This particular trip was one born out of needless travel comfort necessity. With elite mileage counters resetting to “zero” at the end of the calendar year, I needed a few extra miles and nights in order to re-qualify for Air Canada’s Aeroplan Elite Status and Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level status. While it isn’t essential to maintain status, it certainly makes travelling life a lot more comfortable. This is how I tipped the scale over for the end of the year.

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This post is one chapter on my brief trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, United States of America. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards and Air Canada’s Aeroplan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Trip Introduction: A Scottsdale Arizona – USA Mileage Run via Air Canada Business Class.

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Planning the Trip:

Planning Flights:

Flights from Canada to USA

I was short a few miles to maintain Air Canada Aeroplan’s Elite status to close out the year 2022. While we’ve generally seen devaluations of the program, I still find it worthwhile to maintain some form of status with Air Canada, as it makes my work trips just that much more comfortable with Zone 2 advanced boarding (great for the carry on’s), the lounge access to Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges and the occasional e-upgrades that it offers.

I had initially planned the year out to balance with the magical number of miles, but when I had challenges getting my last Turkish Airlines Business Class Istanbul – Paris flight credited to Air Canada, decided I’d better book something as a back up just in case.

In this case, since I only needed about 525 status miles, I didn’t have any particular destination in mind. I used Google Flights to explore the options and came up with cheap departures from my home base of Vancouver to Calgary, Edmonton (not so exciting in the winter) or Palm Springs and Phoenix.

All of these offered the required amount of miles that I’d need and had low weekend fares that I’d need so I would haven’t take any time off of work. Since I had never really explored Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, I opted for Phoenix Arizona and a visit to the legendary JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort and Spa.

With the timing of Cyber Monday occurring in the fall, I was able to further capitalize on the first thousand tickets being sold on Air Canada with a thirty percent off promotional code. I was able to book the fare from Vancouver – Phoenix into a Comfort Fare bucket for $120.40 CAD ($90 USD) in base fare. With all taxes and fees, the return ticket came out to $381.13 CAD ($285 USD).

In the end, the trip was a simple:

YVR-PHX (paid – Air Canada)

PHX-YVR (paid – Air Canada)

Planning Hotels:

I only needed one night’s hotel for this particular trip. With dozens of great properties to choose from, I ended up selecting the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort & Spa.

The JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort and Spa was created in a different time. It was initially built and opened on December 15, 1936 as a horse riding resort with 75 Casita’s. It was eventually acquired as the very first Marriott Resort by the Marriott family in 1967. It’s so popular amongst the Marriott family, Bill Marriott is supposed to spend his birthdays at the property.

I was able to get a reasonable rate of $347 USD for this property, booked about two weeks in advance of travel. I would end up getting an Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level upgrade into a Signature View Casita.

The JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Resort & Spa offered some old school but exceptionally comfortable surroundings for the brief stay in Scottsdale.

While this trip was substantially less complicated that designing some of my other trips, it still required a bit of research on the property and the routes.

Our points and miles redemption summary:

This was a pretty straight forward earning’s trip. As a result, there weren’t any great redemption opportunities on this particular voyage.

In summary, we earned:

• Earned: 2,826 Air Canada Aeroplan Miles (1,413 SQM 1 SQS 121 SQD 1,413 EDQ X 2)
• Earned: 11,070 Marriott Bonvoy Points, (5,183 Base + 3,887 Elite + 2,000 Extra)
• Earned: 90 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Points
• Earned: 100 Open Table Points

The luxury resorts of Scottsdale Arizona are never a terrific deal, but at least I got a little taste of what the area has to offer for a potential future trip with MrsWT73.

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If you have visited Scottsdale Arizona, USA, how do you maximize value ?

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