As part of Hyatt’s January 7th devaluation, they announced that awards booked prior to that date would be eligible for changes using the old award chart until February 15th.
The 15th is almost here, so it’s time to make some last tweaks before those bookings are set in stone.
With a pile of Starwood points to burn, I chose to stay at the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas for five nights during my visit to Kauai. As a newly minted SPG Platinum, I had received a 35% off redemption certificate. Coupled with Starwood’s fifth night free for award nights, my five night stay cost a “mere” 52k points when the rate was $300/nt (plus taxes).
At check-in, I was told that I had been upgraded to a one bedroom suite. As this is a timeshare property, I was expecting minimal Platinum benefits but found that the property consistently overdelivered.
My room’s patio had an partial ocean view.
The hotel is located on the lush north shore of Kauai.
Princeville is a short drive from Hanalei.
For beach lovers, the one drawback of this hotel is that it does not have ready beach access of its own. The hotel itself is situated along a cliff, but there is a trail to a public beach nearby.
Additionally, the hourly shuttle to the St. Regis allows Westin guests to visit the beach on Hanalei Bay.
I took the shuttle over on my last night to see the St. Regis’ champagne sabering, but it felt a touch inconvenient compared to choosing a hotel with its own beach, such as the Sheraton Kauai.
St. Regis’ champagne sabering begins with a brief historical lesson before the main event:
For SPG Platinum members, the hotel offered a free continental breakfast plate. There are some out of date posts on FlyerTalk suggesting that breakfast is not served every day (and consequently can’t be offered as a benefit).
The breakfast seating area was frequently overrun by birds, the best efforts of the guests and staff to scare them off notwithstanding.
The complimentary continental breakfast plate had a nominal value of about $18. The hotel offers its breakfast buffet for about $25, but allows Platinum guests to upgrade to the buffet for just the price difference.
After clearing customs, I took the people mover from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 to catch my flight to Los Angeles. My flight to Los Angeles was delayed due to high winds at O’Hare, giving me plenty of time to enjoy the lounge.
It’s worth noting that the Flagship Lounge, situated at the end of the K concourse, doesn’t have showers of its own. Instead, passengers need to visit the Admirals Club (which spans the bottom of the H-K concourse intersection).
My upgrade from Düsseldorf to Chicago fortuitously cleared. In writing this trip report, however, I discovered that I’m missing most of my photos from Big Ben to this picture of our 767 in Germany, as well as those taken on board.
I wagered on clearing my upgrade to London and lost. (I successfully “won” in September 2012 on a similar-looking trip to Dublin on American Airlines.) While the 777-300ER has a new plane smell to it, that’s about the only thing I was looking forward to for my journey across the Atlantic.
As an Executive Platinum member, even in coach, I was able to visit the American Airlines Flagship Lounge, which I last reviewed in 2012. I chose to have dinner at the lounge, with the intent of falling asleep after takeoff.
Shiny:
I had an exit row seat sitting across from one of the flight attendants. She seemed…quite worried that I was skipping dinner and eventually, breakfast. My seatmate was another Executive Platinum who had booked her ticket months earlier–American prioritizes upgrades by time of request–and had failed to clear.
In late August, cheap fares to Dublin returned, so I picked one up in anticipation of working on my American Executive Platinum requalification. As I was packing flights into my fall schedule, I wound up scheduling this trip the day after my drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, leaving me with effectively a long layover in New York City.
The main ticket (NYC-DUB-LAX) was booked with American, in hope of clearing into business class with a systemwide upgrade.
As far as the trip title goes, I:
15316 miles in 9 days… an average speed of 70 miles per hour, a need for speed.
As I mentioned, I visited Santa Barbara, overnighting there before heading south on Amtrak to Los Angeles.
Before catching the train, I had to return my rental car to the Hertz office at SBA. The new terminal’s nice.
