One of my Favorite American Express Perks to Date

 

Reason #534297 why I love American Express: Free Cirque du Soleil VIP experiences thanks to my Starwood American Express!

As crazy as it seems, there are some things I’m quite passionate about besides points and miles. I’m super crazy about the artistically-expressive and wonderful Cirque du Soleil shows. Since seeing my first show and becoming hooked in 2009, I have traveled near and far to see as many of these shows that I possibly can. So far I’ve seen O, Ovo, Ka, Wintuk, Alegria, Quidam, Zarkana, Kooza, and now TOTEM – thanks to my Starwood American Express.

Back in early June, when Points, Miles, and Martinis posted about an opportunity for SPG AmEx cardholders to receive a free VIP Cirque du Soleil TOTEM experience, my heart stopped a bit – I knew I had to get my hands on a pair of those tickets! There was one problem though: tickets were being offered on a first come, first serve basis starting at 3:00 pm EST on June 7… right in the middle of my non-stop flight from JFK to HNL. What’s a girl to do? That’s easy – put Dad to work as always.

While I was in flight, I had Dad call on my behalf, and I crossed my fingers that he was one of the first to get through. After being on hold for a solid 19 minutes, with a self-given wait-time limit of 20 minutes, he finally got through. After landing and seeing the email telling me that he had snagged a pair of the complimentary tickets made my day.

After a month of anticipation, yesterday was finally the day, so Tiffany and I headed up to Boston for a mini girl’s getaway. When we arrived at Marine Industrial Park in Boston, we headed straight to the Tapis Rouge VIP tent at 6:30 before the 8pm show, where we enjoyed an array of complimentary food and drinks. The tent inside was beautifully decorated, festive, and upscale. We had fun interacting with some of the clowns/cast members and enjoyed trying all of the creative and artistic hors d’oeuvres.

At about 7:45, we started making our way into the main tent to get seated for the show. We were given popcorn and yet another glass of wine to enjoy during the performance. We were seated in row A – just a few feet from the stage, and the show was incredible (I rank it number 2 out of 9; O in Las Vegas takes the top spot)!

During the 30 minute intermission, we were invited back to the Tapis Rouge tent where we were presented with a nice selection of bite-size desserts and a gift bag filled with goodies including a $25 gift card to the Cirque du Soleil online store, a really nice leather branded notebook, a collectible program, and best of all… free SPG points! If I would have previously known that each bag was stocked with a code for 1,000 Starpoints, I’d totally ask the staff to raid the leftover bags… just kidding (or am I?).

I must say that I was super impressed with this experience – we had a total blast and our expectations were blown out of the water. Many thanks to my favorite Starwood American Express card, which will continue to have a special place in my heart forever <3.

Killing Two Birds With One Stone

Since Tiffany had still not completed any of her stays for the Club Carlson “Big Night Giveaway” promotions (tsk tsk, Tiffany), the stars aligned for a perfect opportunity for her to do so. We definitely did not want to drive another 4.5 hours home after the show, so we spent the night at the Country Inn & Suites in Brockton, Mass, allowing Tiffany to get her 44,000 bonus points.

The hotel was a what you’d expect from most Country Inn & Suites – a solid 3.5 stars and easy to get to from a main highway. We arrived pretty late at night, and check in was painless. Our room was basic and perhaps even a bit stale, but nothing out of the ordinary. Despite that we were a tad upset that the room did not include complimentary water bottles, we had a great restful night after a fun day in Boston… and she got her points! Win-Win.

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