Year: 2025

Super 8 Hotel Review in Mt. Carmel: A Business Traveler’s Perspective

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It doesn’t look like much from the street, and I’m not a big fan of Super 8 for various reasons, but I thought I would add a recent review of my hotel stay in Mt. Carmel, Illinois.

I had an overnight business trip in this area, and it’s common knowledge that there aren’t many decent hotels in rural East Central Illinois. Most business travelers in this area go across the state line and stay in nearby Princeton, Indiana, which has a Hampton Inn and a Holiday Inn Express. My plans had been a bit up in the area before this stay, and I put off making reservations. In addition, the hotels on this night, in this area, seemed to be much higher than usual. I assume there was some local event driving prices up.

I started to make a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express as I needed some IHG nights and had a decent promo for extra points, but the reviews seemed really bad for that location.

The Hampton seemed much better, although the current Hilton promo is bad, and I don’t value Hilton points as much. For the night I needed the price was nearly $200 a night! Very high for this area, so I put it off. Big mistake. When I was ready to book the day before my trip, the Hampton was sold out, leaving a bad HIX or….A Super 8, the horror… I’ve stayed in a few Super 8’s over many years, and none were good. Usually built like cracker jack boxes, noisy, trucks idling all night outside the window, full of drunk construction workers, etc., etc. Many also came off as dirty, bugs, mold, smelling of pot, you name it.

So in desperation, I looked again at the Super 8 in Mt. Carmel, and the reviews on Google showed 4.0, not bad, but sometimes reviews are relevant to the client base. It’s one thing for a person who stays at a lot of Super 8 hotels to give it a good review over someone who is used to staying at nicer level hotels, for example. I’m not a fancy person, but the other reason I don’t stay at Wyndham hotels is that I don’t collect or value their points. So I checked out TripAdvisor and again good reviews and good photos. I then went to American Airlines Hotels and booked it so I could earn 1,600 AA miles.

I knew I would arrive about 5pm and would leave early the next day, so it wasn’t like I needed a pool or spa experience, just a clean place to sleep. Arrival was underwhelming, but I “toughed it out” 🙂

I should have captured more pictures of the many rules and signs. Warning about not driving trucks under the front canopy or how to clean your shoes before entering. All a result of some past experience. One sign suggested a “$1,500 fine for hitting canopy”.

The hotel was quiet with only a few cars when I arrived on a random Wednesday night. A good sign that it might be quiet. My stay was quiet, but I wouldn’t guarantee that for every experience, of course.

I started to pick up the “Pink Phone,” but soon a desk clerk came out of the private “office” area / Living quarters to check me in. He was very nice and asked about my trip. I was exhausted after a VERY long day and was thankful to have my keys so I could head to my room. I’m always disappointed when a hotel starts breakfast at 7am, as he informed me, but he said coffee would be available 24/7, so I would survive, as I had to get up at 4am the next morning.

When you enter the room, it has a vanity, refrigerator, and microwave to greet you. Not a fan of having carpet near a vanity, so laminate flooring would be a better choice for this hotel, but the carpet looked new and was spotless.

Bar soap is provided, which is my main request of hotels. It’s a personal preference, but I don’t use body wash and washcloths. I need bar soap, so I appreciated this minor feature that most hotels have gotten rid of in the name of saving the planet from soap waste or something dumb.

You could tell this was an older building by the setup of the bathroom and the small toilet set low to the ground, but it was spotless. I was impressed. I like to complain, so I don’t say this lightly. The shower turned out to be fine. The shower head was decent, however, I would have moved to shampoo and bodywash dispenser to the far wall as it was right next to your arms when you try to shower. By the way, is there a major difference between “Body Wash” and “Shampoo”? I’m sure there is, but if they want to save money and the planet, why not just combine it all into one gross dispenser 🙂

A small work table and a decent-sized TV with a good selection of cable TV channels were available. I didn’t take a photo of them, but each wall light also had USB and USB-C plugs AND electrical outlets. Very nice indeed.

The beds were clean, the pillows good, and the mattresses seemed new and nice. Everything was fresh. It was a pleasant surprise. 5 Stars! I really didn’t love the metal bedframes, and they sat a bit too far from the wall without a headboard to sit against while watching TV or working on my laptop, but a minor complaint. I had a decent night’s sleep and got up early to enjoy several cups of coffee before my early morning meeting was moved later, so I would have a chance to grab the 7am breakfast after all.

The breakfast was much better than I’ve had at Super 8’s in the past. It offered oatmeal, apples, cold cereal, a few Danish items, toast, and even a waffle machine. No sausage, bacon, or eggs like you might get at the “Fancy” HIX, Fairfield, or Hampton level hotel, but it was fine. I didn’t find any juice or bananas that would make it a bit better for me.

Overall, I would rate this Super 8 a 4+ stars for a quick business overnight. There is no pool, fitness room, or other such frills, but I don’t usually use those anyway.

Pros: Clean, location that was convenient for my needs, friendly staff, and 24-hour free low-quality coffee. Good TV.

Cons: A little lacking on breakfast items, and the price I paid was $133, which is about $40 more than I would expect to pay at any Super 8 in the Midwest for a rural location. Then again, it’s the only hotel in town that most people would stay at. That night, the hotels in nearby Princeton, Indiana, were nearly $200, and I couldn’t even find an available Airbnb.

The other Con is that it’s a Wyndham hotel, which I don’t really participate with, but many wouldn’t mind that. I did end up with 1,600 American Airlines miles out of it, so I’d value that much as I would 3,000 or more IHG or Hilton points.

Essential Strategies for Managing Travel Disruptions (USA Edition)

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There is a lot of attention being paid to flight delays and cancellations right now due to the current 2025 government shutdown. This has impacted TSA, Air Traffic Controllers, and other staffing, which is causing many of the issues, but delays and cancellations can happen at any time. It’s not like flight work perfectly even when the weather or government is running smoothly. So what can you do if your flight is impacted?

I’ve been a fan of Samantha Brown, the travel expert, for years. On her Instagram feed, she posted some tips for this.

What you want to do is make sure you have the airline’s app on your device and also check out the US Department of Transportation Airline Cancellation and Delay Dashboard, or the similar Customer Service Dashboard, which seems to offer much of the same information.

This will give you information on what each major airline offers when there is a delay beyond their control or within their control.

This website also provides other information, such as the family seating policy and some other good information. I was surprised at how well this is presented. You might still run into issues with airline staff on the ground when they are under stress, inexperienced, or power tripping, but at least you have the rules in front of you and can choose your options.

The other thing that Samantha Brown points out is that some airlines also have meal vouchers on their apps that automatically load into your account when there are IROPS. United, Southwest, American, and Delta can do this as far as I can tell, but United seems to be the best at it to date.

Some of these vouchers are issued in the form of a Mastercard or Discover card and can also be loaded into your restaurant apps. Some airlines like ANA, United, Alaska, Delta, and I’m sure others issue these via a Mastercard or Discover Giftcard, usually. These can be loaded into apps for various restaurants.

If you choose to load these into a restaurant app it may ask for your name and the billing address. The billing address is usually: use 1475 E Woodfield Rd, Schaumburg, IL 60173 as the issuer of the cards or voucher, “most” of the time, but YMMV.

List of apps to load airline meal vouchers to or buy gift cards from:

  • Starbucks ->(use 1475 E Woodfield Rd, Schaumburg, IL 60173 as billing address as a workaround)
  • Chick Fil-A
  • McDonalds
  • Panera
  • Peets Coffee
  • Molly Moon
  • Crumbl
  • Dunkin’ Donuts (and I assume Baskin-Robbins)

Does not work:

  • Chipotle
  • Burger King

I assume there are other restaurant apps these work on. It’s reported that you can use these to buy gift cards as well. You should be able to buy Jason’s Deli gift cards through their site. They ask for billing info, so use first/last names on your voucher and the 1475 East Woodfield Road address above. It only seems to work for e-cards, but not for physical (mailed) gift cards.

When it comes to trip delay insurance coverage through purchased policies or through cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you will need proof of this delay, or they can deny the claim. The best way to get that is to ask for documentation from the gate agent or other staff for a “Military Excuse” form or another document explaining the reason for the delay. If it is a weather-related delay, I would try to gather screenshots from your phone or from other sources on the weather event, as it can be impossible to get that after the fact. ask me how I know this… I would even suggest taking photos of the departure boards or anything you can think of to document the delay or cancellation to help your insurance claim.

Hopefully, you don’t need any of this information, but a few tips can help you avoid standing in long lines after a delay or cancellation. Godspeed and Safe Travels.

Fun Hilton Honors Points Explorer Tool

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I’ve been in the points and miles game since the early 1990’s back when hotels would issue paper certificates, so things have changed a lot since then. Most tools and websites that are useful, I already use or at least know about, but somehow I missed the Hilton Honors Points Explorer Tool.

The tool is simple and allows for good sorting and mapping by location and type of stay.

You can enter a location without dates or without “Looking for something specific” and it will show all options within the points range slider limits you chose.

It then allows you to sort by date, distance, and amenities like most hotel sites.

This isn’t rocket science, but many other hotel brands don’t have an “easy” to use feature like this, or their website is very slow. To Hilton’s credit, this site seems to be fast and accurate. You can enter locations by city or country, but it doesn’t seem to allow a broad search like “Asia” or “Europe”.

For my quick United Kingdom search, I found out that the London DoubleTree Kensington was the most expensive by points. 56,000 to 496,000 per night is too expensive for my points wallet! Wow!

The downside to the tool that I have found is that some locations don’t seem to show up without being logged in and dates entered. For example, in my search for “Israel”, it wouldn’t show any locations in the whole country, yet there are at least 2 properties there. The error seems to be linked to hotels that are available or unavailable on points stays without specific dates, is my guess.

Hopefully, this tool can be useful to you as a quick search to see how far your Hilton points can take you.

Troy, IL Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Express Experience

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I had a quick overnight at the Holiday Inn Express in Troy, Illinois, recently, so I wanted to do a short photo review of the stay.

The hotel is located just South of the I-70 interchange on I-55 in Illinois. This is the far Northeast corner of the St. Louis metro area. It is well located along the interstate and appears to attract many road trippers just coming through. Certainly not a destination property, I assume.

It’s next to several other lesser-quality chain hotels and several restaurants within walking distance. There is a Cracker Barrel, a Taco Bell, and a local BBQ restaurant almost in the parking lot. Many other chain restaurants are within less than a mile as well.

Troy is a fairly safe suburban area, so crime shouldn’t be a major problem, although several lower-scale hotels and truck stops nearby could attract some crime I would guess.

There is also a small indoor pool, but I couldn’t get a photo of it due to fellow travelers using it at the time.

No Bar soap, so that was a fail. One of my biggest pet peeves with hotels trying to be cheap under the thin veil of trying to be green. Speaking of ‘green,’ they include door hangers you can put out each night for 500 points instead of housekeeping, but I’m still fighting for my 500 welcome amenity points for being Platinum with IHG *sigh*…

The room was clean for the most part, but the shower could use a deeper clean. It has some black and pink spots around the edges that shouldn’t be there, considering the condition of the rest of the property.

The hotel also features a non-Tesla brand bank of EV chargers, so that is a nice feature for some travelers. The nearest Tesla superchargers are in Collinsville, about 10 minutes away.

Pros: Great water pressure in the shower! Friendly staff, good breakfast starting at 6am, like it should, not 6:30am, etc.

Cons: The shower could have been cleaner, the TV was a bit small for the room size, and check-in and check-out weren’t great. I’m still fighting for my stupid 500 points, which I’m working WAY too hard for at this point.

I would stay here again if I have work in the area due to the location, but there are some nicer hotels in nearby Edwardsville; however, they aren’t on the interstate.

Did Southwest let Chase declare their points are worth less than 1 cent each?

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My wife has the Southwest Priority Card until the annual fee goes up next year. She just got a spend promo from Chase. These are pretty typical and usually provide 5x points for spend in certain categories. We always sign up for them, but usually can’t max them out unless it’s something good like Amazon spending. I guess you could say I am pretty well-versed on these and the fine print.

We currently have several cards with gas, grocery, and restaurant deals from 3x to 5x, but this new Southwest one caught my eye.

As you can see, it is 4% up to $40 through September. I thought, well, that is pretty good and easy to max out, even if we buy most of our groceries at Walmart, which doesn’t count. But then I read the fine print.

OK, still 4% back up to $40, so doing my public school math, that is $1,000 to get $40, I’m in, or at least I’ll register. But then it dawned on me…why? Why cashback, why not points or miles? Now I know Freedom does this as cash back, but it really ends up being points.

Maybe I’m dumb, but since we prefer airline credit cards, wouldn’t you think Chase would assume we want miles or points instead of cash? If I just wanted a cash rewards card, I’d just do that. I’m sure I’m reading too much into all this, but it will be interesting to see how we earn this bonus. Of course, it takes 6 to 8 weeks because, well, it’s 2025.

My conclusion on this is if they want to pay us 4% cash back instead of the typical 5x points, does that mean Southwest points are worth less than 1 cent each? My reasoning is that if this were 5x points, I’d earn 5,000 points, not $40 for the same $1,000 spend on this card.

If my math is correct, 5,000 points at $40 is about .008 per point.

Next time, Chase, just give me points, it’s a game, not real life, to me in this space. I’m trying to earn a vacation here, not $40.

I’d even add that if I had $40 in Southwest points, which we now know is 5,000 points, I’d be spending them only on Southwest, so the cost for them to provide that 5,000 worth of service would likely be worth less and give them more profit. I suppose Chase doesn’t see it that way.