For Thanksgiving, I decided to visit Hong Kong, convincing myself that flying via Honolulu and Guam was a “good idea.”  When I tried to go to Manila this way in 2012, I was bumped from one of my westbound segments and rerouted via Narita in first class.  I didn’t have the same string of luck this time around.

As a 1K on an international itinerary, I stopped by the Honolulu United Club to occupy myself for my two hour layover.  While it’s like any other United lounge, it certainly offers a bit nicer scenery.

In late October, I had a visit to the Bay Area. Room rates on the west side of the Bay didn’t quite work out as desired, so I booked a stay at the aloft Newark. This hotel was formerly the W Silicon Valley until it underwent a rebranding. While the lobby has been redone, the rooms themselves didn’t fit the normal cookie cutter aloft pattern that I’m used to.

I looked away from the Internet for a few hours this evening before making one quick glance at it just now.  When my gaze returned, I discovered that the sky is falling over in Atlanta.

Inside Flyer is reporting that Delta will be switching to a revenue-based frequent flier program in 2015, joining its illustrious peer group of Southwest, JetBlue, and Virgin America.

The key takeaways from the article are:

• Tiered points earning (based on spend) depending on elite status
• A new 5 tier fixed-price (rather than revenue) award chart:  The 25k mile domestic roundtrip third-rail of many US frequent flyer programs may live for the time being…if you can manage to find “low” availability.
• Delta is making implausible claims that “these changes will improve overall availability at the lowest award levels, i.e. the 25,000 miles domestic roundtrip.”  Umm… No.  Credit card companies buying frequent flier miles by the supertanker and increased load factors have made these awards scarce.

As American and United might be quick to join this bloodbath, I’m thankful I just applied for an Avianca credit card last night…

Update:  MileCards.com has convenient charts!

San Jose Airport launched “The Club” in early 2013 to coincide with ANA’s SJC-NRT service.  It’s a Priority Pass lounge, so I stopped by when I had some time to kill waiting for a flight.

SJC has two remarkably pleasant terminals and generally functional internet access, so I’m wary of the value obtained by buying a day pass for $35.  (Visiting with Priority Pass is free for the main cardholder.)

In mid-October, I found myself on another trip to Pasadena.  As my hotel chain choices were restricted to Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood, I chose to stay at the Westin Pasadena again.  During my previous stay in October 2012, I was a mere SPG Gold member and was upgraded to an Executive King.

I wound up arriving to the hotel rather late in the evening, having previously been delayed on my way from San Diego by my train hitting a truck.  I even tweeted about it!

As I made my way from Union Station to Pasadena, I glanced at spg.com’s room availability for the hotel that evening, finding that they had executive kings, suites, and speciality suites available.  I was consequently a bit surprised that I received a rather small, standard room after being told that I had been “upgraded” when I checked in.

Starwood’s list of SPG Platinum benefits includes:

“Upgrades to best available room at check-in, including Standard Suites.”

Unfortunately, at many hotels, elites aren’t upgraded and are left to be vexed by their first world problems.  One Mile at a Time has written about this phenomenon extensively.

I decided to venture down to the front desk to investigate.  The front desk clerk was apologetic, but insisted the hotel was “completely full” after asking me to confirm my room rate–I had booked my stay with a best rate guarantee.  He even went so far as to show me a random number on his computer screen that was to prove it to me.

Unphased, I asked what would happen if I booked a Rose Suite (or two) at that moment online with my phone.  At this point, he realized that he was now a bit in over his head with his earlier claims, so he grabbed his manager.  After the two of concluded that the hotel had suites available (and wasn’t planning on walking guests making bookings at 11PM that very night), I had a new set of room keys in hand.

While Starwood specifies “standard suites” in its benefits language, I received a Rose Suite upgrade after all was said and done.

The suite’s first bathroom was just off the entrance foyer.

I booked this trip about two weeks out for my first flight and about three weeks out for my return segment.  My upgrade for this flight cleared a mere 12 hours prior to departure.

As a business class passenger (and executive platinum elite), I had access to the British Airways lounge at Malpensa. The only take away I had was that the wifi was quite slow.

American 199
Milan Malpensa (MXP) – New York Kennedy (JFK)
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013
Depart:  10:25AM
Arrive: 1:40PM
Duration:  9 hours, 15 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 767-323ER (N346AN)
Seat: 6H (Business Class)

The flight attendants came by with a choice of water, orange juice, and champagne for the predeparture drinks.

The menu read as follows:

Service began with a salad.

About 90 minutes before arrival, we were served a snack.  I picked the Uno pizza.

I’ve talked about the American old business class product several times.  It’s now an outdated and unremarkable product, but I was far happier flying it than taking a seat in coach on United’s 767-424ER.  The United W fare, eligible for systemwide upgrades, was about $650 more for the roundtrip.  Considering my total airfare was about $600, I didn’t bite.

As I had a somewhat “early” departure (10:25AM) from Milan to New York, I decided to stay at the Sheraton at Malpensa Airport the night before.  Room rates were on the pricier side, so I booked a cash and points award for $55 and 3.5k points when I spotted some availability open up.

Reviews of the hotel on FlyerTalk suggested that the front desk was a disaster and I feel they were spot-on.  With one person ahead of me, check-in inexplicably took about 30 minutes.  Further, after finally getting to my room, I decided to investigate the club lounge, finding that my room key didn’t work as my key hadn’t been made correctly.

The hotel has a long central corridor with small hallways jutting out periodically for guest rooms.  The building itself spans nearly the entire length of Malpensa Airport Terminal 1, and I managed to be given the furthest possible room from the elevator bank.

During my visit to Italy, I never quite figured out the alarm cables that were setup in every hotel shower.  In principle, it might be a good idea.  In practice, I’m not quite sure how useful an out of reach string is when you slip and fall in the shower.

The club lounge had a sizable breakfast buffet of hot and cold food items, so I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before checking out and walking to the terminal to catch my flight to New York.

Overall, I had a few takeaways from this hotel:

• The location is superb (for those transiting Malpensa Airport).
• The “high speed” internet service was terribly slow when it was working but management seemed unconcerned.  At some point in the evening, a note was slipped under my door informing me that the pay-per-view cable service was out of order.  I’m a bit doubtful that more guests were worried about that than their broken internet connection.
• SPG Platinum recognition was nonexistent.  I didn’t initially have lounge access and I did not receive my Platinum points amenity initially.

Having stayed so close to the Duomo, it would be difficult for me to justify not sharing a photo if it.

Just prior to my Hyatt Diamond status expiring in early 2013, I signed up for the Hyatt Visa card and completed my minimum spending, yielding me two suite award nights at any* Hyatt worldwide.  As part of my visit in Milan, I decided to use one night to stay at the Park Hyatt Milan.  At the time I booked, the retail price of a suite was about 810 Euros per night.

The Park Hyatt places floor plans of its suites online for convenient reference.

While hotel check-in was at 4PM, I arrived at about 1PM to see if any rooms were available.  The front desk clerk took down my information and, after being a bit confused by my Irish cell phone number (“There aren’t any more digits?”), sent me on my way.  I took to wandering around the Duomo and its nearby plaza.  He called me back about 30 minutes later, informing me that my room was available and I should return to the hotel.

For those reading the Hyatt brochure at home, I would have certainly liked to have received an Imperial Suite, in all 2745 square feet of glory, but I doubt these awards are given much consideration for upgrades.

My room overlooked a very quiet side street.  Just under the archway lies the Piazza del Duomo.

At some point while I was exploring Milan, the hotel staff stopped by to drop off a bottle of wine, bottled water, some dried peppers, and a handwritten note in my room.  (Scroll up to the earlier picture of the table…  I’ll wait.)

The Park Hyatt Milan is exceptionally centrally located.  Unfortunately, this hotel was one of the six Park Hyatts to be elevated into Hyatt’s new formed Category 7 hotels in January 2014, so a single night in a standard room is now 30k points and a single night in a suite is 48k.  While I can point to the retail price to convince myself how good of a “value” I would receive for redeeming points at this property, it’s hard to justify when there are reasonable–albeit not quite as nice–alternatives nearby.

* While this offer was on-going, the Park Hyatt Sydney was restricted to standard rooms, rather than suites, for credit card night redemptions.

While in Milan, I made a day trip to Lake Como.

Carlson announced a devaluation of its own today, joining last year’s Hilton bloodbath and last month’s Hyatt changes.  The announcement is on the Club Carlson website and will go into effect March 15th.

The key takeaways, roughly prioritized by significance:

• Carlson is creating a new Category 7, 70k points per night, tier that will initially include:
• Radisson Royal Hotel, Dubai
• Radisson Blu Le Dokhan’s Hotel, Paris Trocadero
• Radisson Blu 1835 Hotel & Thalasso, Cannes
• Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan Hotel, Paris Eiffel
• Radisson Blu Hotel Champs Elysees, Paris
• The May Fair
• Plaza on the River, London
• art’otel, Amsterdam
• Radisson Royal Hotel, Moscow

The full list of changes is on Carlson’s website.

• The online booking bonus will be restricted to promotional periods, rather than for all bookings.

• The points bonus on stays is being cut to 35% for Gold Elite and 15% for Silver Elite members.

• Award nights will count towards status.

• Hotel restaurant spend will earn points

Hack My Trip points out that this devaluation was inevitable, following the overly generous promotions in the last two years.  I agree:  It’s hard to be surprised that any of these one-for-one stay promotions were sustainable in any way.  More importantly, the changes could have been worse.

To top things off, the signup bonus for the Carlson Visa works out to about four free nights (by strategically booking two stays of two nights) at any top tier hotel.  That’s quite a bit more than Hyatt (two nights), Starwood (not even one night at a Category 7), or the Citi Hilton card (two nights).

With the cobranded Visa card, I have Gold Elite status with Carlson.  The points bonus cut stings ever slightly, but historically, I’ve earned 90% of my Carlson points from various promotions (50k points for a $80 stay?  Sign me up!) and the credit card signup bonus.

Even with award nights now counting towards status, I would not be much closer than I was from just revenue nights (maybe 9/35 instead of 2/35 last year).  Absent shifting my hotel stays nearly completely to Carlson, I’m still hopelessly far from hitting the Concierge level at 75 nights.  Doing so would involve completely forgoing SPG status (and my stays), which have served me quite well for my many trips to Hawaii.

I stopped by the American Arrivals lounge after clearing immigration for a quick shower and snack before heading into London.

I applied two systemwide upgrades to my itinerary.  For my flight to London, my upgrade cleared a bit over two days prior to departure.

American 98
Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – London Heathrow (LHR)
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013
Depart:  9:45PM
Arrive: 11:25AM
Duration:  7 hours, 40 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-223ER (N775AN)
Seat: 12H (Business Class)

The menu read as follows:

As I was trying to maximize the amount of sleep I could get on this flight, I skipped most of the dinner offerings and selected just a cheese plate to snack on.

In preparation for my departure to London, I visited the Flagship lounge next door to my gate.  I previously visited this lounge in September 2013.  As this was the last international departure for American that evening, the lounge was quite empty.

With Emirates introduction of JFK-MXP-DXB service, a fare war broke out in the fall, driving base fares for New York to Milan to laughably low levels:  $10 round trip.  Of course, thanks to a $516 fuel surcharge, it’s not a complete steal.  I booked one of these trips with American, giving myself one night in London and four in Milan.

American’s fares had a bit of an annoying quirk in them, requiring transit on AA198 and/or AA199 on the transatlantic leg for “New York” (Kennedy and La Guardia).  As AA198 and AA199 are “direct” flights from and to Chicago O’Hare respectively, one could book somewhat strange looking itineraries such as LGA-ORD-JFK-MXP.  I was interested in visiting London (again), so I picked a departure out of Newark, which allowed me to connect in London on to British Airways.

Way back in 2012, Radisson ran a stay one night, get one night free promotion.  I wound up picking up a night at the Radisson San Jose Airport, as I was heading out of SJC particularly early in the morning trying to beat Hurricane Sandy’s landfall on the eastern seaboard.  The hurricane won the race, unfortunately.

This stay left me with a free night redemption at any US, Canada, or Caribbean Radisson to use by the end of 2013.  As my life is mostly composed of Starwood and Hyatt stays, I delayed redeeming this award until the use-it-or-lose-it factor kicked in.  I had a trip to San Francisco planned, and at the time, Radisson wanted $265 for a night at the Radisson Fisherman’s Wharf.

The hotel’s rooms were recently renovated, so the exterior appearance is a bit deceiving.

Somehow, I ended up with two beds, despite only needing one.

My room had a view of the bay and the parking lot.

American only serves Lihue from Los Angeles, unlike Honolulu and Kahului which see redeye flights to Dallas.  Consequently, getting back to New York required spending a chunk of a daylight on an airplane.

American 266
Lihue (LIH) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013
Depart:  1:15PM
Arrive: 9:45PM
Duration:  5 hours, 30 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 757-223 (N193AN)
Seat: 2F (First Class)

As part of Hyatt’s January 7th devaluation, they announced that awards booked prior to that date would be eligible for changes using the old award chart until February 15th.

The 15th is almost here, so it’s time to make some last tweaks before those bookings are set in stone.

I flew all the way to Kauai to fly on another airplane to see Kauai…

Our takeoff at Lihue was followed by American 266:

With a pile of Starwood points to burn, I chose to stay at the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas for five nights during my visit to Kauai.  As a newly minted SPG Platinum, I had received a 35% off redemption certificate.  Coupled with Starwood’s fifth night free for award nights, my five night stay cost a “mere” 52k points when the rate was $300/nt (plus taxes).

At check-in, I was told that I had been upgraded to a one bedroom suite.  As this is a timeshare property, I was expecting minimal Platinum benefits but found that the property consistently overdelivered.

My room’s patio had an partial ocean view.

The hotel is located on the lush north shore of Kauai.

Princeville is a short drive from Hanalei.

For beach lovers, the one drawback of this hotel is that it does not have ready beach access of its own.  The hotel itself is situated along a cliff, but there is a trail to a public beach nearby.

Additionally, the hourly shuttle to the St. Regis allows Westin guests to visit the beach on Hanalei Bay.

I took the shuttle over on my last night to see the St. Regis’ champagne sabering, but it felt a touch inconvenient compared to choosing a hotel with its own beach, such as the Sheraton Kauai.

St. Regis’ champagne sabering begins with a brief historical lesson before the main event:

For SPG Platinum members, the hotel offered a free continental breakfast plate.  There are some out of date posts on FlyerTalk suggesting that breakfast is not served every day (and consequently can’t be offered as a benefit).

The breakfast seating area was frequently overrun by birds, the best efforts of the guests and staff to scare them off notwithstanding.

The complimentary continental breakfast plate had a nominal value of about $18.  The hotel offers its breakfast buffet for about $25, but allows Platinum guests to upgrade to the buffet for just the price difference.

After clearing customs, I took the people mover from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 to catch my flight to Los Angeles.  My flight to Los Angeles was delayed due to high winds at O’Hare, giving me plenty of time to enjoy the lounge.

It’s worth noting that the Flagship Lounge, situated at the end of the K concourse, doesn’t have showers of its own.  Instead, passengers need to visit the Admirals Club (which spans the bottom of the H-K concourse intersection).

My upgrade from Düsseldorf to Chicago fortuitously cleared.  In writing this trip report, however, I discovered that I’m missing most of my photos from Big Ben to this picture of our 767 in Germany, as well as those taken on board.

I wagered on clearing my upgrade to London and lost.  (I successfully “won” in September 2012 on a similar-looking trip to Dublin on American Airlines.)  While the 777-300ER has a new plane smell to it, that’s about the only thing I was looking forward to for my journey across the Atlantic.

As an Executive Platinum member, even in coach, I was able to visit the American Airlines Flagship Lounge, which I last reviewed in 2012.  I chose to have dinner at the lounge, with the intent of falling asleep after takeoff.

Shiny:

I had an exit row seat sitting across from one of the flight attendants.  She seemed…quite worried that I was skipping dinner and eventually, breakfast.  My seatmate was another Executive Platinum who had booked her ticket months earlier–American prioritizes upgrades by time of request–and had failed to clear.

In late August, cheap fares to Dublin returned, so I picked one up in anticipation of working on my American Executive Platinum requalification.  As I was packing flights into my fall schedule, I wound up scheduling this trip the day after my drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, leaving me with effectively a long layover in New York City.

The main ticket (NYC-DUB-LAX) was booked with American, in hope of clearing into business class with a systemwide upgrade.

As far as the trip title goes, I:

• Departed New York on Wednesday for San Francisco
• Departed Los Angeles on Thursday for New York
• Departed New York on Friday for London
• Returned from Düsseldorf the following Thursday

15316 miles in 9 days… an average speed of 70 miles per hour, a need for speed.

As I mentioned, I visited Santa Barbara, overnighting there before heading south on Amtrak to Los Angeles.

Before catching the train, I had to return my rental car to the Hertz office at SBA.  The new terminal’s nice.

In September, I decided to drive from Oakland to Santa Barbara, mostly along CA-1 from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara.

I had a visit to San Francisco where I chose to stay at the Hyatt Regency SFO.  It’s a short walk from the Burlingame Caltrain station.  While it only sees weekend service, this was fine for my purposes.

As I wanted to check-in early in the morning, my room had a view of the 101 expressway.

From the train station, we took to walking around Vancouver until it was time to head to the airport to catch our flight back to Seattle.

With Vancouver so close to Seattle, how could I pass up the opportunity to visit Canada?

From Seattle to Vancouver, there are three realistic options:  Planes, trains, and automobiles.  (Sadly, “boat” is unlikely to be very timely.)  As a truck had recently caused a bridge carrying I-5 to collapse, driving seemed potentially out of the question, so I looked at my options for Amtrak and Alaska Airlines.

Amtrak has a fantastically generous award chart on its “special routes,” 1.5k points for a coach one-way and 2k points for a business class one-way.  Amtrak was selling seats for $81 each the night before, so I was happy booking two with points instead.  With the low marginal cost of 500 points per ticket, I splurged on business class.  I’m glad I did:

• Business Class has its own check-in line at Seattle King Street Station.  In contrast, the coach line was still a sea of humanity minutes before boarding.
• Business Class is allowed first off the train and consequently, first through Canadian immigration.
• These tickets come with a $5 voucher for the cafe car.  While prices aren’t terrific, we didn’t have the luxury of time on our way from the hotel to the station.

Unlike the Amfleet cars that I see all too often on the NEC, the Cascades train has a unique livery.

The seats can’t rival p.s. Business Class, but they’re far better than coach on an airplane.

The route is scenic, spending a considerable amount of time along the coast.

Along the way, we were treated to a glimpse of the collapsed I-5 bridge.

Overall, the train took 4 hours; it’s agonizingly slow compared to New York-Washington on the NEC.  I slept on the train, just as I was going to if I had stayed at the hotel.

For Memorial Day weekend, I decided to go to Seattle (with a small dash of Canada added in as well).  For our three nights in Seattle, we stayed at the Hyatt at Olive 8.

I had booked this reservation speculatively before my Hyatt Diamond status ran out at the end of February 2013.  While my status dropped away for purposes of enjoying a free breakfast that View from the Wing raves about, it seems to have lead to a considerable upgrade to a 740 square foot Premier Queen room.

Just so we’re clear, allow me to repeat: 740 square feet.  Larger than my New York apartment.

To the right of the hallway, there’s an entrance foyer as well.

I’m often told that I don’t showcase the photos of my destination enough.  Back in May, I went to Colorado Springs.  Here are a few, with a very minimal trip report as a lead-in:

I flew a very delayed, but remarkably pleasant Jetblue flight from New York to Denver, overnighting at the Hyatt Place Denver Tech Center before driving down to Colorado Springs the next morning.

I managed to do a bit of sightseeing on my Sunday afternoon before driving back to Denver airport:

I drove to Pike’s Peak, but snow necessitated a road closure several miles from the top.

As I wanted to get back to New York in the early morning, I wound up booking an early afternoon departure from Honolulu, connecting in Los Angeles.  United’s nonstop to Newark was scheduled to arrive too late and connecting in Dallas makes for a 10-11AM arrival time to La Guardia, let alone Manhattan.

American 162
Honolulu (HNL) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
Depart:  12:20PM
Arrive: 8:55PM
Duration:  5 hours, 35 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 757-223 (N690AA)
Seat: 1B (First Class)

Lunch service began with a salad and a roll.

For my entree, I selected the cheese ravoli.

I chose the cheese plate for dessert.

As I discussed in March, I successfully booked two nights at the Moana Surfrider Waikiki under the old award chart by calling when the website began showing the new rates prematurely.  I spent 24k points for two nights when the cash rate was hovering around $400/nt.

While valet parking is available in front of the main hotel building, self-parking uses the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani’s lot.  At night, it tends to be at capacity, so it’s always an adventure parking a car there.

The lobby: I received an “upgrade” to a partial ocean view room.  After looking at the main tower, however, it’s not clear to me what rooms don’t have some glimmer of an ocean view.

The room itself had normal Westin finishes and stylings.

On my last morning, I had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which overlooks the ocean and the hotel’s 100 year old banyan tree:

From further down Waikiki Beach, it’s possible to appreciate the relative size difference (and appearance) of the main Moana Hotel building and the adjacent tower.

I was just about to write-up my “it’s February 1st in the Central Time zone” post commemorating the devaluation (and the hundreds of thousands of miles that I’ve booked in the last 36 hours)…

…but Matthew at upgrd.com is reporting that the old award chart has been giving a ~~one~~ two day reprieve?  (Edit:  Apparently reading comprehension isn’t a strong suit of mine…) It’s even UAInsider on FlyerTalk official!