Mrs. Mackie is staying at a Fairfield Inn in CLL three nights a week and has taken to buying her own breakfast fixins and supplementing it with fruit and coffee from the continental breakfast because if she ate there every day she'd be dead in a week.

A milestone draws nigh.

Some of the Hampton breakfast stuff is not bad at all. I like the pizza-esque bacon and egg thingies, and it's pretty hard to screw up muffins and self-serve toasted bread products.

The brick-like stale bagels I've encountered beg to differ. Though, my sample size is insignificant, as are my comments. :D

Hamptons do have better free breakfasts in most cases than Fairfields. But in my experience most Fairfields are far more "motel" than most Hamptons. I had to stay in the Fairfield Inn in San Angelo for work last night, and while it was one of the nicer ones I've stayed in, the hot items on the breakfast consisted of packaged, microwaveable Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches in a refrigerator.

Never come across stale bagels. The worst problem I've had at a Hampton aside from the utterly crappy representation of the brand at Philly airport (don't stay there with a gun to your head) is a recalcitrant toilet that was a converted low-flow that didn't behave quite perfectly.

I'm not a huge fan of fresh eggs. I'm even less a fan of factory-made egg patties or scrambled eggs that arrived in powdered or frozen form.

I stick to the fruit, yogurt, and sometimes the muffins. Sometimes if I want to indulge I'll do a biscuit and sausage or the gravy, but 99% of the time I'm a fruit and yogurt breakfast person on the free hotel buffets.

I will admit I kind of like the Holiday Inn Express cinnamon rolls. If I'm staying in one of those places I'll usually have one during the stay. They're also easy to eat while driving to work.

An interim solution to the ANA debacle...

Got Grease Monkey??

Install this little ditty: http://old.wanderingaramean.com/staralink.user.js

Then go here: https://www.ana.co.jp/asw/AMCTopServlet?type=e

Click on the Award Reservation link on the menu there and then look in the top left corner. You should see a link that says "Click for *A Search" that should take you to the *A search form. You might get an error about session expired. If you do just click on the link/button to the home page and go to ANA Mileage Club again and to Award Reservations again. It usually works but occasionally gets that session timeout issue.

Any feedback you have is welcome.

Good point. Unfortunately, in the 'Box WC Bracket, I predicted FRA to win. :( Bad pick.

Aye, I've had both from both chains over the years. The CLL Fairfield property is over the older ilk, but it's decent, and for $77 a night (other Marriott properties in CLL are $130 and up), I'll take it.

Nicest Hampton I've run across is in BOI. Really stellar property, though the rooms were a bit tiny.

Chills and fever. Yay. :rolleyes:

You should tell that to "hamptoninsider.":rolleyes:

Coeur d'Alene, IME.

We'll still see you tonight, right?;)