I had the good fortune to cash in all of my Hilton points for an incredible Succos vacation in Israel. We are a family of four and we took two rooms in each hotel. We spent the first 2nts in the Tel Aviv Hilton and then went onto spend 12nts at the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem. These points came from opening up Hilton Honors credit cards, transferring MR points to Virgin and Hawaiian and then to Hilton, using Hilton Reserve certificates for weekend stays and taking advantage of Hilton AXON awards.
Just to back up a bit, we left from EWR Motzei Yom Kippur on UA90 at 10:50pm. We were all booked in Business First and we were psyched. As soon as we enter the cabin, the flight attendant saw my husband’s and son’s yarmulkes, looked at the paper in his hand and asked me why I didn’t order kosher meals. When I told him, “of course we did”, he said it is not on his manifest. In the end, they had no extra kosher meals and we figured we would live having just broke our fast right before we left for the airport and were pretty stuffed. When breakfast was served, we figured we’d just go for the cereal but somehow there wasn’t enough regular meals either?
Already filed my compliant with UA. Otherwise flight was great – UA have a great Business First product to TLV from EWR.
I’m a Hilton Diamond member and when we checked into the Tel Hilton we were upgraded to a room on the Executive Floor where the rooms are all renovated. We also had access to the Executive Lounge (I believe Gold members actually get these same benefits) which is excellent. We stay at this hotel every summer and love it. Access to the Executive Lounge give you free alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks all day, a nice but small breakfast spread and every night a hot dinner buffet, again small but nice and for sure you can make it your meal. The staff at the hotel is attentive and very pleasant. The hotel just renovated the gym and it has all new equipment. The beach in steps out of the hotel’s back door and it is just paradise. Most frummies skip over Tel Aviv but it’s a mistake!
We arrived at the Waldorf the day of the Grand Prix in Jerusalem. Agron was closed off so the hotel was asking that their guest get dropped off at the top of Agron and King George. There we were met by a bell boy who schlepped the bags down the hill on his cart to the hotel. Interesting start to our stay.
When we checked in the staff was very nice and we were automatically upgraded to Deluxe Rooms. The rooms are truly luxurious and large. The “private” concierge took us up to the room to show us how to use everything in the rooms. The TV has free movies . Before she left she gave us an envelope with free drink coupons for the bar in the lobby – 4 per day (as we were 4 ppl) for 12 days = 48 free drinks! Each day the rooms were refreshed with complimentary bottles of water, a bottle of Barkan wine and either fruit plates, cookie plates or candies. We looked forward to what we would find in our room each day!
Breakfast was included as Diamond member but it is really included for all guests. The buffet was huge and had everything you can imagine. They made all different kinds of coffees and ice coffees at the coffee bar. Even invited a DDF acquaintance to breakfast one morning! Maybe the hotel just didn’t have their acts together or maybe they were overwhelmed from Yom Tov, but they rarely checked names and rooms for breakfast – you could just walk right in. The service wasn’t good either. I invited outside guests for breakfast twice and there was no one at the front taking names and rooms – got a freebee!
They had 2 sukkahs set up for Yom Tov. One was the “inside” sukkah which is in the main dining/atrium area of the hotel and one was outside. The inside one had glass roof panels that opened up to create the sukkah – it was incredible. Both sukkahs were elegantly and tastefully decorated and jam packed if I might add. My husband and son davened in the minyan at the shul in the Waldorf several times and they said it was very nice.
One night we ate at the Palace Restaurant (dairy) in the hotel but it was just fair. After eating so much every day I thought it would be a good idea to check out the gym and take a run. I was stunned – they gym was a converted hotel room with two elliptical, two treadmills and a few free weights. I only went down three times or so and to my surprise no one was ever in the gym…..
Our flight home was from TLV-MAD-MIA on Iberia and we had Business class seats. When we checked in for our flight from TLV-MAD the agent told me that there was an aircraft change and if I was ok with that?? Funny right? The Airbus A319 Business was switched to the Airbus A319 standard, so instead of a 2X2 business style configuration it was three economy seats across with the middle seat empty. The meals service was disgusting but the flight was fine. I did place a complaint/claim with Iberia for the difference between the business class and economy plus the difference in the fuel surcharge (I will let you know how I make out!). The MAD-MIA flight was great. Iberia Business First product is actually very good – I would say on the same par as United’s except that the kosher food was excellent! It came from Italy.
Like I said, my entire stay was booked using points so when I checked out after 12nts in two rooms, with breakfast every morning and 48 drinks my bill was $0 – not bad! The entire trip was taken on
points – even thousands of dollars of spending money!
Thanks Dan’s Deals for showing me the way!
