Greetings Community Southwest-
SoCalFlyer97 had a chance to take a first glance of Southwest's recent launch of redeeming Rapid Rewards points for hotels at their new Agoda-powered portal at hotels.redeemrapidrewards.com; the new option is separate from the prior points redemption portal through qrttravel.com where the point trade-offs for hotels were nowhere good in my opinion.
The booking was for a Friday and Saturday night stay during Mother's Day weekend at an independent inn dubbed the Ontario Airport Hotel. This place is a former full-service Hilton property complete with a 10-story mid-rise tower, its own restaurant, small convenience shop, meeting halls, and banquet rooms.
As usual, this stay was booked through Southwest Hotels. SoCalFlyer97's means to "buy points" is earning them through Southwest Hotels' Point Plus properties that offer a generous sum of CP-Qualifying Rapid Reward points in conjunction with competitive rates, powered through Booking.com. That comes with the knowledge that the points get deposited within 1-2 weeks after the stay.
This was also the first hotel booking following Southwest's launch of the option to redeem points or cash+points for hotels. That meant, I had another portal to explore.
Unlike qrttravel.com, was I able to find any good deals to redeem points in return for a room at the Ontario Airport Hotel? Let's go ahead and see...Cost rundown for the Friday and Saturday going into Mother's Day weekend (Includes all Taxes/Fees, Free Cancellation):
Ontario Airport Hotel & Conference Center Cash Options:
Booking Direct: $250.58
SW Hotels Points Plus/RocketMiles: $252.82, earn 3,000 Points
Trivago (Most Providers): $250.60
Trivago Lowest Price/Agoda: $198.96
Redeem Points at hotels.redeemrapidrewards.com:
All Points, No Cash: 31,000 Points + $0 (about $465 value)
Cash+Points (best offer): 7,800 Points + $143 (about $260.00 value)
As you can see, while I was doing my price comparisons, the standalone booking site Agoda snuck in there with a huge discounted flash offer of $198.96 total for the stay which included all taxes/fees with free cancelation...over $50-off from the rest of the competition including SW Hotels. I have never used Agoda and have read that its flash discounts can happen at unexpected times. This booking site also has mixed reviews regarding their sales tactics, customer service help and hold times to talk to a rep. I am aware that Booking Holdings owns both the Booking.com and Agoda brands but given those factors, I still opted for Southwest Hotels/Booking.com as the 3,000 Companion Pass eligible points was still a fair tradeoff and I've had no major prior trouble to date of utilizing this service.
Regarding the value of booking with points, the all-points options was out of the question for me; spending 31,000 points was excessively high as the cash value was about $465, almost twice the amount of paying cash.
The hybrid option of spending $143 and redeeming 7,800 points wasn't that bad of a deal to be fair, but the $260 value was still too high for my liking. I would be spending only $10 more for the stay than paying cash which appears to be a fair trade off at first, but I would still miss out on gaining the 3,000 CP-Qualifying points which is about a $45 value toward flights plus the value added toward Companion Pass.
Anyway, I went forward with the SW Hotels option: $252.82, earn 3,000 Points. I had no problems with the booking. Hotel had a $100 incidentals deposit, and they used a free paper dashboard permit for vehicle parking. Front staff was friendly and also accommodated me with a 12pm early check-in at no additional charge. That was after I gave them a call ahead of time and confirmed the request was included.
Travel Tip: If you're visiting a town and have arrived early, give the hotel a call anytime after 12pm to see if they can check you in early. If they say 'yes', always confirm whether there is an extra charge or not and how much it is before committing. Some hotels charge; others accomodate. The upcharge is often published somewhere on the hotel's website.
This place had a few unexpected positive surprises too. First off, guests were allowed to use the Service Elevator which is located on the south end of the tower which serves as a direct shortcut to the pool and fitness rooms as the main elevators are located at the center of the tower; guests staying on the southern end won't have to backtrack.
Also, those utilizing ONT can check the status of their flights directly from the lobby.
Next up for SoCalFlyer97...A day trip from SAN to SJC.
Prior Trip Reports:
https://community.southwest.com/t5/Rapid-Rewards/April-24-Southwest-Flights-amp-Hotels-Line-Up-Seven...
@SoCalFlyer97 wrote:
Greetings Community Southwest-
The booking was for a Friday and Saturday night stay during Mother's Day weekend at an independent inn dubbed the Ontario Airport Hotel. This place is a former full-service Hilton property complete with a 10-story mid-rise tower, its own restaurant, small convenience shop, meeting halls, and banquet rooms.
During my stay at the Ontario Airport hotel, I saw a one of the Southwest "One's" fly over the property while I was hanging out at the pool:
Before anyone asks, the answer is "no". I did not bring my cell phone with me into the spa to do plane spotting. I was sitting at one of the tables. Anyway, it took me a while, but I was finally able to track this bird down later on FlightRadar24 to confirm the livery, plane number, and its routing.
The plane that flew over my hotel last weekend was SWA Flight 2641 from MCI making its descent--not into ONT for it was far too high, but into LAX. It was plane number N8655D, the New Mexico One!
One thing I learned during my stay at this hotel having noticing the "parade" of airplanes passing over at just over 10k' over the pool was the airspace just south of ONT is along the primary descending flight path for planes originating from the east headed to LAX. That meant, I was able to see and track down arriving LAX flights. Some of the other flights that I saw when I did my research later originated from as far as London. Others from the DC area and NY via the legacy carriers, as well as a number of other Southwest short-hauls from LAS and DEN.