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FLL – LAX – MIA FIASCO
Since I'm writing about Miami this week, I might as well throw in the story of my unexpected stay at the JW Marriott. On the way back from Central America, I missed my connection to LAX. Since it was American Airlines' fault (mechanical problems), they did the right thing and put me up in a hotel. When I made it to the service desk, the agent gave me a choice to stay at either the Days Inn or the JW Marriott. Tough decision, huh?

SUPER SHUTTLE
The agent told me that they give taxi and meal vouchers so everything will be taken care of. Good deal until you either read the fine print or find out the hard way (my way) that neither is as plush as they first appeared. The taxi voucher turned out to be for Super Shuttle, which we all know is completely different from a taxi. Instead of going from point A to point B privately and departing when I wanted, I was suddenly on the curb waiting for the next available van filled with passengers who swear they will never take it again because of the number of times the van circled the airport, looking for more suckers. It's even worse if you are the last stop and of course, that would be moi. Fortunately, it was late at night so there wasn't any traffic to downtown (it takes about 15 minutes). The shuttle was completely packed and every single person was an American Airlines passenger who had gotten left behind. I quipped to the driver that he must be happy for the full load and he said, "Yeah right! American has a deal with the company because they give us so much business that they only pay $10 a passenger." So, he makes no money. I'm not sure if that's true or if he was just looking for a fat tip.

MIAMI JW MARRIOTT
I arrived at the JW Marriott at 10:30pm and there was a long line (12 people deep) at the check-in desk. It turned out that another Super Shuttle had just dropped off a load of American Airlines passengers just before our shuttle's arrival but the good news is that a line of check-ins that could have easily taken close to an hour to process, the JW staff did in the matter of minutes (I waited just eight minutes, which was remarkable). The room was nice with free WiFi, a computer in the room (first time I've seen this), the Marriott's signature Revive bed and a huge, flat screen HDTV.

DID YOU KNOW? More than 45,000 of Marriott's U.S. hotel rooms have HDTVs. Impressive! The company's goal is to outfit all the rooms with HDTVs by the end of 2009.

VOUCHERS
I was starving and the vouchers American Airlines gave me for breakfast, lunch and dinner weren't all what they were billed to be. At first, I didn't look at them very closely, assuming they were just good for a meal but instead, they had a dollar value on them. They coughed up $10 for dinner, $5 for breakfast and $10 for lunch. How they can claim to cover meals when they're offering vouchers with such a low dollar value is beyond me. And worst of all, the Miami JW is in on the scam. The JW gets so many stranded American Airlines passengers that they even have a separate menu for them. I ordered a Caesar salad ($10.50) and pizza ($12.95), which should total $23.45 but with the service charges, it ended up being $33! If that wasn't bad enough, room service took 45 minutes so by the time I got the food, it was after midnight.

BREAKFAST SCAM
Now for the kicker: I was excited about the JW's breakfast buffet because in every one of their hotels I've visited, it's been awesome. Well, it turns out that the vouchers can't be used in the main dining hall ... only in a small, makeshift, prison-like conference room doubling as a dining room, set up with a motel-style buffet. Think: cold, gnarly scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, concentrated juice, toast, fattening danishes. The room itself was practically hidden, but for a barely visible sign that said 'American Airlines Passengers'. While roaming the halls looking for the room, I bumped into a lawyer from Brussels who was in the same boat as me. When we finally found it, we were the only folks in the quiet, depressing room that wasn't being manned by anyone. Ten minutes later, a guy came in and asked if we'd handed over our vouchers. We said no, as there wasn't anyone to give it to. We handed him the vouchers and he said that breakfast is $15 but our vouchers are only good for $5. So ... we needed to pay the extra $10. What?! For this? While reluctantly reaching into my shallow pocket, I asked how much the REAL breakfast buffet downstairs is. $15.95, he told me. WHAT?! I told him that this entire thing is a total scam; the buffet downstairs is plush. After making friends with him, he totally agreed and said a woman earlier used the exact same word ... scam. I told him that if the JW doesn't want the common folks mingling with the paying customers, then at least offer the same breakfast or charge $5. He completely agreed and didn't charge us the extra $10. JW Marriott, 1109 Brickell Avenue, Miami; tel.: 305-329-3500.

VIDEO
Sorry! No video this week but we do have all the Johnny Jet videos ever made on YouTube.

NEXT WEEK
Next week, we head to the jungles of ... you'll have to join us to find out!

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Note: This trip was sponsored in part by Mandarin Oriental.





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