Frequent Miler on the Air - The best free nights in the Big Apple | Ep161 | 7-30-22

Episode Date: July 30, 2022

Want to sleep cheap in the city that never sleeps? Using hotel points can save you a boatload on your next New York City vacation, but not all award options are created equally. This week, Greg and Nick discuss your best bets. 00:58 Giant Mailbag Double Header (First up: IHG welcome bonus free night not top-off-able) 03:56 Marriott free night certificates extendable after all 9:39 What crazy thing...did IHG do this week? 14:39 Mattress running the numbers: Locking in the 20% back Marriott offer for good rates in the future and abroad 21:27 Awards we booked this week 25:33 3 Cards, 3 Continents, 3 Updates 30:20 Main Event: The best free nights in the Big Apple 31:38 Hilton 38:00 Hyatt 45:50 IHG 51:35 Marriott 1:03:25 Choice 1:07:46 Wyndham 1:09:33 Radisson 1:14:48 Can you get off a cruise ship early to fly home? Join our email list: https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ Music credit: Annie Yoder

Let's get into the giant mailbag. What crazy thing did City do this week? It's time for Mattress Running the Numbers. Ready for the main event? The main event. Frequent Liler on the air starts now. Today's main event, the best free nights in the Big Apple. I want to take a bite out of the Big Apple.

Yeah, of course, we mean New York City. We're talking about hotels in Manhattan that you can book with points and we're going to be discussing, you know, where to use your free night certificates, where to use your points and that sort of thing and how to get good value when you want to stay in New York city. It's not, it's not like the easiest nut to crack or especially not to core. Well done with the dad joke there. No, prices have gotten high. So we'll have to talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Today we've got a giant mailbag double header. So the first giant mail comes from Rich.

And you'll remember, I don't know if it was last week or two weeks ago, we talked about how IHG's great welcome bonus of a free night plus 140,000 points was not as great as it sounded because the free night was not top offable meaning you you can't add points to it and we we thought that was pretty that sounds crazy right it was totally crazy because the free night you get every year upon renewing your card is top offable even retroactively to the ones that were issued before they started that right that's right that's right so somehow they decided you know to uh make this bonus one different and we discussed on the show well maybe ihg was wrong when they told us that it's not top offable because that would actually be more understandable that they made a mistake when telling us that then then that they chose to do something that's ridiculous. But Rich writes in and says,

I can confirm from recent experience that the IHG 40K initial bonus free night cert on the new Chase IHG Premier Card does not permit topping off with points and is indeed coded as a different type of certificate from the annual free night certs upon renewal. I can't believe that they took the time to code that differently. I really wish that Turkish Airlines would hire some of IHG's very ambitious tech support people because that's just too much. And Turkish could use a little bit more ambition. So that's a really good point. You know, we, we doubted when IHG first came out with these new rules saying the IHG premier free nights would be top off a ball. And they told us that the old IHG first came out with these new rules saying the IHG Premier free nights would be top offable and they told us that the old IHG Select cards free night would not be, we doubted that.

We knew if it was like Marriott or Hilton or whoever, it wouldn't make any difference because there's no way they had the tech prowess to actually make them that different. But no, they did. They proved us no they they did proved us wrong twice they proved us wrong twice i mean yeah fool me once fool me twice here i can't get fooled again all right so we can't get except they fooled us by doing what they told us they were gonna do i know it's tricky i have some reverse psychology like pulling on us there so if you get the card now know that you cannot top that free night off, no matter what Greg and Nick think you cannot top that off with points, but the ones you get in the future, you'll be able to top off. Maybe they're hoping that you'll forget about that feature. They'll be like, Oh, well, but we'll get them trained with the first one, not to top it off. And then

everybody's going to think I think you'll do it. You'll waste your certs on a on a 20k night because everything else you want is 41k and you'll think it won't work it must be i see your roots i see your roots all right all right all right that was the first uh piece of giant mail the second one uh comes from erk uh who actually commented on my post about Marriott free nights being extendable. So the post, very short post was basically saying, Hey, look, I learned that if you call Marriott within 30 days, like, yeah, within the 30 days before it expires and you've never extended a free night certificate with Marriott before or that particular one before that they will extend it again. They will extend it for 12 more months from the time you call. And a number of people, not just ERK, but

wrote and said, wait, I called twice, three times, however many times it didn't work. And my response consistently has been, yeah, sorry to hear that, but just keep trying, keep calling. And so that's what happened with ERK. He or she initially wrote, called Marriott twice, chatted, not having luck getting it extended. Mine expires July 30th, and it was never extended before. And here she said it's a Ritz 50K free night certificate, which for the record is exactly what I had called about to extend when I wrote the positive news that they're extendable. And then after I replied saying, just keep trying,

Eureka wrote back and said, third call's the charm. I called 800-535-4028, which the chat rep said to call. I have no idea if that makes any difference, by the way, as an aside. Did you check and make sure it was a legit number? That's a good point. Yeah. If they ask you for money to extend your free service, you know, you've got, you've got ERKs.

They tell you to go buy gift cards at OfficeMax. That's right. The rep did note that this is a one-time exception and I can never have another extension since she put a red flag in the notes. So, you know, so Erica finally got a rep who was willing to do it, but also seemed to be pretty bitter about the whole thing. I mean, there's a comment to be made about working for Marriott there probably, but yeah, that could be, that it's fun to be bonvoying people all the time well and to deal with the unhappiness that comes along with that all day long right so

uh yeah i don't don't envy that position but uh but anyway so that's good news so it was extendable just had to get to the right person and just keep theoretically accept a threat that you'll never be able to do it again that i'm more confident than I was about IHG that that can't be true, right? There can't really be a red flag. I don't think that that's very likely. I mean, how would they even make it red? Come on. Yeah, right.

Exactly. So they have their paint program and they're filling it in or something. Try again. I lost my train of thought. Let's go on. I think the important takeaway there is whenever you see a positive data point on something like this, it means that it's possible. And so you may get somebody who's not either A, just not willing to help you, B, doesn't know how to help you. And so it you know, you may get somebody who's not either a, just not willing to help you be, doesn't know how to help you. And so it's not worth beating your head against the wall and arguing with that person who

isn't going to help, but it is probably worth taking another swing or two at it until you find the person that is willing to help. Because if somebody has been able to do it, you know, theoretically it's pot, it could be done. Like there's a button to do that somewhere. Yeah. So it's just a matter of finding the person who knows where it is and how to press it and is willing to do that. So I can usually gauge in the first few minutes of a phone call, whether or not

a representative is going to be a helpful person. And if they just don't seem like a helpful person, then I'll say, I'm sorry, I have to call back later and hang right. I don't even waste time when I can tell that they have no interest in helping. That totally makes a lot of sense. And there are times where I've also gotten people who I can tell don't know what they're doing. And that is also another reason you're probably better off to just call again. Don't waste the time. It's not worth it until you find the person that knows how to do it.

So, I mean, it stinks, but that's why the acronym HUCA, right? H-U-C-A. You see that all the time in comments and on message boards. Hang up, call again, you know, try again. That's, yeah. Yeah. So I've reached out to Marriott to try to get some official word on this and hopefully to get them to, you know, put out a memo or something to their call center reps about

the rules. But I haven't heard back. And maybe the problem was that I reached out rather than Nick because our contact at Marriott seems to just not like me. He never, never, never sends me any messages at all, but it's conversing with Nick all the time. So Nick, you need to, you need to take the ball on this one. I don't know if I want to bring it to their attention that they're extendable and that it's been done, right? I mean, I don't know. I kind of feel like, do we really need them to make a decision and be like, you know what?

No, we're just not going to extend these. I don't want that memo to go out, right? I mean, I'd rather just hunt around and call. I don't know. I think it is the real policy that they can. And the call agents don't know. They don't know. They just do a terrible job of putting out word of what the rules are.

But yeah, I could be wrong. So there is some risk in that. All right. Well, okay. So speaking of crazy, weird, odd things, let's talk about what crazy thing did IHG do this week. And if I'm not mistaken, IHG is going for a streak two for two, two weeks in a row, making it to the crazy thing. So they should be very proud. What did IH do? What did IHG do this week? So this week, a member of our Frequent Miler Insiders posted something that I was very skeptical

about at first. He said, is it common when you click through a shopping portal Rakuten for some hotels to be hidden from the search results? And so for people who aren't familiar, Rakuten is a shopping portal. There's a whole bunch of shopping portals. And there seems to be a lot of confusion. People often don't understand how these work for hotels. You go to a portal like Rakuten, for instance, and you search for IHG or Holiday Inn or whatever brand, Hotel Marriott, et cetera, and you click through their link to the IHG site, then you'll earn rewards. You'll earn some cash back or membership rewards points from Rakuten, but you make your booking directly through IHG. So you still get your IHG points. You still get your elite status benefits, et cetera. You don't

have to book an advanced purchase rate. You can book something you pay later and you just don't get the portal rewards until after your stay. And let me add that the experience of going through Rakuten to ihg.com is exactly the same always as going directly to ihg.com, except that you earn rewards for doing it, right? It's always exactly the same. Am I right? Yes, you are. Always exactly. Except if you're looking for a room in Regina, Saskatchewan. So the reader in the Frequent Miler Insiders posted these two screenshots saying that one of them was when he clicked through Rakuten and one of them was when he didn't click through Rakuten, just went direct to IHG. And in the search results, there was a hotel, this Holiday Inn downtown in Regina, Saskatchewan,

that was missing when he clicked through Rakuten. Now, his pictures were from a mobile browser. So I thought to myself, maybe there's something weird going on with the app or his mobile browser. It has to be something that he did wrong. Sure. It can't possibly be that they would hide hotels from you.

I mean, why would they? Like, what would be that they would hide hotels from you. Right. I mean, why would they, I don't even get like, what would be the point? I have no idea, but wouldn't you know it? I was able to replicate this in every browser I tried. So, uh, so yeah. So when I clicked through Rakuten, that specific city is a great example because a, it's the only one I know of so far, but, but being more importantly, there are only three IHG properties there. So if you just go directly to IHG and you search, you'll see three properties. But if you click through Rakuten first, you only see two properties. For some reason, that Holiday Inn downtown doesn't show up.

And it seems that, you know, when you click through a portal, what happens is usually that fills in a travel agent code actually. And there's a field that you probably have never noticed for an IATA code. And so that code goes in there. And so it seems to me that the problem is that travel agent code, for some reason, suppresses the display of at least this one Holiday Inn. Now, I don't know how widespread this is.

I don't think it's widespread because in all of my travel experience, I never start out by clicking through the portal. I always search in the app or on the hotel's website first. And then once I found the hotel, I want, I go to the portal and click through and I've never, ever run into a situation where the hotel didn't show up after I clicked through the portal. So I don't think this is a widespread thing, but it's a really weird, crazy thing. Why is this one hotel not showing up? And if one isn't, there's got to be others, right? There's got to be others, right?

Sure. So yeah, so that's weird. Did you try any other portals or was it? I didn't. No, I should have tried other portals. It was just Rakuten or if the same issue happened with other portals. No, I don't know. And the thing is here, we used to see some things sort of reminiscent of this with certain shopping sites. Like if you click through a portal to like Omaha steaks or e-bags

or 1-800 flowers or whatever, sometimes you'll see different prices than if you go directly to the website, uh, e-bags might've changed that, but, but a number of sites anyway, I've had that. And so like, there are places where we have seen that type of activity, but they're pretty isolated. Like those are pretty rare. And they're usually places where you're not getting a good deal no matter what you do. And so it's just a matter of which bad deal you choose to accept because it's a good way to put it. Right. So yeah, it's not usually like mainstream. You don't see that on like Macy's or Nordstrom or. Right. No, exactly. Exactly. It's normally. Yep. So that was weird. That's a crazy thing. I don't know. I'm not sure what's going on with

that. That's super interesting. Strange. Did this, did this person actually want to book that particular hotel? That's the thing. You wanted to book that particular hotel and it wasn't showing up when they either just wanted to earn some membership rewards points. Cause I think they were earning that through Rakuten, but Oh, great. I can earn some points on this paid stay. And, but except you can't because you can't go through the portal. So, uh, so yeah, that was weird. I just haven't ever heard of that seed mat with hotels, but I guess that's something I'll have to look out for and see if it happens to other portals as well. So, um, certainly an oddity. So, all right. I think we should move on to mattress running the numbers. What do we have in store today? What crazy mattress

running do we have to discuss today, Nick? Well, so there's a Marriott Amex offer out, and there's a couple of different versions of it. But the version that I wanted to discuss here is the version for 20% back on Marriott stays up to $50 back, I think is what it is. And so you get 20% back on each day. Now that's not an uncommon percentage in the sense that we often see Amex offers for something like 50 back on two 50, but the unique thing here is you don't have to spend exactly two 50. You'll get 20% back until you reach 50 bucks. So you could make a couple of smaller stays, not spend 250 total and still get your 20% back. And so that alone isn't mattress run worthy.

But the reason it comes up is because a member of our Frequent Miler Insiders had said that they were disappointed when they noticed in the terms that this particular offer is only valid at US properties or properties in the US and US territories, I think Mexico and the Caribbean, maybe, but they have a state coming up in London. And so they said, is there any way that they could use this for a stay in London apart from buying gift cards? Now, the reason they said apart from buying gift cards is because we know that typically Amex offers for Marriott are triggered if you buy a gift card at the front desk of the hotel. And so if you find a hotel that sells gift cards, which can be a little bit of a struggle. And then once you find that hotel, if you find the one employee who seems to be trained on how to sell gift cards, then you should be able to, at the front desk, buy a gift card, trigger the Amex offer, and lock in that savings. And then the

gift cards can be used anywhere in the world. In fact, I just used them abroad. I went to London, and I don't know if I used them in London, but I used them in Malta anyway at a Marriott property there. So I've used them in a number of different countries before. I never had a problem with that. So I asked the reader, well, why? Why not gift cards? That seems to me like it'd be the logical thing to lock in the discount for the London stay. And he said, well, I can't use gift cards for an advanced purchase rate, right? And so I said, well, no, that's true. You cannot use a Marriott gift card for an advanced purchase rate. You have to do that with a credit card. But I never really consider booking advanced purchase rates. Do you book advanced purchase rates very often, Greg? Very rarely. Very, very rarely. And only if

they're cancelable, which is often not the case, which is why I don't usually do it. Right. Because I value the flexibility. And so in responding to that, what I had said was, you know, I don't usually book those. And I said, you know, have you checked things like, for example, the AAA rate? Because the AAA rate is normally, in my experience, about the same as the advanced purchase rate, if not identical. And every now and then it's even better than the advanced purchase rate and totally flexible. You can cancel any time and then you can pay at the hotel with your gift cards and probably pay the same price without the non-refundable aspect. And so he seemed to be surprised and that surprised me a little bit because this was a member of the group who seems to be a very frequent traveler, but I didn't know that.

And that's fair if you aren't a AAA member or you've just never tried to use the discount, you may not realize that. Now it's worth mentioning that when you use the AAA code on, for example, Marriott, you do need to note that there are two different AAA discounts sometimes. Sometimes there's AAA hot deals, and those do tend to be non-refundable advanced purchase. And then there's the regular AAA rate. And so the regular AAA rate, like I said, usually matches whatever the public advanced purchase rate is, or very close within a couple of dollars where I would always rather book that. And of course, there are ways to get discounts on AAA. If you're a T-Mobile customer right now, they're giving a year for free, a year of AAA for free. So if you're a T-Mobile customer,

or you know somebody who is one that doesn't need the free AAA membership, maybe they can help hook you up with a free membership to AAA so that you can make use of those discounts. Of course, I often get asked for the card when I use the AAA discount anyway, but the one time I did was in Europe. So you may want to set that up and be ready in case. That's great advice.

So yeah, AAA, it's actually, even though I've used those rates a number of times, it's easy to forget to plug that in and give it a try and see if those rates are your best option. And often they are. You wrote about, I think about a week ago or so, which is that if you're searching within a whole area for Marriott hotels and you say you want to look at the AAA rate or any kind of rate, what shows up on the first screen might not actually be the best price. And so sometimes the best AAA rates aren't until you've clicked through to see the rooms and then you see, oh my gosh, look how cheap that one is. So unfortunately, that makes it really hard to comparison shop, but, um, it does make it especially in a big city like London where you've got so many Marriott properties, but it's, it's worth at least narrowing down the ones you think you might want to stay at and clicking through because the price may be different. Greg's totally right. I did write about that. So I actually saw that happen recently with a points rate where the points rate on the

search results screen said something like 60K. When I clicked in, there was an option to spend 60K for an upgraded room, but there was a 40K room. Nice. That's a nice surprise. It sure was. It's also a pain because like you said, then you got to click. How would you know? How would you ever know? Yeah. I mean, it's a nice surprise, I guess. Yeah. I mean, if I was looking to use a 35K Marriott certificate, which is only top offable with up to 15,000 points, 60K would have turned me away. I would have said, well, I can't even go there at all. But 40K is totally within range. So I see what you're doing there. I see what you're doing there. All right. So, uh, so yeah, watch out for that. So it's not necessarily anything mattress run

worthy there, uh, but worth remembering that you can book those triple A rates and use your gift cards to pay for them. And, and typically that again, it's going to probably be a decent option, or at least, you know, you should explore those things and see what else you might be eligible for also, because sometimes there are other programs that you may be eligible for as well. So it's worth taking a look and seeing if there are any other of those types of codes. I know for a long time, uh, Hilton had the MVP rates, which I think they finally discontinued, but, uh, but yeah, but that was for anybody involved in youth sports, basically. You could click through and use the MVP code and save a bunch. So it's sometimes worth Googling around to see what other coupon codes you may be eligible for.

Definitely. Without question. All right. So time for... To the main event. No, not yet. Not yet, Nick. Oh, throw.

We've got two new segments. Awards we booked this week. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I need to get used to the new flow. Awards we booked this week. So Greg, what did you book this week? All right.

So I've been watching for the Inn at Bay Harbor, which is a Marriott property in Northern Michigan. When rooms are available for points, they're around 40,000 points per night. And in the summer, this hotel goes for, I mean, in olden times, like pre-COVID, it would go for about 400 or so a night. so it was still good value with the points. But now it's more like 700, 800, that kind of range. So anyway, I have a standing calendar reminder to check for award availability in the summer. And unfortunately, summer awards still haven't opened up. They should have by now.

So I don't know. It does seem kind of random with this hotel when they all of a sudden like drop some. But I booked a late spring awards day. And, you know, luckily, these Marriott Awards are freely cancelable. So I just put it in my, I put it in my trip it and I get reminders that the trip's coming up and then I'll cancel it if I'm not going to stay. And the thing about late May in Northern Michigan, one, it could be very, very cold. Won't necessarily be. It's certainly sometimes nice and warm but yeah it could be cold i can

imagine same where i live yeah worse worse in my opinion is it's the it's the time when these things called midge flies come out in giant swarms and they're just everywhere and i don't know midge flies but i don't like the way they sound yeah i mean i don't think midge flies, but I don't like the way they sound. Yeah. I mean, I don't think they bite or anything, but they just hover all over everything. Like, so all over, you know, in your face and, and everything and all over like chairs. So you can't like sit comfortably outside unless you like sitting on bugs. And so they open the ward rooms at that during that week. Yeah. So, but I mean, it's not totally predictable exactly which week it's going to happen. So

I've actually had times where I've, I've booked that hotel and called them ahead of time, like a few days ahead of time and said, you know, what's the midge fly situation like right now? And I would totally cancel if it was bad. Yeah. Because we've been there when it was bad. It's no fun. Not, not, not. Yeah. It doesn't sound fun. No. Yeah. That's a, I, you know, I'm not, not big in insects and just, uh, is anybody, but two nights ago I was, uh, walking up the steps at home and, and, and my wife's like, are those flies or yellow jackets?

And I was like, I don't know. I couldn't see him. I wasn't where they were yet. She's like, I think they're flies. And then a minute later I said, no, they're definitely not flies. So I said it a lot more loudly than that. So yeah, so, you know, I'm, I'm not a big insect person myself, so I would, I would steer clear of the midge flies, but like you said, that's a good strategy though, to book and then just call a few days before. Yeah. Just, you know, stay aware of the cancellation policy. I'm not, I don't remember off the top of my head how long it is, but call before it's too late. Right. Um, and if you, if you mess up, then, then, then rebook your stay for, for later. If there's

any award availability in like the fall or something that you can, you could use to move the, the award. Cause usually they'll do that for free, even within the cancellation after the cancellation deadline is over. Then of course you can cancel. So, okay. I guess, did you book any awards this week? Nothing, nothing. I mean, I consumed a couple that I had booked not that long ago, but no, I don't think I booked anything interesting this week. So, all right.

All right. Moving on to three cards, three continents, three updates. Of course, we're talking about our challenge, our annual challenge, where we're going to be, each of us taking our three credit card welcome bonuses and using that as our budget to visit three continents and building as big of a trip as possible. So we have updates from all three of us, sort of maybe. First is Steven, which

he wrote to us saying, I don't have an update because everything's all booked. So there's nothing for me to do here. But I'll add that he also separately messaged us to say, what happens if a flight is like canceled or delayed and we miss the next leg of the journey and so on? Can we use more points? And so I'd say his update is he's so settled with his plans. He's ready to worry about. He's sweating. He's sweating. What's going to happen when things don't go exactly right?

Stop watching the news, Stephen. Stop watching the news. Not going to ease your anxiety at all. Yeah, no, it's, I mean, I will see what happens because I have a lot of stuff that's tight also. And, and I wondered that myself, I was like, what am I even going to do if I miss one of these pieces along the way for something that's like out of my control, you know, what's, what's going to happen because there's going to be a definite domino effect. It's going to be on if that happens. So yeah. Yeah.

I'm trying to avoid like same day, you know, changing airlines kind of thing. But you know, can't always avoid it completely. Right. Right. All right. So that's Steven's update that he is, he's sitting there sweating the details now, sweating the small stuff. So what about you, Greg? Do you have an update this week? I, you know what? I don't really.

Last time I said, I'm looking to maybe make changes to the plans. I've, I've, I've, I've put out all these, like, um, signed up for subscription expert flyer. I've set up all kinds of alerts for awards to open up. And I'm, I'm just kind of watching and waiting and trying to make decisions about multiple options I have to whether I'm going to change things at all. So, you know, I guess I will mention one thing we talked about last week that Turkey requires a $50 e-visa. But Stefan of Rapid Travel Chai mentioned to us that you can actually get

a visa on arrival in Turkey and that's cheaper. So I think it was something like $30 if you pay in US or 25 if you pay in euros, 20 pounds if you pay in Great Britain pounds. And so that would be a better option probably than the $50 e-visa. So that would save a little bit. There you go. All right. So you got a minor update there. That's a good one. I feel like that's a good little update to have and to keep looking at stuff. Now, I really ought to sign up for a subscription with ExpertFlyer because at stuff. Now, I really ought to sign up for a subscription with Expert Flyer because rather than setting alerts, I've just been obsessively searching every hour or two to see, has that award I really want opened up yet? I should probably set

the alert. That would save me some time. So, all right. So, my update for Three Cards, Three Continents, three updates here, is that it is looking more and more like, and this is surprising me, more and more like I am going to stay at an IHG property on three different continents, which was not at all on my radar when we started this thing. But the value for IHG points that I'm looking at in different places is much better than I would expect. So I'm, yeah, I'm, I'm looking at, I'm waiting now

to buy IHG points probably when they go on sale next, I should have probably bought them in daily getaways when Steven was looking to, I didn't think that that was going to be the case, but as time has marched on here, it's seeming more and more like IHG is just a good option abroad, which surprises me. Again, I didn't expect that to be the case. So that was not on my radar when we started this thing. But yeah, so I'll be looking out for that next 50% off a point sale that IHG runs so that I can, you know, hopefully snap up some cheap points. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And that's gonna, that's a great update. And I think it's sort of relevant to our main event as well. So welcome to the main event. Yes. And main event time, the best free nights in the big apple. Why is New York city referred to as the big Apple?

You know, I read the story years ago and I, now I can't remember what it is. If you hadn't asked me, I probably would have remembered it, but no, I'm sorry about that. It was, it was like a newspaper thing. Somebody referred to it that way, but I don't remember why. So, so you'll have to google it now sorry everybody uh yeah so let's talk about it though the big i mean the big apple right now should be like the the big wallet drain right i mean it's like it's gotten new york's always been expensive but wow has it gotten expensive lately hotel prices it's it's really insane I mean, looking at these like Fairfield inns that are like $600 a night, that kind of thing. So, yeah. So, of course, you want to plan your visit to New York City. You want to use points and get good value and not have to pay all that money. So, let's talk about your options. And I think the best way to do it is to go through different rewards programs and say,

what's the best way to do it with this? And I think since you just were in New York City, you just stayed at two Hilton properties. Let's start with Hilton. What are the best options with using Hilton points or free night certificates? So the thing with Hilton is everything is dynamically priced. So you're generally not going to get much better than half a cent per point in value. So it depends on whether prices are high or low during the time you're going to go. Now I say that in the exception, of course, is when there's a special event or like New Year's Eve. I still see standard rooms available at a number of places for New

Year's Eve where Hilton points are a good value compared to cash rates even now here in July. So certain special events like that, you may find some good values. But otherwise, it's not like there's one or two really sweet spot properties because the pricing is so dynamic. But I did just stay at two of the probably nicest of Hilton's properties in Manhattan, the Conrad New York downtown and the Conrad New York midtown, both of which are near the top end of Hilton's award chart. I say near because there is no more award chart, but the downtown Conrad usually goes for about 80,000 points per night and the Midtown one about 95,000. Now, I don't know if they've recently opened the Waldorf Astoria again or not,

because I know that had been closed for a long time, but I just saw it come up unavailable in a search result recently. So maybe they're starting to accept reservations there. I don't know, but, but until the Waldorf Astoria reopens, if it hasn't yet, the Conrad properties are their top brand in Manhattan. So both of those properties, I used free night certificates at from the Hilton Aspire card. They were originally set to expire last month, June 30th, but I had posted because my wife called, I had her calling to make reservations using them. We were going to make a reservation for someone else or a friend. And so she was calling to try to do that. And she asked the rep if the free night could be extended. And she'd asked me before she got on the

phone, you know, should I just ask and see if they'll extend it? And I was like, no, they're not going to extend it. They don't extend these blah, blah, blah. And so she gets on the phone calls and she starts to ask and I'm waving her off like, you know, in the background, like, no, stop. They're not going to extend it. Just book what I told you to book. Right. And sure enough, the guy says he can extend them. So, so believe it or not, those Aspire certificates, much to my wife's pleasure, were able to be extended after all. Now, how much you're going to get an extension varies. It seems people have been told different amounts. So I was willing to do it a few weeks. So we had booked the Conrad downtown and the Conrad midtown because I really wanted to

check out the midtown. I'd stayed at the Conrad downtown before, but not the midtown. But it was only available for one night. So I figured, well, we can compare and contrast. Both are great properties for your free night certificates. The Conrad New York downtown is not near anything. So if you're a tourist and you're like, oh, I want to go to New York and see a Broadway show and walk through Times Square and go to Central Park, If that's what you're looking for out of New York,

the Conrad downtown probably isn't the best choice because it's far away from all that. So you're talking like at least 25, 30 minutes to get into Midtown. So if that doesn't appeal to you, this is not the property for you. But if you've been in New York a lot of times and you're just looking for a spacious room, then the Conrad downtown is a great option because it's all suites. And the suites don't actually have a door for the bedroom, but the way they're set up, there's like a hallway between the living room and the bedroom where the bathroom and shower are separately.

And the shower is really big. So, I mean, there's almost enough space. Well, there's more than enough space for another bed where the bathroom and shower are. It's a large area. So anyway, you get essentially the same idea as a one bedroom suite, just without the door at the end of the hall, so to speak. So that's a great property for that. And if you're looking for that great service,

we got there was fantastic. Breakfast is expensive. So if you're concerned about that, this may not be the best property for you still, because even with Hilton's benefits, it's still not a great deal for breakfast there. Although somebody pointed out in the comments in my post that there is a menu option that may work for that. So you should check out the post I wrote about it. I don't want to go into too much detail on breakfast there, but that's a good potential option. The counter at Midtown, great location.

And the thing that impressed me the most was that we booked a regular standard room and three days before check-in, they emailed to say, your stay has been upgraded. And it reflected that in the app three days ahead of check-in without any, any email or proactive anything. This was booked out of my wife's account. So it's not like they were like, this guy's a blogger. We're going to upgrade him in advance. So, so got the upgrade a few days in advance to not just a one-bedroom suite, not the next category or two up from where we booked, but a one-bedroom park view suite, which had a great view of Central Park and the buildings in the area.

So I was really impressed that as a Diamond member, they didn't give her just a meaningless small upgrade. They gave her a really nice upgrade several days in advance. So I don't know if that's common at that property, but given the fact that travel is pretty high right now, I was surprised by that. So that seemed like above and beyond. Yeah, that's terrific. Yeah. So that's a good plan. Both of those properties are regularly $500 a night or more during any kind of peak travel season. Kind ofrad downtown sometimes is a little cheaper in the wintertime, but in the wintertime still the Midtown is also, is very expensive. So those are great properties for your free night certificates. Okay. So that's great. So not much great value with points, but with your free night certificates, either the Conrads and then

of course, if the Waldorf is open, that's probably a really good use. Maybe I don't really know anything about that property. And if you want Times Square, there's a double tree in Times Square. At least there was. When I looked through search results earlier today, I was curious if maybe that one rebranded to a Hilton Garden Inn because the pictures looked a little different. So maybe it's a Hilton Garden Inn now. But there's one that has suites that have a direct view of Times Square. And so it's view of Times Square. And so it's like

right in Times Square. So if you're looking for that experience, they do have one good property that's right there, but you got to look at the map because like everything within eight blocks of Times Square is labeled as a Times Square property. So you got to look at Google Maps. Is that really in Times Square or is that just like a subway stop away from Times Square? Yeah. Yeah. Funny thing for me, like I love going to plays, but I hate Times Square itself. I mean, it's just, ugh. That's just me. All right. So, okay. So that's Hilton. You've also stayed a number of times in the past several years with Hyatt points, right? Or Hyatt free night certificates. So what are your favorites with Hyatt? Well, hands down, the Thompson Central Park just became probably my favorite Hyatt property in

Manhattan. I'm very, very happy with my stay there. Good value on points, 25,000 points per night, which is about what you're going to pay at most of the Hyatt properties in Manhattan. There are some that are available for 20,000 points per night, which is about what you're going to pay at most of the properties in Manhattan. There are some that are available for 20,000 points per night, but the Thompson and the Andaz and the Hyatt Centrics, a number of those different properties are going to be 25. And so this place had great service, nice, cool atmosphere for the restaurant breakfast. Restaurant breakfast was good. And you could order an entree and a coffee and a juice. And we even ordered sides, which weren't supposed to be included, but they comped those off of the bill also as a globalist member. So it was a great benefit there. And again, as a globalist also, they proactively

upgraded us to a studio suite. The downside is they don't actually have any real one bedroom suites. So if you really need a one bedroom suite, then the Thompson won't work for you. But if you don't need the separate bedroom, I think this is a great option. It's on like 55th Street or so. So it's a couple blocks off of Central Park, just outside of the theater district. So easy walk there, right around the corner from both the Park Hyatt

and the Conrad Midtown that I just talked about. So really like the location if you're in town for touristy type stuff and close to subway stops also. So that's a great option. If you're looking to use a category one to four free night certificate, there are no more category one to four Hyatt properties in Manhattan, but the Hyatt Regency Jersey City is literally one train stop away from Manhattan. It's one train stop away from the World Trade

Center. So it's close to lower Manhattan, which is not quite near all of the touristy stuff, but literally it's three minutes on the train. I stayed there earlier this year, three minutes each way into Manhattan and out. So it can't get any easier. And literally the train stop is the steps are outside the door of the higher Regency. Yeah. Yeah. And the higher Regency, that's a, that's a pretty building. You've got a beautiful view of the, of the Hudson and yeah, I wouldn't hesitate to stay there if that location worked for me. Yeah. I mean, I think it's a great option at 15,000 points per night.

Category four bookable with a category one to four free night certificate. Also standard suites and are like, what is it? It should be 20 or 24,000 points or something a night for a standard suite and 30,000 for a premium. And they have suites that have what look like great views of Manhattan, both through the pictures that I've seen on their site and pictures that I've seen from friends who've stayed there. So if you want a great skyline view, again, that can be a great option. That's pretty reasonable. And of course, I mean, there's lots of great Hyatt properties in New York. So there are plenty of places that are

famed and well-known and many people like there's the Andes Fifth Ave. I'm not a particularly big fan of that property myself, but a lot of other people are. So it's been a number of years, but I loved my stay when I was there. Yeah, and other people do too. I mean, somebody just commented the other day to say how much they like it. So maybe you'll love the Andes Fifth Ave.

The location on that one is fantastic also, right across from the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, right in Midtown 42nd Street or so. So that's a very good option also for a lot of people. And I mean, there are a number of other things like that. If you're looking at that price point, I really liked the Hyatt Centric on Wall Street. If you're looking to be downtown, the Hyatt Centric on Wall Street, I thought was great. They gave me an excellent upgrade. They were very, very, very friendly. And I note that because I don't feel like you get amazing service at all of the hotels in Manhattan. I feel like New Yorkers have a reputation for being not friendly that I think is wrong. I think a lot of people are surprised at how friendly most New Yorkers are,

but the exception to that is I don't typically get a very warm and fuzzy feeling out of hotel staff in New York. I just haven't felt that, I guess, when I'm checking in at most properties in New York, but I thought it was really notable at the Thompson and at that Hyatt centric downtown where the welcome and the service was absolutely terrific. So I highly recommend those. The Park Hyatt is awesome, but it's a lot of points now. I mean, now you're looking at 45,000 points for a standard, you know, regular room. I loved my stay there. I stayed there pretty recently. I used a free night certificate, a, what was it? Category one through seven free night certificate before it got moved to a category eight hotel.

And I was glad I did. I enjoyed the experience, but I would not pay that many more points. You know, it's what, 15,000 more points than the other options in New York. And of course, if you want to suite, it'd be way more than 15,000 points more. Yeah. So yeah, I don't, yeah. I hesitate to stay there. I almost stayed there over the, uh, the, the, um, losing the name of Thompson Thompson property. I almost went with the park. I, cause we're going without the kids for a night and I thought, ah, I'm not going to probably stay at the park. I figured maybe a little splurge, but I was glad I didn't

because the Thompson was quite nice and, uh, and it's just not worth the extra points. I don't think to stay at the park Hyatt there anymore, unless you're really flush with Hyatt points or looking for that really special splurge, I guess. Uh, the other thing that I think is worth mentioning when we're talking about Hyatt is if you're a globalist, I'm sure you already know, but if you're not a globalist and you can find somebody who is, and they can book you a guest of honor stay, then you can get their globalist benefits, which are really big in New York because a, you're talking free breakfast and a number of the properties I've stayed at this year in New York offer that as room service or in

the restaurant. So, you know, you could get free breakfast in your room. If that's what you prefer, go to the restaurant. And when, and when I say free, it's usually an entree, a coffee, a juice, and it can be expensive. I kind of complained about how expensive breakfast was with the Conrad, but breakfast for just my wife and I at the Thompson, the check came to $156. So for two of us, and obviously we didn't pay that because I have globalist status. So I didn't do anything at all for breakfast, but it can be pricey. So if you can find somebody with globalist status to help you book a guest of honor reservation, that can save you a bunch of money. If you happen to be somebody driving into

New York city, which you wouldn't be if you're flying there, but if you're within driving distance, free parking is also amazing. I mean, we have a minivan and we're able to park it for free, which would cost us more anywhere else because it's larger than a regular vehicle, but it's just, again, complimentary as long as the property has its own garage. And one of the cool things, so in order to get the free parking and the free breakfast, you need to either have globalist status yourself or have someone with globalist status book the stay for you as a guest of honor stay. Another great thing about Hyatt is you are allowed to move your points to that

other person for free. So you can, you know, ask them to book it for you. They'll tell it, you know, you'll figure out how many points it is, send them those points. And, um, so, you know, it doesn't really cost them anything to do that for you. And, uh, you get all those incredible benefits. So that's awesome. If you have access to elite status, Nick and I love Hyatt for that. And it's always hard to pick any other brand when staying almost anywhere. If there's a Hyatt that's as good or nearly as good as the

alternative. And that's particularly true in New York because New York is such an expensive destination that if we were paying for breakfast every day, I mean, that would have been darn near $500 in breakfast money over just the three nights that we stayed in Manhattan this last week and that we didn't end up paying all of that because of elite benefits. So that can make a big difference in the cost of your New York vacation if you're looking to go to New York City. So Hyatt's great for that. Right, right. All right, let's talk about IHG. So IHG now, just like Hilton, we talked about, dynamically prices their awards days. So the number of points is going to be more when it's an expensive time of year, expensive property, that kind of thing.

But those point prices don't always track perfectly with cash rates. So sometimes you can get good value with points. you know, IHG free night certificates that come with the premier card or the premier business card, as we talked about earlier, are top offable, um, or top upable, uh, depending on how you want to say it with our many points you need. So, so they're worth 40,000 points towards a night. And if the night costs 80,000 points, then you throw in another 40,000 points and, and you can stay at a really top end property usually for that many points. So I think it's likely, very likely that if you're going to stay at a nice HD property in New York City, you are going to be topping off your free

night certificates with points, but it's great that you can do that. I think that's terrific. And, you know, before we recorded today, I took a look at IHG's website, searching for New York City, and I was impressed by how many nice brands are available, you know, sort of upper, upper scale brands are available through IHG to book with points. So they have a brand called even, which to be honest, I don't know much about, but the, the even properties I saw got really good reviews. Yeah, no, it's like a, it's like a, a fitnessy aimed brand. And so they have like exercise bands in the room and, you know, of course, some rooms will have an exercise bike and all of that. But even just a regular standard room, I stayed in at the Even Time Square a few years ago,

had some exercise bands, some various like small exercise equipment, like yoga ball type stuff in the room that you could use. And then also in the lobby, they had a ping pong table that you could play with. It was right in the street. So you could be watching people go by and playing your ping pong. So I think even kind of a cool brand if you're into that sort of an active lifestyle. Right, right, right. And they get good reviews despite making you feel guilty for not exercising when you see all that stuff in your room. You're like, man, this exercise band's over

there. Keep calling my name. Put them away. Exactly. Why do you have to have a pull-up bar right there? How about a brand called voco i think you gotta be local to stay at voco yeah i don't know anything i don't know anything about all i know is all right moving on from them since we don't know anything about them um kimpton you know their boutique hotels i stayed at kimpton a few years ago in new york city it was it was great i really enjoyed it and i love that they have their like i don York City. It was great. I really enjoyed it. And I love that they have their, I don't know, is it 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. wine, happy hour kind of thing where they have free wine.

And there's, I believe, at least two or three Kemptons in New York City. There's a couple of intercontinental hotels. I've stayed at the one, the Times Square one. I thought it was beautiful. It's been 10 years, maybe more since I was there. So hopefully it's still beautiful. But I think it's really cool now that intercontinental has ways of earning free breakfast by, you know, either spending a lot on their credit card or they're spending enough days at IHG properties. So you could get free breakfast at Intercontinental, which would be pretty darn meaningful based on the prices that I remember there. I stayed at the other Intercontinental, the New York Barclay before. And then also very pretty property, very pretty rooms,

very old school New York kind of a feel to it. So I was very happy with my stay there also. Yeah. Yeah. Um, then, uh, small step down. Well, maybe is, um, they have a crown Plaza called the HY 36. I have no idea what that means is 36. I don't know. I'm not even sure. Um, or it's street. I mean, uh, but the, um, it gets great reviews. I was going to book it. I actually did book it a few years ago, had to cancel, but you know, it seems to be a step above your standard crown Plaza. So that one is definitely worth looking at.

And then I think they have, uh, two or three Indigo properties, which are sort of boutique kind of Kempton like things, which, uh, you know, check the reviews. I think some of them get good reviews. So they have quite a few very nice looking options there. So I wouldn't hesitate to try out IHG, especially if you have status and can get that free breakfast, that would be fun to try out. For sure. For sure. And, you know, I've only ever stayed at one Hotel Indigo, but I'm intrigued because the one that I stayed at had gotten remodeled. I can't remember what it was before that, but I had stayed at whatever it was before they remodeled it. And after they remodeled it, I was really surprised at how much nicer it was. So I, you know, I oftentimes when hotels change

the chain that they're in and not much changes, but the sign out front, but I felt like hotel Indigo, when they made it that brand, they really did spruce up the rooms and make them feel much more. And it's not like intercontinental high end, but much more high end than whatever it was before, or much more, at least mid high than, than whatever it had been. Right. Right. Yeah. No, I would, I would love to try out a Hotel Indigo. Yeah. There's a very nice one in Traverse City, Michigan, which I've been meaning to stay at. I haven't had a chance yet. All right. So that's IHG.

Lots going on there. Love you there. Marriott. Yeah. What are your favorite Marriott gems in New York City, Greg? Yeah. Marriott's tough because since they moved to dynamic pricing and not only that, every year since they came out with their latest version of award charts before they

dumped the award charts, they've been raising the award prices in New York City. And so the best hotels, the ones that you'd think of as most desirable, you're not going to be able to use your 35K free night certificates at those hotels, not even with topping them off with 15,000 points. Let me go further. Those hotels, you're not going to be able to use your 50K free night certificates and top them off with 15,000 points, which is the limit, because we have things like the brand new Ritz Nomad, which goes for about 120,000 points per night. The Ritz Central Park, the one random date I looked at, 116,000 points a night. The St. Regis, which I've stayed at, it's a great property, I really enjoyed it,

120K points per night. So… You know, we walked past the St. Regisis. My wife doesn't always remember hotels very well. We were talking about that on a trip this weekend. We walked past the St. Regis and she said, have we stayed there before? I said, nope, and we're not going to.

Not anymore. We missed the chance on that because that ship has sailed 120,000 points. It was 105 this past week when I looked at it, but even still, it doesn't matter. Too many. 120,000 points. And it was 105 this past week when I looked at it. But even still, it doesn't matter. Too many, way too many points. Not going to use that.

Right, right. I mean, the irony though, is the cash prices. So the same dates I was looking at, the cash prices are like 1500 a night. So you're still getting over one cent per point with Marriott points, which is good value for Marriott points. But it's still such a large number of points. It's just mind boggling. Um, when, you know, I stayed, I think when it was like 60 K

or maybe 70, but, um, and, and I'll tell you what it was not, I mean, it was very nice that it's very luxurious. They have great, um, things like their,ler service, free shoe shines, and they- And house car, right? They have, yeah, the Bentley. So it was so much fun. We had tickets to a play, rolling up in a Bentley down through Times Square was terrific. But yeah, I'm probably not going to stay again if they keep the prices that high. Me either. Although the one exception could be if we see these 85K free night certificates

materialize again, because we did see an 85K free night certificate at some point here during the pandemic and a welcome bonus. So if that ever becomes a thing again, and you happen to find this place when it's priced at a hundred K or less, well, then I could see using one of those starts. That'd be a great use of one of those certificates. So actually I told her, no, we're not going to. And then I said, unless they ever because that's the only way I would probably consider it. Like you said, it's not that it's a bad value compared to the cash rates. And if you're someone who would otherwise consider spending the cash rate and, or you're someone who travels all the time

for work, and so you've got 12 million Marriott points, and you're not sure you're ever going to use them otherwise, and you want to splurge at the St. Regis, well, it does look really awesome. I'm jealous of Greg's stay. I mean, it looks awesome. I. I just, I'd have a hard time parting with that number of points for a single night. Right, right. Let's talk about then some other nice, you know, well-reviewed properties that are also just out of, these are just out of range of 50K certificates. The date I looked at each of these was 70,000 points. And this was just a random like Monday in September.

No, but before you give the list, let me just clarify for anybody who's listening, who isn't intimately familiar with Marriott, we're talking about these 50 and 35K certificates. We should probably mention. So the 50K free night certificates are an annual benefit on the Marriott Brilliant card. That's the Amex Marriott card.

It's a luxury sort of a card, $450 annual fee, and you get a 50,000 point certificate every year along with the other benefits of the card. And you also get one every year on the Ritz card. If you have the Chase Ritz Carlton card, which is no longer available to new applicants, but you can still product change to it if you have another Chase Marriott card. So that's your other option for getting 50K free night certs. Or if you happen to sign up at a time when they're offering 50K free night certs as part of the welcome bonus, because just recently here, we've seen five 50K free night certificates was part of the welcome bonus for quite a while. So anyway, just wanted to mention that for anybody who's not familiar with where do these things come

from? That's where you get the 50K free night certs. That's a great point. And I'm not going to dwell on this list. There were a couple of addition properties. It's a great point. So, and I'm not going to dwell on this list. You know, there were a couple of addition properties. It's all capitals or an addition that got very good reviews, 70,000 points a night. I did see one of those additions, by the way, this past week when I was, cause I booked the night last Thursday, kind of last minute. And I did see the addition. I could have booked it with a 50K cert. I don't remember it was 60 something thousand. So you may find it at some point. Yep. Yep. It's definitely worth checking. There's a brand new La Meridian Fifth Avenue. So no reviews yet, but 70K on the date I looked, I would, I'd be very happy to give that one a try

if it, if it was lower. But now let's talk, you know, better news. So, so, you know, for, if you have a 50K certificate, there are a number of properties that you can top off a little bit and still stay there. There's a place called the Lexington Hotel, which is an autograph collection, 52K on the night I looked at. Residence Inn, there's a whole bunch of them that are 60K a night and they get very good reviews. The Renaissance New York Midtown gets good reviews. That was 60K on the night I looked. So there are properties you could stay in a nice, it's not going to be luxury, but it's going to be nice enough for your needs. And a lot of these like residence

inns, they get great reviews because the rooms are big. They're, you know, they're nice. They have everything you need. Usually there's a sort of separate sitting area and sofa. So plenty of room for a family. And that can be, that can be no pun intended, huge in New York because room sizes in New York city are really small. I, you know, because of elite status benefits and using points and picking the right hotels,

I feel like my stays in New York have been very skewed. And I often remind my wife, I say, most people, when they come to New York, they don't get a room with as much space. We've been very lucky using points and hunting around for the right stuff. And those residence ins can come in handy there. I think back actually to the Lexington that you just mentioned. And we stayed there years ago before we were into miles and points. So I booked it probably like a price line hot deal or something like that. And they put us in the closet. I don't think you couldn't get up from the bed probably and walk around it. The room felt so small. And I'm sure that if I had a lead status and booked with points, maybe I would have gotten

a better room. But it's worth noting that those residence inns can be nice, especially if you're traveling with kids for the extra space. Absolutely. And you get free breakfast. So that's a nice benefit as well. Yep. So if you want to use your 35K free night certificates, not a lot going on in Manhattan unless you go downtown. In the downtown area, I saw a number of properties that got decent reviews for anywhere from 30K to 40K points per night. Nick, you're practically a New York City native. It occurs to me- Not exactly going to be listeners who don't really know what downtown means in New York. In Ann Arbor, downtown means the area where the

big buildings are and everything else is not. Well, it is the area where big buildings are, yes. But I guess that's every neighborhood. So yes, no, that's a good point. So downtown is like the financial district, which is the southern tip of Manhattan. So you're talking like if you look at the map of New York City, Manhattan, if you're not familiar with New York City, Manhattan is basically what you probably picture when you picture New York City. And the downtown area, again, is the southern tip of Manhattan. And there's nothing really touristy there. And I see nothing really touristy. There are some things, because obviously the World Trade Center used to be there. So there's a Trinity Church you can visit there, the New York Stock Exchange.

If you want to go to the Statue of Liberty, then the ferry for that takes off from Battery Park down in the southern tip of Manhattan. So there are some things, but most of the things that you probably associate with Manhattan as a tourist are not located in this section of town. And it's also worth mentioning that on weekends, it's very quiet because this district is again, the financial district. So this is where things are happening during the week when bankers and whatnot are all there. So place is going to be busy Monday through Friday. Weekends can be quiet as a mouse. You'd be very surprised for the city that never sleeps at how quiet it can be walking around the financial district at night on a weekend, especially like a wintertime weekend. So, I mean, if that appeals to you, then that might be nice. The Conrad downtown had a

gorgeous Riverside walking area right near it there. Loved it. Feels like a totally different city. It's not the experience. So if you're like, I want to do Christmas in New York, it's not like the experience you're going to get here. All right. So answer something for me. I mean, let's say you're walking or bicycling or something North from downtown. At what point are you no longer in downtown? And is that when you're in Midtown or is there something else in between? There's a number of neighborhoods in between. Yeah. So, yeah. And so I looked up the walk, funny that you mentioned that from the Conrad downtown to the Conrad Midtown. So those are two properties I stayed at this last week because I was going to park near the Conrad Midtown

because we were going to check out of there on Monday. And so even though we were staying downtown, I wanted to park near the hotel we were going to check out of on Monday. So I looked up the walk in between them. And so Midtown is about 55th Street is where that Conrad is. In Midtown, the Conrad downtown wasn't all the way at the southern tip. It's kind of actually at the edge of the next neighborhood, Tribeca. So the next neighborhood up from the financial district area. So it's not even the bottom, bottom of downtown. and the walk was an hour and 26 minutes it said so it's quite a walk you can do it I've done it I've walked all the way

from the southern tip of Manhattan to 110th street before in a day so it's doable but it's a lot of walking so or a lot of subway and if you don't mind that that's also convenient ish but you know that just depends on your preferences and I, we took plenty

of subways this weekend in New York City, and I'm happy to take the subway. But again, it's not going to be the most convenient location. So that's why downtown, you'll tend to find places that are cheaper, especially if you're looking on a weekend, because it's not the tourist area, it's the business area. And again, there are other neighborhoods. Little Italy is going to be in there, and Soho, and Tribeca, I mentioned, and The Village. And so there's a lot of places before you get to Midtown that probably aren't going to be on your list unless you've got specific things you want to go see. The Village is going to be a cool place to go. You're going to go out to see comedy or that kind of live music, that kind of thing. But I'm not very familiar with the hotels in The

Village. Tribeca, there's a Sheraton there in Tribeca that Greg and I stayed at a few years ago. And I actually really like Tribeca. I think it Sheraton there in Tribeca that Greg and I stayed at a few years ago. And I actually really like Tribeca. I think it's a cool neighborhood and that Sheraton was fine. And I think it's often in the 50K range. So that may be another option to consider. But yeah, so that's, I would probably, as a tourist, I'd probably recommend Midtown

because that's probably what you imagine for New York City anyway. Yeah. All right. Very good. Let's move on from Marriott. Let's talk about Choice. So Choice just had a big sale in the daily getaways. So you could buy points for around half a cent each. And it's important to note that if you have a city premier or prestige card, you

could transfer your city points one to two to choice. So, uh, all these, all these prices we're about to talk about are half price, basically, if you're using thank you points, city, thank you points. So, um, long way of saying choice points are easy to get. And potentially a good value here. I think it's potentially a very good value. Yeah. So Choice has a couple of higher end brands. They have the Cambria and Ascend brands.

And they have three, I think, properties in Manhattan among those brands. So they have Cambria Chelsea, which usually goes for 30K points per night, sometimes 35K. They have in the Ascend collection, they have the Draper, which is 30K a night, and the Carvey, which is also 30K a night. And so quite a few, well, not quite a few. There's a few options right from choice that look decent, look like they get decent reviews where you can spend 15,000 thank you points a night to stay in New York City.

That's pretty- 15,000. I mean, that's very good, not pretty. I'd say that's very good. I mean, you can't find that- Very good, yes. Chase Ultimate Rewards transferring to Hyatt, better than Chase Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt. That's notable. Right, right. So, you know, and another way to think about it, you know, I didn't look at how

much these hotels are currently going for per night, but, you know, it means when choice points are on sale for half cent each, you're getting these for $150 a night by buying those points and then booking. So that's crazy cheap for New York City. Another thing you can do with choice points is book preferred hotels of the world. And it's not easy, but it's possible. And there are quite a few preferred hotels that are bookable with choice points in New York City. I'm not going to list them, but almost all of them are 55,000 points a night. So that's what, 27,500 thank you points per night, if you want to think of it that way, or under $300 a night,

if you're buying choice points for half a cent each. So those are potentially very good value. I think it really just depends. I haven't done my research to see how swank are these places, you know, how well reviewed, but they all sound, they sound impressive with the names. There's like the Michelangelo, the Catano. So yeah, it's worth, it's definitely worth taking a look. Interesting. Cause you know, the Hyatt properties, most of the Hyatt properties that I talked about are 25,000 points per night. So if you're earning a transferable currency, it's going to be chase alternate rewards, probably that you're going to transfer to Hyatt or built points, maybe if you got a built card. And so this is about the same price for these preferred hotel properties that- If you have thank you points. If you have thank you points. We have city thank you points. So if you have city thank you points,

these can be a viable option, I would think. Like you said, you got to look at the reviews, I guess, but I would bet that a couple of those anyway are probably solid in the same point price range. Of course, you're not going to have the same kind of elite benefits that you may be able to access at Hyatt Properties. But if you're not going to have that anyway at Hyatt Properties, then these are probably worth a look. Right, right. Jumping back a second to the choice properties, the Cambria and Ascend properties, I forgot to mention that one nice thing about choice is that you can almost always book a deluxe room for the same price, same point price as a standard room. So when you're comparing prices, look at the deluxe rooms, not the standard rooms. Sometimes you can even book a suite for the same price. I think I've checked before in New York

City and that wasn't the case here, but deluxe rooms are definitely available. So definitely worth checking that out. What about Wyndham? Would you want to use Wyndham points in New York City? Probably not. I don't think so anyway, because I think they're all like 30,000 points per night, right? There used to be when there were 15,000 points per night, then maybe we could talk about it. But at 30,000, I'm kind of like, eh, there's the Wyndham New Yorker, which seems to have a great location. I say that because I've walked past it a million times and I've seen it. I've seen the sign, the New Yorker sign from the view from my room at other properties plenty of times, but I've never actually stayed. And at 30,000 points, I'm probably not going to, because now we're reaching the upper

band of my tolerance level. And I want it to be nice. If I'm going to spend 30,000 points, generally, I want it to be really nice. And'm going to spend 30,000 points generally, I want it to be really nice. And I don't have the faith, I guess, in those Wyndham properties to match those expectations. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm the same way. I wouldn't even probably bother looking for those. But if you're going to stay in one, if you're looking to pay a cash rate and you don't have a lot of Wyndham points, but you have some, it's worth checking whether they have what are called go fast rewards, which is where you spend either 3,000 or 6,000 points per night to get a discount. And in the

past, I've found that that usually offers very good value. So for example, 6,000 points is likely to save you more than $60. So you're going to be getting more than a penny per point value by doing that. So that's worth checking out. Yep. Yeah, no, that's a good point. Cause I think that Wyndham garden that's in Chinatown and I've seen that really reasonable before in the past pre pandemic, I don't know whether or not it's going to continue to be that way, but I've seen it for very reasonable prices before. And so that would potentially work out really well if the world ever becomes normal again, but who knows?

All right. Lastly, Radisson Americas has the Radisson Hotel, New York, Midtown, Fifth Avenue. Yeah. About that place. It's so expensive. The standard rooms are 75,000 points per night. And compared to the cash rate, even though cash rates in general are high right now, I feel like the cash rate at that property just didn't seem high enough the times I've checked to justify 75,000 points per night. And they don't even always have the standard room available. Then

it's just the premium room. That's even more, right? A hundred premium room, 112,500 points per night for the premium room. Yeah. The night I looked, that was all that was available. It's, it's, it's insane. Now, of course, choice is buying Radisson Americas, right? And so if, and this is a big if we don't know what they're going to do. If they merge Radisson Americas into the choice rewards program, then you're probably gonna be looking at more like 30,000 points a night, maybe, maybe as high as 35 or even 40,000, but it's not going to be this 112,000 anymore. So it might become worth looking at. I have no idea if the reviews are any good there, but yeah, I've had a hard time finding availability a number of times when I've looked at it and I've been like, is there not much demand for the

Radisson? But apparently there is because I've had a hard time on a number of occasions. I've just wanted to burn some Radisson points and thought, well, maybe this is a good opportunity to burn them. Except I've even had trouble with that. Now, Radisson used to have another property called the Martinique that's now a Hilton property. So that property that used to be a Radisson might be interesting, but this is the only Radisson property in Manhattan still. There is a Radisson by JFK airport and I do not recommend it. So I made that mistake once. Fool me once, Radisson. So that's my take on Radisson. I don't know. And I'm probably not going to know because I just don't see that being a great value

unless I don't have anywhere else to stay. But at the same time, it is very well located. It's right around all of the other midtown type properties that we've been talking about. I think it's on Fifth Ave. Yeah. Midtown Fifth Ave is the name of it. Right. So, uh, yeah, so I mean, it's well located, but I guess we just don't know enough about it. If you've ever stayed there, let me know. Is it a good use of my points? Should I be considering the Radisson Midtown the next time I go to New York city? I probably won't because I'd rather use Hyatt points and get free breakfast and free parking. But, uh, but I want to know if that's a mistake, if I should be considering the revs. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So to sort of like take a very high level view of what we just discussed,

I think the best opportunities for great value with your points are probably Hyatt and Choice. And, but one, I think you really should be looking at if you have the points and free night certificates and you're just looking for a great property, IHG has so many that look interesting. I would definitely look there as well. Marriott's a little tougher just because they have tons of properties. They're so high price that it just makes it tough.

But there are a few in there that are at least within reach of your free night certificate. Yeah. You know, you got to check the reviews though, too, because I feel like the reviews can be very mixed on a number of the Marriott properties. Of course, that's because they're Marriott. So lots and lots of people have stayed and reviewed. And so it's going to be hard to keep everybody happy all the time. But you definitely want to look into the reviews. One tip I meant to mention that we didn't, that the Stefan from Rapid Travel Chai had passed along at some point,

was that courtyards often have suites. I found that Marriott Suite Night Awards are nearly impossible to use in Manhattan. Like almost none of the properties that you want to stay at except Suite Night upgrades. So if you're somebody who stayed 50 nights in Marriott and you have a Suite Night Award to use,

you're like, oh great, I'm going to use it in Manhattan so I have a room with more space. I if you're somebody who stayed 50 nights in Marriott and you have a suite night award to use, you're like, oh, great. I'm going to use it in Manhattan. So I have a room with more space. I wish you a lot of luck because there just are not many properties that accept them at all. Even though there's lots of suites doesn't mean that they take suite night awards. And so you'll book your reservation and there's no way I don't think to know without booking a reservation. So I always have to book a bunch of dummy reservations for some time in the future, just to see if I have the option to apply an upgrade certificate and then find out I don't cancel it like three minutes after I made the reservation. I always feel like Marriott's going to look at that sometime and be like, what is this guy doing? Uh, anyway, the tip from Stefan

was that many courtyards do have a suite where you can use a suite night award often. So there are a couple of them in Manhattan. I know the last time I looked that you could apply a sweet night award. Of course you won't know until five days before check-in, whether or not that clears. And I don't know what the success rate is of it clearing. I did try to apply a couple on a reservation I made a few months back and they didn't clear. So good luck there, I guess. All right. Choice and Hyatt. Those I think probably your best, which is surprising. I don't think anybody listening to this probably thought we were going to say what they thought, probably thought we'd say Hyatt, but I don't think anybody thought we were going to say choice is probably your second best bet for using points. For good value anyway. Yeah. I still stand

by IHG as a good one to look at if you're not worried as much about like the good value, but staying in a good property. Okay. Good point. Good point. All right. So I think that brings us to the question of the week, right? So this week's question of the week came in, in frequent miler insiders. And I took particular interest in this one, um, for a totally different situation, but related one that I have wondered about and not known the answer to until somebody asked. So I was very happy that Isaac's, uh, asked this question and frequent miler insiders said, I booked a cruise for my parents from Tel Aviv, Israel, the flight, my parents, uh, the flight, my parents booked changed by two days early on the return flight, messes up their schedule to return from the cruise.

They'll still be on the cruise when the new schedule has dropped. So we've seen a lot of those types of changes from airlines where they'll just change you to a different flight. They might be on a different day. And of course, if you have a cruise plan, that can be a problem because they're going to be on the cruise still now when the new flight's supposed to take off. So they said, anybody know if you can get off a Royal Caribbean cruise at a port and not reboard it? So I want to book them for a flight out of Athens, Greece, the second to last stop. Any suggestions, welcome and appreciated. So the question of the week is, can you get off a cruise early and fly home? And I've wondered this myself because I don't love boats and we've got a cruise booked. So it'd be the second cruise that I've ever taken.

My kids didn't do well on the small boat that I tried to take them on in Malta recently. Everybody got seasick on a catamaran. And so that didn't go well. So I have a little bit of nervousness. I'm going to get on this cruise ship with my kids. Everybody's going to hate it. And we're going to want to get off. Can you get off early and fly home from somewhere else? I'm hoping, you know, the official answer, but, but my, my vague sort of notion is that, is that they, they try very hard to, to dissuade people from doing that. But do you, have you looked it up? Well, so people answered and FrequentMiler insiders, and I was glad to see that they did. So apparently as a general thing, it's possible to do, but only at some ports. And so you need to contact the cruise line and find out if it can be done and which ports you can do it at because you can't necessarily do it at any port you want. However, this person was specifically asking about Royal Caribbean, which is not the company I'll be cruising with. And someone else posted a news article from at some point during the pandemic here where Royal Caribbean announced

that they are no longer allowing people to pre-plan that. So you cannot pre-plan to get on late or get off early. Now, I noted the word choice there that you can't pre-plan it. So you can't ahead of time be like, you know what, I'm going to get off at Athens. So let me get off early. Right. Well, I mean, obviously people could get sick or whatever. So things happen. But yeah. What stops people from just saying on the day that they pull into the board, Oh, just decided didn't pre-plan it. That's a great question because certainly somebody said that in Frequent Miler Insiders. And again, this is what I love about Frequent Miler Insiders. You get a lot of people that know the answers to these things. And so somebody said

that on some cruises, they hold your passport when you get on. And so they won't necessarily give it back to you if they see you show up at the door with all your bags. So, uh, so that could be a problem or certainly they're going to have some questions when you get to the port with all your bags, because you're going to have to go through immigration in order to go into this country, blah, blah, blah. So, uh, so it seems it's not as easy as you might think. Cause I definitely thought to myself, well, I mean, who's going to stop me if I want to get off the boat and get off the boat. Right. But, right. But it may not be that easy. So, uh, so that's, that's worth looking into if you're going to be cruising now, like Greg said, I'm sure in an emergency, I mean, people have to do it all

the time. Somebody gets hurt. Somebody has a heart attack. Somebody gets sick. Uh, you have to have a mechanism for that, but they're not necessarily going to make it. I don't recommend those as a way of getting off your cruise early though. Right. Right. Not looking for that. So, uh, so the moral of the story is pack carry on only and stuff that you can leave on the boat and not bring with you. If they let you have your passport, when you get off anyway, then, uh, you know, you could just fly home and leave your bags on the, on the boat, I guess, but as long as it's stuff you don't mind donating to, you know, your cruise line of choice.

So yeah, that's a little food for thought for me anyway. Yeah. Wow. All right. So they might be held hostage on the ship until it's done. In this case, people helped talk through it. They said you should contact the A, the airline, C, and B, the cruise line

and blah, blah, blah. And of course they did. And eventually the airline found them availability on a partner. Okay. So that's good. So that did get resolved. Just an interesting question. I thought, because I assumed that it was easy to do and it may not be easy to do so. So there you go. There you have it. That brings us, I think to the end of today's episode, if you've enjoyed what you've been listening to, and you want to get our posts in your email inbox, you want to go to frequent miler.com slash subscribe to join one of our email lists. You can follow us on all the various.com slash subscribe to join one of our email lists. You can follow us on all the various social media. We're on Instagram, we're on Twitter,

et cetera, et cetera. And please, wherever you're listening to this show, give us a like, leave us some feedback, ding the notification bell, subscribe, all that fun stuff. Whether you're watching this or listening to it, we always appreciate that. And if you have a question or you have some feedback, you can send that to mailbag at frequent miler.com. Bye everybody.