Phoenix, Arizona

I bought a cheap plane ticket but wasn’t planning on going with the recent news that I was starting Honor Guard, a specialized military job where I perform at military ceremonies that includes the weekends. But I went anyways given I was luckily free and just took a one day off. I felt the need to use my Hyatt points as in May they will lose in value as well. I arrived on a Saturday and coincidentally a playoff basketball game was also happening at the same time: the Pheonix Suns vs the Oklahoma City Thunder. I bought the cheapest ticket I could find but had to miss partial of the game due to buying it at event time. The game was close at first but became a blowout in the Thunder’s favor towards the end. After that, I explored Downtown Phoenix including the Japanese Garden and staying at the Hyatt Regency. The hotel was fancy but I didn’t use much of the facility due to booking with points vs a premier credit card hotel credits. The day after I visited Luke Air Force Base and explored the outdoor mall and arena plaza of Glendale. I didn’t expect it to take the whole day as riding on bus took forever (though cheap) and my phone barely survived. Fast forward to today, which was mainly just staying in airport lounges the whole day. I tried out the USO (hidden but pretty spacious), Amex (long wait and had korean chicken), and Delta lounges (small but spent 3 hrs here) but not the Chase lounge since my trip got cancelled midway where I went from paying $20 a flight with Frontier to $450 Delta. The end of the trip was kinda of a bummer to also end my traveling sprint, but it’s time for me to focus on my military job and be ready to plan for my future.