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lowballer

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Everything posted by lowballer

  1. http://www.opm.gov/fedhol/2005.asp Columbus Day is observed on the second Monday in October (October 10 this year) so yes, you are looking at Columbus Day weekend. It is not observed by everyone; for example stock markets are open. That said, one of the bigger NYC parades is that weekend. In general it seems to be a bigger deal in the northeast than in other parts of the country.
  2. Hmmm... if you're using BART, what will you need the car for, and vice versa? If you're renting a car, is it an option to plan your trip so that you won't need the car at all for a day or more, and just stay downtown or otherwise near BART for those day(s), thus shortening the car rental period? If it's your own car that you want to ditch for a few days, can you park at a remote lot at SFO and take BART from SFO to where you need to be instead? Just thinking out loud.
  3. SJC-MKE is $400 on NW via MSP. I know it's a couple hours' drive, but hey, there's no changing planes at ORD.
  4. I was going through the motions here and hit a "raise your bid $9" screen at $34, which isn't too unusual... ...until I hit $37 and got a "raise your bid $10" screen :) ... ...only to run into a "raise your bid $11" screen at $39 . :) :o Whew, good thing I didn't obey it by bidding $50 :) Failures: 2
  5. Try using http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego with a 300-mile (or similar) radius for your departure and arrival cities.
  6. Odd, but I don't think it's terribly misleading, and certainly not intentionally so. The names of the actual *zones* still correspond to the city names. As do the areas they purport to cover, from what I can tell. Only complaint I have is the "overview" map is a bit unwieldy with all those balloons pointing every which way and no freeway numbers indicated.
  7. I've spent the night in the HKG airport with a longer overnight (16 hours) than that. You have to clear customs for the night, unless you already have your onward boarding pass or you can convince someone at the transfer desk to let you through. There are two sets of bigscreen TVs each surrounded by a dozen or so chairs at each end of the checkin area. I can't sleep in such a situation but I did spend the night reading. Other people have this idea as well, so all the chairs might be taken by the time you get there. It helps if you have access to an airport lounge in the morning so you can take a shower (both SQ's and UA's lounges have showers, and I'm sure at least one of the OneWorld clubs has a shower, too). Also consider checking in as early as possible, because airside is generally more pleasant than landside at HKG. This might not be an option for you, but flights back from HKG are an ordeal to start with, and it wasn't worth dealing with transportation to and from the airport, etc. For an 11-hour flight or whatever I try to delay all my sleeping until I'm on the plane. Alternatively, HKG does have two hotel reservation desks, one at each exit right after customs. I've had good luck with them in the past, although at that late an hour all the cheap rooms might be taken, or they might be closed for the night. If you use them do not automatically take the first rate they give you; ask if there's anything cheaper. Hey, you did ask.
  8. Which is NOT convenient to the L at all and only "sorta" convenient to a few bus lines. Check the bus map to make sure they run where you want to go ... http://www.yourcta.com/maps/maps/F2004D.html
  9. I dunno, it seemed kinda sketchy when I tried to use it. Was looking for a place in Hong Kong last year. I must have made seven or eight "reservation requests" and they ALL came back unavailable, including alternative hotels it offered itself. Meanwhile my travel dates get closer. Now the HKG airport has a centralized hotel reservations desk (two, in fact) right after customs, so it's possible, if still a tad risky, to arrive without a reservation. When I got there there were plenty of rooms available, although not at the "vapor rates" HotelClub pretended to offer. Maybe something was weird about my particular nights and maybe other cities are different. But I'm not comfortable enough with the "we'll get back to you in two days to tell you we were just kidding" business model to save the few bucks if the rooms really do exist.
  10. First off, do NOT do the "drive in, drive around and drive off" all in one day. Most of the roads on the Cape are pretty slow going and you'll end up seeing nothing intersting, especially if you're not set on what you want to see. The whole point of the Cape is to relax and take your time, not to hit as many things on a list as possible. There are certanly tacky parts of the Cape; pretty much anything near Route 28 between Hyannis and Harwich. These, naturally, are where you will find the cheapest accommodations. However, there is nothing "tacky" about Woods Hole, or Falmouth, or the national seashore, and so on. You're there in midweek, so I'll suggest something you don't see here too much... go without a reservation and just shop around wherever you end up. There will be plenty of available rooms as long as you (a) stay near 28 between Barnstable and Chatham, or near the center of Hyannis and (b ) are looking at Monday through Thursday nights (and perhaps Sunday; Thursday might get a bit busy). You might get a break if you stay two nights at the same place. If you have a specific destination in mind, try to stay as close to it as possible, because getting around is so difficult. For the national seashore, stay in Chatham or beyond, for example. As for the islands... budget at least a full day for that (ie, do not plan on major activities on both the Cape and an island in the same day). You almost certainly want reservations when staying overnight on an island, no matter when in the week.
  11. My sister walked to her wedding, because the church was only a couple blocks from her apartment, but taking the L to a wedding would be a new one. :) There are things the CTA is good for, but this would not strike me as one of them. Fork over the money for downtown, or stay out in a cheaper suburb and drive in.
  12. Just because Priceline's model doesn't work for you doesn't mean it works for nobody. Over the years I've made about 100 reservations, if not more, using Priceline. Almost all were one or two night stays. From time to time I've even bid on behalf of friends. I (and the people I've bid for) used Priceline fully aware of its terms and conditions. Usually once I'm bidding for a particular location, my plans are either 100% firm or I'm willing to eat the cost of the reservation if they change (or if I'm unhappy with the hotel, etc.). So far the latter has happened once: I booked a hotel for two nights and left after the first. I think I was out something like $30. It never crossed my mind to ask for a refund. Miraculously enough, I survived. Regarding your plane ticket, you probably could have showed up at the airport for your desired flight pretending to be stuck in traffic or whatever. United almost certainly would have added you to the standby list without a problem, as long as it was the same day. Just curious: what kind of change policy would be acceptable to you? For your plane ticket, if you had booked conventionally you'd still be out $100 to reticket, plus any excess would be in the form of travel credit (not cash or chargeback), plus if the fare had gone up you'd have to fork over the difference anyway. Is this what you want PL to do? You can't expect it to be MORE accommodating than the airlines, do you? When "nonrefundable" is OK with me I use PL. When it's not, which does happen, I book conventionally. The savings I realize when I use PL have more than made up for the occasional inconvenience of having a nonrefundable reservation. Not everybody is like me in this respect, but enough are that Priceline survived the dotcom collapse. It's not going anywhere.
  13. Little old New Hampshire doesn't have a hotel review yet, so here goes. Stayed here a couple nights ago over Memorial Day weekend. Like most if not all Fairfields, this is fairly rated as a 2*. There aren't a whole lot of amenities here, nor is there a whole lot to do, but everything was clean and comfortable. At checkin, without asking, I was given a nonsmoking room with two queen beds. A fair number of families with kids were staying here, but my room was quiet and the kids didn't bother me. I think the outdoor pool had just opened for the year, or was just about to open as it was Memorial Day. Nobody was using it, though, and I wasn't sure whether this was because it was cool and rainy or that it actually hadn't opened yet. There is no hot tub or exercise machines. The free continental breakfast was decent. The property is right off Exit 11 of the toll road that goes south from Manchester (forget its name, but it's not numbered and shouldn't be confused with 93). It's about a 10 minute drive from the MHT airport area and a 75
  14. I disagree with most people here. I take as little as possible with me to the pool. "As little as possible" includes clothing, ie, just a bathing suit, a T-shirt and footwear. If I lose my key or it doesn't work, I can just tell the front desk my name and room number. How would someon stealing my card know my name... or on the off chance he knows my name how would he know my room number if it's just a card key... or on the even more unlikely chance he knows both he's probably an acquaintance of mine, and how then would he plan on stealing my stuff without getting tracked down? If the hotel is still suspicious, I can list some of the belongings in my room (like a specific brand of camera, etc) before I'm let in. If I fall and get knocked unconscious, my unclaimed card key will be lying around somewhere, and the hotel can pretty easily match it to me. Barring that, lots of pool/fitness areas are controlled by card keys in the first place, so they can see who goes in and out. Furthermore, emergency rooms in the US by law cannot refuse treatment to anyone in need. But if carry my ID around it's far worse for THAT to get lost or stolen with negative consequences. And when I go to a pool I usually don't plan on buying anything, so I leave the wallet in the room too. In short, the risks inherent to having an ID on you far outweigh the risks of not having one.
  15. Sometimes (usually?) the card keys are programmed not to work past check-out time. So if you're going to "risk it" you might end up with a "confrontation" with the front desk anyway. If it's important enough to me to need the room for a little while longer, it's important enough for me to ask at check-in. I've never been refused when I've asked on a PL stay, although sometimes I've been given as little as an hour extra. On PL stays I'm fully prepared to be refused, and it has happened where I have booked an extra night because I wasn't too sure of the hotel's policy.
  16. My folks live in this area so I have some knowledge here. The few chain hotels I'm aware of down there aren't too big and aren't on the coast. Most of the things on the coast are private residences, condos and vacation houses. Which you can certainly rent out, but not cheaply and not on PL, and usually not for less than a week. Highway 59, the road down to the beach, isn't too bad in midweek. It's got traffic lights but it's four lanes and moves along better than a lot of other "roads to the beach" I'm familiar with. The back roads in that area are more interesting and easy to follow (they mostly run at 90-degree angles), so my parents almost never use 59. If you're looking for bigger resort-type places on the beach, normally I'd say try further east in Florida. There's even a hotel-type facility within FL a state park (I forget its name). Trouble is, that part of the coast is still rebuilding from Hurricane Ivan, and the damage is worse the further east you go.
  17. Is this the hotel known as the Sheraton Tara? (Is it still called that?) Just curious.
  18. They must laugh at me more than I know, then. I live a couple of blocks away. Actually, it's not a whole lot more expensive than Lincoln Park. This hotel has far more of a neighborhood feel than any of the things on Michigan Avenue, though. This might end up being a positive. The snob in me would tell you to shop at Treasure Island (Elm & Clark) rather than the Jewel, though. That Jewel is getting renovated right now so it's not the greatest shopping experience.
  19. The Vail zones are a good place to use the "intentional underbid" strategy: Keystone and Vail offer only Resort, so if you're bidding for 3*/2* in one of the other zones you can use them as free rebids, because it's extremely unlikely a reasonable 2* bid would hit at a Resort. Failures: Breckenridge 3* $40, Breckenridge 2
  20. 4* tends to hit at $50 in downtown Pittsburgh and I had a lot of time, so I went up to $49 at 4* and stopped. (In fact I got a "raise your bid" screen somewhere in the mid-40s.) Then I moved down to 3* and failed up to $42 before this hit. Total = $42 + 13.29 = 55.29
  21. I think your best option is to stay in a suburb and drive in each day, taking care to avoid rush hour. A decent hotel downtown in midweek in June for around $100 is probably not reasonable. Also, the attractions you list are all over the place and are not all near L stations. So you'll need a car anyway or will have to learn bus routes. (By "Science and Tech Museum" I presume you mean the Museum of Science and Industry, which is far from everything else.) I'd start by looking at hotels in the suburbs near ORD, such as Elk Grove Village and Wood Dale. On Orbitz I'm seeing several suite-type places for around $100 and below. You could also try Schaumburg or Oak Brook, but these will be further out. If you're renting a car you might want to extend your stay to five or six days, so you can get a weekly rate instead of having to pay for four weekdays. Most of the hotels right around ORD (ie Rosemont) charge for parking, but this is rare in any of the other suburbs. Sounds like you'd be more a candidate to use HOTWIRE rather than PL, because you want to have some control over the type of accommodation you get. But a lot of conventional rates seem to meet your budget at this point. One place where you are in luck is with Cubs tickets. The market for those has definitely softened in the last few weeks as the Cubs have been playing like... well, the Cubs. Everyone wants White Sox tickets now!
  22. I stayed here on a Friday night for a $46 bid. I don't have a problem with its 4* rating, although there are 3*s in the ORD zone that are at least as nice and can often be had for less. I'll give this place the benefit of the doubt and say it's no worse than any number of other 4* places... in fact nicer than the 4* Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago, IMO. The location is superb, however, if you're using the L. This is the Hyatt immediately adjacent to the Rosement L station, so it's an easy walk between hotel and L (or, for that matter, the Rosemont bus terminal, which is on the other side of the L tracks as the hotel). Check-in was fast and friendly. I got a room in the south tower (or the southeast tower; it's the one tower you can't see from the L). I have no idea whether this is the "business" tower, but it wasn't a very big room. The furnishings were decent; not great but not IMO substandard either. Wherever your room is, you might find it easier to use the stairs than the elevator if you're on a low floor. The hotel's pool has a peculiar round shape. It is deepest in the center and not terribly conducive to swimming laps. There is one exercise room and separate men's and women's "health clubs", each with a sauna and steam bath (but no hot tub). The hotel directory in my room implied a confiscatory $10 charge to use the exercise/spa facilities, but no signs were posted to this effect, no staff was around to collect it and no charge appeared on my bill. (I was curious to see whether I would be charged by swiping my key card, but that didn't happen). There was a largish church group holding a meeting the night I was there, and the lobby area was somewhat noisy most of the night, but my room was quiet. Shuttle runs every 30 minutes between midnight and 6am and every 20 minutes otherwise. I was the only one on the shuttle at 5am and made my 6am flight easily.
  23. Actually, it's the other way around. "Hyannis" is an unofficially-named part of the town of Barnstable. If you commit a crime in "Hyannis", for example, the Barnstable police arrest you.
  24. A couple of years back I got the Marriott on Priceline for three nights at $40. It was listed as a resort but I was not charged any sort of resort fee. Actual quality was like a high PL 3*. I'm not sure what the zones and such are like nowadays, but this property is closer to the PVR airport than the center of town. (Which is no big deal once you get the hang of riding the buses.) It was still "Puerto" and not "Nuevo". This was an August stay and you are looking at June dates, which is still low season. One expects PL rates to have gone up since then, but off-season is still-off-season. $198 for a 4* Hotwire property for June sounds very, very high.
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