April 28, 2025 • 22 mins
CHASE SAPPHIRE 100K OFFER!!! (major thanks for using our links!)
We spent 24 hours in Chicago before flying to Paris using points and miles, staying at the Intercontinental Magnificent Mile and exploring the city with our three kids. This strategic positioning flight saved us points while giving us an exciting mini-vacation in Chicago with deep dish pizza, the Bean, and activities like the Ice Cream Museum.
• Booked Chicago to Paris for 85,000 Flying Blue points for all five family members
• Used Southwest credits and gift cards for the positioning flight from Phoenix
• Stayed at the Intercontinental Magnificent Mile using a free night certificate
• Received a room upgrade thanks to IHG Platinum Elite status
• Kids enjoyed the hotel's indoor pool movie night with popcorn and lemonade
• Visited Chicago highlights: Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza, the Bean, and Starbucks Reserve
• Ice Cream Museum was expensive but memorable for the children
• Ed Debevic's restaurant with intentionally rude servers was entertaining
• Positioning flights can be cost-effective when traveling as a family
• Using hotel night certificates makes layovers more comfortable and fun
If you get any value from this podcast, please take two seconds to leave us a rating or review wherever you listen. Come say hi on Instagram @travelpartyof5
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Last month on our way to Europe, we spent 24 hours in
Chicago before we flew to Paris, and in today's episode we are
sharing all of the details,including the hotel, the
activities that we did and more.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya and I'm Dwayne,and we are your hosts of the
(00:30):
Travel Party of Five podcast,where we share how we travel as
a family of five around theworld.
We will also share how we usepoints and miles to travel as
affordably as possible andsometimes even completely free.
So if you're wanting to travelmore with your family, but
you're not sure how, we'd lovefor you to listen in.
So welcome to our podcast,where we hope you learn a thing
(00:51):
or two to get you closer to yournext trip.
Hey guys, welcome back toTravel Party of Five podcast.
My name is Rhea, I am your host,I am solo today.
(01:14):
Dwayne is running aroundpicking up kids from playdates
and birthday parties, and it'sbeen a very busy weekend.
So it is just me today and Irealized that we never shared
really any details around our 24hours that we spent in Chicago
before we flew to Europe, andI've got a couple of really good
(01:35):
tips and tricks on like how wedid that positioning flight and
where we stayed and all that,and so I definitely thought it
was worthy of a podcast episode.
But before we get into all thedetails of that, I wanted to
just go through a couple ofquick updates around card
applications that we have doneand status of those future
(01:57):
applications that I plan to makein the next week or so, and a
quick reminder also about theChase Sapphire Preferred 100,000
point offer.
I believe that is set to endMay 12th and so you've still got
about two weeks if you have notapplied for that card yet and
you don't currently have it,that is by far the biggest
(02:19):
signup bonus that card has everseen.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred isabsolutely the number one most
recommended card for beginnersgetting into points and miles.
And, as a reminder, if you havenever had this card or it's
been more than 48 months sinceyou last earned the signup bonus
on the card, you are eligibleto apply again.
(02:41):
I wish that I was eligible butsadly we are not, so I will put
our referral link in the shownotes.
If you are planning to applyfor that card, I would first
absolutely recommend it andsecond would love it if you
would use our referral link.
However, if you have a spouseor a friend or whatever who
already has the card, get areferral link from them.
(03:05):
That would be the best courseof action.
If you don't, then yes, pleaseuse our link.
Again, I will put it in theshow notes.
As far as card updates, sothere's also currently elevated
offers on the Hilton cards, sothe Hilton Surpass and I forget
the name of the other one, butthey have elevated offers where
you can get the welcome offerplus a free night certificate,
(03:28):
and these cards don't normallycome with free night
certificates.
And that offer is actuallygoing to end, I think, april 29,
which will literally be one dayafter this podcast airs.
So if you're listening to thison Monday, april 28, and you are
in the market for a new Amex orHilton card, I would absolutely
recommend getting those, or oneof them at least.
(03:50):
I have been trying to get thatfor myself and I am in Amex pop
up.
Jail Dwayne already has theHilton Aspire card, which does
come with a free night everysingle year, but I want to apply
him for the Hilton Surpassbecause then he'll have a second
free night that we could use,plus some points.
(04:12):
However, it's a personal cardand it will count towards his
524.
And I also need to apply himfor a Chase Inc card and I would
like to do that also on the29th of April, which is, as I
mentioned, when the Hiltonoffers end.
So I know this is a little bitrambly, but I think my plan is
(04:34):
going to be to apply him for theink Hopefully he gets approved
he hasn't had a new Chase ink inlike since sometime last year
and then also try him for thesurpass with the elevated offer.
We could definitely meet bothminimum spends.
We are in the process ofremodeling our shower and one of
(04:54):
our bathrooms and so we candefinitely meet it both on both
cards.
I'm just not sure if he'll getapproved or not, and when I try
I keep getting the pop up.
So I'm an Amex pop-up jail,which is frustrating because
I've been there for a very longtime.
I don't think I've ever evenhad an Amex personal card and
they do not want me to get one.
So TBD on that.
(05:15):
But that's kind of what's goingon in our ecosystem over here.
Okay, so let's jump into ourpositioning flight that we took
to Chicago before our Europetrip, so when I was booking our
flights and I potentiallytouched on this piece in the
Paris episode.
But I booked it so far out thatthe Phoenix to Paris direct
(05:39):
route actually hadn't even beenopened yet.
Like you couldn't book it usingpoints yet and I got impatient
and so I, you know, lookedaround like LAX, sfo, dallas,
chicago, like Denver those arekind of all within a couple of
hour flight from us where itwould make sense to reposition,
(06:01):
and they did have really goodavailability out of Chicago.
So I was able to book us for85,000 points on Air France from
Chicago direct to Paris, andthat's again the price for all
five of us.
Since I made that booking, airFrance has done it and Flying
Blue has done a devaluation, soit will cost a little bit more,
(06:21):
probably a little over 100,000points now to do that same
flight for five kids as long asthey're all under the age of 12.
But it was cheap enough that itmade sense for us to reposition
to Chicago.
So we did that using Southwest.
We actually paid cash.
(06:43):
We had a combination ofSouthwest credits that we had
earned from a Southwest flightbeing delayed more than two
hours, and I also had some giftcards that I had bought.
Costco sometimes has Southwestgift cards where you it's like
450 and you get a $500 gift card.
I didn't do that, but I did buya Southwest gift card once or
(07:06):
twice when AMX was having likethe sale where you you can use
one membership reward and itgives you like a $30 or $50
credit, and so I bought aSouthwest gift card with that.
So all in all, I think out ofpocket, we spent three or $400
and the rest were credits and Ifelt like that was not bad for a
(07:31):
positioning flight.
The cost of the flightsthemselves was astronomical in
my opinion I think it was closeto $1,000.
But because we had all thosecredits and the gift card, it
brought my out of pocket downpretty significantly and I was
okay with paying like the threeor 400 that it ended up costing.
(07:52):
We flew from Phoenix to Midwayon a direct flight it's about
three hours from Phoenix and westayed overnight at the
Intercontinental MagnificentMile.
So let's talk about this hotelfor a second.
The Intercontinental is underthe IHG umbrella and it was
(08:13):
Chicago in March, so definitelynot peak tourist time at all.
In fact, it snowed the day thatwe were there, which my kids
thought was incredible.
They loved it so much the daythat we were there, which my
kids thought was incredible.
They loved it so much.
(08:33):
But we used the free nightcertificate that comes with my
IHG Premier Rewards card to bookthat one night.
And again, I booked for fourpeople.
Obviously we have five.
It worked out fine.
To get from the airport to thehotel, we took a taxi Actually,
no, not a taxi, we took a Lyft.
My five year old used the ridesafer vest in lieu of a car seat
(08:54):
and that worked out really well.
We checked into the hotel andthey gave us you know I had
booked a standard room and theygave us the room.
We went up to the room and itwas very small, like I am
talking the size of a shoebox,two double beds, really no room
for anything else.
(09:14):
And the reality is it wouldhave been completely fine for
one night, even for all five ofus, like we absolutely could
have fit.
It would have been fine.
But about five minutes after wegot into the room, I got a text
from like the I don't knowsomeone in the hotel, basically
just saying you know, welcomeand is everything up to your
(09:38):
standards and is there anythingwe can do?
And I have IHG platinum statuswith the premier rewards card,
and so that is their secondhighest status level.
So it's not highest.
Highest would be diamond elite.
So I'm sorry, it's not platinum, it's platinum elite, okay.
And then highest is diamondelite, and so it's not the
(09:59):
highest, but it's not the lowest.
And I sent a simple text backsaying thank you so much.
Everything is great, but wouldit be possible to get a larger
room?
Due to my status?
And they were pretty likewithin 20 minutes we were in a
bigger room, and so I was superimpressed with that.
(10:21):
Now the bigger room definitelystill had the same like two
double beds kind of vibe, butthere was a ton more room.
There was a little chair, andthen we also asked them to bring
up a pack and play.
They ended up bringing up acrib, which I mean my five year
old was like I'm not a baby, I'mnot going to sleep in that, and
she didn't actually.
(10:43):
But we made it work.
So one of my kids slept on thefloor For the record.
That was completely theirchoice, like they were excited
to do it.
And then there were actuallytwo chairs in the room, and so
we pushed the chairs together tokind of form, a little bed for
my other kid, and then mydaughter slept in the bed with
(11:06):
one of us my youngest becauseshe's the smallest and when I
woke up in the morning my kid,who had wanted to sleep on the
ground, was sleeping in thatchair bed with their brother.
So my two boys ended upsleeping in that chair, which
was pretty funny because it wasnot very big, like it was
(11:27):
probably the same size as thecrib for the most part.
But they made it work and theyseemed fine about it.
So no one complained, it workedgreat and it was definitely
nice to have a smidge more space, even if it was just for that
one night.
The other reason that I chosethis hotel beyond the fact that
I could use my free nightcertificate, which was expiring
(11:50):
literally in April, and so I weused it in March, so just in the
nick of time was they had anindoor pool.
We used it in March, so just inthe nick of time was they had
an indoor pool, and that wasimportant because I really
wanted the kids to be able toget some energy out before we
got on this long, you know, ninehour red eye flight, and so we
did use the pool.
It was great.
(12:12):
This hotel also has like movienight.
I think I don't know if it'severy Friday or Saturday.
We were there on a Friday soI'm not sure if they do it other
nights, but definitely onFridays they do like a movie by
the pool where they set up likelemonade and popcorn and they
put on a kid's movie and you canjust go take your kids there
and they can swim, and it wasreally nice.
(12:34):
So we did that.
All the kids went in and I wentin the water.
The only thing I will say isthis pool is not going to be
great for young kids because thedistance between the wall like
the top of the pool, where youwould get out, and the water is
like a good two feet.
So you have to use the ladderand if you're like wanting to
(12:58):
hang on to the wall like it's,it's a little challenging.
So, um, I went in with ourfive-year-old and it was fine,
but I wouldn't have beencomfortable with her being in
there without one of us.
It was also.
It was also pretty deep.
So two things to keep in mind.
But if you've got, if your kidshave floaties or they're
(13:18):
greatimmers like my boys, thenabsolutely, and so they were
playing.
I think the movie was one ofthe more newer trolls movies and
so it was great.
We went swimming, we had popcorn, we had lemonade and the kids
got to swim and it was.
It was a really fun thing to beable to do when it was
literally snowing outside, so Iwould absolutely recommend this
(13:41):
hotel.
It was also very close andwalkable to a lot of the
touristy things, like theStarbucks Reserve.
We probably could have walkedto the Bean, but it was a little
over a mile, so we took a taxi.
We walked to the Ice CreamMuseum and I'll get into details
about that here in a moment.
But all in all, we were prettyhappy with with the hotel and
(14:04):
the property would 100% stayagain, and the service was very
good, like the doorman was.
The doorman was super helpful.
We spoke to him and got hisadvice several times and he was
great with the kids, and so wereally enjoyed it and would
definitely recommend it.
As far as activities, so we hadabout 24 hours in Chicago and so
(14:27):
we wanted to make the most ofit, so we did go and have some
deep dish pizza at I forget thename, but one of the famous
places.
It'll come to me and the kidsliked that.
We also had wings.
Um, my 11 year old loveschicken wings, so that was a win
for him.
And then we went to the icecream museum and these ice cream
(14:50):
museums are popping up indifferent like big cities, like
I know they have one in New YorkCity and a few others, and so
we thought, okay, it'll be fun,we'll go check it out.
I am going to be honest, Iwould not do that again.
We didn't.
The kids loved it.
I as an adult, we didn't loveit that much.
The ice cream is pretty basic,like it's.
(15:13):
It's probably like Walmartbrand ice cream.
It wasn't anything special.
The rooms are very likeInstagrammy, so if you're, if
you want to go take some cutephotos for Instagram, you could
definitely do that.
It was cool for the kids.
Again, they enjoyed it.
They did have like a hot dogice cream that we tried.
(15:35):
That was not good as a sidenote, but it was a fun you know,
fun thing to try.
We all laughed about it and atthe end they have like a.
It looks like a giant sprinklepit.
So imagine a ball pit butinstead of the balls it's like
multicolored rainbow sprinklesand that was fun too.
I'm sure it's full of germs,but again, kids had a great time
(16:00):
.
They had some slides you couldgo down into it.
It was maybe like a foot, afoot and a half deep.
It wasn't super deep, but theyhad fun.
I thought it was very expensivefor what you got out of it.
So again, I wouldn't personallypay for it again, but the kids
the kids really enjoyed it andthey still talk about it, so I
(16:22):
guess that is worth something.
The other thing that we did waswe woke up in the morning and
went to the Starbucks reserve.
We didn't end up gettinganything here because the lines
were very long, but we went upto each floor and just kind of
scoped it out.
It was cool.
Not really like a kid vibe,though, and Dwayne loves shoes
(16:45):
and all things Nike, so we alsowent in this Nike store that had
like four levels to it.
I don't know.
It's again not my thing, but hewas into it.
So we went, and then we met mybrother in law who lives in
Chicago.
He lives about an hour outsideof Chicago, actually.
We met him for lunch at EdDeBevix, which was walking
(17:07):
distance from the hotel.
Ed DeBevix is one of thoserestaurants where the servers
are known for being rude to you.
So instead of like being like,oh hi, welcome in Nice to meet
you, they're like, what do youwant?
Like, get out of my face, like,and it's funny.
And so we went there.
We ate.
It's basic, like diner food.
(17:27):
The kids enjoyed it.
My 11 year old was working onhis comebacks like to the server
, like for like 10 minutes andthen she would come back and he
would use it and she was totallyunfazed and it was hilarious
because he was like getting kindof annoyed and I thought it was
just the best.
They do like some singing anddancing at one point and it's,
(17:50):
it's funny, it's cute.
I would totally go there again,but again, the food is basic
diner food.
So just keep that in mind, butthat you don't go for the food,
you go for the atmosphere, right?
Also, going back to the pizza,it was Lou Malnati's that we
went to and had the deep dishpizza.
So I mean that's a Chicagostaple.
(18:11):
I've had it before, but my kids, my kids had never been to
Chicago, so this was like aquick introduction to Chicago
for them.
So this was like a quickintroduction to Chicago for them
.
We looked at the river.
We were actually there about aweek before St Patrick's Day, so
I was telling them that theriver is going to be green in
about a week, you know, in honorof St Patrick's Day.
(18:31):
And so then we had a wholeconversation about how that
would work and the truth is Ihave no idea.
And the other thing is we wentto the bean, so we did, we took
a taxi to the bean just kind ofto see it.
I know it was closed for awhile.
It is open now.
Um, you know the kids I don'tknow if they really cared about
(18:54):
the bean, but again, they stilltalk about the ice cream museum.
So if you want to spend 200plus dollars to give your kids a
good memory, you can do that.
Let's see what else.
Using the free night certificatefrom this credit card for a
positioning flight is afantastic use of it and the the.
So the way that the IHG freenight certificates work is you
(19:17):
can get a free night in a hotelup to 40,000 points If it.
If the room that night costsmore than 40,000 points, then
you have to pay that balance ofpoints.
So, like you know, if you don'thave any, then you could maybe
buy some, or you just can't usethe certificate for that night.
For the night that we stayedwhen I booked it it was around
(19:38):
37,000 points a night.
So with the free nightcertificate it was completely
free and I basically was veryclose to the $40,000 or, I'm
sorry, the 40,000 point value,so I felt really good about that
.
Again, we stayed for free, so Idon't know what more I could
(19:58):
really ask for for free, so Idon't know what more I could
really ask for.
Cards like this that have thisbenefit, I think, make
positioning flights much moredoable.
And we definitely didn't wantto fly up on the same day, just
in case there were any delays oranything like that, and because
we were flying into one airportand out of another.
(20:18):
So that would have just beenway too stressful to do all in
one day, especially when youhave really no control over
whether or not your plane is ontime.
And so we flew into Midway, wewent into the city for you know,
about 24 hours, and then wetook a taxi back from the hotel
to O'Hare and we flew direct outof O'Hare into Paris, and
(20:43):
obviously we have a whole Parisepisode and several other
episodes about our Europe trip.
If you are new and haven'theard those yet, I definitely
think they're worth a listenbecause we had a great time.
We had a great trip.
But I think positioning flightsin general can be super, super
helpful when you're trying tofly.
A lot of people like we are,and this allowed us to save a
(21:05):
ton of points and have a reallyfun experience as well.
So now my kids have been toChicago.
It's almost like getting twotrips for the price of one in a
way.
So I hope this episode washelpful.
If you've been considering apositioning flight, next week's
episode is actually going to gointo much more detail about how
they work and maybe some tipsand tricks that I've learned
(21:27):
along the way, because we haveseveral more positioning flights
coming up this year and next.
So definitely listen into that.
If you would like moreinformation and if you get any
value out of this podcastwhatsoever, I would be so, so
grateful if you would take twoseconds to go to wherever you
listen to this podcast and leaveus a rating or review.
(21:48):
That really helps more peoplefind our podcast, and that is my
goal is to grow the podcast.
So thank you very much forlistening.
We appreciate you.
Come say hi to me on Instagramat travel party of five.
I've been having some reallygood conversations over there in
my DMS and I am super happyevery time you message me.
Okay, have a great week and Iwill catch you on the next
(22:08):
episode.
Bye.
Last month on our way to Europe, we spent 24 hours in
Chicago before we flew to Paris, and in today's episode we are
sharing all of the details,including the hotel, the
activities that we did and more.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya and I'm Dwayne,and we are your hosts of the
(00:30):
Travel Party of Five podcast,where we share how we travel as
a family of five around theworld.
We will also share how we usepoints and miles to travel as
affordably as possible andsometimes even completely free.
So if you're wanting to travelmore with your family, but
you're not sure how, we'd lovefor you to listen in.
So welcome to our podcast,where we hope you learn a thing
(00:51):
or two to get you closer to yournext trip.
Hey guys, welcome back toTravel Party of Five podcast.
My name is Rhea, I am your host,I am solo today.
(01:14):
Dwayne is running aroundpicking up kids from playdates
and birthday parties, and it'sbeen a very busy weekend.
So it is just me today and Irealized that we never shared
really any details around our 24hours that we spent in Chicago
before we flew to Europe, andI've got a couple of really good
(01:35):
tips and tricks on like how wedid that positioning flight and
where we stayed and all that,and so I definitely thought it
was worthy of a podcast episode.
But before we get into all thedetails of that, I wanted to
just go through a couple ofquick updates around card
applications that we have doneand status of those future
(01:57):
applications that I plan to makein the next week or so, and a
quick reminder also about theChase Sapphire Preferred 100,000
point offer.
I believe that is set to endMay 12th and so you've still got
about two weeks if you have notapplied for that card yet and
you don't currently have it,that is by far the biggest
(02:19):
signup bonus that card has everseen.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred isabsolutely the number one most
recommended card for beginnersgetting into points and miles.
And, as a reminder, if you havenever had this card or it's
been more than 48 months sinceyou last earned the signup bonus
on the card, you are eligibleto apply again.
(02:41):
I wish that I was eligible butsadly we are not, so I will put
our referral link in the shownotes.
If you are planning to applyfor that card, I would first
absolutely recommend it andsecond would love it if you
would use our referral link.
However, if you have a spouseor a friend or whatever who
already has the card, get areferral link from them.
(03:05):
That would be the best courseof action.
If you don't, then yes, pleaseuse our link.
Again, I will put it in theshow notes.
As far as card updates, sothere's also currently elevated
offers on the Hilton cards, sothe Hilton Surpass and I forget
the name of the other one, butthey have elevated offers where
you can get the welcome offerplus a free night certificate,
(03:28):
and these cards don't normallycome with free night
certificates.
And that offer is actuallygoing to end, I think, april 29,
which will literally be one dayafter this podcast airs.
So if you're listening to thison Monday, april 28, and you are
in the market for a new Amex orHilton card, I would absolutely
recommend getting those, or oneof them at least.
(03:50):
I have been trying to get thatfor myself and I am in Amex pop
up.
Jail Dwayne already has theHilton Aspire card, which does
come with a free night everysingle year, but I want to apply
him for the Hilton Surpassbecause then he'll have a second
free night that we could use,plus some points.
(04:12):
However, it's a personal cardand it will count towards his
524.
And I also need to apply himfor a Chase Inc card and I would
like to do that also on the29th of April, which is, as I
mentioned, when the Hiltonoffers end.
So I know this is a little bitrambly, but I think my plan is
(04:34):
going to be to apply him for theink Hopefully he gets approved
he hasn't had a new Chase ink inlike since sometime last year
and then also try him for thesurpass with the elevated offer.
We could definitely meet bothminimum spends.
We are in the process ofremodeling our shower and one of
(04:54):
our bathrooms and so we candefinitely meet it both on both
cards.
I'm just not sure if he'll getapproved or not, and when I try
I keep getting the pop up.
So I'm an Amex pop-up jail,which is frustrating because
I've been there for a very longtime.
I don't think I've ever evenhad an Amex personal card and
they do not want me to get one.
So TBD on that.
(05:15):
But that's kind of what's goingon in our ecosystem over here.
Okay, so let's jump into ourpositioning flight that we took
to Chicago before our Europetrip, so when I was booking our
flights and I potentiallytouched on this piece in the
Paris episode.
But I booked it so far out thatthe Phoenix to Paris direct
(05:39):
route actually hadn't even beenopened yet.
Like you couldn't book it usingpoints yet and I got impatient
and so I, you know, lookedaround like LAX, sfo, dallas,
chicago, like Denver those arekind of all within a couple of
hour flight from us where itwould make sense to reposition,
(06:01):
and they did have really goodavailability out of Chicago.
So I was able to book us for85,000 points on Air France from
Chicago direct to Paris, andthat's again the price for all
five of us.
Since I made that booking, airFrance has done it and Flying
Blue has done a devaluation, soit will cost a little bit more,
(06:21):
probably a little over 100,000points now to do that same
flight for five kids as long asthey're all under the age of 12.
But it was cheap enough that itmade sense for us to reposition
to Chicago.
So we did that using Southwest.
We actually paid cash.
(06:43):
We had a combination ofSouthwest credits that we had
earned from a Southwest flightbeing delayed more than two
hours, and I also had some giftcards that I had bought.
Costco sometimes has Southwestgift cards where you it's like
450 and you get a $500 gift card.
I didn't do that, but I did buya Southwest gift card once or
(07:06):
twice when AMX was having likethe sale where you you can use
one membership reward and itgives you like a $30 or $50
credit, and so I bought aSouthwest gift card with that.
So all in all, I think out ofpocket, we spent three or $400
and the rest were credits and Ifelt like that was not bad for a
(07:31):
positioning flight.
The cost of the flightsthemselves was astronomical in
my opinion I think it was closeto $1,000.
But because we had all thosecredits and the gift card, it
brought my out of pocket downpretty significantly and I was
okay with paying like the threeor 400 that it ended up costing.
(07:52):
We flew from Phoenix to Midwayon a direct flight it's about
three hours from Phoenix and westayed overnight at the
Intercontinental MagnificentMile.
So let's talk about this hotelfor a second.
The Intercontinental is underthe IHG umbrella and it was
(08:13):
Chicago in March, so definitelynot peak tourist time at all.
In fact, it snowed the day thatwe were there, which my kids
thought was incredible.
They loved it so much the daythat we were there, which my
kids thought was incredible.
They loved it so much.
(08:33):
But we used the free nightcertificate that comes with my
IHG Premier Rewards card to bookthat one night.
And again, I booked for fourpeople.
Obviously we have five.
It worked out fine.
To get from the airport to thehotel, we took a taxi Actually,
no, not a taxi, we took a Lyft.
My five year old used the ridesafer vest in lieu of a car seat
(08:54):
and that worked out really well.
We checked into the hotel andthey gave us you know I had
booked a standard room and theygave us the room.
We went up to the room and itwas very small, like I am
talking the size of a shoebox,two double beds, really no room
for anything else.
(09:14):
And the reality is it wouldhave been completely fine for
one night, even for all five ofus, like we absolutely could
have fit.
It would have been fine.
But about five minutes after wegot into the room, I got a text
from like the I don't knowsomeone in the hotel, basically
just saying you know, welcomeand is everything up to your
(09:38):
standards and is there anythingwe can do?
And I have IHG platinum statuswith the premier rewards card,
and so that is their secondhighest status level.
So it's not highest.
Highest would be diamond elite.
So I'm sorry, it's not platinum, it's platinum elite, okay.
And then highest is diamondelite, and so it's not the
(09:59):
highest, but it's not the lowest.
And I sent a simple text backsaying thank you so much.
Everything is great, but wouldit be possible to get a larger
room?
Due to my status?
And they were pretty likewithin 20 minutes we were in a
bigger room, and so I was superimpressed with that.
(10:21):
Now the bigger room definitelystill had the same like two
double beds kind of vibe, butthere was a ton more room.
There was a little chair, andthen we also asked them to bring
up a pack and play.
They ended up bringing up acrib, which I mean my five year
old was like I'm not a baby, I'mnot going to sleep in that, and
she didn't actually.
(10:43):
But we made it work.
So one of my kids slept on thefloor For the record.
That was completely theirchoice, like they were excited
to do it.
And then there were actuallytwo chairs in the room, and so
we pushed the chairs together tokind of form, a little bed for
my other kid, and then mydaughter slept in the bed with
(11:06):
one of us my youngest becauseshe's the smallest and when I
woke up in the morning my kid,who had wanted to sleep on the
ground, was sleeping in thatchair bed with their brother.
So my two boys ended upsleeping in that chair, which
was pretty funny because it wasnot very big, like it was
(11:27):
probably the same size as thecrib for the most part.
But they made it work and theyseemed fine about it.
So no one complained, it workedgreat and it was definitely
nice to have a smidge more space, even if it was just for that
one night.
The other reason that I chosethis hotel beyond the fact that
I could use my free nightcertificate, which was expiring
(11:50):
literally in April, and so I weused it in March, so just in the
nick of time was they had anindoor pool.
We used it in March, so just inthe nick of time was they had
an indoor pool, and that wasimportant because I really
wanted the kids to be able toget some energy out before we
got on this long, you know, ninehour red eye flight, and so we
did use the pool.
It was great.
(12:12):
This hotel also has like movienight.
I think I don't know if it'severy Friday or Saturday.
We were there on a Friday soI'm not sure if they do it other
nights, but definitely onFridays they do like a movie by
the pool where they set up likelemonade and popcorn and they
put on a kid's movie and you canjust go take your kids there
and they can swim, and it wasreally nice.
(12:34):
So we did that.
All the kids went in and I wentin the water.
The only thing I will say isthis pool is not going to be
great for young kids because thedistance between the wall like
the top of the pool, where youwould get out, and the water is
like a good two feet.
So you have to use the ladderand if you're like wanting to
(12:58):
hang on to the wall like it's,it's a little challenging.
So, um, I went in with ourfive-year-old and it was fine,
but I wouldn't have beencomfortable with her being in
there without one of us.
It was also.
It was also pretty deep.
So two things to keep in mind.
But if you've got, if your kidshave floaties or they're
(13:18):
greatimmers like my boys, thenabsolutely, and so they were
playing.
I think the movie was one ofthe more newer trolls movies and
so it was great.
We went swimming, we had popcorn, we had lemonade and the kids
got to swim and it was.
It was a really fun thing to beable to do when it was
literally snowing outside, so Iwould absolutely recommend this
(13:41):
hotel.
It was also very close andwalkable to a lot of the
touristy things, like theStarbucks Reserve.
We probably could have walkedto the Bean, but it was a little
over a mile, so we took a taxi.
We walked to the Ice CreamMuseum and I'll get into details
about that here in a moment.
But all in all, we were prettyhappy with with the hotel and
(14:04):
the property would 100% stayagain, and the service was very
good, like the doorman was.
The doorman was super helpful.
We spoke to him and got hisadvice several times and he was
great with the kids, and so wereally enjoyed it and would
definitely recommend it.
As far as activities, so we hadabout 24 hours in Chicago and so
(14:27):
we wanted to make the most ofit, so we did go and have some
deep dish pizza at I forget thename, but one of the famous
places.
It'll come to me and the kidsliked that.
We also had wings.
Um, my 11 year old loveschicken wings, so that was a win
for him.
And then we went to the icecream museum and these ice cream
(14:50):
museums are popping up indifferent like big cities, like
I know they have one in New YorkCity and a few others, and so
we thought, okay, it'll be fun,we'll go check it out.
I am going to be honest, Iwould not do that again.
We didn't.
The kids loved it.
I as an adult, we didn't loveit that much.
The ice cream is pretty basic,like it's.
(15:13):
It's probably like Walmartbrand ice cream.
It wasn't anything special.
The rooms are very likeInstagrammy, so if you're, if
you want to go take some cutephotos for Instagram, you could
definitely do that.
It was cool for the kids.
Again, they enjoyed it.
They did have like a hot dogice cream that we tried.
(15:35):
That was not good as a sidenote, but it was a fun you know,
fun thing to try.
We all laughed about it and atthe end they have like a.
It looks like a giant sprinklepit.
So imagine a ball pit butinstead of the balls it's like
multicolored rainbow sprinklesand that was fun too.
I'm sure it's full of germs,but again, kids had a great time
(16:00):
.
They had some slides you couldgo down into it.
It was maybe like a foot, afoot and a half deep.
It wasn't super deep, but theyhad fun.
I thought it was very expensivefor what you got out of it.
So again, I wouldn't personallypay for it again, but the kids
the kids really enjoyed it andthey still talk about it, so I
(16:22):
guess that is worth something.
The other thing that we did waswe woke up in the morning and
went to the Starbucks reserve.
We didn't end up gettinganything here because the lines
were very long, but we went upto each floor and just kind of
scoped it out.
It was cool.
Not really like a kid vibe,though, and Dwayne loves shoes
(16:45):
and all things Nike, so we alsowent in this Nike store that had
like four levels to it.
I don't know.
It's again not my thing, but hewas into it.
So we went, and then we met mybrother in law who lives in
Chicago.
He lives about an hour outsideof Chicago, actually.
We met him for lunch at EdDeBevix, which was walking
(17:07):
distance from the hotel.
Ed DeBevix is one of thoserestaurants where the servers
are known for being rude to you.
So instead of like being like,oh hi, welcome in Nice to meet
you, they're like, what do youwant?
Like, get out of my face, like,and it's funny.
And so we went there.
We ate.
It's basic, like diner food.
(17:27):
The kids enjoyed it.
My 11 year old was working onhis comebacks like to the server
, like for like 10 minutes andthen she would come back and he
would use it and she was totallyunfazed and it was hilarious
because he was like getting kindof annoyed and I thought it was
just the best.
They do like some singing anddancing at one point and it's,
(17:50):
it's funny, it's cute.
I would totally go there again,but again, the food is basic
diner food.
So just keep that in mind, butthat you don't go for the food,
you go for the atmosphere, right?
Also, going back to the pizza,it was Lou Malnati's that we
went to and had the deep dishpizza.
So I mean that's a Chicagostaple.
(18:11):
I've had it before, but my kids, my kids had never been to
Chicago, so this was like aquick introduction to Chicago
for them.
So this was like a quickintroduction to Chicago for them
.
We looked at the river.
We were actually there about aweek before St Patrick's Day, so
I was telling them that theriver is going to be green in
about a week, you know, in honorof St Patrick's Day.
(18:31):
And so then we had a wholeconversation about how that
would work and the truth is Ihave no idea.
And the other thing is we wentto the bean, so we did, we took
a taxi to the bean just kind ofto see it.
I know it was closed for awhile.
It is open now.
Um, you know the kids I don'tknow if they really cared about
(18:54):
the bean, but again, they stilltalk about the ice cream museum.
So if you want to spend 200plus dollars to give your kids a
good memory, you can do that.
Let's see what else.
Using the free night certificatefrom this credit card for a
positioning flight is afantastic use of it and the the.
So the way that the IHG freenight certificates work is you
(19:17):
can get a free night in a hotelup to 40,000 points If it.
If the room that night costsmore than 40,000 points, then
you have to pay that balance ofpoints.
So, like you know, if you don'thave any, then you could maybe
buy some, or you just can't usethe certificate for that night.
For the night that we stayedwhen I booked it it was around
(19:38):
37,000 points a night.
So with the free nightcertificate it was completely
free and I basically was veryclose to the $40,000 or, I'm
sorry, the 40,000 point value,so I felt really good about that
.
Again, we stayed for free, so Idon't know what more I could
(19:58):
really ask for for free, so Idon't know what more I could
really ask for.
Cards like this that have thisbenefit, I think, make
positioning flights much moredoable.
And we definitely didn't wantto fly up on the same day, just
in case there were any delays oranything like that, and because
we were flying into one airportand out of another.
(20:18):
So that would have just beenway too stressful to do all in
one day, especially when youhave really no control over
whether or not your plane is ontime.
And so we flew into Midway, wewent into the city for you know,
about 24 hours, and then wetook a taxi back from the hotel
to O'Hare and we flew direct outof O'Hare into Paris, and
(20:43):
obviously we have a whole Parisepisode and several other
episodes about our Europe trip.
If you are new and haven'theard those yet, I definitely
think they're worth a listenbecause we had a great time.
We had a great trip.
But I think positioning flightsin general can be super, super
helpful when you're trying tofly.
A lot of people like we are,and this allowed us to save a
(21:05):
ton of points and have a reallyfun experience as well.
So now my kids have been toChicago.
It's almost like getting twotrips for the price of one in a
way.
So I hope this episode washelpful.
If you've been considering apositioning flight, next week's
episode is actually going to gointo much more detail about how
they work and maybe some tipsand tricks that I've learned
(21:27):
along the way, because we haveseveral more positioning flights
coming up this year and next.
So definitely listen into that.
If you would like moreinformation and if you get any
value out of this podcastwhatsoever, I would be so, so
grateful if you would take twoseconds to go to wherever you
listen to this podcast and leaveus a rating or review.
(21:48):
That really helps more peoplefind our podcast, and that is my
goal is to grow the podcast.
So thank you very much forlistening.
We appreciate you.
Come say hi to me on Instagramat travel party of five.
I've been having some reallygood conversations over there in
my DMS and I am super happyevery time you message me.
Okay, have a great week and Iwill catch you on the next
(22:08):
episode.
Bye.
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