Beach: You’ll need to get onto the Keauhou Resort trolley for a complimentary 5-minute trip to Kahaluu Beach Park, known for snorkeling and seasonal surfing. Equipment rentals available at the beach.

Pool: The Manta Ray Super Pool and Slide has a 200-foot long lava tube waterslide, sandy bottomed children’s play area, interactive fountains, Whirlpool spas, and waterfalls. All pools use chlorine.

Shade: Complimentary lounge chairs can be shaded along the interior pool boundary. On the ocean side, there are thatched roof cabanas (first come first serve) as well as shaded lounge cabanas, which are available for $15 per day.

Recommended activities: Adjacent to the hotel and accessible via the trolley is the Kona Country Club Golf Course with two 18-hole courses. Within walking distance (approximately 5 minutes) of the entrance of Sheraton Keauhou Bay is Keauhou Bay Marina with a variety of ocean-related activities including kayak excursions, deep sea fishing, snorkel and dive boats. On property there are two tennis courts, a basketball court and a sand volleyball court.  Also spotting manta rays, six evening per week (except Sundays), a complimentary Manta Talk is held just after sunset near the manta viewing area.

Onsite Restaurants:

Kai
Manta Ray Bar & Grill
Firenesia Lu’au Dinner & Show
Sliders
Keauhou Bay Coffee Co.
Spa: Ho’ola Spa. Ho’ola means “healing” in Hawaiian. The 3,200 square foot facility includes two outdoor, covered patios with ocean views.

Parking: Self-parking available for $10 per day (included in daily resort service charge). Valet parking $16 per day.

Rooms: 511 guest rooms average 420 square feet each plus a large private lanai. Nine executive suites and 1 Presidential Suite put the total room count at 521.
-Mountain View: $189
-Partial Ocean View: $219
-Ocean View: $249
-Ocean Front: $279
-Executive Suite: $950
-Presidential Suite: $2,550

*Info including pricing was collected 2/2011, things will change. Go to Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa or call 808.930.4900  for updated rates, etc.

points/miles : 50,000 membership rewards points annual fee : $450 each year, not waived for first year spending requirement : you will get 50,000 MR points when you spend $3,000 in first 3 months

This is one of my credit card that I will keep renewing with the annual fee is $450 because of lots of benefits to me. Besides 25,000 Membership Rewards bonus points, you can get $200 airline fee credit every calendar year, starwood gold membership upgrade, priority pass that gives you most of airport lounges access in over 100 countries… And you will get a prorated refund of your annual fee if you cancel your platinum card. You can do that after receiving most of benefits. Isn’t it great? But I didn’t because it’s too worthy to me who loves travel(booking hotel,flights,car..). It also has a refer a friends like other above amex cards which gives 5,000 points.

25,000 Starpoints - American Express Starwood Preferred Guest

points/miles : 25,000 starpoints annual fee : first year free, then $65 each year thereafter spending requirement : 10,000 bonus starpoints after your first purchase. 15,000 bonus starpoints when you spend $5,000 in first 6 months

Don’t miss this great offer if you don’t have this card! I love this card. It’s one of cards that I strongly recommend because of Starpoint which is most valuable hotel point. Booking SPG hotel with point only or point + cash options are really fantastic.  Transferring the point on most of airline miles at 1:1 ratio with 5,000 additional bonus every 20,000 transfer. Also it allows you to transfer to your family through the spg web site without any fee if it’s same address. One of way to earn the point without spending credit card or staying spg hotel is ‘refer a friend’. You can earn 5,000 points using ‘refer a friend‘ program from Amex when your friends application is approved. You can send your refer link to your friend after you have this card.

Below is what I verified so far from my credit report.

Citi AAdvantage 75000 Visa and Amex : recorded only one hard inquiry on experian

Amex Gold 25000 and Platinum 50000 : recorded only one hard inquiry on experian

Chase Southwest plus 50000  and Marriott 70000 : recorded only one hard inquiry on experian

Citi Thankyou 50000 Visa and Master : recorded only one hard inquiry on experian

This is what I recommend multiple applications if you want to try.

1. Chase Freedom 30000 and Sapphire 50000  or Chase Freedom 30000 , Sapphire 50000 and Marriott 70000 ( My friend tried this three applications on same day and got all approvals with only one hard inquiry. OMG.. )

2. Amex SPG 25000/Gold 25000(or Platinum 50000) : Please make sure that you have to use two different browsers like Visa application using IE, Master application using Firefox/chrome. Or you have to clean all caches/cookies for second one after first one is applied.

3. Citi Thankyou 50000 Visa/Master : Please make sure that you have to use two different browsers like Visa application using IE, Master application using Firefox/chrome. Or you have to clean all caches/cookies for second one after first one is applied.

4. Citi AA 50000 Visa/Amex : Please make sure that you have to use two different browsers like Visa application using IE, Master application using Firefox/chrome. Or you have to clean all caches/cookies for second one after first one is applied.

Things you need to know
1. The result of application could vary on each application even if it’s same day application. You might need to contact to bank for the reconsideration in case of denial.
2. Personal + Business card applications will make two hard inquiry even if they are same day to same bank.

The short story is that over the past few months, my anthropological training has led me to believe that there’s something remarkable about the world of management consulting, something made even more remarkable by the fact that for the most part, it’s a world shrouded in mystery.  There are common rewards (Starwood points, black towncars, crazy cohort parties); key objects (Blackberries, Lenovo ThinkPads, the Corporate Amex) and sacred rituals (GMAT prep classes, Thursday afternoon flights and coffee chats).  The world of management consulting is an intricate and complex human system composed of highly developed specialists with their own elaborate rituals and society. a society that is even more intriguing because it is rarely documented and discussed.  What’s even more fascinating about this lack of cultural mapping is the fact that this group of people makes important decisions for much of the business world, decisions that affect millions of people.

But that sounds  much more serious than I intended for this project to be.  As I sit here in my hotel room, checking my Blackberry before my 6AM flight, my pledge is to spend a few minutes each day blogging about what I find remarkable about this world that I have inadvertently become a part of.   Sometimes that’s the power of management consultants to influence enormous corporations to make decisions that affect millions of people.  Sometimes that’s blue shirts and khaki pants.

Enjoy!

I knew that Starwood hotels group has a hotel resort there, and so I had been hoarding points for that. The price of a room would be too expensive for me to afford (unless my bosses decide to give me a nice bonus next year, which I doubt it).

Anyway, I got excited when I received email offer from Starwood yesterday night,

I got this offer because I had not stay in a Starwood hotel for the past 3 months. So I have to choose one of the choices. Hmmmm… the 25% off a free night award redemption or the 2000 bonus Starpoints?

In the end I had chosen the 2000 bonus Starpoints. Points that would be added on to the points in my account once I stayed in a Starwood hotel (Hmmm… too bad I had already had booked my hotel for my upcoming trip, which is tomorrow).

The toy was based on my favourite anime (Japanese cartoon), and it had been written into a novel series. It is a sci-fi anime and it is pretty cool. It is not that popular in the US but it is very popular in Asia during its time.

However, it still does have a large fan base and have its own website with its own store selling the newly-made toys. The new toys were all right but I long for the old vintage ones where it was finely made. Imagine my surprised that I managed to find one in Amazon.

Ok, that particular version being sold in Amazon is different from what I used to own but it still bring back my childhood memories on playing with that toy and watching the anime on tv.

The toy was a bit pricy, like $300 pricy. But I just got to have it. I looked at my checking account balance in my iPhone and the real balance in my checking account (I like to round up things in my checkbook in my iPhone, like round it up to the nearest $5. It is a great way to fool yourself into saving), and saw that I could more than afford to buy it.

But just because I could afford to buy it does not mean I would not maximize my earning points potential. Since it is being sold on Amazon, and I am planning a road trip soon, I might as well earn points by buying gift cards from Kroger. Since Kroger will double the points on any gift cards bought, and I could use the Kroger points to get discount for gas for my car, I figured why not.

On top of that, I am paying the gift cards by credit card. Hey, might as well earn hotel points right? So I came out with 600 points from Kroger (which will give me $0.60 discount on gas per gallon), 300 Starwood Points (used my SPG American Express card) and a piece of my childhood.

Did it stop here? No, unfortunately. My inner child woke up because of this, and now I am seriously starting to collect all these vintage action figures. This lead me to the world of eBay, where I had to restrain myself not to bid everything on site.

So now I had to set priorities. Which one to buy the most? I have been scouting eBay to gauge the prices on some of the items, and make a note of which items are the more common ones. What I am usually after is the rare vintage ones.

Sigh…. I am getting as bad as my sisters (in my defense, I am keeping an eye on my real checking account balance. There is only so low that the balance could go before I panic). But if I am going to buy it, I might as well earn some points from it.