I had mentioned in a previous post that as a Marriott Platinum Member, you could apply for a new benefit due to a partnership that Marriott formed with Hertz. With Platinum membership, you will now receive Hertz’s 5 Star Status.
As a reminder, Hertz’s 5 Star Status gets you:
One-car-class upgrade (subject to availability)
10% bonus on Hertz Gold Rewards points
675 bonus points after every 15 qualifying rentals
Gold services, including the chance to choose your car on the spot (at select locations), Carfirmation, and more.
If you aren’t familiar (I wasn’t), Carfirmation is a service that Hertz provides that will email you your car make and model, and where it is parked, the minute it is available. This can be handy information to have when you are walking to the car rental area.
Here is the confirmation email that I received:
I made my status match request on February 5th and received confirmation of the match on Feb 14th so it took 9 days to complete the match if you’re looking for a data point.
Once you fill out the form, you will receive a confirmation that you have successfully registered for the status match. You should see your new status within 5 business days of registration.
Conclusion
One of the standard best practices in Travel Hacking is to register for every single status match you can because you never know when it might come in handy. This is no exception.
I don’t purposefully write with a bias but I think that if you’ve read the blog long enough, you will realize that I am a HUGE Alaska Airlines and Marriott fanboy. The reasons are numerous but in terms of hotels, I just like the Marriott brand more than any other brand out there. I have held elite status at Hyatt, Hilton, Fairmont, Accor, Club Carlson, MGM Resorts, and Best Western and while I have stayed at all these hotels, I am often left feeling underwhelmed. Sure, there are nice hotels in each of these brands but the consistency just isn’t there for me and when you take into account the fact that Marriott purchased SPG a while back, it’s hard for me to look anywhere else for my hotel needs. Also, consider that Marriott has been a HUGE supporter of our community through their sponsorship of PointsU and you can start to see why I’m such a fan.
When we went on our Luxury Round-the-World trip, we chose to stay primarily at Marriott properties and after having a chance to reflect back on our stays, I can honestly say that I am incredibly happy with our stays both at the JW Marriott Hong Kong and the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai.
Understanding Dubai
If you’ve never been to Dubai before, you will see that it is a city of excess. Some may view it in a negative way but for those looking to stay at the most luxurious hotels in the world, it is a definite positive. The competitive landscape in the hotel industry of Dubai is absolutely cutthroat. The one-upmanship is truly a sight to behold. Remember, Dubai is home to the only 7 Star hotel in the world in the Burj Al Arab, which is considered the most luxurious hotel in the world. I mean … you can arrive to the hotel by helicopter if you want.
What does that mean for you? Well, besides that fact that almost every hotel in Dubai is gorgeous, it also means that your reward stays will typically cost a lot less than normal. Cash prices for these hotels can be exorbitant but I imagine that most people reading this are looking to redeem miles/points for these types of stays.
The JW Marriott Marquis
The JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai may be the most luxurious hotel in the JW brand and that’s saying a lot. However, because it is located in Dubai, it’s only considered a Category 7 hotel (out of 9).
Why this is impressive is that most JWs in popular metropolitan cities like Hong Kong are usually a Category 8 or 9. There are obviously exceptions to the rule but for the most part, JWs are usually at the top of the points required chart.
Per night, the JW Marriott Marquis is only 35,000 Marriott Points or 11,667 SPG points as you can transfer SPG to Marriott at a 1:3 ratio.
The other plus here is that if you redeem for 4 nights, you get the 5th free. If we do some quick math, that means that you can stay for 5 nights for 140,000 Marriott (46,667 SPG points). For me, that’s a steal of a deal, especially considering how beautiful the hotel is.
The JW Marriott Marquis Dubai is also the second tallest hotel in the world, only being topped by another hotel in Dubai, the Gevora Hotel. The Gevora is only 2.8 meters taller than the JW … told you the one-upmanship here is strong. With over 1,600 rooms spread over 2 towers, the hotel is MASSIVE.
Check-In Experience
Probably the biggest disappointing aspect of the entire hotel was the check-in process. There must have been at least 30 agents working the check-in desk but only two at the Platinum desk. Unfortunately, they were both with clients and there was already a line two deep so I made my way to a free agent in the regular check-in area. It’s ultimately not a huge deal but I prefer to deal with the Platinum desk as they tend to be more accommodating in terms of upgrades and making you feel valuable as a status member of the hotel.
As I checked in with a free agent, I noticed that he had an “In Training” badge but he seemed to know what he was doing. The check-in went smoothly but he did not mention any upgrade to our room. When I asked him about it, he told me that they were “sold out of suites”. Now, I’ve been around the block a few times and while I can accept that sometimes there just aren’t upgrades available, this was certainly not the situation at hand.
Keep in mind that this is one of the largest hotels in the world with over 1,600 rooms so the possibility that there were no suites available on January 2nd is outlandish. As a Canadian, you usually apologize for asking the question and simply accept your fate but I felt lied to and pressed the agent. I pulled up the Marriott app and showed him that there were indeed suites available in inventory and asked him to check his system again. Miraculously, a suite was indeed available but it was “being cleaned” at the moment.
To his credit, the agent offered to allow us to take our originally assigned room to freshen up while our suite was being prepared. This is the first time this kind of offer has been made in all my travels and it was a welcome offer as we were all dying for a shower. As a side note, the standard room in this hotel was beautiful but ultimately not as nice as the suite we ended up with.
After about an hour of waiting, we were told that our room would be ready in about 20 minutes. The agent suggested that we go up to the Marriott Executive Lounge for some dinner and by the time we got to the lounge, our room keys would be ready. We were also advised that we could enjoy our time in the lounge and our bags would be moved over to the new room so once we were done in the lounge, we could simply go to our new room. While I was not incredibly happy to have to fight for our upgrade, I certainly was happy that they made the transition to the other room quite comfortable.
The Executive Lounge
The Executive Lounge at the JW is in a word, incredible. It takes up the entire 37th floor of Tower A with about 80% of the floor completely dedicated to the Executive Lounge and the remaining 20% reserved as the Business Centre (no kids allowed). The views from the lounge are quite good being that you are on the 37th floor.
And as much as the views are gorgeous, the food really is the star of the show. There is just so much food that I don’t even know where to start except to just show you the pictures. I should note that there are two major platings; breakfast and dinner. Yes … dinner. As we got there in the late afternoon, the pictures show the dinner plating followed by breakfast the next day. I’ll apologize up front. There was just so much food that I didn’t take note of what was on offer. Suffice it to say, you aren’t going to go hungry and yes, there are both Western and Middle Eastern offerings.
Dinner
The salsa was made fresh and incredibly tasty!
Breakfast
This wall of doughnuts and I became fast friends. The chef can make you your eggs any way you’d like. I went with poached and they were perfectly cooked.
As you can see, there is a TON of food available and during dinner, there is an open bar serving beer and wine. Not only were we spoiled for choice, the quality of the food was second to none and probably the best food I have had in a hotel lounge. The service in the lounge was also amazing. The head of the lounge came up to us our first morning and chatted us up for a few minutes. While the gesture was nice, what blew me away was the next morning, he remembered our names and had the wait staff bring out the drinks we had the morning before; orange juice for me, coffee for my wife and water for my daughter. The fact that he remembered our names was one thing … remembering our preferred drinks? Out of this world!
The Room
The room we were provided was absolutely stunning. For some unknown reason, I didn’t get any pictures but I did manage to do a video tour of the room along with the elevator ride up from the lobby. Just a note, the video has no sound.
The Location
Perhaps one detractor for this hotel is that it is in a new area of Dubai (but what area isn’t new in Dubai?). This means that there is a ton of construction in the area and GPS is almost essential as new roads seemed to pop up all the time.
While Google Maps shows that the hotel is not too far from the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, it’s quite a trek and certainly not walkable if you care for your life (nobody walks in Dubai). For better or worse, Dubai is a city where you need a car and fortunately, the JW Marriott Marquis offers free valet service if you are a guest of the hotel. The valet service was very quick, efficient, and polite. I don’t think we waited more than 2 minutes for our car. One great perk is that you are able to call down for your car prior to leaving your room. Additionally, the hotel offers an hourly shuttle to the Dubai Mall and while we did not use it, it is certainly a nice free perk.
Conclusion
If you are ever in Dubai, I would highly recommend this hotel to you. The value you receive is incredible, especially if you are a Gold or Platinum member with Marriott. If you aren’t a Gold or Platinum member, you can quickly become one with the American Express Platinum or Platinum Business as both cards come with SPG Gold status, which will be automatically matched with Marriott Gold. This mean room upgrades and free breakfast in most hotels and breakfast, dinner, and spectacular views with the JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai.
The three biggest things that make this hotel sing are the low cost of redemption (Category 7), the amazing lounge (including the free food), and the room itself. Do yourself a favour and check out this hotel.
A word of warning, there is another JW Marriott in Dubai but it’s not as good. Look for the JW Marriott Marquis.
While I have tried to provide some color around earning miles through my Credit Card Reviews and delved deeper so that people can understand the Insurance Coverages of the major rewards cards in Canada, I realize I haven’t made it easy for you to see what offers are available for all the cards out there. That is until now.
What Is It?
I have created what I hope to be a very comprehensive sortable table of all the major credit cards in Canada. Everything is covered from the issuers in Canada, including American Express, TD, CIBC, MBNA, RBC, Scotiabank, and BMO with both Personal and Business Cards addressed.
The table covers things like the minimum spend, sign-up bonuses, and any promotions with the card, including if the first year is free. I’ve also provided any dates that promotions expire (if given) and what the CPM is of the sign-up offer so you can determine the best value.
What’s Great About This Table?
Besides the fact that I have tried to cover off every single card in Canada, what I love about this table is that you can multi-sort it. Interested in which card offers Aeroplan points and is the best value in terms of the annual fee charged? Just sort the table for Aeroplan under “Rewards Program” and Sort A–>Z under “CPM”.
What about answering the question, what’s the best Personal Card to get that is First Year Free and has the lowest minimum spend required to earn the sign-up bonus? Well, just go to the “(P)ersonal or (B)usiness” column and choose P then go to the “First Year Free” column and choose Yes and finally go to the “Sign-Up Bonus” column and Sort Z–>A.
The possibilities to find the perfect card for your needs is endless. If you’ve ever read my blog, you’ll know that I would never say “this is the perfect card for you” because I have no idea what your specific situation is. If you come across a blog that tells you that you need this card, take it with a grain of salt because there are usually ulterior motives involves.
This table levels the playing field because you are now in charge of determining what criteria are important to you, full stop.
What Are Your Ulterior Motives?
I won’t lie, I have placed my referral links in some of the cards, notably the American Express, Scotiabank, and Great Canadian Rebate links. I fully understand that you have complete choice when it comes to what link to use. I hope you use mine because it helps to keep the blog rolling but if you would rather use someone else’s link, that’s your choice. I only hope to earn your referral through the work I do via the blog.
Outside of earning a few referrals here and there, I really have done this because it’s just too difficult to quickly comparison shop for credit cards in Canada without being led by the nose to a specific outcome based on the referral earned by the company promoting the card.
I wanted to give you choice, not just the illusion of choice.
Nuisances to the Table
Due to the having to lock down the spreadsheet, you will be provided with a Read Only view that does not have sorting abilities, which is the most powerful part of the spreadsheet. In order to enable the sortable view, go to Data–> Filter Views –> Create new temporary filter view.
One of the most important columns to this table is the “First Year Free” column. There are plenty of cards that don’t charge an annual fee and those cards are also classified as First Year Free so if you want to know which cards normally have an Annual Fee but also have a promotion waiving the first year’s Annual Fee, you will have to multi-sort. First, go to the “First Year Free” column and choose Yes and then go to the “Annual Fee” column and Uncheck 0. You will be left with cards that charge an Annual Fee but also have a waiver for the first year.
You may also notice a black corner on some of the cells. Those cells contain notes that provide further detail so if you see that denotion, simply hover over the cell to get more information.
Most cashback cards do not have a sign-up bonus except for a couple of MBNA cards so it’s not abnormal to see a $0 sign-up bonus in this category of cards.
Updates to the Table
I have done my best to ensure the accuracy of the information in this table but I’m human and I make mistakes. If I happen to have made a mistake, please report the error by using the link in the sheet. If you click on the link next to the name of the card, an email will be generated with the subject line of the card in question.
Please provide detailed information on what the error is. Once I verify the error, I will update the table and correct the information.
My intent is to have the most comprehensive and updated table of Canadian Credit Cards so you don’t have to search the web, only to find old information. When I update a row in the table, I will denote it under the “Last Updated” column.
You will notice that you do not have the ability to edit the information in the table and that’s to ensure the validity of the information provided. It literally took me over 8 hours to properly compile this information so I have a vested interest in keeping the data locked down … I don’t want to have to do it again.
If there are any cards that are missing out of this table, please let me know at [email protected].
Conclusion
If you are a data-driven nerd like I am, you should find this table very useful in deriving some interesting facts about the Canadian Credit Card Industry. For example, did you know that from all the major banks, Visa is the most common card with 33 offerings, AMEX in second at 22 and MasterCard is the least represented card at only 16?
I truly hope that this table helps you in your quest to find the perfect credit card for your Travel Hacking needs. Good luck and let me know if there is anything I can do to help you on your quest.
American Express has made a change overnight that sees the annual fee increase from $399 to $499. At first blush, this might be viewed as a negative change, however, there is a new added benefit to this change; full Priority Pass Select Membership.
Prior to the change, the American Express Platinum Business only provided you with membership to Priority Pass but you would pay $27 USD per person per entry. Now, you have what is known as Priority Pass Select, which provides you and a guest free access to Priority Pass Lounges. Additional guests are still subject to the $27 USD fee.
Priority Pass Select
For those that are not familiar with Priority Pass, I can tell you I swear by it. In the last 5 years, I have had one flight that I did not have Priority Pass, and thus no lounge access, and I can tell you that it wasn’t a fun experience. Perhaps I am just too jaded with my expectation of what travel should be but without lounge access, it simply isn’t as fun. I personally find my time in the lounge to be some of the most relaxing and productive time in my day. There’s a certain peace you get when the doors shut behind you and the chaos of the airport just melts away.
Unless you have status with a major airline that has lounges in all the airports you visit (doubtful), Priority Pass is the best option for you. With over 1,000 lounges worldwide, no other program has the reach that Priority Pass has, in fact, you can often get access to airline lounges as part of their network.
Having this level of lounge access, especially when you are traveling in economy, is an absolute godsend. For a look at which lounges are in the Priority Pass network, visit https://www.prioritypass.com/en/airport-lounges.
Don’t forget that you also get access to Centurion Lounges like the ones in Houston and Dallas.
Sign-Up Bonus
The sign-up bonus remains the same at 40,000 Membership Rewards points through the public offer, however, if you use my referral link you would receive 75,000 Membership Rewards, a 62.5% bonus!!! The requirement of having $5,000 of spend in the first 3 months still applies but in my opinion, the huge tranche of MRs makes it worth the effort.
American Express has also snuck in a date of March 21st, 2018 in their terms and conditions as the date in which referrals are valid until. Historically, this has meant that there will be some sort of change to the sign-up bonus and with it already at a very lucrative 75,000 Membership Rewards, I would expect to see a reduction. Some have speculated that this might go down to 60,000 MRs but that’s pure speculation.
That being said, if you were ever on the fence about this card, now is the time to jump on the offer.
Insurances and Coverage
It seems as though all insurances and coverages remain the same for the American Express Platinum. For those that are not familiar, the family of Platinum cards from American Express offer some of the most comprehensive insurances in Canada. For a full listing of coverages, please refer to my post breaking down these coverages for all the major Canadian credit cards.
Conclusion
While an increase of $100 to any annual fee is unwelcomed, American Express has at least provided a tangible benefit for this increase. Previously, this card was really only good for the sign-up bonus but now with the improved Priority Pass access, it makes a lot of sense to have, especially if you want to cycle between the Personal Platinum Card and this card for lounge access.
