Travel

Quick trip summary El Paso Texas ELP

DaninMCI Travel , , , , , , , ,

I was in El Paso for business recently and thought I’d post a few photos. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites West hotel in the Northwest suburbs of town. Good hotel with good staff. I would recommend it if in the area. It’s a little ways from the airport, like say 20 minutes but not bad.

The ELP airport wasn’t bad but I was a bit disappointed in the AA gate employee. Super laid back and in no big hurry to board passengers. Not good about communications, boarded late, etc. It really didn’t effect the flight as it was on time and a small plane but in an IROP situation I can see where things could get ugly here.

KLM changes St. Maarten Aircraft !! No more 747’s

DaninMCI cruise, Travel, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , ,

airport beach insel air

 

Big fans of Maho Beach (Airport Beach in St. Maarten) are going to be disappointed that KLM is splitting the service to St. Maarten and Curacao and more shocking (but not surprising) is that they are replacing the 747-400 with an A330-200.  This is still a large jet but not as special as the 747 in my opinion.

This was reported by www.routesonline.com which is a great source for this sort of news. HT to Jim Liu for finding this.

KLM Splits Curacao St. Maarten Service in W16 Routesonline

airport beach waiting for planes

Maho Beach patrons waiting for the 747. The highlight of trips to this beach for sure.

My attempt to get the other 10k SPG points from AMEX

DaninMCI credit cards, miles, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

I recently got the SPG Amex card with the 25,000 bonus points. They are now offering 35,000 SPG points. I used the Amex live chat feature to see if they would pony up the other 10,000 points or would call my bluff on canceling my card. Here is what happened

amex chat 1

Amex chat 2

amex chat 3

Amex chat 5Amex chat 4

Oh well. I’ve never had good luck with American Express. I guess I need to keep my business with Citi, Chase and BofA who treat me way better.

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)).

20150623_123446

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.

777-gallery15

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

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?

777-gallery15

$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