Uber Hack to the Airport

As we've written before, my family and I have been big fans of UberX, but only when we're not in Manhattan.

Inside the city, we find hailing a cab to be much quicker than waiting for a driver to circle the block. However, my parents would use it often to get to/from the airport because UberX had a flat rate of $65 to JFK and/or EWR.

But that changed this week (October 6th), when they moved back to the traditional variable pricing based on distance and time.

So now, when we estimate the fare using the UberX NYC website, the ride from our Manhattan apartment to Newark Liberty Airport now runs $71-81!!! That's the same price as the Carmel / Dial 7 cars that we used to use.

But interestingly enough, much of that cost comes from the distance between our apartment to New Jersey. After that point, the ride would be just $39-51, shaving about $30 (37%-42%) off the full price.

So by just hopping the PATH train from our apartment for $2.75/adult and coming up in Jersey City, we'd save about $25 in airport transportation costs each way.

But as you savvy LCD readers may know, the PATH doesn't end in Jersey City, but actually continues all the way to Newark Penn Station (just 5 miles away from Newark Airport).

So as long we my family is OK with staying on the train (and transferring at Journal Square), then we can pick up an UberX at Newark Penn Station which would only cost about $10 total. That'd save another $30-40!  So for our family of 3, instead of paying $81, we'd only be about $16 out of pocket ($2.75 per adult for the Path Train ride and $10 for the UberX).

We also looked at taking the AirTran Express from Newark Penn Station to the Airport, but that would run $8.50/adult, so more expensive for a family traveling together than just grabbing the UberX.

Our PATH/Uber travel time door to door took about an hour. So not as quick as taking a car service (30 min), but worth it for my family to save $55-65 which we'd rather spend in Phoenix this weekend.

Free Night at Club Carlson

So it looks like we need a NYC hotel for a night in late October. As it turns out, NYC has tons of different hotel options, all of which are overpriced both in terms of cash and reward points.

We really don't need a hotel to be that fancy for this one night stay, but also don't want to stay somewhere with drunk degenerate tourists roaming around the hallways either.

Since NYC is apparently quite popular, there are plenty of different chain hotel options where my father can use his award points. Here are the options with our current point balances:

1. Starwood - 139,066 SPG points 
We normally would try to stay at Starwood hotels to maintain SPG Platinum status, but (a) we already reached Platinum for 2016 and (b) the cheapest hotels were 12,000-30,000 SPG points per night.

We probably would have selected the the Westin Grand Central, which ran $426 per night (including taxes/fees). Using points, it was only" 12,000 SPG points and also located very close to the event my parents are attending. However, those SPG points were worth 2.5 cents/pt to my father (so $300) in future hotel redemption value.

2. Hyatt - 100 Hyatt Gold Passport points, but 377,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards

For my parents' anniversary this summer, they stayed at the Andaz 5th Avenue for 20,000 points on a special promotion (normally 25,000 points). Both the Andaz and the Grand Hyatt would be ideally located for their event, but 25k Chase UR point price tags weren't cheap (those points were worth about $500 to my father). And my father sure as heck won't spend $716 in cash for another night at the Andaz (without complimentary breakfast).

3. InterContinental - 165,514 IHG points + Free Award Night

My parents had racked up quite a bit of IHG points over the years, taking advantage of their generous 2013 promotions. Plus, since each of my parents had their own IHG Visa credit card, each one received a Free Night Award for any IHG hotel in the world. After using one of them for my grandmother's stay at the Intercontinental Hong Kong for her 65th birthday trip, we still had one left that wouldn't expire until September 2016, and also over 165k in IHG Points.

If we did want to use these points, we'd opt for the InterContinetal Times Square. It ran about $555 in cash (including taxes), but would have been 50,000 IHG points (which my father would value at $400 or 0.8 cents/pt). Of course, we'd have to deal with getting through Times Square, so not a perfectly ideal location for us.

4. Club Carlson - 23,045 points + Free Night Award

Similar to IHG, we actually received a surprise Free Night Award from US Bank for having their Club Carlson Visa credit card. While not a guaranteed perk, the bank generously offered us the certificate for no real reason, though we suspect it had something to do with downgrading the other award benefits of the card earlier this year. 

23k points, however, isn't enough to stay at the single Club Carlson hotel in Manhattan - the Radisson Martinque in Herald Square/Koreatown - which runs a whopping 70,000 points (which my father values at $560 or 0.8 cents/pt). 

Our Decision

When it came down to our choices, it really was between (1) Starwood in an effort to reach 50 nights this year, which would earn us 10 additional SPG Suite Night Awards or (4) Club Carlson given we were unlikely to find another use for their Free Night coupon.

And since you read the post title "Free Night at Club Carlson," I'm sure you figured out which option we chose.

Whenever we have the choice of using an expiring coupon or points, we always redeem the coupon first. Why? Because the points shouldn't ever expire, though they are susceptible to program devaluations in the long run.

And while the coupon could have been redeemed for any Club Carlson hotel in the world (including the very expensive Mayfair in London), we were actually very limited in redemption options. After all, we only had 1 free night coupon and lacked enough Club Carlson points for a free second night. And my cheap Asian father would never pay those ridiculous cash rates for an expensive luxury city hotel. So how many near-term future 1 night stays did we think we'd have?

Comparing that to the very valuable and versatile SPG points, we'd much rather save 12k points for possibly 2-4 free award nights at lower category hotels, such as the multiple Four Points over Labor Day weekend.

The Booking

So we went online and booked the Radisson Martinique on Broadway. Per the e-coupon's instructions, we just had to enter a code while searching for hotels. As you can see, the rate came out to $0.00 for the night using the code.

Curious to see what we would have had to pay in cash, we looked at the revenue rates. That same night in the same hotel room would have cost $389 under the Advance Purchase (non-refundable) rate after taxes and fees.

Considering that certificate had a high chance of never been used at all, we were pretty happy that it came in handy after all. When we look at the hotel award redemption objectively, it didn't save my family $389, but rather it kept my family from burning 12,000 SPG points.

Which hotel would you have chosen?

That 70's Vacation - Four Points x 2

Hotel Details 
Hotel: Four Points Scranton & Niagara NY
Dates: September 3-5, 2015
Rate Paid: 3,500 SPG points/night
Regular Cost: $157/night 
Redemption: 4.5 cents/SPG point

Since we didn't want to spend too much money on our long weekend trip to Niagara Falls, we used our SPG points for hotel stays to save cash.

Fortunately, we found availability at Four Points Scranton on Thursday night and Four Points Niagara Falls NY on Friday night for 4,000 and 3,000 SPG points, respectively.

The Scranton location was pretty underwhelming, even for a Four Points. When we checked in, the staff seemed distracted as if we interrupted their game of Candy Crush. They were kind enough to give us our room keys and after my father asked, we were given vouchers for a complimentary breakfast (per our SPG Platinum status benefit).

Technically, SPG Platinum members should have also been upgraded to a King Suite, but we didn't push since an extra 70 sq ft wouldn't make a difference for a single night.

The room we had was fine, pretty clean and had working AC. Nothing to really complain about as we dropped off our things to head to the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Railriders baseball game.

The hotel did have an indoor pool, though we didn't use it on our stay. The lobby area was nicely appointed and would have been a nice place to lounge around if we were with a larger group of friends/family. But since we didn't get back from the Railriders game until 10PM, we were ready for bed to start our day early the next morning.

The next morning, we used our vouchers at the restaurant downstairs, The Electric Grill.

While SPG Platinum only guarantees you complimentary continental breakfast, this Four Points gave you a voucher for any item on the breakfast menu. We ordered the Fritatta and the Breakfast Sandwich while they were nice enough to include my kid's order of Pancakes for free.

The next day, we made our way up north towards Niagara Falls. Instead of heading into Canada on Friday night, my parents decided to stop at the border and enjoy a Friday night in the United States where our Verizon cell phone data package would still be free.

Unlike it's Scranton counterpart, the Four Points in Niagara Falls (really just outside Buffalo) was quite packed when we arrived Friday night. Apparently, there was a wedding. But despite the heightened level of activity, the front desk at this Four Points was super friendly and welcoming. This staff was exceptionally trained in the art of hospitality!

Our room was fine, pretty standard for Four Points. While there were no suite upgrades available, the Front Desk did upgrade us to a River View room on the 4th Floor. The bathroom was conveniently set up with the sink outside of the room with the toilet and bathtub.

The pool area looked like it was enclosed subsequent to the building being built, which made for a much nicer swimming experience in the evenings when the temperature got cooler.

But the best part of the Four Points Niagara Falls is the outdoor patio and deck overlooking the river. Simple but beautiful in the late afternoon and in the evening where they light up the bridge.

The best part was, since it was during Labor Day Weekend, the cash rate for a night here was going for $214 including tax. But since it was a Category 2 Starwood hotel and a weekend night, we only used 3,000 SPG points! At 7 cents/pt, that's an A+ redemption!

That 70's Vacation - Intro

A few months ago, my parents had to figure out what to do for Labor Day Weekend. We knew that my pre-school would start the following week. This trip was going to be the last time (for the next 18 years) where we could get away before I had a state mandated academic calendar that would restrict our family trips.

So my father randomly picked Niagara Falls, given that we didn't want to fly anywhere.

As we started to look at the map, it was going to be a pretty long drive each way, so we decided to break up the road trip by stopping along the way in Pennsylvania and New York.

Of note, a few places on the route were the Poconos and the Finger Lakes before making it to Niagara Falls. Since my father loves finding "themes" for our multi-location trips (Japan/Korea, Germany/France and Italy/Greece come to mind), we dubbed this weekend trip as That 70's Vacation.

Apparently, these handful of US tourist destinations (along with Lake George) hit their peak in popularity during 1970's when East Coast American families would frequent these drive-able destinations and stay in motels. Think Mad Men meets the Simpsons.

These popular 70's vacation destinations even had some pretty amazing kitschy amenities such as heart-shaped Jacuzzi bathtubs for the couples along with their catchy television/radio jingles.

This little city girl was going back in time and into the country!

My First Mets Game

My parents are Yankees fans, especially now since there's a Korean rookie on the team, but last night, we took advantage of some cheap tickets for the Mets vs. Dodgers game.

Our seats weren't that great (upper, upper deck in far right field), but for less than $20 each, that's a great deal for major league baseball in New York City. Since they were so affordable, we decided to bring my grandmother too.

We decided to take the 7 Train out to Citi Field so that we'd arrive just before the first pitch. Tip: Definitely wait for the Express 7 Train as it's a lot faster than the local 7.

We entered around 6:45PM, so we had some time to visit the Mets Museum and the Team Store where I posed for a few pictures with a Mr. Met statue.

We then went over to the food court area out by center field. We skipped the Shake Shack and Blue Smoke options and went instead for the Pat LeFrieda Meatball sandwich ($14).

Our seats were in the upper deck and facing the setting sun, so we decided to take our time enjoying Citi Field and its amenities before taking our seats. I was able to take a few swings at the Kids ballpark near the food court.

Then we found a hidden little snack that was pretty unique in all our travels. Bacon on a stick by Pig Guy NYC. Not the cheapest bacon out there, but absolutely delicious.  We went with the Salted Caramel ($8.50).

Finally, we took our seats in Section 502, Row 11. While the baseball game was nice to watch, spending time with your family on a beautiful summer night was the real experience.