Travel

VacationsToGo and some Cruise lines you may not know about

DaninMCI Travel , , , , , , , ,

I love taking cruises. It only hurts that my day job doesn’t allow me to go on many more cruises. One of my favorite places to search for cruises is Vacationstogo (I don’t get a kickback from them) but I am a big fan. It really helps me dream of my next trip but also do a ton of research. They are great. You do have to register by giving them your email address but it’s well worth it. They have a ton of search ability.

vacationstogo

Basically just enter your dates and where you want to go or use the “90 day ticker” and it will pull up the options.

90 Day Ticker

They even have some odd cruise lines you may not know very well like this Astor cruise example. Can you imagine 38 night cruise for $3,009 per person. Not bad.

cruise example

One of the ones I’ve been looking into lately is Pulmantur which is a Spanish line with many options. Pullmantur Cruises is a Spanish cruise line that offers cruises to a mostly Spanish-speaking clientele. Spanish is the primary language onboard but many staff members also speak English. English-speaking guests looking to immerse themselves in the Spanish may enjoy cruises with Pullmantur. The Spanish link is here Pullmantur.es

pullmantur

Another lesser known cruise line is AIDA. Apparently they are owned by some other cruise investors. It is a German speaking cruise line that you won’t find on VacationsToGo.

AIDA

Another lesser known cruise line is the UK line Thomson Cruise Lines. They are a UK based line with various ships and options for mainly English speaking clients. The are affiliated with Thomson Airways and have some interesting options for veteran cruisers that can sail from the UK.

Thomson Cruise Itinerary Myths Legends Cruises that suit your needs

These are just a few options out there if your tired of the run of the mill Carnival, NCL, type cruises or if your a veteran cruiser and are looking for some other options. A word of warning that these can be a bit more adventurous and typically the ships are a little older ships that they obtained from the big guys. Some of these ships are smaller which allows for unique port calls also.

I’ll try to follow up this post with some more cruise lines in the future. Oh and I don’t get kick backs from any of these links in case your wondering. Enjoy.

Now you can link your AA American Advantage account to your US Airways Dividend Miles account.

DaninMCI Travel , , , , , , , ,

Another step toward combining the loyalty frequent flyer situation at the new American Airlines. You can now link your US and AA accounts. The miles won’t combine yet but should in the 2nd quarter 2015. It might not hurt to go ahead and do this.

When you log into your AA or US accounts you will get a pop up like this one (AA):

My Account Flight Information

Or this one (US):

us air combine acct on acct page

Once you enter your other account number you should either get a confirmation popup:

aadvantage combine acct confirm popup

Or if they couldn’t match them you will get:

aadvantage didnt match popup

If you had trouble and they didn’t match log into each account and check that all your names, phone number and date of birth, etc. all match. My wife’s account failed because she had only her middle initial on US Air but had her whole middle name on American. Once I fixed it it went through fine.

If you click past the popup or want to do it later you will find a link in your account page. Here is the AA example:

aadvantage combine option on myaccount page

What does all this mean right now? Not much yet but I still think it’s too your advantage (pardon the pun) to go ahead and link them. I think this may hold more true for elites in either program but that is just guessing on my part. As they go through the IT process of combining the programs it will eventually combine your miles and accounts together at some point in the 2nd quarter. Speculation is that it will happen early 2nd quarter but we will see.

Not a good idea to sleep on airport floors during IROPs in my opinion.

DaninMCI Travel , , , , ,

airport sleeping

During overnight IROP delays due to weather, etc. it’s best to avoid sleeping on the floors in airports or train stations. I know this is easier said than done but here are a few news items to help remind you of this:

Sick after sleeping on floor at French airport:

‘My family and I are all sick after sleeping on airport floor’

Dirty floors:

Security concerns over dirty floors at airport

Public Health officials worried about airport floors

Any finally there is the rat problem at most airports:

Rat eating at airport deli

Not just overseas but also in the US

Only good rat is a dead rat

MCO dead rats

If you must sleep in airports here are couple resources:

www.sleepinginairports.net

10 tips for sleeping in airports from smartertravel.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick tip. Save 10% on British Airways bookings

DaninMCI Travel, Uncategorized , , ,

Little known benefit still remains in 2015 for Chase BA card holders.

You can save 10% on purchased tickets through the BA.Com/Chase10 link.

Some details:

10% off when you book through ba.com/Chase10:

  • discount is off the total cost of the fare (including taxes, fees, and carrier charges)
  • choose from any of British Airways 180 worldwide destinations or OpenSkies from NY to Paris.
  • travel in any cabin — World Traveller, World Traveller Plus, Club World, First, Eco, Prem Plus, Biz Bed
  • book up to eight friends and family members travelling on the same flight

This offer has been around for at least 2 years and should go through at least 12-31-15 according to BA. I’m not sure how great it is compared to other OTA deals but hey 10% might help. The big challenge is they must be on BA operated flights from what I understand.