After reading through all of the material Godfather posted about the AAdvantage frequent flyer program, I decided to try and maximize my miles, do the Platinum Challenge and get a free ticket anywhere American flies. I would not complete the challenge on this trip, but my upcoming trip to the Philippines on Cathay Pacific does put me over, but by traveling from San Diego to New York, New York to Miami, and then on a weekender special to the DR, I was getting a full trip, halfway towards Platinum Elite status and a free ticket for about $800 in airfare. Now all three fares were deeply discounted on AA, so I only accrued .50 points for mileage on the challenge, but that was not the big thing since my trip to the Philippines took care of that. The big thing was getting the free ticket. So I decided to head off to the Dominican Republic for a quick one week trip.
The Miami to Santiago portion was $129, but over $200 with taxes. The San Diego to New York and New York to Miami tickets were each around $200 plus taxes and got me my free ticket. That left me with a quick drive in order to get to San Diego.
This also left me with another problem. Since all three tickets were on separate reservations, I probably did not want to deal with checked baggage. I decided it was best to travel lightly and only took one carry on and one personal item. This was the lightest I had ever traveled. Online check-in with American was the way to go and luckily at San Diego I was able to check-in for the Miami to Santiago portion of the flight. I had a 6 hour layover in New York because the earlier flight filled up, so I planned on going into town and meeting the famous Wallstreet for a quick tour of Times Square, breakfast, etc before heading back to JFK and my flight to Miami.
Now the last part was deciding where to go in the Dominican Republic. The North or the South? Everyone seemed to think Sosua and Puerto Plata were the places to go, but I decided to head to Santo Domingo based on the recent postings and information about the massage, brothels and nightclubs there. I jotted down some addresses and that was about the extent of my preparation.
I arrived in San Diego for my late flight out of town. There was no time for a quick TJ run. As I mentioned earlier, they checked me in for the Miami to Santiago segment and I already had my other boarding passes in hand since I checked in online for those.
The flight on the 757 to JFK was long and boring, I was able to sleep a little, but spent most of the time just watching movies on my laptop. Wallstreet had told me how to get into Manhattan using a combination of the newly completed AirTrain from JFK to a subway station and Train A that would take me right into the heart of Manhattan. The plane arrived about 15 minutes early and I was on the AirTrain heading to the subway station when Wallstreet called almost right as I was dialing his number.
The AirTrain subway combination cost $7 ($5 for the AirTrain, $2 for the subway) and soon I was freezing my ass off waiting for the A train while outside. The DR was warm, so I packed mostly warm clothes for the trip. The cold wasn’t that bad, but the wind gusts got me a bit. It wasn’t too bad though and soon I was on an overcrowded subway heading into town. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the 42nd street station, but I popped out right in between two movie theaters. A quick call to Wallstreet to give him my location and pretty soon, he was being the gracious tour guide showing my west coast ass all around Manhattan. We took the tour and I got to see where the ball drops for New Year’s, ABC, MTV, etc. Then we went to see the CNN studios, Rockefeller Plaza and the Ice Rink, NBC, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, Trump Tower, and the entrance to Central Park.
Then we hit breakfast at a place Wallstreet knew. Breakfast was fantastic as we discussed a variety of topics. Then we hit the subway and went downtown to see the World Trade Center memorial site. I would have liked to see more of downtown, but it was getting late and I needed to take that long subway and AirTrain ride back to JFK. I am not going to bore you with a bunch of NYC photos, but here are just a few.
Wallstreet made sure I got on the correct train back to the airport and we parted company. I just want to take this opportunity and say thanks to Wallstreet for taking time out of his morning and showing me around. I greatly appreciated it and had a very fun time seeing and exploring a city I had always seen, read, and heard so much about. Thanks Wallstreet! You are truly and gentlemen and a great guy!
By the time I pulled into JFK and got through security the plane was just about start boarding so it was an extremely good use of time. I slept some more on the flight to Miami and had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat before heading off to the gate and boarding for Santiago.
We were delayed a bit leaving JFK and I finally got into Santiago about 9pm or so. I had to get my $10 tourist card, which was a breeze and then I caught a taxi to the Hodelpa Centro Plaza. I think the taxi driver quoted me $12. When I said I had pesos, he wanted 400 or $8. I checked into the Hodelpa and then had to cleanse myself of the day and a half of stink I had accumulated. Now it was time to go off and get laid.
Here are some pics of my room at the Hodelpa Centro Plaza.
Oh, BTW. The Toilet Seats reference will be addressed in later chapters just in case you were wondering.