Author: DaninMCI

It’s been a fun ride so far, Hang in there.

DaninMCI miles, Travel , , , ,

I think we may be on the downhill side of the golden age of mile hacking or whatever you like to call it. The credit cards are getting tougher on sign up bonuses. The airlines and hotels are devaluing the awards and making them more restrictive. There seem to be less and less free miles out there. You know those “follow us on twitter” and get 500 miles, etc. #repeatandchurn.

My favorite deal in the past was the US Airways Grand Slam events. It’s how I got started in “the game”. I miss it soooooo much. Sure earning the miles was the goal but it was like a worldwide scavenger hunt to figure out how to rent a car for 5 minutes for like $15 to get a hit or how to buy that $2 cat collar on skymall when you don’t own a cat. It was just fun. I really thanks Mommypoints for turning me on to that fun time.

I think the miles and points world is changing. It had to. Technology is catching up to the error fare deals, OTA’s and app-o-rama’s. The bright spot left is maybe just doing old fashion mileage runs. Not because they are a good deal for the miles you earn but because they help you earn status and miles and go places you want to go. We’ve become addicted to the travel in nice seats. Now it’s about how to keep traveling. Sure we’ll get a few drive-by deals and I pity the poorly organized promo’s that we will be sure to exploit. But it’s like a rolling or flying party. We have our own rock stars (Gary, Seth, Summer and many others) and we all seem to want to fly to exotic locations in big front seats.

I’ve earned and burned over 1,000,000 AA miles in the past few years but only 100k or so are EQM’s and sitting on a lowly Gold status. Maybe I’m going about it the wrong way…Stay tuned.

(Flying in First on AA 77W DFW-HKG (for free)).

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Check Your Passport Expiration

DaninMCI Travel, Uncategorized ,

Many folks applied for USA passports in 2006 due to new requirements. There is also a surge in new applications ahead of the 2018 Real ID Act requirements so fast forward to 2016 and guess what? That flood of new passports in 2006 are expiring and a bunch of new applications is making it a busy time at the U.S. Passport office.  They are urging individuals with passports expiring to renew them now. Renewals will likely take 6 weeks or more.  Also if you are planning travel out of the country remember that you typically need at least 6 months of validity on your passport before you are allowed to travel to most places.

Here is link for more information: https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/information/where-to-apply/agencies.html

 

The $20 Million First Class (AKA: Real Travel)

DaninMCI Travel , , , ,

So it’s common to see websites or news articles that talk about how cool it is to fly in some Middle Eastern Airline First Class cabin or how to get upgraded to lay flat seats.

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How about the blog posts about some “celebrity” that gets into a fight on a plane. Well “REAL” celebrities don’t travel like that. They fork up millions to own and operate their own private jet.

Just check out this link Jackie Chan’s new ride: Embraer  Legacy 500. It is sweet. Sure it’s $20mil but it’s worth it if you can afford it.

Jackie Chan s Embraer Legacy 500 jet Business Insider

 

American to update AA54 and AA 55 ORD-MAN with 787

DaninMCI Travel , , , , , ,

I have an award trip booked from Kansas City to Vienna via ORD, MAN, LHR on AA for late Summer. I was excited to finally find 3 award seats in business on these flights but wasn’t super excited about the old 767-300 metal. Then this morning I got a tweet from @airlineroute showing that American is revising the operating aircraft from June through October to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I’m excited to finally fly the new Dreamliner. I think this is a good fit on this route.

 

I just hope they can use that 767 to make another route better over the summer. How about Hawaii AA, come on.

http://airlineroute.net/2016/01/31/aa-man-jun16/

 

airlineroute on Twitter American Airlines Adds Boeing 787 Manchester Service June Oct 2016 ✈ https t.co d9j8NWGHPP

Find your BA record locator from AA without calling

DaninMCI Travel , , , , , ,

If you booked the BA flight with AA (which happens on award or TATL flights even when trying to avoid YQ) you will want to try and select your seats on the BA flight segments but most of the time the AA website won’t let you do that part. Some times on codeshares, Operated by British Airways, all you need to do is add your British Airways Executive Club number to the booking. After a few minutes, log into your BAEC account, and look at your upcoming bookings. You’ll find in there your BA booking reference for the BA legs, and will be able to select your seat, see avios to be earned etc.

if you booked the BA flight under the BA flight number, eg British Airways flight BA 345, then for some reason your BAEC details won’t get passed over. What you need to do is, bizarrely, go to the Qantas “Manage My Booking” page, and enter your American Airlines reference. Scroll down to the Seats section of the page, and you’ll see something like:

Seat selection is only available for flights operated by Qantas. To select seats and manage your booking, visit British Airways site with your booking reference #12ABCD

Then take that booking reference shown there, go to the BA website, use that with Manage My Booking, then enter your BAEC details + pick seats + see avios details + etc

The advantage (pardon the pun) is that you don’t have to call AA to get your BA record locator. Normally this isn’t a big deal. I researched this because I’ve tried to set aside time to call AA for the last couple weeks only to find myself ready to call on a bad IROPs days or Christmas eve which didn’t seem like a good idea.

Here are a few screen shots.

Manage your Qantas booking Change flights Check in Select seats

Enter your AA record locator and last name

Booking Details

Then scroll down to seat selection and you should see the above. I wouldn’t worry about the AA flights that show “Not Selected” if you know you did this with AA already. Your just accessing this page to get the “booking reference”# shown above so you can go plug that into the BA website.

 

 

Free (sorta) movies from VUDU and Walmart

DaninMCI shopping , ,

If you have bought any dvds or blurays that have a ultraviolet or related code you may be interested in VUDU or you may already have a VUDU account. I know when I signed up they had a deal where they would give you some free movies. Check out the internet to see if those deals still are around. Not the point of my post today.

VUDU and Walmart have teamed up to sell the VUDU Spark

VUDU Spark

Not a big deal in itself since it seems everyone from Amazon (Fire Stick) to Google (Chromecast) are selling hdmi devices to turn your tv into a smart tv dongles or whatever. But right now they are offering a $5 a month VUDU credit for up to 5 months = $25 in movie credit if you buy a Spark. So what you ask. Well the Spark is $24.96 at Walmart so you come out 4 cents ahead if you can avoid taxes and shipping. I assume you can buy it in the store but online they will get you for shipping unless you can add some other random products to bring it up to $35 for free shipping.

VUDU Spark2

Still a good deal. For more details go to walmart.com or try VUDU

And no I don’t get any money for this. Just FYI. Heck go check your dvds you’ve bought over the last couple years you may have a ton of free codes laying around. If they tell you they are out of date just email the movie studio for a new one. You may also need to link your ultraviolet or other type account to VUDU to get them all in one place. Oh and make sure to go through a shopping portal to earn some cash back, airline miles, etc. Cash back monitor is the best search site for this at http://www.cashbackmonitor.com/

Enter to Win a Trip to France in Premium Economy

DaninMCI Travel , , ,

Here is an offer where you can enter to win a trip to France. Many trip contest like this are for Economy seats which is OK but it’s MUCH nicer if you can at least move up to Premium Economy which is contest features. This also features travel on Airfrance which has a very nice Premium Economy seat like USA Domestic First Class and MUCH better than US carriers so called Premium Economy seats.

France on the Fly

Here is a comparison between typical AirFrance Premium Economy and a random US carrier Premium Economy seat.

Airfrance

Delta A330 Economy Comfort Seats - 2014

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Is Copa the new Aegean ? 18 months to earn Star Silver or Gold

DaninMCI miles, Travel , , , , ,

Partnerships ConnectMiles Copa Airlines1Partnerships ConnectMiles Copa Airlines2

I was just updating my new profile on my new Copa Airlines Connectmiles account. You know the one where you can sign up and get 1,000 miles and update your profile and get 2,000 more plus another 1,000 if you sign up for new account now until the end of June 2015.

More info at Mommypoints:

Or on View From The Wing:

I noticed that to earn elite status with this program it’s fairly typical. 20,000 miles to Star Alliance Silver and 45,000 to Star Alliance Gold.What caught my eye though is that since the program is launching in the middle of 2015 they are allowing 18 months to earn these mile levels. Seems like a nice way to obtain elite status or at least Star Gold I’m thinking. Now the signup bonus miles won’t count because they aren’t EQM’s and the opportunities to earn bonus miles via credit cards are really limited to certain countries it could be worth crediting BIS (butt in seat) miles here if your trying to get Star Gold down the road but don’t fly enough to get over the goal each year.

PreferProgram Qualification ConnectMiles Copa Airlines

Why can’t AA put better aircraft on Hawaii routes?

DaninMCI miles, Travel , , , , , , ,

So your a run of the mill road warrior business traveler and maybe have a credit card that earns miles on American Airlines (AA). You work hard traveling to sales meetings in places like Moline Illinois, Cleveland Ohio and Fresno California. You stay at crappy low level Hilton or Marriott motels just so you can dream of the free hotel rooms and award flights to Hawaii that you’ll take your loving spouse to. It will make up for all the nights on the road.  Heck you even fly so much you’ve earned elite status on (insert name here but we’ll use AA as the example). You get a few upgrades to “First” class if you want to call the first 3 rows on an old A319 “First” but heck it beats the cattle car in the back.

Finally after years of saving miles and hotel points you book that dream trip to Hawaii just so you won’t have to go to that Northern Wisconsin widget convention in January. Your so excited as you book that trip online from your hotel room in Tulsa. You can’t wait to tell your wife about the plan to bask on the beach in Hawaii in January. Then it dawns on you. What type of aircraft fly that Phoenix to Honolulu route anyway?  Yes the good old 757-200 first made in 1983.  Sure the seats are a little old looking but hey don’t worry about spilling that mia-tia as they are water resistant now from all the human skin oil that has soaked into them. Gross I know.

So you tough out that long day flight in the 1980’s recliner and get to Hawaii. Your on the beach with a million other pale white victims. You enjoy your short vacation only to board that overnight flight back and find that the old “First Class” seats don’t lay flat, there is sad food choices and not much entertainment on board. WiFi you ask, what’s that?

My points with all this is that American as well as many other carriers needs to up the aircraft choices on the Hawaii routes. They seem to figure that since many of the passengers are croc, yoga pants and ed hardy PJ wearing clods and wouldn’t know “First Class” if it hit them over the head so why not put the new aircraft on these “tourist” routes. Besides they are closer to the boneyard in Arizona when they limp home on that last flight. The problem with this plan is that many folks like you frequent flyers know better. It’s a good 6 hour flight about equal to flying to Europe. Let’s pick it up a notch.

This:

Current-AA-767-200-First-Product

Or this?

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$25 United Airlines Gift Cards on My Coke Rewards

DaninMCI Contest, Travel , , , , ,

Home Catalog Online Catalog My Coke Rewards

This redemption on My Coke Rewards http://www.mcr.com is now available today to Silver members. The Southwest card must be sold out.

Not really a good value since it cost 1750 points. They offered this back in 2014 for 625 points. Neither was a good deal as you can’t combine them and they can only be used for tickets and fees so no on-board purchases, etc.

However…..if you have a ton of MCR points and are planning on buying a United ticket soon you might get a little value out of this, maybe.

The Southwest card was about the same value in my opinion.

Home Catalog Online Catalog My Coke Rewards2