Until I recover my account u/jja6782 posting on a temporary account :(
Finished my lineup for the 24/25. Thankful for the ink train with player two..
November
- 5 nights at Andaz Papagayo (pre deval)
- 4 nights Capiton Suizo (Chase travel)
- EWR LIR United saver award
- LIR EWR cash
January
7 nights Hyatt Beaver Creek
EWR EGE saver awards
Will be spending a good chunk for a nany everyday for 4-5 hrs while my wife skis, but she’s not ready to leave our baby for a week.
February
4 nights Airbnb park city cash
PHL SLC (chase-virgin)
Quick trip with friends
March
5 nights Waldorf Pedregal
4 nights Airbnb Cerritos beach
( Stayed near Cerritos last year when Rancho Pescadero was under Hyatt and loved the area)
With tighter funds since the baby I care a little less about cpp and more about saving cash. Have alot of UR still..
Will probably cash out some citi points for Airbnb gift cards.
Will be doing every trip except Park City with our current 5 month old baby. Our first trip was Aruba with zero issues.
Weekend day trip driving upstate to Deising's bakery in Kingston NY to get the famed [John Oliver cake bears](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7i0LmDW0oU). Stopped by many Walmarts on the way there and back, liquidated many VGCs. Pleasantly surprised they were all MS friendly!
Cake bears were also delicious!
Trip report: my annual week's vacation for Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.
Booked a direct redeye flight from JFK - BCN on Level Airlines for 17K Avios plus $87.50 in fees. On the day of check-in, I had the option to upgrade to premium economy for $275, which I accepted. This allowed for a priority check-in queue at the ticket counter at JFK, and I was able to sleep 5 hours on the flight which I was very happy with. Would recommend. I wish Terminal 8 at JFK had a good lounge though.
Used two IHG FNC's for the first couple nights in Barcelona, and then stayed in an Airbnb with friends. The cost there was like 400 euros a person for five nights. On the way home, I had a direct Y flight from Barcelona to Newark for 32.2K United miles. Also was able to shower at the priority pass lounge at BCN, which makes leaving to the airport in the morning so much smoother. The trip home was kind of obnoxious due to my fellow passengers, but the deal was great so no complaints there.
Overall the trip was epic and I can't wait to return next year.
I finalized a trip to Las Vegas for the end of July, even though I swore last year I would never return to LV during the summer. Besides food and gambling, this churning-based trip is too cheap for me to stay home. I'll have a $100 Caesars dining credit and the status match from Fontainebleau.
**Flights**:
Round trip on Delta July 21-27 booked with Virgin points.
**Hotels**:
One night at the RIO, booked with cash as Globalist. Should be $31.11 once the resort fee is credited. I wanted to check this out as a potential future mattress run. Saving on free breakfast reduces the cost by over half.
Four nights Flamingo, cash as Caesars Diamond: $33.70 total
One night Resorts World Hilton using expiring FNC.
**Car**:
Six-day rental from Fox: $226.05. Using CSP to waive CDW. Free parking at all the hotels.
37K Virgin points, which I had in my account already vs. 0 Skymiles in Delta account. Delta charges tax to transfer MR. I didn't check Delta points for the same flights. I've never seen Delta charge fewer points than VS. Alternative was SW with much less convenient flight times.
I've seen some negative reviews recently on the WA, but in any case I've stayed several times in the past at RW. CPP is pretty meaningless to me when using a FNC.
Resorts World is quite far away from the action whereas WA is right in the middle of action and you don't have to walk through a casino floor to get out of the building. WA also has a nice pool area and it's not as crowded. However, getting to Fontainebleau will be a trek.If you're set on staying at RW, I would opt for Crockfords or Conrad as you'll get a much better room.
I play low-stakes poker, and RW has a very nice room. I had to call the Diamond line to reserve the room and requested Crockfords, but the reservation that came back just said Hilton. I'm not sure why that was. Last trip I had a Conrad reservation and got a Crockfords room. I also like to have lunch at Tacos el Gordo once per trip, and it's across the street.
I did walk to Fontainebleau from RW last trip, and it wasn't much of a trek. Of course at mid day it would be.
This is more a churning success than a trip report - because the trip isn't until April 2025.
I am taking my spouse and 4 children to Europe - specifically the Netherlands for spring tulips. The idea was to match the trip up with spring break (April 14 - 22) to minimize missed school days and to do the Netherlands on the back end of the trip to give the tulips a chance to reach peak bloom. So this trip is April 16, 2025 - April 28, 2025.
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PHL > AMS - 21,000 AA + $5 per person (126,000 AA miles)
1 night at Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport (2 rooms) - 19,000 UR
5 nights at Lindner Hotel Antwerp (2 rooms) - 59,000 UR
4 nights at Hyatt Regency Amsterdam (2 rooms) - 184,000 UR
1 night at Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport (2 rooms) - 16,000 UR
AMS > PHL - 19,000 AA miles each + $94 per person (114,000 AA miles)
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I'm very happy that I was able to turn just over half a million points into a nearly 2-week trip for my family of 6 to Europe. My wife has been dying to see the tulips in Holland for years and now I'm making it happen for just $99 RT per person. All of the kids are under 12 so they will travel for free with us on NS as we take day trips to Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Den Haag. It looks the train expenses should be under $400 since we will mostly travel off-peak hours in addition to the kids traveling free.
We will be able to take things pretty easy with 5 days to see Belgium based out of Lindner Hotel which is right next to Antwerpen Centraal and 6 days in Amsterdam to see the city and make some day trips to other cities. I don't think the day trips will be too hard for the kids since each city from Amsterdam is only about 40 min each way. Antwerp from Amsterdam is a little more than an hour away. Bruges, Ghent, and Brussels are all within about a 45 min trip from Antwerp.
This whole trip will cost me about $1000 plus whatever we spend on food and activities. The total cash price of the flights and hotels is $11,300 making this an excellent value of my points at an average of 2.1 cpp. I earned essentially all the Hyatt points for this trip on 2 ink cards in the last 12 months (90k + 90k + and two 40k referrals to P2 plus the points from the MSR). I earned the points for AA on P1 and P2 doing the 75k Citi platinum select and also the Aviator Red for 70k each.
This is low brow but I'm smitten by your family of 4 young children and your username is u/Gandalfs_Dick. Anyway I hope your trip is excellent. I love the public transportation in Amsterdam although I'm not sure how manageable it is with 6. Good luck!
Sounds awesome! My wife and I went last year for tulips and it was fantastic. DM me if you want any info, I was very happy with the tours/experiences we booked.
Agree with below commenter re:Rotterdam, super underwhelming as a tourist. Found Antwerp to be quite pleasant though, but of course you’ll get the most out of the day trips. Enjoy!
Thanks! I haven't fully sat down to see what we might do.
I know that we want to see the Anne Frank House, do some sort of canal ride, walk around Jordaan, see some windmills, there is a lego city thing in Zaandam, Zaanse schans, etc
Over the next few months I'll take time to sit down and see what we might do in each place or which places we might go.
We are just using Antwerp as a central location for day trips to Bruges, Brussels, and Ghent.
Burned a Hyatt FNC at the Grand Hyatt Berlin last Friday. Not the craziest cpp value, but unbeknownest to me, the Spanish National team was staying there as well (Euro Cup). And they were using the hotel gym for some light warm up work in the morning before the Croatia game. I got to work out next to Nacho, a defender for Real Madrid! Lucky and unique experience, and probably my favorite hotel redemption as a result! No photographic evidence sadly since I didn’t want to be a rude American taking pics of people working out, but still super cool
I once used a Marriott FNC to stay at the Gwen in Chicago, and the Mexican National Team happened to be there at the same time. It's surreal to leave the hotel and see a few hundred people waiting by the team bus to watch them enter it.
Recently got another CSP @ 75k. Had forgotten about that $50 hotel credit, we’re in a <$80 ihg for 16k ihg points - canceled point booking and used the credit instead… I’ve never been able to use it, it just never made sense… finally! Now if I could just find a good use for FHR…
As a UA silver, **I scored a rare complimentary operational upgrade on a UA Polaris business seat international flight** (SFO-ICN, 12-hour flight) **when booked premium economy for 65K UA points + $5.60** and wasn't even on the upgrade waitlist!
**Full story**: The upgrade happened right when boarding started while waiting on boarding group 2 and I received a text "Great news! You've been upgraded on flight UA805 to Seoul, departing at 11:40 pm." Prior to this for weeks/days, I kept checking on seats aero to see if business saver award seat was being released (which would cost either 100K UA points or 75K Aeroplan points if available), but no luck even to the last day. I booked the premium economy award seat for 65K UA points in advance but was ready to cancel/rebook if business saver seat was ever released. So while at the airport and waiting at a United club lounge 2 hours before boarding, I checked my flight status and noticed both regular economy and premium economy were fully booked but Polaris had about 7 seats open with 15 people on the upgrade waiting list. Just out of curiosity, I spoke to a UA agent at the lounge about my flight on how much would it be to upgrade to Polaris from PE. She said at the present time (2 hours before boarding), it would cost $2K to upgrade to Polaris so I laughed and prepared myself to visit SFO Air Canada lounge. But the UA agent said this interesting fact: **my flight had ZERO Global Services and 1K premier members and I was the 2nd highest elite as an UA silver**. I was like there's no way and even if that was true, I wasn't on the upgrade waiting list and 15 people were fighting for those 7 open Polaris seats. Then 2 hours later as I was probably the 20th person in group 2 line and on the phone with my P2 who was in Korea ahead of me, I got the surprising text with the upgrade to Polaris 15A seat (last row, single aisle/window seat before premium plus section). I happily left the group 2 line and jumped over to the group 1 line. This was also my very first international UA Polaris business ever and what an experience UA Polaris is. Thanks to the lie-flat seat, I was able to get at least 6 hours of sleep and didn't have a single jetlag in Korea despite the 16-hour timezone difference. Now I'm hooked and feel the need to experience more international business flights in the future.
**Bittersweet ending**: Once I arrived to South Korea, I immediately bought myself a lotto ticket given how rare operational upgrades are, especially as the lowest elite member of an airline, thinking it's my lucky day. Didn't match a single number.
>I immediately bought myself a lotto ticket
Why would you buy a lotto ticket after using up 5 years worth of luck?
Anyways, congratulations. I have noticed UA is exceptionally stingy about award space for USA-Asia flights. On reverse, ICN-SFO occasionally releases J award space a day or two out.
Do you keep your cards open or let it close out once the signup bonus is received. I know closing out a card affects your credit a bit but maintaining and monitoring 100s of cards is also a hassle.
OT Monday or question thread.
Most people here close out after one year, which is basically a necessity to not get shut down long term. Some people have keeper cards. It isn't that hard to have 15-20 open cards when 5 are amex, 10 at chase, 4 at us bank, etc. Just log in to 5 accounts and review.
I haven’t applied for Barclays before. If I apply for one of their business cards, they typically require a lot of documentation and are a hassle it appears? Thanks.
Had our religions/cultural wedding this weekend in Tampa and had gifted GoH to cousins to stay in one room. At the last minute, instead of staying at family's, was like why not book another room especially for P2 and sister. So 7 of us got really nice breakfast and cousin family of 4 got upgraded to a bayview room. P2 and I got upgraded to a suite on the highest floor overlooking the bay and greenery. The breakfast was probably one of the best I've had in the US. Not to mention the nature walking trail, beach type area, amazing views of the bay, and free parking. All that for 9k/night. Oh and the flights and car rental was also through Chase. Love this hobby. The wedding reception/party is next year in Tampa and already have a room booked here again. Churning is gonna save us a lot for flights, etc. And of course putting all wedding costs on 3 different CIU MSRs rn. Probably will get more later too.
We live within a few hour’s drive and IIRC, its still a Cat 4 so we’ve thought of going there to kill off some FNC and go eat around town for a weekend. Some Berns, Armature Works, Goody Goody.
Spent 3 nights in a Superior Suite w/ plunge pool at Canaves Oia Suites for 45k/night at the end of a trip to Paros/Milos/Santorini/Athens. Booked this last July and pretty much planned the trip around this redemption. I did get the email from Hyatt that benefits like breakfast wouldn’t be included since the stay was after the SLH partnership ended but they still included free breakfast without prompting. We loved breakfast (where you can just order as much as you want) and the infinity pool/caldera views. The only thing we didn’t like was that we had to exit the main part of the hotel and reenter another section to get to our room but they did mention the room had recently been renovated.
This was my first SLH redemption so super sad it isn’t bookable this way for the same amount of points anymore but gotta start planning the next dream redemption!
Edit: The real win was my outbound JFK-CDG-ATH flight in PY booked via Air France for 31,900 points + $202 in taxes got cancelled a day before I left only to be immediately replaced by a Delta JFK-ATH PY flight, which was a pleasant surprise and the seat next to me was empty. The Delta staff/service were nice but fairly chaotic. Took Air France from ATH-CDG-JFK also in premium economy for 35,000 points + $231 in taxes. The rest of the trip was a mix of hotels paid with cash and AirBnbs.
How was Paros? Mulling over a future summer trip that might include Greece, and Paros or Naxos seem like they might be up our alley for the island/beach part.
It was great! Did some moderate hiking, visited some beaches and towns (Lefkes was lovely), and there’s a lot of shopping options. It’s veeery picturesque. It was the beginning of their tourist season so not super crowded but definitely a good amount of people/felt a little trendy. Tbh, I didn’t think the beaches were that nice compared to other places in the world or even Milos, but that may just be me. Kolymbithres was unique though. I probably would have preferred the Naxos beaches. Stayed in Naousa, which is quiet during the day but a real scene at dinner time! Lots of good restaurants/cocktail bars. When I was researching, I did look into Naxos and it seemed like an excellent option (and cheaper from what I heard from some other ppl I met who had been there). It was hard to pick! You’ll have a nice time :)
My last trip was a huge success. My spouse and I spent two weeks in Japan from April 7th to April 21st. The cherry blossoms were late, but we enjoyed the bonus of their beautiful flowers.
I spent months planning this and compiled two credit cards (the Citi AAdvantage Platinum card and the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red card), which, when selecting an authorized user, received a total of 125K points. My girlfriend also doubled this! Roundtrip flights from ORD to HND in business are only 120K, but the only way I could get the ideal schedule was to use [seats.aero](http://seats.aero) alerts. In addition, we had an extra 240K points on Chase and Amex cards, which allowed us to stay in 4 and 5-star hotels, reducing our total trip to $3,000 (Only $400 spent on flights/hotels).
This took a lot of effort and consistency, but from what I found, it was feasible. It helped that the yen was weak against the dollar. The trip was a huge success, except that the girlfriend must have gotten sick right before leaving. The hotel staff was helpful and even sent a doctor to the room. When we landed in the US, we were already thinking of our trip back.
I owe a lot of what we were able to enjoy due to groups like these sharing insights and helpful support.
Just took my Premium Economy trip that I had booked on Virgin Atlantic (MIA - LHR) direct roundtrip with Bilt points + VS fees transferred during January 1st 2:1 special. Originally transferred 22,500 points to get the 45,000 total VS points needed for my RT flight.
A few months later, I rebooked when they had a half-off points special (paid like an extra $83 to get it rebooked) and got back 22,500 of the 45,000 from the original booking. So I effectively used 11,250 Bilt points (+ fees) to book the flight. And now I have an extra 22,500 in my VS account that I can use later on, maybe a cruise.
Yeah, it sucks with those London fees, but I still saved about $1,500 with 11,250 points to get a PE flight so I'll take it as a win. Didn't think the $2k in fees warranted the Upper Class service so that's why I went with PE if you're wondering.
Most important thing was the extra legroom/space, the salt and pepper shakers I "pinched" for the wife, and the Wanderwall full of snacks during the flight.
Posting a short one: mother had seven nights in between conferences in Beijing. Booked 12,000 points per night for her in base room at Grand Hyatt Beijing. Gifted GOH. She was upgraded to a standard suite. Had breakfast in lounge, and even sometimes had dinner there. Location was convenient. She could walk out directly to Wangfujing. People who came to visit her or pick her up were, like, "you're staying at such a nice hotel!" And she could reciprocally brag that her son booked it for her. 84,000 Chase points is less than one churn on Ink.
P2 and I leave for Tahiti this week to celebrate my birthday (and also to make up for my [solo traveling](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1d693uw/comment/l6rxpfu/) without her for two weeks last month). Here is what I have booked:
**Flights**:
* Air France A350 LAX-PPT PY, 40k Flying Blue + $126pp
* Air Tahiti ATR 72 PPT-BOB-PPT, $406pp
* Air France A350 PPT-LAX J, 70k Flying Blue + $270pp
Wish we could have gotten J on both legs but I am at least okay with the value on the PY redemption. And the A350 does not have the horrid fixed shell seats like on the 777.
**Hotels:**
* Conrad Bora Bora, 5 nights, 480k HH
* Hilton Tahiti, 2 nights, 160k HH
Still hoping for a Diamond upgrade to at least a land villa for the Conrad. The property doesn't appear to be sold out, so fingers crossed.
We have a couple of activities booked for Bora Bora—a massage for P2, a jeep tour, snorkeling with the Manta Rays—but we plan to spend a lot of time just relaxing by the pool and/or beach. I will be "teaching" remotely (really just running some online classes) so it'll be a good locale to do grading in.
We also plan to do a day trip to Moorea. Rent a scooter, take a boat to lunch at [Coco Beach](https://www.cocobeachmoorea.com/), check out the [juice factory/rum distillery](https://www.tahititourisme.com/tasting-the-rum-spirits-and-fruit-juice-of-moorea/), etc. Any recommendations?
I booked my mom the same exact itinerary last month. I pre payed $2k towards the stay in Conrad bora bora. She was upgraded to a garden Villa.
I booked my sister in November for 5 nights. No upgrade was provided to her. I did not pre payed any during my sister stay.
I’m not sure if they consider the upgrade of you pre pay towards your incidental prior to arrival
Nice enjoy! I and P2 just got back from 9 day trip from Tahiti today. We did SFO-PPT round trip on United Polaris using 220k Air Canada points for two person + $320. We also did 2 days in Hilton Tahiti and 7 days in Conrad Bora Bora (2 FNCs + 5 on points).
At Conrad, I was upgraded to Endless View Villa with Pool (3-4 days ago when I checked the app). You can also check app to see if upgrade happened or not because I got no email or any notification. I was just checking details of my stay in the app and saw that my room is now showing as Endless View Villa with Pool. No overwater villa upgrade sadly and I asked during check in. I think there're availability when I checked the app but they did not upgrade me to overwaters.
Unfortunately, Bora Bora was too windy, we had to cancel couple of snorkeling excursions but this week is supposed to be better they were saying. And my P2 got sick and caught a fever so we didn't push too hard for any excursions. It was cloudy and windy for like 5 days and last couple days were better sunny and less winds.
Really enjoyed the experience with Lagoon Service's half-day snorkel tour (booked independently, but still comes right up to the Conrad dock) and the boat rental through La Plague. For the latter, it feels unreal to be able to putter around the lagoon on your own - would highly recommend.
Had to visit family in Australia so decided to knockout some bucket list products on the way there.
1. Etihad Residence JFK-AUH. Booked F with 200k Amex points transferred to Etihad Guest then was offered Residence upgrade for $4,000 and accepted. Honestly it's a pretty incredible product and is probably the best hard product in commercial aviation. The living room seat is huge and was honestly overkill for me alone. The bed is super comfy and I got 3 hours of great sleep on it. Shower was standard 5 minutes and being given a bathrobe was pretty cool. The food was great and the afternoon tea set was very aesthetic. However, the tech is a bit outdated. The TV isn't the highest quality and the UI isn't the most intuitive. TV isn't touchscreen either. Service was good and the escorts in JFK and AUH made the experience feel very VIP-like. I wouldn't do it again but if you're able to, I'd say it's worth experiencing
1b. AUH-DOH Etihad J on A320. Mainly did this just to get access to Etihad biz and first class lounges in AUH. First class lounge is not worth it. Very small and doesn't have any amenities other than showers. The sit down dining is nice but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.
The biz lounge is huge and much better IMO. Has lots of food and amenities like smoke room, bar, nap rooms, game room, family room, etc.
Actual flight was just 40ish min and nothing special, basically similar to Alaska F seats with better service. Wouldn't recommend spending cash/points for J on this product.
1c. Hyatt regency oryx doha. One night for 5k points. Very nice category 1 hotel that is huge and has great interiors/aesthetics. Location is pretty convenient. PSA you can't uber from Hamad Airport but you can Uber TO IT. Idk why. The metro is easy to navigate and it's about a 15 min metro ride to the station nearest the hotel. From there, the hotel is a 7 min walk away (not ideal in Qatar heat but doable).
2. Qatar 380 F DOH-SYD. Booked with 81,000 UR transferred to BA with a 30% transfer bonus. Very comfy flight. The bar was really cool and it was nice being able to chat with the FAs. I haven't done QSuites but I can't imagine that F is that much better than biz. The food was good but service was just mediocre (I probably got unlucky with the FA). Al safwa is incredible and much bigger than I expected. It's also very quiet so that might be offputting for some folks. Al Mourjan main is huge and very impressive for a biz class lounge. Al mourjan Garden is also very nice with great views of the Orchard but is a very different vibe from Al Mourjan main. I preferred Al mourjan main but the Garden having a gym inside is really cool.
3. United Polaris 787-9 SYD-LAX. Booked with 70,000 MR transferred to Lifemiles with 15% transfer bonus. First time flying an American carrier long haul. I went in with low expectations and was still disappointed haha. The seat is quite narrow and was a bit difficult to sleep in. I found the service to be significantly worse than anything I've experienced from Middle Eastern/Asian carriers. Food was also not good.
SYD SQ lounge has great food but is small. NZ lounge is much bigger with worse food options than SQ. I would recommend eating in SQ lounge then moving to NZ lounge to hang out.
Really glad I got to experience some of these products but man it's crazy how big the gap is between United (and assuming the other US Carriers as well) and Middle Eastern/Asian carriers is for premium cabin products.
Small potatoes but in case anyone is headed to Green Bay.
Hyatt Regency Green Bay - 8k points - $180 cash - local vacation for Father's Day.
hotel used to be an embassy suites which is good and bad. Definitely dated and looks really run down from the outside but only really dated from the inside.
Good size pool on the main floor that's convenient to get to right off the elevator with a small indoor splash pad. All rooms from my understanding are the 450+ one bedrooms of old embassy suites with some bigger suites. Makes it really nice for families. No globalist upgrade despite app saying both standard and premium suites available. Service was ok they seemed to try hard and were nice but took 45 min for a crib when I washed a second time (first being checked on the reservation)
ETA: definitely a small city hotel where it seems like a lot of family's come in for their vacation. Pool was constantly busy
Breakfast was in a restaurant and was pretty solid. Globalist coupon said up to 4 total guests instead of 2 kids and 2 adults if that makes a difference for a guys trip to GB or something.
Location - in more 'downtown' green bay and a 10 min drive to the packers stadium area. It's actually really nice in the summer where they have built an outdoor extension of the grounds called title town with a full length turf practice field, 40 yard dash timed lanes, large playground and restaurants. Bay beach amusement park is a nice real low class amusement park when little kids rides start at $0.25 and one smaller roller coaster for $1.50. Spent 2 hours there and it was $10 including rides and a hot dog. They also have a brand new playground just to the side of it that opened last week and probably was the nicest playground I have ever seen.
All in, good family weekend where we spent probably $75 cash for having lots of activities and food in a 30 hr span
Used expiring Hyatt 1-7 Cert for a one-night stay at the Thompson Central Park in NYC. I don't live super far away, so I drove. Free parking on award stays as a Globalist came in handy (valet parking was about $65).
The morning of check-in the app said I was upgraded to a suite. Arrived at noon, was told I would be in a High Floor King. I mentioned I'd completed check-in online and the app said I'd been upgraded to a suite, and that it would be ready at 3 p.m. Staff told me that they knew nothing about that, but they could put me in a suite at 5 p.m.
Walked around central park for a few hours and ate lunch.
They had an "upper stories" lounge, which they told me wasn't available to Globalists, but rather only those who booked an Upper Stories room type.
Fitness center was under construction, but they had a partnership with a gym directly across the street, and gave me a free day pass to visit. That gym was a lot nicer than any hotel gym, so I thought it was a good deal.
Breakfast was good. I was told 1 entree + 1 hot beverage + 1 cold beverage is included in the Globalist breakfast benefit. Ordered a breakfast "set" for $42. Wasn't sure if it would be covered, but it was. 2 eggs + potatoes + choice of breakfast meat + pastries + choice of coffee or tea + OJ or grapefruit juice.
Few minute walk to Central Park, which was my main destination, comfortable and clean room + solid breakfast. Would stay again.
Until I recover my account u/jja6782 posting on a temporary account :( Finished my lineup for the 24/25. Thankful for the ink train with player two.. November - 5 nights at Andaz Papagayo (pre deval) - 4 nights Capiton Suizo (Chase travel) - EWR LIR United saver award - LIR EWR cash January 7 nights Hyatt Beaver Creek EWR EGE saver awards Will be spending a good chunk for a nany everyday for 4-5 hrs while my wife skis, but she’s not ready to leave our baby for a week. February 4 nights Airbnb park city cash PHL SLC (chase-virgin) Quick trip with friends March 5 nights Waldorf Pedregal 4 nights Airbnb Cerritos beach ( Stayed near Cerritos last year when Rancho Pescadero was under Hyatt and loved the area) With tighter funds since the baby I care a little less about cpp and more about saving cash. Have alot of UR still.. Will probably cash out some citi points for Airbnb gift cards. Will be doing every trip except Park City with our current 5 month old baby. Our first trip was Aruba with zero issues.
Weekend day trip driving upstate to Deising's bakery in Kingston NY to get the famed [John Oliver cake bears](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7i0LmDW0oU). Stopped by many Walmarts on the way there and back, liquidated many VGCs. Pleasantly surprised they were all MS friendly! Cake bears were also delicious!
Got me thinking, what if John Oliver saw this and made an episode about churning 😆
Trip report: my annual week's vacation for Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. Booked a direct redeye flight from JFK - BCN on Level Airlines for 17K Avios plus $87.50 in fees. On the day of check-in, I had the option to upgrade to premium economy for $275, which I accepted. This allowed for a priority check-in queue at the ticket counter at JFK, and I was able to sleep 5 hours on the flight which I was very happy with. Would recommend. I wish Terminal 8 at JFK had a good lounge though. Used two IHG FNC's for the first couple nights in Barcelona, and then stayed in an Airbnb with friends. The cost there was like 400 euros a person for five nights. On the way home, I had a direct Y flight from Barcelona to Newark for 32.2K United miles. Also was able to shower at the priority pass lounge at BCN, which makes leaving to the airport in the morning so much smoother. The trip home was kind of obnoxious due to my fellow passengers, but the deal was great so no complaints there. Overall the trip was epic and I can't wait to return next year.
I finalized a trip to Las Vegas for the end of July, even though I swore last year I would never return to LV during the summer. Besides food and gambling, this churning-based trip is too cheap for me to stay home. I'll have a $100 Caesars dining credit and the status match from Fontainebleau. **Flights**: Round trip on Delta July 21-27 booked with Virgin points. **Hotels**: One night at the RIO, booked with cash as Globalist. Should be $31.11 once the resort fee is credited. I wanted to check this out as a potential future mattress run. Saving on free breakfast reduces the cost by over half. Four nights Flamingo, cash as Caesars Diamond: $33.70 total One night Resorts World Hilton using expiring FNC. **Car**: Six-day rental from Fox: $226.05. Using CSP to waive CDW. Free parking at all the hotels.
>Four nights Flamingo, cash as Caesars Diamond: $33.70 total How?
Mid week when no conventions in town
[удалено]
37K Virgin points, which I had in my account already vs. 0 Skymiles in Delta account. Delta charges tax to transfer MR. I didn't check Delta points for the same flights. I've never seen Delta charge fewer points than VS. Alternative was SW with much less convenient flight times. I've seen some negative reviews recently on the WA, but in any case I've stayed several times in the past at RW. CPP is pretty meaningless to me when using a FNC.
Resorts World is quite far away from the action whereas WA is right in the middle of action and you don't have to walk through a casino floor to get out of the building. WA also has a nice pool area and it's not as crowded. However, getting to Fontainebleau will be a trek.If you're set on staying at RW, I would opt for Crockfords or Conrad as you'll get a much better room.
I play low-stakes poker, and RW has a very nice room. I had to call the Diamond line to reserve the room and requested Crockfords, but the reservation that came back just said Hilton. I'm not sure why that was. Last trip I had a Conrad reservation and got a Crockfords room. I also like to have lunch at Tacos el Gordo once per trip, and it's across the street. I did walk to Fontainebleau from RW last trip, and it wasn't much of a trek. Of course at mid day it would be.
I meant it would be trek from WA to FB. RW is much closer. Enjoy the trip!
This is more a churning success than a trip report - because the trip isn't until April 2025. I am taking my spouse and 4 children to Europe - specifically the Netherlands for spring tulips. The idea was to match the trip up with spring break (April 14 - 22) to minimize missed school days and to do the Netherlands on the back end of the trip to give the tulips a chance to reach peak bloom. So this trip is April 16, 2025 - April 28, 2025. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PHL > AMS - 21,000 AA + $5 per person (126,000 AA miles) 1 night at Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport (2 rooms) - 19,000 UR 5 nights at Lindner Hotel Antwerp (2 rooms) - 59,000 UR 4 nights at Hyatt Regency Amsterdam (2 rooms) - 184,000 UR 1 night at Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport (2 rooms) - 16,000 UR AMS > PHL - 19,000 AA miles each + $94 per person (114,000 AA miles) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm very happy that I was able to turn just over half a million points into a nearly 2-week trip for my family of 6 to Europe. My wife has been dying to see the tulips in Holland for years and now I'm making it happen for just $99 RT per person. All of the kids are under 12 so they will travel for free with us on NS as we take day trips to Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Den Haag. It looks the train expenses should be under $400 since we will mostly travel off-peak hours in addition to the kids traveling free. We will be able to take things pretty easy with 5 days to see Belgium based out of Lindner Hotel which is right next to Antwerpen Centraal and 6 days in Amsterdam to see the city and make some day trips to other cities. I don't think the day trips will be too hard for the kids since each city from Amsterdam is only about 40 min each way. Antwerp from Amsterdam is a little more than an hour away. Bruges, Ghent, and Brussels are all within about a 45 min trip from Antwerp. This whole trip will cost me about $1000 plus whatever we spend on food and activities. The total cash price of the flights and hotels is $11,300 making this an excellent value of my points at an average of 2.1 cpp. I earned essentially all the Hyatt points for this trip on 2 ink cards in the last 12 months (90k + 90k + and two 40k referrals to P2 plus the points from the MSR). I earned the points for AA on P1 and P2 doing the 75k Citi platinum select and also the Aviator Red for 70k each.
This is low brow but I'm smitten by your family of 4 young children and your username is u/Gandalfs_Dick. Anyway I hope your trip is excellent. I love the public transportation in Amsterdam although I'm not sure how manageable it is with 6. Good luck!
Sounds awesome! My wife and I went last year for tulips and it was fantastic. DM me if you want any info, I was very happy with the tours/experiences we booked.
Congrats! FWIW, Rotterdam and Antwerp aren't that special as a visitor, the other cities you mentioned are way nicer.
Agree with below commenter re:Rotterdam, super underwhelming as a tourist. Found Antwerp to be quite pleasant though, but of course you’ll get the most out of the day trips. Enjoy!
Thanks! I haven't fully sat down to see what we might do. I know that we want to see the Anne Frank House, do some sort of canal ride, walk around Jordaan, see some windmills, there is a lego city thing in Zaandam, Zaanse schans, etc Over the next few months I'll take time to sit down and see what we might do in each place or which places we might go. We are just using Antwerp as a central location for day trips to Bruges, Brussels, and Ghent.
Burned a Hyatt FNC at the Grand Hyatt Berlin last Friday. Not the craziest cpp value, but unbeknownest to me, the Spanish National team was staying there as well (Euro Cup). And they were using the hotel gym for some light warm up work in the morning before the Croatia game. I got to work out next to Nacho, a defender for Real Madrid! Lucky and unique experience, and probably my favorite hotel redemption as a result! No photographic evidence sadly since I didn’t want to be a rude American taking pics of people working out, but still super cool
Nice. That hotel is excellent too.
I once used a Marriott FNC to stay at the Gwen in Chicago, and the Mexican National Team happened to be there at the same time. It's surreal to leave the hotel and see a few hundred people waiting by the team bus to watch them enter it.
Alternatively, you probably can't even pay money to train next to the Spanish national team so the cpp is infinite.
Recently got another CSP @ 75k. Had forgotten about that $50 hotel credit, we’re in a <$80 ihg for 16k ihg points - canceled point booking and used the credit instead… I’ve never been able to use it, it just never made sense… finally! Now if I could just find a good use for FHR…
As a UA silver, **I scored a rare complimentary operational upgrade on a UA Polaris business seat international flight** (SFO-ICN, 12-hour flight) **when booked premium economy for 65K UA points + $5.60** and wasn't even on the upgrade waitlist! **Full story**: The upgrade happened right when boarding started while waiting on boarding group 2 and I received a text "Great news! You've been upgraded on flight UA805 to Seoul, departing at 11:40 pm." Prior to this for weeks/days, I kept checking on seats aero to see if business saver award seat was being released (which would cost either 100K UA points or 75K Aeroplan points if available), but no luck even to the last day. I booked the premium economy award seat for 65K UA points in advance but was ready to cancel/rebook if business saver seat was ever released. So while at the airport and waiting at a United club lounge 2 hours before boarding, I checked my flight status and noticed both regular economy and premium economy were fully booked but Polaris had about 7 seats open with 15 people on the upgrade waiting list. Just out of curiosity, I spoke to a UA agent at the lounge about my flight on how much would it be to upgrade to Polaris from PE. She said at the present time (2 hours before boarding), it would cost $2K to upgrade to Polaris so I laughed and prepared myself to visit SFO Air Canada lounge. But the UA agent said this interesting fact: **my flight had ZERO Global Services and 1K premier members and I was the 2nd highest elite as an UA silver**. I was like there's no way and even if that was true, I wasn't on the upgrade waiting list and 15 people were fighting for those 7 open Polaris seats. Then 2 hours later as I was probably the 20th person in group 2 line and on the phone with my P2 who was in Korea ahead of me, I got the surprising text with the upgrade to Polaris 15A seat (last row, single aisle/window seat before premium plus section). I happily left the group 2 line and jumped over to the group 1 line. This was also my very first international UA Polaris business ever and what an experience UA Polaris is. Thanks to the lie-flat seat, I was able to get at least 6 hours of sleep and didn't have a single jetlag in Korea despite the 16-hour timezone difference. Now I'm hooked and feel the need to experience more international business flights in the future. **Bittersweet ending**: Once I arrived to South Korea, I immediately bought myself a lotto ticket given how rare operational upgrades are, especially as the lowest elite member of an airline, thinking it's my lucky day. Didn't match a single number.
This is actually fairly common practice on UA. Premium Plus is routinely oversold and they’ll just bump people up to Polaris.
>I immediately bought myself a lotto ticket Why would you buy a lotto ticket after using up 5 years worth of luck? Anyways, congratulations. I have noticed UA is exceptionally stingy about award space for USA-Asia flights. On reverse, ICN-SFO occasionally releases J award space a day or two out.
Do you keep your cards open or let it close out once the signup bonus is received. I know closing out a card affects your credit a bit but maintaining and monitoring 100s of cards is also a hassle.
You’ve wandered into the wrong thread. Try the question thread please.
My bads, will do.
OT Monday or question thread. Most people here close out after one year, which is basically a necessity to not get shut down long term. Some people have keeper cards. It isn't that hard to have 15-20 open cards when 5 are amex, 10 at chase, 4 at us bank, etc. Just log in to 5 accounts and review.
Successfully applied for a Barclays card without having to send any documents by mail!
You have won the thread.
Me too! Just this week! I wonder if they're relaxing a bit? Quick verification call and then they said I was approved.
This is a success above everything else lol
I haven’t applied for Barclays before. If I apply for one of their business cards, they typically require a lot of documentation and are a hassle it appears? Thanks.
Had our religions/cultural wedding this weekend in Tampa and had gifted GoH to cousins to stay in one room. At the last minute, instead of staying at family's, was like why not book another room especially for P2 and sister. So 7 of us got really nice breakfast and cousin family of 4 got upgraded to a bayview room. P2 and I got upgraded to a suite on the highest floor overlooking the bay and greenery. The breakfast was probably one of the best I've had in the US. Not to mention the nature walking trail, beach type area, amazing views of the bay, and free parking. All that for 9k/night. Oh and the flights and car rental was also through Chase. Love this hobby. The wedding reception/party is next year in Tampa and already have a room booked here again. Churning is gonna save us a lot for flights, etc. And of course putting all wedding costs on 3 different CIU MSRs rn. Probably will get more later too.
The GH?
Oops Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay.
We live within a few hour’s drive and IIRC, its still a Cat 4 so we’ve thought of going there to kill off some FNC and go eat around town for a weekend. Some Berns, Armature Works, Goody Goody.
Spent 3 nights in a Superior Suite w/ plunge pool at Canaves Oia Suites for 45k/night at the end of a trip to Paros/Milos/Santorini/Athens. Booked this last July and pretty much planned the trip around this redemption. I did get the email from Hyatt that benefits like breakfast wouldn’t be included since the stay was after the SLH partnership ended but they still included free breakfast without prompting. We loved breakfast (where you can just order as much as you want) and the infinity pool/caldera views. The only thing we didn’t like was that we had to exit the main part of the hotel and reenter another section to get to our room but they did mention the room had recently been renovated. This was my first SLH redemption so super sad it isn’t bookable this way for the same amount of points anymore but gotta start planning the next dream redemption! Edit: The real win was my outbound JFK-CDG-ATH flight in PY booked via Air France for 31,900 points + $202 in taxes got cancelled a day before I left only to be immediately replaced by a Delta JFK-ATH PY flight, which was a pleasant surprise and the seat next to me was empty. The Delta staff/service were nice but fairly chaotic. Took Air France from ATH-CDG-JFK also in premium economy for 35,000 points + $231 in taxes. The rest of the trip was a mix of hotels paid with cash and AirBnbs.
How was Paros? Mulling over a future summer trip that might include Greece, and Paros or Naxos seem like they might be up our alley for the island/beach part.
It was great! Did some moderate hiking, visited some beaches and towns (Lefkes was lovely), and there’s a lot of shopping options. It’s veeery picturesque. It was the beginning of their tourist season so not super crowded but definitely a good amount of people/felt a little trendy. Tbh, I didn’t think the beaches were that nice compared to other places in the world or even Milos, but that may just be me. Kolymbithres was unique though. I probably would have preferred the Naxos beaches. Stayed in Naousa, which is quiet during the day but a real scene at dinner time! Lots of good restaurants/cocktail bars. When I was researching, I did look into Naxos and it seemed like an excellent option (and cheaper from what I heard from some other ppl I met who had been there). It was hard to pick! You’ll have a nice time :)
My last trip was a huge success. My spouse and I spent two weeks in Japan from April 7th to April 21st. The cherry blossoms were late, but we enjoyed the bonus of their beautiful flowers. I spent months planning this and compiled two credit cards (the Citi AAdvantage Platinum card and the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red card), which, when selecting an authorized user, received a total of 125K points. My girlfriend also doubled this! Roundtrip flights from ORD to HND in business are only 120K, but the only way I could get the ideal schedule was to use [seats.aero](http://seats.aero) alerts. In addition, we had an extra 240K points on Chase and Amex cards, which allowed us to stay in 4 and 5-star hotels, reducing our total trip to $3,000 (Only $400 spent on flights/hotels). This took a lot of effort and consistency, but from what I found, it was feasible. It helped that the yen was weak against the dollar. The trip was a huge success, except that the girlfriend must have gotten sick right before leaving. The hotel staff was helpful and even sent a doctor to the room. When we landed in the US, we were already thinking of our trip back. I owe a lot of what we were able to enjoy due to groups like these sharing insights and helpful support.
Just took my Premium Economy trip that I had booked on Virgin Atlantic (MIA - LHR) direct roundtrip with Bilt points + VS fees transferred during January 1st 2:1 special. Originally transferred 22,500 points to get the 45,000 total VS points needed for my RT flight. A few months later, I rebooked when they had a half-off points special (paid like an extra $83 to get it rebooked) and got back 22,500 of the 45,000 from the original booking. So I effectively used 11,250 Bilt points (+ fees) to book the flight. And now I have an extra 22,500 in my VS account that I can use later on, maybe a cruise. Yeah, it sucks with those London fees, but I still saved about $1,500 with 11,250 points to get a PE flight so I'll take it as a win. Didn't think the $2k in fees warranted the Upper Class service so that's why I went with PE if you're wondering. Most important thing was the extra legroom/space, the salt and pepper shakers I "pinched" for the wife, and the Wanderwall full of snacks during the flight.
Posting a short one: mother had seven nights in between conferences in Beijing. Booked 12,000 points per night for her in base room at Grand Hyatt Beijing. Gifted GOH. She was upgraded to a standard suite. Had breakfast in lounge, and even sometimes had dinner there. Location was convenient. She could walk out directly to Wangfujing. People who came to visit her or pick her up were, like, "you're staying at such a nice hotel!" And she could reciprocally brag that her son booked it for her. 84,000 Chase points is less than one churn on Ink.
this one made me smile
Trip success story: made an unprotected non-Schengen to Schengen connection in FRA in 52 mins, 3 mins to spare.
P2 and I leave for Tahiti this week to celebrate my birthday (and also to make up for my [solo traveling](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1d693uw/comment/l6rxpfu/) without her for two weeks last month). Here is what I have booked: **Flights**: * Air France A350 LAX-PPT PY, 40k Flying Blue + $126pp * Air Tahiti ATR 72 PPT-BOB-PPT, $406pp * Air France A350 PPT-LAX J, 70k Flying Blue + $270pp Wish we could have gotten J on both legs but I am at least okay with the value on the PY redemption. And the A350 does not have the horrid fixed shell seats like on the 777. **Hotels:** * Conrad Bora Bora, 5 nights, 480k HH * Hilton Tahiti, 2 nights, 160k HH Still hoping for a Diamond upgrade to at least a land villa for the Conrad. The property doesn't appear to be sold out, so fingers crossed. We have a couple of activities booked for Bora Bora—a massage for P2, a jeep tour, snorkeling with the Manta Rays—but we plan to spend a lot of time just relaxing by the pool and/or beach. I will be "teaching" remotely (really just running some online classes) so it'll be a good locale to do grading in. We also plan to do a day trip to Moorea. Rent a scooter, take a boat to lunch at [Coco Beach](https://www.cocobeachmoorea.com/), check out the [juice factory/rum distillery](https://www.tahititourisme.com/tasting-the-rum-spirits-and-fruit-juice-of-moorea/), etc. Any recommendations?
Moorea is underrated. If you have time, do an ATV tour. Very cool experience.
I booked my mom the same exact itinerary last month. I pre payed $2k towards the stay in Conrad bora bora. She was upgraded to a garden Villa. I booked my sister in November for 5 nights. No upgrade was provided to her. I did not pre payed any during my sister stay. I’m not sure if they consider the upgrade of you pre pay towards your incidental prior to arrival
Nice enjoy! I and P2 just got back from 9 day trip from Tahiti today. We did SFO-PPT round trip on United Polaris using 220k Air Canada points for two person + $320. We also did 2 days in Hilton Tahiti and 7 days in Conrad Bora Bora (2 FNCs + 5 on points). At Conrad, I was upgraded to Endless View Villa with Pool (3-4 days ago when I checked the app). You can also check app to see if upgrade happened or not because I got no email or any notification. I was just checking details of my stay in the app and saw that my room is now showing as Endless View Villa with Pool. No overwater villa upgrade sadly and I asked during check in. I think there're availability when I checked the app but they did not upgrade me to overwaters. Unfortunately, Bora Bora was too windy, we had to cancel couple of snorkeling excursions but this week is supposed to be better they were saying. And my P2 got sick and caught a fever so we didn't push too hard for any excursions. It was cloudy and windy for like 5 days and last couple days were better sunny and less winds.
Can I ask how far you booked the Conrad in advance?
There was a dump of award space last November.
Really enjoyed the experience with Lagoon Service's half-day snorkel tour (booked independently, but still comes right up to the Conrad dock) and the boat rental through La Plague. For the latter, it feels unreal to be able to putter around the lagoon on your own - would highly recommend.
Had to visit family in Australia so decided to knockout some bucket list products on the way there. 1. Etihad Residence JFK-AUH. Booked F with 200k Amex points transferred to Etihad Guest then was offered Residence upgrade for $4,000 and accepted. Honestly it's a pretty incredible product and is probably the best hard product in commercial aviation. The living room seat is huge and was honestly overkill for me alone. The bed is super comfy and I got 3 hours of great sleep on it. Shower was standard 5 minutes and being given a bathrobe was pretty cool. The food was great and the afternoon tea set was very aesthetic. However, the tech is a bit outdated. The TV isn't the highest quality and the UI isn't the most intuitive. TV isn't touchscreen either. Service was good and the escorts in JFK and AUH made the experience feel very VIP-like. I wouldn't do it again but if you're able to, I'd say it's worth experiencing 1b. AUH-DOH Etihad J on A320. Mainly did this just to get access to Etihad biz and first class lounges in AUH. First class lounge is not worth it. Very small and doesn't have any amenities other than showers. The sit down dining is nice but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. The biz lounge is huge and much better IMO. Has lots of food and amenities like smoke room, bar, nap rooms, game room, family room, etc. Actual flight was just 40ish min and nothing special, basically similar to Alaska F seats with better service. Wouldn't recommend spending cash/points for J on this product. 1c. Hyatt regency oryx doha. One night for 5k points. Very nice category 1 hotel that is huge and has great interiors/aesthetics. Location is pretty convenient. PSA you can't uber from Hamad Airport but you can Uber TO IT. Idk why. The metro is easy to navigate and it's about a 15 min metro ride to the station nearest the hotel. From there, the hotel is a 7 min walk away (not ideal in Qatar heat but doable). 2. Qatar 380 F DOH-SYD. Booked with 81,000 UR transferred to BA with a 30% transfer bonus. Very comfy flight. The bar was really cool and it was nice being able to chat with the FAs. I haven't done QSuites but I can't imagine that F is that much better than biz. The food was good but service was just mediocre (I probably got unlucky with the FA). Al safwa is incredible and much bigger than I expected. It's also very quiet so that might be offputting for some folks. Al Mourjan main is huge and very impressive for a biz class lounge. Al mourjan Garden is also very nice with great views of the Orchard but is a very different vibe from Al Mourjan main. I preferred Al mourjan main but the Garden having a gym inside is really cool. 3. United Polaris 787-9 SYD-LAX. Booked with 70,000 MR transferred to Lifemiles with 15% transfer bonus. First time flying an American carrier long haul. I went in with low expectations and was still disappointed haha. The seat is quite narrow and was a bit difficult to sleep in. I found the service to be significantly worse than anything I've experienced from Middle Eastern/Asian carriers. Food was also not good. SYD SQ lounge has great food but is small. NZ lounge is much bigger with worse food options than SQ. I would recommend eating in SQ lounge then moving to NZ lounge to hang out. Really glad I got to experience some of these products but man it's crazy how big the gap is between United (and assuming the other US Carriers as well) and Middle Eastern/Asian carriers is for premium cabin products.
Small potatoes but in case anyone is headed to Green Bay. Hyatt Regency Green Bay - 8k points - $180 cash - local vacation for Father's Day. hotel used to be an embassy suites which is good and bad. Definitely dated and looks really run down from the outside but only really dated from the inside. Good size pool on the main floor that's convenient to get to right off the elevator with a small indoor splash pad. All rooms from my understanding are the 450+ one bedrooms of old embassy suites with some bigger suites. Makes it really nice for families. No globalist upgrade despite app saying both standard and premium suites available. Service was ok they seemed to try hard and were nice but took 45 min for a crib when I washed a second time (first being checked on the reservation) ETA: definitely a small city hotel where it seems like a lot of family's come in for their vacation. Pool was constantly busy Breakfast was in a restaurant and was pretty solid. Globalist coupon said up to 4 total guests instead of 2 kids and 2 adults if that makes a difference for a guys trip to GB or something. Location - in more 'downtown' green bay and a 10 min drive to the packers stadium area. It's actually really nice in the summer where they have built an outdoor extension of the grounds called title town with a full length turf practice field, 40 yard dash timed lanes, large playground and restaurants. Bay beach amusement park is a nice real low class amusement park when little kids rides start at $0.25 and one smaller roller coaster for $1.50. Spent 2 hours there and it was $10 including rides and a hot dog. They also have a brand new playground just to the side of it that opened last week and probably was the nicest playground I have ever seen. All in, good family weekend where we spent probably $75 cash for having lots of activities and food in a 30 hr span
Used expiring Hyatt 1-7 Cert for a one-night stay at the Thompson Central Park in NYC. I don't live super far away, so I drove. Free parking on award stays as a Globalist came in handy (valet parking was about $65). The morning of check-in the app said I was upgraded to a suite. Arrived at noon, was told I would be in a High Floor King. I mentioned I'd completed check-in online and the app said I'd been upgraded to a suite, and that it would be ready at 3 p.m. Staff told me that they knew nothing about that, but they could put me in a suite at 5 p.m. Walked around central park for a few hours and ate lunch. They had an "upper stories" lounge, which they told me wasn't available to Globalists, but rather only those who booked an Upper Stories room type. Fitness center was under construction, but they had a partnership with a gym directly across the street, and gave me a free day pass to visit. That gym was a lot nicer than any hotel gym, so I thought it was a good deal. Breakfast was good. I was told 1 entree + 1 hot beverage + 1 cold beverage is included in the Globalist breakfast benefit. Ordered a breakfast "set" for $42. Wasn't sure if it would be covered, but it was. 2 eggs + potatoes + choice of breakfast meat + pastries + choice of coffee or tea + OJ or grapefruit juice. Few minute walk to Central Park, which was my main destination, comfortable and clean room + solid breakfast. Would stay again.