Mileage run Istanbul…via Houston and Paris.
Last night I couldn’t sleep and was checking out some of my favorite people I follow on Twitter. I came across this tweet:
#Airfare Deal: [AF] Houston – Istanbul, Turkey. $702 r/t. Details: http://t.co/xIvbUjegnh $travel PREMIUM ECONOMY FARE! via @FareDealAlert
— The Flight Deal (@TheFlightDeal) March 11, 2015
I was intrigued so I booked. Here is why:
I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara for a weekend in October, 2014. The hotel is older, my guess it was built in the mid 1980’s, and has a large footprint of 501 rooms. The closest airport is San Jose (6 miles), a small airport that makes getting in and out easy.
I assumed it would be quiet on a weekend when business travelers were at home, but was I wrong! This is definitely a conference hotel (it is attached to the Santa Clara Convention Center in the heart of Silicon Valley). There were two conferences at the hotel (ironically neither were tech conventions); one was quilters the other was high schoolers. As you can imagine, I was disheartened to say the least. Luckily, the check in agent could tell I was not looking forward to a weekend with youngins, so he put me on the 13th floor away from the students. I thought he said he “upgraded” me as I am a Platinum HGP member, but it turned out that the only upgrade was that it was on a higher floor.
I believe the most deceptive practice in the travel industry is the resort fee. It is the complete antithesis to hospitality. It is a made up revenue stream that serves NO purpose except to increase profits. There is ZERO benefit to the hotel guest. At least with an airline baggage fee you have the choice and get a benefit of not having to schlep around your bag. Or with the prepaid fuel charge you don’t have to worry about filling up your tank before returning your rental car. But resort fees serve no benefit to the customer.
This weekend I stayed at the Aria in Las Vegas. Overall it is a great property and one that I’ve stayed at at least five times. The daily resort fee is $32.48; which is a significant amount. For my visit this ended up being an extra $100, or the price of one night. I basically stayed three nights for the price of four. On the Aria website it lists the amenities included with the resort fee:
A friend of mine won a raffle put on by the Washington State Lottery that included airfare, tickets to an NFL Playoff Game, and two nights at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.
We stayed at the hotel Saturday-Monday in January. The hotel overall was fairly quiet. Great location near the Capitol; but otherwise you will need to plan on a bit of a walk to anything.
On the weekend, prepare to travel a good distance for meals as there are no restaurants besides in the hotel and the hotel across the street. The food in the Hyatt is decent and moderate price, so not a big deal to eat there; but just realize you are eating in the hotel lobby. They have a nice shop that sells all sorts of snacks, water, drinks and even has a small cafe for coffee and pastries. The staff was great, always helpful and cheerful. We enjoyed talking with the doorman especially.
Learn how to use the Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee to save yourself money on your next hotel booking.
One of my favorite websites is flyertalk.com, particularly their forum section. It has great reviews, tips on finding deals and guides on how to navigate frequent flyer programs. One of the threads talks about Hyatt’s Best Rate Guarantee. Basically the idea is that if you book on hyatt.com and find a cheaper rate on another website, they will match the price AND reduce it by 20%. It is a great idea to get customers to book direct instead of through other travel websites. The other benefit of booking direct through Hyatt is that you earn Hyatt Gold Passport points, not so if you book through another source. I have a number of Hyatt reservations coming up over the next few months, so I decided to see if I could find cheaper rates from other websites.
Using the Mlife Hyatt status match is a great way to immediately gain status with two great loyalty programs.
I am still relatively new to the loyalty game. However, one of the best deals I have found so far is with Mlife, the Las Vegas loyalty club for the MGM Mirage properties.
Mlife has a partnership with a number of companies outside of Las Vegas, including Hyatt. If you are an Mlife member (and you should be if you have been to Vegas even once), you can status match with Hyatt’s Gold Passport program. This means not only can you earn points for Hyatt when you stay in Vegas (5 Hyatt Gold points for every $1 you spend at an Mlife resort), but you can also get the perks of a higher tier status with Hyatt, assuming you have spent some money in Vegas. Likewise, if you have status with Hyatt, you can match your status to Mlife.