I love Japan. It’s the only place in the world where someone does something nice for you and apologizes for it.

After landing from the Los Angeles to Narita flight yesterday, we headed over to the domestic terminal for our Narita to Nagoya flight on Japan Airlines. The domestic lounge is pretty simple, and I got caught up on email for a couple of hours. About 15 minutes before we were scheduled to board, my travel companion and I (or at least names slightly resembling ours’) were paged in the lounge. My friend was on a call, so I went to the desk for both of us, and was rather concerned about what might be wrong, since the flight still showed on time when I checked a few minutes earlier.

There were three agents standing there with frowns on their faces — “Mr. Lucky, I’m so very sorry, but is it okay if we give you a better seat?” I looked a bit surprised, though they had a laminated piece of paper with the aircraft’s seatmap. “Mr. Lucky, I’m so sorry, may I put you in 1K, this is a first class seat?” I said “that would be great, and where would my friend sit, in 2K or 1G?”

All three of them covered their mouths and let out a collective gasp. “I’m so sorry, you are traveling together?!” I said “yes,” and they said he would be in 1G, which is immediately across the aisle. I said I’m sure that would be just fine (given that the plane’s configuration is 1-1-1), and all three of them thanked me profusely and apologized once again, concerned this arrangement might not be okay since we would be seated so far apart.

The first class seats on this aircraft were JAL’s older model first class seats, the same one I flew in from Narita to New York a few years ago.

Since there’s still a trip report on the way, let me just hit on four points about the flight:

Boarding signs

What are we, pre-boarding the cast from Dora the Explorer?

Here’s a close-up of who they’re actually trying to pre-board (cause obviously anyone under seven and over 65 wears a hat).

Mt. Fuji

We flew right next to Mt. Fuji. Holy wow!

Onboard service

While the flight attendants were super-friendly, they make in-flight service at US airlines look impressive. The service onboard consisted exclusively of a beverage served in a small plastic cup with a lid.

Turbulence and announcements

The flight was bumpy as could be. We were rocking and rolling the whole way. The funny thing is that the seatbelt sign stayed off for the entire flight, until we began our descent. When the seatbelt sign was turned on the purser said “ladies and gentlemen, we are expecting a little bit of turbulence, so the captain has turned on the seatbelt sign.” So, what have we been experiencing for the past 30 minutes? Funny enough there wasn’t a single bump for the rest of the flight once the seatbelt sign was turned on.

An all around enjoyable experience, and now I’m in Kyoto.

A few weekends ago I was in New York for my brother’s bachelor party. It was supposed to be on Saturday, so I flew out on Friday just to be on the safe (and well rested) side. Friday just happened to be my birthday, and I do what I can to not fly on my birthday, oddly enough. However it wasn’t preventable in this case, so I flew up to New York in the afternoon on American, and spent the first night at the Andaz Wall Street and the second night at the Andaz 5th Avenue.

The Andaz Wall Street was a bit cheaper for both nights, though my brother asked that I do what I can to get a two bedroom suite at the Andaz 5th Avenue, both so we could have drinks there beforehand and also in case anyone wanted to crash there afterwards.

So I ended up using one of my Diamond suite upgrades for the night at the Andaz 5th Avenue, and then emailed the hotel to see what could be done in terms of a better room. They offered to upgrade me to a two bedroom suite (similar to the one I had the first time I stayed here due to a mishap) for $250, which I gladly paid. Not something I’d usually do, but given the circumstances I figured it was worthwhile.

I’ve stayed at both hotels plenty of times, so I’ll keep the reviews pretty stay and room-centric. You can find my previous reviews of the Andaz Wall Street here and here, while you can find my previous reviews of the Andaz 5th Avenue here and here.

I arrived at the Andaz Wall Street at around 3PM where I was promptly helped at check-in. The “host” was pretty cold and didn’t exchange a word with me, which was certainly a change of pace from the usually overly talkative hosts.

The good news is that I had been upgraded to an Andaz XL King (basically a junior suite) on the top floor. As usual the room was beautiful. I especially love the decor of the Andaz Wall Street rooms.

There was a seating area near the entrance which faces a big closet (also where the TV is), on the other side of which is the bed.

Living room area

Facing bedroom area

Desk

Bed

As usual at Andaz hotels, the minibar soft drinks and snacks were complimentary, as well as the wifi.

Minibar

Snacks/booze

I especially love the bathrooms at the Andaz Wall Street, as they feature an enclosed shower/tub, which is among the nicest out there. I’m not usually a “tub” person, but once in a while I can be tempted, and the Andaz Wall Street is one of those instances.

Bathroom

Shower/tub

Toilet

There was a little birthday cake waiting on the table when I entered, which surprised me given that I made a reservation the night before. While I want to give Hyatt credit for this, apparently a friend called the hotel the morning of my arrival to let them know it was my birthday. So I guess Hyatt gets half credit in this instance for executing…

Birthday cake

On Saturday morning my brother joined me for breakfast at Wall & Water, which has a nice brunch on weekends. The non-hotel crowd is usually pretty odd (who has brunch on Wall Street on a Saturday, other than losers like me?), though the food is always good. I do wish the hotel would clarify their breakfast policy for Diamond members. The general consensus is a $50 credit per day, though that doesn’t really cover their standard offering, so seems a bit low. Anyway, we only had a few dollars of overage, so I wasn’t about to argue.

Wall & Water

Buffet

Buffet

After visiting some family and going to Central Park for a bit my brother and I headed over to the Andaz 5th Avenue for check-in. Our room was ready at around 3PM, and was one of the hotel’s two bedroom suites (they only have a total of two). The last one I stayed in was bigger though didn’t feature a balcony, so it was nice to be able to compare both rooms.

This one featured a nice sized living room with a couch facing a flat screen TV, as well as a desk with a kitchenette. The fridge was well stocked, and as is always the case, the soft drinks and snacks were complimentary.

Entryway

Living room

TV in living room

View from balcony

Kitchenette

Fridge

There was also a welcome amenity consisting of a chocolate tart and bottle of wine.

Welcome amenity

The suite also featured two nearly identical bedrooms and bathrooms. Unlike the Andaz Wall Street, the 5th Avenue hotel doesn’t have tubs in the bathrooms, though the showers themselves are awesome.

First bedroom

First bedroom

First bathroom

First shower

Second morning

The following morning we had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, The Shop, where there was about a 30 minute wait.

The Shop

The Shop

I ordered the hotel’s famous lemon poppy seed pancakes, while my brother ordered an omelet, both of which were delicious. This was my first time not ordering room service breakfast at the hotel (since they let Diamonds do that).

Lemon poppy seed pancakes

Omelet

Anyway, as usual both Andaz stays were great. While I prefer the location of the 5th Avenue location, there is something remarkably relaxing about Wall Street on weekends, and at the end of the day New York transportation is pretty inexpensive and efficient, so I don’t really care where I stay.

These two hotels are my “go to” hotels in New York, though I’m still not sure which I prefer. I’m leaning towards the 5th Avenue hotel since I think they’ve really improved a lot since opening (especially in terms of Diamond recognition), though I’ll continue to choose based on their rates and where in the city I need to be.

This past weekend I had to be in Redmond, Washington, so it seemed like a great opportunity to try out the Hyatt House. Hyatt House is Hyatt’s newest brand. This particular hotel used to be a Hotel Sierra, and then was rebranded as a Hyatt House earlier this year. I guess Hyatt House competes most closely with Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Courtyard, etc., given that they offer free internet and breakfast, as well as extended stay hotels, given that they offer kitchens and “studios.”

Well, I was actually really impressed by the property, and found it to be a step above what the competition offers in the same “category.”

The hotel exterior was beautiful, and the lobby was inviting and warm.

Hotel exterior

Lobby

Lobby

The check-in agent was friendly though seemed to have no concept of Hyatt status, since she just stared blankly at my Gold Passport card and I wasn’t offered an upgrade of any sort.

My room was on the 5th floor at the very end of the hallway, which was quite a haul. The hotel is deceivingly big.

Hallway

The room itself was the most impressive part of the hotel, though. I don’t know what it was, but it just felt very “livable,” something I can’t even say about many high end hotels I’ve stayed at. It featured a desk and kitchen right near the entrance. While I’m not one to cook in hotel rooms (or at home, for that matter), I can appreciate a full size fridge.

Room

Desk and kitchen

Kitchen

I suspect part of what made the room feel so livable was how high the ceilings were and how bright the room was.

High ceilings

Living room

The room featured a comfy king size bed.

Bedroom

View from my room

The bedroom led into the bathroom, which featured a separate sink area and then a door leading to the toilet and shower.

Instead of having individually bottled toiletries the hotel has “pumps” with toiletries. Usually that annoys me, though these pumps actually worked and were full, which I can’t say for 90% of hotels with a similar system.

Sink

Toilet

Shower

The hotel offered free breakfast for guests in their restaurant area. They had cereal, several hot options, and even an omelet station. While it was by no means gourmet, I did think it was much better than anything I’ve seen at other chain hotels that uniformly offer free breakfast.

Restaurant

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

The hotel also had a pretty basic gym which I used once.

Gym

Anyway, on the whole I was really impressed by Hyatt House. The rooms were clean and nicely furnished, the public facilities were inviting, and all the employees I interacted with were friendly. For a rate of under $100 per night, what more could you ask for?

And on a mildly unrelated note, I really love the state of Washington, especially compared to Tampa (which is filled with nothing but strip malls and strip clubs, neither of which I patronize).

It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Hao for sending in this one.

Correct Answer:
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If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.

“Do you mind if I sit in the aisle, cause I’m going to be pissing like a racehorse all night? I just finished a bottle of vitamin water.”

Well, I guess that’s one way to try and get out of a middle seat. The question is, is it the best or worst reason ever? Sadly (and shockingly) enough, it worked.

A few days ago I wrote about American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and Virtuoso, which are two methods of making reservations that can get you additional benefits on stays at hundreds of high end hotels.

Some of you brought up Visa Signature’s Luxury Hotel Collection, so I figured I’d make a follow up post about it. This is a bit smaller scale of a program that’s available to anyone with a US-issued Signature Visa credit card, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, British Airways Visa, Hyatt Visa, United Explorer Visa, etc. To take advantage of this benefit you have to reserve and pay for hotel stays with a qualifying credit card.

The benefits for booking through the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection are as follows:

• Best available rate guarantee
• Automatic room upgrade upon arrival, when available
• Free in-room Internet or Valet parking
• Complimentary continental breakfast
• 3PM check-out, when available
• VIP Guest status
• $25 food or beverage voucher

To break that down a bit further, it seems like the best rate guarantee applies exclusively to the prevailing or best flexible rate. In other words, when booking through this program you can’t use an advance purchase/AAA/senior/government/corporate rate, so in many cases the savings that can be had there might more than compensate for the extra benefits.

I think most of the other benefits are pretty self explanatory, though the one I find especially intriguing is “free in-room internet or valet parking.” If the hotel offers both you can choose, and if you choose valet parking it can be a value of up to $50 per day. The Andaz West Hollywood is part of this hotel collection, so between the free valet parking (if you rent a car) and food and beverage credit, booking through here would likely be consistently cheaper than booking an otherwise discounted rate.

Anyway, the program itself consists of over 800 hotels, and while they have a lot of luxury hotels, they also seem to include a few more mid-range properties than Virtuoso, which is probably useful for many of us. For example, all the US Andaz hotels are included in the collection. The website lets you search hotels either by their brand, name, or location, which is pretty useful, and the website is as easy to use as just about any booking site.

The results page will list all hotels in the area (I searched Los Angeles) along with their corresponding prices.

If you click on “See Rooms & Rates” you’ll see all the room options along with the corresponding benefits.

The cool thing is that at no point in the booking process do you have to log in (though you can choose to have a username and password so your info will be saved). On the next page you simply have to complete the purchase with a Signature Visa credit card, and your reservation will be confirmed.

I actually hadn’t known about this program until a few weeks ago, and it really pained to me to think for how long I’ve been missing out on these benefits for the Andaz hotels I’ve been staying at.

As always you should look at all the options before making a booking, including advance purchase rates, AAA rates, etc. But in many cases the additional benefits with this program may total $100 per night. I think the biggest potential benefit here is free valet parking for up to a $50 per day value, which both American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and Virtuoso don’t offer as a benefit. So while I still generally prefer the offerings of those two programs, I can see many circumstances under which I’d use the Signature Visa program instead.

Happy booking!