My trip this past weekend to LA was VERY different than Steven's and Zak's.
First of all, my luggage actually made it. Of course, it helped that I only brought a carry-on! I didn't want to leave work as early as Steven and Zak, so I didn't book their YYZ-IAD-SFO-LAX itinerary. Instead, I booked a later flight on Air Canada YYZ-SFO, and planned to meet them on the SFO-LAX leg. Of course, they got rerouted and never made it to SFO, but they were still at the airport by the time I landed in LAX because they were sorting out their lost luggage fiasco.
But the main reason why my trip was different was because I was there for a work-related reason. And I was stuck in meetings half the day Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday. And those Saturday and Sunday meetings started at 7:30am. Ugh. Even with the time change, I am NOT a morning person. I've been to LA many times, so missing out on some of the touristy things wasn't the end of the world. But it sounds like the Paramount Studios tour that they went on was a lot of fun, so I will definitely check that out next time I am there. And I still managed to enjoy LA with them in the evenings (which didn't help with the 7:30am start times the next day!)
Of course, the benefit of being there for work is that all of my expenses get reimbursed. So that's points for FREE. We stayed at the Doubletree in Santa Monica, which is Hilton family property. The bill for the room came to about $900. From that one stay, I'll get 1,800 American Express membership rewards points (since I used my Gold Amex that gives double points for travel), 20250 Hilton HHonors points (including the double points "Double Your HHonors" promo for the first quarter of 2013, and the 25% bonus for being HHonors gold), and 900 Aeroplan points (since I chose the "points and variable miles" bonus miles option in HHonors). On top of that, I also have one of the two hotels stays I need to get the 2,500 bonus Aeroplan points as part of this promotion listed at the top of this page. (I'll get the second stay at a Novotel next month in Bangkok). Plus of course the points for the flights themselves, and the credit card points for the meals.
But the best part of the trip was that I beat Steven and Zak in the "Celebrity Spotting" game. They may have seen LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell, but I got to see Marcia Cross while at True Food Kitchen for lunch! (See picture above. She obviously had her hands on her face to mask her excitement from seeing Brad from GuysWhoTravel.com)
This article is in the category: Travel.
