If you have no status, the best thing you can hope for if you want to make a flight change with no penalty is for a disruption to your itinerary. Depending on how well you push it, a mere change of five minutes can be enough to avoid the fee. This is especially true if the five minutes happens a couple of times leading me to tell the airlines, “How will I know if I can make my connection if the schedule is this inconsistent?”
Part of my beautiful itinerary to Tahiti was booked and ticketed way back in August. I received three emails from United saying that my reservation had changed. I gave the first two the proper attention such emails deserve and couldn’t find any major differences that troubled me. Yesterday, I was booking the final leg from Shanghai back to the US and wanted to double-check the day I was arriving back in PVG after my stopover in New Zealand. Curiously, the itinerary just stopped in Auckland.
What happened to the Shanghai portion I wondered. I logged in to United.com suspecting it was only an email glitch. Nope. The itinerary showed that the route terminated in New Zealand. Frantic, I called United and while on hold I noticed that the business class tickets were sold out on my original route. This looked like it was going to be a huge problem.
The agent got on the phone and said that the codeshare partner had cancelled the flight but he too was puzzled because the flight was still being operated on the same time and date and with the same carrier as before. “Please hold, I’ll contact the support desk.”
While on hold, I recalled previous United flights which I thought I had booked but were never ticketed. I learned the hard way that making a reservation and ticketing a reservation are two different things. Until a reservation is actually ticketed by the codeshare partner, i.e., you have a seat on the plane, it can be cancelled. United says that ticketing can take up to 24 hours which is why I do not celebrate prematurely anymore. I wait to see the words, “You’re reservation was ticketed on August…” In this case, however, I had the documentation showing that everything was set up correctly.
What felt like an hour later, the agent casually came back on the phone and said I was good to go. I asked what happened and he cleverly replied, “Who cares what happened, it’s what we did to fix it that is important.” What a nice, smart man I thought as I hung up the phone.
That could’ve been bad. I would’ve been mad, real mad, Joe Jackson.
When Flight Reservations Disappear
Do You Believe in Miracles? Emirates Showers, Dreamliner Suites, Tahiti Triumph!
If you are not impressed by this award booking than you must be flying private jets. Not only are the flights absurd but the destinations covered are once in a lifetime for the second, third, and fourth time. Please allow me to explain how my Tahiti Triumph all went down.
Miracle #1: InterContinental : Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa ; Overwater Villa; 2 Nights; 100k ; $0
This all started when I tried to find hotel availability in Tahiti using 100k IHG points, 80 of which came from signing up for the Chase IHG card. I ended up booking 2 nights using what I called the IHG Reward Bora Bora Trick.
Miracle #2: Round trip to Tahiti from Shanghai with a stopover in New Zealand for 60,000 United Miles + $100
From there I was dead set on finding a flight from Shanghai to Tahiti for two reasons: 1) It was aboard Air New Zealand’s in business on a Dreamliner. 2) It was 60,000 miles round trip with a stopover in New Zealand. Not only will this be my second time there since my $77,000 Trip Heard Round the World, but also it is an incomparable bargain for only 60k United Miles.
Miracle #3: Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa; 5 Nights; 280k; $0
Though sleeping outside would’ve been comfortable in Moorea, I wanted to burn some HHonor points and got a ridiculous deal at the Hilton Moorea.
Miracle #4: InterContinental : Le Moana Bora Bora: Double Beach Bungalow; 1 Night; Stay Certificate; $0
I received my anniversary IHG certificate from Chase and found the perfect way to use it.
Miracle #5: Emirates Shower Class: New York to Dubai to Shanghai: 100k Alaska Miles + $19
I needed to get to Shanghai so I luckily found availability on Emirates A380 Shower Class using the 100k points that I had earned from my Alaska Airlines credit cards. The taxes were an acceptable $19. This is the second and third time (JFK-DXB & DXB-PVG) I’ll enjoy a shower in the sky and another opportunity to visit two of my favorite cities in the world, Shanghai and Dubai.
Miracle #6: JAL Dreamliner Business from Shanghai to Tokyo to DFW to New York: 55,000 AAdvantage + $50
So originally, I was going to fly Apartment Class from Abu Dhabi to JFK but that was 120k points which wasn’t worth it in comparison to a flight from Asia to the US which is either 67,500 in first or 55k in business. With the American devaluation on the horizon, I was hoping to try a new product but nothing was coming up. Despondent, I thought I would settle for another first class flight on Cathay from Hong Kong, an excellent alternative but something that I had already flown.
Creativity came to me at 3AM as I started searching for my old friend, Japan Airlines which I had flown so long ago when the Dreamliner didn’t have lie-flat seating. Deep in the night, I found availability from Shanghai to Narita then to the US searching on British Air.
I pieced it together one by one: Japan to the US (checking Narita or Haneda to Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Dallas, and even Vancouver). NRT to DFW provided the longest flight on the Dreamliner so I noted the date and flight number. From there I added the segment of PVG to NRT and DFW-NYC. By doing it this way, I got one night in Tokyo to run around and gorge on food at the Tsukuji Fish Market, a must visit as part of the Tokyo Travel Guide.
I called the AAdvantage desk in Australia out of habit and confirmed the booking. All of this came out to 55,000 miles, a steal compared to the 70,ooo it will be post March 22nd.
Recap
On this trip I will be going back to Dubai, back to Shanghai, then to Tahiti, then New Zealand for the second time, back back to Shanghai, then to Tokyo again, before dreaming my way to the US for next to nothing ($169 including hotels). To put it in pictures, here’s what I am doing:
The Club at ATL: Pop Champagne
The Club at ATL Lounge Review is part of the Trip Report: Citrus Bowl 2016 which covers the following cities:
- Orlando, Florida
- Miami, Florida
I headed all the way to the international terminal to visit the Club at ATL since I was flying SWA to Orlando and didn’t want to make use of the Southwest Lounge. The trip took about 15 minutes via train but was well worth it for the one hour that I spent there. The one drawback of the lounge was the lack of food. There was popcorn and chips and some decent hummus. The sparkling wine to ring in the new year was some of the best I have had.
<==Back to Delta Sky Club Salt Lake City – Onto Aloft Orlando==>
Delta Sky Club Salt Lake City: Unlimited Egg Whites
The Delta Sky Club Salt Lake City Lounge Review is part of the Trip Report: Citrus Bowl 2016 which covers the following cities:
- Orlando, Florida
- Miami, Florida
My favorite Delta Sky Club is in Atlanta. My second favorite is the one in Salt Lake City. Unlike the self-serve style of the one in Detroit or the one I went to in Minneapolis, the Sky Club in SLC is worth the [free] cost of admission courtesy of the Amex Platinum card. I was there early in the morning in time for breakfast which included all you can eat hard-boiled eggs, perhaps the greatest food next to pho. Besides some yummy cookies, the lounge features a bar where I enjoyed my traveling morning ritual power snack of a beer and Bloody Mary. The best part was the private chair that shields passengers from the bright lights of the lounge and is the perfect spot to take a quick nap before a flight.
Trip Report: Citrus Bowl NYE
- Orlando, Florida
- Miami, Florida
Places NOT to Visit 2016
Every year the NYT puts out their 52 Places to Go. The last two years, TPOL has been ahead of the curve going to their top suggestions including Mexico City and Cape Town before the tourists get there and ruin the party. In the spirit of being hopeful in 2016, I thought I’d provide a list of 7 places you shouldn’t visit this year.
7. Bocas del Toro, Panama
It’s a surfer’s paradise with beautiful beaches. So why shouldn’t you visit Bocas? Because there are only a few ways to get to Bocas from Panama City. The first is the recommended approach, a quick flight which is seldom available during peak season. The other is a hell bus that takes 10 hours and will leave you sore, angry, and disappointed if you arrive only to find days of rain.
By Definition, Bloggers Killed Manufactured Spend
Every year the Merriam-Webster dictionary adds new words that have become part of the English lexicon. Examples include ‘selfie’ and ‘dab’. When Amex Served notice of my account being closed, I noticed that they used the term ‘manufacture activity’ in the reason for account closure. The old Terms & Conditions made no mention of ‘manufacture’ before. This addition is clearly a result of the blog community cleverly inventing the term for how one can spend without spending.
On the one hand we should be proud that our collective voices have been heard. On the other hand the credit card companies are listening to us more than ever which spells trouble for our points churning lifestyle. I wouldn’t liken the elimination of Serve & Bluebird to past deals that have been killed by overzealous bloggers. The practice of manufactured spending became so commonplace that I even stopped calling it by the sly code word ‘ms’. It had been going on from so long that many of us transitioned from Vanilla Reloads on Bluebird, to Target, to Serve. Those products have been around for more than two years making the sudden shut down of my account that much more surprising.
The one positive, if you can call it that, is knowing that ms is not fraud. That argument delivered by those outside the points community can finally be put to rest as the T & C’s clearly say that an account can be closed for fraud or manufactured activity, a clear distinction between one over the other. Having said that, by closing our accounts, Amex has essentially grouped those in manufacturing with those that try to launder money via gift cards, an unfair pairing to say the least.
We’ve suffered a lot to keep up our manufactured first class lifestyle from going under. Last year, I posed the question: Where Have All the MS Gone? somewhat in jest. Now I really want to know when those jobs are coming back, if they ever are.
You’ve Been Served: Amex Closes Mine Too
Happy 2016! Amex closed my Serve card for ‘unusual usage’. Maybe they closed everyone’s account when they cross referenced who reads or writes for BoardingArea but this is very annoying, bad news. The weird point is that there is no number to call to restore the account. There’s only an option to write a letter. It’s odd that this happened now since I’m done with MS anyway.
Can We Get a New Top 10 Best Credit Card List?
Prepare the royal baggage, TPOL is headed back to New York. After some great golf and little sun, I’m headed back to NYC to face 2016.
I just outlined my travel schedule for 2016 and in the coming days I’m going to try and figure out my churn schedule for Q1. I’ve stopped looking at the ‘top 10’ lists of credit card pushers because I never see anything new.
I get that the best card is the Sapphire and the INK but avid points travelers have all applied for those and have blacklisted from applying for them for the Nth time. From Citi the cards on the list are the same: Prestige and perhaps AA before it’s ‘too late’. SPG Amex is probably on the list and maybe the Barclays Arrival card. Perhaps there’s a targeted 100k offer out there for the Amex Platinum. Most of us have these cards and many of us aren’t eligible for applying again.
With limited options and a manufactured spending game that is growing increasingly difficult, the traditional 90 day churn cycle is no longer feasible. I’m looking at other banks and other ways to keep this pointsoflife game going. Last year I did Wells Fargo. This month I’m finishing up my Citi Gold Checking Account application. Other than applying for Virgins in bulk or the largest state in the same manner, I’m going to have to be creative. The alternative is to spend my time reading the same posts about how to qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass.
The Extinct Blackberry App for WordPress
The dinosaur is extinct and so is Blackberry. This doesn’t keep me from having one. Most recently BlackBerry updates its iOS and messed up my ability to post via my phone. Now I am testing this new app to see if I can continue writing magic via this archaic device.
I don’t see a spot for featured image which is annoying. Here goes nothing. And publish.
