Through May 11 Hyatt is offering a 90-day Platinum trial to those with Visa Signature credit cards (that includes the Chase Sapphire Preferred, United Explorer Visa, Alaska Airlines Visa, and many more). You simply have to go to this page and enter your card number to activate your 90-day trial.

Platinum is Hyatt’s entry level status, which offers free internet, a 15% points bonus, preferred rooms, and 2PM late check-out. It’s also worth noting that Hyatt Signature Visa cardholders get Platinum status for as long as they have the card.

I love when hotels have innovative ideas to improve the guest experience, so I can’t help but mention what the Andaz Wall Street is doing for the week of April 8-15. They’ll have an accountant in residence to help hotel guests file their taxes. The accountant will be living and working in the Buttonwood Suite for a week, and you must set up an appointment to meet with him at least 72 hours in advance by emailing accountant@andaz.com.

I do find it funny how half of the press release describes the suite he’ll be working out of as opposed to what he’ll be doing.

Anyway, if any of you happen to be staying at the hotel and taking advantage of his services, I’d be curious to hear how it goes.

While it shouldn’t come as a surprise, just a reminder that Hyatt posted their 2012 confirmed suite upgrades last night to Gold Passport Diamond members’ accounts.

As a Diamond member you get four confirmed suite upgrades annually, each of which can be applied to a revenue stay of up to seven nights. They’re good through the end of February 2013, though in practice you can redeem them for a stay after that, as long as it’s booked before the expiration date and the hotel has confirmable upgrade space.

To access your suite upgrades, simply log into your Gold Passport account, click on “Account Details,” and then click on “My Awards.”

I often get asked how I use my Diamond suite upgrades, since there are only four of them and I have to make at least 25 stays to requalify for Diamond status.

I obviously don’t redeem them for airport hotels, “mattress run” stays, and hotels I’m only spending one night in. Along the same lines, I usually don’t redeem them for the most high-end hotels, since I end up redeeming points for them, given the cost of a stay can be $500+ per night.

The last factor is that I redeem them based on how nice of a suite the hotel upgrades those using suite upgrades to. This thread on FlyerTalk is pretty useful for listing experiences using suite upgrades, so can be a good place to start. Note how some hotels upgrade Diamond members to rooms that are  more like executive rooms than junior suites, while others upgrade Diamond members to full suites.

So what did I end up using mine for last year? Stays at the Andaz Wall Street, Andaz 5th Avenue, Andaz West Hollywood, and Park Hyatt Shanghai.

Introduction
American Flagship Lounge New York, American Business Class New York to San Francisco
American Flagship Lounge Los Angeles, American Business Class Los Angeles to Shanghai
Park Hyatt Shanghai
Exploring Shanghai
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge Shanghai, American Business Class Shanghai to Los Angeles

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I really struggled with which hotel to stay at in Shanghai, though in the end decided to spend all four nights at the Park Hyatt. The Park Hyatt is the second tallest hotel in the world, taking up the top floors of the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Hotel exterior at night

Hotel exterior during the day

After arriving by taxi I was welcomed by both a “greeter” and bellman, who helped me with my bags. The greeter walked me towards the elevatothrough what has to be one of the most elegant hotel entrances. You go through about five sets of glass sliding doors, each with nicely decorated rooms, before making it to the elevators.

Hotel entrance

Hotel entrance

Hotel entrance

The lobby is on the 87th floor, and the elevator from the entrance only goes to the 87th and 91st floors, which are for the lobby and restaurant. All other floors are accessed through a different set of elevators from the lobby.

Elevator

The lobby is also incredibly elegant and at the same time has a very “boutique” feel. I was promptly helped by the front office manager, who processed my check-in. My rate was 2100CNY for the first three nights (~$330/night), and then the fourth night was free (bringing the cost down to ~$250/night). I also received complimentary afternoon tea once during my stay, and managed to use a Diamond confirmed suite upgrade. So while this is usually a lot more than I’d want to pay for a hotel stay, I figured it was worth it given the fourth night free and suite upgrade. Those extra benefits (the afternoon tea and fourth night free) came by booking through American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (Virtuoso wasn’t offering the fourth night free in this instance).

Lobby

Once my check-in was finished the front office manager escorted me to my room on the 83rd floor and showed me all the features.

Elevators

Room entrance

The room was beyond stunning. At the entrance was a small foyer, which led to a half bath and then the living room. The living room had a desk, daybed, and couch area facing the flat screen TV. The entire living room featured hardwood floors, which I loved.

Living room

Living room

Second bathroom

The bedroom was also very modern, and led into the bathroom (which had even more controls than a Japanese toilet). To the left were the shower and tub, which, much like the Park Hyatt Seoul, were in the same enclosure.

Bedroom

Bedroom

Bathroom

I’ve never stayed in a hotel with a shower/bath as awesome as this place. The main reason I say that is because the water pressure was amazing. The shower had a rain shower, a “handheld” showerhead, and also another stream further down. Not only was the tub awesome, but it filled up in a matter of minutes.

Double sinks

Bathtub/shower

The bathroom with double sinks also has a built in TV, which I figured was rather impractical given that I’d much rather watch TV from the bathtub than the sink. But then it dawned on me that due to the mirrors you could actually watch TV from the bathtub as well. I’m not sure if that was intentional or a coincidence, but I thought it was genius.

The Diamond welcome amenity was a couple of éclairs, pralines, and also a bottle of wine.

Welcome amenity

The views from my room were stunning on so many different levels. For the few hours a day where the weather was clear, I could see for miles and miles. Oddly, the views were equally cool when the visibility wasn’t good. It was the first time I’ve stayed in a hotel where I literally saw clouds go by my window.

View from my room

The rest of the hotel facilities were stunning as well. The pool, gym, and ”Water’s Edge” spa were located on the 85th floor.

The infinity pool is easily one of coolest pools I’ve ever seen, not just because of the pool itself, but because it’s almost always in the clouds thanks to Shanghai’s smog. There’s also a hot tub right next to the pool, as well as a very nice deck for relaxing. Every time you arrive at the pool, one of the employees (who are oddly enough dressed in suits) bring you a towel and bottle of water.

Pool

Pool

The gym, while small, was well equipped and featured a fridge with bottled water and Propel.

Gym

Gym

One day I had a spa treatment at the Water’s Edge Spa, which is supposedly the highest spa in the world. I took advantage of their winter special, which consisted of an hour long “breathe easy” massage and 45 minute ginger polish. Not my first choice for an “add on,” but it was free. At 800 CNY it wasn’t cheap, though very good.

The waiting area for the spa is right by the pool, and as soon as you’re seated you get to pick out what kind of music, oil, and tea you want.

Waiting area

Spa entrance

The restaurant, 100 Century Avenue (located on the 91st floor), is also amazing. As a Diamond member I had complimentary breakfast there each morning, and the spread was spectacular. First I was always offered coffee, tea, and freshly squeezed juice (it always took a while to get, since they literally squeezed it fresh when you ordered it), and then I could help myself to the buffet. They had everything from waffles to omelets to dim sum to fruit to cereal, to anything else you could possibly want. Truly one of the best breakfast spreads I’ve seen anywhere.

Restaurant

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Omelet and salmon

Apple juice, coffee, dim sum, etc.

I met a blog reader for afternoon tea one day since I had a complimentary afternoon tea for two, and it was excellent as well. The comical part of the experience was that it was so smoggy that we literally couldn’t see out the window. Oh well, I guess afternoon tea in the clouds is just as fun as afternoon tea with a view.

Lobby lounge

Afternoon tea

Afternoon tea with a view

This hotel is very well staffed, perhaps too much so. When you get off the elevator in the lobby there are three people standing there to push the elevator buttons for you, welcome you, etc.

The hotel is part of the World Financial Center, so I should mention that if you go down to the ground floor you can enter the World Financial Center, which has a ton of dining options that are a bit more reasonably priced than those in the hotel. There’s a Starbucks, Subway, and well over a dozen other dining options, from Chinese to Italian.

All that being said, I do have a couple of minor critiques of the hotel. My stay was utterly phenomenal, but I think just about every hotel has a few places they can improve, so I don’t think I’d be doing the hotel justice if I didn’t mention them.

First of all, while the bellmen were friendly, they didn’t speak a word of English. I asked for a taxi to the Maglev Station, which got me a blank stare. I followed up with “train station for airport,” and they still gave me a clueless look. And there were three of them, so at least one of them should speak a bit of English. Furthermore, when I asked for directions to the Starbucks (which is located in the World Financial Center 200 feet from them), it was returned with a blank stare. I don’t expect them to speak perfect English, but very few guests staying here seemed to speak Mandarin, so I don’t understand why they’d put people at the curb that don’t speak a word of English, especially at a hotel of this caliber.

Next, as discussed here, the hotel doesn’t allow photography… unless you’re in the picture. C’mon, that’s ridiculous. Think about it, why would I want to take pictures of the hotel without me in them? Maybe to write a positive review of the hotel on Trip Advisor, a blog, or somewhere else? It’s just such a massive contrast to every other hotel, which promotes taking pictures and always jokes “you’re going to post these on Trip Advisor, right?”

And to show the level of obnoxiousness of the policy, I was working out in the gym one afternoon and a family of four comes into the gym and starts taking pictures of themselves “posing” on the equipment. I was in the background, and it was pretty distracting/annoying. At the same time, I wanted to snap a quick picture of the pool when nobody was in it, and they told me not to take a picture before I could even turn on my camera. Of course that didn’t stop me from “secretly” taking some with my iPhone (hence the bad photography of public areas — my apologies), but still…

Lastly, when I checked out, the agent tried to tell me my fourth night wasn’t free because there was a rate change and I used a suite upgrade. When she presented me the bill and I pointed out the fourth night wasn’t removed, she basically blamed the “error” on me and said the fourth night wouldn’t be free, instead of first looking into it and then stating the issue to me. The irony is that the same front office manager that informed me at check-in that my fourth night was free was standing right next to her. It was resolved in my favor in the end, though I still think it wasn’t handled well.

Anyway, despite the minor nitpicks, this has quickly become one of my favorite hotels in one of my favorite cities. Shanghai is such an exciting city, and the Park Hyatt is the perfect place to stay. There’s nothing quite as exciting as staying in the clouds.

That being said, the hotel is a bit on the pricey side, and I probably wouldn’t have stayed here if the fourth night weren’t free, simply because it would have been even further outside of my budget. If it were a special occasion or I were traveling with someone (and could therefore get more “value” out of the stay), I’d stay again in a heartbeat.

I highly recommend this hotel to anyone that has the chance. It’s also worth noting that this is a category 5 hotel, meaning it would cost 18,000 Gold Passport points per night, or 27,000 Gold Passport points per night for a suite. Both are also a spectacular value, in my opinion.

Introduction
American Flagship Lounge New York, American Business Class New York to San Francisco
American Flagship Lounge Los Angeles, American Business Class Los Angeles to Shanghai
Park Hyatt Shanghai
Exploring Shanghai
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge Shanghai, American Business Class Shanghai to Los Angeles

---

Back in December American announced a double elite qualifying miles promotion through January 31, 2012, which was pretty surprising to many of us. Unfortunately for me, all of my travel was planned for February onwards (including two trips to Spain and one trip to Japan), so I wouldn’t benefit from it at all. I couldn’t not take advantage of the promotion, so I started looking for good deals to Asia. Sure enough, there were some reasonable fares to Shanghai, so after stretching out the routing a bit I managed to book the following for $1,129 including tax:

1/25 AA1786 Tampa to New York departing 10:15AM arriving 12:50PM
1/25 AA177 New York to San Francisco departing 5:40PM arriving 9:10PM
1/26 AA1929 San Francisco to Los Angeles departing 7:00AM arriving 8:20AM
1/26 AA183 Los Angeles to Shanghai departing 1:55PM arriving 7:45PM (+1 day)
1/31 AA182 Shanghai to Los Angeles departing 9:45PM arriving 5:25PM
1/31 AA1798 Los Angeles to San Francisco departing 7:15PM arriving 8:30PM
1/31 AA18 San Francisco to New York departing 11:00PM arriving 7:25AM (+1 day)
2/01 AA2035 New York to Miami departing 2:25PM arriving 5:55PM
2/01 AA1985 Miami to Tampa departing 7:05PM arriving 8:05PM

The trip would net net me 43,474 elite qualifying and redeemable miles, and I even managed to confirm upgrades using two systemwide upgrades. American only lets you upgrade three flights with one systemwide upgrade, so I upgraded the flights from New York to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Shanghai and back, and requested a complimentary domestic upgrade on the segments between Tampa and New York, which cleared at my Executive Platinum upgrade window 100 hours out.

Anyway, this won’t be the most exciting trip report ever, so I’m keeping it somewhat abbreviated since I still have lots of trip reports to catch up on. I doubt y’all are interested in reading about my flight between San Francisco and Los Angeles, my stay at the Westin San Francisco Airport, or the Miami Admirals Club, so we’ll stick to the international portion of the trip.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, just let me know. Thanks for reading!

Last week I posted the details of Hyatt’s first quarter promotion, which offers bonus points for Hyatt stays through April 30, with the following bonus rates:

So basically if you spend 16 nights at Hyatt hotels between now and April 30 you would earn 44,000 bonus Gold Passport points. Beyond that, those with the Hyatt Chase Visa card (all that matters is that you have the card — you don’t have to use it for your stays) earn an additional 1,000 bonus points for staying four nights, 2,000 bonus points for staying eight nights, 3,000 bonus points for staying 12 nights, and 5,000 bonus points for staying 16 nights.

Registration is now open through March 31, so be sure to register at your earliest convenience.

When I arrived at the Park Hyatt Shanghai on Friday, my bedroom looked like this:

Today I went to the gym, and upon my return my bedroom looked like this:

Hey, better than my ticket being canceled, though anyone want to play Scooby Doo and guess what happened?

Certainly one of the few not fun parts of being a travel blogger! Though I did find it ever-so-slightly comical.

I’m told that in the housing market there are three things that are important to buyers — location, location, and location. Well, in the afternoon tea market, there are also three things that are important — view, view, and view.

Yesterday I met a blog reader and in addition to exploring the city for a while, we had afternoon tea in the 87th floor lobby lounge at the Park Hyatt Shanghai.

While afternoon tea was rather expensive (not as bad as at the Burj Al Arab, but still), it was well worth it given the panoramic views of Shanghai from the lounge. To say the views were heavenly would be an understatement. Here are just a few pictures:

Afternoon tea

View in one direction

View in another direction

This was a first for me. It’s my first morning in Shanghai and before touring the city I figured I’d do a quick hotel tour to get some pictures. All was well till I made it to the pool, where the employee informed me “I’m so sorry, but you can’t take any pictures of the pool or gym unless you’re in them.” Fair enough, though there wasn’t a single person at the pool or gym, so if their goal is to protect peoples’ privacy, there really wasn’t a need for it.

So given what she said I responded with “okay, do you mind taking my picture then?” And she proceeded to snap pictures of me at the pool, at the hot tub, and in the gym. I always stood in the sides of the pictures so I could crop myself out, and she kept suggesting I move to the center of the pictures.

So apologies in advance for the lack of quality pictures of what may very well be the most stunning pool I’ve ever seen. I’ll probably go back later with my iPhone…

Has anyone run into a similar situation at a hotel?

Park Hyatt Shanghai exterior

Introduction
Swiss First Class Lounge Chicago
Swiss First Class Chicago to Zurich
Swiss First Class Lounge Zurich
Lufthansa Business Class Zurich to Frankfurt
InterContinental Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt
Lufthansa A380 First Class Frankfurt to Tokyo
Park Hyatt Tokyo
ANA First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita, Lufthansa A380 First Class Tokyo to Frankfurt
Westin Grand Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt, Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to Orlando

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Before this trip, the Park Hyatt Tokyo was on my top five list of hotels I desperately wanted to stay at. Like everyone else, it’s due in part to the movie “Lost in Translation,” which is largely filmed at this hotel.

It has been a while since I’ve been to Tokyo, so when the opportunity presented itself to spend a couple of nights here there wasn’t even a question as to where we’d be staying. I booked the hotel just a couple of days before our arrival for 22,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points per night, which was a complete bargain compared to the revenue rate of $600USD+ per night.

I emailed the hotel the day before our arrival to request early check-in, given that our flight was arriving so in the morning. They emailed me back within a couple of hours to say they’d do everything in their power to ensure a room was available, though couldn’t guarantee it.

After a 90 minute ride on the “Friendly Airport Limousine” we pulled up to the Park Hyatt, where we were immediately helped by a host. She crossed my name off the arrivals list and assisted us with our bags. You have to love Japan hospitality, because this lady was probably 5’3″ and 100 pounds, yet insisted on rolling my carry-on for me, despite not being motivated by tips.

Hotel entrance

Park Hyatt Tokyo

Entrance

Elevator to 41st floor

The lobby of the hotel is actually on the 41st floor, so the host took the elevator up there with us. Upon exiting the elevator we were in the rather airy lobby area, which is where the lobby lounge is located.

Lobby bar

We were then escorted past the hotel’s French restaurant, Girandole, and through the library, to the reception area.

Library

At reception, our arrivals host handed us over to the agent that would be checking us in, who immediately escorted us to our room.

Reception

Hallway

Our room was a Park Deluxe room on the 48th floor.

Room entrance

The room featured a hallway, which led to the bed, seating area, and desk.

Hallway

Park Deluxe room

Desk and TV console

TV

Next to the flat screen TV was the Diamond welcome amenity, which were some sort of rice cakes, I think. I couldn’t decide whether they tasted like chocolate or barbeque sauce.

Diamond welcome amenity

Diamond welcome amenity

In the drawer below that was a tea set, and in the drawer above it was liquor.

Tea

Nice setup

Desk

The room featured amazing views of Tokyo, including Mount Fuji in the distance.

View from room

View from room

View from room at night

The bathroom was also large, featuring a tub, shower, sink, and high tech toilet with more buttons than an Airbus 380 cockpit.

Bathroom

Tub

Shower

Toilet

Closet

While the room wasn’t quite as modern as some other Park Hyatts (like the Park Hyatt Seoul), I thought it was tastefully decorated and huge by Japanese standards.

The agent quickly processed our check-in, explained the amenities of the hotel and Diamond benefits (free breakfast, free internet, complimentary access to the spa, etc.).

But what impressed me most, as I wrote about here, is the fact that there was a continental breakfast on the desk waiting for us, consisting of mango juice, pastries, and muesli. The agent said “we knew you had a long flight from Frankfurt, so figured you might enjoy a light breakfast.” It’s entirely minor, but this attention to detail is what separates a good hotel from a great hotel. So huge kudos to the hotel for this.

Continental breakfast

As I mentioned earlier, as a Diamond member we received complimentary breakfast in Girandole, the hotel’s French restaurant, which is served daily from 7AM to 11AM.

Restaurant

Restaurant

We had the buffet for free, along with eggs however we’d like them. The buffet itself wasn’t all that extensive, certainly not like the Le Meridien Bangkok, but it was still good. Then again, I don’t necessarily expect an outrageously huge buffet in a luxury Japanese hotel, but rather a smaller and high quality buffet, which it certainly was.

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

The most impressive part of the dining experience was when a waiter that I hadn’t previously interacted with brought me my omelet and addressed me by name. I’ve never had my waiter address me by name, let alone one I hadn’t interacted with. Amazing.

Omelet

As a Diamond member you can also have room service breakfast instead, which we had the second morning. We had to leave the hotel at 6:30AM to catch our flight and the restaurant wasn’t open yet, so we ordered room service for 5:30AM. Sure enough at exactly 5:30AM there was a knock on our door. The quality of the food was excellent.

Room service breakfast

The coolest part of the hotel has to be the pool and gym, though, located on the 47th floor. Not only did they boast fantastic views, but the service was more attentive than in first class on most airlines.

Pool

Gym

View from pool

As a Diamond member I also had complimentary access to the spa, including the pretty impressive whirlpools they have. It really is a nice facility, though it’s worth noting that nudity is required. I’m used to the option, but it’s the first I’ve been told word-for-word “please take your clothes off.” Hopefully I didn’t run into any of you guys there!

The first night we were tired pretty early so went to dinner at Girandole, the same place breakfast was served. We should have probably gone to the iconic New York Grill, but I didn’t feel like dropping $300USD+ on a dinner when I was dead tired. Then again, dropping $150USD+ on dinner isn’t much better, though it is Tokyo we’re talking about, so…

The service in the restaurant was hilariously Japanese. They followed the same procedure every time they served anything. Even if it was just a fork, they would place it on the tray, place the tray on the serving station (sliding it on there as if it somehow “latches”), and then walk the item over to our table. So inefficient, yet so consistent.

My Diet Coke with lime cost a mere $12USD, so you can bet I enjoyed every last sip of it (no free refills, after all).

The meal came with bread, which, given the cost of food, was a blessing (and they even had free refills).

Bread

As a starter I had the soup of the day, which was a corn chowder.

For the main course I had the tagliatelle bolognese, which was fairly tasty.

My main

My friend had the lamb chop, which he enjoyed as well.

Friend’s main

For dessert we shared creme brulee, which was delicious.

Dessert

Anyway, I have nothing but positive things to say about this hotel. While the facilities are very nice, it’s the service that sets this place apart. I don’t think I’ve ever received such personalized and sincere service at any hotel anywhere. The next time I’m in Tokyo I’ll return to the Park Hyatt without thinking twice.

One thing to keep in mind is that while a standard room is 22,000 points per night, a suite is only 33,000 points per night. While it might not be needed given how big the Park Deluxe rooms are, it would be pretty cool, and at only a 50% premium is a good value in my book. The only restriction is that you can only redeem for suites for a minimum of three nights.