On our long route back home from Necker Island (EIS-SJU-JFK-SFO), we had the opportunity to visit the Virgin Atlantic Lounge at JFK (operated by Plaza Premium) using the Amex Platinum card. Our flight was at 6 pm, so our plan was to lounge hop Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, Centurion Lounge, and Virgin Atlantic. After we picked up our to-go order at Bobby Van’s, it was 3 pm, so the Virgin lounge had just opened. We decided to go there first since it was further inside Terminal 4 than Centurion, which was right next to security. But the minute we stepped inside the lounge, we scrapped all plans to go to Centurion.
TagPriority Pass
A short and sweet post, something to file away for future reference in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation. This post is for you if you’re wondering:
- Can I get into a Priority Pass lounge if I don’t have my card?
- Will Priority Pass lounges accept just a card number if I don’t have a digital pass or physical card?
- What should I do if I can’t find my Priority Pass card and don’t have enough time to request a new one?
- Can I get my Priority Pass card number before it arrives in the mail?
A couple months ago, my mother was coming back to the US from an extended trip to Taiwan. However, she did not have a Priority Pass card on her. I also could not find it anywhere in the house, and we had never logged in online or in the app, so there was no record of it anywhere.
So I tried to call Priority Pass for it. They asked which card it was from, and I said it was from the Chase Ritz Carlton. They said I had to call Chase, so I called Chase, who then transferred me to the Card Benefit Services and also gave me their direct phone number for future reference.
Chase Card Benefit Services
(for obtaining your Priority Pass card number)
1-866-263-4292
Open 24/7
Introduction
In May 2016, I signed up for Founderscard and detailed my experience here. One of the benefits of Founderscard is Total Rewards Diamond status, which is useful for people who go to Vegas and Atlantic City. I enjoyed the benefits of TR Diamond in my last 2 trips to Vegas since receiving the status, and recently booked my free 4 night stay at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. I had first heard about this benefit via TPG’s post, and originally people were skeptical about it and thought there would be some gambling requirement, etc. I thought I would write a post today for anyone who is planning to go. For the current benefit, the trip must be booked before Jan 31, 2017, with travel before the end of Feb.
My friend Michael (not my co-blogger) had gone at the end of September (during hurricane season, no less) and provided a lot of the tips and advice I will be describing in this post. He was essential in my preparation for this trip. Thanks, Michael!!
Making The Reservation
I made the reservation in November by contacting Atlantis Casino VIP Services and got a bunch of my TR Diamond friends to join in. In all, we booked 5 rooms for 8 people for mid-January. There are two packages available for the benefit:
The Daily Resort Fee is $49.95 + $3.75 VAT for a total of $53.70 per room per night or $214.80 for all 4 nights. Unless you want to gamble on turning your $100 free slot play into $200+, I would recommend selecting the Beach Towers, which is connected to the Coral Towers and is less than a 5 minute walk away through a beautiful hallway adorned with dolphin fountains.
I should also note that you still have to pay the VAT on the room rate and resort fees even though the room is complimentary, and there is also a mandatory gratuity. In all, expect to pay $6.99 (room charge) + $4.88 (VAT) + $10 (gratuity) + $3.74 (resort fee VAT) = $25.61 per room per night for couples or $102.44 for all 4 nights. For guests staying alone in the room, it would be $6.99 (room charge) + $4.88 (VAT) + $5.00 (gratuity) + $3.74 (resort fee VAT) = $20.61 or $82.44 for all 4 nights.
Flights
Jetblue was the best option in terms of timing for flying to NAS. I booked my flights SFO-FLL-NAS roundtrip with those Jetblue PointsMatch points for a total of 47,600 points and $214.38 taxes for two people. The cash equivalent of the flights was $954.00 for a cpp of 1.38. In hindsight, due to those taxes, it may have been better to book with Chase Sapphire Reserve at 1.5 cpp, but oh well.
Packing Tips
Besides your usual beach gear, like swimsuits (I recommend bringing 2, since it takes a long time to dry due to the humidity), sunglasses, hat, sunblock, chargers, action cameras, water shoes, sandals, etc, here are a few things I’d recommend adding to your packing list:
- Loads of snacks — resort food is not very good and expensive (and by expensive I mean more expensive than even American resorts…like a small pizza would cost $36), so if you want to save money, bring your own granola bars etc, so that you won’t need to order as much food.
- Alternatively, you can bring a small George Foreman grill or Instant Pot and some basic ingredients. I almost brought my sous vide, but opted not to, because I looked up some prices at nearby grocery stores and the meats were still expensive. I’ll explain meals later.
- Mosquito repellent – in the winter, there were basically no mosquitoes. However, I brought a small tube just in case, since the Bahamas is in the Zika-affected region.
- Cash – although Atlantis is a cash-less resort (everything is charged to your room key), you will still need cash to pay the taxis, and if you eat at some off-site restaurants.
- Jacket – in January, outside temperatures were generally 70-80F, but indoors it could get really chilly due to the A/C. Alternatively, you could just wrap yourself in a towel!
- Waterproof bags – I brought a waterproof bag for my phone, a waterproof case for my GoPro (actually, a Xiaomi Yi), and a 10L dry bag for other things I wanted to keep dry such as the room key. These were totally essential and I ended up carrying a lot of other people’s things since I was the only one who had dry bags.
- I packed my own snorkel (I’m a yuuuuge fan of the full-face snorkel) for the Exuma day trip. Very glad I did.
General Tips
- Bahamians speak English.
- The Bahamian Dollar is pegged to the US Dollar at 1:1. Everyone accepts USD. Try to pay exact change so that you won’t need to get change back. Even if you do, you can often ask if they have USD to give back to you.
- The Bahamas is on T-Mobile’s free international roaming data list. It works on the BTC network and I had very strong coverage throughout and even while out on the waters on a speedboat.
- Google Fi also works flawlessly on BTC (my husband used it on his iPhone). My work phone is Verizon and I found that it also connects to BTC but often had network issues while roaming.
- They use the same electrical outlets as the US, so no travel adapters needed!
- Download the Atlantis app (iOS, Android) for real-time chat with a concierge, messaging your friends, making dinner and activity reservations, etc. The app also has a great guide on all the awesome features of the resort, such as all the aquariums and lagoons you can go to (for free!), and a map of the resort to make it easy to get around.
- There were no mosquitoes during our time, and most importantly, no bed bugs. However, check your bed carefully for signs of bed bugs, and bring mosquito repellent just in case, since the Bahamas is in a Zika zone.
Taxi Adventures – Do Your Own Math
Sadly, the Bahamas does not have Uber, so we arrived at NAS and found a sea of taxis. They stated that the fare was $32 for the first 2 people, $3 per person thereafter, $2 for the bridge toll to Paradise Island (entering the island only), and $1 per piece of luggage.We told them we had 5 people and they piled us into a van and said it would be $32+$3×9+$2+$1+$1+$1=$49 (we had 3 pieces of carryon luggage). I later found out that the sign on the taxi stand says each person is entitled to 1 bag and 1 carryon, and the $1 is only for additional bags, so we were overcharged $3. Oh well. Here is the price list for your future reference:
The ride is about 20-25 min for about 10 miles.
Our van looked like it was about to fall apart, and at one point halfway, it started smelling like gas and the driver slowed down to a crawl and told us his engine was overheating. We managed to roll into a gas station and the driver “fixed” his car there. This was actually a welcome opportunity for us to buy some gas station fried chicken. We bought about 10 small pieces for $20. This was one of the cheaper foods we’d find on this island… When we finally arrived at the resort, the driver opened the door to let us out and the handle fell off. #facepalm
We took the taxi to/from the airport 3 more times after this since we flew out of NAS to go to Exuma on our last full day. We noticed that all three times, the taxi drivers tried to charge us more than what was posted (one driver wanted to charge $10 PER PERSON!). We had to hold our ground firmly on the posted price and they did not fight back too much. I told one taxi driver that the price should be $46, and he said, “Well you pay the toll then.” And I said, “Okay, I’ll pay you $44 then.” 🤣
The moral of the story here is: DO YOUR OWN CALCULATIONS.
Check In
We arrived around 11 pm. The check in for the Beach Towers is at Coral Towers (so this is where you tell the taxi driver drop you off). As we walked through the building on the Wednesday evening, it was clear that the hotel was very empty. Many more guests arrived on Friday and the weekend, and even locals come to hang out at Atlantis on the weekends.
Atlantis is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, so put your rewards number in at the front desk. Platinum Elite gets a choice between a half bottle of wine and a snack OR 500 points. I took the points. I put my SPG credit card on the reservation for 2X SPG points at Marriott properties.
Room Review
Before the trip, I tried to email for a possible upgrade to a different type of room since we had so many people, but was denied. If you check on the Atlantis website, you will see they have a variety of buildings on the expansive property of all different types ranging from mini apartments with kitchens next to the yacht dock to luxury suites. The Beach Tower is the cheapest and least luxurious of them all, but hopefully you won’t be spending much time in your room anyways.
Upon check-in, we were given the crappiest rooms in the Beach Towers by a receptionist who I wouldn’t exactly describe as friendly. When we got up to our room, the view was of a large flat roof.
After the first night, I asked for a room on the other side of the hotel facing the pools/ocean since the hotel was not full by any means, and was approved for a room change. The new room view was wonderful! It was definitely worth the move.
All of the rooms have balconies, which was really nice. The bathtubs have a clothesline, but I wouldn’t recommend hang-drying anything in there since it’s rather humid. Even the carpet felt like it was always slightly damp. I dried everything on the balcony instead, and even then it would take 2 full days to dry.
The rooms and the building were definitely showing their age and there were multiple maintenance issues. For example, in one of our rooms, the soap dish, hair dryer, and clothesline were all broken. On our 3rd night, there was a power outage in the middle of the night, which caused some people’s TVs to start screeching for over half an hour until they could figure out how to turn it off. On our last morning, the wi-fi and TV were down for over an hour, which made it hard for us to coordinate (we mostly were using Facebook Messenger). I reported all of these to Atlantis.
Resort Fee Inclusions
| Wi-Fi in guest rooms and lobby areas for up four (4) devices | For one of my friends, the previous guest’s devices were still connected, so it required IT to reset his room’s connection to free up the device slots. |
| Access to Aquaventure, a one-of-a-kind 141 acre waterscape | This is definitely the highlight of the resort. You get a wristband at one of the huts at Aquaventure (centrally located in the resort) and you can go on all the rides, use the River Rapids, etc. Plan to spend most of your days here! More on this below. |
| Access to the Fitness Center: Up to 2 persons per day per room | This is really far away from the Beach Towers, about a 15 min walk. It’s very nice though. From the site: Fitness center access entitles guests to complimentary use of the cardio studio, universal and free weights only. Tennis, fitness classes and personal training sessions are not included. |
| Two (2) 20 oz. bottles of water daily per room | Don’t touch the water bottles in the room…they cost $7 each. You get 4 water passes as part of your resort fee, each pass gets you 2 x 20 oz bottles of water at any food and beverage establishment. For us, 8 bottles was definitely enough for the 4 nights. |
| Unlimited local phone calls | We used this to call each other quickly and also to make arrangements for our day tour of Exuma (non-Atlantis). |
| Access to the Atlantis Movie Theater | The movie theater is between the Coral and Beach Towers. We didn’t watch any movies but they had daily showings of movies like The Secret Life of Pets. |
| Resort Shuttle Service | Honestly, we never saw the resort shuttles, and never used them. |
| In-Room Coffee and Tea | They use Starbucks coffee and Tazo tea. |
| Casino Lessons | We did not check this out. |
Casino Experience Pass Review (“C-Pass”)
You may pick up your C-Pass at the rewards desk in the Casino during their open hours. DO NOT LOSE IT, since it cannot be replaced. When redeeming experiences on the pass, you must present both the pass and your room key.
| Experience | Value | Review |
| One shallow water dolphin interaction for one person per room | $150 |
Make your reservations first thing after checking in (call the Dolphin Cay from your room during their open hours and make a reservation). Wetsuits are provided. No cameras allowed whatsoever. No jewelry allowed. The experience is approximately 1 hour and consists of a short orientation (i.e. never touch the dolphin’s face, they don’t like it), and then you split up into ~5 groups. Each group has a trainer and a dolphin, and the trainer will have the dolphin do a few tricks, and then each person gets photos with the dolphin — kissing, high-fiving, and feeding, and then a pose behind the dolphin. Basically, there is a LOT of waiting around while each person takes photos. Warning: the official photographers are not very good and many of our photos came out focused on the wrong thing. Also, the photos are expensive. We purchased our group photo for $30 (an 8×10). The digital photos cost $149, even if you only want ONE photo, it doesn’t matter. It’s really a shame you can’t bring a GoPro or something. Since this free interaction is only for one person per room, your companions can watch from a viewing deck that is pretty far away (basically, they can’t really see much and they can’t talk to you). There is an option to watch from the little beach but it would cost them $33 for that privilege. |
| One round of golf | $275-295 | Can’t be booked for play prior to noon on Friday or Saturday. Does not include rental clubs ($75 per person). |
| One Sushi and Sake Sampler at Nobu (6 pieces of sushi and 2 shots of sake) | $35 + $8 gratuity/VAT | Nobu is a fine-dining Japanese restaurant located in the Casino. The sampler was delicious, but extremely small. It’s more like a snack. The sake tasted like Sho Chiku Bai. VAT and gratuity are also complimentary (covered by the pass). |
| Two cocktails at Olives | ~$30 + $7 gratuity/VAT | Olives is a restaurant/bar located in the Casino. The service at the bar is horrendously slow (took 20-30 minutes to take our orders, then another 10-20 minutes to make the drinks), and the glasses were often not fully washed. We opted for disposable plastic to-go cups. VAT and gratuity are also complimentary (covered by the pass). |
| Two cocktails at Seafire Steakhouse | $25 + $5.63 gratuity/VAT | Seafire Steakhouse is located in Marina Village (a short walk from the Casino) and has very limited hours. I think their hours are 5-11 pm and they’re not open every day. One of the members in our group basically forfeited this item on their C-Pass because the hours were not convenient for him. The service is also very slow here but slightly faster than at Olives. VAT and gratuity are also complimentary (covered by the pass). |
Note: You will MOST LIKELY see some or all of these charges show up on your final hotel bill, so be sure to read it carefully. I had the Nobu, Olives, and Seafire Steakhouse charges show up on my bill. The front desk quickly took it off after confirming that I had a C-Pass, so I am glad we looked at our bills carefully.
Casino
The Casino is not part of the Total Rewards or Caesars network, as I erroneously believed in the beginning. So, your Diamond card is useless here, no special lines for you or anything. You can get a specific Atlantis player’s card, or your room key also works as a player’s card.
No, you cannot charge bets to your room and cash out; i.e. this casino is not MS-able in that way. 😉
Written by Michael:
Compared to Atlantic City or Vegas casinos, this one is small, but they have all the standard games. (note from Esther: They do NOT have poker, pai gow, or baccarat, but there is video poker)
They have free slot play tournaments Sunday – Thursday at 11:00am, 11:30am, 8:00pm, and 8:30pm. Friday – Saturday 11:00am and 11:30am. The tournament contains a maximum of 20 people. You hit a button as fast as you can for five minutes and the one with the most points at the end wins. (from Esther: the game is completely based on pure luck, but in the 11:00 am tournament on Thursday that we played in, two of my friends earned 2nd and 3rd place!)
Singapore Airport is incredible. It’s like the ultimate hangout spot, if it only didn’t require a boarding pass to get in. I could imagine people wanting to get their friends together and hang out for a day here. I was on my way from SIN to TPE via Tigerair Taiwan, and since I had to check luggage and the counters weren’t open more than 2 hours prior, I wish I had more than 2 hours to explore. I will definitely allot more hours next time I’m there. It’s these Asian airports that make me realize how paltry our American lounges are in comparison!
For kids: playground with lots of slides, interactive art
For families: PS3 gaming, free LAN gaming, family zones, free movie theater, free Singapore sightseeing tours
Pool with jacuzzi and swim-up bar
Changi Aviation Gallery
Link: http://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-experience.html
This post will be like my TPE lounges post, in that it’ll be mostly pictures, with my thoughts and reviews in the captions. The only difference is that in this post I will discuss a lot about the airport itself too, since the experience wasn’t just about the lounges. I also didn’t have enough time to hit every single Priority Pass lounge, but hope to catch them next time. Enjoy!
Singapore Airport
- Gardens beautifully curated and maintained
Terminal 1: Piazza Garden, Cactus Garden, Water Lily Pad Garden, Sculptural Tree Garden
Terminal 2: Enchanted Garden, Koi Pond/Orchid Garden, Sunflower Garden
Terminal 3: Butterfly Garden
This will be a photo-heavy post because I assume that in cases of trip reports, people are generally more interested in seeing photos than reading text! The photos should mostly speak for themselves…
Terminal 1:
- Plaza Premium Lounge (Zone D) – Priority Pass
- Transasia Legend VIP Lounge – Priority Pass
Terminal 2:
- Plaza Premium Lounge (Zone A1) – Priority Pass
- MORE Premium Lounge – Priority Pass
- EVA Air The Star Lounge – Star Alliance Gold or Business Class
- EVA Air The Infinity Lounge – Star Alliance Gold or Business Class
On our way back from Travelcon, Esther and I stopped by the Virgin America Loft at LAX for breakfast and refreshments t-shirt before our leg home to San Francisco. I have Virgin America (VX) Gold status from the Membership Rewards promo they are currently offering, so I get lounge access as a benefit of that status, but in any event, both of us have Priority Passes (me from my Amex Plat and she from her Citi Prestige), so we would be able to get free entry through that.
Before we entered, however, I asked Esther to put away her Priority Pass so I could just ‘see what happens.’ I had no expectations other than thinking that perhaps the rep would see my status on my ticket and ignore Esther’s completely (which was conveniently placed below mine as I handed the boarding passes to the agent).
Obviously, this didn’t happen, but the representative, rather than asking for money to pay for Esther’s lounge access, instead asked if I wanted to use one of my guest passes.
“Guest passes?!” I thought to myself. “Cool!”
Instead I stayed cool, calm, and collected like the composed status holder that I was trying to portray, and asked “How many do I have?”
For reference, here’s VX’s benefit list, with a fuller description here. Although Virgin alludes to passes of some sort, it’s not actually evident that this is a distinct benefit from the member’s own access to the lounge, nor did I ever receive an email notifying me of my passes. Long story short, I had no idea what she was talking about, but I went along with it.
“Well, if you haven’t used any, you’ll have three left. The balance resets at the beginning of the year as long as you re-qualify for Gold.” Unsurprisingly, upon reviewing my account, the rep noted that I did indeed have three passes remaining.
Given that Esther has a Priority Pass, I declined to use them, but the exercise underscored the importance of experimentation. Is a glitch repeatable? Is there a potential for arbitrage? Can you get something for nothing?
#TravelCon2 Thoughts + my 'Prezi' (if that helps the insanity) https://t.co/SocUdRkvtI via @saverocity
— Saverocity (@Saverocity) November 9, 2015
The point is that, as Matt had advocated during his talk at Travelcon (a discussion of which you can find here and which was fantastic, I might add), a large part of our hobby (and life in general) is about manufacturing luck. That is, you want to put yourself in situations where you can earn things that you either a) didn’t deserve or b) deserve, but didn’t realize you deserve. For me, the ideal case is the latter, since it means I don’t need to actively change my behavior to get the benefit a second time, but if it’s ever the former, well, I’m sure as heck not going to complain, and you (probably) won’t hear me blogging about it.
An alternative, but more general phrasing of the same principle is that no one is ever serendipitous by nature. Rather, those that appear to be lucky or serendipitous are only so because they have actively sought out opportunities for serendipity. (I think I read about it in an article about Thomas Edison on Farnam Street, but I can’t actually find it anymore).
What does that mean? Put yourself out there. Expose yourself to other people, and identify situations in which you can have a choice between a low (or no) risk but well-understood result and an equally low risk but strictly better possible result, and choose the latter. Don’t take out your Priority Pass if you don’t have to.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W9QJe4BgPo]
Update: They let me into the SFO Air France lounge, after initially insisting that they needed to see my physical card. The agent realized there was a scanning feature on the Priority Pass reader, but it took a while to scan properly. The process was a lot smoother at the Asiana lounge in Seoul Incheon, as the agents there knew exactly how to scan the digital membership card.
Arrived at the airport and headed to the lounge when you realized you left your physical Priority Pass card at home? Or in my case, left your Priority Pass card along with a bunch of credit cards in your hotel in Brazil? You now might have a backup option!
Previously the physical Priority Pass card was required to access lounges. But with a recent mobile application release, along with an improved look and feel, you can now access a digital Priority Pass membership card!
You can also add your membership card to Apple Passbook. I was also able to able to download the digital membership card from the prioritypass.com website.
The disclaimer from Priority Pass is that while most lounges will be able to accept the new digital membership card, not every lounge will be set up to take it, so for 100% ensured access, you should still carry your physical card.
I’m going to try it at the Air France lounge at SFO when I fly out to Hong Kong today. I thought I would be loungeless this entire trip as I’m not flying Star Alliance, and I left my Citi Prestige and my Priority Pass card in Brazil. I’ll report back and see how it goes!
Via One Mile at a Time, Priority Pass has added 3 new Air France lounges in the US. The lounges are:
- Air France Lounge New York JFK, Terminal 1 (open daily 6AM until 2AM)
- Air France Lounge San Francisco, Concourse A (open daily 8:30AM until 8:30PM)
- Air France Lounge Washington Dulles, Concourse A (open daily 10:30AM until 10PM)
This is great news for those flying out of SFO that aren’t flying on a carrier that they have lounge access through status or otherwise. I’m not always flying Star Alliance or American, so I’ll now always have a lounge to stay in when flying from SFO.
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