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Conrad New York Midtown hotel is no longer ‘all suite’

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This is a quick coda to my review of the Park Hyatt New York on Monday.

In the article I listed a few other recommended points hotels, including the two Conrad properties. I favour these because they are both ‘all suite’ and so you are guaranteed a good sized room.

It turns out, however, that Conrad New York Midtown got crafty during its recent renovation, which saw the hotel converted into a Conrad from what used to be ‘The London NYC’ hotel.

Some suites were carved up to create a handful of small ‘City View Deluxe Rooms’. The price gap between these rooms and the standard suites is tiny. You’d be crazy to book one for cash and I doubt anyone does.

Hilton Honors redemptions are now primarily pushed into these new ‘City View Deluxe Rooms’. That said, I was able to find some dates where you could still book a Junior Suite for the standard 95,000 points rate.

On a ‘cents per point’ basis the City View Deluxe Rooms are still not bad value as a redemption, but it does feel as if the cash price is artificially inflated. Pay 10% more in cash and you’d get a suite almost twice as big.

Conrad New York Downtown, in Battery Park, remains ‘all suite’ – I have stayed here a few times and liked it. Some people don’t like the location but, for anyone looking to do the core tourist sites such as the Statue of Liberty, it works very well. The express subway lines can also get you uptown in a matter of minutes.

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Comments (59)

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  • John says:
    25 May25 May 05:36

    Can anyone confirm there are no additional requirements to fly into Perth besides vaccination? Some states want you to test (albeit they don’t seem to care if you actually do) but I can’t see anything on WA gov website. If true, surprised that WA has removed restrictions so quickly after staying closed for so long

    • Tomato Bake says:
      25 May25 May 09:20

      I flew into Sydney last month with a transfer to Brisbane. NSW had do self LFTs but no reporting unless positive. In QLD you had go to a testing centre. If you had covid recently they wanted a PCR test. I had covid 3 weeks before I left. Day 14 I was showing clear on the LFTs. I did a (paid) PCR test 3 days before I flew and that was positive still. I did a supervised LFT on the day I flew and that was clear. Checking in at BA desk all they asked to see was my vaccination certificate, the LFT test (I had an additional letter saying I had had covid in the past 30 days therefore technically exempt from doing an pre-flight test – which is no longer required). There was an Australian Border form to fill in which says you should follow state guidance etc.

      No checks at the Australian border. No checks in Singapore when I transferred to Qantas who wanted another form filled out especially for them). At Sydney when I transferred to my domestic QF flight (had an argument with a staffer who directed me to the Airport shuttle bus rather than checking in at the transfer desk because she saw BA on my bag tag- went out and then doubled back to the transfer desk and checked in there. Staffer said that as my 2nd leg was SIN-SYD it was ok to use transfer desk otherwise no OneWorld transfers were being done). Flight was delayed (every flight was delay at Sydney it seemed) so did a RAT test as LFTs are called there. Negative. QLD rules are if you have negative test in another state you don’t need to do one in QLD. Boom! Done! No checks in Qld. No checks on the way out that I’d done one, just that I was vaccinated to get onto a QF plane.

  • Stephen says:
    25 May25 May 06:38

    Ive just moved my 5nt reward booking for late august from midtown to downtown and saved 60k pts in the process 🙂

  • Sam says:
    25 May25 May 06:40

    Just if it helps anyone Qantas had some great pricing and availability through to Koh Samui on good connections via Bangkok Airways through Singapore. Both flights have only recently been re-added so I’ve seen good prices from August onwards.

  • CarpalTravel says:
    25 May25 May 06:43

    Wasn’t aware of this and every penny helps, thank you for highlighting. Will get ours today then.

  • Gordon says:
    25 May25 May 06:43

    Yes….I mentioned the ESTA increase on Monday in the comments.
    Not surprised really it’s just another increase in line with everything else on the planet….

  • Mark says:
    25 May25 May 06:54

    Very little chance of the Downtown Conrad going the same way, it’s right next to the Goldman Sachs headquarters and the bankers would be up in arms!

    • aseftel says:
      25 May25 May 08:42

      They’re not just neighbours, Goldman owns the hotel.

      • Rob says:
        25 May25 May 10:36

        Correct. Used to be an Embassy Suites (which is why it’s all suite) but clearly that wasn’t going to wash with Goldman clients or staff so it made sense to buy it and do it up.

  • Nick says:
    25 May25 May 08:34

    For anyone heading to NYC, they now also have contactless payment on all MTA public transport. Same style as London, just tap your phone and Apple Pay kicks in, and reconciled in back office for any price caps.

    • Andrew J says:
      25 May25 May 08:42

      Does that include LIRR from Jamaica to Penn or just the subway?

      • Alan says:
        25 May25 May 09:47

        Not sure about LIRR, I used the subway last week. AirTrain still requires a blooming Metrocard annoyingly! Contactless works well on the main subway though, including the free transfer to/from a bus.

        • Rob says:
          25 May25 May 10:34

          Correct. Bit of a pain paying $1 for a Metrocard purely for AirTrain – make sure you don’t bin it or you’ll be paying an extra $1 on your return.

      • Mick S says:
        25 May25 May 13:22

        you can pay at a machine, there are no turnstiles for contactless.
        However, if you see someone in a booth (which there is at Jamaica), get your LIRR ticket from them. For some reason they can sell the ticket for $5.00, whereas the machine wants to charge $8.75

    • Olivia says:
      25 May25 May 08:45

      Finally!! It really has baffled me for some while how London seemed to be the only city where contactless payment was taken on their metro/tube equivalent. I really don’t know which other cities do it? So much more convenient than buying a physical paper ticket with hundreds of different types of fares.

      • jeff77 says:
        25 May25 May 08:57

        Dunno about other places but they had it in Milan when I went there last month.

      • Andrew. says:
        25 May25 May 08:57

        It’s something I think every time when I’m being whipped with wind and rain at Edinburgh Park tram stop whilst I can see the tram on the way and someone else is faffing in front of me.

        All I want to do is tap and board. It’s the same at the other end at Edinburgh Airport, a mass brawl of people trying to buy a ticket out in the open.

        • Alan says:
          25 May25 May 09:48

          At least all the Edinburgh buses have it now, didn’t realise the tram still didn’t!

      • Rhys says:
        25 May25 May 09:07

        When I was in Amsterdam last month they didn’t have it either. Even more annoying on the trams as they don’t have ticket machines at all stops! But the driver just waved me through after I tried using my credit card…

        • Brian says:
          25 May25 May 11:00

          In Amsterdam, they have ticket sellers on board (some of?) the trams in their own little booth (so separate from the driver). Perhaps the driver was just waving you through to go to one of them…:))

          • Rob says:
            25 May25 May 11:41

            Yes, there’s a guy in a booth! Amsterdam is a bit of a mess though – for example, as far as I can tell its impossible to buy a ticket from the airport to a specific metro station. The Amstel hotel is opposite Wesserplein metro so you go Schiphol – Amsterdam Zuid (national rail) – Wesserplein (metro) which always seems to require buying a 2nd ticket at Zuid.

          • The Savage Squirrel says:
            25 May25 May 13:37

            The best bit: I’ve found the drivers and conductors have a suitably laid back Dutch attitude. About 50% of the time you make a token effort to make some sort of payment and they just wave you off.

      • Charles Martel says:
        25 May25 May 11:00

        I’m not sure as I’m not there until the weekend but it looks like the Sydney/NSW Opal card has been supplemented with contactless payment.

      • John says:
        25 May25 May 11:09

        Sydney does

        • Rhys says:
          25 May25 May 11:59

          Wasn’t Sydney’s Opal system sold to them by TFL?

          • Charles Martel says:
            25 May25 May 12:18

            They were both developed by Cubic Transportation, not sure if TfL owned any of the IP.

      • JDB says:
        25 May25 May 12:54

        Sydney bought the same system as London – it’s well integrated with commuter boats, buses, trains etc.

      • Anuj says:
        26 May26 May 14:38

        Nottingham does it (across modes of transport just like london)

    • ChrisC says:
      25 May25 May 12:42

      Download the OMNY app to track your journeys if you register your cards.

      There is a price cap – $33 – that runs Monday to Sunday.

      it excludes The Long Island Railroad, Metro North Trains (both MTA agencies) and the JFK Airtrain (run by the Port Authority)

    • Mick S says:
      25 May25 May 13:18

      I was in NYC last month. A couple of times on the subway I needed to change. This involved going back up to ground level, crossing the road, and back underground again.

      When I swiped my AMEX card again I was then billed again. $2.75 per swipe. One particular journey involved 2 changes, for two us. So $2.75 x 6. Was not happy. 🙁

  • Alan says:
    25 May25 May 09:49

    Good reminder re ESTA – unfortunately it expires if your passport changes too so having just bought one a month ago I’ll need to get another later in the year!

    • lumma says:
      25 May25 May 17:46

      The immigration is worse when it’s a new passport too, immigration officer couldn’t understand why I’d want to visit Boston, when a) I was travelling alone and b) didn’t know anyone in Boston

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