I am about to make your head explode. Today’s post will be hard, so please read it over and over before you start to ask questions!

I have received a bunch of e-mail’s about how I got 25,000 point tickets when Delta.com would only show 40,000 point Skymiles tickets. How did I do it? Also, why do I not book tickets for others? Let me put this last one to an end right away. Most would NEVER put up with what I do to get low level seats or trust that Delta is so messed up that change will come before my/your trip. Plus, with my many full time jobs, I have no time to book award tickets for others.

But I again digress Let’s get back to the topic of today’s post. Look at the Delta route map at the top of this post. Does it make your head hurt? GOOD! It should. Our airline flies so many places that with time and work you should always be able to find low level seats to where you want to go. YES I said it. You can always get low level seats if you are willing to put up with overnights if these can be had! (I agree that spending points at hotels can offset the benefits of low vs. mid but I bank on schedule change).

So let’s get down and dirty. Look at this:

Nothing but 40k search one way from PHX to SBN. So, most would say that there are NO 25k seats right?!

But look when I use the multi leg search and look from PHX-MEM-MSP-SBN

Well then! Just look what happens when I plug all these in and let Delta.com price them out.

Well what do you know. There are IN FACT 25k low level seats if I am willing to add just ONE MORE leg to this trip. So it is not impossible to find these seats with work.

So just how did I do this? I told you I would blow your mind with this post and it really had no place as a rookie post, but you need to get this. You need to understand the Delta route map above. Why? As you can clearly see, the direct search route would have cost me a ton! But, look at this.

To find the seats, I start by searching all the low level routes from PHX. I need to look and find all the possible routes OUT of PHX. No matter how many legs it takes I want to see any flights, on the date I want, that I can see low level seats on out of PHX to where ever Delta flies.

So that is step one. Then, from that point, I look at all those airports, and try to get home. If I can find low level, I am done. Plug them in and book. But what if I can NOT find it all the way home to SBN? Then I keep looking. Here is how I keep looking. I looked for all the possible routes, from all the Delta airports, to SBN on low level. Then, once I have that in hand, I now have the starting point and the ending point. Now, I need to find the middle leg, connect my low-level connection cities to complete the trip. I was able to find a direct leg but I would have been fine adding a double connection if that was what it took.

Again as you can see from the photos above, by plugging in PHX-MEM-MSP-SBN at Delta.com, I am able to find the low level seats I want for my return at low level award points.

Keep in mind this is only part of the way. This is the return trip for me from my mileage run (being dyslexic I seem to work backwards).  I must now do the same for the outbound part of my trip. Then, once I have the outbound AND the return legs, and I can test them all and both of them show “one way” low level, then I can try plugging them all into the mulit-leg itinerary and hope when I get to the end they will all price as low level. For me, I was able to do just that.

Here again is why understating all the Delta rules will help. You can overnight (I had to do this), you can open jaw, layovers etc. etc! As long as the total of all the legs do price out at 25k you should be good to go.

For me, for now, I will have to overnight, at this point, on the outbound and that will cost me 3k SPG points for the extra night. But, I expect a schedule change will happen before that so I can pick better routes and not have to overnight. But, worst case, 25k Delta plus 3k SPG for the overnight is still cheaper to me than 40,000 Delta points!

I hope all of this is clear as I have really attempted to make this as simple as possible considering   ALL  the routes Delta flies! If not, ask away – René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
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I want to make this an informative post rather than just the babbling rant that I feel like posting. I hate RAP music. I am the generation before RAP. I find all RAP the same and all of it irritating. I harken back to all things 80′s and thus, when I spend enough time on Delta.dumb, I yearn for the simple days of NWA.com for booking.

Mini rant over. What am I talking about today? I am looking forward to my 2 day mileage run I booked from PHX. I will have to reposition. So how will I get to PHX from SBN? Well I can use my FlexPerks FlexPoints to just buy a ticket for almost free after points (one of the reasons I got the card) but for now I locked in and used Skymiles. However, I could only find low level seats from GRR (Grand Rapids 2 hrs away) as opposed to my preferred SBN (South Bend 40 min away). I booked FF tickets knowing as a Platinum Medallion with Delta I can change my frequent flyer seats as much as I want up to 72 hrs before flight. I also did the smart thing by searching from SBN-PHX, one way, and the same for the way back, so I could get the real picture of the award seats availability. All were 40k round trip. Ugg!

But here is where my head just about exploded the other day and an answer to why when you get in touch with a good Delta rep, they can seemingly do things we can not. They, with the speed and grace of a gazelle, search each tiny segment by segment to get what you want. For example, not just SBN-MSP, but maybe SBN-DTW-MSP or SBN-ATL-MSP. They look at each bit to see if low level will pop up and then they hold that and move on to the next part. Then, at long last, they ask the computer to “price” what they have done and to see if it will all go low level.

Back to me. I looked again and again SBN-PHX and PHX-SBN, one way, round trip, all of it. Nothing but 40k. Then, for grins, I check just one way from SBN-DTW and a low level flight was there. Really? I checked the return date routed through MSP-SBN, also 25k! Really? These are most of the times the ones that bust me at low level booking. I then quickly looked at all the other legs I had connecting from GRR. I added those with the multi-leg search at Delta.dumb and then asked for a total after picking the flights one by one. BINGO and booked and done! (you see, Delta.dumb, when I just searched from point A-B, did not pick all these same flights one way or round trip).

What you should take from this is to NEVER EVER trust what Delta.dumb is telling you. It will NOT try to find you the best price. You must work work work to see where each little low level leg is. Save the flight number and time, then try to plug them in to get what you want and hope it will price right. If not, go back and see what segment is breaking the trip. If this is not clear feel free to ask questions on the blog as others may want the same answers as you!

I love my Delta but I hate my new Delta.dumb! The new graphics are so slow I could go to the bathroom (with a book) while it loads; the search function, well, I guess I will just put on some nice tunes from the 80′s and dream of the good old NWA days gone by! – René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
Click here for more information

I have in comments and in emails been accused of being a “one trick pony” when it comes to the “mighty schedule change rule” in booking award tickets with Delta. Now I would not say this is completely a fair criticism but also I do agree that when you ever find something that works (unlike the award booking part of Delta.com) well with Delta you exploit it for all it is worth. To really take advantage of this you need to be Platinum or Diamond Medallion.

One of the keys to this, and one of the reasons I do mileage runs, as well as Delta AMEX Reserve “mileage runs”, that is spend $60,000 a year on the a card, to get 30,000 MQM’s, is so I can keep my status each year I can. The new MQD requirement goes out the window if we spend $25,000 on a Delta AMEX so no stress there. Remember, both the Delta AMEX and your status will give you access to a greater availability of Delta low level seats. It will also let you tinker as much as you want with award seats up to 72 hrs before flight. I mean you could have a ticket reissued 2 or 3 times a day if you keep finding better flights.

Are there ways to take this to the extreme? You bet and I do. Let me give you some examples. Say you have flights you do not like. I am going to simplify this just so you can see my point of this. What you do want is the direct flight from Paris to Cincinnati!

You would love to take the direct flight but for 325,000 points round trip that is just crazy! Maybe it is due to the fact that there are no seats open on that date. That must be why it is so much:

Oh, well, only one seat sold so far. Hummm… So Delta is clearly gaming us (and they complain that we are gaming them?) since only ONE seat sold; should there not be a few more seats open at 100k low level business? Well ok, it takes two to tango they say right.

Now keep in mind you can have up to 4 legs each way without Delta IT adding more points and making it two tickets. Let’s say you can only find seats from CDG to DTW to CVG at low level. OK, then why not see if you can find a low level seat from CDG – NYC – ATL – DTW – CVG. Try to get the flights as tight as you can book and out as far as you can. Again, if PM+ you can keep calling again and again to find better flights. If you happen to have a change so that the flights don’t work, just pick the direct flight for no extra points or cost that you wanted in the first place.

Clearly you can see the value of attaining Platinum Medallion status with Delta. It does make it a little simpler to get seats and it does give you the tools and options to get what Delta does not want to give you!- René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
Click here for more information

First off I value my Skymiles at 2-4 cents each. Why this value? Because the main reasons I fly is to go see my family in Sweden; plus, when I go I want to go in business class. But, I cannot afford business class tickets so I need points to travel the way I want. Please know I am not trying to start a argument about just what any point is worth in real market value converted to cash etc. as the value of a point is very subjective from person to person. But, to some extent, this does come into play when talking about using your points directly as cash to buy a Delta ticket.

Let’s start with some background on what the Pay with miles program is. You must have a Delta GOLD or Platinum or Reserve card to be able to Pay with miles. You are going to get 1 cent value per mile, that is it, and you WILL NOT earn any Skymiles for a trip where you use even ONE single Skymile to pay for a ticket! If you are Gold Medallion (GM) or higher you are still eligible for medallion upgrades. However, if you are on a ticket with anyone who is NOT GM+ you will not be upgrade eligible (you could split PNR – i.e. the booking – but that can have negative consequences so understand this before you do this). There are other restrictions and here are the basics from Delta.com.

There is no fee for using your Pay with Miles benefit. Pay with Miles redemption are flexible based on the price of the ticket.

For fares less than $100: Redeem 25,000 miles to cover the total fare. For fares equal to or greater than $100 and less than $250: Redeem 10,000 miles for $100 off the total fare or Increase the redemption to 25,000 miles and increase from that point in increments of 5,000 miles ($50 off) to cover the total fare. For fares equal to or greater than $250 and total fares less than $1,000: Redeem 10,000 miles for $100 off the total fare or Increase the redemption in increments of 5,000 miles ($50 off) to cover all or part of the total fare (15,000 miles for $150 off, 20,000 miles for $200 off, etc.)

For total fares equal to or greater than $1,000: Redeem 10,000 miles for $100 off the total fare or
Increase the redemption in increments of 10,000 miles ($100 off) to cover all or part of the total fare (20,000 miles for $200 off, 30,000 miles for $300 off, etc.). If you choose to pay for a fare with both miles and a credit card, you must use an eligible American Express Credit Card.

So just when would this be a good idea? I have used pay with miles a few times, but not for myself. As you all know I work hard to always find low level Delta seats for Lisa & me. However, there are times when I spring for a ticket for a friend to fly out and say come skiing with us from another city. Once I find the perfect Skymiles tickets for us, I then start working on seats for my friend. Finding low level seats so that they will end up at the same HUB as us so that the last flight we are all together is often VERY hard to do (well most times we are in 1st and my friend is in coach, but at least we’re on the same plane). But why not just book a Skymiles ticket in this case too? Look at some math.

As I search for seats I may only find Mid or High level seats (or a mix of low and high) when I check to see what buying a ticket on the same flights will cost. Check this out: if a ticket is less that $325.00, then spending 32,500 points would cost MORE than paying with miles. So, say it costs $250.00 for the ticket, then, in effect, you ARE getting the seat for 25,000 miles with pay with miles compared to using the points for the higher award ticket! Have you ever thought about getting “low level” seats by buying the ticket with points. This can work for you so always check the real price to buy! You may say I value my points more than that – OK – but then why would you book a 25,000 point ticket ever? (There are some who will argue that since Skymiles are worth much more it would be better to spend cash and save the points for another ticket – but that is an argument for another post – clear?).

Are there times, with the illustration above, this is a bad idea? Sure. Say you can only find 40,000 point seats. To pay with points is $300.00. This is clearly less, right. But, if you are PM+, it may be better to grab the higher point ticket and hope that a 25,000 low level shows up that you can change to. For me, spending the extra 5000 points to just grab the ticket would be well worth the pay with points.

Also, it may be worth checking for business class seats. 45,000 low level business class seat would be a much better choice than say a $400 coach class pay with miles seat to me or even a 40,000 point coach class Skymiles seat. So always check both the coach and business class option.

Another reason would be if you were trying to get a ticket and were a few points short of an award. Let’s say you only have 10,000 Skymiles; this way you could at least get $100 off the ticket you are going to buy. Again, to me, not a great value, but it is a way to use some points that you could not use otherwise.

If all this is making your head spin a bit, good, it should. When it comes to flying and points we must get it. There is great value if we are willing to work. Willing to be travel enthusiasts. While there is no free lunch, there are great deals for those who “clip coupons” as my friend Jen would say! – René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
Click here for more information

I tricked you a tiny bit with the title of the post, but I wanted you to see one more option for you to think about and wanted to get your full attention.

First some updates. There is still a bunch of bad blood between Delta and the rest of Skyteam. I got one of the BEST Chisholm reps EVER on the phone this week and I have talked to a bunch of them and they all are so good. The issue, as you can guess, is the Delta IT stinks even for them (the rep even said that Alitalia is becoming her new best friend for Skymiles to Europe – can you imagine)! I worked on finding one way legs myself to save the rep’s time but again and again got:

“one of your flights just sold out”!

This result is totally FALSE. The truth is KLM is currently sending phantom results to Delta’s computers so the results are what we see. Maybe not really Delta IT’s fault, but at the same time just dumb that Skyteam cannot play nice with all their toys. I think, with the addition of MQD’s and no MQD credit for some Skyteam flights, this is going to go from bad to worse. It is good that Delta is a southern company as watching Delta is more and more like watching NASCAR – it is not if – but when a fender bender is on the way!

Rant over back to my ticket for this fall to visit mom. Back in the day, NWA had the great Cash and Points where you could pay for a ticket one way and use points the other way. So, say a trip to Europe on low level points, you could say pay $500 to fly coach to Europe then 50,000 to fly business back (I love this as sleeping in business is kinda a waste to me, but for Lisa, it is the other way and would rather be awake in EC coach).

With Skymiles, remember you can mix-n-match low, mid & high level awards. You can also book coach one way and business the other if you want. A low level round trip coach ticket to Europe costs 60,000 points. A business trip will cost you 100,000. So, say you want to, like I just booked, fly coach to Europe and business class from Europe, the total price is 30,000 points outbound (1/2 the round trip price in points) and 50,000 points for the return, costing you just 80,000 points total for the trip.

Being a Platinum Medallion with Delta I can change award tickets all I want until 72hrs before flight with no cost and no additional points if in the same low level space. It would cost more points to upgrade to business round trip, but only points. I also, to get the low level seats, will have to overnight in Paris on the way home. But, this is not such a bad problem to have. I have never seen the Eiffel tower at night so we will stay at the Sheraton CDG on 4800 SPG Cash & Points plus $90 and take the train into the city for dinner before our flight home the next day. Not bad at all! – René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
Click here for more information

I get asked all the time what other ways are there to fly Delta and get Delta points. One other way is with Hawaiian points. They offer nice perks like the ability to pool miles from you, your family and even any friend you have that has miles too (as long as they too have a Hawaiian credit card that is)!

Seriously, anyone can send Hawaiian miles to ANYONE else in any amount you want up to 10 times maximum per calendar year as long you both, at the time, have a card.

Bank of Hawaii has a 35,000 points card with $1000 in spend (1st year fee NOT waived and NOT my link but one to consider with a churn)! For just the one year fee you have enough points to fly coach class from the USA to Grand Cayman Island. You can also get this new card bonus even if you had the card in the past from most reports.

The award chart is reasonable but being a Delta flyer we should already know, finding seats can be somewhat of a challenge with Skymiles. Finding seats with Hawaiian on Delta is just a teeny, tiny, bit harder (ok much, much harder). But it is not impossible. For example, I am collecting Hawaiian points to be able to book a return trip to Grand Cayman Island next winter.

The key is that the only way seats can be awarded is if low level seats are available. Also, the seats must be not just available on Delta.com, but must be available for the Hawaiian miles center to award. This can be a challenge especially with Delta regional partners that are officially bookable but I have found them practically impossible. I searched every day, every single day, from South Bend to Detroit or Atlanta and there was not one seat for 330 days! Not ONE single seat (I asked the rep to check and she did, it took a long time)! So, unless you are near a Delta HUB city, I would not try to use Hawaiian miles on Delta Air Lines where you will be able to find some availability. The next big key is booking a long way out. I mean up to 330 days if you can. And be willing to spend a long time on the phone to get your seats.

To give you an example, I have now booked from DTW (Detroit) to GCM (Grand Cayman) for next winter for 35,000 points each. These tickets would cost $500-ish each so you can see the value of these points that I got for just the one year fee of the card. I will have to drive almost 3 hrs to DTW compared to the quick 40 min drive to SBN (South Bend) but I can live with that to save $1000 in airfare (and I can maybe get a schedule change to change it to SBN, maybe ).

First know the rules. You can ONLY fly on Delta jets or Delta regional partners. You cannot fly on KLM or AF or others. Only Delta. Code shares do not work. After that, step one is calling the Hawaiian Miles Service Center, Monday-Friday: 7:00am – 4:30pm HST – i.e. NOON-9:30EST (1-877-426-4537). Be ready to be patient. I was on the phone for almost 2 hrs to get my seats booked. Then make sure they are issued before any holds at Delta expire. They may tell you it will take a few hours, but until you have a ticket issued, you are not DONE!

Next, once you have found your tickets, you will be able to get the Delta confirmation number and will be able to see the reservation online. You will also then be able to enter in your medallion number if you have it and will be eligible for ALL the same medallion benefits had you booked the ticket using Skymiles.

Other rules do apply. You will NOT be able to make free medallion changes as the ticket, even though it is now on Delta flights with a Delta PNR, was issued by Hawaiian so any changes (other than a schedule change) must be done by Hawaiian. This is to be avoided as you are then playing by Hawaiian rules not Delta’s.

So while this is a very hard redemption that is even more limited than Skymiles, it can be one more way to fly on Delta jets and enjoy the perks of your medallion benefits if you hold status with Delta – René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
Click here for more information

Yesterday I got a call that caller ID’d as from Singapore. I almost did not answer the phone, but cautiously picked it up. I am happy I did as it was from Delta Air Lines from the Singapore calling center.

I have found in the past, and have up under E9 in my Essential tab, that if you are having a hard time with US calling center reps that you can try calling the other centers overseas to get better results. For me, most of the time, the Platinum Medallion desk is cheerful, happy and most times more than willing and able to help out. So I was looking forward to seeing how this call went. Here is what happened.

The cheerful heavily Asian accented rep had GREAT news, my spring trip to Sweden, that had 4 connects, now had just 3 and it had been all rebooked for me (uh oh – NOT good, I had, with thanks to my good friend at PM&M, intentionally booked via CVG to get the full flat seat flight they have CVG-CDG).

At this point I say hold on, I had booked to get full flat seats. I also knew that now, with the new years schedule loaded, that Delta is flying a 777 once a day from DTW to AMS with full flat seats. So, I quickly jumped on Delta.com to see that I was NOT on that bird but on an A330. These are fine for daytime flights, but not as nice as a full flat to sleep.

I quickly looked at the SBN-DTW-AMS-GOT and picked the perfect flights and fed the rep each flight number and time. She punches the keyboard (loudly I might add) and after a very long wait puts me on hold and comes back with the flights I want. Looks great. BUT, before she reissues the ticket I notice that the last leg, AMS-GOT is in Y-Coach NOT in O-Bisness class. This may have been due to the fact that Air France only runs a coach class plane from CDG-GOT but I asked the rep please to make sure I was in business class on the last leg too, not coach. She confirmed this change and reissued the ticket.

With all the updates to Delta.com now I had no problem picking all the seats I wanted including row 1 on the KLM flight from AMS up to GOT.

Never ever forget, when a schedule change happens, THEN, not later, is the time to ask for ALL YOU CAN. Delta has impacted YOUR travel plans at this point and you do not want to miss out on this chance to get the perfect trip that you booked originally at low level award points. Now, the point amount DOES NOT matter! Are we learning yet? – René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
Click here for more information

I love being Platinum Medallion with Delta. One of the biggest perks of PM+ is that you can change your award tickets all you want as much as you want as many times a day as you want as long as it is more that 72 hours either before your departure or before your return flight once you have started your trip!

I had a stupidly long layover in DTW (12 hours) but it was the only way I could find 100k business seats to Sweden this summer. Now what I can do, once I had tickets locked in, is keep checking back to see if better seats open up or business seats on any of the legs, even in Europe, that may have opened up as I, as PM+, get free changes as mentioned. Well, I could see now that seats from AZO to DTW had opened up that would result in only a 3ish hour layover in DTW rather than 12. So I start calling…

REP 1 – Completely and totally worthless. She wants to change all my flights and charge me 300k to change. You guessed it – CLICK! – good-bye and please just leave the ticket as is. ( I am starting to feel like an idiot for calling at 11 PM EST on the 31st right now, but press on).

REP 2 – Oh my, things are going from bad to worse. This guy, cannot quite understand just what I want. He just keeps spouting about the legs being “married” and he could maybe change me, but I would lose the full-flat flight I was on.

Once again everyone, all I am trying to do is change ONE CJR from 7 AM to a CJR at 3 PM so I don’t have to spend 1/2 a day in DTW (as much as I love spending time in DTW).

You would think at this point I would say to REP 2 – CLICK! – but all of sudden the “little points voice” inside my head speaks to me . Before I say the perfect words to REP 2 I ask him to please confirm he does in fact see LOW LEVEL seats on the 3 PM flight. He says yes, but as he told me before, he can not put me on that flight. I then go into full Delta Points mode and say:

“OK, can you please transfer me to the INTERNATIONAL REISSUE DESK – (IRD).”

Thankfully REP 2 does not fight me and says sure please hold – JOY (some will resist this and will tell you they will not be able to do anything that I cannot do)! Thank you! I am put on about a 30 second hold and the IRD comes on the phone and you know there are times you can just HEAR that this rep is going to be good!

REP 3 from the IRD – I go on to explain what I am trying to do and that REP 2 did indeed see low level seats and all I want to do is change the 1st leg so I don’t have to spend 12 hours in DTW and I understand the segments are currently married, but please can I just change the 1st leg since low level seats are open. I am told to please hold.

I hold for about 2 min and the REP 3 comes back to the phone. Apparently the reason the first two reps could not do what I wanted was due to a $1.50 each extra Swedish tax that I would incur with the reissue. OK, here is my DELTA AMEX Reserve card, bill me and reissue please as I will be happy to trade $3.00 all in for an 8 hr savings of time in DTW. DONE!

One other little tip, that reps almost always seem to forget about, is checking for “allotment” for your medallion level. We already have CONFIRMED that at times, if you DO have a Delta AMEX, you will get more low level seats, but there is also differnt allotment of seats for Silver or Gold or Platinum or Diamond Medallion flyers. Be sure if they just say no seats, to politely ask:

“now you are checking for [insert your medallion level here] allotment right since I am a FO/GM/PM/DM elite flyer with Delta!”

So what can you learn from this little 31DEC2012 rep roulette adventure? IRD, learn the code, love the code, and as always when it comes to DELTA reps, say it with me, if you do not like what you get, hang up, call back, again and again! – René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
from American Express®
Click here for more information

A few years ago, on a cruise, I spent one day on Grand Cayman Island. Lisa & I took the tender off the ship and then headed out to Stingray City, a place where tons of boats come and feed the stingrays in a shallow area. The water was so clear and beautiful that we decided we just had to come back, and for more than just one day this time.

Then the search was on to find out how to do this for free on points. I found that Delta has a direct flight from Atlanta to Grand Cayman (ATL-GCM) and I could hop from South Bend to Atlanta direct as well. So, a round trip from SBN-ATL-GCM would only cost me 35,000 Skymiles at low level plus $77 each in taxes and airport fees from the Cayman authorities. SOLD! Lisa & I are currently both PM so we could pick Economy Comfort seats and we were also on the upgrade list as even on Skymiles tickets we qualify for upgrades. Upgrades did clear both ways 5 days out!

On to the resort. Lisa & I like quiet. We like the less traveled routes. We found the perfect spot at a great price on the east end of the island, at the Reef Resort. Many times a year they have studio suites, that is 1 big room, plus small kitchenette area, and a bath plus full balcony, for just $99 per night plus tax that works out to $131.75. I paid for these nights with Ultimate rewards points that worked out to 10,540 points each night (the math is 1 UR points = 1.25 cents value when booking via UR. The math also works this way – take best price x 80% x 100 = UR points needed for whatever). My stay total was 137,020 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. For me, not bad for almost two weeks in an ocean view room on one of the longest private beaches on the island.

The views were perfect. The weather was perfect. The scuba was perfect with Tortuga Divers (I will have much more in a post on that later on btw).

The food was ridiculously over priced but good too. Happy hour was daily and lasted 2 hours (tip: try going next door to Morritts resort and ask for Mr. Jonathan )!

Much of the island is surrounded by a breakwater that makes for nice snorkeling and water sports like windsurfing. I have my own board in Sweden but it is about 30 years old and it took some time to get used to the new light and small board and sail (and maybe being older had something to do with it too).

There are some quirks about Grand Cayman Island. You can pay for anything in US dollars, but the island has decided the Cayman dollar is always worth 25% more than the US dollar so plan for that. And as mentioned, gas and food are double anywhere else at home. There are several really good restaurants off the beaten path out on the east end. One small one locals love is Kurts Korner. Prices are reasonable and the food is great, but do bring your bug spray as they are inland on Frank Sound Road (the one that cuts the east side in half).

Anther of our two favorite places are run by Chef Remy. He has two restaurants on the east side, one is SouthCoast and the other Bombay Chopsticks. I love the Asian fusion at Bombay plus they do not charge a split fee for sharing a dinner so Lisa & I got 2 appetizers, split a dinner (a bunch of food) and split a dessert for under $50 US all-in. Very good for the island!

The airport at GCM is very old school. You can go up topside under the A-frame and be right by the planes as they come and go. When you land, they use the old style truck-n-steps to deplane. Lisa said it felt like Hawaii back in the 70′s!

The weather down here year round is just great and today, for many of us it is snowing in the winter blizzard at home, not so much down here with an average winter temp of (oh just click here to see)!

Think about this, getting a personal and biz Delta AMEX under the current public offer for 45,000 points, meeting the spend, will get you the points needed for two people to fly low level to the island on Delta. A Chase Sapphire card, and a Chase INK Plus card, again after meeting spend, leaves you only 30,000 points short of this same trip we just took. A trip that would have cost $984.10 flight cost + $1712.75 resort for a total of $2696.85 alone! Since I was also able to book the diving package via the hotel, that too got bundled into my resort cost and was also paid with Ultimate Rewards points saving me another $1000+! I got 9 dives, including my first ever wreck drive, and a sunset sail on a catamaran tossed in as well as you can see above. This is one of the HUGE values of UR points. You can book just about anything you find, hotel, car, you name it with them once you find the best price you can that is open to the public(most times).

This was for us the perfect way to celebrate 25 years of marriage. After a week here I felt like it had been a month – I love that! I can not wait to come back and do it all again next year and will be adding Ultimate Rewards points whenever I can to do just that! – Rene

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For those of us who connect via Detroit to other parts of the world, having an old NWA fleet of A330′s has been both a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that the ex-NWA seats were much better than the old 767-300ER business class seats but nothing like the new full flat seats. Since “we” had some of the newest “old” seats the fleet of 330′s have and are to be the last ones to convert over to full flats!

Well kids, with a tip of the hat to ClipperDelta, Delta has loaded the new Equipment Schedule for 2013 and Detroit to Amsterdam DTW-AMS now has a 777 with full flats once a day!

For one of my latest schedule changes I was able to pick this flight for the overnight flight (I picked row one B&C for us both)  and I can not wait to try it out!

So you may want to log in to Delta.com and see if any of your birds have changed for next year, and if there has been a big enough schedule change, why not ask for a free switch to one of these nice Delta birds! – René

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