Triangle Trip

If you are a travel expert and are familiar with Starwood hotel brands, you would always choose to stay at a Westin over a Sheraton. However if you are ever stuck at one of the worst airports in the US, you should pick the LAX Sheraton over the LAX Westin. The other SPG property around LAX is the ghetto Four Points which you should not even consider.

So why is the LAX Sheraton (known as Sheraton Gateway) better than the LAX Westin? Below is a detailed analysis:

1.  Room – The Sheraton Gateway rooms are newer top to bottom compared to the Westin LAX. The LAX Sheraton has newer bathrooms, flat screen LCD TV and newer carpets. The LAX Westin still has big old tube TV with dirty carpets and dingy bathrooms.

2.  Club Lounge – The LAX Sheraton Club Lounge offers free breakfast with oatmeal, fresh fruit, cereal, broiled eggs, coffee and juice. They also offer cocktail in the evenings. The LAX Westin has a lounge that only offers coffee and tea throughout the day. Internet is also spotty inside the LAX Westin.

3.  Food/Bar – Shula’s restaurant is inside the Sheraton Gateway. Enough said… The LAX Westin is on par with the Sheraton Gateway bar, but it cannot be compared to having Shula 347 Grill inside the hotel.

4.  Shuttle buses from airport – I think the shuttle buses are operated by the same operator but there seems to be more buses that go to/from the LAX Sheraton than the LAX Westin. Perhaps it is because the LAX Sheraton is closer to the airport. I also noticed the LAX Westin buses are more full as many people use the LAX Westin Parking facility as an alternative to expensive LAX Airport Parking but more convenient than LAX long term parking.

5.  Price – Although the Sheraton Gateway and Westin at LAX are similar in price, you would assume to get more amenities when you are at a Westin. With corporate/client discounts, the LAX Sheraton is at times cheaper than the Westin. Despite the being the weaker brand, the Sheraton at LAX will give you a better value.

The above reasons are why you will see the LAX Sheraton Gateway is a Starwood Category 3 hotel and the LAX Westin is only a Starwood Category 2 hotel.

Due to the double EQM promotion by United I have been banking United miles.  However, I’ve been keeping my Delta account active by banking Delta SkyMiles through other means, namely Hertz.  Now Delta has made it even more worthwhile.  Delta is now offering additional bonus Skymiles when banking with their partners, up to 25,000.  Here the link for more details and to register for the promotion: http://www.delta.com/marketing/pileonmiles/

This is not to undermine my arch-nemesis’ post regarding banking AA miles when renting cars 😉

After a short trip to Vancouver and using my Sprint mobile broadband card for the very first time in Canada, I saw a $80 data roaming charge on my Sprint mobile broadband bill. I searched the Sprint website but was not able to locate international data roaming rates. All I could find was international voice roaming rates. I then contacted Sprint’s customer service to find out the details behind the $80 data roaming charges but could not get a direct answer from the representative. However the Sprint customer service representative was kind enough to give me an $80 refund due to the lack of information.

With the $80 refund, I was still not happy with the lack of information and requested to speak to a supervisor to get more information. I was transferred to several customer service representatives and finally found the location of international data roaming rates. I would like to share this information with my readers with Sprint or any other mobile carrier. Here’s the link to the Sprint site. Always check the roaming rates before you head abroad.