Introduction: Boston in the Middle of Winter

Welcome to Chasing New Adventure’s latest trip report! Yesterday night I returned from spending 4 nights in Boston, split across 3 different hotels. The trip was filled with several surprises, including last-minute flight cancellations and hotels that refused to honour the breakfast policy, plus weather that changed practically every few hours.

Our Flights to Boston

This report will contain 4 flight reviews, in addition to posts about several lounges. Instead of going nonstop to BOS on United’s 737 MAX 9, which only has domestic first seats, we opted to connect in EWR to maximise our chances of flying in Polaris.

We applied 20 PlusPoints per person on both the outbound and return from EWR, and the upgrades cleared both ways. Our CPUs had also cleared on the shorter flights between BOS and EWR, though after an unexpected cancellation my dad ended up in Economy Plus on one leg.

Departing SFO, I stopped in a United Club (my dad’s PlusPoints upgrade didn’t clear till we were at the gate, so I entered alone). However, as I’ll go into in more detail in a later post, 1 of the 2 United Clubs I attempted to enter wouldn’t let me in since they’re technically not allowed to admit minors alone.

During our 3 hour layover in Newark, we accessed the Lufthansa Business/Senator Lounge using Star Alliance Gold status. We had to leave Terminal C and clear security in Terminal B, but they let us through without a problem. This was my first ever time in a Lufthansa Senator Lounge and I was impressed by the food selection and quality.

On the return, we had been planning to visit the BOS Air France Lounge. Unfortunately, problems with our flights made this impossible. We had a 4 hour layover in EWR, but all international lounges were closed in the morning, so we stuck to visiting the United Clubs in Terminal A and near gate C74.

Our Hotels in Boston

Of course, I couldn’t just stay in one hotel for the entire trip. That would be too simple. We were being cautious because of potential snowstorms, so only switched hotels 3 times. Which ended up being a good thing, as I really loved the hotel we spent two nights at.

Due to flight delays, we arrived at our first hotel after midnight, meaning zero chance of an upgrade. The AC Hotel by Marriott Boston Downtown was a great property overall, with a solid breakfast and (for the most part) friendly staff members. The room was rather unexciting, but clean and predictable.

Our second two nights were spent at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, which was simply a fabulous hotel. The lounge breakfast, hors d’oeuvres, and dessert was really impressive and the service was amazing. Despite being an old hotel, our rooms – yes, we had a different room each night – didn’t feel dated and the views were stunning.

It’s part of a massive complex including two shopping centers, Prudential Tower, and multiple hotels, which I had been dreading. However, I actually ended up enjoying running between the Marriott, Sheraton, and Mandarin Oriental, and the easy access to shops and food is convenient.

For the last night, we stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott Cambridge, which was a slight disappointment. We got upgraded to a one bedroom suite, which was decent, but the hotel was rather unexciting. Ridiculously, at check-in we were told the hotel only serves breakfast from Thursday to Sunday. What kind of a hotel serves breakfast only half the week? Do they think people don’t need breakfast from Monday to Wednesday? Anyways, more about that in my review, which will be published shortly.

Final Thoughts on Visiting Boston in the Winter

Overall, it was a good 4 days in Boston with some fun flights in Polaris and one excellent hotel. I’d been worried about the weather visiting at this time of year, but we were pleasantly shocked by one beautiful day. I walked nearly 40 miles over the course of the trip, despite being stuck inside during rain showers on our last night. We were able to see and experience a lot of the city, and had 3 delicious dinners. Look out for the rest of the trip report, which should be posted over the next week or so.