By RamonRamon is the creator of Travelling Companion. He focuses on flight review, hotel reviews, and helping stretch your travel dollars, miles, and points further. San Juan Condado Trip Report San Juan Condado Trip Overview American Airlines Boeing 767-300 Economy PHL-SJU Review AC Hotel San Juan Condado Avianca VIP Lounge American Airlines Boeing 737-800 Economy SJU-PHL Review American Airlines A319 First Class PHL-DCA Review  Condado Beach San Juan Introduction In the Spring of this year Christina and I headed to San Juan to check out potential event venues near Condado Beach. We booked these tickets about six months after Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria and with all of the reports of devastation we did not know what to expect when we arrived on the island. However, I am a Boriqua and really wanted to support the island where I spent so much of my childhood so we decided to head to Puerto Rico. We are so glad that we decided to go. What we found in San Juan was a city that had been through a serious disaster in Hurricane Maria but recovered faster than the rest of the island and was ready and eager to welcome tourists. Despite the fact that I have been to Puerto Rico numerous times I still get excited coming back. The food is amazing, the people are friendly, and the beaches are beautiful. I can tell you that Hurricane Maria did not change any of these things. This was Christina's first time ever visiting Puerto Rico so I was really excited to have her along as my traveling companion. In this report she is going to share with you some of her first impressions of San Juan. This trip report will focus on some of the very interesting flights we took to and from San Juan and our great hotel stay along with Christina's impressions of Puerto Rico. Booking Flights In the past year I have seen some amazing sub $300 deals to San Juan and when we decided to go to San Juan in the Spring we were able to score one of these great deals from Washington D.C. We booked two regular economy roundtrip tickets on American Airlines for $266 each. While not quite as good as my sub $200 deal to Mexico city I was pretty proud of finding such a good deal on a full servicer carrier. For more tips on finding cheap airfare check out this post. We were also happy that our trip started and ended in our most convenient airport Washington Regan National (DCA). We ended up leaving from DCA and connecting through Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) in both directions. Because the flight from DCA-PHL is so short and there was nothing of note I am going to skip that flight review. However, I am going to include the review of our flight from PHL-DCA since we got upgraded to First Class and it is my first time ever experiencing American Airlines domestic First Class. Overall, American Airlines got us from Philadelphia to Puerto Rico but I was really unimpressed with both the inflight and ground experience at Philadelphia which I will talk about more in my flight reviews.  Flight Routing Map generated using the Great Circle Mapper-copyright Karl L. Swartz Booking Hotels On my most recent trips to Puerto Rico I spent most of my time in Dorado a city with a beautiful beach about 30 minutes west of San Juan. However, this time around I was excited to check out Condado, a neighborhood in San Juan were I hadn't spent much time on my previous trips. We chose to stay in the Condado neighborhood of San Juan because most of the hotels in this neighborhood are on or steps to the Condado Beach and it has a strip of hotels, bars, and restaurants we could explore by foot. We only looked at Marriott hotels since Christina is a Marriott Platinum member, which at that time was called Marriott Gold. There are three Marriott hotels in Condado two of which have direct beach access, La Concha Renaissance and the San Juan Marriott Resort, and a third which is one block from the beach the AC Hotel San Juan Condado. When we booked our hotel La Concha and the San Juan Marriott were completely sold out so despite our poor experience with the AC hotel brand in Barcelona we decided to book the AC Hotel San Juan Condado which ended up being a great decision. In total we paid $680 for our three night stay including taxes and a daily 18% resort fee. Our rate also included two signature cocktails and two tickets to the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico. We ended up really enjoying our stay at this hotel and I thought we got a good deal considering the location and amenities.  AC Hotel Condado Summary
In between our event planing we really enjoyed our stay in San Juan. It was great to introduce Christina to Puerto Rican cuisine, check out a new area of San Juan. Any down time we had we spent enjoying the great food, hotel pool, and Condado Beach. San Juan is open for business and I strongly encourage everyone who has not been to check out Puerto Rico and support the recovery. I hope you enjoy this trip report and thank you for reading.
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Rollercoaster Ride Through The Storm: Delta A320 Economy Atlanta (ATL)- Washington (DCA) Review11/4/2018 By RamonRamon is the creator of Travelling Companion. He focuses on flight review, hotel reviews, and helping stretch your travel dollars, miles, and points further. Flight Summary Delta hit a low in passenger comfort on this flight and its operations team should have cancelled this scary rollercoaster ride. Pros-Great Delta Pilots. Cons- Aggressive Delta Operations, Bad Delay Notifications, Glitchy In-Flight Entertainment. A Weekend in Mexico City Trip Report A Weekend in Mexico City Trip Overview Delta A321 DCA-ATL Review Delta Boeing 737-800 Economy ATL-MEX Review Hilton Mexico City Reforma Review Exploring Mexico City Delta A319 Economy MEX-ATL Review Delta A320 Economy ATL-DCA Review The Club at ATL We got off of our flight from MEX and took the ATL train to terminal F to visit the Club at ATL which I have access to as part of my Priority Pass membership. The Club brand is used for a set of independent airport lounges across the U.S. which partner with lounge memberships such as Priority Pass to grant access to members. The Club at ATL is located in Terminal F, the international, terminal at ATL.  The Club at ATL Entrance As we entered the lounge to check-in it was a zoo. This lounge was very loud, overcrowded, and there was still a line at the check-in desk for additional patrons to enter. Once it was our turn the check-in agent told us that we could enter but were unlikely to find any seats. I agreed to enter just so I could get a sense of the amenities in the lounge for the blog. I can tell you this lounge is not even worth visiting. This was definitely the most full I have ever seen any lounge and their was not a single seat available and the noise was worse than sitting in the terminal. I imagine the huge crowds were due to the evening international departures. I checked out the food and it looked disgusting and picked apart.  Club at ATL Food This was one of the worse lounges I have ever seen and made American Airline's Admirals clubs look good. The Club at ATL really needs to expand their space. This lounge was terrible and my advice would be stay away. Boarding We left the lounge and headed to gate T5. The T-Gates have a Admirals Club next to T-11 but we did not check it out since it was already closed. As we walked up to the gate, which was full of people, the check-in agent announced that the flight was delayed because we were waiting for a new flight crew. I assumed the original crew had flown their allowable hours today so we needed a new crew. Despite the delay neither the Delta app nor the screen at the gate were updated with the new departure time prior to boarding. Passengers rely on accurate information about the flight and the fact that Delta did not update the time despite knowing about the delay is disrespectful of the customers time and shows a need to continuing improving there delay notifications. After a long wait there was no additional communication until the gate agent started making pre-flight announcements. In one of the announcements the agent said that the FAA restricts passengers to only one carry on and one personal item when there is in fact no such FAA rule and this is regulated by the airlines. I found this telling and it showed that some additional training is needed to make sure airline employees share accurate information with passengers. Overall, the customer service from the gate agents and Delta information technology was poor. After piling everyone onto the plane we ended up departing 14 minutes late.  Gate T5 Sign In-Flight Entertainment On the surface the in-flight entertainment (IFE) system on this flight seemed the same as the IFE on the A321 and A319. However, the IFE on this aircraft functioned the worse of any of the Delta flights. About half way through the flight the IFE system stopped working all together. Once it came back online it only allowed passengers to choose from a handful of films in French. I am not sure if this functionality was due to a poor IFE system on the plane or the bad weather but throughout the second half of the flight it continued to be glitchy and nearly non-functional.  IFE Screen On the surface the in-flight entertainment (IFE) system on this flight seemed the same as the IFE on the A321 and A319. However, the IFE on this aircraft functioned the worse of any of the Delta flights. About half way through the flight the IFE system stopped working all together. Once it came back online it only allowed passengers to choose from a handful of films in French. I am not sure if this functionality was due to a poor IFE system on the plane or the bad weather but throughout the second half of the flight it continued to be glitchy and nearly non-functional. Weather and Turbulence The flight attendants started beverage service and offered us a complimentary drink and snack. However, they abruptly ended service after row 14 when the captain came on the speaker and asked for the flight attendants to be seated due to rough weather ahead. The weather throughout the flight was so bad that the flight attendants never got back up again for beverage service. As we continued flying we flew directly into a thunderstorm and the plane violently shook due to the turbulence. We entered the clouds and the weather caused the plane to go up and down like a rollercoaster ride. I have been through bouts of turbulence many times on a plane but this was some of the worse I have experienced.  Thunderstorm Affecting Flight The weather and turbulence continued throughout the rest of the flight and passengers grew more and more nervous and uncomfortable on the plane. As we started our descent it was clear we were flying through a thunderstorm and it was raining hard outside our window. As we continued to descend there was zero visibility and we could not see the runway until seconds before we landed. This was one of the worst bouts of weather I have been through and one of my worst experiences ever on a plane. When we were finally let off Christina ran to the bathroom and threw up due to all of the tossing and turning of the plane. Afterwards I looked up our flight path and saw that we had indeed flown directly through a bad thunderstorm one that spawned a tornado in Virginia. The flight path showed that the pilot attempted to take us through the weakest part of the storm but it was still a terrible passenger experience.  Flight Path Take Away
This was one of the worst flights I have ever taken. It started with bad delay notifications by Delta, continued with a glitchy IFE system, and ended with what felt like a rollercoaster ride. I found Delta's reputation for operating during inclement weather is well earned but sometimes their operations can be too aggressive. Be aware of this on your next Delta flight during inclement weather. |
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