Introduction
Hey, not every trip can be an international first class flight. Sometimes, you just have to slum it around in domestic coach. Anyway, I had a friend’s wedding in New Orleans and I’ll share with you how I used miles and points to get me there. I’ll review the hotels in separate posts and what I did and more importantly, where I ate in a separate post.
2 Rountrip coach tickets from Seattle to New Orleans
Retail Cost – $408 per ticket so $816 total
Cash Cost – $408 + $135 ($99 + $36 in fees) = $543
Points Used – None
I think the older you get (or maybe the more money you make,) you begin to only want to fly DIRECT flights. I will gladly pay $100 more if my flight is direct vs having to connect. I think my only option was Alaska Air, which was great since I still had a $99 companion certificates from my March opening of a Bank of America AS Visa card. I could have used points, but why waste 25K valuable AS miles on a $400 ticket and only get 1.6c of value when you’ll get a lot more value redeeming on Emirates or Cathay Pacific first class.
By the way, I wasn’t sure where to put this, but the taxi cartel in NOLA has made a city ordinance where taking an Uber FROM the airpot costs a minimum of $75. OUCH! If you take a shuttle, it costs $20 per person. A cab has a set cost of $33 or $36 (1 or 2 people) or $15 per person if you have 3 or more people. Now, if you have 2 people, it makes NO SENSE to take the shuttle. Why would you pay $40 and wait for 5 stops instead of paying $36 for a cab?!? By the way, you CAN take Uber X to the airport, but some riders may reject you since it’s hard for them to get a fare back into the city. Long live the taxi cartels!
1 night at the Hyatt French Quarter New Orleans
Retail Cost – $200
Cash Cost – $75
Points Used – Free annual certificate
I originally booked 3 nights at the Waldorf Astoria Roosevelt, but I forgot that I had a free Chase Hyatt annual certificate (good up to category 4 hotel) from last October 2014. Since the certificate was going to expire next month, and I couldn’t find any other category 4 Hyatts to use the certificate on, I figure I may as well use it here in New Orleans. If I didn’t use it, I’d lose it. I’m going to cancel the card next month since I find it tough to use the annual certificates. My strategy is to just close the card, and apply again for it in the future to get the 2 free anywhere in the world nights.
2 nights at the Waldorf Astoria Roosevelt New Orleans
Retail Cost – $350 / night * 2 = $700
Cash Cost – $200 (manufactured)
Points Used – 50K * 2 = 100K
I thought about taking advantage of the current Rocketmiles offers to save my Hilton points, but I realized I was getting .7c of value per HH for this stay that I decided to just stay here for 2 nights. I usually only see .4c of value per HH (for a hotel of 50K points or higher,) so this was a gem indeed. Plus, this was my first time staying at a Waldorf Astoria. I had also read that Gold members frequently get upgraded here. I’ll write my review of the hotel in another post later. The cash cost of $200 is calculated by paying $6 to MS 3K HH points on an AMEX Hilton Surpass card at a grocery store (this was when I was doing that. I’ve stopped manufacturing Hilton points since then.)
Total Cost
Total Retail cost – $1,716
Cash Cost – $818
Total Points redeemed – 100,000 points
So using my BoA AS Visa card and my Chase Hyatt card as well as my defunct AMEX HH Surpass, I was able to save over 50% on this trip.
I was just there in August, yes its a ridiculous amount for cabs there, one of the uber drivers told me that all you have to do is put the uber destination pointer outside of the airport then call the driver directly after requesting an uber and instruct them to pick you up. All he has to do is take down his uber sign as they are not allowed to pick up there.
I stayed at the Club carlson country inn.. in the french quarter, booked using the BOGO free night when it existed.
That sounds really complicated Nick. Plus Uber X would still charge you about $34 fixed to downtown, so it’s not really worth the hassle.
I had 4 people in my cab, at $14 per person it came out to $61 after tips. Would love to have had an alternative =/
okay yeah, that makes sense then with 4 ppl.
OK, so I am baffled here by one thing….
You write: “The cash cost of $200 is calculated by paying $6 to MS 3K HH points on an AMEX Hilton Surpass card at a grocery store…”
I am trying to figure how it cost 200 bones to generate 3K points. Buying GC I see at around 36 bucks (6 X $500 GC) or even if you were just doing $200 GC means around $90.
All the rest makes perfect sense to me.
$6 per 3k points – 100k points (for the two nights) = 33.33 x $6 = $200.
Ok, I see now. That wasn’t too clear to me from the article. Makes sense now though and thanks!