Category Archives for Trip Reports.
The best airport hotels in the United States are the Grand Hyatt SFO, Grand Hyatt DFW, Westin Denver and Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport. Other notables include the Westin Detroit, Intercontinental Minneapolis, Hilton O’Hare and Hilton Boston Logan.
There’s not a single American or European carrier amongst the world’s top business class offerings. However if we were to pick one to include it would have to be Air France? And their best business class is onboard Airbus A350s with their newest seat.
I’ve stayed at the Park Hyatt Vendome Paris about a dozen times over the past dozen years, taking a couple of years off during the pandemic. It’s an absolutely lovely hotel, but also a bit of a controversial one amongst frequent travelers.
After a less than impressive visit to the Air Canada Signature Suite, we were headed down to our gate next door for our flight to Paris. Disappointment in the lounge might have put me in a sour mood, but I was actually very excited for this flight to Paris.
I wanted to break up the flight as much as possible and Toronto – Paris is a fairly short route (spoiler: baby was fine on the flight, and also on our longer Air France return).
I enjoyed my stay, even a bit more this time. This property has so much potential. Though I imagine that while rates are high, there are too many periods of low occupancy and this isn’t helped by how limited air service is to St. Kitts.
After arriving into Manhattan by BLADE helicopter I caught a Lyft over to Hyatt’s Hotel 50 Bowery in Chinatown.
This was actually my first JdV property. I was a little bit excited over it because this is one of the brands that Hyatt acquired as part of its Two Roads Hospitality purchase seven years ago – news that I broke several days before it was announced.
A week ago I stayed at the Viceroy DC. The Viceroy brand participates in GHA Discovery. The hotel is part of the American Express Hotel Collection (and I had a two night stay, so eligible for benefits). And they had an amazing rate – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as low as $163.35++ before.
A couple of years ago Hyatt added the Lindner Hotels portfolio to its offerings, bringing more than 30 hotels and 15 new markets in Germany and Central and Eastern Europe. Most were added to the JdV brand, and they don’t get nearly as much attention as flagship hotels like Park Hyatt Vienna or Paris. But a reader brought his recent stay at three of these hotels to my attention, and they fit a really great use case for family travel. I’m pleased to share his trip report on these 3 Lindner hotels.
The anonymous correspondent had concluded that Hyatt is the best chain if you can stick to full service properties not owned or managed by bad actors, but they don’t have a big enough footprint and too many of their hotels in the U.S. are limited service. So he still earns Marriott Ambassador status – but he’s reduced the business he gives them by about 40%.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
