u/xo0p

So I’ve been planning a trip to New York City this coming August.

Booked 1 night for 21 August back in December. $375 cost, received $300 statement credit. $75 out of pocket

Booked 1 night for 22 August back in January. $400 cost, received $300 statement credit. $100 out of pocket

The next hotel credit will be available in July. So I plan on booking 23 August to take advantage of the next $300 credit.

Now here is where I’m running into some questions. I’m staying at a Hilton hotel and I’m approximately 50K Hilton points short of booking the 24 August using points. There’s a promotion right now that 1K Amex points = 2.4K Hilton points. That would only be 21K Amex points to get one more night. It might not be the best use of points but it would allow me to stay one more night to maximize my trip length and not spending much out of pocket.

If I do that, how will the hotel handle it? The first 3 nights will have the FHR benefits but the last night won’t? Seems like it would make it very complicated for the FHR benefits. Has anyone ever done this and what was the result?

About three weeks ago my wife hit a deer and her 2020 Nissan Rogue got totaled (frame was bent). She had always talked about wanting a fully blacked out Range Rover Velar, but after doing some research I shot that idea down fast, those things sound like absolute money pits.

She was pretty bummed, so we started looking at BMW X3s and Lexus NXs as more realistic options. Long story short, we ended up finding a really clean 2024 BMW X5 xDrive40i with only 20k miles for $56k. It’s the M Sport Pro package in Black Sapphire Metallic and it looks badass all blacked out, basically her Velar dream but in BMW form.

She’s absolutely pumped, and I’m happy she’s excited, but I know BMWs can come with their own set of headaches. Although it looks like their reliability ratings are very good recently. Anyone who owns or has owned a similar X5 (especially the B58-powered ones) have any advice on what to watch out for maintenance wise? Common issues, service intervals, things that tend to get expensive, etc.?
Thanks in advance!