Recently (2003), our DF and I took advantage of his frequent flyer
miles and frequent guest hotel points to visit Italy (scroll down for
article links). We were wined and dined and upgraded,
and we learned a thing or two for next time.
Book early
Airlines set aside a few seats here and there for
redemption by frequent fliers. The sooner you make your plans, the happier
you’ll be with your flights.
We began looking for flights in March 2003. We finally
settle on an October trip, but there were no direct flights to Rome available on American Airlines so
we had to change planes in London on both ends of our trip. While this allowed
us to spend an evening seeing the sites there, we were very tired when we
arrived in the UK and exhausted by the time we finally got home.
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If you can't get reservations when you want them,
check back to see if seats have been freed for the airline's miles program.
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There may be a fee to change reservations.
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Don't lose your tickets. There may be fee to
replace them.
Take advantage of airline upgrades and perks
Although the DF doesn’t belong to American Airlines
Admirals Club, our business class tickets were enough to give us admission to
the British Airways Executive Club on those portions of our trip that they
handled.
Airport executive clubs offer quiet seating with Internet
access, newspapers and free snacks of varying wonderfulness. We were most
impressed with the British Airways’ executive club at London’s Heathrow
Airport.
We were not offered an upgrade to first class on any of our
flights, but we never asked. Business class flights provide elaborate free
meals and beverages. (The DF was very impressed with New Zealand wines.)
Overseas flights on American Airlines business class offer recliners, toiletry
kits that include sleep masks, travel socks and toothbrushes, and lots of
leg room.
Hotel heaven isn't just adverting hype, but …
We planned our trip around Hilton Hotels in Italy to take
advantage of the DF’s points. We choose to spend five nights in Rome – our
first four nights in Italy as well as our last night. We requested four nights
in Rome’s Cavalieri Hilton, but could only manage to secure a room for the
final night of our visit. We ended up staying at the Airport Hilton for those
first four nights in Rome.
Fellow travelers told us we should have insisted on the
nights we wanted where we wanted them, but things worked out fairly well with
just a glitch or two.
The Hilton at the Leonardo da Vinci (Fiumicino) Airport
provides a free shuttle bus into Rome that takes guests back and forth to Teatro
Marcello (once a Roman theater, now an upscale apartment building) near the Forum. This was fine except when we needed to
arrive before 10 a.m. to connect with trains or buses at Rome’s Termini Station.
(The train from the airport to Termini was about $9 each - ouch.)
There was also a major problem with return to the airport
shuttle bus seating since the bus driver would not permit standing on the bus.
On the evening of a major demonstration that wound around the Coliseum and the
Forum before coming very close to nearby Teatro Marcello, the driver chose not
to stop at the prearranged pickup point. We could see the Hilton bus in the
distance, there were no demonstrators - who were peaceful in any case - near us
and the Sheraton buses were making regular stops, but we waited three hours
before the Hilton bus came back for us. (Alternate transportation was
impossible to find because of the demonstration.)
Unfortunately, there were way
too many Hilton guests who wanted to get back to the hotel. We watched a lot of
goodwill toward the hotel disintegrate as guests saw they would not be boarding
the bus. One woman asked the carabinieri to stop the bus so she could argue her
way aboard, but as the police car drove off, the bus driver closed the door in
the woman’s face and drove off too.
Hilton Hotels, and most hotel chains that cater to
business travelers, offer concierge or executive floors that provide free meals,
newspapers, sometimes free Internet access, and concierge services.
Hilton's executive floor food and décor were excellent in
Sorrento and both hotels in Rome, but executive space in London's Park Lane Hilton was
crowded and the staff did not regale us with interesting anecdotes.
A seagull has visited the terrace
of the Sorrento Hilton every day for the past two years to demand and receive
breakfast.
Hilton totally came through on the rooms they provided. We
were very impressed with the Rome Airport Hilton until we got to Sorrento.
There we discovered the bliss of an oversize bathtub, complimentary fruit, champagne and more, and most especially the joy of pushing a button while lying
in bed to open drapes that revealed a postcard-like view of Mt. Vesuvius (Vesuvio).
Thoroughly spoiled, we arrived back in Rome's Termini
Station, found a cab (€25, about $30 including tip – it was raining and the
hotel was not around the corner) to transport us to the Cavalieri Hilton and its
private 15 acre park.
It was billed as five stars and was clearly worth every
one. We were upgraded to a sumptuous suite – so lavish we spent our last night
in Rome wallowing in luxury. Not a bad way to wind up a trip to anywhere.
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