Trip Review: DC to Cape Cod (BWI to BOS)

This past weekend I took a trip with some buddies up to the Cape to a friend’s house in Orleans. Obviously with the Cape being the best vacation spot in the contiguous world, that part was awesome. This review will focus on the travel portion of the journey.

Westin BWI Parking - Outbound

On Thursday evening we drove up from DC to BWI. Parking at the airport is $10-$12 a day, and with the long weekend being 4 parking days, onsite parking could have quickly made BWI cost-prohibitive for flying. When traveling out of Dulles I had previously used AirportParkingReservations.com to find offsite parking a number of times with great success (FYI the Hilton Dulles has a great lot and shuttle system for getting to and from IAD), so I used the site again at BWI. Make sure to search “Airport Parking Reservations coupons” on Google before booking to find a code to get the $5 booking fee waived. You can use any airport code’s coupon, not just the one you’re flying out of.

We found parking at the Westin BWI for $6.50 a day, and this included an on-demand shuttle to and from the airport. Parking and payment at the front desk was very quick, and the shuttle was literally waiting for us when we walked outside. The driver was courteous and took us directly to the airport, which was about a 5 minute drive.

AirTran – BWI-BOS

We used our Southwest miles to book this flight for Friday, but at the last minute switched to Thursday for the same price. The no change fees on Southwest make their miles some of the most valuable to me. With the switch to Thursday, we were also switched from a Southwest to an AirTran flight, which I loved because the one thing I hate about Southwest is that they don’t assign seats and our flight on AirTran would have assigned seats. Seriously though, the cattle-rush onto Southwest planes to grab seats is one of the least enjoyable things in all of air travel. When you book an AirTran flight with your Southwest miles, you’re assigned a seat when you check in, and you change it once you get to the airport.

Even though our flight was at 8:55pm, when we arrived at the gate at 8:10 we were rushed onto the plane. I asked the agent whether the flight was leaving at 8:55 and if we could move seats and he told me they were going to get us out in the next 10 minutes and that it was a completely full flight. Assuming we were some of the last passengers to board since we were only 10 minutes from departure, I was surprised to see a nearly completely empty plane when we walked on. I was also surprised to discover that not only were we not departing at 8:20, we in fact were going to be departing after our 8:55 scheduled departure time to make sure the late-connecting passengers made it on this last flight of the day. Surely the gate agent must have known when he rushed us onto the plane that we were going to be waiting for those passengers. I was pretty pissed to have to sit on the plane for an entire hour before we pushed back.

The plane itself was another story. For those unaware, AirTran was purchased by Southwest a couple years ago. At the moment the AirTran planes are being phased out, either being converted to Southwest planes (737s) or being sold to Delta (717s). If you had to guess, which of these planes do you think they’d take better care of? If you guessed the planes they were keeping, you’d be right. Unfortunately for us, we weren’t on one of those. This 717 was about as decrepit as a Western-built jet gets. My left armrest was disgorged like someone was digging inside the plastic, and my seat was reclined and wouldn’t come upright. On final approach the flight attendant asked me to bring it up. When I showed her it was broken she didn’t believe me and made me press the button again to see if anything would happen. As if I’m trying to pull some huge prank on AirTran by getting an extra 4 minutes of reclining in…

Hertz – BOS

I don’t know what it is about Hertz, their shuttles just seem to take forever. We waited about 20 minutes for ours to arrive when we got out to the ground transportation area of Terminal E. What makes Hertz look even worse than it maybe should though is that every other car rental company’s shuttle passes by 2-3 times while you’re waiting. I wonder how many people have switched reservations mid-wait on a whim. The car we got was a 2014 Nissan Versa, which was clean and functioned well, so no complaints there.

Southwest – BOS-BWI

While I might hate Southwest’s boarding process (and the fact that you have to check in exactly 24 hours before your flight to get a good boarding number), I do love their product. Nearly every employee I interact with is always courteous and friendly, and I appreciate that they’ve got a sense of humor about how sucky the travel process can be sometimes. The flight went off without a hitch, and we even enjoyed some Sour Patch Kids along the way thanks to our tall friend Sam. Awkwardly though our short friend Sam was very mean to the flight attendant, which seemed unnecessary given how nice she was being. But this is neither here nor there.

Westin BWI Parking – Return

The Westin claims its shuttle is on-demand, so I phoned the front desk when I landed and asked them to send one. The attendant said it would be there in 10-15 minutes. 10-15 minutes later there was no shuttle, so I called again, and was told there had been some sort of accident but the shuttle was now on its way. Another 10 minutes passed and I called again. Apparently it was right around the corner from us now but there was a ton of traffic at BWI. This was hard to imagine because we had seen many other hotel shuttles pass multiple times. Finally after another 10 minutes it arrived.

Personally I was furious not at the wait but at being straight-up lied to by the hotel. It was a good parking rate but at 10 on a Sunday night I’m not interested in waiting an extra 30-40 minutes to get my car. I will not be using the Westin next time, nor do I recommend doing so.

For those traveling to BWI from DC, I recommend the MARC. It runs a train every hour or so from Union Station on the Penn line. It costs $6 each way and takes about 25 minutes, plus you have to take a 2-3 minute shuttle bus from the station to the airport. This is definitely the way to go on weekdays, but unfortunately it doesn’t run on weekends. You can still take the Amtrak Northeast Regional on the same route, but this costs $15+. 

How do American Express (Membership Rewards) points work?

In the interest of making sure that readers understand how their credit card points function, I am doing a series spotlighting different programs and how they allow you to purchase travel.

A number of Amex cards earn Membership Rewards points. My personal favorites are the Premier Rewards Gold, which has no annual fee the first year, and Platinum, which technically has a $495 fee but I used a link to get it for $0 the first year. On Amex Gold, every dollar spent earns one MR point, while every dollar spent on gas and groceries earns two UR points. Even better, when you purchase airfare directly from an airline, you earn three MR points for every dollar spent. These Membership Rewards points can be used in one of two ways:

1.    Spent as cash on airline tickets, hotel nights, other travel

2.    Transferred to an airline or hotel

Using Membership Rewards like cash

If you have a Gold card, you can spend your MR points at exactly one cent apiece on many types of travel. American Express’ Membership Rewards website provides a number of options for travel, including but not limited to flights, hotels, car rentals, trains, and cruises. If the flight you’re buying is $250, American Express would charge you 25,000 points.

If you have a Platinum card, the same is true, except that your MR points are worth 1.25 cents apiece instead of one cent. If you have a large MR point balance (200,000+), it would be worthwhile to sign up for the Platinum Amex to increase their value.

An added bonus of spending Membership Rewards like cash is that you will earn miles on your flight or points on your hotel as if you had booked it with your own money.

Transferring Membership Rewards points to an airline or hotel

Every time you fly you earn “miles” with your airline. Every time you stay in a hotel, you earn “points” with your hotel. These miles and points sit in your frequent flyer program or frequent guest program. For instance, Delta Airlines has SkyMiles. If you go to www.delta.com and log in, you can see the number of SkyMiles you have.

Membership Rewards points can be turned into SkyMiles, being added to your balance just like if you flew a flight on Delta. All you do is log into the American Express website, click your Membership Rewards, and choose to transfer to a partner. You enter your airline or hotel account number, and the MR points turn into that airline or hotel’s points currency.

Just like with Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points, being able to transfer Membership Rewards to airlines and hotels makes these points significantly more valuable than pretty much any other points-earning card. With something like Barclaycard Arrival or Capital One Venture, you can only use your points like cash. That lack of flexibility can really hurt you, especially on complicated itineraries.

These are the partners Membershiup Rewards transfer to:

• AeroMexico
• Aeroplan
• Alitalia Airlines
• All Nippon Airways
• Asia Miles
• British Airways
• Delta Air Lines
• EL AL Israel Airlines
• Flying Blue
• Frontier Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Iberia Plus
• JetBlue Airways
• Singapore Airlines
• Virgin America
• Virgin Atlantic Airways
• Best Western
• Choice Privileges
• Hilton
• Starwood

As you can see, this list is extensive. There are a lot of programs here that can offer some great value.

How I use Membership Rewards

Personally I use MR points for the most part on ANA, Aeroplan, Delta, and British Airways. These are four of the best programs for last-minute bookings because none of them charge late-booking fees. Delta doesn’t have very good award availability but if I’m traveling on non-peak days like Tuesday or Saturday they almost always have flights that work for me. ANA is a distance-based program so if I’m making a lot of short stops the program is a cheap way to fly United and US Airways. Aeroplan has a similar award chart to United and US Airways and the same access to their miles seats, but they don’t charge the last-minute fee like either of those airlines does. And finally British Airways charges just 9,000 miles roundtrip for flights under 650 miles, so I use those to fly American to Chicago at least once a month.

Key takeaways

Membership Rewards is a great program, period. While the cards that earn MR points are more expensive annually than the Chase cards that earn UR points, the value you can unlock from the Membership Rewards program could easily make these fees worthwhile. I’ve also yet to pay a full annual fee with Amex, as they’re almost always willing to waive at least some of it.

Link to American Express Premier Rewards Gold

Link to American Express Platinum (no annual fee first year)

How do Chase Sapphire Preferred (Ultimate Rewards) points work?

In the interest of making sure that readers understand how their credit card points function, I will start spotlighting different programs and how they allow you to purchase travel.

Chase Sapphire Preferred earns Ultimate Rewards points. Every dollar spent earns one UR point, and every dollar spent on travel and dining earns two UR points. These Ultimate Rewards points can be used in one of two ways:

1.    Spent as cash on airline tickets and hotel nights

2.    Transferred to an airline or hotel

Using Ultimate Rewards like cash

Like nearly all non-affiliated cards, Ultimate Rewards points can be spent like cash. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink card, they can be spent at ~1.2 cents apiece. Any fare or hotel rate you can find on the Ultimate Rewards travel site can be purchase with your points. The site offers a similar fare and rate searching service to Kayak. A $250 ticket should cost about 21,000 UR points.

One perk to this option is if tickets are cheap, the cost of using points as cash would be low. Another perk specifically with Ultimate Rewards is that if you don’t have enough points, you can use the points you do have and pay for the rest of the ticket in cash.

The final perk of using points like cash is that you’re basically having Chase purchase a ticket or hotel night for you, meaning you’ll earn points on the flight or stay just as if you had bought it yourself. This isn’t true when you use airline miles or hotel points.

Transferring Ultimate Rewards points to an airline or hotel (or Amtrak)

Every time you fly you earn “miles” with your airline. Every time you stay in a hotel, you earn “points” with your hotel. These miles and points sit in your frequent flyer program or frequent guest program. For instance, United Airlines has MileagePlus. If you go to www.united.com and log in, you can see the number of MileagePlus miles you have.

Ultimate Rewards points can be turned into MileagePlus miles, being added to your balance just like if you flew a flight on United. All you do is log into the Chase website, click your Ultimate Rewards, and choose to transfer to a partner. You enter your airline or hotel account number, and the UR points turn into that airline or hotel’s points currency.

The option to transfer UR points to an airline or hotel is what truly sets it apart from nearly all other points-earning credit cards. With something like Barclaycard Arrival or Capital One Venture, you can only use your points like cash. That lack of flexibility can really hurt you, especially on complicated itineraries.

The transferring miles option is great for if you want to travel internationally, where fares are very high but mileage costs are not as bad. You can add in a stopover on United for free with miles, whereas if you paid for the ticket in cash or points-as-cash, you’d have to pay for two separate tickets. It’s also great if you have almost enough points for a flight or hotel and want to top off an account, or if it’s last minute and fares are very expensive. These are the partners Ultimate Rewards transfer to:

·         Southwest Airlines

·         United Airlines

·         British Airways

·         Korean Air

·         Amtrak

·         Hyatt

·         Marriott

·         Priority Club

·         Ritz Carlton

·         Virgin Atlantic

Personally I use UR points on Southwest and United all the time. I’ve even transferred to Hyatt because they have such an amazing points program.

Key takeaways

Ultimate Rewards points from Chase are one of the most flexible currencies out there and should be strongly considered. It is actually a straight-up better card to put spend on than United, Southwest, or If you currently have a Southwest, United, Marriott, Hyatt, and Amtrak’s credit cards because it earns at the same or better rate in almost every category of spend as those cards, but you’re not locked into one airline or even one kind of points program with Ultimate Rewards, and you can always transfer Ultimate Rewards points into one of these programs if you want.

Link to Chase Sapphire Preferred

What’s in an airport lounge?

Reader Shimones emailed the other day to ask why the airport lounges I’ve discussed via Twitter (@wennecorp) and this blog are so great exactly. Glad you asked Shimones (great name by the way)! Airport lounges are basically the opposite of everything you normally get at an airport.

Here is the list of things you typically get at an airport:

• Loud noise
• Expensive wifi
• Expensive drinks
• Expensive food
• Cramped space
• Gross bathrooms
• Long lines to talk to airline personnel about your flight

Here is the list of things you typically get in at an airport lounge:

• Little to no noise
• Free wifi
• Free soft drinks and certain free wines, beers and liquors
• Free snacks
• Large, comfy lounge chairs and personal workspaces
• Clean, beautiful bathrooms
• Multiple airline personnel available to help you with anything you need

Sounds literally like heaven, right? Right! The four legacy carriers each have their own set of lounges: US Airways Club, American Admirals Club, United Club, and Delta Sky Club. Alaska Airlines has the Board Room at their major hubs, but for the most part they just contract with Delta’s Sky Clubs.  International airlines usually have clubs at major U.S. hubs. Southwest, AirTran, and JetBlue don’t have any.

There are at least a couple clubs at every hub airport for these airlines. Washington-Reagan has Delta, two US Airways, and United. Dulles has United. O’Hare has American, United, Delta. Saint Louis even has a brand new Admirals Club! The megahubs have a ton. Dallas has four Admirals Clubs. Atlanta has nine Sky Clubs.

How to get in a lounge

There are a number of ways to get into an airline lounge. One is to buy a day pass. Those usually run in the $40-$50 range. Another is to buy a yearly membership. Those run in the $500 range. Even another is to get the top elite status on some airlines, which will earn you the right to enter any club when you’re flying. This can run you in the neighborhood of $10,000-$15,000 of flying to reach that status level.

Personally,  I don’t fly one airline all the time, so getting membership in one lounge doesn’t make sense for me. I fly all four of the major legacy carriers, and membership to each of those clubs would cost me $2,000 a year! Besides that, since I prefer flying for free, I figured I might as well get club access for free too.

A number of credit cards offer access to lounges. American Express has a couple cards that provide free access to Delta, American, and US Airways (no United). These cards come with amazing benefits like an annual $200 voucher that can be used on an airline of your choice (I personally bought American Airlines gift cards and used them towards a free flight), and reimbursed cost for Global Entry, which gets you TSA PreCheck. But the problem is these cards normally cost ~$475 a year.

Not if I have anything to say about it!

Currently there is a functioning link for an American Express Platinum card that has no annual fee for one year. It says you need an Amerprise account, but I don’t have one and I was able to get approved. It still gets me $200 in airline credits, and free TSA PreCheck, and club access, and Starwood and Hertz Gold status. But I don’t pay a dime for a whole year! So I’m basically getting paid to have airline lounge access. It might seem weird, but I actually prefer that to paying.

Using the card

Anytime you’re traveling, you can use any Delta, US Airways, or American lounge in the airport you’re traveling from or to, or any airport you’re laying over in. Just walk in and present your card at the desk. Personally I haven’t tried using it on an airline I’m not flying, but many many blogs have indicated it doesn’t matter. You can use any of the lounges that Amex Platinum offers access to.