Arriving Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL):
I'll be getting into Montreal airport late at night. So I need a hotel that's nearby and provides me a shuttle to the hotel. By then I should be exhausted and I don't really have time to figure out the public transportation although they do have an express bus from airport to downtown.

I found Holiday Inn Montreal Aeroport that provides free shuttle to/from the airport. They told me that the 24 hour shuttle goes around the airport every 15 and 45 minutes past the hour at door 7. They share it with the Crowne Plaza so both logos will be on the shuttle. This hotel costs me 15,000 points with IHG Rewards that I obtained from their credit card's sign up bonus 70,000 points. I think it's fair enough and for the convenience, I reserved it!

Airport to Downtown Transportation:
Next morning, the shuttle will take me back to the airport so that I can purchase the ticket for the express bus 747 into downtown where my hotel is.

Montreal Public Transportation:
Montreal's public transportation is operated by STM. The cool thing about purchasing the ticket for express bus 747 above is that the ticket costs $10 CAD and it's unlimited travel throughout STM buses and métro networks during 24 consecutive hours. You can read more info here. That means, for $10 CAD, I can go to all the attractions without a lot of walking in 24 hours. Therefore, I plan on doing attractions that are not within walking distance from my hotel that day to take advantage of this 24 hours ticket.

Accommodation:
I'll be staying in Montreal downtown area. First it's convenient, and second it's close to Montreal Central Station where I'll take my train to Quebec City. I booked my hotel through Hotels.com and it costs me $64.51 USD per night. I have a one night reward of $64.18 to redeem this. My total cost comes to $12.58.

Things to Do:
You may want to read this up on your own to see what interests you. If you have more days than I do in Montreal, you should consider splitting these into couple days. Through my research, here's my planned itinerary.

Day 1: 
As I mentioned earlier, to take advantage of the 24 hour ticket, I planned on going to places that are not within walking distance from my hotel in downtown.

• Mount Royal - I have to take public transportation there. To avoid hiking up to the viewing area, the only bus #11 will take me all the way to the top where I can take in the view of Montreal city. My 24 hour ticket will take care of that. 
• St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal 
• Jean-Talon Market
• Biosphere - $12 entrance fee as of today. 
• Montreal Biodome (Optional) - $19.25 entrance fee as of today.
• Olympic Stadium (Optional) - 7 mins walk from Biodome

• Old Montreal
• Rue St-Paul - 6 mins walk from Old Montreal. 
• Old Port of Montreal - 1 min walk from Rue St-Paul.

Day 2:

• Notre-Dame Basilica
• Underground City Shopping - before catching the train to Quebec City. This shopping center is conveniently located right in the train station. 

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It's crazy that I have been to so many places in the United State, Europe, and Asia, but I have not been to Canada. Perhaps, I am just like those travelers out there that think Canada is just another North America and therefore take it for granted. A true traveler will Not think that way!

I have always wanted to go see the Niagara Falls from both the American side (Buffalo) and the Canadian side. With that in mind, I started brainstorming....

After my research, Niagara Falls in Ontario Canada is close to Toronto. I was told that there's also a train Via Rail (similar to US Amtrak) that goes to Montreal which is nothing like New Orleans. So I want to see Toronto and Montreal. Besides those two, Quebec City is the second best destination in Canada according to TripAdvisor. I looked at the map and QC is just a few hours away from Montreal via train. So I squeeze QC in my itinerary. I wish I have more time to see Ottawa too, but next time! I usually intentionally leave some places out so that I can come back again.

At first, I thought it would be interesting to check out Buffalo town. I could fly into Buffalo, then fly out of Canada. But given time and money, I had to change my itinerary a little bit. By flying out of Canada, it costs more than flying from US to Canada with all the taxes and surcharges. So here's my itinerary:

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I'll try to add more bank bonuses to the list later on. Click on the link to view the bonus that interest you. Please make sure to read the fine print and let me know if you have any questions.

Banks	Checking	Saving	Availability
Chase	$300 Bonus through May 7, 2015	$150 Bonus through May 7, 2015	Nationwide
Chase		$175 Bonus through April 23, 2015	Nationwide
Regions Bank	$300 Bonus Unknown Expiration Date		Atlanta, Miami, Tampa, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Austin, and Dallas.

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I value greatly on Starwood points as they are so useful for airline transfer purposes. The points though are difficult to get. The sign up bonus of 25,000 points is not very high either, but I love the fact that I can redeem for their category 1 hotel for as low as 2,000 Starwood Points.

In general, when I am trying to book a Starwood hotel, I usually do the math first to make sure I am using the right point for the right price hotel. For instance, if a category 1 Starwood hotel costs me $150 on the weekend night, the use of Starwood point redemption would make the most sense here.

HERE IS WHY?
Starwood Points can be purchased at $0.035 cents per point. On a category 1 hotel, it requires 2,000 points for a free night stay on the weekend. So 2,000 x $0.035 = $70 saving me $80. I have two options:

1. I could use he accumulated points in my account and redeem the free night stay, OR
2. I could save those points, and purchase 2,000 points for $70. I give up $70 cash here instead. 

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There's a public offer of 60,000 bonus points for Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Signature Card. Personally, this isn't my favorite card, but without annual fee, I urge you to consider. Let's take a look at the benefits:

Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Signature Card

Earn 6 points for every $1 spent on hotel stays within the Hilton Portfolio. Earn 3 points for every $1 spent at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations. Earn 2 points for every $1 spent on all other purchases. Earn 60,000 bonus points after making $1,000 in purchases within the first 4 months after account opening. Enjoy HHonors Silver status as long as you’re a Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Signature cardmember. Fast track to HHonors Gold status after four stays within your first 90 days of account opening or when you make $20,000 or more in purchases each calendar year. Earn an annual loyalty bonus of 10,000 Hilton HHonors Bonus Points at the end of each calendar year in which you spend $1,000 or more on stays within the Hilton Portfolio. No Annual Fee. Link Offer

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EVA Air Lounge at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)
No line for the business class as usual. After I got my boarding pass, in Taiwan you have to make sure your checked bag passes the scan first before heading to the security gate. I was confused for a bit. After passing the immigration point, I went up the escalator to the EVA Air Lounge. Apparently ANA shares the lounge with EVA Air.

I was greeted and there are two ways to get into the lounge: Star and Infinity. I picked Infinity. I went straight to the food section. It's a buffet style and has so many delicious food such as stir fry noodle, my favorite porridge, scrambled eggs & ham, soup, and some buns. There are also fruits, salad, dessert, and various drinks including alcohol beverages too.

I was so full and started checking out the Star section. The set up is a little bit different and brighter. The food section is the same but there are a few food that Infinity doesn't have such as soybean milk and ice cream. I'd say keep your stomach for both sections to get the best experience of the food lounge. The Star's toilet is wicked too! It's heated and controlled by a machine that sprays water out to clean your bum. It even has settings to massage it!! Lol

EVA air lounge has another section called The Garden. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to go through it. It's right across the Infinity and Star lounge.

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That day afterwards, I have another leg of business class from Narita to San Francisco. Review: All Nippon Airways (ANA) NH8 Business Class 777 Tokyo Narita (NRT) to San Francisco (SFO)

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As we all know, most credit card offers good sign up bonus points plus $0 introductory annual fee for new card members. So I thought it would be good to generate a list of hotel credit cards that have an annual fee and the benefits of paying for that fee to remain as the card member. 

Credit Cards	Card Type	Annual Fee	Renewal Benefits
Club Carlson	Personal Rewards by US Bank	$50	Automatic Silver Status. 25,000 bonus points each year. Bonus Award Night when you redeem Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights.
	Personal Premier Rewards by US Bank	$75	Automatic Gold Status. 40,000 bonus points each year. Bonus Award Night when you redeem Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights.
	Business Rewards by US Bank	$60	Automatic Gold Status. 40,000 bonus points each year. Bonus Award Night when you redeem Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights.
IHG Priority Club	Personal Select by Chase	$49	Automatic Platinum Status. 1 Free night at any category. 10% on points redemption
Marriott	Personal Premier by Chase	$85	Guaranteed  Elite Status. 1 Free night certificate at category 1-5. The certificate must be redeemed within 6 months from date of issue.
	Business Premier by Chase	$99	Guaranteed Elite Status.  1 Free night certificate at category 1-5. The certificate must be redeemed within 6 months from date of issue.
Hyatt	Personal by Chase	$75	Automatic Platinum Status. One free night at any category 1-4.
Fairmont	Personal by Chase	$95	Automatic Premier Status. 1 Free night after $12,000 annual spend.
Hilton	Personal Reserve by Citi	$95	Automatic Gold Status. 1 Free weekend night (standard room, double occupancy) at select hotels and resorts within the Hilton Portfolio after $10,000 annual spend.
	Personal Surpass by American Express	$75	Automatic Gold Status.  Priority Pass Membership. With this complimentary membership, all airport lounge visits are subject to a fee of U.S. $27 per person per visit.
Starwood	Personal Preferred Guest by American Express	$65	Transfer Starpoints to nearly 30 airline frequent flyer programs, mostly on a one-to-one basis.
Wyndham	Personal Rewards by Barclay	$69	5,500 Bonus Points each year.

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First of all, don't just call the bank's reconsideration line just to do it and expect that they approve you on the spot. You must understand that there are reasons that the automatic computer system could not approve your credit card application in the first place. Those reasons can be anything from too many credit inquiries in your credit report to something as simple as verifying your information. My point is, it can be anything so be prepared.

1. Know your credit scores and history. My favorite two tools are Credit Karma and Credit Sesame. These two tools cover all the three major credit bureaus in the US. They also have apps too, how convenient!
• Credit Karma used to offer credit scores only from TransUnion credit bureau, but at the end of last year, they added another credit bureau Equifax. So now you can get free credit scores and full credit reports from both bureaus.
• Credit Sesame offers free credit scores and report from Experian. 
2. Answer the question "Why do you apply for this new card?" Avoid saying that because of the sign up bonus. Think of reasons that are more strategic, something like:
• I want to keep my spending separate between my personal and business, or between my daily expenses and travels, etc. 
• I love the benefits that come with this card. Be specific! It can be anything from chip-enabled card, no foreign transaction fees for traveling abroad to categories bonus on your expenses. 
• Recently, I relocate to this city and it has more outbound flights of x airline. 
• I stay a lot at that hotel/resorts.... so on and so forth.
3. Be ready to answer the question "Why did you close that account?" I once opened a Chase business credit card, then closed it. Within that year (too soon), I applied for a Chase United Business Credit Card. Although they are different cards, they are all business card. I had to call into the reconsideration line to get it approved. They wanted to know why I closed my account.  Be prepared to have good reasons for that! Avoid saying that you close that account because of the annual fee. 
4. Sometimes bank cannot approve your new credit card because you max out the credits that they give you. A good bank example is Chase. One time, Chase rep asked me if it's okay she could allocate some credits from my other Chase card to this new card in order to approve me. That was a very easy decision to make. However, if not asked, you certainly can see if they can move your credits around. This can lead to your new credit card's approval. 
5. I have seen this type of request before. Besides moving your credits around, you can also say something about wanting to close another card's account, by comparing the benefits, etc., it may make more sense for you to close that account and have credits available for your new card. 

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If you own a business and have not had United MileagePlus Business Credit Card within the last 24 months, there's a good 50,000 sign up bonus miles now. This offer usually is not publicly available. So take advantage of it while the offer is still on the table.

United MileagePlus Explorer Business

Earn 2 miles for each $1 spent at restaurants, gas stations, and office supply stores.  Earn 2 miles for each $1 spent on tickets purchased from United.  Earn 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases. Earn up to 54,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. If you spend that $2,000 on United, restaurants, gas stations, and office supply stores, you get 4,000 miles (2,000 x 2) plus the 50k bonus making a total of 54,000 miles.  If you spend that $2,000 on everything else, the total will be 52,000 miles. First checked bag free for you and your companion on the same reservation.  No foreign transaction fee.  Priority boarding privilege.  Employee cards at no additional cost. It helps earning miles faster.  $0 Introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95. Two United Club passes at the airport each year.  Earn 10,000 bonus miles every calendar year you spend at least $25,000 in net purchases on your Card. Link offer

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The three major credit issuers are Chase, Citi, and American Express. Each program has the points system where you can earn points by using their particular credit card from daily expenses to traveling. One of the perks for points redemption is the ability to transfer them to each card issuer's partners such as airlines, hotels, and trains. This is a very great venue to redeem points and the best use of your points.

Below is the complete list of each credit card issuer's program and their transfer partners that I have put together.

1:1 transfer unless specified in the format of (Program:Partner)

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For a limited time until March 31, 2015 - you can earn 70,000 bonus points with IHG credit card. There used to be an 80,000 bonus points, unfortunately that link is no longer alive. The offer that has been around for a long time is the 60,000 bonus points plus the $50 statement credit after first purchase.

I personally love having this credit card and the perks it gives me as a card member.

IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card

Earn 5 points per $1 spent when you stay at IHG hotels. Earn 2 points per $1 on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores & restaurants. Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases. Earn 70,000 bonus points (available through March 31, 2015) after spending $1,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.  Depending on how you will spend that $1,000. If you spend it on IHG’s hotel stay, you would gain 5 x 1000 = 5000 points on top of the bonus.  If you spend on gas station, grocery stores and restaurants, you get 2 x 1000 = 2000 points on top of the bonus.  Other purchases will get you 1x1000 = 1000 points on top of the bonus.  Get 10% back on all points redemption up to 100,000 points each year.  Platinum Elite Status as long as you’re a cardmember. No foreign transaction fees when you use your card for purchases abroad. $0 Introductory annual fee for the first year, then $49. One annual free night each year for being a card member.

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As frugal as I can be, when I do travel I tend to pick the most economic hotel accommodation regardless I pay with points or money. Waking up in the morning to the most luxurious bedroom as compared to a 3 star hotel does not give me much difference in satisfaction. Most of the time, I don't travel just to spend time in the hotel watching tv or enjoying the jacuzzi tub. The tub does help after a long day of walking and sightseeing. But I can totally trade that with a good night sleep of the 3 star hotels out there, that's why backpacker places where I have to share room with others do not work for me even though it saves me lots of money.

Talking of the 3 star hotels, some IHG's properties came to my mind. Then I started to wonder about their other properties. This would help me planning my next trip better after I know what to expect from other IHG brand hotels that I have not stayed at. Perhaps, I simply just want to pamper myself once in awhile by staying at their nicest hotel brand or those hotels are the only ones that are available in the area that I will be traveling to. So here it is, the list of IHG's properties with a synopsis.

InterContinental – This is their most luxurious 5-star International hotel brand.  Crowne Plaza – An upscale brand hotel located in urban centres, gateway cities and resort destinations. Hotel Indigo – A unique boutique hotel brand with personality. Holiday Inn –  3 star hotels, average quality. Holiday Inn Resorts – Compared to the regular Holiday Inns above, these resorts for the most part are nicer and above the average quality. Holiday Inn Express – As the name suggests, convenience, comfort, and good value.  Staybridge Suites – A hotel in which all the rooms have a kitchen. This is IHG’s nicest and most stylish extended stay type hotel.  Candlewood Suites – Another extended stay hotel but more budgeted. All rooms have a kitchen but not as nice as the above.  EVEN – This hotel is designed for healthy and active lifestyle travelers. Each room has weights in it.  Hauluxe – An upscale hotel brand focused on Chinese travelers.

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I am a huge fan when it comes to Club Carlson. I have stayed in a few of their hotel chains such as the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel in Sydney, Radisson Blu Resort Fiji Denarau Island to name a few. But all of these luxurious stay would not have happened without their amazing and lucrative credit card perks. The one night free of point redemption for 2 or more consecutive award nights, and the annual 40,000 point renewal bonus for being a card member totally sold me. Hence, I do not mind paying for the annual fee at all. There are three type of Club Carlson credit cards issued by the US Bank:

Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature Card	10 Gold Points per $1 at participating Carlson Rezidor hotels worldwide. 5 Gold Points per $1 everywhere else. Up to 97,500 Bonus Gold Points to start. Receive 50,000 Gold Points after your first purchase plus 35,000 points once you spend $2,500 on your card within the first 90 days. The $2,500 expense on everywhere else will give you another 12,500 points (2,500 x 5) making a total of 97,500 Gold Points.  Club Carlson Gold Status after you activate. Bonus Award Night when you redeem Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights. $75 annual fee not waived.  40,000 renewal bonus points each year when you renew your card
Club Carlson Rewards Visa Signature Card	6 Gold Points per $1 at participating Carlson Rezidor hotels worldwide. 3 Gold Points per $1 everywhere else. Up to 64,500 Bonus Gold Points to start. Receive 50,000 Gold Points after your first purchase plus 10,000 points once you spend $1,500 on your card within the first 90 days. The $1,500 expense on everywhere else will give you another 4,500 points (1,500 x 3) making a total of 64,500 Gold Points.  Club Carlson Silver Status after you activate. Bonus Award Night when you redeem Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights. $50 annual fee not waived.  25,000 renewal bonus points each year when you renew your card
Club Carlson Business Rewards Visa Signature Card	10 Gold Points per $1 at participating Carlson Rezidor hotels worldwide. 5 Gold Points per $1 everywhere else. Up to 97,500 Bonus Gold Points to start. Receive 50,000 Gold Points after your first purchase plus 35,000 points once you spend $2,500 on your card within the first 90 days. The $2,500 expense on everywhere else will give you another 12,500 points (2,500 x 5) making a total of 97,500 Gold Points. Club Carlson Gold Status after you activate. Bonus Award Night when you redeem Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights. $60 annual fee not waived.  40,000 renewal bonus points each year when you renew your card.

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