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September 17
I have joined just about every frequent flyer program there is (ok there are a few left, but you get the idea). So the other day I see a neat travel contest. Westjet has a contest where they are giving away $1,000,000 in WestJet dollars to spend on flights. Now they can only be spent on WestJet flights, but that is fine since they are a code share partner with Delta (hello more MQM’s)!
So I sign up for the WestJet rewards program. I then go to the contest page. I enter in all my info, but it will not let me say I am from Indiana. Ratz! What did I miss? Ah, the T&C say you MUST live in Canada. Grrr… (Now I know how you all feel each time a great deal comes out for us slightly south of your border).
So anyway, here is one more fun one for you northerners as well as the recent 50,000 point Best Western card and the 24,000 point Choice Hotel card! – René
PS – don’t forget to please VOTE for your pick for the
best new Delta “UP” slogan from readers.
The poll is in the top right hand part of the blog!
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September 10
It is good to have points in many programs. It affords you the ability to do all sorts of creative things when it comes to trips. Mommy Points was kind enough to text me about a fare out of SFO-OGG, that is San Francisco to Maui Hawaii, for about $300 all-in. That sounds nice, but how does one get to SFO when I am in the corn fields of the midwest? Well look what we can do. I have a ton of British Airlines Avios points that I have yet to spend to go to Sweden or Europe due to the tax that the British government charges to land/depart on their island. But, we know you can use them with their partner, American Airlines, at good rates. To fly all the way from ORD-OGG will cost 45k round trip in coach on BA via AA and dates are somewhat hard to find. But, to fly from ORD-SFO is just 20k round trip and dates are not very hard to find. So check this out:
I could use my BA Avios as you can see above to fly to SFO. Spend a few days in this beautiful city. Check out fisherman’s wharf and maybe do a helicopter tour over Alcatraz (I have done both btw). Or, I could use 25k Delta to fly as well since it is very hard to find seats to Hawaii and it would cost at least 40k each round trip at low level!
Then, look what Delta has to offer if we want to go ahead and buy a ticket the rest of the way from the west coast to earn some RDM’s & MQM’s:
I could grab a triple connect on the way out to earn max MQM’s, and double on the way back, and for just about $300 all in visit Maui! Earning almost 7000 MQM’s and 14,000 RDM’s with Delta is possible on this trip and you can too if you have GM+ status! To me, that is worth at the very least $140! So can we see the value here?
This also requires us to think outside of the box a bit and I am finding similar prices even in Jan and Feb 2013! We need to think: OK, I see A-B is offered, but how do I get to A when I live in C? To be flexible in our vacations and say, why just go to one city when we can have fun in two. To collect air, hotel and car points in every program so we can put together a fun dream trip that would cost maybe $5000 for almost nothing. This is the real power of points if we are willing to do the work. Never think the frequent flyer game we play is simple and easy or everyone would do it. Learn, earn and enjoy! – René
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July 25
It is ½ way to the weekend now. So why not just drive all those around you total crazy by playing this KLM Facebook “Whack-the-Piñata” game. There is a contest with it you can win but only those in the UK. Either way, about 2 minuets of stress relief for the week (just don’t break your mouse)!
Next, June’s results are in for our airline and you can see them HERE. And, have you seen the current list of airport warnings at Delta.com? UK, NRT, VCE, SYR, ATL, MIA! The work is just about done in good old SBN for our new terminal and it is very nice.
And lastly, and I like this, the days of $19 Spirit airlines “sales” will stay gone for the time being CNN Head Line News reports!
BTW, I have an interesting post on the way tomorrow that I think will make a bunch of people nuts! Time will tell. – René
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July 21
This is new on the KLM website. I don’t fly much (ok ever) to the Philippines so this may be old news to those who do but just so you know:
“Please be informed that, with immediate effect, visitors traveling to The Philippines must hold a printed copy of the return/onward E-ticket.
The Department of Justice, Bureau of Immigration, and Republic of The Philippines has strictly reinforced the requirement for those visitors/tourists to hold a printed copy of the return/onward E-ticket to prevent from being refused to enter the country. Ticket image presented in an electronic device, e.g. laptop or smart phone will not be accepted.“
For me, this is one more reason to e-Mail a PDF of your boarding pass to say a GMAIL account. Then, if you need it, you can go to a Skyclub or anywhere with a computer and printer, access your file and print it. It is always good to have a backup.
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July 20
Delta Points has been somewhat sidetracked this week with dreams of Hong Kong and Asiana 1st class cabin, but it seems that United has still found time for a price increase.
Since we don’t fly United, other than for 4 miles, why should we care? Recently most of the fare increases are quickly followed by the other majors. If Delta and the others do not match, then the price will drop back.
To be fair, our airline led the last round back in April. So time will tell if this one propagates throughout the industry. Quite a day for United Airlines! – Rene
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July 20
This has been a crazy and fun week in the frequent flyer world. A calm and quiet Sunday afternoon was interrupted shattered by who knows how many booking 1st class United trips to Hong Kong! United started with just DUMPING a comment on both Flyer Talk and Mile Point. I don’t know when these two “mega blogs” became the place for the planet to get “official” airline news! The “major media” has started to find out this story as you can see HERE and HERE and HERE. But if you had a reservation pending, and you check now you will see it is GONE unless you start to fly by tomorrow or Saturday! Will it end here? Who knows what is next but I think this has been over for days as you can see by the poll I have up for a while on the right. It was fun to dream of where to stay!
Next, the reaction to my “current” churn has been fun. To churn or not is a very personal choice. As I blogged about, we all need to look at our personal goals. And then, in combination with what cards and how many we went for last, all that goes into influencing the choice of cards for us to go for next.
I have bragged about my 100% approval rate for a very long time now. But I am not perfect by a long shot! A while back I did attempt to get a new AA BIZ card but was shot down by CitiBank even with calls and letters to reconsideration departments. This was not due to my credit or anything else, but because I “held” the card already and it had only been just 13 months since I got it last time. I will not make that mistake again and will keep better track as I am a “greedy little churner“! Being meticulous plus knowing the rules and keeping good records can help you and here is where having an OCD wife is just the BEST!
Then on to my insanity opportunity to earn 35,000 Delta MQM’s for living on Delta Jets for 24/7. Is this a little crazy? Maybe. I do hope for upgrades on my 28 legs of the adventure and thanks to my Delta Reserve card I will get free breakfasts & showers in the Delta SkyClubs . What cooks my brain is if the Hong Kong trip happens to come back for some reason, I will fly Wednesday to Hong Kong, arriving late Thursday night. Then spend 3 days in Hong Kong & fly home late Sunday/Monday arriving around noon EST. Then, the next day, drive to PIT to start an LAX mileage run on Delta. I will be recovering from flying United to Hong Kong, by flying Delta to California? Things that make you go hummm….. I also freely admit I intend to will “bend” my stand on ETV’s on just that one of my three mileage runs, not because I have changed my position, but because I would treasure a day to sleep in a hotel over flying for a day by then!
Maybe there is a job opportunity here and something missing in airports. Next to the Skyclub & OraOxygen Spa, they could open a walk in Psychiatric clinic for those like me for treatment. (I just hope I can earn points, 2x or 3x for each session with bonus points for first time visitors and pay with my Delta AMEX card 
) – Rene
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July 16
From FlyerTalk to Twitter, it seems everyone is a buzz with speculation and guessing of what will happen next. On Twitter I saw Gary “View from the Wing” tweet about the MilePoint thread that has some fun updates worth looking at.
As for me, I am United outbound but Asiana on the return. So, I wanted to see about getting my 1st class seats picked. I went to the Asiana website and did just that.
And, a bit later, the updated seats are now showing up in my United confirmation page. Who knows what will happen in the end but it is starting, a little, to look like we may just get to fly. Time will tell and this all feels a bit like “brain freeze”, you know, when you eat a slushy too fast, you want more, but too much and FREEZE! (UPDATE: see the comment from reader Charlie – UA Insider has dropped the hammer! So I put up a new poll about it!)
Lastly, I am very pleased with my latest churn results and being able to show the impact of churning on your credit score over about 2 years from the other day. Chase seems to be shutting them down as there are NO live wild 50,000 SW Air ones anymore (Edit – and as if on cue, the SW Air 50 card is back – HT Mommy Points). So, on the fence, you may miss out! – René
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July 15
I have put up a poll just to the right as an unscientific way to see just how many have got in on this deal. I would love to know so please vote and let’s see what the numbers show – René
PS – Be sure to check out Ben’s post about if we will get to fly or not on this deal!
PPS – While we wait and see what happens, time to check out the Hong Kong Tourist site HERE!
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July 15
]July 3
For a holiday week the blogs have been ” a buzzin’ ” ! Lots have found a work-a-round for booking one way travel on Delta using either Membership Rewards or SPG points and sending them to KLM and then booking on Delta metal. Lucky has a great post about it as well as PM&M if you want to look over at their blogs. I would be cautious doing this as unless you can book right away, you may get stuck with points at KLM if they for some reason shut this down.
PM&M talked about getting medallion benefits for those flying with you even if on another PNR. But, you will be playing rep roulette at check-in as per the RULES you must be on the same PNR so be careful!
Also, we all know you can only grab seats if under 90 days on KLM right? Intra – Europe* (*must be business class to pick >90) that still holds true but there has been an update for international flights. I can confirm from both phone reps and from flights myself that 91+ days does work but you will need the KLM record locator number for the trip. Delta will give it to you if you call then just go to www.KLM.com and go to Manage my booking.
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