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.

COVID Reincarnation

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.

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.

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.