300 Consecutive Maple Leafs Games Worked And New York Hotels Are How Much?!
If you don't plan ahead, getting a hotel in New York in December will cost you as much as most rents.
Greetings from home where I just returned from New York/New Jersey where the Toronto Maple Leafs just concluded a two-game mini-road swing in Pittsburgh, followed by a stop in Newark.
Originally, the club had planned to go home immediately after Pittsburgh to spend the day off at home, rather than travel to the next city. But those plans changed one week prior, and as a result, so did mine.
The Leafs enjoyed the day off in New York City, except for head coach Craig Berube. He travelled south to his home in New Hope, Pennsylvania where his wife and kids reside.
So here I was one week before this trip changing the flights. Excited about the prospect of trying to stay in Lower Manhattan for the game, I checked out the hotel prices for New York and couldn’t believe it.
The most basic 3-star hotel in New York came in at the cheapest price of $700 US.
My only choice was to stay closer to the Devils’ rink in Newark. I managed to get the Crowne Plaza Hotel in New York for $118 per night. Whenever possible, I like to try and redeem points whenever I can. However, if the rate is cheap enough and you can stack it on top of some other kickbacks, paying for the rate makes sense.
So let’s break it down:
The hotel cost me $380US after taxes.
Kickback No. 1: My US Business Gold Card was running a statement credit offer. Spend $250 at IHG brand hotel, get $50 back. Perfect. New total is effective $330.
Kickback No. 2: During Cyber Monday, Rakuten was offering 20 percent back on all IHG bookings. It applies to the subtotal, so that’s another $70.80 back, bringing my effective cost further down to $259.20.
Kickback No. 3: Credit card spend of $381, which will give me 1,524 Amex points, for a low-end benefit of $15.24, brining my effective cost down to $243.96.
Kickback No. 4: IHG was running a stay two nights and get an additional 3000 IHG points. Being a Platinum Elite member, I get 20X per dollar spent, for a total of 10,760 points earned. IHG points are worth an estimated 0.5 cents per point, so the value of those points is about $53.80, brining the effective cost further down to $190.16. That’s my total effective cost for three nights. I’d say that isn’t too shabby.
I would have rather been in New York City, for sure. But if there was any lesson learned, it’s to book hotels in New York City in advance.
I flew from Pittsburgh to Newark fairly early. It was a 7 am flight, that I managed to turn into 6 am since I was there early enough.
I got lucky that my hotel had a couple of no-shows, so I was able to check in as early as 8:30am. I snuck in a very short nap before Ubering to the Chelsea neighbourhood of New York where I met up with my friend and his wife for brunch. He was in town scouting the New York Rangers’ afternoon games (I wish Toronto had more afternoon games, but that’s for another blog). I went to a terrific brunch restaurant called Cookshop.
I was able to use my $50 Resy credit that the U.S.-based American Express Gold card gives you per half year at any Resy restaurant, a fine perk of the US-based Amex Gold card.
Later I walked all around midtown Manhattan where I intended to do some shopping on Fifth Avenue, but ended up buying nothing. In an effort to reduce costs, I ended up taking the Port Authority bus to my hotel adjacent to Newark Airport because it was a door-to-door trip for just $8.50 whereas the Ubers were $70+. The New Jersey Transit train can be a good option, too. But that only takes you to the Newark Airport train where my hotel was a shuttle bus away.
Celebrating 300 games
On Nov. 27th, the Toronto Maple Leafs visited the Florida Panthers and the night also marked my 300th consecutive Leafs game assignment (home and road) for the regular season and playoffs. A streak that probably should have ended due to a travel snafu, health or any other reasons. But for whatever the case, it didn’t. I cannot tell you how truly blessed I feel to be able to do this and serve the fans of the team. The streak dates back to Game 1 of Toronto’s seven-game playoff series with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021. That year, I returned to the beat after about 3.5 years away from the beat. Before that, I had been run through the meat grinder of the industry where I was cut from my job at a traditional employer three times in 4.5 years. Before landing The Hockey News as a client and starting a website from scratch, I honestly thought I wouldn’t ever get back to what I love doing. I also let doubt creep in and questioned my ability. The biggest mistake I ever made was doubting myself. Maybe it’s not a mistake because I’ve learned so much. After going through many bouts of adversity, I feel like I’m better equipped to handle whatever the world throws at me. It truly is all about the journey.
A big shout out to the Maple Leafs’ digital team who went out of their way to make pins marking the occasion. I was truly touched by this and seeing my colleagues wearing it the night of the game made me well up. Nice touch with the zeros actually being Oakley ‘O’s to make light of my obsession with the brand.
To mark the occasion I spent my Marriott free nights at an amazing hotel called The Dalmar. It’s in Fort Lauderdale, very close to the Florida Panthers’ brand-new practice rink. I got upgraded to a beautiful suite that had a wraparound building and I was very excited by the fact that it had a soaker tub.
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I’m usually not very picky about where I stay when I’m on the road but I do try to find the right mix of accommodations and location. For days where we are staying for a while and we have an off day on the road, I like to try and up the accommodations a bit more by treating myself.
A new site for booking hotels for best points value
There are a few hotel and travel points sites I’ve discovered lately but one I'm really starting to like is Daily Drop Pro. The site takes your inventory of points currencies and is able to search for the best points redemption deals for an upcoming trip. I used this for my stay in New Jersey and my upcoming trip to Dallas next week.