New York City is a frequent spot for me to position to for an award flight. I prefer to travel in business class for my international flights, using credit card points and miles. My biggest fear is not making one of those award flights on time. Because of this, I would prefer to arrive in my positioning city the day before. Here is my Hyatt Regency JFK Airport review from one of those positioning flights.

My husband and I recently flew business class on Air France to Nairobi out of JFK. I live near a large airport, Denver International, but I can save a lot in points/miles by positioning to NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, or Boston. We flew into New York City on Friday and leaving Saturday night for our flight to Nairobi. Jess had told me that one of her favorite airport hotels was the Hyatt Regency JFK Airport at Resorts World, so I booked that hotel.

 

Location of Hyatt Regency JFK Airport

This hotel is located in Queens, 3.4 miles from JFK Airport. There was no shuttle from the airport, so we took an Uber, which cost us almost $30 – it must have been prime pickup time. We could see the skyscrapers of NYC from our hotel window.

 

Using Credit Card Points

I used 15,000 Hyatt points for our stay in a room, which would have cost us over $500/night. This was a great redemption as I got over three cents per point. It is a Category 4 hotel so, I could have used a free night certificate, if I had one available.

 

 

This hotel was very busy because we stayed on a Friday night. It is adjacent to a casino, which really keeps it hopping. In fact, a queen double room was all that I could book. The rooms were nicely furnished, though. The walls are pretty thin, and the guy in the room adjacent to ours was so loud at bedtime that I thought it was someone in the hallway drunkenly talking.

 

 

 

Globalist Benefits

 I have Globalist status, but, unfortunately, there were no suites available, so I did not get a suite upgrade. The hotel does have a Club Lounge that we had access to. We went in it before going to dinner, but the food selection was poor. (Although they had some delicious cupcakes and cookies).

 It was open for breakfast and served a pretty decent breakfast that included eggs, bacon and sausage, fruit, pastries, etc. The room wasn’t huge, and it was pretty busy when we went in for breakfast.

 

 

Normally, with Globalist, you can get a 4:00 p.m. late checkout, but because this location is so busy over the weekend, we could just get a 2:00 p.m. checkout. This worked okay as we were leaving at 6:30 p.m. and could head to an airport lounge when we got to the airport.

 

Additional Thoughts About JFK Hyatt Regency Airport

This was not the usual Hyatt Regency that I’ve come to expect. The rooms were nice, but the casino vibe was off for me. It was louder, busier, and not as nice to me due to that. 

The restaurants definitely had the “casino vibe” and weren’t as nice. I told Jess that I wasn’t a fan of it, and she reminded me that it was an airport hotel, and there aren’t many really great airport hotels (except the Grand Hyatt SFO). When she reminded me of this fact, I realized that I had set my expectations too high because it was a Hyatt Regency. 

 

Bottom Line

While the JFK Hyatt Regency Airport was not my favorite Hyatt Regency by a long shot, it is a good (not great) option for staying in NYC for a positioning flight. It can be booked with a free night certificate, you earn an elite night credit, and it is close to JFK airport. I have actually booked it again for a stay this week prior to a trip to Greece. What airport hotel have you stayed at that you really liked? (Now I’m curious about compiling a list of really nice ones).

 

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