The car stopped in front of the New York Palace Hotel in the East Side of Manhattan. The doorman opened the door. Andrew got out of the car first and took everyone in to check in.
This is the hotel that Andrew booked for Sun Dahai. They will stay here during their stay in New York.
Americans and Chinese people have different living habits. Unless it is a country villa or vacation home, they generally will not invite others to live in their homes, so as not to affect each other's lives and everyone is not used to it.
Andrew's home is on the nearby Park Avenue, just over a kilometer away from here. Tonight, the Hunters held a family dinner to welcome Sun Dahai.
Since it was a family banquet, it was inconvenient for Sun Dahai to take Hu Cheng and Battelle with him. Fortunately, Alaya joined in, otherwise Sun Dahai would not have been able to let them act on their own.
Sun Dahai plans to stay in New York for three days. On the 13th, he will leave New York and go to Seattle. According to his schedule, on the 14th, he will visit the Microsoft headquarters and meet with Bill Gates.
Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, very close to Seattle. It is considered the west coast of the United States, and it spans the continent of America from New York on the east coast.
The distance of more than 4,000 kilometers, plus the time difference, how to arrange this journey not only confused Sun Dahai, but also the otaku native New Yorker Andrew was in a mess.
Alaya's arrival just solved this problem. After Sun Dahai settled in the hotel, he handed Andrew's schedule to Alaya and asked her to readjust it. It became a poor plan and delayed the schedule.
Alaya has a lot of experience. She got the schedule and took a look at it, and she became confused.
"Boss, when I went to Microsoft headquarters a few days ago to help you issue a shareholder certificate and invitation letter, the information I issued seemed to be your personal account information in Citibank, right?"
"Yes, that is my personal household registration." Sun Dahai replied.
"Your account is still an ordinary account, but the account balance plus transaction flow has reached the CPC2 standard, which is the second level standard for Citi Private Bank customers.
The Citibank headquarters is not far away on Park Avenue. I suggest you go to the Citibank headquarters early tomorrow morning for customer upgrade certification.
When you become a CPC, the bank will assign you a full-time account manager. Not only can you get professional consultation on investment and financial management, but you will also enjoy many conveniences in other aspects.
For example, what we need now is to book hotels, air tickets and vehicle transfers, which can all be solved through Citibank’s account managers.”
"Oh?" Sun Dahai didn't realize it himself.
This account was opened when he first went to Xiangjiang in 1982. Because he was under the age of 18, Jiang Xiuping signed a series of documents as his guardian.
When he opened the account, he only deposited 50,000 US dollars, so it was just an ordinary account. The money was divided from his gambling profits.
At the same time, Sun Dahai also opened this account for US stock trading, which he could do while Jiang Xiuping was present, otherwise he would have to wait until he turned eighteen.
Sun Dahai has not used this account in the past few years, so the only transaction flow is the annual service fee deducted by the bank.
It was not until the beginning of this year that Sun Dahai transferred US$20 million from his profits from long yen to his account, just to use this account to buy shares of Microsoft.
When Microsoft's IPO closed on March 13, the total market value reached more than 500 million U.S. dollars. Sun Dahai bought 0.99% of the shares that day, with a total cost of less than 5 million U.S. dollars, and there was another 15 million U.S. dollars in his account.
The cash left and right remained untouched.
Now when Alaya said it, Sun Dahai remembered. Like many private banks, Citibank's private banking customers also start with a deposit of one million US dollars in their account.
As for the CPC2 that Alaya mentioned, it is probably because the deposit in the account exceeds 10 million US dollars, so it can meet the standards of second-level customers.
"OK, then tomorrow morning, we will go to the Citibank headquarters to handle customer upgrades." Sun Dahai accepted Alaya's suggestion.
In his previous life, Sun Dahai worked hard on his own. Although he made a little money and had enough food and clothing, he was still far from meeting the entry-level standards of a private bank.
Because private banks not only require customers’ annual average daily account assets to reach a certain standard, but also have certain requirements for transaction turnover.
Now that Alaya thinks that she has met the CPC standard, she will go for it, and she will not waste the opportunity to live again.
"One more thing, boss, I think on this schedule, the air tickets we plan to buy are all first-class. In fact, if this is the case, we might as well rent a small business jet to make it more cost-effective.
In the United States, it is cheaper to rent a small jet with eight to ten passengers than to buy a first-class ticket for six people, and it also allows you to control your time and is more comfortable."
Alaya's suggestion was very much to Sun Dahai's liking. Long-distance flights are inherently tiring, and it would be a lot easier if he could be more comfortable and arrange his own time.
So Sun Dahai immediately nodded in agreement.
"Do we need to find an aircraft leasing company?" Sun Dahai asked.
"If you can upgrade to CPC tomorrow, Citibank's account managers can handle it for you. Negotiating with the aircraft leasing company is more efficient and the price is more favorable than negotiating with us ourselves."
Sun Dahai immediately understood that this is the difference between large customers and individual customers.
Alaya really didn’t work in Citibank for five years in vain. She knew all the twists and turns. This is good, not only saves worry and effort, but also saves money, so why not!
Sun Dahai asked Alaya to take Hu Cheng and Battelle out for a walk and have dinner. Anything that required money was left to Hu Cheng, who carried cash and credit cards.
Because they were abroad, Sun Dahai and Bater both had a small amount of cash and bank cards with them, fearing that if something happened they were separated and it would be inconvenient to have no money on them.
Hu Cheng opened his suitcase, took out the gifts Sun Dahai brought from China and handed them to him.
There are three gifts in total, which are for Andrew's family of three, and no one will take them down.
The gift Sun Dahai gave to Andrew was a folding fan with ornaments. A set of plain tea sets from Jingdezhen and a Suzhou embroidered shawl were given to his parents.
Several people went downstairs together. Alaya took Hu Cheng and the others to visit Times Square. Andrew and Sun Dahai went home together in the car driven by Maggie.
A few minutes later, Sun Dahai and the other three appeared in front of a quiet and elegant apartment building on Park Avenue, which was Andrew's home.
Andrew said that this apartment building has a history of 60 years and was completely renovated a few years ago, so it still looks new and fashionable now.