September 16, 2014

Long Weekend in San Juan, Puerto Trip Report – Courtyard Marriott Isla Verde

1) Introduction
2) Flights: American Airlines Business Class JFK – SJU & American Airlines Economy Class SJU – JFK
3) Hotel: Courtyard Marriott Isla Verde
4) Activities & Dining

As mentioned in the introduction, this was actually my second stay at the Courtyard Marriott Isla Verde. The first time we stayed there was way back in 2008 on my first ever trip out of the continental United States (I’ve come a long ways now) and we had quite an enjoyable stay. Looking for hotels on this trip to San Juan, we wanted a hotel right on the beach and was close to the airport to minimize our driving time.

Many hotels of the hotels we were considering were ranging from $135/night to $225/night, including the San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, InterContinental Hotel San Juan and the Courtyard Marriott Isla Verde. Points for these hotels ranged from 35,000 to 50,000 a night but with cash rates so low for the hotels, it didn’t make sense to redeem points for our stay. Instead, I had a $500 Marriott Gift Card I purchased for 19% off (for a total of $405) during the American Express Daily Getaways, so my preference was for a Marriott hotel. In the end, we went with the cheaper option at $135/night for the Courtyard Marriott Isla Verde.

View From Our Balcony

In doing some research on the hotel, I noticed it was undergoing a renovation in which rooms on the top few floors were completely renovated while the middle to bottom floors remained untouched. About a week prior to our stay, I emailed the hotel requesting a newly renovated room and they responded they would do their best but could not guarantee it. Our flight landed around 9:30pm, and since the hotel is only a 5-7 minute drive from the airport, we were at the hotel around 9:50pm after making our way out of the airport and finding a taxi.

Upon walking in to the lobby, the check-in area was deserted (not surprising considering it was almost 10pm) but an agent quickly checked us in without any issues. We were assigned a partial ocean view room on the 8th floor, but as you can see in the picture above, the partial ocean view was actually quite nice and not just some small sliver of the ocean. Our room also happened to be a newly renovated room and you could tell what a difference that made as everything was brand new with no marks, scuffs or scratches anywhere on the furniture.

The room was modestly sized but had some character to it with the painted wall behind the bed and new wood cabinetry and furniture throughout the room. It was well designed, as the TV could swivel out depending whether you were on the couch or the bed and the mini-fridge could actually hold several large bottles of water and snacks. I forgot to take a picture of it but the room opened up to a nice balcony outside which had a small table and two chairs. Each morning, we would run downstairs to the little coffee shop in the lobby and come back to our room to have breakfast on our balcony.

Our favorite part of the hotel was the wide stretch of white, sandy beach right behind the hotel. As I stated in the introduction to this trip report, I think the beach here is nicer than the beach in front of the Ritz-Carlton. My reasoning behind it is even though it is the same stretch of beach (you can just make out the blue cluster of Ritz Carlton chairs in the top photo), the beach gets much narrower by the Ritz and the cluster of chairs makes the beach feel much smaller. Additionally, there are large apartment complexes or hotels on each side of the Ritz, crowding the beach even further, while the Courtyard Marriott Isla Verde is the last hotel on the strip and has a lot more privacy. Each morning, you could walk down to the beach and helpful hotel employees would set up an umbrella and chairs wherever you liked on the beach.

In addition to the umbrella and chair setup, their was food and drink service on the beach which is something that was non-existent the last time we went 6 years ago. Service was generally good though it sometimes took a while to get a drink since they came from the pool bar which was usually crowded. Speaking of the pool, it felt like a standard hotel swimming pool with a nice swim-up bar but the pool was always too crowded for our liking. The food and drinks from the pool bar were good with frozen cocktails averaging $8-$10 a drink and sandwiches/burgers/salads ranging from $10-$12 at lunch. I’m not sure what the prices are at the Ritz down the beach but I guarantee they are much higher than those prices.

There were also several other features of the hotel we didn’t get to experience including the fitness center which was large and overlooked the pool area. We didn’t have an opportunity to eat dinner at the hotel but we noticed on Sundays, they had a Puerto Rican dinner buffet complete with a whole roasted pig. There was also a small casino inside the hotel (right off the lobby) that had several blackjack, roulette, and craps tables in addition to tons of slots machines.

For a long weekend of 3 nights, I think at this price point (<$150 night), this hotel can’t be beat. It’s close to the airport yet only 15 minutes from Old San Juan (stay tuned for the next post in this series) and has a great beach which is definitely the highlight of this hotel. The renovated rooms are nice though I’m sure I would have been disappointed with a non-renovated room as they are probably still the same room we had 6 years ago. The staff is generally friendly and the drinks/food at the pool bar were good especially when they could be delivered to your beach chairs for no additional fee.

Feel free to ask me any questions about this hotel, I’d be happy to answer them. I’ve included a few additional photos of our room and the grounds.

September 14, 2014

Quick Reminder – 25% JetBlue American Express Transfer Bonus Ends Tomorrow!

Last month, I posted about a 25% bonus on all JetBlue point transfers from American Express. I wanted to send out a quick reminder that this promotion ends tomorrow, September 15th. Normally, the ratio to transfer American Express Membership Rewards points into JetBlue TrueBlue points is 5:4 and you must transfer in increments of 250 points. Without this promotion, to get 10,000 JetBlue points you would have to transfer 12,500 Amex points but now to get the same 10,000 JetBlue points, it would only cost you only 10,000 Amex points!

25% Bonus on Points Transferred to JetBlue Ends Tomorrow!

Now many points and miles bloggers don’t talk about the JetBlue program for a variety of reason – no first class, lack of “real” elite status, and a poor frequent flyer program. However, if you are like me and based in NY or in other JetBlue focus cities, like Boston, JetBlue is sometimes the best value for popular leisure routes to the Caribbean and Florida compared to the big legacy airlines. In my award booking service, I have found clients a roundtrip flight from JFK to the Bahamas for only 13,800 points as compared to the 35,000 miles that Delta, American or United would charge.

Before transferring any points over to JetBlue though, research the cost in points on JetBlue’s website. There are no blackout dates so every flight is available for points but some are better deals than others. Once you have settled on the flights you want, at that point only, should you transfer your Amex MR points to JetBlue. Transfers between Amex and JetBlue happen instantly so you could book the flight immediately after transferring the points (you might need to sign out and sign back in to see the points).

I do plan on transferring some Amex points over to JetBlue as I tend to visit the Caribbean several times a year and JetBlue offers the most convenient and plentiful flight options from the NY area. This isn’t for everyone but before you write off the JetBlue program take a look at your future travel goals and see if JetBlue makes sense for you.

September 12, 2014

JetBlue TrueBlue Frequent Flyer Program Changes..For the Better!

Usually when you hear the words “frequent flyer program changing”, more often than not, it is bad news for members of that frequent flyer program. For example, in the past two years Delta, United and Hilton all announced changes to their respective loyalty programs and those changes were absolutely awful for members. However, I’m happy to report the changes made to JetBlue’s TrueBlue program are small but positive enhancements to their loyalty program.

JetBlue announced that redemptions for award flights now will start at 3,500 points for a oneway flight instead of 5,000 as it was previously. If you recall at JetBlue, the amount of points required for a flight is distinctly linked to the price of the flight. Generally, the average value per point on a redemption is 1.3 cents to 1.7 cents (Wandering Aramean has some good data on this) and with this lower floor to redeem, you should be able to achieve at 1.5 cents per point in value on award flights, especially on international flights.

JetBlue lists a few possible redemptions at 3,500 points (all one way) on their website including New York to Bermuda, New York to Jacksonville, Washington DC to Nassau, Bahamas among others. This isn’t the biggest change in the world at JetBlue but it is certainly great news for members.

September 11, 2014

Long Weekend in San Juan, Puerto Rico Trip Report – Flights

1) Introduction
2) Flights: American Airlines Business Class JFK – SJU & American Airlines Economy Class SJU – JFK
3) Hotel: Courtyard Marriott Isla Verde
4) Activities & Dining

I’ll start by covering our outbound flights to San Juan, for which we redeemed 20,000 British Airways Avios per person for Business class seats. I actually already wrote an Award Trip Breakdown post on the flights here but to summarize, I had the option to use Avios at a rate of 10,000 Avios per person for economy or 20,000 Avios for business. I wanted to start off our long weekend in style so I opted to burn the extra Avios for business class. And that is where I think I made a mistake.

I chose business class primarily due to the fact I literally have millions of points/miles and with them constantly devaluing, it made sense to me to start burning through some of them. I could “afford” the extra cost in miles and I would be able to have a little more comfort in a bigger seat, be able to enjoy a meal during dinnertime (since the flight was 5:30pm to 9:30pm) and some free drinks.

I knew American flew older 757’s on these routes and our seats definitely showed the age of the aircraft. As you can see in the photos below, our business class seats were straight out of the 1970s (which might have been when this plane was put into service). It was literally just a slightly bigger seat with limited recline and no in-seat entertainment. Seriously when was the last time you saw a business class seat on a mainstream jet without a personal TV? Better yet the overhead TV in business class wasn’t functioning properly with lines running throughout the picture and the color just non-existent (Andrea actually though the movie was in black & white).

The hard feature of the flight (seat, entertainment) were a letdown but the soft product (food, service) was pretty good. With American Airlines, you can pre-order your dinner up to 30 days in advance of your flight if you are confirmed in business or first class. I chose the chicken dish which came with a cocktail shrimp appetizer, salad, and bread. Andrea had the pasta dish (sorry I forgot to take a photo of it) but both dishes were perfectly edible and filing for us as our dinner. For dessert, we had ice cream sundaes and another round of drinks. The purser in business class was excellent, constantly offering to bring new drinks and generally was very proactive in his service.

For the return flight back to NY, I’ve already mentioned the lack of award availability for the flights we desired since we wanted to spend all day Sunday at the beach. Since we were “paying” for this flight with American Airlines gift cards, we were limited to economy seats that cost $208.50 each, quite steep for a one-way since I have seen roundtrip flights from NY to Puerto Rico under $240. However, we are American Express Platinum card holders and each calendar year we are entitled to a $200 airline credit, so our flights only cost us $8.50 each out of pocket.

I’ll keep this part short since the return flight in economy was uneventful and everyone knows what an economy flight is like. Thankfully we had priority boarding (due to the Citi Executive card) as the overhead bins filled up quite rapidly. We were in row 29 and AA’s 757 have about 31 inches of seat pitch, making it kind of tight for a 6’3” guy like myself. Again, no seatback entertainment but I caught up on some work for the blog and the 3.5 hour flight passed smoothly enough. One mild surprise? The flight attendant gave us the whole can of soda (yes I know I’m stretching for something exciting on this flight).

So to summarize the flights, was business class a better experience than economy? No doubt. But was it worth the extra 10,000 Avios per person which conservatively is valued at $150-$200 dollars per person? That’s where its a bit tougher and I’m leaning towards no. Yes, the meal and drinks were a nice touch but I had ample time to eat before my flight and I wouldn’t have paid for any drinks in the airport. The seat was marginally better but definitely not worth it as it was the worst business class seat I’ve ever seen.

For this short flight I was probably better off saving 10,000 miles to sit in economy. This is especially true for those out there who are just beginning in this game of ours or have smaller mileage balances. Those 10,000 miles could get you a roundtrip NY to Boston flight as I described here. Or it could have covered my return flight home if there was award availability. For shorter flights (under 4 hours), I won’t be redeeming miles for business class unless I have an overly compelling reason to, such as to try a premium product or a shorter red eye where a better seat does go a long way.

September 10, 2014

The End of One of the Best Travel Hacks: Amazon Payments

Tonight is a sad night in the travel hacking universe as one of the best and most reliable methods for free miles is coming to an end. Using Amazon Payments for person to person payments is shutting down effective October 13th per Amazon’s annual notice. You can still get in two more transactions, one in September and one more in early October. After October 13th, Amazon Payments will continue solely as a way to checkout on websites that accept Amazon for payment.

Every month Amazon Payments would let you send $1,000 to another person via your credit card for no fee. Then that person would simply pay you back via check or other means. If you had a circle of 3 or more people, then it would go A -> B -> C -> A and everyone would be paid in full and also 1,000 miles/points richer each month.

Amazon Payments has been going strong for 4 years now and it was only a matter of time before Amazon pulled the plug as Amazon was eating the credit card fee on every $1,000 transaction. It was a good run Amazon Payments, thank you for the memories.

RIP

PointsCentric

Points & Miles Travel Consulting