What I’ve Learned, Planned, and Booked May 23′

What I’ve Learned

I have an addiction to status. As I’m getting closer to reaching Globalist status with Hyatt, (well my husband is getting the status technically but I did the planning), I’ve started having wandering eyes. Should I stay with Hyatt or work on getting status with more brands? For most trips I’ve planned, I have been able to find Hyatts nearby, in fact I’m usually stressing over which to pick when more than one look amazing. But I took almost half the year to reach top tier status, I don’t want to dedicate that kind of time to another brand if I still want to earn points for Hyatt. And that’s where the status matches and status challenges come into play.

One lucky day while scrolling through my emails, I saw one from American Airlines with the subject ” Enjoy Complimentary AAdvantage Gold Status”. I was intrigued and learned that with the click of a button, I could get temporary Gold status fpr 4 months. Which was perfect, I had an American Airlines flight coming in 2 months. Upon further research, I learned if I actually put in effort to get their loyalty points, I could keep it even longer. I was also able to sign my husband up which was amazing because now he can also earn AAdvantage points on his Hyatt stays since those programs are linked.

To add, I’ve learned I can also get Marriott status (well my husband) by calling and asking for a status challenge. He can get their second highest tier with only 16 nights (within 90 days) versus the 50 nights that’s normally required. That could easily be done with a month of travels… however, I really only have one night booked with Marriott from his account this year. So that begs the question do I even need the status? Especially since all the destinations I am planning actually have Hyatts. I’m still on the fence with going this route but it is nice to know the option is available. Especially considering he is starting to get tired of the same hotel every week (first world problems).

Update: While I did sign up for the Marriott Status Challenge, in the first week of May, Marriott had a promotion for 40,000 points per 4 night stays for the Homes and properties (aka Airbnb with Marriott points). Since it’s summer break, we had already planned to bring the kids to my husband’s business trip weeks and this worked out with great timing considering I’d be getting extra space and not go completely insane trying to work remote with two little ones. As long as we don’t show up to a total scam or dump, we should be getting 200,000 points of top of the points earned for staying with Marriott and booking with their credit card (they also had their promotion for 5 free night certificates. I can redeem myself for wasting this benefit in 2021!). Not sure if these “Airbnb stays” will count for the status challenge but I’d rather have the points. I can wink my way to getting an upgrade later.

Also another update: although I’ve been Pro-Reddit for the last month, churning referrals finally noticed I did not have enough “karma” or Reddit credit to include my referral links. I’m happy I at least earned some referrals, but it seems I must stop cheating and actually contribute to r/churning despite how mean they seem with the endless downvotes.

What I’ve Planned

Costa Rica. Surprisingly it’s not a very YouTube traveled location (I guess most influencers would rather go to the Maldives). I knew I wanted to go somewhere for my son’s Spring Break (yes, a year from now). But with what I’m already planning, I didn’t want to take the whole week off work. I have unlimited PTO, but I still care about my coworkers. So I thought a nice Airbnb to take the family away while we work would be great. I initially thought Hawaii but that’s never cheap so I’d prefer to not be working if I’m spending money there. I contemplated national parks but most of the ones I wanted to go to are up north and ideally I’d like to avoid cold for Spring Break. So Central America was looking good. Plus I wanted to knock off another country. So Costa Rica was decided. I could rent a nice Airbnb in the rainforest, and then stay at a Hyatt for a couple days before heading back home relaxed. I will say most of the videos out there on Costa Rica are more “adult oriented” in that they all involve zip lining, ATVs, or rafting. And since this trip is for the kids, all of that is out. But as challenging as it may be, I’m looking forward to bringing more family oriented content here. I know it’s possible with a little (or a lot of) planning.

What I’ve Booked

The Plaza Hotel!

Although we plan to bring the kids to the great city of New York in August, my husband and I had been wanting to have our own “Adult NYC experience”. By adult, I mean bars, Broadway, and fancy King beds.

Originally, I was planning to book a weekend at the Andaz 5th Avenue. According to Hyatt Reddit, that’s the 2nd most referred hotel after the expensive Park Hyatt. But one day as I was watching a YouTube video where someone mentioned “Bucket list hotel” and that had me thinking about my Bucket list hotel. The Plaza Hotel! If you’ve read previous blogs, you may have noticed a reference to one of the greatest Christmas movies (non-debatable). After watching Home Alone 2, I’ve had what seemed like an impossible dream to stay at the iconic hotel myself, even though I knew it’s probably not affordable.

My only way to make this stay do-able was if I could do it on points. However the Plaza Hotel isn’t part of Hyatt or Marriott. It is however, bookable on credit card portals. I had the genius idea to check Chase’s portal and noticed it was on there. However I really didn’t want to use Chase. But I did have a random Citi card bonus that also came with a $100 Hotel credit when booking a hotel over $500. And now, my dream hotel is possible.