Status

I'm done traveling for 2025. My last night in a hotel was a couple of nights ago (for work). So in a completely non sequitur way, it's confession time. Why? Because it is. And it's also not the first time it's been confession time on this blog by any means but here goes another one: I'm a little bit fascinated or obsessed or whatever you want to call it with attaining status in travel rewards programs. 

There...I said it.

Now, if you know me at all, I know what you are probably thinking. It's the free stuff.

And you are totally right. It IS the free stuff. I'm not ashamed. I love getting stuff for free. I'll take anything remotely useful for free. And if it's travel-related, whether it's free hotels or flights or access to lounges or other sorts of perks, I'm all over it. I LOVE free stuff. Nothing better. I'm a moocher through and through. I mean, who isn't in love with free stuff?

There is some irony here, because in all my years of serious traveling and despite all the stuff I've gotten for free, I have rarely achieved any sort of status in any sort of travel rewards program. In 2016, if I'm remembering right, I stayed at enough Best Western properties to get either Platinum or Diamond status (can't remember which) and it got me pretty much nothing except some bonus points on future stays. Not that I'm against bonus points. These things all add up and some programs have 100% bonus points at some status levels.

Grand Hyatt Tokyo. Nice hotel. Very nice when it's free with lounge access.

The last three years (2022 through 2024) before this one were a little different. Based on my credit card spend in the years 2021 through 2023, I managed to get Hilton Diamond status. And I have to say the perks are wonderful. Room upgrades, lounge access, free food, express check-in and a custom baked birthday cake (thank you, Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik) made our travels easier, cheaper, more convenient and in the case of the birthday cake, more everything. And...100% bonus points on stays!!!

But all that other time I've spent focusing on traveling the last 12-1/2 years? I got nothing. All these years of traveling and all I have is a bit of status from two hotel chains for four years and I got the best part of that from using a credit card.

That all changed last year. Or maybe it's this year.

All that traveling for work that I sort of disliked and ranted about last year? Got me some status. Some hotel status. Some train status. Some airline status. Not all of these are the top tier but I got something from three different travel rewards programs. So what did it do for me? Well...read on.

Amtrak Select

What It Is: Select is Amtrak's first tier of actual earned status. Below Select is simply Member, which is free and conferred on anyone who signs up. I break down the Select member benefits this way: (1) a 25% bonus on points earned by traveling on Amtrak; (2) some coupons (two each one-way upgrades and 10% off); and (3) two single-visit lounge passes. Full disclosure, if you achieve Select status for the first time in a calendar year, it looks like you get the coupons and passes twice, once in the year you earn status and once at the beginning of the next calendar year.

What It's Done For Me: 

More points? Love them. As I said before, these all add up. The more you earn, the more stuff you can redeem them for. And Amtrak's points are actually really redeemable pretty easily for free trips. Coupons? I haven't used the discount coupons but I did (on this last trip) use an upgrade coupon to kick me from Acela Business Class to Acela First Class. I have to say...Acela First Class is pretty darned nice. Best food I've had on any form of transportation I've been on this year. The only thing that could make that experience better would be a smooth ride but that's not really that possible in the United States on rail. Oh well! Can't have everything I guess. 

I have also used some of the lounge passes. I have managed to visit the Metropolitan Lounge in New York's Moynihan Train Hall twice. The food is decent but not amazing or anything. Both times we've visited have been in the late morning so we've had a late breakfast or early lunch (or maybe both). I love lounges. They are far better waiting spaces than anywhere else in Moynihan and like all good lounges, it comes with free grub (although not free booze).

The Metropolitan Lounge also has one perk that most lounges skip: its balcony overlooks the main passenger hall of the Moynihan Train Hall. It's a calmer view of what is sometimes a chaotic experience down on the floor. I appreciate lounges with great views and so few lounges have them (I love the old lounge overlooking the runway in the original Washington National terminal). They are usually squirreled away in some interior space and then they sometimes make them even worse by sticking them in the basement. You don't get that with Amtrak in New York.

United Silver

What It Is: Like Amtrak Select, Silver is United's first tier of actual earned status. I break down United's Silver benefits this way: (1) a 40% bonus on points earned by traveling on United; Group 2 boarding; (3) upgraded seating (for free) at ticket purchase and check-in; (4) a free checked bag in economy; and (5) space-available upgrades. This last one is pretty much the holy grail of airline status benefits.

What It's Done For Me:

More points? Again, I'm good with more points, even if it's going to take a long, long, long time to accumulate points to get me anything free on an airline. Still, if I'm going to save up for a long time, adding 40% to each deposit helps. Maybe sometime in 2027, I can actually get a free flight.

Group 2 boarding? I do love this benefit. You can get this benefit with some United co-branded credit cards but I don't have one of those right now. Better seats at purchase and / or check-in? I also love these benefits although I resent loving this. Seats on planes are getting ever smaller so we can squeeze like an extra half-row in somewhere. This is just giving us back some of the space that they took away. Still, I'll take those two extra inches for free rather than paying $49 or $79 or whatever it costs these days. Checked bag? Can't remember the last time I checked, but I do need the Group 2 to get early access to that overhead bin.

So that leaves the space-available upgrade. As a reminder, this is the holy grail of airline status. You get to show up with an economy ticket and be magically upgraded to business or first class. Since I've had Silver status, I've taken flights to Boston (three times there and twice home), Tokyo, Calgary and South Africa and I have not even come close to getting this benefit. Am I taking the wrong flights? Maybe. Expecting too much? Probably. For perspective here, I checked the upgrade board at the gate on a June flight from Dulles Airport to Boston's Logan Airport and there were 22 people (which may be more than one upgrade each) on the board and I wasn't on it. For a flight that had maybe 24 or 28 first class seats. Upgrade? Forget about it. No holy grail for me. 

Hyatt Globalist

What It Is: Unlike Amtrak Select and United Silver, Globalist is Hyatt's top tier of status. I really worked hard (staying at hotels primarily for work) to get this and I only just made it in December 2024. I break down Hyatt's Globalist benefits this way: (1) a 30% bonus on points earned on stays at Hyatt properties; (2) eligibility for upgrades, including to suites; (3) access to Hyatt Lounges, although those are only at Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency properties; and (4) milestone rewards along the way.

What It's Done For Me: 

Like Amtrak's extra points and United's extra points, more points are always welcome. If there's a complaint here, Hyatt's top tier bonus is less than United's first tier bonus for actual status. Hilton (if you didn't pick it up earlier) gives their top status 100% bonus. 100% > 30%.

Upgrades are nice, but I have to say that in the entirety of run this year with Globalist status, I don't think I've gotten a single upgrade. This is not a comparison to other hotel rewards programs but I find Hilton and IHG are much more forthcoming with upgrades based on status.

So that leaves lounge access and milestone rewards. Here's where Hyatt pays off, especially with the milestone rewards.

Lounges in hotels can be anything from questionably beneficial to real added value in a hotel stay. We don't stay at Grands and Regencys (the only Hyatt properties with lounges, in case that was missed earlier in the post) much but we did three times this year. The lounge at the Regency in Calgary was forgettable, although that may have been because they diluted the experience somewhat because the Stampede was in town and they allowed the actual lounge space to be used as something else for the event.

The Grand Hyatt in Tokyo and the Regency in Cape Town were very, very value added. The Grand in Tokyo had just a spectacular buffet breakfast and lounge access most afternoons. I am sure lounge access here saved us a ton of money on food. Either that or we just grossly overate some meals. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, because I know for sure we overate some breakfasts. OK, all breakfasts. Free breakfasts is a perk of Globalist status but the breakfast in Tokyo was next level. 

Our regency experience in Cape Town was almost as deluxe from a breakfast standpoint but the two hour happy hour every night by the pool was much, much appreciated. It allowed us to kick back in quiet after each day of touring around the Cape and bridge our day to retiring to the room for the night. Plus we got to interact with the hotel staff at happy hour and get some insight into life in South Africa. 

Amtrak Acela First Class meal. The best meal I've had on a train or plane this year.

What I really love about Hyatt's program is their milestone rewards. 

When you earn status in Hilton's rewards program, your first milestone reward happens at 40 nights, when Hilton bonus-es you with 10,000 points (which is about 1/6 of a night in a reasonable brand in a good city). By that time with Hyatt, you could have earned a free night coupon, 9,000 bonus points (about 45% of a night using the parameters above) and a Guest of Honor Award to allow you or a guest to stay as a Globalist in a Hyatt property for up to seven nights or a suite upgrade for a similar stay. At 50 nights with Hyatt, you can add two additional suite upgrades and at 60 you can add two additional Guest of Honor Awards and another free night coupon. That's in addition to 5,000 more points.

This year, we used both our free night coupons, both suite upgrades and gifted a Guest of Honor Award to our friend Bryan so he could get Globalist benefits with us in Cape Town. The suite in the Cape Town Regency was enormous. I swear it was bigger (and much cleaner) that my first condo.

So what does 2026 hold? Well I still have Amtrak Select and United Silver status. I will continue to appreciate the extra points and the lounge in the Moynihan Hall in the train station New York. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to get enough stays to make it to Globalist with Hyatt. I'm stuck at Explorist and will have to live with the downgraded benefits. 

But I do still have Hilton Diamond status. Hilton extended it as a courtesy for me this year after three years in the program which I very much appreciated. Next year, I had to have it again. I found a way. 

Sometimes when you stay in hotels with status, you get custom-made birthday cakes delivered to your room. Thanks, Hilton Dubrovnik.

Timbs

In the spring of 2017, I bought myself a new backpack. I ditched the Samsonite one that I bought maybe four years earlier that had just simply not withstood the rigors of domestic and international travel when it started to fall apart and upgraded to a Patagonia 32 liter model. It's still with me. Guaranteed that pretty much every trip that I've taken since that time, that bag has been strapped on my shoulders and packed somewhere between relatively full and stuffed to the gills. And I only say "pretty much" because I might not have taken it maybe once or twice. Although I can't really remember ever leaving home and staying somewhere overnight without it so it's really a hard, all caps MAYBE.

I don't always take the same stuff with me when I travel. When I travel in summer I tend to take different clothing than I do in winter and my choice of shirt wear in particular is driven by my desire to dress up or down and to be obviously American or more nation-agnostic. Some of the things I've put in that Patagonia backpack over the years have been experiments; things that were supposed to make travel easier but that really were just waiting for me to find something better. Electronics come and go quickly, victims of an industry that drives better and better products and forces us to upgrade to keep up. Or just to function even.

I rarely get attached emotionally to stuff I travel with but there are exceptions. That backpack and I have been some places in the last eight plus years. It took us a bit more than two years to visit six different continents. I absolutely love that thing. I don't know what I'm going to do when (or maybe if is a better word) it ever fails me and reaches the end of its useful life. 

In 2020, I wrote a blog post about that backpack because it meant and means so much to me. Now I'm doing the same thing again with something else that is a travel mainstay for me. Not quite that gray and yellow backpack but pretty close.

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland (Europe). 2019.

The picture at the top of this post was taken last month. It's a picture of a pair of Timberland boots. My Timberland boots. Size 10-1/2 Wide and 6" high. It's a good height, just to ankle height but not covering the ankle or anything. They are light as a feather. They feel absolutely weightless. I guess they are hiking boots. Any time I go anywhere I need to hike in warm or temperate weather where I'm not traipsing through a jungle or something, I take these boots with me. That's not every trip. But I probably wear these things on a plane at least once per year.

I love these boots. They are super comfortable and I feel (within reason) I could walk across pretty much everything in these things. They are absolutely the most comfortable shoes that I own (and I do mean most comfortable shoes not most comfortable boots). I love wearing these things. I bought them about a year after I acquired my beloved Patagonia backpack. About two years after that, I actually bought their replacements but these ones haven't worn out yet. They are still going very strong.

These boots are not my first pair of Timberland boots. I suspect they won't be my last, nor will the pair I bought to replace them. I actually have two pairs of Timbs in service right now. I have a heavier-duty 8" high pair that I take on trips where the weather is going to be a little colder or the terrain is going to be a little tougher, like hiking through a forest on a mountain to go find some mountain gorillas. I am brand-loyal. I love the quality of Timberland's boots and I love that they make a variety of models in wide widths for my flipper-like right foot.

South Island Robin perched on my boot. Ulva Island, New Zealand (Oceania). 2019.

So why am I writing about my favorite pair of Timbs? Well, because in October of this year, just like my favorite backpack ever, they made it to their sixth continent. And I thought that was occasion enough to pen a quick love letter to these things that take care of my feet all over the world. How many people make it to six (or seven) of the continents on our planet? I'm betting very few. I bet even fewer can claim they have taken something with them to all six (or seven).

That picture at the top of this post? It was taken at the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. You can be impressed by the fact that these shoes have been all over the world, but not by the fact that they made it to the top of Table Mountain because we didn't walk up there. It was hot and I'm 57 years old and too heavy and the slope of Table Mountain is daunting to completely vertical. We took the cable car.

But these things have done some real work with me, even if they didn't do it that day. They have tramped around islands in New Zealand. They have walked around Angkor Wat in Cambodia and in the hot, hot, hot jungles of Singapore. I know, Singapore is pretty much a city but believe me there is jungle there. And it's really hot. 

They have walked over the hexagonal basalt surface at Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway and stood on the Athabasca Glacier in early July in Canada's Jasper National Park. They have been on Safari in South Africa's Kruger National Park (before they made it to the top of Table Mountain) and they have been all through Scotland's Hebrides islands (at least as many as we visited...). They have been to Utah and Oregon and Yellowstone National Park and New England and all over Northern Virginia taking me birdwatching. 

The path to Machu Picchu. Peru (South America). 2019.

They also accompanied me on one of the most physically demanding travel days of my life: a seven plus hour hike from Chachabamba to the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru's Andes Mountains. That is my absolute favorite travel memory of all time (so far). I was wiped out after walking all that time up and down (but mostly up) mountains in the blazing morning sun but I can't imagine how much more difficult it would have been without my favorite Timbs. Have I said how much I love these things yet? I truly do.

How long am I going to keep walking around in these boots? I have no idea. I can see no end in sight. We have four 2026 trips already planned where we are getting on a plane and going somewhere and I fully expect that I will be walking around Arizona, Wales and Manitoba with my feet snuggled comfortably in this pair of boots. I love these things. Have I mentioned that?

There are five pictures in this post. No Asia. That doesn't mean that I didn't wear these boots to Asia, just that I haven't included a Timbs-focused picture from that continent here. If you need proof this pair of boots has been to Asia, check out my feet in the pictures in my cooking post from Cambodia.

Athabasca Glacier, Jasper National Park, Canada (North America). 2025.

Kruger Mammals

Photo dump time! 

Our four full days in Kruger National Park was the best concentrated safari experience we have had in a single Park ever. The variety of wildlife and the quality of the sightings was just incredible. There was so much to see and other than maybe one or two times in the late morning / early afternoon when we started to feel that 5:15 a.m. departure time, we were engaged every minute of every day. The wildlife sightings were pretty much continuous.

I've covered some of our Kruger highlights in the past few weeks with posts about our number one species target (painted dogs), the Big Five (or four, as it turned out) and the amazing amount of birdlife we encountered in the Park. I'm done with lengthy written posts about what we saw there. 

But...I do think there is room for one more photo post showing off some of the looks we got at Kruger's mammals which are not painted dogs, elephants, buffalo, lions or leopards. So here goes. With minimal commentary. At least I've tried to make it minimal.

These photos do not show every species we saw in Kruger. Go out there and explore for yourself if you want that.

Giraffes

The first time I saw a giraffe in Botswana I was thrilled. This was was safari was all about. Tallest mammal on the planet! A few years later, we got an incredibly intimate look at these animals at Lake Manyara in Tanzania. They are still amazing to behold. So huge with a kick that can kill a lion. Our guide, Gareth said that he hated giraffes. We were shocked and asked why. "They are always looking down on me" was the response. Dad jokes. Who knew we would get these on safari?

Hippos

My former favorite African species. Their lack of social interaction has them way down on the list in 2025 but any time I get a chance to see them with their tusks showing, I want to take a picture. Still terrifying to me to be chased by one of these things in a small boat (Chobe River, 2015). Thankfully none of that in Kruger.

Impala

Impala are everywhere in Kruger. When we asked Gareth what we were going to see in the afternoon every day after lunch, his response was inevitably "impala!" and sometimes that declaration was amended with a guarantee. We DID see a ton of impala all over the place. We learned to call these animals "McDonald's of the bush" in Botswana in 2015 for their abundance and M-shaped markings on their hind quarters.

Shocker of the trip: who knew that impala smooched? At one of our impala stop, we watched a couple of these antelope alternately lick each other repeatedly on the neck. I have new respect for impala based on the smooching. Smooching is good.

Vervet Monkeys

Vervets are my favorite monkeys ever. They are just the most straightforward-looking, typical monkeys and I love that. As someone born in June 1968 (year of the monkey), I have an affinity for monkeys as a personal mascot. I have a monkey charm we picked up in Japan that goes on my backpack everywhere I go. The charm isn't exactly a vervet but in my mind's eye it is. If I had a spirit animal, it would be the vervet monkey.

Monkeys are mischievous and will steal stuff, especially food. Vervets are very adept at swiping grub. We saw it in Botswana in 2015 and again this year. Keep an eye on EVERYTHING you own around all kinds of monkeys but probably especially vervets.

Baboons

On the opposite end of the favorite monkeys spectrum...baboons. Just don't like them. I think it's the fangs and the fact that while vervets are mischievous, baboons look vicious. Baby baboons, however, are excessively cute.

Hyenas / Black-Backed Jackals

Shall we continue with the less-than-favorite African animals? Let's! 

Hyenas. Not good. Sneaky. Hunter-scavengers. Trying to steal from a lion or painted dog kill one minute but strong enough and organized enough to take down something big the next. And those faces. Ugh! UG-LEE! We did manage to see an almost newborn hyena playing with a stick on this trip but no pics. I just missed it with the camera and the moment was gone quickly.

I've included the black-backed jackal in this section not because there are loathsome to me (they are not) but because in the lineup at a kill, they slot right behind the hyenas. There's always one hanging around it seems looking for some scraps ahead of the vultures.

Warthogs

Done with ugly creatures for this post? Umm...nope. One more. Warthogs. Not pretty. But I do think if you are looking for a good picture of a warthog, these two are pretty darned good.

Zebra

When we first saw zebras in Kenya in 2018, we were thrilled. These animals are more impressive in the hundreds than in ones and twos and fives or so. The group below may have been the largest we saw on this trip. For a black and white animal, they really do blend in with the beige bush pretty well. This camouflage thing is amazing.

Kudu

Of all the antelope out there, kudu may be my favorite. It's the horns. I love these horns and these antelopes so much that I picked up a shirt from SENQU on our way back from safari one day. These are spectacularly gorgeous animals. Always excited to see kudu. We've only ever seen these animals in Southern Africa. It had been a full ten years since we'd seen any kudu I believe.

Wildebeest 

Excited about wildebeest? Not me. Not usually. But we were stopped in Kruger when these four wildebeest below started walking towards our vehicle. I waited until they got close enough to take a good picture and then waited a bit more for as many of the four as possible to hold their heads up. I got three. I like this picture. It's one of my favorites from this trip. And it's of a typically un-exciting subject. For me. I'm glad I watched and waited here. Sometimes it's cool when a species you are not necessarily always focused on surprises you with a cool moment.

Photo dump done! I feel better now. I'm glad these photographs can see the light of day.

My last picture note is about the cover photo of this post. It was taken at a rest area within Kruger. We stopped at a series of these during our four days in the Park. They were welcome because they had snacks, hot drinks, lunch (at mid-day) and most importantly...toilets. Way better to use the toilet in a rest area than just out in the bush. Most of the rest areas we stopped at were completely fenced with a heavy-duty gate at the entrance with daily opening and closing times prominently displayed. But on Kruger Day Four, we stopped at an un-fenced rest area and found the sign at the top of this post. Yeah...there's no way I want to be ordering a cup of coffee or tea and look over to find a hyena standing close to me with nothing between it and me. Nothing happened. Not on our stop. I need to see wildlife when I'm in the car, not on foot. 

That's all I have for this post. Apologies to the klipspringers, bush bucks, water bucks, nyala and everything else that we saw that didn't make it into this post. That's a wrap on safari posts for this year, but not for Africa posts. A couple of more of those to go.