Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Reader comments reflect the views of the individuals who wrote them, are not reviewed or endorsed by Eye of the Flyer or by any advertiser, and should not be treated as advice. Some links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
I have a few regrets from my youth – well, maybe more than a few, but on the lighter side, there are some things I wish I had had a chance to enjoy. I did, for example, get to see Fleetwood Mac live as well as Def Leppard and a number of other amazing bands. I did not get to see Van Halen in 1984 (what an event that would have been!) but did get to see Dave and the crew (with Wolfie on bass) and that helped fix the longing I had. My wife got to see Journey back in the day, but I never had the chance – until recently.
I have been a fan of Journey’s current 20-year run with Arnel Pineda as lead singer since Steve Perry gave up on the band at the height of its creative and performance greatness. It truly is amazing how close Arnel’s voice is to Steve’s, and the rest of Journey agreed so long ago when they brought him on board. Having been a Frequent Floater for years, I have seen how stunning Philippine singers can be – whether they copy another singer or do it on their own.
StubHub
Since I am, at least for now, a Chase Sapphire Reserve® card holder, I get, in the first half of the year and the second half, a $150 StubHub credit for events. I had access to a second CSR card, thus I had a total of $300 in credits. I decided to use PayPal and split the payment between both of these cards and thus ended up getting to see Journey in Fort Wayne for just $9 per person. That is so cheap it makes my early ’80s $12 concert tickets look expensive by comparison!
Hotel
Fort Wayne is a bit of a drive away from home and I really did not want to drive home after the late-ish show. So, for just over 20k IHG points from my Chase IHG card we booked a night at the AVID hotel. While not an amazing hotel experience, it was clean and had one of the softest hotel beds I have slept in for years in any hotel. Not just that but:
It also made available, at no extra charge, a level 2 charger for my Model S. Since Artemis is a few years old with limited range (he is a Model S 70), getting a top-off for the trip home was welcome. The funny thing is they did not list it on their web page, so I sadly included a quick trip to a Tesla supercharger before I went to the hotel and spent $5 and 15 minutes I did not need to, but ah well – live and learn, that is, call the hotel to see if they offer one even if not listed on their company website.
Being a total points enthusiast, I clearly wanted to do more than stay free and watch Journey for all but free, but also I wanted to add dinner free as well. Thus, I used the Resy perk from my American Express Platinum Card® to have an outstanding meal. Card members may earn up to $400 Resy credit each year in statement credit (up to $100 in statement credit each calendar quarter) for eligible purchases with Resy and Platinum Nights™ by Resy, including dining purchases at over 10,000 qualifying restaurants. (You can read more about the Amex Resy feature here.)
I made a tiny mistake in parking. While I had a reservation for 5:00 PM, I arrived a little early and ended up paying $1.45 to park for 15 minutes. Wait, what – that much for 15 minutes?
Had I shown up at 5, I could have parked free for as long as I wanted (well, until the morning). So another tiny not free mistake but not enough to worry about. So how about the food? Take a look!
Yeah, this was amazing and 100% covered by that quarter’s $100 Resy credit from my Amex Platinum Card. It is strange that food, and good food, tastes so much better when it is free, right? Oh, and we got to see Spiderman running past us while we dined (why was he not using his web and swinging, I ask you?) – Now on to the show!
The Concert
We arrived really early, as recommended, breezed through security, and were among the first into the stadium. That did mean a rather long wait for the show to begin, but my, was it worth the wait!
Overall, it was simply an amazing home-ish staycation and all but free thanks to points and card rewards. I work hard to get as much value and fun as I can out of all my travel cards, and I hope this gives you some ideas of how you too can maximize your card value! – René
For rates and fees of the American Express Platinum Card®, please visit this link.
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Reader comments reflect the views of the individuals who wrote them, are not reviewed or endorsed by Eye of the Flyer or by any advertiser, and should not be treated as advice. Some links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
