My choice too; but we did have the mini cabin on the way to LHR and had amazing service!

Back in LAX.

Love love love LAX.

I've pretty much done it, although I'm not leaving HHonors or Marriott Rewards completely behind. I'm working on a strategy for maintaining top-tier status in all three this year. My Starwood status match request will be going in on March 1 (I was advised to wait until then to maximize the time the matched status is effective).

Marriott Platinum will be the most challenging of the three to maintain top-tier status with, since it can only be done with nights, not stays. I can easily rack up multiple HHonors stay in a week in most places if I need to by changing hotels every night. In some places I can do that with Starwood as well, or if there's only one Starwood hotel, hopping between it and another brand. But Marriott's 75 nights are a tough one. I already get a 15 night bonus for having the Marriott Rewards Visa, so that makes it 60 nights needed to get the status. But still, it's harder than when you can do it based on stays.

As a former Gold with HH and MR, I'm most impressed by the programs and promotions of Hyatt and SPG at the mid/high-cost range, followed by (surprisingly) Choice at the low-cost end.

The latter has redemptions only in Europe but one can only book near to the travel date. Yet I'm earning enough points on $80 in stays for a free night in Stockholm under the current promotion.

Good point! You also get your choice of meals, and the food arrives faster.

I really prefer around row 2 or 3, in the center section.

I would say yes, if you travel enough to locales with SPG properties. Thankfully, they seem to be branching out into more medium-sized markets with Aloft, Element, and the expansion of Four Points. Unless you are stuck traveling to true podunk locales, like ssullivan, you should be reasonably assured of finding an SPG property as they undergo massive domestic property expansion (particularly via the aforementioned brands) through 2012.

We need us some more free rental days for this June vacation. I wonder if anyone at my employer will freak out if I start renting three different cars in a week (one car/day) so that I can pull off a couple of National rental credits in the same week? I could do National/Avis/National and get two rental credits/week.

The nearest SPG hotel is 40.92 miles from my home. Then again, I travel from east podunk to real cities.

My employer doesn't care if I take screen captures to show that I get a lower rate that way. I Hyatt-hopped during FFN but showed that it was cheaper for me to switch hotels everyday than to stay in one the entire stay.

The French Canadians are worse. If you ever get them behind you in a line, let them get in front of you.

Some of the internet cafes such as easyinternet café (the same people who bring you easyjet) are cheep but I haven’t used them since 2003 so thing could have changed.

They’ve added a $30 tour at Hoover Dam less than two years ago which takes you beyond the generator room and inside the service tunnels of the dam. You end up walking up to this little vent in the middle of the dam to look out.

I was strangely unimpressed with Red Rocks after being in Sedona earlier in the year. I’m sure if I was able to explore some of the trails (I had a non explorer with me) it would have been a better experience for me.

Great story Scott

It depends on if spg has properties where you think you will travel. My number one reason why I stopped using their properties was they were no where to be found where I was traveling. For me HH properties are everywhere.

Hey now, you better respect my podunk locales.

And for what it's worth, years ago even Lubbock had a Sheraton. It's now a Radisson after cycling through a period of being a Clarion. And based on the reviews I've seen online, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Kind of like the nasty Holiday Inn (that bills itself as "The Premiere Convention Hotel of West Texas" :rolleyes: or something like that) that's just up the street from it.

Nobody at my work has ever said a word about me hotel hopping, which often happens several times a year to satisfy a promotion, or my vow to maximize BD miles gained through Hilton HHonors by never staying in a Hilton property more than three consecutive nights.

Almost forgot — another reason to rental car hop — car rentals booked on CO.com earn me points toward my Mileathon bonus.

Now if only CO.com's rental car reservations would start working properly again. :rolleyes:

I spoke with Starwood Lurker prior to the DO, and the number of new domestic properties coming online between now and 2012 is truly eye-popping. I don't recall exact numbers, but believe it was several hundred.

Luckily most of my business stays are in big cities, so I will most likely ask for a status match before I start traveling again.

Though I do have 230,000 hhonors points to burn once I get my 120,000 onepass miles and can find someplace exotic to jones for a week.