How to handle red-eye flights, the appeal of day-use hotels and seeing the eclipse from an airplane

Hello and welcome to another edition of The Point of It All!

Today, for some strange reason, I’m reflecting on little life moments that brought me into the world of travel, points and miles.

I learned about hotel loyalty programs very early on — my dad is a lifelong Marriott loyalist who traveled often for work, bringing the family along if it happened to be anywhere interesting.

A true Taurus, the man likes what he likes and 100% of the time, that happens to be the dependable consistency of the Marriott Bonvoy ecosystem. We’d even go to the same resort in Orlando year after year, where the kind folks in the breakfast restaurant with the sour cream pancakes and fancy international buffet would always remember us and look the other way when I took an extra hard candy from the dish on their reservations desk.

My initial experience with airline miles came from my first trip to Paris in 2004 for my 13th birthday. My parents bought me a Delta Air Lines ticket to visit my recently divorced aunt, who was living a bit of an idealistic artist’s life abroad. (Inspiring, really!)

I don’t remember signing up for a SkyMiles account, but a couple of years after the trip, Delta sent me a letter informing me that my miles were expiring, so I should probably check out their magazine subscription deal.

I ended up redeeming SkyMiles for magazines like Teen Vogue, Seventeen and Bon Appétit throughout my high school career, creating both a massive collection and an insatiable obsession. The subscriptions just kept renewing — and I did not ask questions.

Here’s where I get sappy: Did those SkyMiles, which catapulted me into a true love for magazines, actually catapult me into a multimedia journalism degree, which then catapulted me into the career I’ve made for myself over the last decade? I think they kind of did.

And here I am now, writing away about points and miles for The Points Guy. Life is funny, isn’t it?

Anyway!

This week on The Points Guy, Sean Cudahy wrote about red-eye flights and gave advice on making them palatable. This story derailed us a bit in one of our editorial meetings as some of us were trying to defend (or hate on) red-eye flights in the chat.

I personally LOVE a red-eye flight! I’ve always found it to be downright magical to fly across the night sky and wake up somewhere else. There’s one late-night JetBlue flight from Vancouver to New York City that I’m particularly fond of.

My own red-eye trick is to allow (or force?) yourself to take a real nap the moment you get to your destination. This does require a bit of pre-planning to make sure your landing time coincides with your hotel’s check-in time, but there’s nothing better than changing into fresh pajamas and waking up just in time for dinner, ready to explore.

Most of Sean’s tips are in line with mine (focusing on rest), but there’s one method he talks about I haven’t tried myself yet: day-use hotels.

Summer Hull, who you’ve seen plenty of times here on TPG Substack, actually wrote an entire review of her day-use hotel experience at Sonesta Los Angeles Airport LAX, calling it the “best money [she] could have spent” when she needed it.

She spent $116 plus taxes for seven hours for her stay, about $16.50 an hour for the snoozing time. I think that’s very worth it if it saves you from the zombie-dom you can feel after the exhaustion and dehydration of flying.

Lastly, Nicky Kelvin, who you can see all the time over on our YouTube channel, got to see the eclipse last week up close and personal from an airplane.

As you might have seen, or might have missed entirely, there was a total eclipse of the heart on Wednesday. (Quick explainer: This is when the moon’s path puts itself directly between the Earth and the sun, blocking the sunlight. If you’ve seen one before, they are truly unforgettable. I saw the one in 2017 at near totality down in Atlanta.)

With the help of points & miles magic (and science), Nicky was able to time a flight that put him in the perfect position to see the phenomenon up close — alongside a plane full of fellow travelers who now have a very unique story to share for the rest of their lives.

This has been The Point of It All. Stay cool and stay hydrated!