COVID restrictions have foiled several travel plans, I have more nonrefundable airline credit than I would really like thanks to using Southwest WGA refare credits and Delta gift cards from the Costco Christmas sale. I also have a surprising high amount of vacation days left and it has been 5 months since I have been on a plane.
As I cancelled the latest optimistically booked trip I recalled I did have this long dormant blog and more time to occupy at home so I am back. Apparently people actually have read it according to the stats.
I did have one travel experience during the safer at home period, I'll address that soon. Looking ahead, I have been taking steps toward a financial streamlining so going forward this will be split between travel and finance entries.
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Czech Mate!
Two interesting developments involving my red haired step child account with Czech Airlines recently. In an attempt to clean up their books the rules regarding their Ok+ mileage program are being amended in several unfriendly ways. Additionally I tried booking a revenue ticket with them on a fare that may or may not have been filed correctly and may or may not have been ticketed correctly.
I have ~19,000 Czech miles from my 2009 credit anywhere but Delta strategy. This was at best half baked at the time but I received a lot of impressive postal mail from Prague as a result. These miles were due to expire this summer due to nonactivity so I was going to throw a hotel stay at it to slowly grow to redemption levels. Last month CSA sent an email stating that terms were changing and all miles required an actual flight on their metal or the miles would be wiped from the books in May. This is not the easiest thing to do living 5,000 miles from their only hub.
The backup plan was to transfer a batch of miles to Hilton in preparation for Grand Slam 2012. I found that this option no longer exists. I am left with buying up to 25,000 miles and redeeming for a Delta roundtrip at 200 Euro, speculatively booking a intra-Europe oneway including a punitive fuel surcharge with them and hope my plans and their planes are still flying, or make a donation of my miles and hope they don't get disappeared.
In somewhat related news, I also snagged a international business class ticket from Bangkok to Prague and Paris for $268 that was coded as Czech flights with some Ethiad metal. I was greatly please to see that the purchase cleared and a ticket number issued but less so to find an email from Expedia stating the flights, but not the ticket, were cancelled by the airline. three calls and two hours on the phone with Expedia resulted in an empty apology and a "choice" of refunding the ticket or paying the extra $2000 that similar itineraries typically cost. I took the refund but did not actually have it appear for over a week.
I have ~19,000 Czech miles from my 2009 credit anywhere but Delta strategy. This was at best half baked at the time but I received a lot of impressive postal mail from Prague as a result. These miles were due to expire this summer due to nonactivity so I was going to throw a hotel stay at it to slowly grow to redemption levels. Last month CSA sent an email stating that terms were changing and all miles required an actual flight on their metal or the miles would be wiped from the books in May. This is not the easiest thing to do living 5,000 miles from their only hub.
The backup plan was to transfer a batch of miles to Hilton in preparation for Grand Slam 2012. I found that this option no longer exists. I am left with buying up to 25,000 miles and redeeming for a Delta roundtrip at 200 Euro, speculatively booking a intra-Europe oneway including a punitive fuel surcharge with them and hope my plans and their planes are still flying, or make a donation of my miles and hope they don't get disappeared.
In somewhat related news, I also snagged a international business class ticket from Bangkok to Prague and Paris for $268 that was coded as Czech flights with some Ethiad metal. I was greatly please to see that the purchase cleared and a ticket number issued but less so to find an email from Expedia stating the flights, but not the ticket, were cancelled by the airline. three calls and two hours on the phone with Expedia resulted in an empty apology and a "choice" of refunding the ticket or paying the extra $2000 that similar itineraries typically cost. I took the refund but did not actually have it appear for over a week.
Friday, March 9, 2012
250 Free Priority Club points
Priority Club has got to be one of the easiest ways of obtaining a no cost hotel stay and this promotion continues in that tradition. Through the end of March they are offering 250 points for taking a short survey on travel habits and brand perceptions, link here. It is not a secret, I and probably every other Priority Club member received an email selling the virtues of the program including the link. It is just quite easy for these nuggets to get lost in the spam of dining updates for every program under the sun and all the other email that comes in. Posting time was about a week in my case so this is not a magic fix for rounding up to redemption levels.
Reduced Mileage Awards
I carry the Citibank AAdvantage Mastercard so I can get miles for most of my everyday purchases. In addition to the mileage earning aspect of the card the other prime benefit is the option to redeem miles at reduced amounts for selected destinations. I have made use of this feature about once per year so my $85 annual fee is essentially buying me 7500 miles, not a bad deal by itself.
The list for spring 2012 has been released and can be found here. As usual the Northeast US is lacking,represented exclusively by Charleston WV more southern/Applachia than Northeast. The upside I see is that my home airport, MSP, is again on the list as are my haunts on I-75. I may very well be attending March Madness in Lexington again to experience the UK riots.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Spirit!
After much teasing MSP unveiled Spirit's arrival. It is not Jetblue or Virgin America, but I not totally sure I really wanted those. San Francisco is nice but already well served and I needed to see outer California and my East Coast travel is Philly centric, not JFK.
I knew there were hoops and fees involved in Spirit travel but did not really poke around until today. It took me a good 45 minutes of clickful trial and error to release the advertised low fares. Pro-tip: Roundtrip required. Baggage/carry on fees are still not totally clear so I think I will suck it up and prepay for a bag on my first adventure.
30" pitch in nonreclining seats does not bode well for my odds of appearing on the Vegas flight and their Chicago flights price out nearly identical to the others on non-sale days and the sale days don't really suit me. I guess I am glad they are here, but am unlikely to actually use them beyond a fare match.
I knew there were hoops and fees involved in Spirit travel but did not really poke around until today. It took me a good 45 minutes of clickful trial and error to release the advertised low fares. Pro-tip: Roundtrip required. Baggage/carry on fees are still not totally clear so I think I will suck it up and prepay for a bag on my first adventure.
30" pitch in nonreclining seats does not bode well for my odds of appearing on the Vegas flight and their Chicago flights price out nearly identical to the others on non-sale days and the sale days don't really suit me. I guess I am glad they are here, but am unlikely to actually use them beyond a fare match.
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