Posted by Seth on December 14, 2011 under News | 
Already the largest carrier by ASMs in San Juan, Puerto Rico, JetBlue indicated today that it intends to further grow operations at the airport. The carrier will be adding daily service to Newark and Palm Beach starting in 2012. This announcement comes only a couple days after service was launched between San Juan and both St. Thomas and St. Croix.
Ever since American Airlines chose to cede the market in San Juan JetBlue has been steadily building up its presence on the island. These latest routes further the company’s hold on that market.
Route launch sale prices are available for both routes for purchase by 22 December 2011. Travel dates for the sale are April 25 – May 22, 2012 for the Newark route and May 15 – June 21, 2012 for the Palm Beach route.
Posted by Seth on March 8, 2011 under Flying, frequent flyer, points |
In part one of this report I recounted a great award booking – even though it was all in economy and on small planes – to the Canadian Maritime provinces. Part two will cover my exploitation of the bmi Diamond Club program and their quite flexible routing and award zone rules.
It all started with plans to visit Bangkok in July for a friend’s wedding. With Thai Air still operating their incredibly long LAX-BKK flight I figured it would be nice to get a change to fly that route. Plus I have never been on the Airbus A340-500 so that’s an added bonus. It turns out that Thai has had a TON of award inventory available for westbound travel but nothing available coming back east. Turns out that isn’t much of a problem for me as I’ve turned a long weekend in Thailand into a RTW ticket adventure.
By sheer coincidence a friend of mine is going to be in Capetown, South Africa the week after the wedding. And I have the points available so why not? Even better is that the award cost from Thailand to South Africa is pretty cheap with Diamond Club. Oh, and I am flying via Mumbai, flying in on Thai and out on South African Airways. South African operates the A340-200 on the route which is also new to me.
And then I needed to get home from South Africa. This is where the Diamond Club rules become VERY favorable if you’re willing (or wanting!) a bit of an adventure. Most carriers only permit North Atlantic crossings for that award. Diamond Club permits South Atlantic crossings, too. So I’m taking one. Award seats form Johannesburg to Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo are pretty readily available.
Seats from there back north are a bit harder but I found some availability with Air Canada from Santiago to Toronto. Getting from Toronto to New York City is pretty easy with a ton of frequencies and a couple airports to choose from. To get from Buenos Aires to Santiago there is really only Star Alliance routing. It just so happens to leave 40 minutes before the flight from Johannesburg arrives. So I have a 23 hour 20 minute connection in Argentina. That’ll be fun.
So I’ve made it back to New York City and I’m home. That’s the end, right? Not for me. Diamond Club considers Puerto Rico part of their South America/Caribbean zone. And award flights from South Africa to South America are less expensive than those to North America. Based on straight geography that sortof makes sense – it should be fewer total miles flown – but getting to Puerto Rico can only be done via North America with the existing partners and routes. So I have a stopover in New York (one stopover is free on the bmi award) and then, two months later, a flight in first class from Newark to San Juan. It was actually many fewer miles to take the extra flight. Plus, I’ve been looking for a good excuse to get back to Puerto Rico, possibly in daylight this time. Given that the flight down there is better than free, I see no reason to skip that bit.
Put it all together and I’ve got this 31,586 mile masterpiece:
And all the flights save two short ones are in business class. All but one of the lines are new and a few of the aircraft are, too. All for under 200,000 Diamond Club points. I could’ve done it as cash & points for even fewer but I’m trying to use up my stash and this is a great way to do it.
The booking process was bit more frustrating than I generally enjoy, partly because my Skype connection was flaking out but mostly because the agents at the Diamond Club call center don’t have the best grasp of geography nor of the rules of their program. They initially tried to charge me 5 separate awards rather than the three I booked and all at higher rates than I should have paid. Fortunately I was able to eventually get a supervisor to understand and put it in correctly, but that was two extra hours of annoyance on the phone that I didn’t really need. Still, at the end of the day, completely worth it for this trip. Retail value on the ticket is somewhere north of $10,000; getting it on points for the routes and dates I wanted is just phenomenal.
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Tags: Africa, Air Canada, Airbus, Argentina, award, Bangkok, bmi, Canada, frequent flyer, New York City, points, Puerto Rico, RTW2011, San Juan, South Africa, Star Alliance, Thai Air, Thailand, Toronto
Posted by Seth on June 24, 2010 under Trip Reports |
I travel a decent amount, but apparently not particularly broadly. I thought my list of 40+ countries visited so far was pretty decent but with my most recent booking I’m also realizing that perhaps I’ve visited as many as I have because they have been relatively easy. And then along came a deal that I couldn’t say no to.
I needed to be in San Juan, Puerto Rico in mid-August. Airfare was running around $300ish round-trip. Not great but reasonable for the route. I was pretty close to booking that trip until I noticed that there was, perhaps, a similarly priced deal that would get me a ton more frequent flyer points. Instead of just flying to San Juan and back I’ll be flying in via San Francisco, Chicago, Brussels, Accra and Philadelphia.
Yeah, I’m going from New York City to Puerto Rico via Ghana.
This won’t be my first trip to Africa – I visited Egypt over Christmas last year – but it certainly will be the first trip into what I consider a “hard” country to visit. Among other things, the list of vaccinations required is pretty significant. Typhoid, Tetanus, Hepatitis A & B, Meningococcal Meningitis and – the big one – Yellow Fever. So on Tuesday I found myself hopping between clinics, getting vaccinated and giving blood to test antibody levels for some vaccines. I’m guessing that I’ll need a few more shots in a couple weeks when I get home, but the big one has been taken care of. I got my Yellow Fever vaccination and the certification card that will serve me for the next 10 years.
I’m not a huge fan of needles, but if this is what it takes for me to explore Ghana, Benin and Togo in August and other more adventurous destinations in the coming years, so be it. My obsession with travel is much, much stronger than my aversion to needles.
Tags: Accra, Belgium, Chicago, Egypt, Flying, frequent flyer, Ghana, New York, New York City, Philadelphia, points, Puerto Rico, San Francisco
Posted by Seth on October 7, 2009 under Trip Reports |
My last weekend of travel on jetBlue’s All You Can Jet pass was a great one. Over 11,500 miles and 11 flights scattered across ~58 hours of travel time. This itinerary was a bit more slack, however, as it included a stop. An honest-to-goodness real stop in a city (two really) where I’d have social interactions and everything. That was great and it was nice to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. Then it was back to the airport and on with the second half of the itinerary. Mostly just flying, but there was a pause built in. Not long enough to really be a stop, but too long for just a connection.
Spending three and a half hours in San Juan was vexing me. I had no idea what to do. I didn’t want to just sit in the airport. I’d run a decent chance of sleeping through my flight and that is never a good thing. Getting a hotel room wouldn’t be worth it as I’d run the same missed flight risk. But with needing to be back at the airport to clear security and board the flight I’d really only have about two hours to spend out and about. Would that be enough time to actually see any of San Juan? And would there actually be anything to see at 3am?
The answer to both of those questions is a resounding “yes.”
Upon arrival I was first out the door and into the taxi line. I was actually briefly seated in that first taxi. Right up until the driver heard I wanted a 2 hour tour. Apparently that is rather uncommon for the 2:30am arriving flights and the driver was hoping for a quick fare and then to go home and sleep. Actually, it seems that most of the drivers were searching for a similar fare. Indeed, it took until the fifth driver until the dispatcher was able to find someone willing to stay up late with me and show me around. But I did get a driver eventually and we set off on a grand, middle of the night adventure to see Old San Juan under the light of the full moon.
The moon was bright on Monday morning. It was a beautiful full moon. And even if it wasn’t, there was no need to worry; the old city is actually quite well lighted. The forts are rather magnificent to see in the quiet of the night. They loom large over the coast line of Old San Juan, as intimidating today as they were over 400 years ago when the first one was built.
First stop on the tour was Fort San Cristobal. It was completed in 1797 and was actually still in use in World War II. Among other features, it has a huge ramp leading up to some massive entry doors. Quite impressive. As it was 3am the doors were locked, but that didn’t stop me from wandering around on the ramparts and snapping a few photos.
Next up was the Fort San Felipe del Morro. The El Morro fort sits out on the very tip of Old San Juan Island, jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. The site has been a defensive stronghold for almost 500 years, though the current structure mostly dates from the 18th and 19th centuries. El Morro is even more impressive than the San Cristobal structure. In addition to the enormous walls (18 feet thick in some places) the fort also features a lighthouse (though not the original one; that was replaced in 1908 by the US military). The fort covers six levels and rises hundreds of feet from the surf below. It is rather amazing.
And while I’m very much looking forward to getting back to San Juan to see the sights during the day when we can actually go inside, I’m also very happy I got to see them at night. They are very well lighted and I was completely comfortable wandering around in the field in front of El Morro, even at 3:30 in the morning. There were a few other folks out and about but not too many. It was actually quite nice to meander through the quiet, cobblestone streets of the old city with minimal interruption from the few drunk revelers out in the wee hours of the morning.
And then I crawled back up into the taxi and we headed off for the airport. It wasn’t quite time for the tour to have to end but I was exhausted and the driver was, too. He dropped me off back at the terminal and, at ~4:30am, headed home himself to get some sleep.
As for me, I settled into a chair in the corner by the jetBlue gates and simply relaxed. No sleep, really, but I was able to rest quite nicely. Finally, shortly before 6am I was happily ensconced in seat 3F for the return flight to JFK. The sun was coming up outside and I was quite happy to put on my eye-mask and fall right asleep. I actually slept through the safety demo and takeoff. A short 3:25 later we were back in NYC and my jetting adventures were over. But not without a great last stop and tour.
