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I’m not a frequent flyer between San Francisco and New York by any means, although I have found my way onto a handful of transcon flights over the past couple years. So far I’ve flown United three times (twice on a 757 and once on a Polaris-equipped 777), JetBlue once (Mint suite), Virgin/Alaska twice, and American Airlines first class once. My favorite seat of all is the United Polaris one, but most United transcons are going to be in the far inferior 757 seat also used by Delta (on their 757) and American (in business class). It’s a perfectly nice seat for a domestic flight, although in my opinion the two best “standard” options are the JetBlue Mint suite and the American first class pod.

Which one is better depends on what type of trip you’re taking. If you’re in a hurry and trying to minimize time at the airport, my pick would be JetBlue. That is to say, the Mint suite is a more comfortable and private seat than American’s first class pod (which is basically a narrower version of the business class seat on their 777-300). I don’t really care about the door on the Mint suite, and the seat is that Thompson Vantage inflatable deal that I’m not a huge fan of, but the overall amount of personal space is hard to argue with.

It’s a pretty close race, though, and each seat has its pluses and minuses. The drawback of the Mint suite is the restrictive foot area and the fact that the high counters on each side of the seat make it feel coffin-like in bed mode. Plus, the IFE is lower-resolution and has less on-demand movie options than on American. The American seat is more comfortable to sit in, but when reclined there’s a serious lack of room around your knees. The foot cubby is plenty big, but the seat feels very narrow overall. I’ve had this issue with the similar seat on KLM’s 787, although here it was even worse than I remember.

(It doesn’t have much bearing on the flight, but I do want to mention how much I like American’s A321T. It’s a really premium-heavy plane, meaning it only takes around 10 minutes to board, and people aren’t holding up the process desperately trying to find overhead bin space. Unlike the rest of American’s fleet, which is being densified in a positively Allegiantian manner, the A321T is refreshingly sparse, especially for such a high-traffic route.)

As for soft product, I didn’t eat on either flight, and I had great flight attendants both times. On JetBlue this seems to be par for the course, whereas I get the impression that I got lucky on American with a very enthusiastic purser who clearly loved his job. I was actually pretty excited to try the roast vegetable quinoa on American, but I had stuffed myself in the lounge and really didn’t want to cram in another meal just for review purposes.

That brings me to the opposite travel scenario, in which you’re flying out of JFK and either have a long layover before your flight, or you don’t have anything going on before your flight and want to relax at the airport. JetBlue doesn’t offer any sort of lounge access, especially now that the Airspace lounge in JFK Terminal 5 is gone (not that I would recommend going to that piece of shit even if it were still open), whereas American offers access to the best lounge in its entire network.

I was seriously impressed with Flagship First dining (not so much with Flagship check-in), and the Flagship lounge was pretty good. Overall I think United’s Polaris lounge in SFO is nicer in just about every regard, but American’s Flagship lounge at JFK is easily the 2nd-best lounge I’ve been to in the US. It was definitely nice to have a sit-down meal, drinks, and then snacks before our flight, and if I’m thinking of the entire end-to-end travel experience, I have to give American the edge over JetBlue.

The bottom line is that JetBlue’s onboard product edges out Amercan’s by a small-to-medium margin, and American’s pre-flight experience (at least ex-JFK) trounces JetBlue. How much each of those components are worth to you will determine which one you’d be happier flying. Of course, there’s also the small matter of cost… American’s first class is usually very expensive, and JetBlue is priced at or below business class. I used points for my flight and wasn’t that happy about it, since 50,000 miles is a lot for a domestic flight, no matter how long it is. (And it’s pretty shocking I was able to find availability in the first place, although American is definitely better on this front than United or Delta.) On the other hand, JetBlue is often downright reasonable, and with a sign-up bonus or two from co-branded cards, you can easily fly in Mint suites without having to use more valuable miles or transferrable points.

What does everyone else think? Am I crazy for suggesting American beats JetBlue in any capacity, or are there times where you value the pre-flight experience enough to drive your decision on which flight to choose?

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I’m not a frequent flyer between San Francisco and New York by any means, although I have found my way onto a handful of transcon flights over the past couple years. So far I’ve flown United three times (twice on a 757 and once on a Polaris-equipped 777), JetBlue once (Mint suite), Virgin/Alaska twice, and American Airlines first class once. My favorite seat of all is the United Polaris one, but most United transcons are going to be in the far inferior 757 seat also used by Delta (on their 757) and American (in business class). It’s a perfectly nice seat for a domestic flight, although in my opinion the two best “standard” options are the JetBlue Mint suite and the American first class pod.

Which one is better depends on what type of trip you’re taking. If you’re in a hurry and trying to minimize time at the airport, my pick would be JetBlue. That is to say, the Mint suite is a more comfortable and private seat than American’s first class pod (which is basically a narrower version of the business class seat on their 777-300). I don’t really care about the door on the Mint suite, and the seat is that Thompson Vantage inflatable deal that I’m not a huge fan of, but the overall amount of personal space is hard to argue with.

It’s a pretty close race, though, and each seat has its pluses and minuses. The drawback of the Mint suite is the restrictive foot area and the fact that the high counters on each side of the seat make it feel coffin-like in bed mode. Plus, the IFE is lower-resolution and has less on-demand movie options than on American. The American seat is more comfortable to sit in, but when reclined there’s a serious lack of room around your knees. The foot cubby is plenty big, but the seat feels very narrow overall. I’ve had this issue with the similar seat on KLM’s 787, although here it was even worse than I remember.

(It doesn’t have much bearing on the flight, but I do want to mention how much I like American’s A321T. It’s a really premium-heavy plane, meaning it only takes around 10 minutes to board, and people aren’t holding up the process desperately trying to find overhead bin space. Unlike the rest of American’s fleet, which is being densified in a positively Allegiantian manner, the A321T is refreshingly sparse, especially for such a high-traffic route.)

As for soft product, I didn’t eat on either flight, and I had great flight attendants both times. On JetBlue this seems to be par for the course, whereas I get the impression that I got lucky on American with a very enthusiastic purser who clearly loved his job. I was actually pretty excited to try the roast vegetable quinoa on American, but I had stuffed myself in the lounge and really didn’t want to cram in another meal just for review purposes.

That brings me to the opposite travel scenario, in which you’re flying out of JFK and either have a long layover before your flight, or you don’t have anything going on before your flight and want to relax at the airport. JetBlue doesn’t offer any sort of lounge access, especially now that the Airspace lounge in JFK Terminal 5 is gone (not that I would recommend going to that piece of shit even if it were still open), whereas American offers access to the best lounge in its entire network.

I was seriously impressed with Flagship First dining (not so much with Flagship check-in), and the Flagship lounge was pretty good. Overall I think United’s Polaris lounge in SFO is nicer in just about every regard, but American’s Flagship lounge at JFK is easily the 2nd-best lounge I’ve been to in the US. It was definitely nice to have a sit-down meal, drinks, and then snacks before our flight, and if I’m thinking of the entire end-to-end travel experience, I have to give American the edge over JetBlue.

The bottom line is that JetBlue’s onboard product edges out Amercan’s by a small-to-medium margin, and American’s pre-flight experience (at least ex-JFK) trounces JetBlue. How much each of those components are worth to you will determine which one you’d be happier flying. Of course, there’s also the small matter of cost… American’s first class is usually very expensive, and JetBlue is priced at or below business class. I used points for my flight and wasn’t that happy about it, since 50,000 miles is a lot for a domestic flight, no matter how long it is. (And it’s pretty shocking I was able to find availability in the first place, although American is definitely better on this front than United or Delta.) On the other hand, JetBlue is often downright reasonable, and with a sign-up bonus or two from co-branded cards, you can easily fly in Mint suites without having to use more valuable miles or transferrable points.

What does everyone else think? Am I crazy for suggesting American beats JetBlue in any capacity, or are there times where you value the pre-flight experience enough to drive your decision on which flight to choose?

 

If you google “Park Hyatt Milan points and miles globalist boardingarea,” you’ll see a vicious SEO battle between One Mile at a Time and Live & Let’s Fly, although both results lead to comprehensive reviews with tons of photos that you should read if you’re interested in this hotel. (As an aside, let’s give Matthew from L&LF props for his use of header descriptions, since I’m guessing that’s what’s propelling him to the top spot in the search results.) In fact, the PH Milan has been reviewed so many times that I didn’t plan to write a review of it after my trip to Italy this month, since I figured no one would really care about another post with eight hundred pictures of Italian marble. Then a funny thing happened… I loved the Park Hyatt Milan, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to write about why I thought it was so great. Especially after I’ve been somewhat…ahem…unkind in my assessment of the Park Hyatt Paris, I felt like fairness would dictate I at least say a few nice things about it. Problem is, I didn’t come to this decision until after I got home, so I don’t have a bunch of photos to show you… just a handful of photos from the bathroom, which was magical.

Let’s start with the bathroom. At least 50% of the floor space in the room was taken up by the bathroom, which included the closet space, minibar, and safe. The main part of the room was pretty small (although still decent by European standards), although it didn’t seem that way, since all our luggage and stuff was out of sight in the bathroom. This is an interesting concept that I’d love to see at more hotels.

Of course there were also dual sinks, as well as enough mirrors to remind you to hate your body from many more angles than most hotels. There’s also a deep soaking tub as well as an octagonal shower with a rainforest shower head, a handheld shower wand, and room for you and six of your closest/dirtiest friends.

Finally, there’s a separate closet with a toilet and a bidet, and don’t worry, there’s a mirror so you can look yourself in the eyes while you take a crap and then clean out your b-hole.

Okay, so there’s a detailed review of the bathroom… what about the rest of the hotel? While it definitely has that standard Park Hyatt monastic look (especially with all the marble), the light color of the stone plus the abundant placement of mirrors in the elevators and hallways make it feel much brighter than the Park Hyatt Paris. Here are my thoughts on other aspects of the hotel:

Check in: It was fine, but I think Park Hyatts in general could kick their check-in game up a notch. Since the ground floor of the hotel is pretty small, the check-in desks are kind of tucked in a little corner, and it was crowded in there when we arrived. I guess I’m still spoiled by the separate little reception room at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam.

Service: Most definitely warmer than the Park Hyatt Paris. During check-in, the guest relations manager came out to welcome me personally to the hotel, and the check-in agent offered to escort us to our room. At breakfast the next day, Justine was really interested in who made the salt and pepper shakers, and the woman who seated us went out of her way to find out not only who made them but where we could buy them in Milan.

Room: Excluding the bathroom, I really liked the room. The king-size bed was bigger than the so-called king beds at the last two hotels we had stayed in, and the air conditioning vent directly over the bed kept us cool in the late October Milanese heat. It wasn’t that big, but they use the space efficiently by having the desk and couch attached to the wall. And as I mentioned, having so much space in the bathroom frees the room up to be very cozy. One nitpick: the carpet is super slippery for some reason. Both Justine and I slipped and fell at one point (in bare feet), and Justine skinned her knee in the fall. I want to know what Hyatt is going to do to compensate us for this horrible injury!

Location: I can’t imagine a better location for Milan newbies who only have a couple days in town. It’s right around the corner from the Duomo, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is basically right outside the door. Despite being in such a touristy location, however, the entrance to the hotel is tucked away on a little side street, so it still feels very cozy and intimate. I’m sure those familiar with the city would prefer to be based in other areas, but for us it was perfect.

Breakfast: Not cheap if you aren’t a Globalist, but it’s a very elegant spread. As an Explorist member, I got 30% off the cost of breakfast, but that still came out to around $60 for the two of us. We only had breakfast one of the days of our stay as a result, but it was a nice treat at the end of our trip. Still, I preferred the breakfast at the Park Hyatt Paris and Waldorf Amsterdam to this one.

Elite recognition: Aside from the breakfast discount, I don’t think we got anything from me being an Explorist member. Our room looked like all the pictures of a standard room on Hyatt’s website, although maybe the bathroom was bigger than normal? They didn’t mention anything about an upgrade at check-in or anything. We would have been able to check out at 2PM, although our flight was earlier than that, though, so we were out at the normal time.

Final thoughts: What a great use of the sign-up bonus on the World of Hyatt credit card this would be. I was really mad when IHG canceled my stay at the Indigo Milan right before our trip, but I’m happy in retrospect that we made the change despite having to burn 60,000 Chase points to do it.

We also enjoyed Milan quite a bit, although the main reason we were there was to position us for our flight home on Emirates. I was lucky enough to schedule a last-minute studio visit with my #1 favorite artist (Luigi Serafini, author of the famed Codex Seraphinianus) as well, so that probably colors my overall thoughts on the city. We both want to go back the next time we’re in Europe, though, since I feel like we have a lot more to discover there.

Oh and since it’s an insanely jaw-dropping building, here’s a picture of the cathedral. Having spent a good amount of time in Europe, I can definitely understand people having cathedral fatigue, although the Duomo is worth seeing no matter how many other famous cathedrals you’ve seen. It’s one of the most impressive structures I’ve ever seen.

So that’s my reluctant review of the Park Hyatt Milan… I’m not sure if there will be a next time, since I’m pretty much out of Chase points now, but maybe I’ll get over my fear of being shut down by Chase and apply for the World of Hyatt card by the time we go back. Plus, I never tried the restaurant, which is supposed to be fantastic.

You liked this post enough to read to the end, but did you like it enough to give me money? If so, check out my Patreon page.

If you google “Park Hyatt Milan points and miles globalist boardingarea,” you’ll see a vicious SEO battle between One Mile at a Time and Live & Let’s Fly, although both results lead to comprehensive reviews with tons of photos that you should read if you’re interested in this hotel. (As an aside, let’s give Matthew from L&LF props for his use of header descriptions, since I’m guessing that’s what’s propelling him to the top spot in the search results.) In fact, the PH Milan has been reviewed so many times that I didn’t plan to write a review of it after my trip to Italy this month, since I figured no one would really care about another post with eight hundred pictures of Italian marble.

Then a funny thing happened… I loved the Park Hyatt Milan, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to write about why I thought it was so great. Especially after I’ve been somewhat…ahem…unkind in my assessment of the Park Hyatt Paris, I felt like fairness would dictate I at least say a few nice things about it. Problem is, I didn’t come to this decision until after I got home, so I don’t have a bunch of photos to show you… just a handful of photos from the bathroom, which was magical.

Let’s start with the bathroom. At least 50% of the floor space in the room was taken up by the bathroom, which included the closet space, minibar, and safe. The main part of the room was pretty small (although still decent by European standards), although it didn’t seem that way, since all our luggage and stuff was out of sight in the bathroom. This is an interesting concept that I’d love to see at more hotels.

Of course there were also dual sinks, as well as enough mirrors to remind you to hate your body from many more angles than most hotels. There’s also a deep soaking tub as well as an octagonal shower with a rainforest shower head, a handheld shower wand, and room for you and six of your closest/dirtiest friends.

Finally, there’s a separate closet with a toilet and a bidet, and don’t worry, there’s a mirror so you can look yourself in the eyes while you take a crap and then clean out your b-hole.

Okay, so there’s a detailed review of the bathroom… what about the rest of the hotel? While it definitely has that standard Park Hyatt monastic look (especially with all the marble), the light color of the stone plus the abundant placement of mirrors in the elevators and hallways make it feel much brighter than the Park Hyatt Paris. Here are my thoughts on other aspects of the hotel:

Check in: It was fine, but I think Park Hyatts in general could kick their check-in game up a notch. Since the ground floor of the hotel is pretty small, the check-in desks are kind of tucked in a little corner, and it was crowded in there when we arrived. I guess I’m still spoiled by the separate little reception room at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam.

Service: Most definitely warmer than the Park Hyatt Paris. During check-in, the guest relations manager came out to welcome me personally to the hotel, and the check-in agent offered to escort us to our room. At breakfast the next day, Justine was really interested in who made the salt and pepper shakers, and the woman who seated us went out of her way to find out not only who made them but where we could buy them in Milan.

Room: Excluding the bathroom, I really liked the room. The king-size bed was bigger than the so-called king beds at the last two hotels we had stayed in, and the air conditioning vent directly over the bed kept us cool in the late October Milanese heat. It wasn’t that big, but they use the space efficiently by having the desk and couch attached to the wall. And as I mentioned, having so much space in the bathroom frees the room up to be very cozy. One nitpick: the carpet is super slippery for some reason. Both Justine and I slipped and fell at one point (in bare feet), and Justine skinned her knee in the fall. I want to know what Hyatt is going to do to compensate us for this horrible injury!

Location: I can’t imagine a better location for Milan newbies who only have a couple days in town. It’s right around the corner from the Duomo, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is basically right outside the door. Despite being in such a touristy location, however, the entrance to the hotel is tucked away on a little side street, so it still feels very cozy and intimate. I’m sure those familiar with the city would prefer to be based in other areas, but for us it was perfect.

Breakfast: Not cheap if you aren’t a Globalist, but it’s a very elegant spread. As an Explorist member, I got 30% off the cost of breakfast, but that still came out to around $60 for the two of us. We only had breakfast one of the days of our stay as a result, but it was a nice treat at the end of our trip. Still, I preferred the breakfast at the Park Hyatt Paris and Waldorf Amsterdam to this one.

Elite recognition: Aside from the breakfast discount, I don’t think we got anything from me being an Explorist member. Our room looked like all the pictures of a standard room on Hyatt’s website, although maybe the bathroom was bigger than normal? They didn’t mention anything about an upgrade at check-in or anything. We would have been able to check out at 2PM, although our flight was earlier than that, though, so we were out at the normal time.

Final thoughts: What a great use of the sign-up bonus on the World of Hyatt credit card this would be. I was really mad when IHG canceled my stay at the Indigo Milan right before our trip, but I’m happy in retrospect that we made the change despite having to burn 60,000 Chase points to do it.

We also enjoyed Milan quite a bit, although the main reason we were there was to position us for our flight home on Emirates. I was lucky enough to schedule a last-minute studio visit with my #1 favorite artist (Luigi Serafini, author of the famed Codex Seraphinianus) as well, so that probably colors my overall thoughts on the city. We both want to go back the next time we’re in Europe, though, since I feel like we have a lot more to discover there.

Oh and since it’s an insanely jaw-dropping building, here’s a picture of the cathedral. Having spent a good amount of time in Europe, I can definitely understand people having cathedral fatigue, although the Duomo is worth seeing no matter how many other famous cathedrals you’ve seen. It’s one of the most impressive structures I’ve ever seen.

So that’s my reluctant review of the Park Hyatt Milan… I’m not sure if there will be a next time, since I’m pretty much out of Chase points now, but maybe I’ll get over my fear of being shut down by Chase and apply for the World of Hyatt card by the time we go back. Plus, I never tried the restaurant, which is supposed to be fantastic.

 

Back in more naive times, I wrote about how excited I was to have top-tier Diamond status in the Hilton Honors program. After almost a year as a Diamond, I can officially say that Hilton Diamond status is pretty much worthless. It’s not even that Diamond status is particularly bad, it’s that both on paper and in practice, it’s barely better than Gold status. I keep expecting Hilton to devalue Gold status, since it’s very easy to earn (you get it with the $95-per-year Hilton Ascend card and/or with the Amex Platinum), and the benefits — free breakfast, occasional room upgrade, and a 50% bonus on points — are better than any other hotel’s mid-tier status.

I went into the year with a bunch of Hilton stays planned, so I was really looking forward to upping my travel game with Diamond status. Here’s a quick summary of each stay, and what I got by having Diamond instead of Gold:

• Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam: no points since it was an award stay, possible upgrade to preferred room (not a suite)

• Conrad Chicago: around 4000 points due to the Diamond 100% bonus

• Hilton Denver City Center: around 1700 points

• Aleph Hotel Rome (Curio): nothing

• Hilton Molino Stucky Venice: possible upgrade to preferred room, around 4000 points

• Conrad NYC: nothing

The fact that I didn’t score a single upgrade to a suite is pretty disappointing. I’m sure I could have argued with the check-in person at each of these hotels, although arguing with someone over elite benefits isn’t really high on my list of things to do when on vacation. I did try to wrangle something from the Conrad Chicago, and they offered to sell me an upgrade to a room with a better view. So much for Diamond status scoring automatic upgrades to the best available room.

The upgrades that I did receive were to preferred rooms only, and I can’t say definitively that I wouldn’t have received the same upgrade if I only had Gold status. One interesting anecdote: I received a letter outlining my elite benefits when I checked into the Aleph Rome hotel, and it mentioned Gold status at the top. I reminded the check-in agent that I had Diamond status, and she gave me a new letter that was exactly the same except for saying “Diamond” at the top. So as far as room upgrades were concerned, having Diamond status may have gotten me onto a higher floor here and there, but other than that, it’s pretty worthless.

Of course, that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy my stays at these hotels. They were all really nice, and the Waldorf Amsterdam, Aleph Rome, and Hilton Venice had incredible breakfast buffets. The fact that you get full access to these buffets with lowly Gold status is nuts, and even after I cancel my Aspire card and lose Diamond status, I’m still going to go out of my way to stay at Hiltons due to how good Gold status is.

That’s right, I said I’m going to cancel my Aspire card at the end of the year. It’s still a good card, but it’s not worth $450 per year to me anymore. The $250 airline credit and free weekend night are nice, but even if I value the airline credit at face value, that means I’m essentially paying $200 for a weekend night. I’m sure I could come out ahead if I managed to book an expensive hotel on the weekend, but I’d rather save the cash and be able to use it on a room any day of the week. Plus, it’s not like they make those weekend night certificates easy to use.

The other benefits are of limited use to me… at best with Diamond status, I’ll earn a few extra points. I don’t have any plans to stay at a Hilton resort next year, so the $250 resort credit will be wasted just like it was this year. Finally, the $100 on-property credit at Conrad/Waldorf properties is similarly pretty useless.

Is the Aspire card right for you? I’d say yes if any of the following is true: you earn 100,000 base points a year staying at Hiltons (meaning that Diamond status would get you an extra 50,000 points over Gold), you plan to stay at a resort at some point, or you routinely stay at Conrad or Waldorf hotels on the weekend. For me, since most of my Hilton stays are award stays, it just doesn’t make sense.

In the end, I feel I got plenty of value out of the Aspire card in the first year ($500 in airline credits plus a free weekend night that I used at the Conrad NYC and the 100k sign-up bonus), so I’m not too sad that Diamond didn’t work out. It’s a bummer that I couldn’t get a single suite in six tries, but it’s not the end of the world… just the end of my time as a Hilton Diamond member. Has anyone else had better luck with Hilton upgrades?

You liked this post enough to read to the end, but did you like it enough to give me money? If so, check out my Patreon page.

Back in more naive times, I wrote about how excited I was to have top-tier Diamond status in the Hilton Honors program. After almost a year as a Diamond, I can officially say that Hilton Diamond status is pretty much worthless. It’s not even that Diamond status is particularly bad, it’s that both on paper and in practice, it’s barely better than Gold status. I keep expecting Hilton to devalue Gold status, since it’s very easy to earn (you get it with the $95-per-year Hilton Ascend card and/or with the Amex Platinum), and the benefits — free breakfast, occasional room upgrade, and a 50% bonus on points — are better than any other hotel’s mid-tier status.

I went into the year with a bunch of Hilton stays planned, so I was really looking forward to upping my travel game with Diamond status. Here’s a quick summary of each stay, and what I got by having Diamond instead of Gold:

• Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam: no points since it was an award stay, possible upgrade to preferred room (not a suite)
• Conrad Chicago: around 4000 points due to the Diamond 100% bonus
• Hilton Denver City Center: around 1700 points
• Aleph Hotel Rome (Curio): nothing
• Hilton Molino Stucky Venice: possible upgrade to preferred room, around 4000 points
• Conrad NYC: nothing

The fact that I didn’t score a single upgrade to a suite is pretty disappointing. I’m sure I could have argued with the check-in person at each of these hotels, although arguing with someone over elite benefits isn’t really high on my list of things to do when on vacation. I did try to wrangle something from the Conrad Chicago, and they offered to sell me an upgrade to a room with a better view. So much for Diamond status scoring automatic upgrades to the best available room.

The upgrades that I did receive were to preferred rooms only, and I can’t say definitively that I wouldn’t have received the same upgrade if I only had Gold status. One interesting anecdote: I received a letter outlining my elite benefits when I checked into the Aleph Rome hotel, and it mentioned Gold status at the top. I reminded the check-in agent that I had Diamond status, and she gave me a new letter that was exactly the same except for saying “Diamond” at the top. So as far as room upgrades were concerned, having Diamond status may have gotten me onto a higher floor here and there, but other than that, it’s pretty worthless.

Of course, that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy my stays at these hotels. They were all really nice, and the Waldorf Amsterdam, Aleph Rome, and Hilton Venice had incredible breakfast buffets. The fact that you get full access to these buffets with lowly Gold status is nuts, and even after I cancel my Aspire card and lose Diamond status, I’m still going to go out of my way to stay at Hiltons due to how good Gold status is.

That’s right, I said I’m going to cancel my Aspire card at the end of the year. It’s still a good card, but it’s not worth $450 per year to me anymore. The $250 airline credit and free weekend night are nice, but even if I value the airline credit at face value, that means I’m essentially paying $200 for a weekend night. I’m sure I could come out ahead if I managed to book an expensive hotel on the weekend, but I’d rather save the cash and be able to use it on a room any day of the week. Plus, it’s not like they make those weekend night certificates easy to use.

The other benefits are of limited use to me… at best with Diamond status, I’ll earn a few extra points. I don’t have any plans to stay at a Hilton resort next year, so the $250 resort credit will be wasted just like it was this year. Finally, the $100 on-property credit at Conrad/Waldorf properties is similarly pretty useless.

Is the Aspire card right for you? I’d say yes if any of the following is true: you earn 100,000 base points a year staying at Hiltons (meaning that Diamond status would get you an extra 50,000 points over Gold), you plan to stay at a resort at some point, or you routinely stay at Conrad or Waldorf hotels on the weekend. For me, since most of my Hilton stays are award stays, it just doesn’t make sense.

In the end, I feel I got plenty of value out of the Aspire card in the first year ($500 in airline credits plus a free weekend night that I used at the Conrad NYC and the 100k sign-up bonus), so I’m not too sad that Diamond didn’t work out. It’s a bummer that I couldn’t get a single suite in six tries, but it’s not the end of the world… just the end of my time as a Hilton Diamond member. Has anyone else had better luck with Hilton upgrades?

A post about hearing loss probably isn’t high on anyone’s wish list of topics for me to write about, but I’m curious if anyone else deals with hearing issues during or after flying. My ears are pretty bad for a 37-year old, and it’s largely my fault for routinely having “unprotected aural” during my younger years. I’m not much of a musician anymore, but when I was younger, playing music was the absolute highlight of my life. In fact, while I don’t have many regrets in life, coming to terms with the fact that I would never play in a nationally touring punk rock band took me most of my 20s. (I never wanted to be Bad Religion or anything, but I wouldn’t have minded selling out 500-seat clubs across the country.) However, I just couldn’t bring myself to wear earplugs during rehearsals (and certainly not while performing). I went to my fair share of shows too (also sans hearing protection), but I have a theory that small club gigs are actually worse overall for your hearing, since they aren’t professionally mixed. As a result, you have a bunch of amateurs with equipment that’s WAY too powerful for the venue all competing with each other to be heard over everyone else, basically turning the musical output into an unrelenting buzzsaw of sound for the unlucky audience members.

I finally got wise and started wearing earplugs religiously whenever I was in a loud environment — I even went to an audiologist and got the fancy custom-molded ones with the professional sound filters, which makes the music sound a lot better than with foam plugs. Unfortunately, that wasn’t before I had given myself persistent tinnitus (ringing in the ears) that I will have for the rest of my life (and it will probably get worse as I age). I can’t sleep without a white noise machine, because the ringing drives me nuts. Most of the day I don’t really think about it, but a few times a day I’ll get a zing in one ear that’s really unpleasant. I had my hearing checked, and my overall hearing levels are pretty good, except for a sharp dropoff right at the frequency that constantly rings in my ears.

I try to get my hearing checked every few years to make sure I’m not doing any additional damage, especially considering the amount of time I spend wearing headphones. I started wearing noise-canceling headphones on my commute so I could listen to music at lower volumes without having to fight the noise from the BART train (which itself is so loud that many commuters wear those industrial noise-blocking headsets). Still, between my 2+ hours commuting every day, listening to headphones at work, and then watching TV with headphones at home, I spend probably 7 hours a day in headphones, which means I have to be really careful not to let the volume get too loud. If I do, I’ll notice my ears feeling fatigued by the end of the day, and the ringing at night while I’m trying to sleep will be much louder.

Okay, so that’s a not-so-brief history of my ears, and now I’ll turn it back to flying. Planes are loud. I haven’t measured the decibels in-flight, and it obviously depends on the type of plane and where you’re sitting, but the noise is going to be significant throughout the plane. To compensate for that, most people use noise-canceling headphones, although I’ve noticed that even with quality noise cancelation (I use Bose), I still need my music to be a few clicks louder on a plane in order to hear it above the noise. Movies are even worse, since the sound mixing in a lot of IFE programming is pretty bad, meaning you have to turn it way up to hear quiet conversations and risk blowing out your eardrums whenever there’s a car chase or fight scene.

On long flights, I definitely notice my ears getting fatigued by the end of the flight, and I always deal with increased ringing after flying. From my periodic hearing checks, I know that these episodes aren’t causing general hearing loss, but as I get older, the strain that I’m putting on my ears is concerning me more and more. After all, pain is a pretty good guide, and if my ears are hurting from too much noise, I’m probably not doing them any good. (There’s also my biggest fear to worry about, which is developing hyperacusis rather than hearing loss — for a horrible story of how hyperacusis can destroy your life, check out the history of the band “Azusa Plane.”)

In general, I’m annoyed by stories of how frequent flying is bad for you for whatever reason, mostly because everything is bad for you. If you don’t eat organic food, have a standing desk, do yoga for 2 hours a day, and run marathons, you’re going to die a horrible death, whereas if you do all those things… you’re still going to die, just healthier. Everyone makes healthy choices and unhealthy choices, and I’m positive that people that most vociferously blame flying for health issues are dickwads who are jealous that they’re too lazy to travel. (Well, dickwads or totally justified flight attendants whose careers put them in a toxic environment for hours on end.)

Having said that, I can’t believe that flying doesn’t contribute to hearing loss or tinnitus, and I’m curious whether this is ever an issue for folks who fly six-figure miles per year. Everyone’s ears are different, so I might just be more sensitive to moderate volume than others. Still, the amount of time some people spend under headphones that are turned up high enough to drown engine noise can’t be totally safe. So, I’m interested in HEARING from the commentariat if anyone else deals with this, how you manage it, and if I’m being irrationally paranoid about damaging my ears through flying. Just make sure not to type too loudly.

Editor’s note: I was considering the title “HEAR we go again” instead, but I went with the Shakespeare quote since I wrote this post on a train going from Rome to Venice. The more you know!

You liked this post enough to read to the end, but did you like it enough to give me money? If so, check out my Patreon page.

A post about hearing loss probably isn’t high on anyone’s wish list of topics for me to write about, but I’m curious if anyone else deals with hearing issues during or after flying. My ears are pretty bad for a 37-year old, and it’s largely my fault for routinely having “unprotected aural” during my younger years.

I’m not much of a musician anymore, but when I was younger, playing music was the absolute highlight of my life. In fact, while I don’t have many regrets in life, coming to terms with the fact that I would never play in a nationally touring punk rock band took me most of my 20s. (I never wanted to be Bad Religion or anything, but I wouldn’t have minded selling out 500-seat clubs across the country.) However, I just couldn’t bring myself to wear earplugs during rehearsals (and certainly not while performing). I went to my fair share of shows too (also sans hearing protection), but I have a theory that small club gigs are actually worse overall for your hearing, since they aren’t professionally mixed. As a result, you have a bunch of amateurs with equipment that’s WAY too powerful for the venue all competing with each other to be heard over everyone else, basically turning the musical output into an unrelenting buzzsaw of sound for the unlucky audience members.

I finally got wise and started wearing earplugs religiously whenever I was in a loud environment — I even went to an audiologist and got the fancy custom-molded ones with the professional sound filters, which makes the music sound a lot better than with foam plugs. Unfortunately, that wasn’t before I had given myself persistent tinnitus (ringing in the ears) that I will have for the rest of my life (and it will probably get worse as I age). I can’t sleep without a white noise machine, because the ringing drives me nuts. Most of the day I don’t really think about it, but a few times a day I’ll get a zing in one ear that’s really unpleasant. I had my hearing checked, and my overall hearing levels are pretty good, except for a sharp dropoff right at the frequency that constantly rings in my ears.

I try to get my hearing checked every few years to make sure I’m not doing any additional damage, especially considering the amount of time I spend wearing headphones. I started wearing noise-canceling headphones on my commute so I could listen to music at lower volumes without having to fight the noise from the BART train (which itself is so loud that many commuters wear those industrial noise-blocking headsets). Still, between my 2+ hours commuting every day, listening to headphones at work, and then watching TV with headphones at home, I spend probably 7 hours a day in headphones, which means I have to be really careful not to let the volume get too loud. If I do, I’ll notice my ears feeling fatigued by the end of the day, and the ringing at night while I’m trying to sleep will be much louder.

Okay, so that’s a not-so-brief history of my ears, and now I’ll turn it back to flying. Planes are loud. I haven’t measured the decibels in-flight, and it obviously depends on the type of plane and where you’re sitting, but the noise is going to be significant throughout the plane. To compensate for that, most people use noise-canceling headphones, although I’ve noticed that even with quality noise cancelation (I use Bose), I still need my music to be a few clicks louder on a plane in order to hear it above the noise. Movies are even worse, since the sound mixing in a lot of IFE programming is pretty bad, meaning you have to turn it way up to hear quiet conversations and risk blowing out your eardrums whenever there’s a car chase or fight scene.

On long flights, I definitely notice my ears getting fatigued by the end of the flight, and I always deal with increased ringing after flying. From my periodic hearing checks, I know that these episodes aren’t causing general hearing loss, but as I get older, the strain that I’m putting on my ears is concerning me more and more. After all, pain is a pretty good guide, and if my ears are hurting from too much noise, I’m probably not doing them any good. (There’s also my biggest fear to worry about, which is developing hyperacusis rather than hearing loss — for a horrible story of how hyperacusis can destroy your life, check out the history of the band “Azusa Plane.”)

In general, I’m annoyed by stories of how frequent flying is bad for you for whatever reason, mostly because everything is bad for you. If you don’t eat organic food, have a standing desk, do yoga for 2 hours a day, and run marathons, you’re going to die a horrible death, whereas if you do all those things… you’re still going to die, just healthier. Everyone makes healthy choices and unhealthy choices, and I’m positive that people that most vociferously blame flying for health issues are dickwads who are jealous that they’re too lazy to travel. (Well, dickwads or totally justified flight attendants whose careers put them in a toxic environment for hours on end.)

Having said that, I can’t believe that flying doesn’t contribute to hearing loss or tinnitus, and I’m curious whether this is ever an issue for folks who fly six-figure miles per year. Everyone’s ears are different, so I might just be more sensitive to moderate volume than others. Still, the amount of time some people spend under headphones that are turned up high enough to drown engine noise can’t be totally safe. So, I’m interested in HEARING from the commentariat if anyone else deals with this, how you manage it, and if I’m being irrationally paranoid about damaging my ears through flying. Just make sure not to type too loudly.

Editor’s note: I was considering the title “HEAR we go again” instead, but I went with the Shakespeare quote since I wrote this post on a train going from Rome to Venice. The more you know!

Man, wouldn’t it be nice to fly in Finnair business class? Finland sounds like a pretty cool place to visit, and with Finnair adding cool new routes like direct flights from San Francisco and LA to Helsinki, now seems like a better time than ever. Plus, they’re a oneworld partner, so theoretically there should be a lot of options for redeeming miles on their flights. Except there aren’t, because Finnair sucks.

It turns out that business class saver awards show up pretty often on American Airlines, but every time you go to book it, the website throws this cute little error:

When Finnair and Alaska Airlines announced their new partnership, I joked that I was excited for phantom Finnair award space to start showing up on Alaska too. Get it? It’s a joke because I didn’t think that Finnair would push out bogus inventory to multiple partners. You can probably see where this is going, though… because believe it or not, Finnair business class awards on Alaska error out too. Hooray!

This was an especially painful discovery for me, since Alaska doesn’t tell you the space isn’t real until you get all the way through the booking process, enter payment details, etc. At least American has the decency to tell you right away — Alaska makes you think you’re actually getting to sit in that sweet sweet white cabin right up until the moment that they tell you that you’re yet another victim of Finnair being dicks.

The thing is, over the course of writing this post, I did find an actual seat on the A350 from LAX to Helsinki, but it’s such an anomaly that I’m not even sure if it’s worth writing about. And just because American’s site let me choose that flight and proceed to booking past where the error normally shows up, there’s still the question of whether Finnair would actually ticket the flight. Given their track record, I’m not optimistic.

As I said in the title, Finnair’s fanntom space is common knowledge in frequent flyer circles, but I still wasn’t aware of it until recently. So, I guess I’m writing this post to provide a warning to anyone who might get excited that they have a snowball’s chance in a Finnish sauna of ever booking one of these awards.

One quick tip if you’re using Alaska’s site and you want to check if the award space is real before going through the whole booking process: search the same date for seven people. If it’s fake space, you’ll still see availability in the calendar, and I think we can all agree that if Finnair won’t release a single seat on most of these flights, they probably aren’t going to release seven.

I’d love to see this change at some point, and availability is cyclical sometimes, so who knows. But for now, I’m gonna have to put my “direct flight to Helsinki” dreams in cold storage until global warming melts the frozen hearts of the Finnair executives that run their loyalty program enough for them to let me redeem miles for a business class seat.

You liked this post enough to read to the end, but did you like it enough to give me money? If so, check out my Patreon page.

Man, wouldn’t it be nice to fly in Finnair business class? Finland sounds like a pretty cool place to visit, and with Finnair adding cool new routes like direct flights from San Francisco and LA to Helsinki, now seems like a better time than ever. Plus, they’re a oneworld partner, so theoretically there should be a lot of options for redeeming miles on their flights.

Except there aren’t, because Finnair sucks.

It turns out that business class saver awards show up pretty often on American Airlines, but every time you go to book it, the website throws this cute little error:

When Finnair and Alaska Airlines announced their new partnership, I joked that I was excited for phantom Finnair award space to start showing up on Alaska too. Get it? It’s a joke because I didn’t think that Finnair would push out bogus inventory to multiple partners. You can probably see where this is going, though… because believe it or not, Finnair business class awards on Alaska error out too. Hooray!

This was an especially painful discovery for me, since Alaska doesn’t tell you the space isn’t real until you get all the way through the booking process, enter payment details, etc. At least American has the decency to tell you right away — Alaska makes you think you’re actually getting to sit in that sweet sweet white cabin right up until the moment that they tell you that you’re yet another victim of Finnair being dicks.

The thing is, over the course of writing this post, I did find an actual seat on the A350 from LAX to Helsinki, but it’s such an anomaly that I’m not even sure if it’s worth writing about. And just because American’s site let me choose that flight and proceed to booking past where the error normally shows up, there’s still the question of whether Finnair would actually ticket the flight. Given their track record, I’m not optimistic.

As I said in the title, Finnair’s fanntom space is common knowledge in frequent flyer circles, but I still wasn’t aware of it until recently. So, I guess I’m writing this post to provide a warning to anyone who might get excited that they have a snowball’s chance in a Finnish sauna of ever booking one of these awards.

One quick tip if you’re using Alaska’s site and you want to check if the award space is real before going through the whole booking process: search the same date for seven people. If it’s fake space, you’ll still see availability in the calendar, and I think we can all agree that if Finnair won’t release a single seat on most of these flights, they probably aren’t going to release seven.

I’d love to see this change at some point, and availability is cyclical sometimes, so who knows. But for now, I’m gonna have to put my “direct flight to Helsinki” dreams in cold storage until global warming melts the frozen hearts of the Finnair executives that run their loyalty program enough for them to let me redeem miles for a business class seat.