Adoption travel to China
 

We will be traveling to Guangzhou for our second adoption in a year. I opened the Chase Sapphire card and will have no problem getting the bonus points. I am just wondering if there is anything else I can be doing to try to put a dent in these expenses. We flew JFK to HK on Cathay last trip and stayed at a Holiday Inn while in China. We were very pleased with both. Any suggestions?

Thanks!!

Wow, two adoptions in a year! Congratulations!

Are you married / have a partner? If so, get two separate Sapphire Preferred cards (make sure it is a preferred card) if you can meet the minimum spend X 2. Or if the spending is an issue you might also get the Chase Freedom card (with lower spending requirements) and you can transfer the bonus points to Ultimate Rewards points in your Sapphire Preferred account. I believe the Freedom to Ultimate Rewards (Sapphire Preferred) transfer requires both cards to be issued to the same person.

Most people with good credit can get two cards through Chase, though getting more than two within a short amount of time can be hard for some.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/mommyp...it-card-deals/

has a good overview of travel oriented cards for families.

Do you know for sure what hotels are available or recommended near your orphanage in Guangzhou? Is this the same place you adopted from the first time?

One other idea. If you have generous friends or relatives who want to help out, they can open their own Chase Sapphire Preferred (make sure it is the Preferred) +/- Freedom accounts and transfer the Ultimate Rewards points to your account, hassle free.

Get Starwood Amex too. You can use it on hotels in GZ.
And ask your agency if you can put all the fees on credit cards.

Thank you....we are VERY excited. Yes, we will be in the same area as we were for our previous adoption. The Holiday Inn Shifu was a good fit for us. There are some hotels on Shamian Island where a lot of adoptive families stay but I don't believe they participate in any rewards programs.

I may try to apply for the Chase Sapphire in my name. Is this possible if under my husbands' account I have a card also (with my name)?

We also have a Chase Disney, but I would have no problem canceling that.

Congrat on the upcoming 2nd adoption! GZ's very close to my hometown and Shamian Island is a beautiful place. Hotel-wise, I agree that the Holiday Inn is probably the only chain hotel in the area.

At first I did think about the Chase Priority Card (currently gives out 60k bonus points for uses on IHG group hotels, targeted offer is 80k and I heard it was open to everyone last month, not sure now). It has no foreign transaction fees, a low annual fee of $49 if you decide to keep it for future uses, and each year on your card anniversary, you will get a free night certificate for a 1-night stay in any of the IHG hotels worldwide. It can be a valuable card to keep especially your family will travel on a regular basis. However in comparison with Chase Sapphire, I would stick with the latter because the 50k ultimate rewards points worth more in general. Good advice from the other poster about getting Chase Freedom as a supporting card to pool reward points.
Yes you should be able to get your own sapphire card even though you are a current authorized user on your husband's sapphire card.

Also, if you are flying cathay from JFK to HK (my family often does), you may consider applying for any Citi AA card (there's a thread in this forum for the current 50k miles bonus + $100 off AA aifare? offer). BA's 100k miles offer was good until they changed their reward system into Avios points, which makes the redemption rate between east coast and Asia a lot higher than before. AA seems to be the way to go if you like to save up in their miles and use it for Cathay tickets redemption.

Good luck!

If your DH has a card under his name, with you as an authorized user, you should still be able to apply for the same type of card with you as primary account holder.

Don't cancel the Chase Disney until you need to. Older accounts help your credit score, or you can possibly transfer part of this card's credit line to a new card. If you are denied a card for having too many accounts or inquiries (common with Chase) even though you have a good credit score, you can call for reconsideration. See http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/0...consideration/ for advice on this process. Well worth the extra 5 minute phone call IMHO.

If you are familiar with and like the Holiday Inn in the area, you can also apply for the Chase Priority Club (Holiday Inn's frequent stay program) card. See if this thread will help, I know the standard offer is 60K points + a free night. Also Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to Priority Club, if you aren't using them for air tickets and/or directly booking flights through their portal.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...lect-visa.html

One other thing to add to your trips flexibility is that many air redemptions can be made one-way instead of round trip. So, it may be possible to redeem American miles through Cathay one way, then back through Continental / United transferred from UR. Just a thought.

http://travelsort.com/blog/maximizin...dvantage-miles

has some information on redeeming AA miles on a Cathay flight, if you end up with some AA miles.

Hong Kong and CX are great, but you can also fly into CAN pretty easily on various airlines.

The Independent hotel I think you're thinking of is called The Swan. I think it's in LHW or FHR. It's large and ugly modern but has it's own nice grounds and fantastic views, especially of the lighted boats at night from an outdoor BBQ restaurant. A lot of the historic city and traditional shops and markets are nearby.

The hotel is The White Swan. It is definitely good advice to fly directly into CAN if you can. From the West Coast, flights directly to CAN are often cheaper than flights to HKG and you will save several hours, plus $60-$70/person getting from HKG to Guangzhou via Airport Express or bus + kcr train + passenger train or via direct bus.

So it may be better to fly from the East coast to the West Coast on then on to GZ? I will be traveling to GZ with 3 children and a friend and home with 4 children and my friend. My boys are older and very good travelers. My 3 year old did well on the flight home from China last year but she may have been "shell" shocked. I have no idea how our new daughter will do.
Tomorrow will be my day to sort this out and start applying for the cards.
Thank you to everyone for your advice!!