Three Words

There’s a lot you can say in three words.  I want to see what travel means to you – in three words and the most creative, original entry will win 10k Starpoints! Yes, you heard read that right. ten thousand (10K) Starpoints.  And that’s not all! In addition to the grand prize of 10k Starpoints, I will also be giving out several other prizes including: a $50 iTunes Gift Card, a Tumi Travel Kit (value: $39) and three (3) $10 iTunes Gift cards.

Meet MickeyMoore – submitted by @JohnMooreNow –  and the inspiration for this contest.  MikeyMoore is a million miler, having flown more than a million miles on United and apparently he even has a secret service file!  I’m sure MickeyMoore would apply for the Trusted Traveler program if he could – I’m just not sure how the fingerprinting would work out!  Make sure you check out the gallery of photos at the bottom of the page with all the great entries!

Deadline to enter is July 3rd 2012 at 11pm PST – the entry period has now passed. 

Enter by submitting a photo with 3 words that describe what travel means to you.  Be creative! The photo must contain the three words.  Draw a sign (like MickeyMoore is holding) or photoshop the words onto a photo.  Be creative and use your imagination.

You may submit your photos on VeryGoodPoints Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/verygoodpoints).  If you are unable to post on Facebook, please read the official rules at the bottom of the page for alternate methods to enter.  Please read the official rules to ensure you are eligible. 

So, what can 10k Starpoints get you? A lot!

• You could book up to 5 weekend nights at a category 1 hotel
• You could book up to 3 weekday nights at a category 1 hotel
• You could book up to 2 weekday nights at a category 2 hotel
• You could book 1 night at a category 3 or 4 hotel

• You could book a room upgrade at a category 4 hotel for up to 10 nights (depending on redemption rate)
• You could book a 1 night suite upgrade at a category 4 hotel

Are there decent Category 1, 2, 3 and 4 hotels? Absolutely

Here are just a few

Category 1

• Le Meridien Dead Sea
• The Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11

Category 2

• Aloft Chapel Hill
• Sheraton Cleveland Airport
• Sheraton Suites Elk Grove IL (I’m staying there in October!)
• Sheraton Garden Grove (super for a family vacation!)
• Sheraton Lake Buena Vista (another great vacation hotel)
• Le Meridien Vilnius
• Sheraton Fueteventura Beach (Canary Isle)
• Le Meridien Angkor Cambodia (I’ll be there in Dec!)
• Sheraton Royal Orchid Bangkok (stayed around 25 nights here and love it! Great value!)

Category 3

• Sheraton Laval Quebec
• Le Meridien Versailles Quebec
• The Westin Resort & Spa Cancun
• Sheraton Anaheim - (Disney vacation anyone?)
• The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit
• Westin Lake Las Vegas
• Westin LAX (perfect overnight hotel after a long flight!)
• W Silicon Valley
• The Westin Tampa Harbor Island
• Le Meridien Budapest
• Hotel Elephant Weimer (okay, I just wanted to say that…no idea if it’s good)
• Le Royal Mansour Meridien Morocco
• Westin Fiji (loved it)
• The Westin Macau (there in 2 weeks!)
• Le Meridien Bangkok (one of the best Cat 3s out there!)
• Le Meridien Khao Lak (love, love love!)

Category 4

• Le Meridien King Edward (awesome hotel)
• W Atlanta Mid-town
• W Atlanta Buckhead (love the W)
• The Westin Austin at the Domain
• Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin (my go to Disney hotels)
• The W New Orleans
• Royal Meridien Hamburg Germany
• Le Meridien Eilat Israel
• Sheraton Fiji (very nice!)
• Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit (another great Thailand hotel)
• Le Meridien Phuket

There are plenty of options to use 10k points or just add them to your balance for that dream vacation!  And you’ll love the Tumi gear and iTunes gift cards for the long, hot summer ahead!

Deadline to enter is July 3rd 2012 at 11pm PST – the entry period has now passed. 

Enter by submitting your photo on https://www.facebook.com/verygoodpoints  & good luck!

Official Rules

• By entering, you are giving me permission to re-post your photo on this blog and on Facebook.
• You must be a resident of the United States of America  - I am unable to administer contests in other countries.  (sorry, it’s not my rule, it’s your country’s rule! Complain to your government, not me.)
• You must be at least 18 years of age.
• You may enter up to 3 original photos during the contest period.  To enter, you must post your photo on VeryGoodPoints Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/verygoodpoints).  If you are unable to post on Facebook, you may also email your photo to verygoodpoints@gmail.com.  In the event that you are not able to submit a photo, you may comment on this post, and only this post with the 3 words that describe what travel means to you (because this site employs strict spam filters, if you enter three comments, they must be unique.  So for example, you could post “#1 Love, Live, Laugh” , “#2 Love, Live, Laugh”, “#3 Love, Live Laugh” but you may not enter “Love, Live, Laugh” three times or it will be caught by the spam filter.
• Contest ends at 11pm PST July 3rd 2012 –  all entries submitted after that time will not be eligible .
• You must be a member of Starwood Preferred Guest for a minimum of fourteen days before being able to receive Starpoints
• You may register for free to become a member of of Starwood Preferred Guest and you can register on the same day that you claim your prize if you’re not a member (your points will just post 14+ days later)
• A Starwood Preferred Guest account may receive up to a maximum of 20,000 Starpoints per account per calendar year, whether purchased by the member or received as a gift from another member or source.  If you have already purchased or received 10,000 points or more this year, you are not eligible (sorry, Starwood’s rule, not mine)
• Starpoints you purchase do not count towards preferred status
• The judges for this contest are not eligible to enter and neither are their immediate family members (so if you’re a blood relative of mine, you can’t enter, sorry!)
• By entering, you hereby grant VeryGoodPoints a limited, non-revocable worldwide license to publicly display an original image submitted by you.  VeryGoodPoints will not edit, modify, revise, creative derivative works or otherwise alter image but does reserve the right not to publish images that are not royalty-free, are not original content, contain profanity or contents that are offensive or contain graphic images of any type. Submitter acknowleges that third parties may pin, share or re-post the Content from VeryGoodPoints. VeryGoodPoints is not responsible for the re-posting, pinning or sharing by 3rd parties.

Click Here To See The Gallery 

I’ve never actually met The Cynical Traveler (fellow BA Blogger) but I feel like in my last few posts I have been channeling his name and might call myself VeryCynicalPoints for a few days

In case you missed the other 25 tweets and 10 blog posts about the Star MegaDo 4 – pre-sales are now open (apparently).  This blog post, has nothing to do with that, so if you want more info check out these posts from View From The Wing,  Mommy Points, HackMyTrip, or any of the other dozen bloggers who are posting as I type.  (See, I said Cynical.)

This post, my readers, is about give-a-way number 5 – the final give-a-way of this promotion – and it’s a good prize! (Actually, it’s an awesome prize in my opinion!)

So here it is…what you’ve all been waiting for…the BIG announcement – I’m giving away 10k Starpoints!  Yes, you heard read that right. ten thousand (10K) Starpoints.  And that’s not all! In addition to the grand prize of 10k Starpoints, I will also be giving out several other prizes including: a $50 iTunes Gift Card, a Tumi Travel Kit (value: $39) and three (3) $10 iTunes Gift cards.  That’s six total prizes – it’s like a prize-a-palooza!

Now, here’s how you enter (please read the official rules to ensure you are eligible):

The deadline to enter has now passed. Winner to be announced July 4th. 

Three Words

You may enter by submitting a photo (keep reading beyond the photo to see how to submit it) with 3 words that describe what travel means to you.  Be creative!   Here’s an example, meet MickeyMoore – submitted by @JohnMooreNow –  and the inspiration for this contest.  MikeyMoore is a million miler, having flown more than a million miles on United and apparently has a secret service file!  I’m sure MickeyMoore would apply for the Trusted Traveler program if he could – I’m just not sure how the fingerprinting would work out!  Make sure you check out the gallery of photos at the bottom of the page with all the great entries!

You may submit your photos on VeryGoodPoints Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/verygoodpoints).  If you are unable to post on Facebook, please read the official rules at the bottom of the page for alternate methods to enter.  Please read the official rules to ensure you are eligible. 

So, what can 10k Starpoints get you? A lot!

• You could book up to 5 weekend nights at a category 1 hotel
• You could book up to 3 weekday nights at a category 1 hotel
• You could book up to 2 weekday nights at a category 2 hotel
• You could book 1 night at a category 3 or 4 hotel

• You could book a room upgrade at a category 4 hotel for up to 10 nights (depending on redemption rate)
• You could book a 1 night suite upgrade at a category 4 hotel

Are there decent Category 1, 2, 3 and 4 hotels? Absolutely

Here are just a few

Category 1

• Le Meridien Dead Sea
• The Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11

Category 2

• Aloft Chapel Hill
• Sheraton Cleveland Airport
• Sheraton Suites Elk Grove IL (I’m staying there in October!)
• Sheraton Garden Grove (super for a family vacation!)
• Sheraton Lake Buena Vista (another great vacation hotel)
• Le Meridien Vilnius
• Sheraton Fueteventura Beach (Canary Isle)
• Le Meridien Angkor Cambodia (I’ll be there in Dec!)
• Sheraton Royal Orchid Bangkok (stayed around 25 nights here and love it! Great value!)

Category 3

• Sheraton Laval Quebec
• Le Meridien Versailles Quebec
• The Westin Resort & Spa Cancun
• Sheraton Anaheim - (Disney vacation anyone?)
• The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit
• Westin Lake Las Vegas
• Westin LAX (perfect overnight hotel after a long flight!)
• W Silicon Valley
• The Westin Tampa Harbor Island
• Le Meridien Budapest
• Hotel Elephant Weimer (okay, I just wanted to say that…no idea if it’s good)
• Le Royal Mansour Meridien Morocco
• Westin Fiji (loved it)
• The Westin Macau (there in 2 weeks!)
• Le Meridien Bangkok (one of the best Cat 3s out there!)
• Le Meridien Khao Lak (love, love love!)

Category 4

• Le Meridien King Edward (awesome hotel)
• W Atlanta Mid-town
• W Atlanta Buckhead (love the W)
• The Westin Austin at the Domain
• Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin (my go to Disney hotels)
• The W New Orleans
• Royal Meridien Hamburg Germany
• Le Meridien Eilat Israel
• Sheraton Fiji (very nice!)
• Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit (another great Thailand hotel)
• Le Meridien Phuket

There are plenty of options to use 10k points or just add them to your balance for that dream vacation!  And you’ll love the Tumi gear and iTunes gift cards for the long summer ahead!

Deadline to enter is July 3rd 2012 at 11pm PST

Enter by submitting your photo on https://www.facebook.com/verygoodpoints  & good luck!

Official Rules

• By entering, you are giving me permission to re-post your photo on this blog and on Facebook.
• You must be a resident of the United States of America  - I am unable to administer contests in other countries.  (sorry, it’s not my rule, it’s your country’s rule! Complain to your government, not me.)
• You must be at least 18 years of age.
• You may enter up to 3 original photos during the contest period.  To enter, you must post your photo on VeryGoodPoints Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/verygoodpoints).  If you are unable to post on Facebook, you may also email your photo to verygoodpoints@gmail.com.  In the event that you are not able to submit a photo, you may comment on this post, and only this post with the 3 words that describe what travel means to you (because this site employs strict spam filters, if you enter three comments, they must be unique.  So for example, you could post “#1 Love, Live, Laugh” , “#2 Love, Live, Laugh”, “#3 Love, Live Laugh” but you may not enter “Love, Live, Laugh” three times or it will be caught by the spam filter.
• Contest ends at 11pm PST July 3rd 2012 –  all entries submitted after that time will not be eligible .
• You must be a member of Starwood Preferred Guest for a minimum of fourteen days before being able to receive Starpoints
• You may register for free to become a member of of Starwood Preferred Guest and you can register on the same day that you claim your prize if you’re not a member (your points will just post 14+ days later)
• A Starwood Preferred Guest account may receive up to a maximum of 20,000 Starpoints per account per calendar year, whether purchased by the member or received as a gift from another member or source.  If you have already purchased or received 10,000 points or more this year, you are not eligible (sorry, Starwood’s rule, not mine)
• Starpoints you purchase do not count towards preferred status
• The judges for this contest are not eligible to enter and neither are their immediate family members (so if you’re a blood relative of mine, you can’t enter, sorry!)
• By entering, you hereby grant VeryGoodPoints a limited, non-revocable worldwide license to publicly display an original image submitted by you.  VeryGoodPoints will not edit, modify, revise, creative derivative works or otherwise alter image but does reserve the right not to publish images that are not royalty-free, are not original content, contain profanity or contents that are offensive or contain graphic images of any type. Submitter acknowleges that third parties may pin, share or re-post the Content from VeryGoodPoints. VeryGoodPoints is not responsible for the re-posting, pinning or sharing by 3rd parties.

The Gallery 

As you all know by now, I’ve been running a 5 days of give-a-ways (over two weeks) promo.  I’ve given away a Tumi travel kit to reader Craig.  I’ve given a $50 iTunes Gift card to reader Aleks.  I gave 10,000 Hilton Honors points to reader Ron and now, I’m about to award 12,500 United Miles to one lucky reader.

I asked readers to guess the city and country this building is located in

Eureka Tower, Melbourne, Australia

The Queen Bee was developed by Richard Stringer for a series of studio works in 2003. It was the commissioned in large scale for the Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Australia. The work was begun in January 2006 at Stringer’s studio and the completed work was finally installed in December 2007.  Eureka Towers is 975.33 ft tall and quite an amazing sight.  Here are some other fun facts: Eureka Tower opened as the second tallest all-residential building in the world. Eureka Tower has the second highest apartments in the world, its highest being the 87th floor penthouse 278.5 meters above ground level. Only the John Hancock Centerin Chicago has apartments higher than this. The Eureka Skydeck on level 88 is the highest public observatory in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.

My first visit to the Eureka towers was when I helped a friend move out of the 58 floor to her new home in St Kilda (talk about an ear-popping elevator ride!).  I loved the Queen Bee installation.  Here are a few other pictures

And now, for the announcement you’ve all been waiting for (drum roll)…. there were 483 comments and remarkably, all but two people guessed Melbourne, Australia.   And the winner is: comment #322 made by Jonathan

Congratulations Jonathan!  

Stay tuned for the final contest announcement tomorrow – hint, there’s more than one great prize to win!

Note: if for any reason the winner select at random tonight does not qualify per the contest rules, another winner will be selected at random.

Have you heard?  I’m giving away 12,500 United Miles – enough for a one-way ticket in the domestic US.

To enter, please see this post: “Guess the Location and Win 12.5k United Miles”   You can only enter on that post – comments on this post WILL NOT ENTER YOU TO WIN.  Emails to me will not enter you to win.   You can only enter by commenting on the post “Guess the Location”

You have until 9pm EST today (June 28th, 2012) to enter.

Good luck!

There are times when I’m forced to use Points.com – like when I want to purchase US Airways Miles – I don’t have a choice in the matter, I must use Points.com.  I dread the days when I have to log onto Points.com – it’s like a modern form of torture.  Am I alone here?   I had an issue with my US Airways points purchase (they’re running a 100% bonus right now) and so I began the dreadful process of trying to track down the problem.  Here’s what actually happened:

1) Oh look, the log-in page has fully loaded and it’s blank- can’t log in!  (Tried Chrome and IE)

2.) Closed and Opened Browser twice, refreshed 5 times and finally the log-in part loaded, but no images!

3. ) I’m in, finally!   But oh, wait, it says there’s 94 opportunities, but nothings loading and again, what’s with the images?

4.) I wonder if they support Thai Airways?  Let’s see…oops, something went wrong with this page!

5.) Oh, forget it…let me just try to figure out why my US Airways points purchase hasn’t posted yet.  Oops, now the whole the page is blank!

6.) Oy! I’ll just call for help.  Oh, well, maybe not tonight.  Who offers customer support between 10am – 4pm EST?  Those are the worst customer support hours I’ve ever heard of!  It’s called customer support because you’re there to support customers…they have problems outside of 10am – 4pm EST (and I guess no one in LA has problems after 1pm EST – are they even awake then?)

7.) No way to get help now, let me try searching.  Hmmm…not exactly the results I was looking for (pretty much just as bad as US Airways Automated Phone System – I’ll tell you that story later)

8.) I wonder if I can use some of my unused points?  Unexpected error…guess not

9.)  I’ll send them some feedback about the site’s issues…oh, wait…dead link, forget it

10) I better check to see who runs this company before I blog…how ironic, the CEOs photo doesn’t load!

I experience these types of problems with Points.com 9 out of 10 times that I use the site.  I stopped using them ages ago to actually track my points balances – TripIt Pro solved that problem.  I really have no use for Points.com other than purchasing miles and what an effort that is!

What do you think? Do you experience Points.com problems?

For the second time this year, and perhaps only the third time in my life, I am going to be flying on United.  Today, by chance, I called to see if First Class was available on my flight…and sure enough, it is!  So I upgraded myself using a Star Alliance Award Upgrade.  I’ll be flying from SFO to ICN in United First.

Shortly after upgrading myself, a loyal reader, @JohnMooreNow, suggested that perhaps instead of giving away 10k United Miles I should give away 12,500 United Miles – enough for a domestic one way ticket.

Since I’m so excited about my upcoming 1st class experience on United, I decided to go ahead and up the prize to 12,500 United miles!

So now everyone should tweet @JohnMooreNow and thank him for giving me the great idea of increasing the prize.  Happy Flying & Tweeting

To enter, please see this post: “Guess the Location and Win 12.5k United Miles”   You can only enter on that post – comments on this post WILL NOT ENTER YOU TO WIN.  Emails to me will not enter you to win.   You can only enter by commenting on the post “Guess the Location”

You have two days left to enter to win!  Good luck.

Contest Now Closed

If you’ve been following my blog, you know I love to travel.  I’ve been to some amazing locations around the world.  Of all the places I’ve been, I have a few favorites. This picture may, or may not, be from one of my favorite locations. (I’m not giving any hints!)  No matter where I go, I have my camera in hand.  To celebrate my love of travel, I’m giving away 10k 12,500 United Miles!  If you can guess the location in this photo, you’ll have a chance to win!   Please read the rules below carefully!!  Good luck!

Guess the location

 UPDATE: 

Thanks to the suggestion of @JohnMooreNow, I am upping the prize to 12,500 United Miles – enough for a domestic ticket.   Thanks for the Suggestion John — but it doesn’t get you extra entries  

Contest Now Closed

Rules:

• You must comment on this post, and only this post to be entered to win.  There is no cost to enter. 
• You must guess the city and country. 
• You may enter up to 3 times, but only one time per day.  If you enter more than three (3) times, or twice on any single day, those entries will be disqualified. 
• The deadline to enter is Thursday, June 28th at 9pm EST. 
  
• You must have a United MileagePlus Account. It is free to sign up for a MileagePlus Account. 
• You may only receive 15,000 miles per calendar year from all individuals under the MileagePlus Transfer Miles program. If you have received more than 2,500 miles through the MileagePlus Transfer Miles program, you are not eligible to receive these miles this calendar year. 
• You must be a US Citizen. This contest is only open to US Citizens residing within the US. You must have a valid US mailing address to win. 
• You must be 18 years old or older
• The winner will be selected at random from all correct entries.  If no one guesses correctly, the winner will be selected at random from all entries.  
• You may email verygoodpoints@gmail.com if you have questions about the rules. 

Contest Now Closed

London

There are a lot of travelers out there with some amazing sounding dream destinations.  190 people submitted their dream destination on the post Booking Award Travel in hopes of wining 10k Hilton Honors Points.  Lots of people said they’d love to go to London – and with the Olympics there now, who wouldn’t want to go.   Several people had dreams of renting villas off the cost of Greece or Croatia.  There were many more people who dreamed of trips to the Maldives, Bali, Fiji and other stunning islands – one person even dreams of owning his own island – I have to admit, that does sound cool…but pretty darn expensive.

Sydney

There were a bunch of you who wanted to visit Australia, the Great Barrier Reef and New Zealand  - one person wanted to go to see the sheep to human ratio!     There were lots of dreamers dreaming of South East Asia.   Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore were among the favorite dream destinations of many.

Several people shared the dream destination of Africa – for a safari or to hike Mt Kilimanjaro.  Some wanted to visit South Africa, Kenya or Egypt to learn about history.   Personally, a safari is on my bucket

Fiji

list.

I think the most amazing thing is that many people commented that they had been to their dream destination – perhaps for a wedding or other event – and wanted to go back to relive the memory.   Like some of those people, I’ve been to many of my dream destinations.  That’s the most amazing part of collecting miles/points – once you collect enough to visit your dream destination all you need is a little more imagination to find your next dream destination.

For all of those dreamers who dreamed of Fiji, I can tell you it’s an amazing country. The people are amazing and beaches are spectacular.  The Island is a unique mix of modern and classic and showcases the Fijian culture.  One of the things I was struck by in Fiji was the extreme poverty – more so than many of the other places I’ve been in the world.    Australia is a great dream destination!  There are so many places to see – like the Great Ocean Road, the Great Barrier Reef or the Sydney Opera House.   London is also a favorite place of mine to visit.  I love the history and dreaming of what the parties must have been like in those amazing castles during the Victorian period.  I’ve been to Thailand and in July will cross Hong Kong and Macau off my list of places to see.  So I will have to start thinking of my next dream destination.

It was extremely hard to pick a winner of this contest.  But after reading through all 191 comments, I selected comment number 45 from Ron.  Here’s what Ron had to say:

A 2 week, southeast Asia tour with my wife, friend(who is half Thai) and his wife. First up Hong Kong, because of its cultural history and world economics importance, next off to Macau, because most people have never even heard of it and because it is the Vegas of Asia. Then over to Bangkok for similar reasons to Hong Kong, their amazingly cheap suits they’re known

Koh Phi Phi

for and because my friend’s family is from there and could be my personal translator to make the experience that much better. Finally finishing up in Phuket/Krabi with a trip over to Ko Phi Phi, not only because they are some of the most amazing beaches in the world with awesome rocks shooting out of the water,but because after watching “The Beach” with Leo Dicaprio, it looks like a lost paradise and a place that no one I know will ever think to venture to.

Hopefully Ron will get to visit those amazing places – especially Koh Phi Phi – I can attest to its beauty.   The Beach, starting Leonardo DiCaprio doesn’t even do the Phi Phi islands enough justice!   Ron, you’ll be getting an email from VeryGoodPoints on how to claim your 10k Hilton Honors Points.

Thanks for entering to win and keep your eyes open for the final two contests coming this week!

Enter to win 10k Hilton Honors Points by telling me what your dream destination is on my post about Booking Award Travel.  You can only enter by commenting on that post (comments on this post are not entered to win).  Be creative and make sure you tell me why it’s your dream destination.   Deadline is June 24th at 5pm EST.

Please see the Booking Award Travel post for all contest rules and to enter.

Good luck

Very Good Points

There was no fan-fare, no hub-bub…but it surely seems that US Airways is now participating in TSA Pre✓™.  Although I’m already a member of the CBP Global Entry program, and can participate in TSA Pre✓™, I have been actively watching my US Air since US Air invited me to opt-in.  Today, for the first time, I noticed the status had changed to subscribed.   After a little surfing, I noticed that there are several airports where US Air members who have been selected and have opted-in can participate in TSA Pre✓™

If TSA determines a passenger is eligible for expedited screening through the TSA Pre Check vetting process, information will be embedded in the barcode of the passenger’s boarding pass.  TSA reads the barcode at airport security checkpoints and the passenger may be referred to a lane where they will undergo expedited screening.

Members of the Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) Trusted Traveler programs, including Global Entry, SENTRI, and NEXUS, who are U.S. citizens and are flying on participating airlines are also eligible for the program. Trusted Traveler participants will need to enter their CBP-assigned PASS ID number in the “Known Traveler Number’ field when booking travel reservations. Additionally, CBP Trusted Traveler participants can add their PASS ID number to their airline member profile to have the number automatically sent to TSA when booking reservations.

TSA Pre✓™ is currently available for eligible passengers flying on participating airlines that have opted in at the following airport checkpoint locations:

Let me know if you have been successful with TSA Pre✓™ and are a member of US Airways. Personally, I cant wait to see TSA Pre✓™ at Charlotte, the airport I go through security in most often.

You’ve worked all year collecting points & miles and now it’s time to use them.  Let the nightmares begin!  Booking award travel – even for an avid traveler like me – can be an ordeal.  Luckily, booking hotels is a whole lot easier than booking airline award tickets.

Each year, I plan a major trip for December. This year, I’m going on a girls trip to South East Asia with 3 other women.  Booking air travel is the most painful part of the annual trip.  Every year I spend hours pouring over flight options, comparing routes, searching the ANA website (for Star Alliance award flights) before finally calling US Airways to book.  I usually spend anywhere from 1 hour to upwards of 3 hours on the phone with one, or more, US Air agents trying to nail down the perfect itinerary without breaking the points bank.

This year, I couldn’t stomach the idea of spending that much time on the phone and on the internet planning this trip (not to mention the fact that I didn’t really have time due to a very crazy schedule.)   So I started looking for Award Booking Services.   I found that several boarding area bloggers offer this type of service.  I decided to ask Gary aka View From The Wing for assistance.  Gary’s service Book Your Award was a great way to go.  Instead of having nightmares, within 24 hours I had an amazing itinerary.   The process was so easy!  Answer some questions, provide Gary with your points/miles info, and away you go!  Now, normally Gary will call the airline and book the award for you, but I decided to call on my own.   With the itinerary Gary planned, I called US Airways (Chairman Preferred line) and spent no more than 20 minutes on the phone start to finish.  Now, if you’re not calling an elite/preferred phone number, you might opt to have Gary call so you can avoid longer wait times.

So what did Gary help me book?  I booked a 25 day vacation to some of the most exotic and exciting locations in South East Asia.  I spent 120k US Airways miles to fly all but 1 segment in First Class (there’s one segment in Business on Singapore Airlines)

• I’ll fly from LAX to PEK (Beijing, China) on Air China in first class (thanks to @JohnMooreNow for helping me confirm that the Air China flights are in the new lie-flat first class configuration!)  From PEK I’ll fly onto SIN (Singapore) on Singapore Airlines in first class (not a suite).   I’ll spend 5 days in Singapore.  Two nights at the St Regis Singapore and 3 nights at the Sheraton Singapore Towers.
• From Singapore I’ll fly to Langkawi, Malaysia. I’ll spend 4 nights at the Sheraton Langkawi Resort.  From  Malaysia I will fly to Cambodia and spend 3 nights at the Le Meridien Angkor Siem Reap, Cambodia. From Cambodia I’ll fly back to SIN for 1 night – have no idea where I’ll stay yet.   (NOTE: The flights on this portion of the trip were not booked using miles)
• From Singapore I’ll fly to Bangkok on Singapore Airlines in Business Class (the only business leg of points ticket I booked). I’ll spend 3 nights at the St Regis Bangkok and 2 nights at the Sofitel Sukhumvit Bangkok.   Christmas Eve Dinner at L’Appart at the Sofitel.
• From Bangkok I will fly to Vietnam and spend 3 days in Ho Chi Minh City at the Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers. From Vietnam, I will fly to Krabi, Thailand and spend 3 nights, including NYE, at a hotel TBD (NOTE: The flights on this portion of the trip were not booked using miles)
• Finally, I will fly back to BKK from Krabi to start the journey back to the US.  I will fly from BKK to PEK on Thai Air First Class. I will then fly from PEK to LAX on Air China First Class.

So that’s how you use a booking service to plan an amazing adventure.  The time that Gary saved me is invaluable and I would highly recommend using a booking service.  In addition, I have taken all of the suggestions from my blog post: Help Me Plan My Next Vacation into account for this trip!  Thanks for all the great advice. I am really looking forward to the vacation and sharing some great trip reports.

What is your dream destination?  Enter to win 10k Hilton Honors Points by telling me what your dream destination is and why its your dream destination.  I will pick one winner from all the comments.

Rules:

• Your comment must include your dream destination and the reason its your dream destination
• You must post your comment on the blog post only to be entered to win this prize
• You must have a Hilton Honors account – it is free to sign up for a Hilton Honors Account
• Deadline to enter is Sunday June 24 at 5pm EST
• You must reside in the US to be eligible to win

Good luck!

And the winner is………..

check out this post to see who won the 10k Hilton Honors Points.

Thanks to all those who entered.  The contest is now closed.  Follow me on Twitter or Facebook as the final two contests are this week!