Chase Sapphire Preferred Points Battle: Two epic t...

On the heels of The Factors Man’s first-ever “Factors Battle,” we’re again with one other version — and this time we’re venturing each north and south of the equator.

Brian Kelly, founding father of The Factors Man, challenged two TPG teammates to duke it out and see how they might every maximize journey advantages from their Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) to plan the last word, Instagram-worthy, awe-inspiring journey.

This problem was made sweeter with Points Boost, a useful perk that makes your Chase Final Rewards factors price extra and stretch additional whenever you e-book choose lodges and flights by way of the Chase Travel℠ portal.

Add in longtime favourite advantages like incomes bonus factors on eating and journey, the power to switch factors to airline and resort companions, and a $50 annual hotel credit for reserving by way of Chase Journey, and we had an epic competitors on our fingers.

The Factors Man’s senior resort reporter, Tanner Saunders, accepted the problem alongside Lyndsey Matthews, senior journey editor at TPG.

This is the way it all went down.

Factors Battle: Chase Sapphire Most popular version

Like most competitions, this Factors Battle had some guidelines, together with choosing themes for the journey by spinning a wheel of journey parameters, discovering the right Instagram photographs and placing collectively a very memorable journey whereas additionally leveraging factors and card advantages effectively.

Lyndsey takes a spin

Whereas working at TPG’s New York workplace, I obtained a cryptic textual content message from Brian telling me to go to his workplace — a wierd request contemplating I knew he was off jet-setting. Strolling towards his workplace, I observed my favourite colleague, Tanner Saunders, heading in the identical path. He’d gotten the textual content, too.

Contained in the workplace, we discovered a magic wheel of journey themes and directions to spin it 3 times every to find out the place we’d journey and what we’d expertise alongside the best way. I landed on visiting someplace with a rainforest local weather, seeing a marvel of the world and consuming a meals I had by no means tried earlier than. Whereas Tanner took his flip, I began planning.

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Tanner learns his destiny

Tanner right here! I used to be excited for the prospect to spin the wheel thrice over to plan my journey. Because it turned out, I might be heading to a desert local weather and staying in a bucket-list hotel, an ideal match for this resort reporter. It additionally gave me an opportunity to place my Chase Sapphire Most popular card’s $50 resort credit score to work.

With journey calling, Brian knowledgeable us we’d every have as much as 150,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards factors to show our journeys into actuality, and that the winner would take residence one other 150,000 factors to make use of for a visit that didn’t require trouncing a co-worker.

With the foundations in place, our factors balances loaded and a few pleasant competitors within the air, we set out on our adventures.

Factors are a battlefield: Planning 2 epic journeys

Earlier than any journey, Factors Battle or not, there’s numerous planning to be carried out. Our two TPGers started working seeing how far their factors might take them and hammering out each element alongside the best way.

The battle was simply starting.

Lyndsey: Wilderness and wine in New Zealand

Armed with 150,000 Final Rewards factors, I had a choice to make: Discover business-class flights someplace near residence or stretch my factors so far as attainable to get to the opposite aspect of the world.

Whereas I might simply discover a dish I have never tried earlier than in any nation, the opposite parameters of my journey — a rainforest local weather and a marvel of the world — lent themselves to locales a bit farther from my residence base in the USA.

A number of of the brand new Seven Wonders of the World are in rainforest climates, however I had already been to Machu Picchu in Peru and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. I needed to see one thing new, which led me to Milford Sound on New Zealand’s South Island. Thought-about by some to be the eighth marvel of the world, this epic fjord sits inside the Te Wahipounamu UNESCO World Heritage Website, which simply so occurs to be a temperate rainforest.

Discovering flights to New Zealand with out burning by way of my total finances took some work. However fortunately, after evaluating a number of routes and airways, I secured a round-trip Fiji Airways ticket from Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) to Auckland Airport (AKL) with a layover at Nadi Worldwide Airport (NAN) in Fiji for 63,083 factors by way of Chase Journey.

Tickets in hand, it was time to go to the airport. I earned 5 factors per greenback spent on my Lyft experience by paying with my Chase Sapphire Most popular card.*

After touchdown in Auckland, I made my technique to the Park Hyatt Auckland. I booked one night time in a king room at this luxury Class 8 Hyatt property by transferring 25,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to World of Hyatt.

The Park Hyatt Auckland has 195 visitor rooms and suites with floor-to-ceiling home windows overlooking Waitemata Harbour and the town skyline. My room featured Maori-inspired decor, like the normal tukutuku wall panels woven from purple, black and white New Zealand wool, hung throughout from the comfortable king-size mattress.

The spacious marble lavatory featured a free-standing tub overlooking the harbor. I believe my favourite element was the walk-in closet that permit me unpack with out cluttering the house. I used to be touring solo, however households can e-book adjoining rooms, giving themselves much more house to unfold out.

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LYNDSEY MATTHEWS/THE POINTS GUY

Regardless of the jet lag, there was no time for relaxation since Brian stunned me with a bonus factors problem on the Park Hyatt to “reside like a neighborhood.” Since New Zealand is mainly Center-earth, I made a decision to partake in a hobbit’s favourite actions: consuming and consuming. For that, I boarded a 40-minute ferry from Auckland to Waiheke Island for a food-and-wine tour.

I tasted a shiny and flavorful chardonnay and a peppery syrah at Mudbrick Winery, sampled 4 native olive oil varieties at Allpress Olive Groves, and slurped contemporary Te Matuku oysters harvested simply down the street from the Ki Maha restaurant proper on Onetangi Seaside. I earned 3 factors per greenback spent on eating with my Chase Sapphire Most popular card and was additionally capable of examine off the “meals I’ve by no means tried” a part of my problem right here since I’ve by no means had oysters from New Zealand.

Completely relaxed and revived, it was time for some thrills on the South Island. To get to Queenstown — New Zealand’s journey capital — I booked round-trip flights from Auckland on Air New Zealand utilizing an extra 19,440 factors by way of Chase Journey.

For my residence base in Queenstown, I booked two nights on the Sofitel Queenstown Lodge & Spa. Since this French-inspired luxurious resort with a complicated spa within the coronary heart of the town is bookable by way of Chase Journey with Points Boost, I redeemed 37,838 factors as a substitute of paying $454, for a price of 1.2 cents per level.

Nevertheless, since my problem was to see a marvel of the world in a rainforest, I wasn’t going to spend a lot time on the resort spa. To benefit from my time, I booked a scenic flight tour to Milford Sound, bypassing the four-hour drive by hovering over Fiordland Nationwide Park’s glacier-covered peaks earlier than descending among the many dramatic inexperienced slopes of the fjord.

The knowledgeable guides at Rosco’s Milford Kayaks whisked me out onto the water, the place we paddled to the 500-foot-tall Stirling Falls and noticed a seal pop up within the spray close to our kayak. A pod of dolphins additionally appeared, leaping out of the water to my joyous shock.

The journey did not finish there. I’ll have handed on bungee leaping at its birthplace simply outdoors Queenstown, however I used to be up for the technical challenges of canyoning, which concerned rappelling down waterfalls, sliding by way of slender canyons and wading by way of clear alpine streams for an adrenaline rush as a substitute.

For my ultimate bonus factors alternative, Brian challenged me to “do one thing that makes you’re feeling fully free.” Problem accepted: I booked a high-speed all-terrain-vehicle tour, racing by way of a pine forest and splashing by way of streams to the highest of the hills overlooking Lake Wakatipu, the place I slowed down lengthy sufficient to absorb the view and recognize simply how a lot I had packed in throughout my time in Aotearoa, or the Land of the Lengthy White Cloud, because the Maori name it.

And since I used to be capable of earn 2 factors per greenback spent on all these journey actions with my Chase Sapphire Most popular card, I knew I used to be heading residence with loads of factors to spend on my subsequent journey — win or lose.

Tanner: Morocco on my thoughts

With a whopping 150,000 Chase Final Rewards factors in my pocket and the parameter of visiting a desert local weather, my thoughts instantly went to 1 place: Morocco.

Well-known for its sweeping desert landscapes and jewel-box riads, I set my sights on Marrakech and the close by Agafay Desert. However get there?

Looking out Chase Journey, I spotted there have been numerous reasonably priced flight choices for my journey to North Africa, however one of the best ways to stretch my factors concerned an sudden in a single day keep in Madrid after which a fast jaunt over to Marrakech.

That is when it hit me: I might use that in a single day as a technique to spend the night time at The Madrid Edition, a resort I would dreamed about visiting for years after seeing photographs of its moody foyer bar and dramatic white spiral staircase on social media.

For 37,618 factors, I used to be capable of e-book a round-trip Iberia ticket between New York and Marrakech with a cease in Madrid every manner. Some vacationers hate a stopover, however I noticed the in a single day as an opportunity to expertise two locations in a single journey, and even get pleasure from an evening out in town in Madrid alongside the best way.

Extra importantly, I would examine off the bucket-list-hotel portion of the problem by reserving The Madrid Version by way of Chase Journey. After incomes my Chase Sapphire Most popular card’s $50 annual resort assertion credit score on the reserving, the resort got here in at 31,585 factors, a price of 1.25 cents per level.

I earned 5 factors per greenback spent on a Lyft experience to John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) with my Chase Sapphire Most popular card* and caught up on motion pictures on the lengthy flight earlier than checking in to The Madrid Version. The resort’s iconic Don Pedro de Ribera-designed baroque door was the right place for a Brian-worthy selfie.

On the resort, I lastly received to get pleasure from cocktails with the cool crowd and performed a sport of pool in what I am going to say is now my favourite resort foyer on the earth.

Exterior the consolation of my lovely, almost all-white room, I had time to roam the streets of Spain’s capital metropolis with a cease for vermouth and tapas at Taberna La Descubierta, the place I earned 3 factors per greenback spent on eating with my card. I had time to attend a flamenco present and even took a tour of the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Feeling refreshed, I hopped on a brief flight to Marrakech and turned my consideration to these lovely riads and checked in to the dreamy Lodge Izza for 2 nights for 41,300 factors, saving me $521.

Within the coronary heart of the walled Marrakech medina, the oldest a part of the town and a UNESCO World Heritage web site, Lodge Izza was precisely what I needed: stylish, design-forward and stuffed with character with tiled courtyards, postcard-worthy photograph backdrops and a rooftop restaurant stuffed with greenery. It was the right residence in Marrakech, and one other resort that ended up being bucket list-worthy to me.

As soon as settled in, I headed straight to the town’s well-known souks to reap the benefits of procuring, and even had the prospect to make my very own sneakers with a Moroccan leather-based employee (a tanner, if you’ll, identical to me!). And within the buzzy, packed heart of the medina, I watched snake charmers play music for swaying cobras identical to you see within the motion pictures.

Earlier than I left Marrakech, Brian stunned me with a bonus problem to reap the benefits of some self-care. For me, that was straightforward, as a result of no person ought to go away Marrakech with out spending a number of hours getting a scrub in a conventional Moroccan hammam — and I did simply that (within the spirit of competitors, after all!).

Marrakech was the whole lot I had hoped it could be — like stepping again in time within the souks and medina, a visible feast of sleek palm bushes and the snowcapped Atlas Mountains, and a few of the friendliest folks I’ve ever encountered in my travels.

Again in the course of the planning course of, I had thought to myself, “What if I really head into the desert as a substitute of simply staying within the metropolis?” With about 40,000 factors left in my finances, it made sense to e-book an evening on the castle-like Kasbah Agafay Lodge & Spa on the fringe of the Agafay Desert, the place I might traverse dunes on an all-terrain automobile, which was an exercise I had by no means carried out earlier than, assembly that situation of the problem.

A boutique, domestically owned resort, Kasbah Agafay was like staying at a good friend’s home … if that home was a conventional desert riad so picture-perfect, it regarded prefer it was proper out of a film. The resort was charming, with lovely courtyards, a giant swimming pool, and many plush, colourful seating areas.

It was additionally near the actions across the Agafay Desert, like taking an ATV out throughout the dunes with the fantastic Atlas Mountains looming bigger and bigger in entrance of me as I cruised throughout the sand. Rising up in West Texas, I’ve all the time felt related to the desert, and this adrenaline-filled expertise left my blood pumping and my garments muddy (however solely as a result of I assumed it could be enjoyable to drive by way of some large puddles).

On this leg of the journey, Brian hit me with one other bonus problem to study concerning the native tradition. I visited the Saida Berber House on the foot of the mountains to expertise how the Indigenous communities lived and ate by way of a enjoyable and informative cooking class that left me each full-hearted and stuffed with conventional tagine, which I made myself.

After a number of days of touring throughout Spain and Morocco, it was time to return residence to New York. Wanting again on the whole lot I would skilled over the previous couple of days, it felt almost not possible that I had booked this whole journey with factors … nearly as not possible as packing a Berber-made rug, Moroccan pottery, native olive oil and a brand new pair of handmade sneakers in my suitcase. (Notice to self: Verify the Chase app for any Chase Gives to lastly purchase a much bigger suitcase at a reduction.)

The ultimate tally

So how did Tanner and Lyndsey fare on this epic Factors Battle? Let us take a look at their ultimate tallies.

Lyndsey’s ultimate tally

This is how I took benefit of my 150,000 Chase factors, plus a number of different card advantages I used:

• Spherical-trip flights from Los Angeles to Auckland on Fiji Airways and from Auckland to Queenstown on Air New Zealand: 82,523 factors
• Park Hyatt Auckland: 25,000 factors
• Sofitel Queenstown Lodge & Spa: 37,838 factors
• Different card advantages: Benefiting from Chase switch companions (World of Hyatt), utilizing Chase Factors Increase on the Queenstown resort, incomes 3 factors per greenback spent on eating and incomes 5 factors per greenback spent on Lyft rides to the airport

Whole: 145,361 factors

Tanner’s ultimate tally

And now for my ultimate factors roundup, in addition to different card advantages I used:

• Spherical-trip flight from New York to Marrakech with Madrid stopover: 37,618 factors
• The Madrid Version: 31,585 factors
• Lodge Izza: 41,300 factors
• Kasbah Agafay Lodge & Spa: 35,440 factors
• Different card advantages: $50 annual resort credit score, incomes 3 factors per greenback spent on eating and incomes 5 factors per greenback spent on Lyft rides

Whole: 145,943 factors

And the winner is …

Lyndsey and Tanner each maxed out their stash of factors and Chase Sapphire Most popular card advantages to go on two critically epic journeys that made Brian jealous as he adopted alongside on Instagram.

Whether or not it was the mix of enjoyable spa moments and desert thrills or immersive cultural moments with locals in Morocco, Brian’s decide for the winner of this TPG Factors Battle was Tanner.

He creatively put his $50 annual resort credit score to work for a bucket-list resort keep throughout a stopover in Madrid and likewise immersed himself in native tradition with leatherworking and cooking courses, all whereas incomes 3 factors per greenback spent on scrumptious Moroccan meals.

The posts from Lyndsey’s journey definitely had Brian hankering for some New Zealand wines and out of doors adventures, although.

Congratulations to each contestants, and keep tuned to see how Tanner makes use of the factors he gained!

*Legitimate by way of Sept. 30, 2027; doesn’t apply to Wait & Save, bike or scooter rides; activation required.