A plane! A plane!

    I took my first COVID era flight a few weeks ago. I was uneasy about it but it was a calculated risk. My preparations began with getting some N95 masks and I drove myself to the airport which is a rarity as I generally take transit or rideshare but wanted to limit my bubble. The pre-security airport experience was cautious, everyone was keeping their distance and appeared to be following all guidelines on masks and personal hygiene. 

    Security was a breeze due to the limited number of travelers and my PreCheck status. I did have to unmask for TSA to verify me identify. There was some confusion on my part, to limit contact boarding passes are self scanned but the TSA still needs to handle the ID. One of these articles will be disposed of by most after the flight and the other carried for years. I still don't get the logic there but alas it is TSA. 

    Post security things became less comforting. Support staff chatting in an empty gate area without masks and a true asshole that thought he did not need a mask as he had the secret idol of a cup of coffee in his hand. No coffee was consumed in the several gates that I had to follow said asshole. I was surprised to see my boarding gate was as full as it was, from the seat map the night before I assumed there would be about 30 passengers on the A320. Many others had the same idea I did, buy basic economy as it fully changeable and there are no middle seats. 

    Coffee asshole turned out to be on my flight a few rows ahead of me. Delta in flight service was a snack bag with a bottle of water and various snacks, the exact selection left to chance. Ideally, there would have been no service. The proffered water resulted in most of the cabin unmasking immediately to consume it. Additional bottles were offered later in the flight. Deplaning was surprisingly done orderly per instructions to depart front to back and wait for those ahead to clear the plane. I was quite happy to get off the plane and out of the airport and demask for fresh air for the first time in 6 hours.

Auf Wiedersehen Oktoberfest

This week I cancelled another trip due to COVID.

Annually I go Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, the largest Oktoberfest outside of Munich. I have gone every year but one for the past 15 years, 2020 will be the second I miss. As of this posting the event has not officially cancelled but I do not see how it can go off safely. Given how certain I thought I was of my attendance I took advantage of the travel recession in March to book my hotel and flights.

I was able to book my return flight using an AAdvantage web saver at 6,000 miles at the time that trip was pricing just under $200. I was not able to find an acceptable combination of schedule and price mileage itinerary on the outbound but did manage to buy a Delta nonstop at the lowest price I had ever observed on the route. I had also booked the Hilton Netherland Plaza using points about a year out as I refuse to pay Cincinnati's 21% hotel tax. Thanks to dynamic pricing I was able to cancel and rebook the same room this spring at lower pandemic pricing.

Cancelling reservations was a smooth experience. Hilton was well before the cancellation window so going from reservation to available points only took a few clicks. The Delta flight was booked using a gift card I got at Costco last year so I knew there would no refund, only a travel credit. I was able to cancel the American flight via Twitter DM. Miles were redeposited within an hour of the request and a promise the $5.60 security fee will make it back to my credit card. I would have much rather had a safe Oktoberfest experience but under the circumstances I'll take a hassle and penalty free cancellation.

Credit Card Shuffle

Like most of the world's population my travel and even excursions from my home have been greatly curtailed this year. This did not stop the wanderlust but practicalities quickly tampered those thoughts. The grounded version of wanderlust is considering how to travel the most for the least dollars when it is again safe to do so.

At the beginning of the year I held three travel credit cards with annual fees and thought I was getting value above the fee from each. Home for me is MSP, Delta's second largest hub (suck it Detroit!), and nonstops have become increasing valuable to me over the absolute cheapest fare so the Delta and the SkyMiles American Express card made sense for me for the free bags alone. Earlier boarding makes basic economy a more attractive option and this year's revision of refunding the annual fee via Delta gift card if $10,000 was spent made it even sweeter. I generally use this card for purchases that I don't have a higher earnings rate for as I consider one SkyMile to be worth slightly more than one penny.

I have also been a Holiday Inn/IHG points slut for over a decade now. Each year they are by far my most frequented chain due to the lower price points and simple number of locations. I have had an IHG card for several years, last year I opted to upgrade to the Premier as I found the fourth award night free a greater value than the 10% points rebate. The card comes with an annual free night good at most properties, effectively all for my travel patterns. I have yet to stay at an IHG property in 2020 but this card will be a keeper for years to come even though I don't really spend on it outside of my stays. This is a card to have, not to use.

The third travel card I began the year with was the Hilton Surpass American Express. Hilton has become my second hotel chain and the appeal of free breakfast and the limited PriorityPass membership made this card very useful. Hilton has received all of my non work travel to date in 2020. The annual fee came due last month and I decided that it was time for some belt-tighting. The only time I used this card was for Hilton hotel stays and the odd convenience store purchase where the card was at front of wallet during those hotel stays. There was no offer of a retention bonus due to the low spend so I closed out this card. $95 stays in my wallet in exchange for loss of uncertain future perks, I think I will be keeping the gold status the card granted through early 2022 though. Closing a card did give me an excuse to consider a new card to replace it. More on that next time.

Shopping Insurance

COVID had gotten me more motivated to shape up financially in case the impact expanded to my employment. To date I have not been negatively impacted financially but others around me have been.

Telecommute has been extended a few weeks at a time, the most recent extension takes me through September. I was not surprised by this and at current rate don't see any sort of partial return to the office before Thanksgiving. This resurfaced the thought of how little I am driving. My mileage was already comparatively low but with telecommute I am only using the car one or two days a week. I have driven a total of 3,000 miles in the past six months due to working from home. The slight premium rebate the insurers provided in the spring was a nice gesture but in the grand scheme of things a drop in the bucket.

I started by calling my current insurer, Progressive, and asking to rework the assumptions about my driving habits. This request was repeatedly interpreted as wanting to change my coverage which I strongly disagreed with. I spent about an hour after this unsuccessful call shopping auto insurance. I found that in an apples to apples comparison I already had the best price I could find mostly due to a minor fender bender I had last year. What I did discover is that Progressive has collision and comprehensive deductible options other insurers don't. I had not wanted to change coverage but the deductible pricing made it attractive.

When I started this shopping quest I had a $500 deductible on both comprehensive and collision. I found that by increasing my deductible by $250, to $750, my six month premium would drop by $73 or approximately a third of the additional liability I would be assuming. I haven't had a history of filing claims every 18 months so I am likely well ahead on this change. I had also priced the $1000 deductibles and found that the premium reductions for this $250 jump were significantly less than the first $250 increase. Annualized savings of $146 for taking the $750 deductible. I will likely eventually be increasing the deductible to $1000 but want to build up a separate savings to cover this deductible so if I need to claim, it won't be such a financial speed bump.

Weekend Escape to the Eau C

I have a single trip since COVID stay at home and I wish it were in happier circumstances. I am based in the urban core of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, not the most tranquil of urban environments this year. In the immediate aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy I knew eventually there would be a march on the capital and that it was very likely to have an impact on my work from home productivity. After dealing with helicopter noise for an hour straight I decided it was time to relocate for a long weekend.

This lead to hastily searching what hotels were actually open within driving range and were in a location somewhere other than an interstate exit as I intended on enjoying my off hours outdoors. I settled on the Hampton Inn in Eau Claire as I was somewhat familiar with the city and the hotel is located on the edge of a commercial strip with access to walking trails. I dug out my disused Hilton Amex and made the booking, hastily packed for three days and made the leisurely drive east. Travel in late May was still way down, I counted less than 20 cars in the parking lot on the first night and slightly more the second night.

The front desk was separated from the lobby by what appeared to be a shower curtain, effective but unsightly. I was quite diligent about keeping my distance and all went well. I inquired about breakfast and was told that it was grab and go bags. I entered the room and began my own disinfecting on top of the cleaning the hotel had done. The following morning I discovered this consisted of a wrapped apple, cereal bar, and Spunkmeyer muffin. Coffee was available on request and distributed by gloved staff hands. I opted to take the coffee and apple but otherwise had decided the McDonald's next door was going to offer a healthier breakfast. Hearing that Wisconsin had opened restaurants for take out I walked over to find that the operation was actually dive thru only. I returned the the hotel room to collect car keys and was successful in obtaining breakfast on the third attempt. I returned to my room to eat and a day of remote telework, the desk setup was a bit smaller than I would have desired but it was functional for an 8 hour day on the laptop and conference calls.

After work I went downtown and explored the trails through downtown and Carson Park. I was surprised to see how much of the city is actually on the riverfront and how well kept the park was. I easily got my 10,000 steps and more in the sun and had got some local beer and takeout dinner for another meal back in the hotel room. The second morning went much the same as the first, McBreakfast in the room and another day of exploring in the sun and keeping current on the news of home. On checkout the front desk remembered why I was there and sincerely inquired on the status of the protests.

Overall the COVID roadtrip was not as much of the foreign experience I expected.