credit cards were able to save me a total of $320 while enhancing our rental car experience and enjoying the Escape Lounge while waiting for an extended period of time. With a bit of strategic spending, about $125 total, we were able to upgrade to first class one way and visit the Capital One Landing. That's a net savings of almost $200 and an enhanced experience across the board.

The impending snowstorm covering the entire Northeast was beginning to have an effect on travel at the end of our trip. Flights were being cancelled, as were the trains. Our flight was delayed almost two hours, but somehow we made it out just in time. Maxing our credit cards made this a better trip and, sometimes, things just go your way as well.

Escape Lounge

There is only one lounge in the Hartford (BDL) airport, the Escape Lounge. This lounge is part of the Priority Pass network. I must admit, I had little expectation that even with the appropriate access, my daughter and I would get in given the impending weather. I had checked ahead to see if I could reserve a space, and that was only available for paying customers.

Sure enough, upon arrival I was informed that the lounge was full and we could get on the waitlist. I was surprised to see, though, that we were first in queue! Five minutes later, we were in.

The Escape Lounge had just undergone refurbishment and re-opened a couple of weeks before. There was more space than before, more food options, a larger bar, and it was full of comfortable seating options. Given the lounge was full, the hostess made the effort to show us to a couple of adjacent seats instead of leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Overall, it was a terrific experience, and we were glad to have space in the lounge as inclement weather began to push our flight back with delay after delay, almost 2 hours in total.

I hope you enjoyed this article! Let me know your thoughts. Have you experienced any of the lounges or hotels referenced? Do you have any travel hacks you’d like to share? Are there any topics you would like to see me write about? Please respond with any feedback you may have.

If you would like to have similar experiences and receive guidance on which credit cards are right for you free of charge with no obligation, please contact me at email@maxyourplastic.com.