This was the worst ‘business’ class routing of my life. The origin was San Juan, the destination was Buenos Aires for my next residency (see Buenos Aires Residency Begins!).
I left Rio Mar at 3AM and prepared myself for this:
I documented the arduous journey:
- Copa Business SJU-PTY: Passed Out Comfortably
- Copa Lounge Panama City: Food Famine
- Take 2, Lounge 2: Priority Pass Panama City
- Copa Business: PTY-MDE, More ZZZ
- Surviving Avianca’s ‘Business Class’: Medellin to Buenos Aires
- Marriott Ezeiza Airport: Another Layover Pre Residency
More than 36 hours later, I arrived at my Buenos Aires apartment (see Palermo Hollywood Apt: Humboldt!). While I am enjoying this city tremendously (see Residency: Buenos Aires), I must take time to reflect on how much time I spent getting here, whether it was worth the points, if I should have paid for a more efficient route in coach, and whether I would ever venture to destinations that are inconvenient to reach from Puerto Rico.
Time
Time is all we’ll ever need
But it’s gotta have a meaning
You be careful how it’s spent
‘Cause it isn’t going to last
36 hours off the grid is not time well spent. I was too groggy to be productive in the lounges in Panama City. And there was no Wi-Fi on the plane for the 6:35 flight from Medellin. It was almost two full days before I was back ‘online’.
Points
If my valuation of points is lower than the cash price, I feel guilty about making the reservation. Outbound, I spent 36,000 Lifemiles instead of paying $1,200. The caveat is that I had to detour in Panama to catch the ‘business’ class flight from Medellin. Had I flown SJU-MDE-EZE, the redemption was 80k+ points.
The ideal flight is to connect in Miami. The journey takes 12:55. The issue is that American wanted 300k points!
Coach
The alternative to paying for a ‘business class’ flight on Avianca would have been to fly coach on a much more efficient route. The flight is around $350.
Destination
As a resident of Puerto Rico, I refuse to fly to the West Coast. The journey takes 12 hours, and the ride is not comfortable, even in ‘first’ (see AA SJU-MIA-LAS: Borracho in Business (First)). For that amount of time, I could be well on my way to Asia. Applying this logic alone, I wouldn’t return to South America in the near future. The only glimmer of hope is that I was able to secure Ms. TPOL a flight on an AA business class flight from SJU-MDE-EZE using Alaska points for 55k. While this is better than paying $1800, it is not the best use of those precious Atmos points.
Overall
Next year’s residencies are projected to be in Cape Town, Shanghai, and Sydney, destinations that present their own booking challenges in this post-COVID world. As far as Time Vs. Points Vs. Cash. Vs. Destination riddle, I will start with the destination. Santiago, Chile, is on my list of residences, so I won’t write off the whole continent just because it is inconvenient to come here. In terms of points, I enjoy the outsized value of major points redemptions, think SQ, Cathay, EK, EY. In terms of cash, I am stingy with my money. In terms of time, I am even more stingy. If I had to do it all over, I would pick the coach flight from SJU-BOG-EZE.
Who is shocked?
I don’t know why I ever ragged on you… maybe I’m just an ass. This post really hits on a lot of the thought process going into booking travel. I have a coworker who has that Frontier GoWild pass (gag me) and will fly like RIC to MCO via DEN and take 16 hours. “But it was only $39!” Yeah, and my time is worth more than $39 an hour. If I really had to go to MCO, I’d pay the $250-300 or whatever and fly someone else or spend $0 and just not go. Because Orlando is some deep level of hell anyway.
I do the quick calc when buying a ticket of could I use miles… and much of the time it works out that paying cash is the better deal. I have a friend who is a 25 year UPS Captain… called me about an offer to buy United miles with 100% bonus (he gets deadheaded on revenue tickets on UA a lot so has status). I tried to walk him through what does he want to do with the miles, and does it cost less to just buy those tickets instead. Turns out he flies to some small city out west where his daughter lives and tickets are usually ungodly expensive but there are always low redemption mileage tickets. Sounds like that’s a winner then.
I’m with you that I’d probably have just gone coach. The anticipation of dealing with coach is far worse than once you’re actually in the seat in the air. At least if the flight is under 4 hours.
1. I don’t recall you being on the festivus list.
2. Orlando=hell, Miami=depths of hell
3. This is the truth: “The anticipation of dealing with coach is far worse than once you’re actually in the seat in the air.” And the boarding.