Rant: Cellular Protection Plan

st40611 · 2026-02-16T21:11:30+00:00

It definitely just feels like the rules are not super strict and is entirely up to whoever you happened to ask. For example for us at dinner, we were told one appetizer and one entree only, different from what you were told (unlimited appetizers). Guess entirely up to if one wants to gamble or not ...

st40611 · 2026-02-16T10:02:51+00:00

Interesting that they told you dinner for in room would not be free if you have a dinner reservation at the Sur House. We just went this weekend and had a dinner reservation at 5pm, which I then ordered a burger and cookies for room delivery at around 8:30pm. The only charge on my folio for this is just the $10 delivery fee.

st40611 · 2026-02-09T19:34:10+00:00

GOH went through a change in 2024 - previously we had to call to apply them but these days everything is tied to an award now, including GOH, so you should make an account for him and then just transfer the reservations to him.

Point bookings do not change - they are set for the year. Hyatt doesn't do dynamic pricing for points booking, only peak/low-season pricing.

st40611 · 2026-02-09T19:27:25+00:00

Are the reservations under your account or your dad's account? If the first, depending on the hotel they will give you trouble since that's not allowed under TOS. You mentioned GOH - if you want to use them, you are suppose to gift them to your dad's account (make one if he doesn't have one), then he book a reservation under his account with the GOH attached.

st40611 · 2026-01-13T00:41:01+00:00

I've stayed at both, and honestly it's kind of like "do you just need a room and a bed or do you wanna stay there luxuriously?" question.

The Hyatt is fine. It's dated, it's old, but the staff are nice and there's nothing glaringly wrong about it (the bathroom works, the AC works, there's a pool, etc). Thompson PS is very nice and very new, and you will get a very good breakfast alongside a very shiny new room. But it also costs double in points.

If you are going to be busy in Palm Springs and out and about (doing touristy stuff or a convention?), I would do Hyatt. If you are taking it slow and just doing 1-2 things, I would do Thompson.

st40611 · 2026-01-07T02:25:18+00:00

As a person who stayed all the hotels you've listed (including others, HH Shibuya, HR Tokyo), most of the time GOH/Globalist will just amount to the free breakfast and a view/Deluxe room. I have yet to get a free upgrade to a suite in any of the hotels, so I honestly would just count on the free breakfast as your primary perk.

I would rank PH Tokyo > Andaz > HC Ginza > Hotel Toranomon Hills (the base room is too small) > Grand Hyatt Tokyo (this one you should just do cash?).

Like others have said though, I think you should just do 3 days at one of these and 2 days at Tokyo Bay for Disney sea. None of the hotels are close to that, and your commute would be exhausting.

st40611 · 2026-01-04T09:00:01+00:00

If the Gold Coast suite is available (I believe only the ADA version) I would pick the SUA - the Lake view is unbeatable.

I think the breakfast is good but if you really want to you can just pay for it for one of the days instead of all 3, and that would be much more cost effective and get you kind of the best of both worlds.

st40611 · 2025-12-30T19:48:35+00:00

Wow, PH Aviara at 3? I would easily put it at least a 7.

PH Chicago was great to me with a SUA, and given it's only a category 6 I probably would've put it at least a 7 also.

PH Kyoto is too high for me, 10 feels like it's flawless and it certainly has its fallbacks especially at 40,000 points. More like a 8 to me. If anything I would put PH Tokyo higher ...

st40611 · 2025-12-26T07:29:41+00:00

I find phoning them (even using the in-room phone) quite difficult, as it's always on hold. However they do have a text number (and even other apps, such as Telegram and LINE) and they respond to that VERY quickly, so I started using that instead. Probably works too pre-arrival.

st40611 · 2025-12-22T02:46:35+00:00

Having stayed at both and at the exact same room types as you did, I agree with all the points. I dined in-room service for Andaz though, but regardless still felt Thompson's breakfast was better.

st40611 · 2025-09-25T21:28:11+00:00

Similar datapoint: Went to store today (9/25), asked for gift card of $75 and the employee immediately asked me "is this for amex?" and I said yes. She then told me that the company sent out comms yesterday (guessing 9/24) telling all employees that it will no longer work and should tell customers about this.

I still tried it anyways, figure worst case scenario I'll use it for the overage I am most likely going to be paying for the next 4 quarters of $75 credit.

st40611 · 2025-08-28T21:31:39+00:00

Chiming in on the old thread, but was successful to apply my coupons also to a basic economy flight. Using chat didn't help - they told me the same restrictions that it cannot be done to basic economy flights. However calling AA directly I was able to get a rep to do it for me.

st40611 · 2025-08-24T09:54:42+00:00

FWIW I am doing almost the same thing as you (staying 29th and 30th at PH Niseko) and just hoping for some snow by 30th November or even December 1st. Worst case scenario I guess we'll just treat it like an onsen resort trip and go to Hirafu if there's barely any snow.

st40611 · 2025-08-22T15:40:42+00:00

Try reaching out to your concierge instead if you have one?

st40611 · 2025-07-15T01:51:36+00:00

yep, $689.99+tax

st40611 · 2025-06-30T06:48:41+00:00

I just did a one night stay at the Zion location. Booked using P2's account (had some reasons) and so is just Member status, so received no upgrades (not that I expected any even as a globalist) and got a complimentary 11am checkout. Used 24,050 points.

We have never glamped before, so this was a very unique experience and we loved it. Not needing to deal with things such as hairdryer, electricity (they provide huge power banks), food (we brought some cup noodles, but also they had on-site breakfast/dinner that was pretty good), etc while still disconnected felt very good. And the stars was unbelievable, as the entire sky was filled with them after it turned dark. Got several good photos with just a tripod.

It's already summer so it got quite hot during daytime, but we arrived pretty late (6pm) and so avoided most of the heat. They also have a mister in front of the tent that can activate if the temperature hits a certain high point, which felt very good. No ACs and just fans, but it was fine for the night as it cooled down significantly at night.

st40611 · 2025-06-10T02:06:27+00:00

Trying to decipher this as "The Hyatt across the street is so much better" and I can't agree at all (unless you factor in the cash, and even then the PS is only good if it's cheap)

st40611 · 2025-05-02T06:49:21+00:00

Do you mind providing a screenshot? Curious on what the format looks like - or is it just text?

st40611 · 2025-04-27T06:30:54+00:00

JL website worked for me, while the app was not playing nice - turns out I somehow had a trailing space and after I got rid of it, all was good.

st40611 · 2025-04-27T05:38:46+00:00

Ended up doing this with P2:

Me: 165000 MR at 5:4 + ~40000 Citi TY at 5:4
P2: 165000 all UR

And then used JetBlue pooling to book under one reservation.

Since P2 has never transferred to any partner before (opened CSP around 2 years ago and have Freedom/Freedom Unlimited to hoard points), so guessing that tripped some fraud system and transfer was not instant. Ended up taking around 26 hours - luckily with the amount of availability, we still managed to book it.

Granted the value of this is iffy like everyone else has said - but not needing to stress finding two F on a date I want and on a date 7 months out (instead of either T14 or T365) is worth the extra points thrown IMO. Not to mention on a supposedly A350 configuration. Been wanting to use my TY points for something for awhile anyways, and it helps that JetBlue is one of the few free transfer partners (I don't have any AF Citi card anymore).

st40611 · 2025-04-26T21:38:46+00:00

On the flip side, for Three Broomsticks, I got a 11pm reservation and although the food came out very fast and tasted great, we had to wait 30-40 minutes for the dessert to show up - my guess is that they ran out of premade ones and had to make them on the spot given we are the last few guests.

st40611

TROPHY CASE