This is truly a tragedy based on the amazing value you received as a Canadian, especially with the Marriott card. The benefits included a free night certificate at a Category 1-5 Marriott Hotel, 15 Elite Night Credits towards status qualification and a 0% Foreign Exchange (FX) rate. While there are some new cards coming out to fill the vacuum left by these cards, it will take some doing to match the value of these cards.
Amazing Customer Service Gestures
While Chase is leaving the Canadian credit card space (hopefully for the short term), they are not leaving their customers high and dry. Chase has taken, what I deem to be, extraordinary steps to leave their existing customers as happy as possible considering they are losing the utility of these two great cards. As the Amazon card is a $0 Annual Fee card with not a lot of benefit outside the 0% FX, there isn’t much for Chase to do to appease these customers except to ensure that the Amazon credits that cardholders have earned are conveyed to them.
The strategy that Chase has taken with Marriott Card has left me very satisfied as a customer. Here’s what we are expecting:
A free night certificate for a Category 1-5 Marriott Hotel. This is usually done on the anniversary of the card renewal so this is quite an extraordinary customer service gesture. This is supposed to happen after March 15th, the date the card ends. This will happen even if your renewal date was March 1st. In this case, you would receive 2 certificates, one for the renewal and one for the cancellation.
A credit for the 15-night elite credits. Again, this is something that is supposed to happen on the anniversary of the card so this will be a welcome bonus to most that are looking to requalify for Marriott status. I have heard mixed reports about this so while I am hopeful that the nights will be credited, I am not 100% sure it will happen.
Annual fee pro-rated credit
The Annual Fee Credit
I’m happy to report that the Annual Fee Credit has already been given back to me as of February 5th. I don’t normally go into my Chase account because I don’t use it that often except when on vacation so I was quite happy to find the credit today.
I also received a $16 interest charge adjustment credit for some reason. I have no idea where it came from as I don’t carry a balance but I’m not going to say no to a free $16.
What To Do With The Credit
You have two choices on what you can do with your new found credit. You can either place a charge through on the card (prior to March 15th) to use the credit (assuming you don’t have a balance) or you can request a refund. If you are going to request a refund, I would recommend you wait until the day after the card is closed (March 16).
The reason I recommend waiting until March 16th is that I would hate for you to get an overzealous agent that misunderstands your request for a refund as a request to cancel the card. If you cancel your card before the card is pulled by Chase on March 15th, you risk not receiving the free night certificate and your 15-night elite credits.
Conclusion
I love that Chase is pre-emptively following through on their promise of a pro-rated refund of the Annual Fee. With Chase is following through on the first of their 3 big benefits, I fully expect to receive the other two benefits.
Have you seen your annual fee credit from Chase already?
We had to endure an unfortunate weather delay thanks to Storm Grayson and that really messed up our connecting flight in New York. Despite all that, I was still looking very forward to experiencing Etihad’s Business Studio and seeing whether First Class was worth the additional points.
The Plane
Etihad flies the A380-800 which is a double-decker plane with First Class and Business Class occuping the top deck of the plane. With only 9 seats in First Class, Business Class’ 70 seats take up a large majority of the space on the A380’s top deck.
The Seat and Cabin
I had the family seated in 10A, 12A, and 14A and as each of the seats in Business Class has direct aisle access, I wanted to ensure that we all had windows. I personally occupied 14A and as soon as I got to my seat, I knew it was going to be a good flight.
The first thing I noticed about the seat is the privacy, the excellent use of space, and how new the cabin felt. While I didn’t get a photo of it, the storage space next to the windows is massive. It was cavernous enough to fit my camera bag as well as my laptop … and there are two of them. It is certainly a welcome surprise when you get more than enough storage.
Similar to the First Class cabin, there are small design touches that make this plane uniquely Arabic. You’ll notice the beautiful Emarati designs throughout Etihad’s plane, from the pillows to the uniforms to the cutouts in the ceiling.
As a bed, the seat is quite comfortable even though there is no turndown service (ie make your own bed), nor is there a mattress pad, though I would argue that it’s not necessary. During the flight, I got a good 6 hours of sleep. As I had mentioned in my previous post, the A380 is extremely quiet so conversations from close-by seats can be heard loud and clear which I why I would recommend using the earplugs provided in the amenity kit.
The Food
As a welcome aboard, I was provided with warm nuts and a drink. I went with half orange juice and half soda water.
Due to our late departure and the fact that the flight was 14 hours, we had both dinner and breakfast options available for our meals. I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry so I skipped the appetizer course and went for the main which was a Beef Tenderloin with Roast Potatoes, Baby Carrots, Cherry Mushrooms, and Shitake Mushroom Sauce.
I had requested my beef to be medium-rare but as you can see it was slightly overcooked, though quite tasty. It’s certainly not as pretty as what you might find in First Class but nonetheless, it was quite a good meal.
For dessert, I had strawberry ice cream with some cookies and baklava on the side. I’m being nitpicky here but because the ice cream is flash frozen when it is ordered, it comes to you completely rock solid, meaning that you have to wait a good 5-10 minutes for it to defrost before eating.
Breakfast on the flight was a very simple but incredibly delicious scrambled egg on toast with mushrooms. I’m not sure why it was so delicious but it really was. It probably had to do with the mushrooms, which were very flavourful.
The Amenity Kit
The amenity kit that was provided in Business Class has a unique “collect them all” type feature with 6 different designs that you can collect. Each design represents a different city with my kit symbolizing Rome, Italy. What’s interesting about this is that each kit comes with a city guide for its own specific city.
As far as what comes inside the kit, you have your traditional sleep amenities including earplugs, eye mask, and socks. You also receive a toothbrush, toothpaste, cotton swabs, cotton pads and an emery board. For lotions, you are provided with a lip balm and facial moisturizer by UK based grooming company, Scaramouche + Fandango.
The Service
The service on board Etihad’s Business Class is good but certainly not great. I’m certain that it has to do with the sheer number of Business Class passengers (70) but it was definitely a noticeable difference to First Class.
After ringing the call bell. it would not be out of the ordinary to wait up to 20 minutes for the call to be answered and it wasn’t uncommon to see no flight attendants at all throughout the entire cabin.
When the flight attendants did respond, they were all very friendly and professional. It seemed to me that there as a strategy behind not answering calls immediately as they would clear multiple requests at the same time. While this might have been more efficient for them, as a passenger, you couldn’t help but feel a little bit neglected.
The Lounge
In between the First Class and Business Class cabin is Etihad’s Lounge. It is meant to be an area in which you can conduct business meetings or just sit and chat with friends, though I noticed it was completely unutilized during our flight.
There is seating for 6 and an open bar concept where you can serve yourself wine or liquor but it seemed oddly out of place. Based on my observation, I would expect that on the next redesign of the cabin, Etihad may eliminate this area and instead use it for additional Business Class seats.
Conclusion
I quite liked my experience onboard Etihad’s Business Class but my main reason for testing it out was to determine whether the First Class cabin was worth the extra miles. Using American Airlines Advantage miles, flying in Business Class from the Middle East to the Continental US costs 70,000 miles versus 115,000 for First Class. On a 14-hour flight that equates to an additional 3,215 miles per hour, which is nothing to scoff at. That being said, if there was availability, I would no doubt shell out the extra miles required. That’s not to say that Business Class is bad in any way, just that First Class in Eithad’s apartments is just that much better.
If you want to book this for yourself, it’s going to take a bit of work as a Canadian because American Airlines Advantage Miles are hard to come by. The easiest path is to get yourself some Amerian Express Membership Rewards and transfer them to SPG. Then convert the SPG to Marriott points and purchase a Travel Package. I know it sounds complicated but if you want a further breakdown on how I did it, check out my post about it.
It used to be my experience that you could almost guarantee some sort of free vehicle upgrade when you rented a car, regardless of the company you used or if you had status with the car rental agency. This was typically because I booked the cheapest car (as I suspect most people also did) and when I showed up to get my car, they would inevitably be out of that vehicle size which meant a free upgrade.
I have found more and more that car rental agencies are becoming more adept at actually having the vehicle you requested available for rent and are almost always never willing to upgrade you for free. That’s when status with a car rental agency comes in handy. Not only is it usually much faster to get in and out with your rental, you also heavily increase your chance at a nicer vehicle.
New Hertz Benefit
I’ll be the first to admit that this really only benefits people that have stayed a significant amount of time in hotels because you need to be either Platinum or Platinum Elite with Marriott or Platinum or Platinum with Ambassador with SPG in order to qualify for the status match.
Your status level with Marriott/SPG will determine what status you will receive from Hertz but it will either be Five Star or President’s Circle.
What Does Hertz Status Get You?
With Hertz Five Star or President’s Circle status, you receive two major benefits and one minor one. The first is that you have access to the Gold Rewards or President’s Circle parking stalls. Why this is important is that it allows you to simply flash your driver’s license to the attendee, grab your keys and go. No unnecessary paperwork, having to decline insurance, etc. Just go. Personally I detest waiting for an hour at the car rental agency. This benefit circumvents that issue.
The second benefit is that you are provided a one-class upgrade which is based on availability for Five Star members and guaranteed for President’s Circle members.
The third benefit, which I deem to be fairly minor, is a higher earning rate for Gold Plus Reward Points, Hertz’s loyalty program.
Once you filled 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.
What If You Aren’t Marriott/SPG Platinum?
Well, you’re in luck. If you hold an American Express Platinum card, you also receive Hertz Five Star status as part of your benefits. While the Hertz benefits are certainly not something that I would call a driving force to get the AMEX Platinum, it is definitely a nice throw in with the card.
Conclusion
I always advocate that people register for every promotion, benefit and status match possible as you never know when it might come in handy. I NEVER stay at Best Westerns but I found myself booking the Best Western in Port Campbell on the Great Ocean Road in Australia because there wasn’t really much choice. Because I had registered for an easy status match with Best Western, I received free breakfast. While not earth shattering, free is free.
If you qualify, I would highly recommend you complete the status match with Hertz because … you never know.
The reasons for this are varied but it really comes down to my impatience when I land at my destination. I strive to be out of the airport within 15-20 minutes of landing and that is impossible to do if you check bags. There is nothing worse than landing in a place like Maui, smelling the ocean air and seeing the sunshine only to be forced to wait 45-60 minutes for your bags to come out.
One of the things that you typically have to give up when you travel with carryon luggage only is shoes. In the past, I have had to make the choice between shoes that looked great and shoes that were comfortable and I have gone with comfortable shoes 100% of the time.
What’s the big deal with that? Well, as a guy that loves food and fine dining, I often times have had to forgo some great dining experiences because showing up to a Michelin star restaurant in sneakers or sandals just doesn’t cut it.
I thought that I would always have to give up on my love of fine dining when I was on vacation until one of my readers, Irving, made an amazing recommendation to my new favorite shoe, the AllBirds.
What Are AllBirds?
AllBirds are a shoe that is made of Merino Wool … yes, you heard that right. Merino Wool.
The reason for Merino Wool? Well, it’s a natural thermoregulator, meaning that they keep your feet cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It’s quite a claim but I can attest that the claims are absolutely true.
Some of the other benefits of wool are that it wicks moisture/sweat away from your feet and can absorb up to 35% of its weight in water before feeling wet on the feet and even when wet, the wool can still regulate temperature.
AllBirds come in either a Wool Runner or a Wool Lounger. The difference between the two is that the lounger looks more like a slipper and is a bit more casual. I went with the runners because I liked the look of them better.
Why They Are Great
There are many reasons that I love my AllBirds and I will provide you with some of the reasons below but in general, they look great, feel great and are perfect for almost any weather condition you can throw at it.
Comfort
I love these shoes because they are quite honestly the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. No joke.
I read a lot of reviews before purchasing these shoes and many reviewers compared these to the Adidas Ultra Boosts. This is very high praise indeed because the Ultra Boosts are almost universally recognized as one of the most comfortable shoes ever made but they have two very serious downsides. The first is that they are ridiculously expensive at about $250 a pair and the second is that they are almost impossible to find.
The Ultra Boosts were the shoe that I was after before I discovered the AllBirds and even though they are very comfortable, they just don’t cut it in terms of being able to use them for formal occasions … they most definitely look like a sneaker.
When I was considering the Ultra Boosts, I had pretty much given up on finding a shoe that was both functional and looked like it belonged in a nice restaurant.
Luckily, I couldn’t find any Ultra Boosts in all of Calgary and after reaching out for some help from PointsNerd readers, I purchased up my AllBirds online from the company directly.
In terms of real world comfort, I can tell you that as a person that has been cursed with a bad lower back and foot pain, the AllBirds have been an absolute joy to walk in. Normally, I have been the type of person that would rather take public transit than walk 20 blocks but on our trip around the world, I had no issue walking around all day for miles at a time.
I can honestly say that I never noticed my feet being sore even on the longest walking days. My wife loves to walk everywhere and so does my daughter. Usually, I’m the limiting factor in their fun but on this trip, I was able to keep right up with them. Normally, even if my feet don’t hurt during the walk, I pay for it the next day but not so with the AllBirds.
I know that this may seem like I’m overexaggerating the point but it’s the God’s honest truth. My feet didn’t hurt at all in these shoes.
Look
The ability to wear these shoes with shorts is just as easy as if you wore them with slacks and a button-up shirt. These shoes are incredibly versatile and work with almost anything you have in your closet. Now, the color you choose will probably play a factor in this statement but for the most part, these shoes look better than sneakers and when you’re dressed up, it looks like you are on the cutting edge of fashion. You don’t look as dressed up as if you would in wingtip shoes so perhaps these don’t work in the fines of dining establishments but when you wear AllBirds, you look like a tech billionaire that prefers comfort over conforming to the status quo.
I will say that these shoes look better with pants than with shorts but that’s not to say that they look strange with shorts because they don’t. I just prefer the look of the shoes in pants more so than with shorts.
Versatility
I’ve already covered off the versatility of these shoes when it comes to their ability to dress up and down but what about in different weather conditions? Well, I can tell you that AllBirds claims of the shoe being a thermoregulator is no false claim.
I wore my AllBirds in a wide range of temperatures, from +35 Celcius in Cairns, Australia to -40 Celcius in Calgary. In both conditions, my feet felt great. Not too hot and not too cold. I was incredibly impressed by the shoe’s ability to make my feet feel comfortable.
In terms of being able to wick moisture away from my feet, I can say that the claims are also true. I’ll admit that when I was walking around in hot temperatures, my feet did sweat a little bit but not nearly as much as I have experienced in other shoes. I would describe the feeling as slightly clammy but not enough that your toes are sliding back and forth from the sweat. It was just mildly noticeable.
As far as the smell goes, I wore these shoes 95% of the time without socks on and I did not notice any sort of smell from the shoes. My wife can attest that some of the shoes that I wear without socks need to be left outside but the AllBirds did an amazing job at keeping the stench away. Perhaps the smell will come over time but in the two solid months that I have worn them, they do not smell.
Priced Right
Unlike the insanely priced Ultra Boosts, the AllBirds are competitively priced at $95 USD per pair. You will pay the local state tax depending on where you ship them but I believe the price point offers incredible value.
Ease of Care
The construction of the AllBirds makes these shoes the perfect travel companion because they don’t have any stiff sections like most other shoes. The only thing that you could consider stiff is the sole of the shoe but the rest of the shoe is made of soft merino wool including the heel cup. This means that you can easily squish the shoes down to fit into your luggage, saving you tons of space.
When we were moving between cities in Australia, I often wore my sandals and stuffed my AllBirds into my carry-on luggage and they were no worse for wear when I pulled them out later.
The other amazing thing about AllBirds is that you can actually throw them into the wash. I was a little skeptical of these claims but after doing it myself, I am convinced that these are one of the easiest pairs of shoes I have ever had to take care of.
Here are the pictures of the shoes after one month of constant wear:
Here’s what they look like after a quick wash on the gentle/wool cycle:
I should note that there was no spot treating or any sort of special care taken to wash these shoes. I simply tossed them into a bag, added some soap and set the washing machine on the gentle/wool cycle. With the AllBirds, you allow them to air dry so don’t put them in the dryer.
You may notice that the shoes have lost their shape a little bit but after a couple of wears, they look as good as new.
Great Laces
This might be a minor thing for some but for me, this is incredibly important. First off, the shoes that I received from AllBirds came with two different colors of laces which make changing their look quite easy, but more importantly, the laces are very grippy.
What do I mean by that? Well, in the two months that I have worn the shoes, I have had to tie the laces twice. Yes. Twice.
The laces are so well engineered that if you tie a good knot, you won’t have to worry about them coming undone. This is such a huge plus for me because I hate having to tie my laces all the time. I’m not sure why this isn’t the norm but for whatever reason, it isn’t.
AllBirds nailed this small but rather important aspect of shoe design.
The Negatives
Nothing is ever perfect and while AllBirds are fantastic, there are a few minor gripes I have about them. Nothing is that major but I figured I would give you both the positive and the negative.
Scuffs and Dirt on the Toe
I’m not sure if this is because of the way I walk or the design of the shoe, but I noticed quite frequently that the toe would attract an inordinate amount of dirt. You can definitely see it the pictures above. I’m guessing that it’s the way that I walk but in the future, I would probably pick up a slightly darker color of shoe so that this isn’t quite as noticeable.
The Grip
The grips on these shoes are terrible. They are virtually non-existent. I wouldn’t have noticed this at all except for the fact that I bailed hard when I was running for a train in snowy Calgary. I imagine it looked something like this:
When I wiped stopped crying and wiped away the tears, I took a look at my shoes to find out what had happened.
It’s no surprise that these grips didn’t provide much traction on the icy streets of Calgary. If you are planning on using these shoes in winter conditions, be aware that traction isn’t the greatest but it hasn’t stopped me from wearing them here in Calgary in the winter. I’m just a lot more cautious.
No Half Sizes
AllBirds have made a strategic bet that people don’t need half sized shoes. They suggest that you size up if you wear a half size and I was a bit nervous about doing so but it worked out fine. I will readily admit that the shoe is slightly larger than I normally like but it was easily remedied by tightening my laces. In the grand scheme of things, it’s no big deal but it would be nice to have half sizes available.
Limited Availability
Perhaps the biggest drawback of the AllBirds is that the company currently only ships to the US, Australia, and New Zealand.
I had my AllBirds shipped to my hotel in Los Angeles and everything worked out just fine but what if you aren’t traveling to the States, Australia or New Zealand? Well, you might be forced to use a re-shipper like Shipito. I covered off how to use Shipito in a previous post about How To Get US Credit Cards but you can certainly use them to forward your AllBirds package to Canada.
While this could be considered a big hassle, now that I have had these shoes for a while, I can tell you that it’s well worth the effort.
Conclusion
This isn’t a sponsored post nor did I get these shoes for free. This is my 100% unbiased review of the shoes and I absolutely adore them.
I believe that these shoes perfectly encompass amazing comfort and a style that can be dressed up or down for almost any occasion, making them incredibly versatile and a must-have for any traveler.
Hopefully, you can get these shoes in Canada in the near future but even if you can’t, it’s still worth the effort to try to secure them through other means because they are just that good.
The Ultra Boosts were the shoe that I was after before I discovered the AllBirds and even though they are very comfortable, they just don’t cut it in terms of being able to use them for formal occasions … they most definitely look like a sneaker.
