I have been playing the points & miles game for 10 years and have had many amazing experiences.
I can thank Virgin Atlantic points for the chance to get flipped off by Sir Richard Branson.
It was amazing that 4 of my top 10 awards were possible thanks to Hyatt.
In descending order, are my top 10 award redemptions.
The Park Hyatt Paris-Vendme is located at #10.
Is it still bookable with points today? Yes.
We stayed in a suite at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris, which cost us 33,000 points per night.
The shower doubled as a steam room.
The hotel was great. We were upgraded to an Executive Suite because of my Hyatt elite status. The Executive Suite had a separate living room from the bedroom and a second half bath. Our son had a room and a bathroom of his own. The shower doubled as a steam room. It's seriously. Our room had a steam room in it. It was great, but I only used it a few times.
The Hyatt elites were able to order room service breakfast for free up to 50 euro per person.
I posted about a trip to Paris that I did not know much about.
The Grand Hyatt Santiago Diplomatic Suite is located in the 9th floor.
Is it still bookable with points today? No. The hotel has a new name.
We paid the standard award rate at the hotel. We were upgraded to the Diplomatic Suite because of my Hyatt elite status, and we loved the huge windows overlooking the Andes mountains.
The Andaz Costa Rica Resort is located at Peninsula Papagayo.
Is it still bookable with points today? Yes.
The Andaz Papagayo is now up to 20K points per night, which is more than the 15K points per night I wrote about.
The beach has shade on it.
Our room is small.
Our balcony has a view.
There are monkey shenanigans.
The barista class was my favorite.
The class was great.
Chorreadas cooking class.
For top tier Hyatt elites, room service breakfast was free.
I said in my review that Wow.
We booked a stay for this coming winter and we loved everything about the property.
If you want to play golf or tennis, this is not the place to go.
It costs 30K points per night to stay at Ventana Big Sur.
We were upgraded to the hot tub suite. This is a picture of our backyard.
The deer visited the hot tub suite.
The Vista Hot Tub Suite has a bath and shower.
The Vista Hot Tub Suite has a living room and bedroom combo.
The main pool is large.
The path leads to a restaurant.
There is a restaurant view.
Breakfast and view.
There is a path near our room.
The trees are wonderful.
A hotel and spa in Germany.
Is it still bookable with points today? Unless you get bumped like we did.
The Leading Hotels of the World include Brenners.
We booked a Marriott hotel in Germany with points and were put up in another hotel after the hotel said they were over booked.
I have stayed in many nice luxury hotels, but this was my favorite.
There is a backyard view.
The public walking path leads to the backyard.
There is an indoor pool.
We got a kick out of the menu for pillows and blankets.
There are 5 Singapore Suites.
Is it still bookable with points today? Yes.
I had flown business class before, but not first class.
I thought first class was a nice enhancement over business class.
When travel to and from Asia opens up more widely, Singapore will be able to fly many routes with suites.
The rewards program.
The transfer ratio of Amex.
And transfer time.
The Chase Transfer ratio is low.
And transfer time.
The transfer ratio of Citi.
And transfer time.
The transfer ratio of Marriott.
And transfer time.
Capital One transfer ratio.
And transfer time.
The transfer ratio of Brex.
And transfer time.
The transfer ratio of bilt.
And transfer time.
KrisFlyer is a flight by Singapore Airlines.
1 to 1 is instantaneous.
1 to 1 is 17 hours.
1 day to 1 day.
60K to 25K for a single day.
1 to 1 is 7 hours.
1 to 1
I'm about to dig into my dinner.
View from my seat when the doors and windows were open.
I had a separate bedroom and living room after the flight attendant made the suite across the hall as my bed.
The flight attendant had to drag me off the plane when we got to San Francisco, I didn't want the experience to end.
The manor house has 8 bedrooms.
Is it still bookable with points today? No.
In February of last year, we reported an absurd deal: Book any Cottages.com property for only 15,000 Wyndham points per night, and it seemed that relatively few people jumped on the deal.
We paid 15,000 points per night for the 8 bedroom house. We discovered that the house was in Swanage, England, which was an awesome place to visit.
The dinner was at the manor house.
The Old Harry Rocks are in Swanage, England. It was possible to get to this from the manor house.
A view of the lighthouse from our cottage.
The first apartment of the airline.
Is it still bookable with points today? No.
I flew from the Seychelles to London with a short stop in Abu Dhabi.
The first class suite was amazing, but the cabin crew was amazing as well.
It is likely that the A380 aircraft will never return to service because of the Pandemic.
My seat. The bench seat on the right is going to be turned into a bed.
From my seat, you can see the aisle. There is a second suite across the hallway. I found it interesting that the suites were styled in different ways.
It's bed time! The bed was very comfortable and I found it to be better than my Singapore Suites flight. This one was not as comfortable as it could have been.
smoked salmon on bagel was the original breakfast plan. It was not good. How could this be so bad?
A crew member asked if I wanted something else after I hadn't eaten the bagel sandwich. I asked for an Eggs Benedict because I was curious about what would happen if I went off-menu. The chef did a great job. It was great.
The Le Méridien Resort and Spa is in the island ofMaldives.
Is it still bookable with points today? The price will go up in March.
Nick and I went to the resort for a 3 night stay 10 days after it opened.
This resort is only a category 5 Marriott, meaning that rooms are bookable for 35K points per night standard (30K off-peak, 40K peak), which is an incredible deal.
The Riviera Pool and Bar is located at the Le Meridien Maldives. Doesn't this look like an artist's rendering? It is almost perfect. I took this photo with my phone.
The shower has a view from it. You can see my bathtub and deck from here.
It was possible to swim from the bungalows to the reef.
The bungalows are over water.
The sunrise room was closer to the snorkeling reef than the sunset one.
The top island is the Necker Island.
Is it still bookable with points today? No.
It was easy to pick Necker Island as my favorite award redemption.
I paid 1.2 million Virgin Atlantic miles and received an award that included all meals and activities for two.
Is Necker Island worth 1.2 million miles?
From left to right: Sir Richard Branson and me.
The Great House has a pool.
Our patio has a view.
Zip lining.
Breakfast table.
At least, I think it was a joke.
I liked the Lemurs.
Scuba diving was included.
Share your favorites.
What are your favorite redemptions?
