IHG Rewards Club (Priority Club)

Cape Cod Trip Report (Day 2): Mohegan Sun Casino and Holiday Inn (Norwich, CT)

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The previous parts of this trip report are as follows:

  1. Cape Cod Trip Report (Day 1): Crayola Factory
  2. Cape Cod Trip Report (Day 1): Purple Cow Creamery and Hampton Inn (Milford, CT)
  3. Cape Cod Trip Report (Day 2): Mystic Seaport and Foxwoods Casino

One of our main purposes for stopping in Connecticut and the Mohegan Sun was to visit Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. Just getting to the restaurant once in the casino though is another story as it is located on the complete opposite side of the building away from the parking garage by the Hard Rock hotel. Again we wore both our sons in backpacks and in the stroller to avoid having little ones running through the casino. Walking through the Mohegan Sun though was absolutely beautiful compared to the previous Foxwoods Casino we visited earlier in the day. We were not approached by any security guards and stayed completely away from the casino floor. I did not even attempt to see any part of the actual casino or poker room this time. Besides, on the long walk to Margaritaville, one could get plenty of view of the casino floor as you walked right besides it.

We had dinner at the Margaritaville, because we are parrotheads and have a goal along with our in-laws to try and see each of the locations. We have been to the Key West, Orlando, Niagara Falls, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, and now the Mohegan Sun. I think other than actually seeing the Margaritaville locations and grabbing a drink, I am not convinced that the food has really ever been anything worth ordering. This time both my wife and I ordered the fish tacos. The tacos had the tiniest little sliver of fish, and even with the salsa, beans, and cabbage, they were very bland and had no flavor. Plus after eating two of them, both of us still found ourselves starving.

110612 Margaritaville Fish Tacos

Following our dinner, we went to our hotel, which was the Holiday Inn located in Norwich, CT. We had reserved two King Executive rooms ahead of time via the Friends and Family rate. When we arrived, they informed us that my Platinum status had got us upgraded to the best rooms on the top floor. The rooms were very large complete with a desk, sitting area, king bed, fridge, microwave, and full bath. We were quite pleased with our rooms, and I think I am now officially a convert to the Intercontinental Group. We have stayed in countless Hampton Inn properties, and as I discussed in my post Cape Cod Trip Report (Day 1): Purple Cow Creamery and Hampton Inn (Milford, CT), the sleep experience has never been great. However, our sleep at the Holiday Inn was great once again!

The property was complete with an indoor pool, which we were not able to take advantage of since we were never at the hotel. The only thing that would have made the property better was if there was some type of breakfast offered. However, our rate was an unbeatable $95.73 after taxes using the Friends and Family rate. I did learn something though. When we checked in, they quoted me a rate for each room of $30 more per night, but I did not have all my information with me to try and figure out what was wrong, especially with two kids attached in tow. So I went up to the room and booted up my laptop to check everything out as the iPhone app would not tell me what rate I was supposed to be paying.

I pulled up the email of my reservation and showed it to the front desk attendant. After some investigation, she realized I had reserved two rooms for four people each instead of two rooms with two adults each. So even though my email confirmation showed it as correct, their computers were charging me an extra $30 per room to cover the “two additional adults” beyond the rated two adults per room. Luckily it was an easy fix, and I learned how I need to reserve rooms in the future.

The local Priority Club Pick a Perk promotion included a choice of 50% off lunch, one free appetizer with purchase of a beverage, $5 off dinner, or $5 off dinner plus 1,000 Priority Club points (with a minimum of two night). We unfortunately were not able to take advantage of any of these promotions since we were only at the hotel overnight.

Hotel Review

Should I Pay Cash or Points for Hotel Stay?

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Since the summer is fast approaching, I have been busy reserving lots of hotel rooms for our various trips. We had our Finger Lakes trip in April, which amassed us a ton of points because of the Crack the Case Priority Club promotion. Now we are trying to wrap up details for our pending Cape Cod trip.

We already had our major portion of the trip, in Cape Cod, reserved as I previous discussed in my post Cape Cod Hyannis Harbor Hotel Booked. We have been throwing around what to do before and after the trip since we built into the schedule a couple days to slowly travel to and from the Cape Cod region. By taking our time traveling, we thus needed lots of hotel rooms for stays the various nights we will be in different regions of the country.

Our major goal in accumulating miles and points is to eventually go to Hawaii for pretty much free, both with airline miles and hotel rewards. So we are not interested at this point in actually redeeming miles/points towards rewards. So the question then comes down to should we pay a premium towards earning points for our stay, or take a reduced rate through various avenues that do not earn rewards?

On the way to Cape Cod, we are planning on stopping at the Crayola Factory in Pennsylvania (more on that in a future post), and then have two different hotels reserved in Connecticut. The first night we are staying in the Hampton Inn Milford, CT. The room was amazingly cheap at $73.42 (after taxes and fees) for a King Bed with our AAA discount. We will earn rewards for this stay.

The next night we will be traveling towards the Mystic Seaport and Margaritaville at the Mohegan Sun. Due to various things we want to see and do, we wanted to end up near the casinos at night, and found the Holiday Inn Norwich, CT. Since we were only staying a single night, we opted for a Friends and Family rate of $95.73 (after taxes and fees). Our AAA rate would have been $135.46, so a savings of $40/room, but no rewards.

After we leave the Cape Cod area, we decided we would stay in Philadelphia since we have never seen the City. We also decided we wanted to stay 3 nights. So now I have something to work with when it comes to choosing a hotel, and whether we are better off earning rewards or taking the cheaper rate.

Initially I searched for all available Hilton or Intercontinental branded hotels within the City. I quickly ruled out Hilton because the rates were not competitive. There were four (4) Intercontinental hotels within the City, and fit more within our budget. Upon closer inspection, I realized the rates I was seeing was not necessarily the price when you factored in parking fees of $25-40/night. That can quickly add quite a bit of money to the bottom line. Luckily one of the hotels, the PHILADELPHIA-STADIUM Holiday Inn, allowed complimentary parking, and the rates were reasonable.

For the three nights we were looking to book, the total rate is $537.94 with our AAA discount. (Note, the AAA rate in this case is $4 more per night than the advance reservation rate. The difference though is that the AAA is fully refundable and can be cancelled, so the incremental cost is worth it in my opinion should something better come along.) The same stay through the Friends and Family program is $415.58 (again after all taxes and fees). So the question becomes, am I better off paying a premium to earn rewards, or take the purchase discount?

The difference in cost would be $122.36, so a substantial savings. If we were to book the rate that earns rewards, we would earn 7,005 Priority Club reward points ($466.97 base rate * 10 points + 50% Platinum Status points). Therefore, the premium I would be paying would cost me $0.017/point ($122.36/7,005 points).

As a comparison, to purchase 7,000 points directly from Priority Club, it would cost us $13.50/1,000 miles ($0.0135/point), or $94.50. So in other words, I would be paying a premium over and above what it would cost to just purchase the points from Priority Club. In this instance, we will be better off taking the cash savings, as the $122.36 saved could buy an equivalent 9,000 points for $121.50 ($13.50 per 1,000 points) with change to spare.

This calculation also assumes no other bonuses would be accumulated should we go the points route.

So what did we do?
Well I just so happen to get lucky with a new promotion through Intercontinental, offering a $75 Mastercard for every two weekend nights. Therefore, the standard AAA rate of $537.94, which will give us 7,005 Priority Club points, will only cost us $0.0068/point after the $75 rebate. So with a couple hoops to jump through, going the route of points was the better alternative.

Intercontinental Hotel Group $75 MasterCard Rebate

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As I am working out the details for our upcoming Cape Cod trip this summer, along comes a new promotion from the Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG). One needs to preregister for the promotion at the following website, vacationpay.ihg.com.

After registration, you will need to print out the registration form for your future submittal of the rebate. Then you book a qualified stay with 2 consecutive weekend nights between May 16 and August 31, 2011. Lastly, you then go to ihgrebate.com, fill out and submit your Rebate Form. Print a copy of your Rebate Form. You’ll need to mail it in after your stay to receive a $75 prepaid Mastercard. One can earn up to four promotions for a total of $300 in gift cards.

As you will see in my post coming out later this week, I have been evaluating whether it is better to reserve our room to earn points or take a cheaper rate that does not qualify for points. This deal is a possible win to make me reserve a room that qualifies for points. However, the Rebate Center customer service has already been horrible with this promotion, and it makes me nervous to go down this route. I attempted to chat with them twice to obtain a copy of the actual rebate form, which is difference than the registration form, so we could determine whether a AAA rate qualifies for the promotion.

They were absolutely worthless at the Rebate Center, as they apparently have no access to the rebate forms. How that is possible baffles me. My main goal was to determine whether a AAA rate is a “Qualified Rate” for this promotion, as the terms are not exactly clear, and do not specifically rule out AAA rates. Unfortunately, even after I was able to figure out the system and get to what they call the rebate form, there still was no information that would link the promo back to terms that the Rebate Center would answer my question.

So for now I am taking a risk and booking using our AAA rate in the hopes that this promotion goes through, because by using this promotion, the cost per point becomes low enough to make it worth the premium to earn points.