Earning Free Hotel Nights Without Credit Cards

A few months back, a reader left the following comment:

"This is a little random--but do you guys have any tips or tricks on booking hotels in NYC? Unfortunately, i'm still in the paying off my credit card debt stages in terms of point earning and cannot even qualify for a card with free nights, etc (probably a bad idea even if I did). I was just wondering since DC is so close and thought maybe you'd have ideas. Thanks! -c" 

I haven't responded to this comment, because I didn't have an answer to the question. Credit cards are the easiest way to get free nights:

• Chase Hyatt Visa = 2 Free Nights At Any NYC Hotel
• Chase Marriott = 50,000 or 60,000 Points = 1 Free Nights At Any NYC Hotel
• Citi Hilton HHonors = 2 Free Weekend Nights At Most NYC Hotel     
• Chase IHG Visa = 60,000 Points = 1 or 2 Free Nights At Any NYC Hotel
• Starwoood AMEX = 25,000 Points = 1 or 2 Free Nights At Any NYC Hotel

Like the reader states in the comment, not everyone is able to earn points via credit cards. "C" is doing the right thing by paying off credit card debt before applying for more credit cards in the name of points. No number of points or miles is worth damaging your credit score.

So, we are all back to square one? How do we earn points to trade for free nights in New York City?

My first thought was participating in Marriott's Unexpected Bonus or Mega Bonus.

Stay twice at any Marriott hotel, earn a free night at any category 1-5 hotel. I completed a $50 mattress run to earn my free night. Sounds like a great way to stay for free in New York, right? However, all of the hotels in New York City proper are category 7 and above. Therefore, MegaBonus free nights can't be used. However, there are a few Marriott's located near the City that are category 5, thus the free nights could be used there.

My next thought was IHG's The Big Win, which I wrote about here. Complete stays at IHG hotels like Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, Intercontinental and earn from 50,000 to 150,000 points. IHG points can be turned into free nights a multiple of ways:

• All Points
• Cash & Points
• PointBreaks (5,000 a Night Hotels)
• Flash Sales for points      

Here is a sample of availability at two NYC IHG hotels on a random Friday night:
    

50,000 points will get you a $450 a night room at the Intercontinental on a Friday night. Pay $40 and the amount of points drops to 45,000. Pay $30 more ($70 total) and you only need 40,000 points for that night.

If you don't have any stays at IHG branded hotels, the only way to succeed is to complete mattress runs. Mattress runs are throwing money out the door. Money the could be used to pay down credit card debt.

Again, I am back at zero. My last idea is to think small. Companies like eRewards, eMiles, Dining Rewards have options to transfer points at hotels. You won't earn a ton of points from these options, but its a start.

As I have stated before, small steady will help you win the marathon. The points game is a marathon, not a race.

Do you have any suggestions for reader "C"?
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1,000 Bonus Points for US Airways Shuttle Flights

HT Heels First Travel

Since we are a DC based blog, I wanted to pass along this offer to our fellow DC Business Travelers.

US Airways is offering 1,000 bonus miles for each US Airways Shuttle flight taken through February 28, 2013. This is in addition to the 500 Preferred-qualifying miles that you get already. You must register here, book and travel in the month of February to earn the miles. From the wording of this offer, previously booked flights will not trigger the bonus.

FYI: A shuttle segment is a nonstop flight from Washington (DCA) to New York City (LGA) or Boston. 

The nitty gritty, fine details:

"Travel on any US Airways Shuttle flight between February 1 - 28, 2013 and earn 1,000 bonus miles for each segment flown. A US Airways Shuttle segment is any nonstop flight operated between Washington DC (DCA), New York City (LGA) and Boston. Customers with itineraries that do not contain a US Airways Shuttle flight are not eligible for bonus miles. Customers with itineraries that contain a US Airways Shuttle segment will only receive the bonus for that segment. For example, if you fly from New York (LGA) to Washington DC (DCA) to Phoenix, you’ll earn the promotional bonus only on the New York (LGA) to Washington, DC (DCA) US Airways Shuttle segment. Bonus is earned on base flight miles only on flights operated by US Airways Shuttle. Miles bonus will not count toward Preferred status. US Airways will award bonus miles one to two weeks after you register and travel has been completed."

This is a pretty generous bonus. Normally, this is for stand alone shuttle flights. In this case, if a segment of your flight itinery has a shuttle flight, than the bonus is triggered. Not a bad promotion if you need to go to these cities from Washington, DC.

Important: You must register to get the promotion. Here is the link again.

European Holiday: Radisson Martinique on Broadway New York City

Introduction 

DCA - JFK
Radisson Martinique on Broadway 

JFK - Milan Maplensa 

Lake Como and Dinner in Milan

Park Hyatt Zurich

Zurich (Uetilberg Look Out and Lake Zurich Cruise)

Intercontinental Geneva  

Is it a Queen or a Double Bed? The DoubleTree Westminster  

The Hyatt Regency - The Churchill

First Time in First: AA LHR - JFK

After our trip into the city via the Air Train from JFK and the Long Island Rail Road into Penn Station we exited to 32nd Street  and 7th Avenue and walked the two blocks to the Radisson Martinique on Broadway.

When we booked the hotel rooms were going from $350 and up just for one night. But we had a certificate for a free night thanks to the stay one, get one promotion that Radisson was running during October so our room was absolutely free.

We walked into the hotel and we were quickly taken over by a huge Alitalia flight crew that was heading out for their flight and a bunch of other tourists that were trying to check into the hotel. There were three people at the desk to assist people, but one was looking down and clicking away at her computer. Finally after standing in line for about 10-15 minutes she looked up and greeted us.

She searched and searched for our reservation for another 5 minutes and then asked for our drivers licenses and went into the back to "make a copy" of them...which I don't think I have ever experienced in a hotel in the US.

When she finally came back, after another 5 minutes, she indicated that we had been upgraded to a Business King room on one of the high floors. She directed us to the front set of elevators (there are two sets in the hotel), because the back ones do not go to the top floors.

The hotel was beautifully decorated for the holidays and though it was old, it looks like they keep it in great shape, much better than my last older hotel stay in LA.

The downside of a king bed in an older hotel in Manhattan is that the room is pretty small, especially with the big bed. It dominates the room and this is one time when I would have been ok with a queen bed. But the room was pretty nice, nothing too special so I feel bad for people who paid over $350 a night for this room.

When you walk in there is a decently sized closet behind the door and a nice office chair/desk at the foot of the bed. I appreciate that there was a set of lamps on either side of the bed with plugs, which is great to charge a phone at night. Kelsey loved the iHome that was also in the room so we could listen to some holiday songs while celebrating the holiday in our room.

On the left side of the room there was a dresser that had a flat-screen tv on top of it. If you wanted to watch tv it would be a little complicated from the bed because of the angle. It seems like it would have made more sense to mount the tv above the desk to allow for a direct view.

The right side of the bed featured a side table with water and water glasses, which I always appreciate after traveling, and a nice oversized chair.

Bed, Desk, TV, Dresser

Bed and Bathroom

The bathroom was quite dated and very very small. There was JUST enough room for the door to close without it hitting the toilet. It looked like the tub and shower had been updated, but it was still just average.

The best part of the room was out the tiny window and through the courtyard of the building which afforded a foggy view of the Empire State Building.

"View" of the Empire State Building 

The room worked for a night and we ended up only spending a few hours in the room to sleep. But problems arose the next morning when it came time to have breakfast. We had ordered breakfast using the door hanger method and put it out around 11:00 pm the night before. The next day was Christmas day so we figured that many restaurants would not be open, so we might be better off just ordering room service. To avoid everyone doing the same thing, we placed our order the night before so it would come between 9:30-9:45 the next morning.

Well we watched, with stomachs grumbling, 9:30 then 9:45 then 10:00 then 10:15 then 10:30 go by with no breakfast. I called them at around 10:00 and they promised me that it would be up soon, that they were just very busy. Finally at 10:45 it arrived and we were so happy....until we opened the plates after the waiter had left our room. We had ordered an omelet and a bagel plate, instead we were given an omelet and oatmeal. Apparently they had seen a scribble we had made and subsequently crossed out and put the word "NO" next to oatmeal on the hanger tag and ignored the gigantic "YES" and check marks we put next to the bagel plate.  Even better was that it was stone cold and lacking any flavor. Since we were going to meet a friend for lunch and check out in a little bit we figured we would address the problem at check out. In the meantime I looked at the check and realized that they had overcharged us for three items, the omelet, oatmeal and bagel plate in addition to everything else.

When we went to check out the front desk assistant was again very cold and didn't seem eager to help us at all. After I brought the restaurant issue to her attention she called the restaurant manager who was even less pleased to see us. He printed off our ticket and brought out our door tag to figure out what had happened and ended up blaming everyone but the restaurant for what happened. He indicated that the security team picked up the tags at 6:00 am and was supposed to deliver them to the kitchen and when he came in that morning there were not any tags. So...what happened to our tag...who knows. He begrudgingly offered to reduce our down to just the omelet and I accepted because our friend had just arrived and I didn't want to keep him waiting...but to say I was disappointed is an understatement.

This hotel was a big miss...some of the staff was very nice, some were so cold and just indifferent to the needs of all in the hotel. The room was nice, but I wouldn't pay $350 a night for it and the debacle with the restaurant staff just made me inclined to not stay here again.

After lunch it was time to take the train back out to JFK for our flight to Milan on the lovely AA 767. Let me just give you a hint....the 1970s called and they want their airplane back.

European Holiday: DCA - JFK and Air Train to NYC

Introduction 

DCA - JFK
Radisson Martinique on Broadway 

JFK - Milan Maplensa 

Lake Como and Dinner in Milan

Park Hyatt Zurich

Zurich (Uetilberg Look Out and Lake Zurich Cruise)

Intercontinental Geneva  

Is it a Queen or a Double Bed? The DoubleTree Westminster  

The Hyatt Regency - The Churchill

First Time in First: AA LHR - JFK

Well the day was finally here...it was finally Christmas Eve! While most people were excited to spend some time at home and get ready to watch their kids open presents, or turn into kids as they opened their own presents, Kelsey and I were on our way to the airport for our flight up to JFK.

When we booked our trip back in October the availability was horrible and all we could settle for was a trip starting out in Milan and ending in London. The trip left DC on Christmas Eve and headed to New York, but we wouldn't leave until Christmas day to go to Milan, so that meant Christmas Eve and Christmas in New York City.

We left home at around 3:15 for our 5:30 flight and after a very short cab ride we were at DCA. We quickly checked in using the AAccess line and checked our bags, but since it was more than 12 hours between our connection at JFK we would have to pick them up and re-check them the next day all the way to Milan.

The great thing about traveling on a holiday, or the day before a holiday, is that there is almost no traffic at the airport. The security line was ridiculously fast and the only hold up was someone in front of us that forgot to remove their laptop and take off their belt (yeah, it was one of those days).

After getting through security we went directly to the elevators by the security check point (these are very hard to miss if you aren't looking) to sit in the US Airways Club for a bit since we didn't have access on AA for this leg of the trip since we were in economy. But the bad thing about traveling on a holiday is that the US Airways Club was closed for the day by the time we arrived at 4:00. So we headed down to the terminal and picked up some sandwiches to take on the plane and watched as people hurried to and from their gates to head home for the holiday.

Our flight boarded around 5:00 and that apparently flipped a switch in everyone's mind that they needed to crowd around the gate in a way that made it impossible for anyone to actually get to the gate when their zone was called. There was literally a line up to the gate, but no one who was in the line was actually in line to get on the plane...they had just formed a line so they could be first when their zone was eventually called. After quite literally pushing our way through the crowd to get on board when our zone was called we made it on to the CRJ that would take us up to JFK.

The boarding was slow, but everyone finally got settled and we pushed back just a few minutes late. The Captain indicated that our flying time would be 37 minutes, but because of a storm that had just gone through DC during the day and was heading up to New York we would only be flying at 17,000 ft.

We taxied to the south and were number three for take off. This is my favorite view on take off because you fly over the Pentagon and you can see the Washington Monument, National Mall and Capitol off the right side of the plane. But not as much today, the cloud ceiling was very low so we were quickly up in the clouds and we bounced our way through the clouds all the way to JFK.

We must have been mixing in the arrivals queue because we circled a few times and then made our final approach and landed on time after our 37 minute flight turned into an hour flight. I think AA put in a bit of a cushion to account for JFK arrival delays.

The plane parked at Terminal 8 in the regional jet gates so we walked all the way over to the baggage claim area and picked up our bags and followed the signs for the Air Train to get to the city.

Those of you that are from NYC might disagree with our choice at this point, but we wanted to get downtown as quickly as possible and we were staying at the Radisson Martinique which was right by Penn Station so we decided to take the Air Train to Jamacia Station and then to take the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to Penn Station direct. We could have taken the Subway all the way through Queens and into Manhattan, but I just wanted to get to the hotel and drop off our bag to go explore the city on Christmas Eve.

We took the train to Jamacia station and got in the large line to buy tickets to get out of the station and to also buy our LIRR tickets. The problem was the machines were not the easiest to use on first glance and the guy who was there to "help" was just accosting people because they couldn't figure out how to use the machines. We bought our tickets for the LIRR and headed to the exit gates, but we quickly realized when the gates wouldn't open that we didn't purchase a $5 Metro Card which you have to use to get in/out of the Air Train area. So we headed over to the Newsstand that was right by the exit and purchased two $5 Metro Cards and then proceeded to run to the LIRR track because our train was leaving in two minutes.

Once aboard it was a quick 15-20 minute ride into Manhattan and we disembarked at Penn Station and headed for the 32nd Street Exit to walk to our hotel for the night. 

United Silver...What I didn't think was possible. Plus maximizing a mileage run and hotel promotions

Back when we started this blog I was just easing into the idea of trying for elite status on some airline next year, throwing this year out of the question because of time and work. But then I added a bit of work travel I was not expecting and an extra trip to the west coast and realized that I was only about 5,000 miles away from United Silver.

I know that some of the benefits can be obtained with the United Mileage Plus card, which I already have, but I was interested in some of the other possible benefits, including the possibility of upgrades (of course) though that is slim, priority screening and best of all the possibility of Economy Plus. 

My parents live in Seattle so at least a couple of times a year I make the trip from Seattle to DC and I always pay for Economy Plus to give me a little extra room on the ride over. If I could avoid paying those fees a couple of times a year it would really save me some money. 

So...for the past few weeks I have been looking for mileage runs to try to cross 25,000 miles on the year when The Flight Deal, which you have to follow on a regular basis for all things mileage run, posted a deal for BWI to LAX for $191 all in. I quickly booked two tickets for Kelsey and myself and now I when all of my travel is done I will be 500 miles short of 25,000 and will need one short run to help push me over. 

The best part is that while in LA Kelsey and I have each booked one night at the Radisson in Anaheim near Disney Land so that we can take advantage of the Radisson Stay One Get One promotion. We can use those earned free nights to book a night in December in New York City before we go to Europe and save another free night for another trip where a cheap hotel (read: free hotel) room is needed. 

The best way to get to your travel goals is to look at where you stand...what you want to do...and the best way to get there in as few steps as possible and for as little money as possible. :)