Aloft Phoenix Airport

Hotel Details
Hotel: Aloft Phoenix Airport 
Dates: October 9-10, 2015
Rate Paid: 3,000 SPG points/night
Regular Cost: $133/night
Redemption: 4.4 cents/SPG point

Our Friday afternoon flight would arrive in Phoenix around 8PM in the evening. So we thought it would be smarter to save our $ (or SPG points rather) and stay the first night at a cheaper airport hotel.

Then we'd get up early the following morning and head over to the Westin around 10AM knowing our room wouldn't be ready to check into yet.

Unfortunately, our flight was delayed and we landed at PHX Airport an hour late. Instead of landing at 7PM Pacific time (which is 10PM Eastern), we arrived at 8PM PT (11PM ET), which meant my almost 4 year old body was dead tired.

Fortunately, our hotel was 5 minutes away, and we had a free shuttle. As soon as we touched ground, my father called the Aloft and requested the shuttle for pickup. They said it would take 15-18 minutes, so we were smart to have called it early (as soon as we stepped off the flight). By the time we walked through the airport, it was just a few minutes of waiting on the Courtesy Shuttle curb stop.

Check in was easy at 8:30PM, and we were given a standard room on the 5th floor. A bit hungry, my father stopped by the wxyz bar and ordered some buffalo wings and a beer to take up to our room.

Sleep was wonderful with the blackout shades and the temperature control AC in the room. I think my father hoped that I would sleep in my own bed, but I took the opportunity to snuggle with my dear mother, leaving my father alone in the other bed. We tried to watch the Mets-Dodgers game, but it was pretty late for us, and we all passed out by 9:30PM PT.

Since we were still on East Coast time, my father woke up around 4:30AM PT per his usual. I then woke up about 30 minutes later (per my usual). After about an hour of washing up and getting dressed, we woke up our mother who was still sound asleep (per her usual). As a complete family, we made our way down to breakfast around 7AM.

Since we had Platinum status with Starwood, we were supposed to get complimentary continental breakfast if we chose that welcome gift (vs. 250 SPG points). Since the points were worth at most $7-10, we opted for 2 breakfast vouchers from the "kitchen" downstairs.

The voucher gave each holder a "Bundle It" combo which included a hot breakfast sandwich, a fruit and a drink. Retail cost was $10 each, so it was a no brainer to snag two vouchers instead of 250 SPG points.

Drinks were supposed to be a soda or a juice, but they were pretty lax about getting any drink of our choice. I opted for the chocolate milk (which was actually a protein shake).

Also, for being a SPG Platinum, my father was given another coupon for a "premium coffee" each morning. This was a cappuccino or espresso from the machine (shown below) as an alternative to the complimentary regular coffee offered to all guests.

So while not an amazing breakfast spread, a free meal is always going to be well received by my father. Especially perfect since it was just enough to tide us over before our all day swimming fest at the Westin Kierland.