I am frugal. When something is free, I have to make sure I use it. This time, the free offering was a $100 statement credit at the Hyatt Centric Philadelphia for booking the room with my new Business Amex Platinum (see Approved! Amex Business Platinum: 200k MRs, $895 Annual Fee).
The problem with a statement credit is that I am forced to stay in the hotel instead of going out and exploring. That is great in a beach resort, but not when staying in a city. Having had two or too many cheesesteaks (see Best CheeseSteak in Philly? Don’t Ask Me), I decided to burn my $100 at the hotel on food and drinks. Here’s what I got:
How mad would you be if you had to pay for this?
How mad do you think I was when I was $17 over my $100 allowance? Do you think I would have tipped less if I knew I was over? TPOL readers will know the answer to that.
How were you $17 over?
I hate those sort of rebates they try to make difficult… Unfortunately for the Amex ones and similar I end up seldom using them as in order to do so, I end up paying twice as much for a hotel as I would have otherwise in the first place.
Worst mixed drinks the night before.
IIRC you said that you don’t generally eat hotel breakfasts even though they’re free. How do you reconcile that with your first two sentences?
That said, the food doesn’t look like anything to write home about and Philly has some pretty good eats, many of which don’t break the bank. I would’ve just tried to drink my credit if I knew how mediocre the food would be. How badly can a hotel screw up a Jack & Coke?
You are using a free credit, and you still can’t be bothered to tip 20%? There’s a difference between being frugal and being cheap. You should be embarrassed.
No. I had used credit the night before. Not embarrassed. Also, credit it or not, there’s no service. It’s here’s your food, there’s no refills on soda. How’s that worth anything?
Send me money for reading my blog please. I would appreciate a tip.