u/RichColllier

It seems like Hertz was taking up all the oxygen in the car rental complaint threads at least coming to my Reddit feed, so I was unaware until after the fact about how awful Sixt is.

We rented a car for three days from Logan that was fully covered by my Venture X $300 annual travel credit. I had booked a Toyota Corolla, which promised seating for five and room for three bags. Prior to our trip, I had Sixt match my Hertz President's Circle status to their Diamond status. When we arrived to pick up our car, we had been "upgraded" to a BMW series 2, which only had two doors and would not even fit two pieces of luggage in the trunk. We returned to the car rental terminal to wait on a long and slow-moving line to be helped to get a car closer to what we had reserved and were then given an Elantra, which had 10,000 miles on it.

A few hours into our trip, a warning message notified me that an oil change was overdue, which was followed about an hour later with a low oil warning message. I called Sixt and was told that I could go to Pep Boys for an oil change, and they would provide me with a purchase order. Pep Boys had not appointments until the following afternoon, and I didn't want to spend my vacation getting my oil changed in any case, so Sixt then suggested that I buy oil, for which they would reimburse me. I accepted that option.

The next day, even after pouring a full bottle of oil, the same low oil warning message appeared, suggesting a leak. I called Sixt again, and they arranged to have a replacement car towed to meet us at a relative's house where we were visiting. This time, they brought a BMW 3 series, and there were no further challenges for the remainder of the rental, though passing under the infamous AI scanner did portend bad news ahead.

The day after returning the car, I received two e-mails from Sixt, both informing me that there was damage to both the Elantra and the BMW and asked for my justification. In both cases, I replied that any damage to the cars would have had to be caused by the tow truck. That explanation apparently suited them for the Elantra, but I later received another e-mail informing me of $600 in damage from a scrape to the rim of a tire. I paid the outrageous charge and filed a claim with Venture X's third-party administrator (TPA). The adjuster twice asked me for more documentation, which I provided, and about two weeks later, notified me that they were approving the claim and paid it in full the following day.

I will certainly never be renting again from Sixt, and this example serves as another data point that Venture X will pay for car damages even for rentals within the $300 annual travel credit.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that they never reimbursed me for the oil.

We visited Cairns in April because snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef was a lifelong wish of my partner, and we decided that a day spent on one of the pontoons would be the most fun way to do it. We chose the Reef Magic indulgence package, and since I didn’t find any reviews of it online, I thought it would be helpful to do one here.

We did not want to pay for a helicopter, so I e-mailed the company to see if they would offer a discounted indulgence package that included the standard transportation to and from the pontoon, and they agreed. The only decision that needed to be made in advance was the selection of a seafood or charcuterie platter, and we chose the former.

Once we boarded the boat, we were directed to the lower level where we were to meet with our assigned marine biologist, Holly. Both the person who checked us in and Holly were were expecting us to have taken the helicopter, so there was a communication breakdown, but it was unimpactful. Even though Holly was a recent college graduate with a degree in marine biology and not a descendent of Jacques Cousteau, it was still a little odd to have essentially a butler performing a secondary role as marine biologist.

We seated ourselves in the front-most facing table to be able to see through both the side windows and the ones in front. The ride to the pontoon was bumpy, and multiple passengers got seasick, some needing to vomit. Holly gave us an orientation to the pontoon and the day’s activities and then brought us some drinks along with a plate of Danish. The boat had many bathrooms, which was a good thing since the pontoon had none. You had to go back to the boat when you wanted to use the bathroom, but this did not prove to be an inconvenience.

The highlight of the reef indulgence package is a comfortable seating area on the top deck of the pontoon. Unfortunately, the couch sat against the bar, so that every time I leaned my head back, I would hit the bar’s counter. The seating area is blocked off by ropes which Holly or we could remove when we wanted to enter or leave. Holly provided swag bags which included a cap, can cooler, plush turtle, and playing cards.

Our first activity was a ride in their semi-submersible, which proved to be my downfall. I had not yet gotten seasick, but the lack of air in the submersible combined with its movement got me pretty sick by the end, and I needed to rest afterwards. There was nothing that we saw in the submersible that we didn’t see snorkeling, so I don’t recommend this activity. Holly helpfully brought me a ginger beer, which was a lot sweeter than our ginger ale.

Another perk of the indulgence package is a private snorkeling tour, which Holly led. Before we got in the water, she brought us the required jellyfish-repellant suits and snorkeling gear, ensuring that we were wearing it correctly. She also got a prescription mask for my partner, who had never used one before and really appreciated how she was able for the first time to see everything clearly in the water while snorkeling. Holly pointed out fish, demonstrated a clam closing its shell, and even brought up a piece of coral which she said that she was able to do as a marine biologist. My partner was enjoying the sights on her own and mostly tuned Holly out, but I was still feeling a bit queasy, so I was glad for the breaks.

After getting out of the water, the other marine biologist recommended that I watch the feeding from below deck, where there was a window to see the fish being fed, whereas Holly had previously recommended seeing it from the upper deck. When Holly came to get me for the feeding, I told her about her co-worker’s recommendation, and we both went below deck. Holly gave me a personalized description and afterwards told me that she had never observed the feeding from that vantage point.

After the fish were fed, it was our turn. We were allowed to get anything that we wanted from the buffet, which Holly would get for us, in addition to what was an enormous seafood platter, complete with reef bugs, prawns, and oysters. It also came with a bottle of champagne. Holly offered candy or chips, and she spoke about how chicken flavoring is big in Australia, so I tried the chicken-flavored chips, which were delicious, and I ended up buying a bunch of them to take home. Holly then abruptly informed us that she was only supposed to have given us one free drink each so that we would have to pay for any additional drinks and snacks. She acted like she had forgotten to charge us, but she didn’t seem like she was new to being a hostess.

The final stop of the day was a private tour of their small research lab, where they were studying a highly poisonous starfish. Afterwards, there a was a little time left to relax in our dedicated area, and then it was time to return to the boat for the return trip to Cairns. Holly had reserved the same table we had chosen for the outbound trip. She briefly came by at one point to say good-bye, and we thanked her for her hospitality. Of course, the great thing about Australia is that no tip was expected or provided. The day was expensive enough as it was, in any case. Still, it was a splurge that justified its cost.

 

After buying 10 Disney $10 gift cards, I was no longer able to buy anymore. Using the chat feature, I was notified that as of an hour ago, Newegg is no longer accepting Paze for gift card purchases. Also, Harry and David's has a $15 minimum.

I have a 2022 First Edition. Starting a few months ago, the range as appearing on the screen dropped to around 240, down from the 277 when I originally purchased the car and around where it has hovered since then. Do other people have that experience, or should it be concerning?

We spent two weeks in New Zealand and Australia last month and thought I would share the specifics of our points air travel in business class and reviews of multiple airlines and lounges.

Our outbound flight from Los Angeles was on Fiji Air, which cost 95,000 Qantas miles per person. While checking in, the staff informed us that we needed to purchase a visa for both New Zealand and Australia, something about which the airline had not previously notified us, but they provided QR codes with links to the applications, and we were able to complete them quickly. Once checked in, we were given the choice of the Star Alliance or One World lounge. The check-in staff recommended the Star Alliance lounge for its outdoor deck, so we chose that one (there wasn’t the option to change our mind once we made our selection). Because there are so many flights to Asia and Oceania leaving around midnight, the lounge was packed. There was a ramen noodle bar which was pretty good, but otherwise, it was just standard lounge fare.

The seat was very comfortable, especially with the mattress pad and duvet. What really stood out was the friendliness of the service and the excellence of the food. The FA took our meal orders shortly after take-off for both the late-night supper and breakfast. I had ordered many rounds of a fruit-juice blend called Tropical Bliss that was the easily the best juice I’ve had in the air. I’m glad that I decided to eat and not go to bed right away because the food was also delicious. The prawns were fresh and served with a rich sauce. The sliders were also enjoyable but what really stood out was the blood orange chocolate tart. It was easily the best dessert I’ve ever eaten on an airplane and upscale-restaurant quality. I would have liked the recipe to try it at home.

The movie selection was probably the worst of any airline I’ve flown since EgyptAir, when I remember watching “To Have and Have Not,” and Fiji had a number of classics as well. I chose “Being There,” which I hadn’t watched since it came out, since I was reading a biography of Peter Sellers at the time.

We had a three-hour layover once arriving in Fiji. The Air Fiji lounge was underwhelming, though it did have some comfortable seating. None of the food selections tempted me, since I would be having my second breakfast on the connecting flight, except for the fresh papaya, which tasted like it had just been picked and was perfectly ripe.

The connecting flight to Auckland on an A330 was not nearly as pleasant. The business class cabin gained two seats per row, and the food selections were also of a lower caliber. However, it was a short flight, at least relative to the outbound. I booked a SuperShuttle transfer from the airport to our hotel, but I learned that for two of us, an Uber wouldn’t have been much more expensive, so that’s how we returned to the airport.

Our next flight was from Auckland to Melbourne on Air New Zealand. I booked on Amex using my business platinum before they removed the ability to book business class tickets using MR points with a 35% rebate on any airline. As a result, I was able to book this flight for 28,000 miles per person, which was a great deal for a four-hour flight in lie-flat seats.

For business class passengers, Air New Zealand utilizes only self-serve kiosks in a smallish room. Once you’ve printed out your luggage tags and put them on your bags yourself, you take them to a different station where an employee weighs them. There was no mechanism provided for the tags to be identified as priority. You then take a single elevator to security.

The lounge was very impressive. Unlike in the States, this and all of lounges that I visited in Australia had baristas preparing coffee drinks made to order. In this lounge, you placed your order on a tablet. Even better was the tray of cronuts, which I have never before seen in a lounge. They were good, too! They also had a station where a chef was making eggs to order.

The equipment on this flight was one of the 777s leased from Cathay Pacific. The comfort was again a big stepdown from the Fiji Air A350, even though this plane had just arrived from Los Angeles. My seat was broken and did not fully recline, which was not such a big deal on this shorter flight but would have been very frustrating on the long flight from LAX. In an apparent cost-saving move, they use the same menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, specifying the windows when each one was being served. The breakfast was unmemorable and pretty much all service stopped after the dirty dishes were collected.

Our next flight was from Melbourne to Cairns non-stop on Qantas which I had booked on Alaska for only 15,000 Atmos miles each, another excellent deal for a three-hour flight. The check-in counter here was unique because the entire process was self-service, both to get your bag tags and to have them weighed and placed on the conveyer belt, and we were never asked to produce IDs. There were employees available if you need help, but if you don’t, then there are no interactions with people.

Qantas lounge access differs from our domestic airlines in that all business-class passengers get access. There is a separate business class lounge, which we visited, and then another lounge presumably for elite members not traveling business. It was in this lounge that I learned how a cordial is different in Australia, both in the product and the pronunciation. Unlike the in the States, where it refers to a liqueur, in Australia, a cordial is a sugary fruit punch concentrate. It tastes somewhere between Hawaiian Punch and fruit juice and was refreshing, if overly sweet.

The flight was very pleasant. What we call pursers in America, they call service managers in Australia. The service manager, Sebastian, on this flight was extraordinary. The first-class cabin had only 12 seats, and Sebastian engaged every passenger in conversation. A party of four vacationing together sat ahead of us in row 2. Sebastian asked them when they were returning, verified their flight, and then he got his tablet to confirm that he would be working their return flight. He told them that he was looking forward to seeing them again in a completely genuine manner.

All of our flights had meal service regardless of how short they were, and this one was delicious. There was a choice of a beef salad or a chicken dish. I really appreciated that in Australia, they serve the dressing from a carafe, so you get a lot more of it than you do from the tiny, individual-sized ones that they give you on American flights. The beef, as was the case with all of the beef that I tried in Australia, was delicious, tender and not over cooked. Sebastian made many trips throughout the small cabin to check on us and to see if there was anything that we needed.

Qantas seats don’t have screens, but at least they have a strap in which you can hang your tablet. There was a decent selection of movies available to stream. I watched an enjoyable Australian movie, “The Travellers,” which is unlikely to ever play in the U.S., but I was glad to have been able to see.

The next flight was Cairns to Sydney, with a connection in Brisbane. This flight was also purchased on Alaska using Atmos miles for the same 15,000 per person. The Cairns airport is very small, but the lounge was incredible. There were panoramic windows for its full length, providing magnificent runway and mountain views. More remarkably, there was barely anyone in it. It was the least crowded lounge that I have ever visited. It was also the only lounge other than Alaska that I’ve visited that had a mechanical pancake machine. It doesn’t produce great pancakes (they were flat, not fluffy), but the novelty is fun.

The first leg was on a regional jet, operated by Alliance Airlines. Even though it was only a two-hour flight, there was a full meal service, compared to the U.S. where I’ve flown Arkansas to Denver and Denver to LA on United with no meal service at all, only a few snacks. I watched most of a French movie that was their take on National Treasure and was able to finish it on the next leg.

We had time to visit the lounge in Brisbane. I didn’t want to eat too much, given that I was getting two full meals on these short flights, but I did have my only sausage roll of the trip, which I enjoyed. It was Australia’s version of a huge pig in a blanket.

Our last internal flight was short, less than two hours, but again a hot meal was served. There was a choice of a chicken and mushroom casserole-type of dish or a salad. I chose the salad, which was in a very generous portion and again was accompanied by a reasonable amount of ranch dressing served from a carafe. There was also a large chocolate bar for dessert. Very satisfying.

Our flight home was on American Airlines in first class, which I had redeemed for 238,000 miles each. It was almost certainly our last ever experience in this legacy and nearing-obsolete class. The night before our scheduled departure, I had my eye glued to the Flighty app, which showed the inbound flight from Los Angeles leaving progressively later and later. Once it got to an hour and 20 minutes without leaving the gate, the flight suddenly refreshed to leaving at midnight instead of 9 in the morning and then not leaving until two days later at 4 in the afternoon. Shortly afterwards, the app provided me the opportunity to change my flight, which I did for the same flight for which we were originally scheduled but a day later. I called American and was told that to get a flight in business class instead of first, I would have to call, as the app would only automatically search for availability in first. The only flight available was a coach flight on Qantas the following afternoon, so we decided to keep our same flight the following day. My travel insurance allowance with Seven Corners covers a trip delay with a $250 reimbursement for hotel, food, and transportation. I used a free award night for the extra night and subsequently submitted a claim for our meals which has yet to be approved a month later. We did enjoy our extra, unexpected day in Sydney.

The following morning, we got an early departure from the hotel to enjoy the Qantas First Class lounge. There was a full menu with many delicious items. Afterwards, we could relax in comfortable armchairs complete with ottoman. It was a delightful, pampered experience.

Onboard, I was initially nervous having read about broken first-class seats, but all of them were in working order. When I commented that the chair almost looked new to a flight attendant, he replied with a bemused smile, “I’m glad you think so.” It was a very comfortable flight, with decent food. While I wasn’t hungry enough to try one of the mid-flight sandwiches, I did enjoy one last Tim Tam. I hope to be back again.

 

We recently returned from a trip to New Zealand and Australia, and here are my experiences staying at hotels in Auckland, Melbourne, and Sydney booked with FHR rates. This trip was an excellent opportunity to max out the benefit on my partner’s and my cards, as none of the reservations cost more than the $100 over the $300 per reservation credit, especially since planning a year out meant that we were able to use three benefit periods. All of the reservations involved multi-night stays using a different reservation for each night. I ended up only choosing hotels where I had elite status (Diamond in IHG Rewards and Platinum in Marriott Bonvoy) with the hope of receiving more favorable upgrades. It was also my practice to e-mail the hotels’ management in advance to ensure that they were aware of the consecutive-night bookings, clarify the FHR benefits, and request upgrades prior to check-in.

 Our first stop was the InterContinental in Auckland. The hotel was pretty booked up, and the only upgrade available was a category called harbor-view room with club lounge access, though they were unwilling to provide club access. The property was rated five stars but only deserved four. It was converted from an office building, and the rooms are small. The bathroom had no bathtub, and the knob that changes the direction of the water from the rainfall shower head to the hand-held attachment was broken, so only the rainfall shower head worked.

 As was the case for all three hotels where we stayed, the breakfast benefit extended to the hotel’s restaurant and excluded room service. The benefit covered the buffet of all cold items, and you could choose one hot item from the menu. The $180 NZD credit could only be applied to room service or the restaurant, not the mini-bar, so we used it for room service one evening. The FHR rate was similar to that of the Park Hyatt, and in retrospect, we should have chosen that property instead.

 We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Melbourne, which proved to be the only true five-star hotel of the three. The hotel gave us a double-upgrade to a Panoramic room on the 70^(th) floor, which proved to be the most generous upgrade of the trip. The room included a huge bathroom with shower and separate bathtub. They were also the only hotel that provided a turn-down service. The $150 AUD credit could be used at the restaurant, room service, mini bar, or spa. Initially I was told that the credit could not be used for laundry, but then another employee told me that it could. As a result of the discrepancy, they comped the one load of laundry that we sent out. As this reservation had two nights booked under my name and two nights under my partner’s, they gave us $385 AUD credit total, which included an additional $75 USD that was included in one of the reservations that I had booked shortly before the trip began.

 The breakfast had a similar set up to the Intercontinental, as there was a buffet of all cold items, and you could order one hot item from the menu. We used the credit for room service and at the restaurant for dinner, where the portions were extremely expensive and miniscule but delicious. The dinner in the restaurant introduced us to the Australian custom of offsetting the savings of not tipping, or leaving a reduced tip, by charging exorbitant prices for a limited bread service, something provided for free at most nice restaurants in the US.

 The location of the Ritz was curious, as it was across the street from a strip club and a block away from an outlet shopping center. It was a good half-hour walk to everywhere that we wanted to go. We would not stay there again in order to try a more centrally located or interesting location and not because of any issues with the hotel, which was luxurious and provided unparalleled views and excellent customer service.

 We stayed at the W in Sydney. I chose the W primarily because there were so many negative reviews of the other, comparably priced FHR hotels (Four Seasons and Shangri La), whereas the W had been reviewed as having the best breakfast buffet, and I wanted to earn points. Rated five stars, it deserves only four. I booked a studio, which included a living room and kitchenette with a washer/dryer, for the same price as a regular hotel room at the other properties. I knew that the W was a convention hotel but underestimated its popularity, as the hotel was essentially sold-out for all four-nights of our stay.

 My experience with the management team could not have been improved. When I was getting very mixed and emphatic messages on whether I would receive the $150 AUS FHR credit for only one night or for all three, Georgina, the loyalty manager, generously allowed me to have two credits instead of just the one for which I was apparently entitled. Furthermore, when American Airlines cancelled our outbound flight, requiring us to stay another night using an Amex certificate, Georgina provided us with a room with the highest upgrade available, given that only 15 rooms in the 600-room hotel were free for the night, and ensured us a seamless transition so that when we returned from visiting the nearby Maritime Museum, our bags had been moved to the new room.

 The studio itself was exceptionally large, as promised, with a separate kitchenette/living room from the bedroom, which offered expansive views of the harbor from the bed. I never knew that a combined washer/dryer existed. A full wash and dry cycle took 4 ½ hours, and if you filled it up, it would require an additional dry cycle to get the clothes sufficiently dry.

 Otherwise, Darling Harbor was not a great location. As with Melbourne, most places where we wanted to go involved a half-hour walk, and the nearby restaurants all seemed very touristy and designed for the convenience of the conventioneers. The breakfast buffet was as exceptional as described and was the only one  of the three to provide hot items in addition to made-to-order egg selections. Tables were crammed uncomfortably close together, though, and the hotel warned that there would be waits during the peak period of 8-9:30. We went earlier than that, and the restaurant still felt at least somewhat crowded. For exercise buffs, my partner reported that the hotel had only three treadmills, and she had to get there before 5 to avoid a wait. We will also likely try a different property during our next trip, whenever that will be.