I posted about downgrade experience at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco and about getting compensation at check-in. It turned out to be a pretty get stay, though, with an excellent club lounge. And the points I was given for the hotel not honoring my confirmed suite upgrade were worth more, to me, than the suite would have been. So I don’t hold a grudge at all. I just wish it had been a smoother, more proactive process on the part of the hotel instead of having to argue. Instead of a suite I had a ‘club floor’ room with a balcony. Not bad. I’m not sure the difference between a club floor room and a regular room, club rooms are not on the same floor as the club lounge. But you need your key card…
Trip Reports
Category Archives for Trip Reports.
Enjoying a Special Rate at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman
Regular readers know that I offer an award booking service, and it’s gotten quite a bit of attention since I launched it about 3.5 years ago. It’s been covered in the New York Times and in USA Today, for instance. And I’ve been selected by Conde’ Nast Traveler as one of their ‘World’s Top Travel Specialists’ in 2010, 2011, and now also in 2012. Conde’ Nast hosts an annual gathering for this group, the first one I attended was in January 2011. This year’s event was held at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman. I’ve stayed at several Ritz-Carltons, but always on someone else’s dime or once for a night on Marriott Rewards points. This time I’d be paying, albeit as a business expense. The going rate on the Ritz-Carlton website was somewhere in the $700s for…
New Years in Paris: British Airways “New” First Class, London – Washington Dulles
A trip report in five parts Air France A380 Business Class, Washington Dulles – Paris Park Hyatt Vendome Mostly Eating in Paris British Airways Paris Orly – London and the Concorde Room British Airways “New” First Class, London – Washington Dulles I’ve only ever departed terminal 5 from bus gates. But that took me past the Starbucks, and it was going to be an (admittedly short of a Westbound transatlantic) long flight and I really didn’t want to sleep much, I wanted to arrive in DC tired and fall straight to sleep, adjusting back to my own time right away. Which isn’t to say I wouldn’t allow myself a nap – I was happy to for a couple of hours — but I felt like I could conk right out. Here’s an interesting thing about…
New Years in Paris: Air France Business, British Airways First, and the Park Hyatt Vendome: British Airways Club Europe Paris Orly – London and the Concorde Room
A trip report in five parts Air France A380 Business Class, Washington Dulles – Paris Park Hyatt Vendome Mostly Eating in Paris British Airways Paris Orly – London and the Concorde Room British Airways “New” First Class, London – Washington Dulles The return trip was going to start at Paris Orly airport, that’s the ‘close-in’ and some would say convenient airport, which mostly services intra-Europe flying. Really, though, it’s a pit of an airport, old and without modern facilities. But since the goal is to get in and out, and not spend time there, it’s relatively compact. If you can time it so that you breeze through formalities and without much to do airside, it’s a perfectly convenient place. I had checked in online, having learned from my outbound with Air France that I don’t…
New Years in Paris: Air France Business, British Airways First, and the Park Hyatt Vendome: In and Around Paris
A trip report in five parts Air France A380 Business Class, Washington Dulles – Paris Park Hyatt Vendome Mostly Eating in Paris British Airways Paris Orly – London and the Concorde Room British Airways “New” First Class, London – Washington Dulles The first night’s dinner was a bit impromptu, the Park Hyatt’s concierge stepped in with a recommendation based on my request for something nearby (walkable), casual bistro, reasonably priced (I didn’t want to spend 50 euros per person), and good food — that was available at the last minute by reservation, so that it wouldn’t entail a wait. The recommendation was for Restaurant L’ardoise, which fit the bill perfectly. We walked in and the place was packed. I mentioned that we had a reservation and the woman greeting us said, “You talked to me??”…
New Years in Paris: Air France Business, British Airways First, and the Park Hyatt Vendome: A Wonderful Place to Stay in Paris on Points
A trip report in five parts Air France A380 Business Class, Washington Dulles – Paris Park Hyatt Vendome Mostly Eating in Paris British Airways Paris Orly – London and the Concorde Room British Airways “New” First Class, London – Washington Dulles By the time I made it to the hotel from the airport it was a little bit after noon. There weren’t rooms ready, which is reasonable, and they offered of course to store bags and ring me on my mobile when they could accommodate. But then the woman assisting with our checkin said she thought they could have something ready fairly quickly, offered us complimentary coffees and to be seated while they checked into things. We sat down and ordered cappuccinos, and just as it was arriving she came back over, let us know…
New Years in Paris: Air France Business, British Airways First, and the Park Hyatt Vendome: Washington Dulles-Paris Onboard the A380
A trip report in five parts Air France A380 Business Class, Washington Dulles – Paris Park Hyatt Vendome Mostly Eating in Paris British Airways Paris Orly – London and the Concorde Room British Airways “New” First Class, London – Washington Dulles Looking for something to do for New Years I settled on Paris, there was non-stop business class availability on the Washington Dulles – Paris non-stop. And it’s their Airbus A380. I’m not one to chase aircraft. I’m much more interested in the inflight product than the model of the plane itself. And believe it or not (it’s sort of something I hadn’t even realized until I stopped to think about it), I hadn’t actually ever been on an A380 other than crawling around one of Qantas’ during the oneworld MegaDO back at the end…
An Unexpected (and Very Nice..) Stay at the Grand Hyatt DFW
On my way back from Frequent Traveler University in Los Angeles at the beginning of December I turned up at LAX and found that my Los Angeles – Washington Dulles flight was delayed by about 4 1/2 hours. Already if the flight was on time I wasn’t going to get home until nearly midnight. Now I was looking at closer to 4am, and I was supposed to be at work in the morning. I thought about sitting in the lounge — as a British Airways Gold I have access not just to American’s Admiral’s Club but also their first class Flagship Lounge — and then taking the delayed flight home. But I never sleep more than 20 minutes at a time in near-upright domestic first class seats, so I figured most of my next day…
Morgans Group’s The Hudson: So this is What a Normal Hotel Room in New York City is Like?
A few weeks ago I went up to New York to tape a segment for The Colbert Report. It won’t run for awhile, if it runs at all, but doing the taping was a blast. They first thought we’d get started in the early afternoon and were going to arrange the train up and back same-day. But when they went to schedule crew and studio time they ran into some snags, and wanted to schedule a first thing in the morning start time so I headed up to the city the night before. I go to New York all the time, living in the DC area and 10 minutes from the airport it’s almost like going to the exuurbs for me, and I do it with greater frequency. I’m pretty much always given towards staying…
Sheraton LAX Remains the Best Choice Near the Airport
I’ve stayed at the Sheraton LAX more than half a dozen times. It’s the best of a bad lot of LAX airport hotels. There’s a Westin at the airport which is probably the worst Westin in the United States, don’t tell me it’s gotten better unless they’ve soundproofed the walls. There’s a Four Points which has some pretty decent rooms and some not-so-decent rooms. The Hilton needs investment. I admit to having no experience with the Marriott properties in the area. But if you want a really good experience you have to go beyond the properties that offer free airport shuttle services and get over to Marina del Rey or Hermosa Beach. The Sheraton remains the best of the airport properties, though, and though it’s been a few years since its last makeover it continues…
