Introduction

Let me start with another round of brainwashing. As Lizi always says: Generally speaking, things only get worse after they’re changed! An old cat sleeps on the roof, passed down generation after generation. Waves on the Yangtze push the previous waves forward; even weasels give birth to little hedgehogs—each generation is worse than the last!

Please make it to the end of the post and properly absorb Lizi’s wisdom. This episode’s motto is: Only the weird stuff counts as news, plus base-level elite status and fixed-value free-night certificates!

When Chase sneakily killed off the old $49-annual-fee IHG card, anyone who got tricked into upgrading to the new card was probably furious. Luckily, Lizi was even sneakier than Chase and applied for the new version while the system still allowed it. That meant holding both the old and new cards at the same time, earning two welcome bonuses, getting two FNs every year, and also enjoying the new card’s fourth-night-free perk... however you look at it, it was a very profitable move.

Redemption

There usually isn’t much to say about redemptions. Lizi’s rule has always been simple: rely on luck. When I have nothing better to do, I search around, and if I find something good, I slam the table and book it immediately.

A few years ago, after IHG sneakily added a 40,000-point cap to Chase-issued FNs, I thought I’d never again be able to use an FN for an InterContinental stay. But unexpectedly, IHG changed its redemption policy and followed everyone else into dynamic pricing. Normally that means points are far more likely to be devalued than improved in value, but what nobody expected was the Omicron spike earlier that year, which crushed travel demand. As a result, many IHG award nights saw rates sink right along with demand—and in some cases practically run aground...

By a lucky twist of fate, I happened to search one day and discovered that a standard room at Intercontinental San Diego over Memorial Day was only 38,000 points per night! Wait, doesn’t that mean one FN would work perfectly? No hesitation—book first, ask questions later.

Side story — Amtrak bailed on me

After redeeming the San Diego InterContinental, I also bought Amtrak tickets, and even used the BofA Amtrak card’s Companion Coupon. All that was left was to head out on Memorial Day. But when it was finally time to board, something felt off. They didn’t open the doors until just 5 min before departure, and then came the announcement: because a train ahead had struck a person, the line was blocked and this train’s delay was indefinite... At that moment, I had a very bad feeling...

After sitting on the train for more than half an hour, the announcement finally came: the incident still hadn’t been resolved, so this train was canceled... What? Once again, Lizi got smacked by the halo of terrible luck!

Check-in

Well, since Amtrak wasn’t going to get me to San Diego, driving was the only option. Fortunately, LA isn’t that far from San Diego, and it took just a bit over two hours to get there. After parking, I took the elevator up to the third-floor front desk to check in.

Since I was the one staying, there were no problems with check-in at all. At most, I just mentioned that I’m a Chase IHG credit card member, and maybe I’d get a few hundred bonus points for the stay. A few hundred points is basically scraps, but better than nothing. As for elite-qualifying nights, they mean Nothing to me... I’ve always wondered whether I could trade them for 100 base points instead, though obviously that’s not possible. Bottom line: unless it’s status that comes from a credit card, I will forever be a base-level member!

As always, let’s begin with the prized room key card photo!

The room was on the 17th floor, so up the elevator we went!

As you can see from the photos, the room was in a newer hotel, so the interior looked clean and well kept:

You can see from the TV that it wasn’t even 11:00AM yet, and I had already managed to check in early! The front desk told me one room was already Ready, so my luck was pretty good.

On the desk was one of my key pieces of gear, a Canon 6D Mark2. Since I was going to a San Diego Padres baseball game that afternoon, and the Petco Park website said not to bring lenses longer than 12cm, I played it safe and went with the sneaky little 40mm F2.8 pancake lens!

A quick look at the toilet and bathroom!

As for the view outside the window... after I posted the photo live in the group chat, people immediately started teasing me: why is the view a construction site?

Nothing I could do about that. Another hotel was being built to the south, and it was expected to rise to 40 floors... by then, I probably wouldn’t even have this much of a view left.

What else is there to say? Once again, it perfectly proves Lizi’s saying: things only get worse over time!

One advantage here is that it’s very close to the USS Midway. But I had already visited the carrier 10 years ago, so that wasn’t the goal of this trip!

Even though I wasn’t going onboard the USS Midway this time, I still had to snap a couple of photos while passing by!

On the right is the Midway, CV-41; farther off to the left, sitting in the harbor, is the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, CVN-70. No idea whether it was back for nuclear refueling.

Petco Park & San Diego Padres

After finding a place to eat, it was time to head to Petco Park for the Padres game. I do have to complain about this store’s champagne Vending Machine: before using it, you first had to go to the front desk, exchange cash for tokens, and then come back to redeem the champagne... it was a ridiculously unnecessary extra step.

After a long walk, I finally arrived at Petco Park, home of the Padres!

Just look at the crowd going in—attendance was pretty solid today!

Since these were the sneaky-cheap $25 seats, we had to take the elevator all the way to the top level!

By the way, let me ask the experts here—any way to game or avoid the StubHub ticket fee?

We were seated just behind and to the left of home plate, with the view shown below!

That confirmed my earlier guess: turnout was genuinely pretty good.

It took me a while to realize just how compact this ballpark really is. The old Western Metal Supply Co building in left field is directly incorporated into part of the seating area, and the drainpipe on the corner of the building even serves as the left-field foul pole!

If you still do not know the rules of baseball, you can check out Adachi Mitsuru’s manga Touch, or Shinobu Kaitani’s One Outs.

In short, baseball is a sport with a lot of leverage—you might be up by four runs and think the game is basically in the bag, but one bases-loaded Home Run can tie it immediately, and the psychological pressure after that can make your team completely unravel.

During the game I accidentally caught the official team photographer in a shot. But... sir, what exactly is going on with your gear here? A Sony/Canon combo?

In the end, the Padres won in the bottom of the 10th inning with a two-run walk-off Home Run, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates and ending the game on the spot.

PS: I have to say, I personally feel that batting second is an advantage in baseball... In MLB, the home team always bats second, which creates the possibility of a walk-off hit. If you bat first and trail after the top of the ninth, the game can just be X-ed out in the bottom half. When you add it up, that is almost like getting an extra 0.5 inning of offense.

This was a San Diego MTS light rail train I caught after the game. In the background is the famous SD Hilton Bayfront. If you are coming for baseball, that hotel is actually a bit closer; I think the base room rate was 60,000 per night.

Back at the hotel, I took a few shots of the view outside the window, with the Marriott in the distance.

Embassy Suites and a Hyatt.

I suddenly realized this angle lets you photograph MTS light rail trains coming out of the station. For a railfan like me, this room type was already very friendly!

But what line is this...

A NOT IN SERVICE train... so basically a non-revenue move? My terrible-luck railfan RNG struck again!

It was about time for dinner, so I headed down to the restaurant downstairs. We ate on the outdoor terrace marked by the red circle, which also meant bringing the camera paid off because there was plenty to photograph.

Here is a terrace photo I had taken earlier from outside... and somehow it still came out blurry in broad daylight. Unbelievable.

A very rustic-looking glass, but honestly the quality was terrible. Right as I was about to drink some water, I noticed a small crack in it, so I quickly asked the server to replace it with a new one.

We ordered a few dishes at random, and the final bill came to $35 per person. Pretty decent, actually—it felt like a better value than the lunch we had outside earlier.

Having dinner while taking in the view was a nice treat, and on this terrace my Canon 100-400mm finally had a chance to show what it could do. That said, on this trip I seemed to transform into Mr. Cloudy—everywhere I went, it turned overcast, so all the photos came out gray and gloomy. Good enough.

North San Diego Bay under a Tyndall effect—the airport is off to the right in the distance, and the building in the middle far background is the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina (curious if anyone in the group has stayed there).

Maybe it is just my imagination, but ever since Sheraton was acquired by Marriott, it feels like Marriott has not exactly been very kind to these older properties carrying the Sheraton name. The hardware all seems dated and worn out... like they are just coasting.

This is one of the better-known San Diego MTS bus routes, the 992 airport bus. I rode it once back in 2016 when I came to SD for an ACS conference; if I remember right, it ran about every half hour.

Panning left, I took a few shots of the aircraft carrier. The USS Midway museum had already closed, and the deck was completely empty.

Zoomed all the way to 400mm, and the carrier-based aircraft came out incredibly sharp!

Then I panned right and zoomed in on planes taking off and landing at SD airport... Southwest 737s are practically as common as bargain-bin street merchandise at this point.

What is this? A surprise premium sighting—Lufthansa’s A350. I did not expect this place to have international flights!

Just after Lufthansa’s A350 departed, a British Airways A350 showed up too...

What comes to mind when you think of British Airways? Sky-high fuel surcharges, maybe? The British really do love charging every last penny.

After dinner and with my stomach full, I went out for a walk and took some photos of San Diego Santa Fe Depot at night.

By the time we got back, it was completely dark, and the lights on CV-41 Midway had come on as well.

To avoid the breakfast restaurant being packed the next morning, I stopped by the front desk on the way back and reserved a breakfast dining time for the following day.

Nothing much happened overnight, and the next morning it was time for breakfast.

Since it was fairly cold in the morning, the restaurant staff helped turn on the heater.

That said, this heater was pretty terrible—the staff had to try twice before they got it going.

A quick shot of the silverware on the table.

Milk for the coffee.

And a shot of the main breakfast!

After eating, I took a short break, packed up, and got ready to check out. Before leaving, I took one more photo of the key card for the record.

Sayonara—who knows when the next visit will be!

The Trip Home

On the way home, I also snapped a few photos of this place—the “fountain of human energy,” the former San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant on the west side of Interstate 5. The plant was shut down in 2013, and only the two concrete shells remain standing today!

When passing through San Juan Capistrano, I stopped for a break. Since I happened to hit peak train traffic, I also did some train spotting here and got quite a few nice shots!

Final Thoughts

This stay at Intercontinental San Diego was booked directly with a Chase FN when the dynamic redemption price dropped (<=40,000 Pts), so the value was excellent and very much worth it. Since Chestnut only has the Status that comes from a credit card and is otherwise basically a plain base-level member, I could only book a standard room and write up this kind of straightforward trip report for everyone. If any readers out there have the pay-to-win version of elite status, feel free to test whether you can get an Upgrade and then write a Review of a higher room category.

The hotel is still fairly new, so the hardware and facilities looked clean and well-kept overall, and it was a comfortable stay. As for the construction-site view outside, well, everyone just has to put up with it for now... Then again, right now it’s only construction that’s an eyesore. In another two or three years, it may become a full-on “building blocking your face” situation, and by then only the west-facing rooms may still have bay views!

Chestnut’s Brainwashing Quotes

I’ve repeated the old classic quotes N times already, so this time let’s do something new:

H: Weird stuff is what counts as news, and what’s worth talking about

Reader: Chestnut, why do weird situations always happen to you?

Chestnut: Haven’t you heard the saying, “Walk east out the front door, and what do you see? A man biting a dog”? That’s exactly the point: a man biting a dog is news. Is a dog biting a man news? What’s the point of talking about plain, ordinary stuff? That’s just routine posting—I’m practically bored to death of it!

Reader: (iconic scene incoming) Pfft! Pu...

...zawa zawa... conversation dead

He: Base-level member

Reader: Chestnut, what membership tier are you?

Chestnut: Other than whatever comes free from credit cards, I’m base level all the way!

Reader: Why not try a status challenge?

Chestnut: Besides, the most painful thing in life isn’t not getting something—it’s getting it and then losing it. Rather than busting myself every year just to requalify, I’d rather not have it in the first place! And more importantly, no matter how many qualifying nights a challenge requires, don’t I still have to spend real money on it? If some big shot wants to Sponsor me, and you pay while I stay for free, then I’d be happy to help. Or better yet, if you’ve got an insider who can tweak the program code for me and lock in lifetime top-tier elite status with a cheat code, that works too!

Reader: Chestnut, you really are something...

...zawa zawa... conversation dead again

PS: By the way, white dragon is also Chestnut’s favorite mahjong tile! I still clearly remember the first time I ever sat at the table: a classmate casually discarded a white dragon, and Chestnut slammed down the hand—Ron! My first winning hand ever!

Li: Please send fixed-amount red packets

Chestnut: If you’re sending me a red packet, please make it a fixed-amount one. Otherwise, with my terrible luck, I’ll probably end up getting one cent.

Reader: How is that possible? (Refusing to believe it, they sent a random-luck one.)

(Iconic scene incoming warning)

...zawa zawa... conversation dead again, guess I’ll hand out Chestnut coins instead