New Year’s Eve Like No Other: Family Uses Miles, Points for $2500 Applebees Blowout [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Family redeemed airline miles, Marriott points, and spent $2500 for New Years Eve at Applebees

    We redeemed Marriott points for our stay; otherwise, it would’ve cost us somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,200 a night. We also used airline miles to cover our flights, which would normally run us about $600 each. Our only hard costs were the Applebee’s tickets, which were worth every penny.

    …If you’re going to do New Year’s Eve in Times Square, I think this is the way to go. I had a Tito’s and Sprite in my hand and my wife of 11 years alongside me. We’re giving these exchange students the experience of a lifetime, and then right before the clock strikes 12, boom! We waltz out into the street and take in all the festivities without any hassle.

  • The hidden danger of your hotel room’s fold out couch.

  • Too soon?

  • The inspection.

  • Here in the U.S. we have pro-Hezbollah activists, but they just block airport roadways.

  • Is Fountainebleau Las Vegas marketing the wrong product in the wrong place to the wrong customer?

About Gary Leff

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 »

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Comments

  1. Gary – misleading headline. Didn’t use points/miles for Applebees but to get to and stay in NYC for New Year’s Eve. The Applebees was tickets to stay there, instead of standing outside for 12 hours where you can’t even leave to use the bathroom (seriously). Frankly sounds like a good plan (similar to paying to balcony room on Bourbon Street for Mardi Gras instead of battling the crowds). Your title misrepresents where they did and also presents it in a demeaning manner when they apparently took exchange students to NYC for the experience. You should be ashamed!

  2. Sounds like he knows how to have fun. Unlike a lot of people here who scheme to earn miles, complain that there aren’t enough free tickets for them on the airlines of their choice, and then fly halfway around the world (complaining about the lounges and J class wines the whole time), just to lay in the sand at some resort they picked based on name recognition from blog posts. I’d do Applebee’s with that guy any day.

  3. Good on Applebee’s for providing a decent experience — from the sounds of it — above and beyond UA Polaris / AA Flagship Dining. From the linked article:

    The food isn’t your typical Applebee’s fare […] avocado and shrimp ceviche and chicken wontons, a full buffet with steak and salmon, and an assortment of desserts. There’s also a top-shelf open bar for guests 21 and older and different types of specialty cocktails, as well as a Champagne toast.

    Now unfortunately, NYE in Times Square is a complete joke among anybody with a lick of class — the “exchange students” should have been informed as much — and the host family could have spent $2,500 and no miles on a Costco spree to host a wild party with friends, you know, the real American way.

  4. I’ve been wanting to go to NYC for New Years Eve but still wouldn’t venture out in that crowd. Will work on getting a Marriott card just for this. And maybe american airlines. Any other suggestions .. Thanks

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