My family has had a busy week, picking up 7 new airports between last Sunday and this Sunday on our quest to complete the JetBlue 25 for 25 promotion. I’m aiming to post Sunday updates as to where we’ve flown and stayed, so here’s this week’s update.
Saturday, August 2nd: Hyatt Regency JFK Airport
The Hyatt Regency JFK Airport isn’t exactly an “airport hotel”. Located pretty close to JFK, it’s still about a 10-15 minute ride to the airport (which can be substantially longer these days with road work at JFK — you might want to take an Uber to Federal Circle to take the air train depending on traffic, so it’s worth looking at Google Maps before you call a car).
This hotel is connected to the Resorts World casino (same brand as the one that houses the Hilton / Conrad / Crockford’s in Las Vegas). The hotel itself is surprisingly clean and nice given the amount of turnover it probably sees. I’ve stayed here a couple of times before and been happy with previous stays.
One nice feature here is that they have a club lounge for Hyatt Globalists. I don’t think they actually sell rooms with club access, but they do have a lounge with light bites that are pretty good. According to the sign at the entrance, casino loyalty members can buy access for $40 per day. I wouldn’t find it to be worth that much, but Globalists get access for free and that’s nice.
The evening spread isn’t huge, but it was tasty. There were shrimp skewers, sesame garlic chicken wings, and some sort of peppercorn steak bites accompanied by jasmine rice, bok choy, and some assorted salads. They had a few complimentary alcoholic beverage options (I saw Blue Moon and canned wine, but I can’t recall the other options) in addition to a soda fountain and coffee machine. The breakfast spread was similarly small but sufficient.
With room rates sometimes in the $200-$300 range (as opposed to the $400-$500 we frequently see closer to JFK), this place isn’t always a slamming deal with points, but a friend gave us an expiring Category 1-4 free night certificate and this was a solid use of that.
Sunday, August 3rd: New York (JFK) to Portland, ME (PWM). Airport #7.
We flew into Portland, Maine on Sunday, August 3rd, to pick up airport #7.
We rented a car and drove to Old Orchard Beach, eating lunch at Tammy Lynn’s Place and spending some time on the beach before continuing on to Portsmouth, NH for the night.
August 3-4: Residence Inn Portsmouth Downtown / Waterfront (35K Marriott FNC + 8,000 points)
We stayed at the Residence Inn Portsmouth Downtown / Waterfront using a 35K Marriott free night certificate + 8,000 points. We’d never been to Portsmouth and found it very cute (we enjoyed walking around a bit in the downtown area), though I’m not sure it was worth the cost of parking at the Residence Inn ($45, valet-only) to stay downtown rather than at a hotel a little further from downtown that would have cost fewer points and included free parking.
That said, we did enjoy the guest laundry at the Residence Inn, washing all of our beach stuff and the clothes we wore over the first couple days of the trip. We found a playground on Monday morning and then headed onward to Boston to catch the next flight.
August 4-5: Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor (Hyatt Category 1-4 FNC)
We used another Hyatt Category 1-4 free night certificate to stay at the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor. This hotel is very close to Boston Logan International Airport. I returned our rental car Monday night at the airport and walked back from the airport rental car center to the hotel (it took less than 15 minutes). We took the shuttle to the airport in the morning for our flight. It also has a ferry dock immediately outside the hotel for those looking to get across the water.
We were leaving too early to take advantage of breakfast at the hotel, but at check-in we were also given a chip to redeem for a free chowder at the hotel restaurant (we didn’t use this) and we were told that if we charged a meal at the restaurant to the room, we would receive a $10 discount. This isn’t a Globalist benefit — we checked in a few days later under my wife’s name (she only has Discoverist status) and she received the same.
I was awake late to get some work done, so I ate alone at the restaurant. The $10 did not automatically come off our room bill — I chatted with the front desk via text message in the morning and they quickly took the $10 off before I checked out in the app.
The hotel worked out well for our needs given an early flight from Boston Logan Airport.
I should also note that my wife forgot something in the room. Housekeeping found the item and they held it for us since we were back a few days later. That was great!
August 5th: Boston (BOS) to Washington (DCA) to Palm Beach (PBI). Airports #8 and #9.
We booked a longer routing from Boston to Palm Beach in order to pick up two airports in one itinerary since we had a short connection at DCA. I was a little nervous since our layover at DCA was less than 40 minutes, but we arrived early and one gate away from the connection, so we had plenty of time.
It is worth noting that our streak of luck with Even More Space seats at check-in continues. We’ve been able to get it on every flight but one so far where it was available. The Boston to DCA flight was operated with a small plane that only had exit row seats for extra legroom and kids can not take those, but we’ve been able to get a row and adjacent aisle seat with extra legroom at check-in for almost every flight so far thanks to my temporary Mosaic 1 status (which I earned by taking the Dunkin’ flight).
Boston Chase Sapphire Lounge
Before our flights took off, we enjoyed breakfast at the Boston Chase Sapphire Lounge. JetBlue uses Terminal C at Boston Logan, but terminals B and C are connected post-security and the Sapphire Lounge is located right near the junction of the terminals by gate B40. We were able to grab breakfast before our morning flight. We accessed the lounge with a Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa card. Note that Ritz cardholders get unlimited access, just like Sapphire Reserve cardholders. Ritz cardholders get unlimited guests, so it was no problem getting the whole family into the lounge with one Ritz card.
Hertz Platinum card CDP at PBI
At Palm Beach, we rented through Hertz. Amex Platinum cardholders have access to a special CDP with Hertz that allows for a 4-hour grace period on returns (link this through the “Benefits” section in your Amex account). In other words, you pay the rate for a 1-day (24hr) rental, but you can keep the car for up to 28 hours.
We were arriving at Palm Beach airport at 11:40am and departing the next day from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) at 3:52pm, so I reserved the car from 12:00pm on August 5th to 3pm on August 6th (27 hours). While the Platinum card CDP isn’t always the cheapest rental rate, it beat paying for 2 days at any other rate I could find.
August 5-6: Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort: Marriott 35K FNC + 13,000 points
We spent the night at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort, which we booked using a Marriott 35K Free Night Certificate plus 13,000 points.
The resort has nice facilities and service was pretty good overall. The nightly rate, whether with cash or points, wasn’t wildly attractive given the multitude of hotels for $100-$150 per night a few blocks inland, but knowing that we’d arrive in time for a late lunch and pool/beach time on Tuesday and plenty of time to hit up the pool and beach on Wednesday morning before having to get ready to go to the airport, it seemed to make sense to book a resort with all the amenities.
I’m glad we stayed here given that we did make good use of the amenities, but I don’t particularly like the nickel and diming at this resort. The $54 for self-parking and $62 for a resort fee just felt like a greedy money-grab for a place already charging north of $400 a night (before tax) or 48,000 points per night (which frequently passes 50K and puts it out of reach with a 35K free night certificate). I knew about those fees when I made my reservation; nonetheless, I found them off-putting.
Still, we enjoyed the pool and beach and resort amenities. I used a Marriott Gift Card to pay the charges we incurred — I got that gift card through my special Capital One redemption option (I have an old Capital One VentureOne card with the ability to redeem 64,500 Capital One miles for a $900 Marriott gift card). That made the expense sting a bit less.
August 6: Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Providence (PVD). Airport #10.
On August 6th, we took a ~3hr flight from Fort Lauderdale to Providence, once again scoring Even More Space seats at check-in.
Before the flight, we enjoyed the Escape Lounge at FLL airport. In fact, we ate enough in the lounge before the flight that we skipped dinner and headed to sleep not long after arriving at our hotel.
August 6-8: Hyatt Place Warwick / Providence Airport (PVD) for 17,500 points total
I booked us at the Hyatt Place Warwick/Providence Airport because I had read that the hotel is connected to the airport by a walkway. It is true that the hotel is connected to the airport by a walkway, but it is a pretty long walkway. And given the construction happening a the airport, signage for the Hyatt Place is currently pretty confusing. We posted a reel about it on Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
Nonetheless, it only takes about 10 minutes to walk. The hotel also had a shuttle, but unless you have a bunch of luggage, that probably isn’t necessary.
If you arrive at the airport and want to walk, ignore the signs within the airport for the Hyatt Place (they lead you into walls). Instead, follow the signage to the Skywalk / Rental Cars. The Hyatt Place is immediately adjacent to the rental car garage, which is across the Skywalk from the airport. It’s an easy enough walk once you know where you’re going.
The hotel was a terrific value. We paid 17,500 total points for two nights (one was a standard Category 2 night and the other was peak-priced). Room rates were otherwise north of $250 per night, so we got a great deal.
I also used one of our monthly Instacart credits to pick up some stuff that we needed. We got just over $20 worth of stuff for about $6 since I had to pay a $3.99 pick-up fee and some taxes thanks to the monthly credit from one of my wife’s Ink cards.
Dinner came via Uber Eats again. We used up our Uber Eats credits earlier in the week, so I bought $200 worth of Uber Eats gift cards from Costco.com for $160 (the deal there is $100 for $80, but a member can buy up to a quantity of two) so that we could save ~20% on a few meals.
August 7: 950 Hertz points + ~$10 for a free day around Providence
I had intended to take public transit into the city for a while on the 7th, but on that morning, we spontaneously decided to rent a car to roam around. I was happy to find Hertz standard award pricing, so I was able to use 950 Hertz points (plus just over $10 in taxes) to reserve a car for the day. Hertz was otherwise charging north of $100 for the day at the last minute without any sort of CDP (Budget had cars available for around $65).
I was happy to use some of my Hertz points because of Hertz’s painful expiration policy. Hertz points have a hard expiration 5 years after they are earned — use them or lose them, there’s no way to extend them. There’s also no easy way to see when your points expire. I’ve rented cars from Hertz a number of times in recent years. I have no idea when my oldest points are set to expire, so I was glad to wipe some of those off the books.
Also important to know about Hertz points: your points will expire after 12 months of inactivity. Activity means completing a rental. The action of reserving a rental car using your points does not reset your activity; it is not until you return that rental that your activity is reset. In other words, if your 12-month expiration mark is next week, you might think that redeeming points for a rental next month will count as activity since the points are deducted immediately up making the reservation, but it does not count as activity until that rental (next month in the example) is returned. So the rest of your points would still expire next week in that scenario. If, instead, you used your points to book a rental today and returned tomorrow, your inactivity clock would be reset to end a year from tomorrow.
August 8th: Providence (PVD) to New York (JFK); New York (JFK) to Manchester (MHT). Airports #11 and #12.
On August 8th, we had our longest day of the trip.
We took a ~7am departure from Providence to JFK (arriving around 8am) and then we had a separate booking from JFK to Manchester that departed at ~10pm (arriving at 11pm).
The flights both went smoothly (again, Even More Space seats at check-in on both!).
In between, we spent the majority of the day at the Marriott JFK airport.
Day use rate at Marriott JFK ($185)
We spent most of Friday, August 8th at the Marriott JFK Airport. I booked a day use rate (which I wrote about on Friday) that technically gave us the room from 9am to 5pm.
We had arrived at JFK just after 8am, but we took our time getting our checked bag and requesting a shuttle. The Marriott JFK and Residence Inn JFK share a shuttle service. Each hotel provides a link to request the shuttle once you get to Federal Circle (take the air train to Federal Circle / Rental car center). From there, you can track the shuttle on its way to pick you up. It is a very efficient system.
Upon arrival at the Marriott JFK, the staff member checking us in was very friendly and helpful. She asked what time we planned to check out. We said that our flight was at 10pm, so we would love to stay as long as possible. She said they could extend the day use until 6pm. That was great!
Furthermore, thanks to my Marriott Platinum status, she informed us that our key would get us into the M Club lounge and that breakfast was running for another hour (until 10am). We dropped our bags in the room and headed straight to the lounge for breakfast. While we had grabbed a quick bite in the Escape Lounge at Providence, we were all happy to have a more leisurely chance at a bigger breakfast.
The staff in the lounge was also very friendly and the views of the airport were terrific. We got a great view of many widebody planes landing while we were there (and also from our room!).
I popped back into the lounge around noon because they had mentioned they have cookies at mid-day and I grabbed another cup of coffee.
The lounge serves evening bites starting at 5:30pm. However, unsure whether our kids would eat enough of whatever would be on offer, we ordered a pizza from Uber Eats. We made our way downstairs at 6pm to check out and managed to miss the 6pm shuttle to the airport. The front desk agent immediately offered to re-key our key so we could go back up to the lounge to grab a bite while waiting for the 6:30pm shuttle. That was really above-and-beyond and totally unexpected. We gladly accepted.
The buffalo chicken empanadas and guacamole in the lounge were excellent. I also grabbed some hummus and my wife had a couple of macarons. It was a great quick bite before leaving.
At 6:30, we caught the shuttle to JFK. We arrived at the terminal close to 7pm thanks to the traffic situation at the airport (it should be a 5-10 minute ride otherwise). The lines at the security checkpoint were absolutely insane. Many readers know that we do not have TSA Precheck (I’ve just never felt like I needed it). Once again, we didn’t need it this time thanks to my temporary Mosaic 1 status granting us Priority Security, but the insanity of the line made my wife and I agree that we’ll get TSA Precheck sometime soon. I’d hate to get stuck in that security line!
At $185, the day use rate at the Marriott JFK wasn’t cheap, but it was totally worth it for us in this situation.
August 8-9: Holiday Inn Express Manchester (MHT) Airport (~$80 net after discounts)
We arrived at Manchester around 11pm.
A family member (who doesn’t travel as much as we do) opened the Chase Sapphire Preferred card a few months ago. She had gotten the email about the additional $50 travel credit/discount for this year and the card comes with an annual $50 statement credit for a hotel booked via Chase Travel. That meant a total savings of $100 on a hotel booking (between the $50 discount and $50 statement credit). Since the room rate was around $180 all-in at the Holiday Inn Express Manchester Airport, the $100 in savings meant that it only cost about $80 net. That was a good enough deal that it didn’t make sense to use points to book a nearby hotel.
I should mention that it was no problem for our family member to make a reservation for us. During the booking flow at Chase Travel, she was able to enter the guest name for the person staying (me). She was also able to enter my IHG number, though the reservation never showed up in my IHG app (I didn’t expect to earn hotel points on a Chase Travel booking, but it was worth a shot).
The hotel itself was OK. There were some strong cleaning supply smells throughout the hotel (oddly, different smells in different areas, but they all smelled like cleaning supplies). However, the room itself was clean. Given our near-midnight arrival and plans to leave the next morning after check-out, it was fine. It wouldn’t be my pick for multiple nights, but for one night it was OK.
August 9-10: Return to the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor
We stopped at Five Guys along the way for a late lunch to use this month’s Amex Gold card dining credits on our Gold Cards (my wife and I each have a Gold card, so we saved $20).
From there, we exercised our parenting hack for travel with young kids: we found a playground on Google Maps. Griffin Park in Windham, NH was a perfect place for our kids to run around and play with other kids for a couple of hours. We find that finding a playground every few days lets them use up some energy and gives them a chance to interact with somebody other than mom and dad, which becomes a win-win.
Next up was the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor.
We used yet another Hyatt Category 1-4 free night certificate to stay at the Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor. My wife had recently completed a Brand Explorer milestone and we were able to use her resulting free night certificate for a night at the Hyatt Regency since we had an early morning flight this morning.
We booked this stay in my wife’s name even though it meant not getting my Globalist benefits. She should have gifted me the free night certificate and we could have booked it through my account to get Globalist benefits, but we opted not to do that for a few reasons.
First of all, we didn’t really need Globalist benefits on this stay. Our flight this morning was too early to take advantage of breakfast (so we obviously also didn’t need a late checkout). We didn’t expect or need a suite. Finally, we have had a number of stays with family this year where we needed 2 rooms, so I booked the second room in my wife’s name to get her elite night credit. We have 5 more nights booked later this year where we need 2 rooms (I’ll gift her a Guest of Honor award for 4 of those 5 nights).
She currently has 20 elite nights. She’ll get those 5 more later this year. Once she finishes spending for this year’s Category 1-4 free night certificate on her World of Hyatt credit card, she’ll earn at least 2 more elite nights (maybe 4, I can’t recall where she is in her spending cycle). That means she’ll have either 27 or 29 elite nights this year. She will need either 1 or 3 more nights to reach 30 elite nights, which will give her another Category 1-4 free night certificate. While I ordinarily don’t recommend stretching at all toward Explorist status, I think it might make sense for her since I’ll likely requalify for Globalist pretty easily this year (I’m at 45 right now with at least 8 more nights booked this year already and the rest very likely to materialize). I therefore kept this night in my wife’s name. Once she finishes spending for her Category 1-4 free night certificate this year, we’ll see whether she sits at 30 or 28 nights. Either way, it seemed worth booking a night in her name to pick up the 30-night milestone.
Next up: 5 more flights this week
By the end of this week, the rest of my family will reach 17 airports. Since I flew to Orlando on the Dunkin’ flight, I’ll be at 18. That would put us at the first tier of this promotion, earning 150,000 points each for reaching 15 airports. Promotion terms indicate that it will take a couple of weeks for those bonus points to post. We’ll see, but I expect that we’ll be a collective 600,000 JetBlue TrueBlue points richer in the not-so-distant future.
Things will slow down a bit over the final weeks of the month, but we’ll get to 20 by the end of this month en route to 25 later this year. It’s been fun so far! Follow along on Instagram for more updates and useful notes about the trip in real-time.
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Nice to meet you at ACK this morning, Nick. You have a beautiful family. Everyone looks so happy!
Hey Nick – An FYI. I chatted with a JetBlue representative this morning asking about when the 150K points will be posted (I hit 15 airports 2 weeks ago). She told me that “the points will be earned after all requirements are met” (i.e., all 25 destinations met). This is contrary to the description on the promo page. I wonder if I just got an agent with misinformation….
Anyway, the terms do said “Points and status will be issued within 2-3 weeks of offer completions”, so I will see if 150K points get posted to my account next week.
I’m 97.857680365% sure that agent is wrong. I’m a bit more confident yet that agent probably isn’t flying to 15 airports, so they’re making guesses rather than speaking from experience. The terms clearly say that you get 150K after 15 and another 200K after 20. They won’t know in advance whether you’re going to compete 20 (even if you have them booked). I’m confident they’ll post separately. If it is important to you to know for sure, you might want to post in our Facebook group and ask if anybody has received the points for 15 yet. I’d bet that someone there probably has.
Yep I agree, and what you said makes more sense to me. I didn’t want to HUCA at that moment. I should know for sure by next week.
I’ve seen two DPs from people who received 350,000 points the day after hitting 25 destinations.
Been following discord/Whatsapp/flyertalk/mosaic Facebook group closely and haven’t seen anyone with points posted after 15 destinations.
I’ve seen other reports of agents saying the same thing, and that the offer completion date in the terms is the earlier of flight 25 or 12/31, if you only made it to 15 or 20 airports.
I did flight 15 on 8/2, so I’m in the 2-3 week period now, and I’ll probably call next week if the points don’t show up.
I was planning to use the points to book the last batch of flights, so I hope you are correct, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are going with that interpretation of the terms to prevent people from using the points to complete the challenge.
Does the initial airport flight count??? JFK-PWM-as #7 BOS-DCA-PBI-as 8 and 9???
Yes, connecting airports count. Just not the departure airport.
Nick, I have an extra Marriott 35K free night award I am not using. I would love to extend to you . reach out to me so I can give it to you . you have been SO helpful these past years and I would love to pay it forward !
Are your children allowed into the promo. I mean are they earning miles, etc.? Also, you have beautiful family! I can see your sons having the travel bug in 10 years!
Nick’s wife should be sainted for agreeing to this. Totally crazy, but definitely fun content for us readers. Portsmouth, NH is a great little city, cute downtown and right on the water with some very good food options. Portland, ME too!
Love these JetBlue updates and the little nuggets about hotels, rental cars, and lounges. Looking forward to your next update 🙂
I have a now 26 yo who has refused to travel at all since turning 18 – mostly because I constantly dragged him across the country in an effort to see “everything” – staying one or (at most) 2 nights in a hotel before moving on (He has been to all states and over 50 National Parks). Are you SURE your kids are having as much fun as you????
Nick, with that car rental on the 7th, you’re going to need a correction this week’s podcast where you state you’ve never found a 9.5k point Hertz rental that’s useful for you
I have just been enjoying hearing about your quest for 25 on Jet Blue. I wish I could have done the challenge so it’s so interesting to hear about all of the details of your trip. I totally agree on going to a new park makes it so much fun for the kids. Good thing they have so many chase lounges now that you can go to instead of only escape lounge/priority lounges.
Nick, I’m embarrassed to say this and assume you checked, but I never ever pay to park my car at a hotel in an urban area. I always use spothero or a similar app to be multiples cheaper in the US and overseas I google it or I drive around the block and look at the signage.
Unless you need to get your car in and out half a dozen times a day, for some reason, for me it makes a lot more sense to drive a block (or 6) and Self Park
And on another note, I am so thrilled that you haven’t had the JetBlue cancellations and delays that flagged almost all of my JetBlue bookings over the last 5 years
I certainly did check. Nothing within a reasonable distance of either hotel that was measurably less. Six blocks is more than I’m willing to talk to park though. I’ll walk 2 or 3 or 4. Six is probably out of the range of convenience unless it’s a really big savings.
Like I said, I’m embarrassed to even suggest that you missed something like this!
Please accept my humblest apologies
Thanks for the updates Nick! Any chance you get credited a “night” for the day use Marriott stay?
You’re not supposed to, but I’ve seen some people say they’ve gotten night credit. It hasn’t yet been long enough for the points to show up. I’ll update if I get night credit.
I’m loving following along on your travels! You’ve really turned it into a fun family vacation.
Thanks for giving us ideas for the Jetblue 25 challenge. Fyi- as a Globalist you can ask for a bag breakfast at Hyatt Boston Harborside. It isn’t anything fancy, but depending on timing might come in handy. One time we got a yogurt, muffin, apple and water. Happy travels 🙂
Great tip. I’ll be back there again soon, so this is really good to know!
Awesome Nick!
After JB “losing” my luggage for two weeks (as of today) and sending it MVY-JFK-RDU-JFK-MHT (where it sat for a week)-JFK-RDU and then to me via fedex, I’m preparing for my next launch this coming weekend, with only a backpack. Seriously!
I’ll be picking up SJU, MCO, HPN, PBI, DCA, ACK, DTW, and ROC.
This will put me at 14 (ugh!, curses RDU!), and I’ll pick it back in October for another 7.
Finishing up this weekend and only bagged 6 of 8: lost out on PBI and HPN due to Erin-related delays. Best ever use of Rome2Rio to discover alternate transit option in time to catch up with my itinerary.
12 down!