Milenomics² Episode 199: News, Preparing for Japan, and a Quick Los Angeles Trip Report

0:43 Q3 2023 5x Categories

• Chase Freedom
• Gas Stations, EV Charging, Select Live Entertainment (?)
• Discover
• Gas Stations, Digital Wallets
• Citi Dividend
• Gas Stations, Home Improvement Stores
• Don’t forget BofA Cash Rewards and US Bank

8:58 Transfer Bonuses

• Amex
• British Airways 30%
• Chase
• IHG 70%
• Capital One
• AirFrance/KLM 20%

15:27 Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles Devaluation

• Ultra-long Business was 85,000 going up to 110,000
• Ultra-long First was 125,000 going up to 160,000
• VFTW (link): “Meanwhile premium cabin partner awards go up by as much as 40,000 miles each way. And it’s not as though they followed Singapore Airlines’ lead and increased redemption prices while eliminating fuel surcharges, either.”
• Can still book at current levels until Sept 30, 2023

25:09 Improve Your Lie: Japan Edition

• Initially a Train ride Hiroshima to Kyoto then UA award on ANA to Ishigaki
• JAL flight space opened up Hiroshima-ISG but through Tokyo. Booked with Alaska for 12.5k pp
• Checking 3 weeks out and ANA has opened space on HIJ-OKA-ISG, with 2 less hours of flying.  Booking with United for 8.8k per person
• Big takeaway: Alaska partner awards fully cancellable. Glad I had it booked as a backstop.
• Went ahead and cancelled this backup.

29:20 Santa Monica Trip Report

29:42 Delta Outbound

• Booked 2 in Delta One with Amex Business Platinum 35% rebate, 2 in Main Cabin and upgraded to Comfort+
• Upgrade didn’t come through for 2 in Comfort+ but 4+ seats opened up for AA First partner award
• Refrained from switching due to flight time of 7:50a on AA (too early) vs 10:50a on Delta (ideal)
• Delta flight in Comfort+ was fine

32:26 Hertz Rental Car at LAX

• What’s worse? The LAXit shuttle to Uber? Or picking up a rental car shuttle bus at LAX?
• No reasonable cars available in Presidents Circle area on arrival.
• Waited about 15 minutes and an Acura RDX appears, so we load our stuff and pile in
• As I’m about to get into the driver’s seat a Hertz employee and another customer tell me it’s “their” car because they’d been waiting in a queue for the next car that seemed to form after I arrived
• I told them it was my car since I was here before the line formed and drove off (possession is 9/10ths of the law?)
• I really don’t like having to fight for a rental car like this
• To boot the car was filthy and was fundamentally a surprisingly awful rental car (underpowered, janky infotainment UI, strange gear selection mechanism)
• Tweeted my review and tagged Hertz who DM’d with 950 points, enough for a free rental day
• Discuss: Directing your feedback to the appropriate party

44:06 Hilton LXR Oceana Santa Monica

• Hotel emailed a couple days prior asking what they could do to make the trip special/purpose of trip/kid names and ages (why do they ask this if they’re not going to do anything with the info? strange)
• I emailed back saying we were looking forward to our trip and mentioned it was a last hurrah before our teenager went off to college. They responded saying it would be $110 for a rollaway. Okay. Whatever.
• I emailed back on day of arrival inquiring about upgrade from $1,000/nt suite they promised me shortly after booking to a $2,000/nt suite they showed available on their website
• No response from the hotel at all  was kind of disappointing
• At check-in agent asked for $125 per night for rollaway bed
• I said that was kind of steep so we’d have a look and so long as they could provide some bedding we could make due with the sofa for my younger son
• During turndown service (world’s most minimum turndown service) they dumped a couple sheets in the room, didn’t make up either of the beds, and didn’t provide any pillows or blankets
• Always annoys me to be making up beds in a supposedly premium hotel at 10 o’clock at night
• Next day housekeeping came and…took away the sheets. So we have to fight with this every day? We’ll see…
• Spoke with a manager, a front desk clerk, and a housekeeping manager asking them to bring back the bedding, and leave the bed set up
• When we returned late that night: The sofa was once again not made up :(
• Sam, I think you nailed it when you said the thing they’re best at is saying, “Let us know if there’s anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable” (rather than actually doing what you’d like them to, or even directly asked them to)
• Eventually left a note in the room conveying directly to housekeeping our preferences - this worked much better than communicating through intermediaries. But were my requests so unreasonable?
• Price inflation is…ambitious
• $50/nt F&B credit is a bit challenging to use when a breakfast burrito is $30
• $65/nt valet parking (+$6.66 tax)
• $12 for Peanut M&Ms on the minibar (compare at $6 at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills)
• Website seems to describe the desired state rather than the actual state. Examples:
• Site says: Two Full-Service Restaurants (actual: One restaurant)
• Site says: Bottega Veneta Bath Amenities (actual: Bamford)
• Site says: Hand-tufted Nepalese Rugs (actual: no rugs)
• Site says: Bluetooth Enabled Hi Fi System (actual: not even a Bose speaker)
• Site says: Loro Piana Bedding (I don’t know what Loro Piana is, but I didn’t see anything with that brand near the bedding)
• Site says: Nightly turndown service (actual: Lightest turndown on record, they leave a packaged cookie and a card saying sleep well)
• Makes me start to wonder whether anything on the site is real. Like, is this really a California King? If I call the front desk asking for a tape measure will they give me one with integrity? Ha ha.
• Bright spot: Complimentary Oceanfront Yoga. Ended up being private one morning. Did they attempt to charge $165 for it?
• Bottom line?

1:02:43 Return Flight: JetBlue Mint

• Debated switching to AA First/Business close-in as 3 seats opened up in First
• With the Amex 30% transfer bonus to British Airways it was tempting
• Decided against it because there weren’t 4 seats in First and I didn’t want to backlog even more JetBlue Travel Bank
• JetBlue Mint was great as usual, such a nice way to get across the country
• Short Discussion of loss of NE alliance.