How do you decide which hotel to choose in the city you are visiting if you want to redeem your points for a free night? I had to make that decision this month, and unlike in many similar situations, it wasn’t even a close call.
I usually start with the chains where I have top elite status — Hilton HHonors and Starwood. Hilton’s Diamond benefits are inferior to Starwood’s Platinum perks — Hilton doesn’t give you suite upgrades and free Internet. The only advantage with Hilton is that award stays count toward elite status, which is rather significant in my book.
However, in January, Hilton devalued its points by raising both the categories of many hotels and the number of points needed for a free night in some categories. Even though the affected properties weren’t as many as the unaffected ones, the average traveler wouldn’t know that, because those that remained unchanged are in places few people visit. I have the full list, but have yet to come across a hotel that stayed the same while making reservations.
Even before the devaluation, I thought all Hilton properties in Anchorage, AK, were a bit overrated, but I had stayed at three of them on points nevertheless. When I looked at the new categories last month, I was horrified — not only was the Hilton now Category 6 (previously the highest until a seventh tier was created this year), but the Hampton Inn, the lowest-end brand in the chain, was Category 5, requiring 35,000 points for one night.
By contrast, the only Starwood property in Anchorage, the Sheraton, is Category 3, which means only 7,000 points per night. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer the popular cash-and-points option.
So let’s compare the two full-service hotels — the Hilton and the Sheraton. At the first — Category 6 out of seven — I need 40,000 points out of a maximum of 50,000 for the highest category. At the second — Category 3 out of seven — I need 7,000 points out of maximum 35,000. Naturally, I chose the Sheraton.
There was another factor in my decision. I needed a conference room for my “On the Fly” Seminar, so I called and left messages for the sales managers at the Sheraton and four of the Hilton properties — the Embassy Suites, the Hilton Garden Inn, the Homewood Suites and the Hampton Inn. Of the last four, only the Embassy Suites — one of the newest and nicest hotels in town — bothered to call me back, but their price was too high. The Sheraton offered me a much better rate.
So I was happy with the Sheraton. Although it’s not a very attractive building from outside, it underwent a major renovation recently and is quite decent inside. I got a suite, lounge access, free Internet and free breakfast. My only cash expense was on the conference room.
What would you have done?
Continue reading about Hilton or Starwood? Not even a close call
Dealing with flight delays and cancellations is challenging enough for travelers, but for some of us it has an additional complication: How to preserve our upgrades in case of rebooking. My trip to Alaska this week provided a textbook example.
As experienced and creative as I might be in handling flight disruptions, the weather is always my worst enemy. I’ve rarely felt more helpless than I did in Denver on my way to Anchorage. My plane had diverted to Colorado Springs because of a thunderstorm, and my departure time kept being pushed back more times than I cared to count.
I was sitting in United’s Red Carpet Club watching other planes take off and land, but the one I needed was still at another airport. The only reason to smile was the double rainbow that appeared at one point — you can see it in the photo above.
I had no other options. United has only one flight to Anchorage a day from Denver, though it also flies up there from San Francisco and Chicago. Those flights, however, had already left, so connecting was impossible, even if I could make it to those two cities.
At least I didn’t have to worry about missing another flight, rebooking and potentially losing a previously confirmed upgrade, as this was my last segment for the day.
Things were very different, though, on my way back home. The plane coming to Anchorage from Denver was late — another patch of bad weather had diverted in to Wyoming. It was clear I’d miss my connecting flight, so I called United to get rebooked. The flight I wanted was to Washington National (DCA) — there was no upgrade space available, but they were still selling two revenue seats in first class. An alternative was a flight to Dulles Airport (IAD), which had four revenue seats in first class but nothing to upgrade, either.
A supervisor refused to open upgrade space for me despite the second long delay I was experiencing in three days and was only willing to waitlist me for first class on either flight — there were 22 people waitlisted for an upgrade to DCA, and she didn’t think it was fair to jump me over them.
I got really angry — but not because of her refusal. The plane to DCA was a Boeing 757 and had 24 seats in first class, and the one to IAD was a Boeing 767 with 34 seats in first. Until recently, it was very likely that those flights would have had at least a couple of upgrade seats the night before departure.
But in March, United implemented free domestic upgrades for all elites, which they don’t even need to request. So by the time a top elite member needs a seat because of involuntary rebooking, those seats have been given away to customers with much lower status.
When I got to the Anchorage airport, I saw that I was first on the waitlist, and with two seats still open at 4 a.m. Denver time for an 11 a.m. departure, I thought I was pretty safe. But when I landed in Denver, those two seats were gone. I was still at the top of the waitlist, and three people with reservations on the flight hadn’t checked in.
I did get the upgrade at the gate in the end, but this was the closest I’d come to flying in coach in years.
Continue reading about Preserving upgrades in case of rebooking
Have you tried to watch fireworks in the bright late-night Alaska sky on July 4th? I had the sun in my eyes a couple of years ago, but if the weather forecast is correct, this coming Sunday will be gloomy and rainy. Too bad for me.
I decided to make my third visit to Anchorage a couple of months ago, and since I was going anyway, I thought I’d teach an “On the Fly” Seminar there on July 6. It will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the second-floor boardroom of the Sheraton hotel. Only ladies have signed up so far. Where are all the male travel enthusiasts? Here is an easy link to the registration page.
One of our students in DC just told me she has already saved $500 on her very first domestic plane ticket since she attended a seminar last week. I’ll do a separate post about that, but the point is, the proud Alaska travelers should act quickly, before the limited seats vanish.
About four years ago, I decided that I’d try to get to Alaska every summer, and to Hawaii every winter — but only if airfares drop to about $400. Not only is it appropriate to go to Alaska during the very hot and humid DC summer, and to Hawaii during the cold winter, but both those places are the furthest one can get to on a domestic plane ticket — and get tons of frequent-flier miles. I did miss Alaska last summer, and Hawaii this past winter.
I try to be creative with my routing when I can, so this time I’m flying from DC to San Francisco, then to Denver and on to Anchorage. I was surprised to find such an option in the legal-routing section of the fare, but I took advantage of it. The trip will yield about 23,000 miles, including my double bonus as a top elite, which of course is only 2,000 miles short of a free domestic round-trip ticket.
So Alaskans, look forward to seeing you in a few days.
These are some of the participants in the first official “On the Fly” Seminars in Washington last week. Everyone who came was extremely satisfied — in fact, none of my students had expected to learn nearly as much as they did.
As you can see from the comments on the seminars’ website, they were called “a traveler’s dream,” “incredibly revealing and extraordinarily valuable,” and “a mandatory tool to save money for frequent fliers and corporations.”
“These are perfectly practical methods to make the system work to your advantage — just a few steps to get inexpensive flights, ideal itineraries, upgrades, no fees, and free flights,” said David Aidekman, founder of Adventurati, a group travel company.
Charles Zhang, who came all the way from Princeton, N.J., to attend one of the DC seminars, said he has had top elite status with a couple of airlines for a while, and flies more than 150,000 miles a year. “But I still learned lots of new things from your seminar, which I had never heard before,” he said. “I will use my skills from you seminar toward my future flights, and enjoy my travel more.”
Of course, I couldn’t be happier with the feedback, but it seems I have a serious challenge to overcome: It’s clear the seminars are extremely valuable for those who attend, but the problem is that they don’t know that until they come. Despite the detailed curriculum and syllabuses I’ve posted, last week’s participants said they had no idea that much of what I taught was possible and available to all travelers.
So it seems I need to come up with a catchier way to compress material that takes hours to teach into a few soundbites and paragraphs. Wish me luck!
In the meantime, I’m pleased to announce that the next seminars in Washington will take place on July 23 and 24. Before that, I’ll be offering a seminar in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 6. I’m also looking into doing the same in New York, either in July or August.
Continue reading about Lessons from ‘On the Fly’ Seminars, and July dates announced
Have you ever wondered what it’s like traveling with the secretary of state around the world? Although I’ve been doing it for more than eight years, I’ve resisted frequent suggestions by friends and colleagues to write about it.
Now I’ve found an excuse. There is a new secretary — Hillary Rodham Clinton no less — and she has just completed her first overseas trip since taking office. So it’s time to step back from what has become a routine for us in the press corps and try to look at it through a fresh pair of eyes.
The State Department usually gives us 13 seats on the secretary’s plane, but this time we got three more, to accommodate the bigger interest in Mrs. Clinton’s maiden voyage to Asia…
Continue reading about In air with Clinton on first trip abroad
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