A Mexico Mileage Run for some insurance (Nick’s Million Mile Madness travel journal)

While the Vienna Christmas markets felt like the unofficial end of the road for my Million Mile Madness challenge, I had a couple more airlines to pick up over the past 24 hours. From Vienna, I flew to Barcelona so I could pick up Air Europa to Madrid and finally Air France and Delta from there back to New York. Along the way, I had about 8 hours in Barcelona. Rather than spend those 8 hours at the airport, I headed into Barcelona and enjoyed a mouth-watering meal at Local Tapas.  More detail in my latest update.

Journal entries (newest to oldest)

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Earlier this week, I posted about my dilemma: Only 12 of the 15 airlines I’ve flown have credited as expected. While I’m reasonably confident that two of them will eventually credit, I’m not confident about Virgin Atlantic given the fact that I booked through Delta in a Delta fare class that wouldn’t earn miles. Read more about all that here.

I came up with three mileage run options — two that would pick up Aeromexico (a 16th airline for me that would hopefully ensure that I get credit for at least 15!) and one option that would re-do Virgin Atlantic on their fifth freedom route between Grenada and Barbados.

Early this morning, I boarded American Airlines to fly from Albany, NY to Miami and on to Cancun. I paid 14,500 American Airlines miles and about $40 for this award ticket, though I think I’ll be able to get around $35 back after the fact because I’m not staying in Mexico (more on that later if it works out). My AAdvantage Platinum status scored me an upgrade to a (very weak) “first class” seat from Albany to Miami.

Contributing to the absolute weaksauce here was the fact that, just prior to boarding, they announced that the plane hadn’t been properly catered, so there would be no meal service. As this was a 5:10am flight and I had a short connecting in Miami, I was really hoping for a meal when I got the upgrade. Thankfully, I know better than to count on American Airlines, so I placed a mobile order for a bagel and coffee at the airport Starbucks when I got through security at 4am. I sure was glad I did that!

In Miami, I very briefly stopped in to the Amex Centurion lounge.

After a train and long walk from the E-gates, I arrived at the lounge 10 minutes before boarding was scheduled to begin for my flight to Cancun. I ended up getting a muffin and some orange juice before heading back out of the lounge to the gate. Of course, as you might bet, boarding was delayed by at least 20 minutes, so I could have enjoyed the lounge for a bit if I had just counted on AA not to meet expectations.

The flight to Cancun was uneventful. This time, my Platinum status only got me an exit row seat. I enjoyed some nice views on the way into Cancun, but this is as close as I’m getting to the beach today.

I’m now writing this mini update from the Mera Business Lounge in Cancun airport Terminal 4. Interestingly, when I looked at Priority Pass, it showed one lounge option in Cancun Terminal 4, and it wasn’t this lounge. However, a habit I’ve gotten into over the past year led me to pull up the American Express app to see if there were any lounges I could access with a Platinum card that are not accessible via Priority Pass. Sure enough, there’s a Plaza Premium lounge at Cancun airport that does not accept Priority Pass. THis “Mera Business Lounge” is right next to the Priority Pass lounge, but reviews indicate that this one has better food. I could believe it as the food here is decent if not spectacular. It doesn’t quite live up to Plaza Premium “Asia” standards, but the Yucatan-style pulled pork was delicious — much better than it looks in this picture and perfect on a corn tortilla.

Now I await Aeromexico and my route home so that I don’t miss more than the weekend. Here’s hoping the next couple of flights continue to run close enough to schedule that I nothing falls apart.

Thursday, November 21, 2024

After Vienna, I flew Wizz Air to Barcelona. I had about 8 hours in Barcelona, so I took the city bus into Barcelona to explore.

I had recently listed to an episode of All the Hacks with Chris Hutchins where he interviewed Steph Smith about how to use the Internet better. See that episode here. I was fascinated by all the tools I was missing!

One of the tools they discussed is called Gigabrain, which is an AI tool that searches reddit to give concise summaries based on reddit discussion. I find that to be a really interesting way to look for more “local”, so I used it a bit during the trip. In Barcelona, I asked it for good off-the-beaten-path places to go for lunch. One of the many recommendations was a local market called Mercat del Ninot. While the Boqueria market is undoubtedly more famous, folks on Reddit agreed that Mercat del Ninot was worth a visit.

Unfortunately, by the time I got there, it was after 3pm and most stuff was likely shutting down for the afternoon (which was consistent with all businesses, not just the stuff in the market). I imagine this would have been a terrific place for lunch if I were there at 1pm, but less so at 3:30pm.

I wandered around the neighborhood a little bit and pulled up Google maps to take a look at restaurants. I stumbled on a place that is ironically called Local Tapas that had fantastic reviews.

The reviewers were not wrong. It was delicious. I am so glad I got to get this as a “last supper” before heading home!

From there, it was back to the airport. Late last night, I flew from Barcelona to Madrid on Air Europa — a $27 flight that should qualify for miles (Barcelona flights to Madrid are almost all operated by Air Europa, not Air Europa express. The flight I was on even had a business class cabin with lie-flat seats!).

Then I spent the night at Madrid airport in a hotel called Air Rooms Madrid by Hello Sky. It was very simple, but clean and located inside Terminal 4. I thought that would make it convenient since I was arriving at 10pm and leaving at 6am, so I wouldn’t have much time to go back and forth to a hotel elsewhere, though keep in mind that Terminal 4 is kind of far away from everything else at Madrid airport. There’s a free shuttle bus, but it only runs every 20 minutes. I actually got off at the wrong stop on the way to the hotel and thus had to wait 20 minutes for the next bus (the walk said it would have been an hour and 21 minutes). In the morning, this could be an issue if you’re cutting things close as you may be waiting 20 minutes for a bus + the time to get to your terminal, so keep that in mind.

The hotel was clean, though only worth the cost if you’re on a tight layover with limited time to sleep. The bed felt kind of like a cot I might expect in simple military barracks. It’s the only show in town though, so it often sells out in advance. I booked more than a week in advance and there were only 2 rooms left on a Wednesday night.

Then, early this morning, I flew from Madrid to Paris on Air France (airline #14) and connected to a Delta flight from Paris to New York for my 15th and final airline. I’m typing this update from a New York State Thruway rest stop on my way home!

In a funny ironic twist, snow in Paris this morning delayed my flight by about 2.5 hours (all of which was spent sitting on board the plane). I couldn’t even get mad about that given that it was the first time in more than 30,000 miles of flying since November 8th that it really didn’t matter how late my plane was. If one of my flights had to be delayed, thank goodness it was this one!

Worth a quick mention here is the fact that I booked the way home as a round trip flight — Madrid to New York and back to Madrid. I likely won’t take the return to Europe, but it was far cheaper to book that way and if one of my European carriers failed to credit, it would put me back on the Old Continent to fix whatever went wrong.

Interestingly, I booked the flight through KLM, but the legs I flew today were on Air France and Delta. I could have booked the same itinerary through Delta for the same price, but Delta had it listed as Basic Economy (which meant that the Delta leg wouldn’t have earned miles with SAS). Booking through KLM for about the same price it said that the Delta leg would be V-class, which would qualify. So I booked through KLM, somewhat skeptical as to whether the Delta leg were actually going to book into Basic Economy. It didn’t — unlike a basic economy ticket, I was able to select my seat on the Delta leg at the time of booking (which is consistent with Main Cabin, not Basic Economy). The flight showed up correctly in the SAS app as being V-class, so I’m confident I’ll earn the miles.

Now it’s a bit of a waiting game as we’re each missing credit for pieces of the puzzle, but I think we’re all confident that things will work out. For now, I’m glad to be done flying every day and very much looking forward to a full night’s rest!

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

On a livestream, Greg, Stephen, and I all said that we had considered tackling this challenge in the opposite direction — but flying to Asia first and then ending up in Europe. The cheap $194 Virgin Atlantic fare from New York to London just made that alternative strategy hard to consider.

However, in my case, I suspect I had a different reason for wanting to start in Asia and end in Europe.

As we began the planning phase of our trip, it dawned on me that these trips would be finishing in the second half of the month of November. That made me wonder whether it might be possible to experience Christmas Markets somewhere in Europe.

Sure enough, I found that the Christmas markets in both Vienna and in Gothenburg, Sweden were scheduled to open around November 15th, ahead of most Christmas markets in other places. If I could end my trip in Europe, I could cap it off with a visit to a Christmas market!

I couldn’t shake that idea. My family visited Vienna last December and thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas markets there. While I was intrigued by the thought of trying out a market in a different location, Vienna won out for ease of transportation in and out.

So when I arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle from my Etihad First Class apartments flight, I had to hustle to Terminal 1 in order to catch an Austrian Airlines flight that I had booked as an award ticket through United Mileage Plan with 8,000 miles and about $36. That was a good value in comparison to the cash price for that exact flight — and whereas there were other cheap flight options to Vienna, none would get me into Vienna nearly so fast. I arrived at Paris-CDG at about 7:30am and departed for Vienna at 10:05am, arriving in Vienna at about 12pm.

From there, I followed very easy Google Maps directions to take the Vienna Airport City bus + a local tram to get into Vienna cheaply and stop more or less just outside my hotel, the Hilton Vienna Plaza.

I picked the Hilton Vienna Plaza over the Hilton Vienna Park because of the “Plaza” location being slightly closer to Rathausplatz, where you’ll find the main Vienna Christmas market (though there are a multitude of markets around Vienna!).

To be clear, Vienna didn’t get me a qualifying flight for the challenge. It did position me well to catch a cheap Wizz Air flight from Vienna to Barcelona so that I could fly Air Europa from Barcelona to Madrid for only $27 on what should be a qualifying flight.

The main reason for Vienna was because I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for this challenge to get my back to the Christmas markets. I know I can’t get to Europe to do that every year, so I just couldn’t miss out.

You can see more about the trip in these reels:

• My trip to the Vienna Christmas markets
• My experience with Too Good to Go in Vienna
• A quick look at the Hilton Vienna Plaza

I spent yesterday afternoon / evening at the markets, then woke up this morning and flew Wizz Air to Barcelona.

In Barcelona, I got out of the airport on a city bus as well. I visited a local market that turned out to be a little disappointing. However, I found a tapas place for dinner that was the polar opposite of disappointing. More on that in the next update!

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

After arriving in Dubai about an hour late, my next step was to hustle to a taxi.

On my way to the taxi stand at Dubai international airport, I saw signs for Uber. I pulled up the app and looked and prices to Abu Dhabi and the range was $110-$150. That seemed high compared to what Google told me a taxi would cost (I think I’ve made this transfer via taxi once before at some point, but I’ve also rented a car one-way before due to cost. Given the short amount of time here, I didn’t have time to waste at a rental counter on either end).

Luckily, the taxi line at Dubai airport moves quickly and I was in a taxi within a couple of minutes despite what initially looked like a really long line. I told my driver that I needed to go to Abu Dhabi international airport (AUH), which is more than an hour away from Dubai (DXB) and that was no problem at all.

In the end, the taxi cost 308 Dirhams — a little less than $84. While I wouldn’t choose a taxi over an Uber in most places, let that be a PSA that sometimes you may want to shop around.

You can probably guess why I was in Abu Dhabi.

Those who followed this challenge very closely might recall that (I believe) I had all of my flights booked before Greg even started booking his own. That included my Etihad First Class apartments flight from Abu Dhabi to Paris.

This was obviously a non-qualifying flight (Etihad isn’t in Sky Team and I booked with 62,500 American Airlines miles and about $34 in taxes. More to come in my next update as to why I decided to only partially finish Europe on the front end and then return at the back end of this trip.

I was kind of excited to fly the route in the opposite direction that Greg did to compare and contrast. I figured that I would perhaps get a better read on Etihad’s ground game departing from their hub.

As it turns out, the experience likely didn’t have a ton of differentiation.

Etihad offers a dedicated first class check-in area in Abu Dhabi near doors 1 and 2 to the terminal. I had already checked in online. I still stopped by the check-in area just to see what it was like. When I arrived, there was somebody checking in at each station already. To my surprise, nobody invited me to take a seat and wait or really acknowledged me being there. I don’t mention that to say that I felt slighted — that’s not a big deal to me personally at all, but form the perspective of a first class passenger, I was a little surprised that they didn’t have another employee there to manage the flow.

When it was my turn, I confirmed with an agent that since I had no bags to check, I could proceed to immigration and security. Etihad has its own dedicated immigration and security area for premium cabin passengers, so you don’t have to contend with any line for either. That’s certainly nice. On the flip side, nobody escorts you through, as is the case with some airlines. In my case that might have made a difference since, while I was able to use an e-gate without issue to enter the country in Dubai, my passport didn’t work at the e-gate upon exit. There was an agent station near the automated gates, but she seemed confused by whatever she saw when she scanned my passport and she brought me to an immigration office where another person scanned my passport and had strange questions for me (I got asked in two different countries this week whether I have another passport in a way that suggested that they thought I did). Anyway, the reason I share that story is that it may have been nice to have had an employee with me in that moment because even though I explained a couple of times that I had just entered Dubai through the e-gates about an hour and a half ago, that seemed to get lost in translation the first couple of times.

Whatever the issue was, it got resolved relatively quickly and I was on my way back out through the e-gates after all and on my way to the first class lounge. (Yes, I plan to renew my passport ASAP in the hopes that helps since the same ole passport isn’t doing me any favors).

The new Etihad first class lounge (by “new”, I mean about a year old I think) is actually just a section of the top floor of the business class lounge, but it is quite nice. It looks and feels very premium.

However, before digging deeply into the lounge, I inquired at the check-in desk about a complimentary spa treatment. Etihad has opened a Be Relax Spa center in the bottom floor of the lounge and first class passengers get a complimentary 15-minute treatment.

There were a couple of deep tissue options, a head and shoulders massage, or basically a head/neck/back “relaxing” massage. I went with the latter and it was great. I’ve been averaging 15,000 to 20,000 steps per day, almost all of which while carrying everything I’ve brought on the trip on my back. My posture must not have been very good from the beginning because my right shoulder blade has been absolutely killing me since about day 3. In the short 15 minutes, she was able to work some magic and it felt better for at least a couple of hours.

Back in the lounge, I went to the sit-down restaurant area and ordered some food.

I intended to eat on board, so I didn’t go all-out and I just ordered some leek soup and Arabic mezze.

Both were good, but my preference for airline Arabic mezze platters is Emirates > Qatar > Etihad.

However, I was glad I ordered these dishes and regretful that I didn’t order more. Here was the dinner menu in the lounge:

By contrast, here was the dinner menu on board:

The limited on-board menu is a function of it being an overnight flight. And in fairness, there was also a breakfast menu. Still, I found the options (and, frankly, the menu’s presentation of the options) to be pretty lackluster. It’s also worth a mention that the wine list on board, at least in terms of red wines, was identical to the one in the lounge (I’ll note that the on-board champagne was Billecart-Salmon, which was not what they served in the lounge).

Moral of the story is that if you’re on this overnight flight, don’t save up your appetite for the flight itself. Go ahead an indulge in the lounge.

Once on board, I found the Etihad apartments seats to be everything they’re cracked up to be. It is an absolutely stunning amount of space for an airplane seat.

One thing that is hard to capture in photos is the attention to detail in making standard parts and pieces feel higher-end. For instance, the panel to the right in the picture above lifts and the tray table is inside. Whereas that’s the same as most airline seats, the difference here is that Etihad has made the panel that folds up feel like a premium piece of furniture instead of just a plastic panel. It’s heavy and upholstered to feel like fist class. I enjoyed touches that those throughout the suite.

Once we were airborne, I had a glass of Châteauneuf du Pape wine, which was served with nuts as well as olives and what I believe was feta cheese, which was a terrific accompaniment to the wine!

I did eat onboard. I started with the caviar course, which was noted at the top of the breakfast section, but it isn’t highlighted very well, so you might miss it if you don’t know that they have caviar for first class.

I tried my hand at a blini.

I enjoyed that well enough. I tried the beef tenderloin for my main course despite the fact that I know I don’t generally enjoy beef on planes and it didn’t surprise me. I tried the saffron milk cake for dessert. Whomever had the idea to ruin a perfectly delicious Tres Leches cake by adding saffron should probably never be allowed back in the kitchen. That said, i knew that baklava would be a safe choice — I decided to live on the edge, so I take the blame entirely for ordering it.

When it was time for bed, an attendant made up the bed. The sofa sort of folds out and they add mattress padding, sheets, and blankets.

I’ve read that some people are disappointed in the level of comfort. I found the bed totally fine. That said, if you’re the type that likes to recline to a position where your head remains a little elevated, this obviously doesn’t do that so you may be less pleased.

I did not take a shower because it just felt like I’d be too pressed for time (I also had to type a journal update and get a little bit of sleep). The shower itself seems perhaps more spacious than the Emirates shower, though the shower room is tiny in comparison to Emirates. In fact, if you just want to change into the Giorgio Armani pajamas they give you, I recommend using the other lavatory, no the one with the shower as the shower lav is pretty cramped for getting changed.

Speaking of the amenity kit, mine came in a Frequent Miler Green Armani bag.

I’d read that the bag will accommodate up to a 13.3″ laptop. I can confirm that my 14″ ASUS Zenbook laptop (which is pretty thin) does fit inside the bag, though it’s a bit tight. If you have a more average-sized 14″ laptop, it’s not going to fit.

The included amenities were the same that Greg has previously highlighted. I really liked the pajamas — they’re thin and very soft.

Service in-flight was friendly, but not as attentive as I’ve found service to be in first class on other airlines. For instance, at some point, I had to ring my call button to ask for another glass of wine and a refill of my empty water cup. Instead of refilling the water, the attendant pointed out the minibar where I had a bottle of still water. I knew that, but it was awkward to reach with the table in front of of me — and, truth be told, when flying first class with Singapore, Japan Airlines, ANA, etc, I don’t think I’ve found the bottom of a wine or water glass as they simply pass by and refill often. It certainly isn’t a big deal to ring the bell and, as I said, service was incredibly friendly every time I interacted with anyone, it just wasn’t as proactive by comparison.

Don’t take any of the critique above to indicate a negative experience. On the contrary, I thought that Etihad apartments were amazing. It absolutely makes blows my mind still that we can redeem what feels like monopoly money for jaw-dropping experiences like this. The seat was indeed something unlike any I’ve experienced and I very much enjoyed the wine. And I don’t find the on-board menu particularly problematic with the knowledge that the lounge has a much more extensive menu — had I realized that in advance, I’d have gone all-out on dinner in the lounge and had even more time to sleep or lounge on the plane, which probably would have made the experience even better. I share the critiques to paint an accurate portrait, but make no mistake — I would gladly do this again any time, anywhere.

Once I arrived in Paris, I had to hustle to my gate for my next flight. I’ve had mostly OK experiences transiting Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport over the past couple of years. While I ultimately made my next flight, I developed an understanding of the complaints about CDG this time. Getting from my arrival point to my gate required two buses, navigating numerous unstaffed hallways, and clearing security two times. I had two hours between landing and boarding of my next flight. I made it, but only about 10 minutes before that next flight. It stood in stark contrast to my recent experiences in Hong Kong and Taipei.

More to come on that next stop and the rest of my day today in my next update..

Monday, November 18, 2024

During last night’s check-in, I didn’t divulge exactly where I was. Now it’s time to spill the beans: after a full day in Xiamen, where I visited Gulangyu Island, I flew onward to Xi’an, China. There, I stayed at an awesome Canopy by Hilton that I hope to visit again someday — and I went to see my second UNESCO World Heritage site, The Terracotta Army.

Canopy by Hilton Xi’an

I got into Xi’an very late last night. That was a little regretful because the Canopy by Hilton is located in the “Ever-bright city” section of Xi’an, which, if you Google it, looks really cool. A recent Trip Advisor review says, “It is the most worthwhile place to visit in China. If you only have one day in Xi’an, you must come here at night.”. I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to return to Xi’an, but if I ever do, I’d be happy to give the Canopy another go.

That’s in part because this was a really cool / funky hotel. Much like Greg’s canopy in the Hangzhou area, this Canopy was what I think the young kids call “a vibe”. The room itself was really nice. I wouldn’t have had an image as to what “Canopy” means, but if this is it, I’d certainly categorize it as upmarket. That’s partly because this place felt brand new, but it was also partly just a great room.

Turning and fixtures certainly felt upmarket. I wished I had more time to enjoy the room!

But it wasn’t even just the room. The whole hotel was nice. Here’s a look at the lobby and the front façade.

But that wasn’t it, either. The gym was….unique. How many times have you ever stayed at a hotel that had….a full boxing ring?

Clearly, the Canopy by Hilton Xi’an is a great place for your next work conference :-).

Service was also very good. English was, understandably, limited for some staff members. But those who were less confident in their English were quick to get help. Breakfast had a pretty big spread, though there were more eastern than western food items.

I took a picture of something labeled “Chinese hamburgers”. I grabbed one out of curiosity, but it turned out to really just be the bun I got. There was a station with someone filling them for guests. The guy at the door, who had limited English proficiency, must have seen me do that. A few minutes later, he arrived at my table with one of the buns filled with meat. I just thought it was a really nice gesture.

The Terracotta Army

I got up before 6am for the live stream, then ate breakfast afterwards before packing up and grabbing a DiDi to go see another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the home of the Terracotta Army!

Funny enough, when it became clear that we would need to fly through China a couple of times on this challenge, my wife said that I should make plans to see The Terracotta Army. I told her that I thought they were kind of in the middle of nowhere (lol at that!) and that it was unlikely I’d have time to go out of the way.

As it turns out, this mausoleum to the first empower of the Qin dynasty is located outside of Xi’an, China. At some point, I discovered that China Eastern ran a couple of long-haul routes out of Xi-an. One of those long-haul routes is to Dubai. I thought that it might not be a bad strategy to have plans to return to the “middle” of the map toward the end of the challenge. If I had reason to believe that one of the Asian carriers wouldn’t credit properly, being in Dubai would give me a chance to return and complete whatever was necessary. And if everything seemed like it was going to work out (as it does), I could continue on with a different plan.

Either way, the stop in Xi-an meant the chance to see the Terracotta Army.

Lucky for me, the museum and pits of figures isn’t too far outside of Xi-an. I was able to take a DiDi this morning for about $20 one-way for the ~45-minute ride to the warriors (and after I was done, it cost me less than  $17 for the hour-long drive to the airport from the warriors. I bought entrance to the site on Trip.com for $16.60.

English-speaking guides abound at the entrance, but it isn’t required that you hire one. When you buy your ticket on Trip.com, you have to enter your passport information. Then, when you arrive at the admission gate, you just provide your passport. They scan it and the system recognizes that you have a ticket.

There are different pits to see. Information is most extensively in Chinese — it probably isn’t a bad idea to hire a guide. I was working with limited time, so I went on my own to see what I could see.

I enjoyed this stop because it was yet another example of something I never thought I’d see with my own eyes. I’ve seen these in history books and on TV history programs since I was a kid, but I never thought I’d go and see them. It’s wild the possibilities that open up with the games we play.

As I said, i only had a few hours as my flight was scheduled to depart Xi-an at 3:20pm and the Terracotta Army is about an hour from the airport. I therefore left around noon. As it turned out, my flight ended up being delayed, but I still wouldn’t have had time to do much more wandering.

Speaking of time and wandering, getting out of the site is not straightforward. You don’t exit the same way you enter — instead, they funnel everyone through a manufactured village of shops and food stalls. At some point, I started getting nervous that I wouldn’t find my way out, but I followed the main crows and eventually found the parking lot and then exited and hailed a DiDi to go to the airport.

Overall, this was a successful layover. I landed around 1am, got to the hotel, did the live stream, got to the warriors in the morning (they open at 8:30am) and back to the airport by 1pm.

From there, it was a long second flight on China Eastern. Interestingly, my boarding pass for this flight looked different than the boarding pass from the night before — the header looked different as did the colors. I had heard that some China Eastern flights are treated like Shanghai Airlines flights and may or may not credit as expected. I’ll be curious to see whether one or both of my China Eastern flights credits properly, but I’m glad I got two in “just in case”.

That long flight on China Eastern took me to Dubai to warm up for the home stretch of my trip. More on what I did next and why I wanted to return to Europe at the end of the trip to come….

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Step backwards in time: yesterday’s emergency exit row for less than $8

I was in a hurry with yesterday’s update and had to leave out my flight back from Jakarta, Indonesia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I had flown from KL to Jakarta on Garuda Indonesia. On the way back, I flew KLM for about $52, picking up my 10th qualifying airline.

However, even though it wasn’t in business class, I’d say that I got economical style. During check-in, I noticed that they were selling emergency exit row seats on my flight for less than $8! I was thrilled to pick up an aisle exit row seat with nothing in front of it for a 2hr flight for less than $8 on top of my already-cheap $52 flight.

And I got the whole row to myself — there wasn’t anybody else in this exit row, so I had a really comfortable flight and got some work done.

Apart from the comfort of having so much space, the flight wasn’t anything special. Actually, regarding comfort, the flight was freezing cold. I had to put on my wool shirt and at some point, a woman across the aisle pleaded for a blanket for her kid because he was so cold. The flight attendant was adamant that they didn’t have any blankets….on a plane continuing to Amsterdam that has a business class cabin, I found that hard to believe, but she didn’t budge. For folks who live in the tropical climates of Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur, it seemed like it would be pretty uncomfortable.

Back at Kuala Lumpur airport, I landed around 11pm and it took me a while to get a grab. I actually didn’t book my hotel until I was at the airport in Jakarta, and I’m glad I didn’t. The pre-challenge “me” might have been ambitious about how far away from the airport I could stay. The very much sleep-deprived me was glad to book an Ibis Styles right next to the airport for $86 – 15% back in Capital One Shopping cash back (I think it’ll be $12 cash back based on the $80 nightly rate before tax).

Xiamen Air from Kuala Lumpur to Xiamen….almost my biggest mistake

This morning, I flew Xiamen Air from Kuala Lumpur to Xiamen, China. While there were some really cheap Xiamen Air business class flights within China (I saw some as cheap as $149 in I-class!), I paid more for this flight because I wanted my next ticket to originate in Xiamen. During the booking process, the initial fare shown was not qualifying, but I simply clicked “More prices” to find a Q-class fare that should earn miles.

Greg shared a tip in his journal post that he was able to get his SAS EuroBonus number added by emailing Xiamen Air, so I followed his lead and did the same. I was pleasantly surprised that it was easy to do via email — in addition to my booking details, they just needed me to send a picture of my passport to verify my identity. Sure enough, my boarding pass reflected both the Q fare class and my SAS EuroBonus number, so I expect it’ll credit properly.

But that’s skipping past the fact that I almost didn’t get on the flight. That was probably my own fault….

I don’t often use my middle name or initial on things. That extends to airline tickets — I rarely enter my middle name when making a booking (I’ve actually entered it more than usual during this trip, though). The vast majority of the airline tickets I’ve flown over the past 10 years didn’t have my middle name on them. If I’ve ever had an issue, I can’t recall it (and while I know that someone will mention Asian carriers being sticklers about things like that, I should note that I’ve flown on Singapore, Cathay and JAL without entering a middle name…and I think my middle name was wrong once on ANA and that turned out fine, too). However, this morning, leaving out my middle name finally caused a problem.

The agent checking me in said that there was a problem because the name in my passport and on my visa had my middle name, but my ticket only had first and last. He said I would need to contact reservations about getting my middle name added. Of course the chances of getting ahold of a human at some call center who could fix things in time at that point was almost zero. I pushed back a little saying that it’s never caused me a problem before and he said, “Well, it’s causing you a problem today.” Point made.

I asked him how I would even go about contacting reservations and he asked where I’d bought the ticket. I told him directly through the airline website and that I had a separate ticket departing Xiamen later the same day. As we were on that topic, another employee overheard that there was an issue and asked him in a different language what was up. He explained. She looked at him like he was being ridiculous and I didn’t understand the words she said, but I understood the “it’s fine” gesture. He looked at me and said I was lucky as he sat back down and proceeded to print out my boarding pass.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t have any difficulty beyond that agent — I had no problem at airport security, boarding the plane, or at immigration — in each case, a person reviewed my boarding pass and passport and nobody mentioned the missing middle name on the boarding pass. Still, I should probably make a habit of entering it.

Even after getting my boarding pass, things were still tight. I ended up in a long line for immigration since my passport won’t work at the e-gates at Kuala Lumpur. I was still in line at immigration as boarding was scheduled to begin on my flight. However, ultimately, I made it through and boarded my flight successfully, typing my previous update from my phone as I boarded the plane.

Gulangyu Island

Once I got into Xiamen, I grabbed a Didi to go to the Xiamen International Cruise port. There, I figured out how to buy a ferry ticket to travel from Xiamen to Gulangyu Island.

Gulangyu Island is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the most visited tourist destinations in China. It’s a small pedestrian island (no cars, no bicycles) with an interesting mixed cultural history as it was long home to foreigners.

Gulangyu is sometimes referred to as “Piano Island” and is said to have the greatest number of pianos per capita of anywhere in China. I passed a couple of stores that had nothing to do with music but where I could see a piano in the window.

The island was beautiful. I enjoyed a wonderful stroll around, enjoying the architecture and beautiful plant life. I even got to enjoy some fun in the sun, sitting down on the beach for a few minutes to take it all in.

The ferry was cheap — if I were willing to wait 20 minutes longer, it would have been less than $5 round trip. Instead, I paid a little over $11 for a ferry leaving sooner after I arrived.

I did worry a little bit about getting the ferry back since the ferries were so crowded, but it turned out to be easy enough.

I noted that the island isn’t very big. On the way back, I walked nearly all the way across the island. While my walking directions had said that it would take 28 minutes, I made it in 20 minutes walking at a brisk clip.

If you’re interested in seeing more, you’ll have to keep your eye on Instagram.

Airline #12: China Eastern

Today I also flew my 12th airline: China Eastern Airlines.

The flight itself was a rather ho-hum trip from Xiamen to….well, more on that to come.

More importantly, I was able to get my SAS EuroBonus number attached at the check-in counter.

In a recent journal update, Greg wrote about getting his SAS EuroBonus number attached to China Eastern by emailing the Australian China Eastern office.

Unfortunately, I tried that and got no response. When I showed up at the airport, I used the translate app on my phone to show the check-in agent that I would like to add my frequent flyer number to the booking. I listed the number as “SKEBB1234567”. I’d read that China Eastern agents would have to enter the “SK” part in order for the frequent flyer number to attach.

I think my agent tried to type it as one thing at first, but then he asked if it should be “SK/ EBB1234567”. I wasn’t sure and he used his phone to translate “Scandinavian Airlines?”. I said yes and he took care of it. The number printed on my boarding pass successfully!

Again, the flight was pretty uneventful, though a bit delayed, and my next hotel wasn’t close to the airport. It’s past 3am local time as I type this and we’ve got a live check-in at 6am and then I have daytime plans afterward before heading back to the airport, so you’ll have to keep an eye on Instagram for further details.

As I noted in a video there earlier today, I am even more excited about these next couple of stops than anything so far, so there’s more style yet to come. While Greg and Stephen are going to beat me in speed of completion, I think it’s safe to say that by the time this thing is done, I won’t have taken much more time, I’ll have spent far less money than some, and I’ll have seen a couple of World Heritage sites, mixed in some fancy flights, taken more modes of transportation than anyone else, and hopefully earned a million miles doing it.

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Garuda Indonesia Business Class, Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta

Today I flew Garuda Indonesia in what I’m guessing was the cheapest business class segment flown by any of us in this competition. In fact, I doubt that splurging for business class here is going to make any measurable impact on my trip’s overall affordability — and it is going to add style points beyond the flight itself.

I originally booked Garuda Indonesia economy class from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Jakarta, Indonesia for about $135 one-way. That was fairly cheap for a Garuda flight that wasn’t a domestic Indonesian route — and since most of the cheaper domestic routes would really require two domestic segments on Garuda, it was only negligibly more than one would spend even if finding a pretty cheap domestic flight.

Like many other airlines, Garuda sent an email offering the chance to bid on an upgrade to business class. However, after clicking through, I was surprised by just how low the bidding range was set!

The low end of bidding started at about $53 and the high-end capped out at $59. Given the slim $6 difference between bottom end and the top end, the smartest strategy would clearly have been to bid at the top end of the spectrum and ensure that it would at least be impossible to be outbid given the low cost to bid the top number.

However, for some reason that I don’t understand, my sleep-deprived brain decided to split the difference and bid in the middle at about $56.

Lucky for me, the gamble worked out and a few days before departure, I received an email saying that I was upgraded to business!

The real reason this ended up being huge is because it meant that I was able to use a dedicated priority immigration lane in Jakarta. You may recall Stephen Pepper having quite a bit of trouble transiting there. My experience was smooth as butter. Note that I did apply for the visa on arrival in the morning the day of departure. My passport wouldn’t work at the e-gates, but I had no trouble going through immigration with a regular officer. I simply entered the country with my electronic Visa on Arrival and then went to the check-in desk. When check-in opened, I checked in for my next flight without an issue.

A nicer Plaza Premium lounge

When I made my way to a lounge at Jakarta’s terminal 3, it was the Sapphire Plaza Premium Lounge. I initially handed over my Priority Pass and I was directed to a part of the lounge that had a sign indicating it was for Priority Pass and Lounge Key cardholders. It looked to be noticeably less fancy than another section of the lounge. I went back to the check-in desk to inquire about the difference.

To my surprise, I learned that the nicer part of the lounge is for business class passengers. There was a separate area for Priority Pass. I asked about the Amex Platinum Card and the agent told me that Platinum card holders get access to the full business class section of the lounge. I presented my Platinum card and got access to the full “business class” section of the lounge. It was really nice! The seating and atmosphere felt nicer than an average lounge, there were food stations scattered around the lounge, and an a la carte ordering section. I was also told that business class passengers and Platinum card holders have access to showers, but Priority Pass card holders do not.

Full Lounge:

Priority Pass section:

After the lounge, I flew KLM to Kuala Lumpur in an extra comfortable seat – but more details on that will have to wait until my next update as I’m already on board another flight after a the biggest “uh-oh” moment for me so far. More to come….

Friday, November 15, 2024

Today, I took a very long positioning flight on a low-cost carrier. It wasn’t bad at all!

I flew Air Asia from Seoul, Korea to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was a 6.5-hour flight on a low-cost carrier, but I did a few things to make the experience at least a little bit better than it otherwise may have been.

The flight itself cost about $82 one-way, which seemed like an absolute steal given the distance covered. As is typical with low-cost-carriers, Air Asia offered what felt like a million add-ons during the booking process. I didn’t need most of the bundles they offer since I didn’t need a checked bag. In fact, I’m in such a habit of speeding through those menus with the “next” button that I clicked through to checkout without having read the details of the various packages. In the moment of transition between pages though, a package I didn’t realize existed caught enough of my eye for me to go back and re-read what it offered.

I had nearly missed a sort of hidden in a box separate from the main bundles that was titled “Fast Past”. That just sounded to me like priority check-in and priority boarding. Those things are nice enough, but I would have entirely ignored something called “Fast Pass” since I’d have figured that it would be $20 just for things I didn’t actually need. Luckily though, I saw something about cabin baggage as the page transitioned and I went back to check the details!

Fast Pass includes the following benefits:

• Cabin baggage weight booster. This was huge and was the main reason I was willing to spend an extra $19. A standard ticket with Air Asia only includes one carry-on bag up to 7kg — and they do weigh your carry-on baggage at check-in. Fast pass adds a booster: you can carry one bag up to 10kg or two bags totaling no more than 14kg. That effectively doubled my carry-on allowance so long as I bought a second bag! If you watched my packing video, you know that I had an extra bag in my bag — a collapsible backpack that I was able to fill with some of the stuff from my backpack, both reducing some of the load on my back (which was really starting to bother me from so many 20,000-step days carrying the extra weight on my back) and increasing my allowance to 14kg. I didn’t have a scale in my hotel room, so I wore my heaviest clothes to the airport (and even wore my jacket and put my heavy charging brick in the pocket just to lighten my bags) and sure enough, I was under 14kg at check-in. I know my bag would have been over 7kg on its own, so this was huge!
• Dedicated check-in counter. Unlike many other low-cost carriers, Air Asia actually sells flat-bed seats on some flights. There is a dedicated check-in lane for the premium flat-bed class and rather than wait in the (long and slow) economy lane, I got to walk right up to the counter with nobody in front of me in the priority lane.
• Priority Boarding (Zone 1). I got to board the plane with the premium flat-bed customers, so that was nice.
• Fast lane immigration services at select airports. Unfortunately, Air Asia doesn’t have any fast lane service in Seoul / Incheon, but in Kuala Lumpur, they offer access to the ______ lanes! That meant I wouldn’t have to wait in a long line on arrival. While I had the time to spare in this case as my layover is kind of long, I was glad not to have to stand around holding my backpack for longer than necessary. Did I mention that my back is really starting to hurt?

All of the above was certainly worth an extra $19 to me! If I look at the above benefits costing me less than five bucks each, it feels like a slamming deal to me. I wouldn’t have paid $20 just for priority boarding and priority check-in, but $5 each starts to sound pretty good — and when bundled with the additional carry-on allowance it was an absolute no-brainer for me. Fast track immigration was icing on the cake. While I initially ignored the Fast Pass box, I’m really glad it caught my eye in that moment before I went ahead and booked without it!

I was also able to select a seat in advance, perhaps because of the fast pass? I picked an interesting seat: 44C. The reason this seat was interesting is because of the layout of the plane. In this rear economy class cabin, the layout for about half the cabin is 3-4-3. However, at row 44, it becomes 2-4-2 and the aisle widens considerably.

I picked 44C, the aisle seat, knowing that I would have nobody to my right side, but there would be a seat diagonally in front to the right. That was big for a few reasons.

First, I’m right-handed. I tend to lean to the right side with my elbow out a little to the right while typing. I find it very uncomfortable to type in an economy class seat with someone sitting to my right.

Second, I knew that in my seat, I could keep my right leg extended out to the side and under the seat diagonally in front of my and it would be “protected”. Nobody was going to trip over it and no drink cart would hit it as everyone sees and has to walk around the seat. In rows behind me, since the entire aisle is widened, it becomes more likely that extending into that space could be problematic as flight attendants walk backwards into what they expect to be a wider space. Greg had also mentioned in his stories a trick that I had learned a long time ago about the hidden button that raises the aisle side arm rest, which enabled me to sprawl out a bit more when I wasn’t typing.

It actually ended up being just fine for the 6.5-hour flight. In fact, I would say that this flight was more comfortable than the Virgin Atlantic flight from New York to London in economy class. It felt like there was a bit more space at my seat — and in fact I think there was because of the way that the aisle tapered — the row in front of me didn’t appear to be completely perpendicular withe the wall — the seat in front of me was therefore a bit farther away from me and the one diagonal right a bit further yet. I didn’t realize in advance that would be the case, so don’t give me any special credit for that — it was just a nice surprise!

Overall, this was a comfortable enough way to fly for the day.

The one main negative I’d note on this flight is that it was freezing cold. I didn’t expect that as my general experience with Asian carriers is that the cabin is usually kept much warmer than I’d like. I mentioned above that I wore my heavy clothes on board, but I thought I would come to regret having thicker pants and I took my thick wool shirt off and put it in the overhead right away.

I fell asleep quickly, but when I woke up, I was freezing. I put that wool shirt back on as soon as I woke up — and in fact later in the flight I closed the top button hoping it would keep me a little warmer yet. In retrospect, Air Asia sells a thicker duvet blanket and rents a thinner more typical airline blanket, so maybe I should have expected that they’d try to drum up business with the thermostat!

When I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, I was glad to have kept my boarding pass. I often don’t know where I’ve tucked that away, but this time I did — and it was good that I did. Since I paid for Fast Pass, the boarding pass had an indication printed on it that I could use thew Fast Pass immigration lane at Kuala Lumpur.

This was essentially the area where crew and diplomatic passports would go. There was literally nobody in line there. I walked directly to an immigration officer and had my passport stamped and was in the country in less than a minute. I appreciated not having to wait in line!

Doubletree Kuala Lumpur

From there, I took the KLIA Express train to head downtown and stay at the DoubleTree Kuala Lumpur. The Doubletree is inside a shopping mall, which is both kind of weird and kind of fun (the check-in desk is to the left in this image).

The room itself was clean and nice. I had a nice welcome amenity of fruit waiting for me and I enjoyed my warm Doubletree cookie at check-in!

You’ll have to keep an eye on Instagram for a full video review. The club lounge here was fantastic. I said in the video that I appreciate a club lounge that knows you’re not just there for “appetizers” — there was a full spread that was clearly intended to be dinner, not a snack. There was a Mongolian chicken dish, fancy chicken sliders, little sandwiches, a chef preparing a local dish on the spot, and plenty of substantial finger foods. The dessert area looked gorgeous. Drinks — including wine and cocktails — were complimentary. This was definitely a good value for Hilton Diamond members!

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Frustrating start to the day: A cancelled ferry, long trip to Hong Kong, and flight delay (but also amazing efficiency)

My morning didn’t get off to the best start.

You may recall that I had yesterday arrived in Guangzhou from Bangkok and then taken a rideshare and a train and another rideshare to end up in Shenzhen, a Chinese city just outside of Hong Kong.

The reason for that indirect routing to Hong Kong was two-fold:

1. I wanted to take the ferry to Hong Kong airport. When I found that there was a verry directly to Hong Kong International Airport SkyPier, it sounded pretty cool. As I understand it, you can go through airport formalities in Shenzhen at the cruise terminal and then land in the secure center of Hong Kong International Airport. I thought that would make for a cool mode of transportation and an interesting experience!
2. I could pick up a Hyatt brand that only exists in China with a hotel next to the cruise port. URCove is a brand Hyatt launched in China that doesn’t exist elsewhere. This would give me a chance to pick up a brand for the purposes of Hyatt Brand Explorer awards that I’ll never get without going to China.

That first point ended up being all for naught.

The initial trouble was that I found conflicting information online as to whether the ferry was running. I booked the UrCove Shekou cruise terminal hotel and emailed them and they got back to me saying that yes, the ferry is running, and they gave me timetables, noting that the port opens at 6:00am and the appropriate ferry time for my flight would be the 08:45am ferry and I should go to buy tickets 1 hours before departure. Despite their suggestion that I could buy my ferry ticket an hour ahead of the departure, I wanted to make sure that I was all set, so I headed out from my hotel a couple of minutes before 6 to walk to the cruise terminal (about 500m from the hotel).

I found that the ferry does indeed exist, but because of a typhoon in Hong Kong, the first couple of ferries of the day had been cancelled. The day’s ferries weren’t expected to begin until after my flight would have departed.

That left me scrambling to find the next best way to Hong Kong. I knew I could take a train from Shenzhen North (kind of far from my hotel) or Futian (still kind of far, but less far), but those would drop me at West Kowloon. I had read that it was possible to cross the border by land at Shenzhen Bay or Futian and then take a bus directly to the airport, but in a hurry this morning and without the aid of Google Maps, I had difficulty figuring out what destination to put into the DiDi (rideshare app) for a driver to get me to the right place. I asked at the desk in the hotel and the desk agent suggested the ferry. I explained it was cancelled and he only mentioned the train from Shenzhen North.

I ended up taking a DiDi to the Futian Railway station because I knew there was a train at 7:45am to Hong Kong West Kowloon (it takes about 15 minutes) and a DiDi could get me there around 7:30am. As it so happens, that wasn’t early enough to get a ticked for the 7:45am, which meant that I had to take an 8:25am train that would get to Hong Kong at 8:40am. That was cutting things a bit tighter than I’d like. By the time I got through customs and immigration, it was about 8:54am and the next Hong Kong Express train wasn’t until 9:13am. I was concerned that wouldn’t get me to the airport in time since I’d only have about an hour and 20 minutes before my flight. I tried to get a taxi to the airport, but they couldn’t take a credit card. I took out the amount of cash I was quoted for a taxi to the airport (the local equivalent of about $50 USD, which I knew was ridiculous but I also was in a hurry to not miss my flight). When I got back, the next driver wanted the equivalent of $90. I didn’t have it and he didn’t want to take what I had, so out of the taxi it was.

There were no more taxis, so I went hunting for the Uber station. Meanwhile, a tout nearby stopped me and offered to take me to the airport for a decent price. I do generally know better than to accept that kind of offer, but I was in a hurry and I was pretty clear that I wasn’t in the mood to mess around. We went off hustling across West Kowloon station to get to the car. He initially wanted the cash, but while I was desperate, I wasn’t stupid. I insisted that I’d pay him when we got in the car. He seemed OK with that, but as we ran circles around the station, he started trying to say something about his metro card and his friend and he seemed annoyed with me that I hadn’t paid him. I wasn’t in the mood for any attitude, and in an ironic twist of good fate for me / bad fate for him, he led me directly past the boarding place for the Hong Kong Express train at 9:11am — two minutes before it was scheduled to depart and we weren’t yet anywhere close to a car. I told him it was taking too long and I was out of time and taking the train. Unfortunately, he wasn’t impressed with me, but the feeling was mutual and we split equally annoyed.

The train to the airport ended up being late, so I arrived at the airport much later than I would typically be comfortable (just before 10am for an 11:05am flight that was scheduled to board at 10:35am). However, knowing the efficiency of Hong Kong, I shouldn’t have been nervous: from the moment I stepped off the train to the moment I was finished with both airport security and passport control, it was exactly 10 minutes. And I couldn’t use the e-gate, so I had to go to an immigration agent — ten total minutes on the dot. Amazing.

I still had quite a hike to get to my gate. I ended up arriving 13 or 14 minutes before boarding began. Whew! I should be thankful for the unhelpful stranger who led me astray: if he hadn’t led me past the airport express at exactly that time, I probably would have missed that flight.

The good news is that I didn’t miss that flight thanks in no small part to the fact that I got up early enough to check on the ferry at 6am. I’m glad I didn’t show up at the ferry port at 7:45am!

And as for the UrCove, it was far nicer than I’d expected!

Learn from a local: How to order in Chinese in Taipei

My next flight today was Hong Kong to Taipei on China Airlines. It was a smooth enough flight once we actually took off and I enjoyed a full row of three seats to myself, which was terrific!

I’ve probably mentioned this in passing before on the podcast, but I’m not sure I’ve ever written about it. Before I worked for Frequent Miler, I spent years teaching English. It all started in 2008 when my wife and I decided that we didn’t like our jobs, so we quit and moved to South America and taught English for the better part of a year. When we finished up there, we ended up stumbling on an online English institute. Having long been bitten hard by the travel bug, we couldn’t resist the temptation of a job that required a laptop and an Internet connection.

That led us to spend a decade teaching English online (my wife still does). We ended up working for a company that expanded and grew at an incredible pace. We got in relatively early in the online teaching boom and worked a lot of hours — often times 60-80 hours a week during the first couple of years.

In addition to trying to say “yes” whenever we could, we made it a point to travel to company headquarters to meet face-to-face with the people in charge of our classes. That enabled us to become not just coworkers but friends with people who were also working hard to make the company successful. We build some good relationships with good people.

One of those people was Sharon. My wife and I started teaching large lecture classes in 2009 that oftentimes had 100+ students in a single lecture session (and at times, we did special events with 10,000 or more). Sharon was the person in charge of those large lecture classes.

When we went to Taiwan for the first time, we immediately hit it off with Sharon. She showed us around, took us to some great restaurants, and she was there the first time I tried stinky tofu. We traveled to Taiwan a couple of times and also saw Sharon at a company event in Shanghai in my early Frequent Miler days, but I haven’t seen her face-to-face in about 6 years.

When I sent Sharon a message last week explaining that I’d be in Taipei this week, but only for a few hours on a workday during work hours, I knew it was a long shot that this would work out. But, without hesitation, Sharon rearranged her schedule to meet up. I asked if she could teach me to order in Chinese and she was a great sport about helping me try! Truth be told, I was probably as surprised as she was that this all came together on such short notice, but I was thrilled to get a chance to meet up with a friend who is also a true local — Sharon was born and raised in Taipei and her parents are from Taipei, too.

We originally had plans to also do something else, but my flight from Hong Kong got stuck on the tarmac due to weather, so I arrived about an hour late at 2pm instead of 12:50pm. I got the airport MRT into the city right from the airport (less than $5) and arrived at Taipei Main Station at just past 3pm, meeting up with Sharon.

My next flight was at 7:25pm, so we had limited time, but we made the most of it, getting Bubble Tea and eating at Din Tai Fung. You’ve gotta see Instagram for the video evidence of my time with Sharon learning how to order in Chinese.

Every time we’ve gone out to eat with Sharon, the food has been delicious. This was no exception — she picked a few good dishes and by the time we left, I was *stuffed*. I couldn’t fit anything more in my stomach.

I said goodbye to Sharon around 5pm and headed back to Taipei Main Station to grab the MRT back to the airport. Once again, things felt a little tight: I got off the train at 6:07pm for a flight boarding at 6:55am and taking off at 7:25pm. But once again, I was literally through security and immigration in exactly 10 minutes. I ended up arriving with enough time to even stop at the Plaza Premium lounge, though I was so stuffed that I couldn’t eat anything (I also turned down the in-flight meal because I just couldn’t think of eating more).

At 7:25pm, I took off and I landed at 11:00pm, officially becoming a Seoul Man. But I don’t have much time to rest my soul in Seoul — this is just a quick overnight turnaround before the race continues.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

This morning I woke up bright and early in Vietnam and made my way back to the airport to fly Vietnam Airlines from Hanoi to Bangkok. While I’d checked in online, I quickly discovered that you can not use a mobile boarding pass in Hanoi, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t check in online. See more about why in this post.

From there, I flew to Bangkok. I had paid for a fast track service through immigration, so someone was waiting with a sign with my name on it at the end of the jet bridge, but it turned out I didn’t need to do that since there is a way to transfer, even on a separate ticket. Still, she guided me to where I needed to go and knew where the Kenya Airways desk should be if it ever opened up (it didn’t, but it didn’t really matter).

Since I had way more time than expected, I spent time checking out two lounges — the Oman Air First & Business Class lounge and the Coral Best Business Class Lounge. I gave a brief review here.

From there, I flew the Kenya Airways fifth freedom route from Bangkok to Guangzhou, China. Since this flight only operates three times a week, there are bound to be a lot of people taking it since it is both the most efficient and cheapest way to knock off Kenya Airways if you’re chasing a million SAS miles. As it turns out, there are a lot of people chasing those SAS miles — in fact, we found at least a dozen of them on this flight alone today! And I do say “we” because, wouldn’t ya know it, Greg and I ended up on the same flight yet again! I’ve now run into Greg at JFK and been on the same flight as him from New York to London, London to Copenhagen, Riyadh to Doha, and Bangkok to Guangzhou.

Watch the Instagram Reel here.

I should mention for anyone flying this route for the challenge that although we were able to check in online and get a digital boarding pass, Kenya airways required going to the desk at the gate to verify documents. They required proof of onward travel to allow people to board.

After flying to Guangzhou, I took a DiDi (the local equivalent of Uber) to get to the Guangzhou South Railway station where I caught a train heading South. Keep an eye on Instagram to see where the train took me and to make your guesses as to where I’m headed next….

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Arrival in Saudia Arabia and waiting for my next flight

I arrived in Saudia Arabia on Monday night around 9pm on a Saudia flight from Istanbul. I was departing Saudia Arabia on an entirely separate ticket (on Qatar Airways) about 7.5 hours later at 4:35am. I’ve read questions on the Internet about whether or not it is possible to transit like that in Saudia Arabia without a visa. However, I wasn’t going to chance either A) having a problem at immigration or (more likely) B) an airline agent refusing to allow me to board without a visa. In other situations, maybe I’d have the time to duke that one out, but with this trip being so tightly choreographed, I couldn’t chance it: I just went ahead an applied for the visa.

That process was easy. The Saudi website had said that I’d receive an email when my application was processed / approved, but I never did receive an email — I simply logged back into the application site a few days later and saw that it was approved and I could download/print the visa. I had to show the visa at the Saudia desk in Istanbul to be issued my boarding pass, but I didn’t need to show it at immigration in Saudia Arabia (presumably that’s on file and they see it when they scan my passport).

Arrival was smooth and simple. Notably, Greg almost missed a flight because he flew into Jeddah and there was a long line for immigration. I could have flown to Riyadh or Jeddah, but I chose Riyadh specifically because everything I’d read online indicated that the arrivals process is smoother and faster in Riyadh.

I had to wait 3-4 hours in the departures area for the Qatar desk to open, but it was easy to find a place to sit and wait. The airport in Riyadh is very clean and modern. I got on the free Wi-Fi and got some work done.

Qatar Airways business class: Riyadh to Doha to Hanoi, Vietnam for 40K miles

Here’s a look at my day on Qatar Airways and in the Qatar Airways business class lounge: Click here.

Greg said in an Instagram story today that Qatar really does luxury right. I couldn’t agree more. I kept saying to myself, “now this is a great way to travel”. Everything from the seat to the food to the service to the incredible lounge, it’s just got most business class experiences beaten by leaps and bounds.

Early in the planning process for this challenge, I knew I’d have a chance to leverage one of my favorite award chart sweet spots: 40,000 American Airlines miles for business class between the Middle East and Asia. Filling in a long-haul gap with a “cheap” business class award seemed like a great way to add some style to a trip mostly full of economy class flights. The only question, really, was which route.

As noted above, I became enthusiastic about using this sweet spot early in the planning phase of this trip. I had originally set out with a mind to using an ANA round-the-world business class award to fill in long-haul gaps in comfort and style, but I quickly realized that there were just too many moving pieces between finding all of the qualifying flights and getting the right fare classes. Trying to squeeze it around a big ANA award just seemed like too much trouble (and too much potential for downfall — if I missed one of the ANA legs, I would likely lose everything else on that award).

The American Airlines sweet spot, by comparison, offered incredible flexibility. I could fly on Saudia to numerous places in the middle East and could find availability from there to almost any of the airports in Asia that might work for this challenge.

The question became what to prioritize:

1. Flying QSuites. Qatar doesn’t have Qsuites on every plane (far from it, actually!). Despite having flown Qatar business class numerous times, I’ve only ever flown in Qsuites on a short leg from Doha to Dubai! I considered making this a top priority.
2. Maximizing time in the air in business class. Early on, Jakarta (ironically, this is where Greg flew!) stood out as a good Qatar destination in order to have a really long Qatar business class flight / get to one of the farthest points with a high level of comfort/style.
3. Getting to an expensive gateway. Some carriers in Asia had more plentiful cheap flights than others. Should I prioritize affordability by getting to an airport that might otherwise be expensive to reach?

I went through iterations of all three. Another variable that might have complicated decisions for some is access to the Qatar first class lounge in Doha. We’ve written before that Qatar operates many two-cabin flights within the Middle East. The forward cabin of a two-cabin plane is always (or just about always?) priced as a business class award for award booking/pricing purposes. However, Qatar markets the forward cabin as “first class” in many cases. Because Qatar allows those either departing or arriving in first class, even regional 2-cabin first class, to use the Al Safwa First Class lounge, it can make a business class award with a little first class segment a smidge more valuable. Qatar’s first class lounge is really nice (I was there during 3 Cards 3 Continents).

Ultimately though, I settled on prioritizing a specific destination in order to use this leg to both pick up some style / comfort and increase affordability (or rather decrease the total cost of the Asian legs of the trip).

I therefore ended up with a Qatar flight on the shorter end of the spectrum in my leg from Doha to Hanoi, which was just a little over 6 hours of actual flight time. But in the end, it made the most sense my helping me keep some cents: I kept finding that SkyTeam flights to get to Vietnam were more expensive than I wanted them to be from the various places where I’d be looking to fly to or through Vietnam. I therefore decided that I wanted to fly Qatar to Vietnam on this non-qualifying flight in order to position for a cheap Vietnam Airlines flight.

That’s why I flew Riyadh to Doha to Hanoi, Vietnam for 40,000 American Airlines miles and about $75.

Keep in mind that for the purposes of the competition, we’re valuing those 40,000 AA miles at 1.3c per mile. That means this flight will count as $520 + taxes for a total just under $600 for the purposes of calculating my affordability score. That’s a great deal for Qatar business class, but consider that the real cost to me was lower: I donated money to Conservation International a few years ago when there was the SimplyMiles 240x deal. Essentially, I bought my stash of AA miles for 0.41c per mile. In other words, I bought the American Airlines miles that I used for this leg of the trip for just $164. At the time when I donated, I went big-ish precisely for situations like this one: I knew that there would be a day when I’d be thrilled to have bought miles so cheaply so that I could get some incredibly outsized redemption. My ship came in with this redemption!

I got to Hanoi late last night and it took me a bit to get to my hotel, but I got there. I won’t be here for long though — in the morning, it’s onward and upward as things get much more fast-paced for me for a couple of days….

View on Instagram here.

Monday, November 11, 2024

The best Hampton by Hilton breakfast I’ve ever had

Having been to Istanbul last December (and also during our 3 Cards 3 Continents challenge), I well remembered the distance from the main international airport (IST) to the “downtown” area. It’s about 45 minutes via taxi (give or take depending on where exactly you’re headed). With my flight arriving at 10:45pm and both the knowledge of how tired I would be and that we had a live stream scheduled for 2am local time, I didn’t really want to travel all the way into town. I considered the Yotel transit hotel within the airport, but there was a Hampton by Hilton just a few miles away that was available for a decent price, so I booked it. I had been targeted for 30% back at Hilton via Capital One Shopping, which has made my Hilton stays an even better value!

Arrival at the airport was smooth enough — Americans no longer need a visa, so I didn’t have to stop at the Visa on Arrival desk. I had a little drama over the driver to the hotel. Uber has signs within the airport terminal saying “Welcome to Istanbul. Get your taxi via Uber” (not those exact words, but something like that). The short story is that I think Uber still isn’t allowed to pick up at the airport. A driver did pick me up, but I got a little hassle from another driver and my driver apparently got some hassle also. I wish Uber didn’t have that signage if they aren’t allowed to pick up at the airport!

I was also a bit uncomfortable with the fact that the driver had another passenger in the front seat when I got in the car. Everything turned out to be fine, but I probably should have just gone to the taxi stand.

Check-in at the hotel was uneventful. However, I was very surprised when I got the room and there was a welcome amenity! At a Hampton! It was a full plate of fruit. I was impressed!

Little did I know that breakfast would blow that out of the water.

Truth be told, I haven’t stayed at many Hamptons and most of them have been within the United States. And in fairness, most US hotel brands are much nicer abroad than within the US. So I guess I should have been less surprised than I was, but I associate Hampton with packaged muffins and make-your-own waffles. That’s fine with me, but I didn’t see this coming.

Click here for the Instagram reel.

Or, if you prefer photos:

And that’s not all of it. At some point, someone in a full chef outfit came out of the kitchen with fresh simit and pastries right out of the oven and walked table to table offering it to guests before stocking the buffet!

When I arrived, the restaurant — yes, this Hampton has a restaurant — was closed, but they told me that they had room service 24 hours a day. I was kind of hungry, but I assumed that room service at the Hampton by Hilton in what felt kind of like the middle of nowhere near the airport just didn’t sound like it would be appealing. I fear I made a terrible mistake not ordering something!

Anyway, this is clearly a case of a hotel owner and Hilton completely misflagging a property. This should at least be a Hilton Garden Inn. With a little funky decor, I bet they could get away with it being one of the more “indie” type brands. The lobby was huge and had really nice seating areas.

I filled up big time at breakfast. I originally intended to head out to the Grand Bazaar, which I have missed on previous trips to Istanbul. However, traffic wasn’t good this morning. A taxi was going to take a solid hour from the Hampton to the Grand Bazaar and then driving time was running almost the same on the way back to the airport. Public transit options were even longer. I wanted to go, but I wasn’t sure I wanted it badly enough to sit in a taxi for two hours today. I didn’t think I could stay awake that long in a taxi — it just didn’t seem worth it. I ended up going back to sleep for a bit after breakfast and then heading to Istanbul airport.

IGA Lounge (Priority Pass) at Istanbul airport

At Istanbul airport, I went to the IGA Lounge, which is accessible via Priority Pass. It’s a really big Priority pass lounge with an impressive spread of food and a station preparing fresh pitas and other dishes. Keep an eye on Instagram for a brief video to come.

I’ll note that I found the lounge entrance a little tricky to find. In fact, I completely passed the lounge the first time. That worked out to be a very lucky mistake as it meant that I found Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Bald Man. I love their thick Italian hot chocolate and I very much look forward to getting it at the Shops at Bryant Park when we head to New York City during the holidays each year, so it was an awesome treat to get one today!

Turning back around, I found the entrance to the IGA Louge directly above the Yotel transit hotel — it’s pretty hard to miss the Yotel signage.

Next airline up: Saudia to Riyadh

After some time working on this update in the lounge, I had to head to my gate to pick up my next airline: Saudia to Riyadh. I was pleasantly surprised at check-in when the agent told me that I had an aisle seat but that he could give me an exit row aisle seat if I preferred. Yes, of course I preferred!

This was a far more comfortable flight than my Virgin Atlantic flight to London! I had plenty of legroom and the seat felt wide for economy class, too.

Food doesn’t look good, but I love the spices of Middle Eastern food. This was a chicken dish and I found it very flavorful despite the appearance.

Overall, it was a smooth flight. I made it to Riyadh and got some sleep during the flight.

But I’m not long for Riyadh. I arrived on a one-way ticket from Saudia, but I am departing on a separate ticket entirely. More to come….

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Stay at the Hilton Garden Inn Bucharest Airport

My flight to Bucharest (a Wizz Air positioning flight) landed at 01:35am and taxiied for what felt like it must have been a complete tour of the Bucharest airport. By the time I got to the hotel, it was well after 2am. After talking to my family and getting a little work done, I got to sleep late. Thankfully, the friendly front desk agents, Cristi and Marius, had graciously extended me a late checkout.

That conversation is worth a mention: Marius asked me if I was going to check out at noon or if I needed a late checkout. I said that a late checkout would be wonderful and he asked me what time. I said, “Is 2pm OK?”. He said, “Two PM is OK for me, but is it OK for you?”. I came back and said, “Well, if I could get 4pm that would be wonderful.”. He typed something and then handed me my key and said he’d set the checkout for 5pm. Amazing.

I was excited about the late checkout not necessarily because I planned to sleep late but more so because I planned to wash my merino wool shirt and underwear in the room and I wasn’t sure if they would dry by the time I was planning to leave the hotel. The late checkout meant that my “laundry” would have plenty of time to dry!

As it turned out, I completely overslept my alarm. About half an hour after I woke up, I noticed that the hotel phone next to the bed was off the hook and upside down. In that moment, I suddenly had a vague recollection of slamming the phone repeatedly and then trying to pull it out of the wall because it wouldn’t stop ringing. In hiindsight, that probably didn’t help because the sound was probably my phone alarm. Needless to say, I overslept that alarm. Clearly, after very little sleep sitting up from Friday to Saturday and then being up until early morning local time, my body needed some rest.

That meant that I didn’t get out the door as early as I wanted today, but it fit the theme since today was all about rest & relaxation.

My day at Therme Bucharest

Last week, a reader pointed out to me that Bucharest has what they bill as “the largest wellness center in all of Europe”. Therme Bucharest is massive.

I’m going to describe what this place is, but let me lead with the fact that although I think you’d agree that I’m being accurate if you went to Therme Bucharest, you probably won’t picture it quite right. Therme Bucharest is kind of like Great Wolf Lodge meets luxe spa meets Tokyo Disney. I know, that all sounds highly contradictory. Here’s why I say each:

• Great Wolf Lodge: The family area (called “The Palm”) has waterslides that would put Great Wolf Lodge to shame. And on a weekend day, it certainly packs people in that area with a density that you’d find at a Great Wolf Lodge. However…
• Lux spa: Despite the fact that the place draws literally thousands of guests simultaneously on a weekend day, it is surprisingly clean. Given the traffic this place gets, I wouldn’t expect the excellent condition it’s in. And there must have been at least 5 or 6 different saunas with different vibes and they weren’t overcrowded when I went. There are of course spa treatments available (though good luck getting an appointment on a weekend since you can’t book in advance). The place just had a more “upscale” vibe outside of the waterslide area despite prices being pretty reasonable everywhere.
• Tokyo Disney: I first make this comparison because of prices. Like Tokyo Disney, this place isn’t wildly overpriced. That’s not to say that prices are lower than what you can probably find elsewhere in Romania, but stuff isn’t priced at “theme park” levels in my opinion (in a similar way to what I found at Tokyo Disney). The other comparisons to Disney (in general) are because it can be very crowded on a weekend day and because everything runs by a bracelet and pretty efficiently (you use a bracelet to access the various areas for which you are entitled with your ticket and to “pay” at restaurants or bars, settling up your bill in full at the end (which can be done at a kiosk). I found this to be nicely efficient.

I really enjoyed Therme Bucharest. Reviews online seem mixed — people either love it or seem put off. I think that is probably largely influenced by the influx of people on a weekend day. I knew this going in, so I wasn’t surprised by the crowd and didn’t mind waiting when I had to. I’d definitely go back on a weekday instead of a weekend, but I wouldn’t take back my visit today — I had a great time and particularly loved the saunas.

Each of the different spas had a different look, feel, and temperature. The rest of the Frequent Miler team knows that I love heat and humidity – I describe it saying that I feel like the air is hugging me and I like that well enough. It should come as no surprise then that I loved the Alhambra sauna, which was intensely hot. I hadn’t ever paid much attention to saunas until I went to Finland during 3 Cards 3 Continents and I had one in my room there. I fell in love with the Finnish sauna and have said that I’d love to have one at home someday. I found it sooo relaxing today! After a couple of days of being cramped in an airplane seat and sleeping in uncomfortable positions, it felt so good to relax and unwind!

Therme Bucharest has so much to it: mineral baths, steam baths, saunas, swimming pools, a set of waterslides that puts Great Wolf Lodge to shame, infrared light beds, hot tubs, swim-up bars, restaurants, spa treatments, and the biggest locker room I’ve ever seen (my locker was number 5764 and I think it there really were six thousand lockers).

Access is on a 3-tier basis. You can pay just to access the sort of “family” area (“The Palm” where they have the water slides or you can get the “family” area and the “Galaxy” area with some hot tubs, steam bath, hydrotherapy tables (this is something you pay separately to use), huge indoor and outdoor pools and lots of seating or you pay to have the works: both of the aforementioned areas and the “Elysium” area with saunas, infrared beds, spa treatments, and a better restaurant. You can buy a 3hr pass, a 4.5hr pass, or a full day pass.

I paid for the full day pass for the works and it was about $41. I wouldn’t recommend a 3hr pass as I just don’t think that’s enough time to experience everything. I think the choice is between a 4.5hr pass and a full day. The difference in price on the level that gave access to everything was $34 vs $41.

Note that you do need a swimsuit and flip flops. You can not wear this stuff in, you need to bring it in your backpack/bag. Again, I read that in advance — but if you don’t, they’re going to make you buy their flip flops because they want the footwear to be “clean”. Don’t wear your swimsuit or your flipflops — bring them to change into. Or, if you don’t want to bring them with you, you can buy a swimsuit and flip-flops. I brought a towel from my hotel room, but you can also rent a towel and robe if you wish. I think the robe is nice to have (and in the restaurant in the Elysium area, you need a robe — I think they’ll provide one for restaurant use if you didn’t rent one, but it’s a different color and needs to be returned after you eat.

They have luggage storage, so if you’re coming on a layover or before or after a flight, you can use the spa and they’ll hold luggage.

Overall, I found prices to be very reasonable and Therme Bucharest to make for a great “calm before the storm”. This was just the reset I needed after flying to Europe in economy class and hitting the ground running yesterday. Now I’m ready for the next leg of the adventure, where the pace will soon pick up — but not before a chance to see something I’ve missed on a couple of previous trips . . .

Saturday, November 9, 2024

It’s been a full day! After starting the morning in London, Greg and I found that we were not only on the same flight to London, but also on the same SAS flight to Copenhagen! Maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise given that it was a very cheap qualifying flight (I think I saw it at one point for about $87, though I paid about $130) and it departed at the right interval after our flight to London landed (about 4 hours after we were scheduled to land). I can confirm that a “Go Light” ticket booked via their website booked into L-class and earned 100 miles.

However, we had a further surprise in store as we came to find out that we had some more company on the flight — Stephen, who flew into London the night before us, was also on the SAS flight to Copenhagen. Not only that, but we ran into a few fellow travelers who are also out running around to try to collect the million SAS miles!

We started out the morning in the Plaza Premium lounge at LHR Terminal 2, which presented a much needed chance for me to recharge (with no in-seat power on the Virgin Atlantic flight, my phone, computer, and battery pack were all nearly dead!). As for the flight itself, I got a taste of “Reyes business class” — an empty middle seat made it easy to spread out!

Then, upon arrival in Copenhagen, I decided to tag along with Greg and Stephen. My initial plan had been to take mass transit into the city and do some wandering anyway, so I tagged along with them and we wandered Christiania and saw a Thomas Dambo troll! The funny thing is that I’ve been following Canadian blog Travel with TMc since meeting Tara at Travel Summit in earlier this year and I reached out to her for any tips she had on Copenhagen (she was there a few months ago). She unequivocally suggested finding a troll or two, but her rationale hit home: she said my kids would love it. I had actually set out on this trip planning to make separate videos for my kids explaining places and things I was seeing, and “my kids” had left a note in my backpack that I found when I got to JFK to depart for London:

They absolutely would love seeing a giant troll. And I can confirm that they did indeed love it — they each had huge smiles on their faces when they sent me a reaction video. I’m glad we got to see Christiania and Green George.

Then, after some pastries, it was time for Greg and Stephen to head back to the airport. I was tempted by the convenience of a taxi, but I ended up finding the DOT Ticket app easy to use to both find the price and buy a ticket. I simply allowed the app to know my location and entered where I wanted to go.

Once in the center city area, Greg had given me a dinner recommendation for a ramen joint. I was immediately skeptical. I was in Japan over the summer and I’ve also enjoyed great ramen in plenty of other cities – was that really going to be how I’d spend my time dining in Copenhagen?

However, the source of his recommendation was strong: the owners of one of his favorite restaurants at home had raved about this ramen place. I’ve seen pictures and heard stories of the food at their restaurant, so when Greg told me that they had traveled all the way to Copenhagen and had eaten at this ramen place more than one time on their trip since it was so good, I knew it had to be legit.

And legit it was.

Let me bookend with the start and finish:

• The restaurant opens at 5pm. I arrived at 4:36pm and a line was already forming.
• By 4:50pm, the line was starting to really stretch down the block. There were already more people waiting than there are seats. Waiting in the cold, mind you. For a restaurant that has no restrooms. The fact that people wanted to wait uncomfortably to squeeze in and eat there was a good sign.
• I texted my family after I finished and said: I wish I had a second stomach because I am NOT ready to be finished tasting this!

I had a Nduja Ramen that was among the most flavorful I’ve ever had. The way it was finished with an anchovy lemon sauce made me a little nervous on paper, but it turned out to be absolutely amazing. The acidity of the lemon cut the spiciness of the Nduja sausage in such a delightful way that I’m going to cut a lemon at home the next time we have hot sausage and try just pouring some lemon juice on it!

I ordered a buckwheat tea that was recommended with the dish I got and it paired magnificently well. I don’t think I’d drink the tea on its own, but the bitterness of the tea balanced against the sweet and spicy flavors of the dish in the most harmonious way. It was a perfect match.

I should add that the menu is limited. They just do a few types of ramen. The kitchen is right in front of you and with nineties rock music blaring in the background, the second in command was constantly yelling out, “Chef, blah blah blah” where the blah blah blah was explaining what he was preparing or what he needed or whatever. If you’ve ever been in the kitchen of a high-end restaurant, it’ll be familiar. I’d absolutely go back. Note that seating is very limited.

After dinner, I explored a market with amazing looking meats and desserts. I ended up getting a Danish Rum Cake that was delish.

After wandering downtown for a bit (I loved the vibe, with tons of people out walking and riding bicycles despite the chilly temperature!), I looked up public transit back to the airport. I specifically navigated to the parking garage where we’d used lockers for our bags. That led me to end up taking a bus that dropped me off in a residential neighborhood that was a 9-minute walk from the airport. That was kind of cool.

By the time I got back to the airport, I had put in more than 18,000 steps for the day. By the time I took the estimated 19-minute walk to my gate, I’d been well over 20,000. That was a respectable day considering that I had probably only slept for about 2.5hrs on the Virgin Atlantic flight and maybe 2 more on SAS to Copenhagen.

Still, I was pretty tired when I got back to the airport. Copenhagen airport pretty much shuts down at night. The Priority Pass lounges close at 8pm and so do most of the shops and restaurants. That left me with a pretty quiet terminal from which to upload the pictures in this post.

Around 10pm, I boarded a flight to my next stop. It’s going to be a late night, but I’m pretty excited about tomorrow . . .

Friday, November 8, 2024

My first flight of Frequent Miler’s Million Mile Madness is in the air and I wanted to spit out a quick post sharing how I spent less money on it than I otherwise would have — and likely less than Greg or Stephen will spend on crossing the Atlantic.

How I saved money (and used a credit card benefit) to book Virgin Atlantic

First of all, I booked this flight just a few days after we announced this competition.

When we first announced Million Mile Madness, Virgin Atlantic flights from New York JFK to London were available for $194 almost every day for the first couple of weeks of November. However, as the days passed, I began seeing less and less availability. While I originally wanted to leave after November 9th (we had family tickets to see a play), I realized that it would likely be hard to leave after the 9th and be home in time for a coming parent/teacher conference day at school. I had to jump while I could get a flight that left early enough to get me home when I needed to be there.

I ended up deciding on this specific departure (6:30pm on Friday, November 8th) for $194 after great internal debate over paying $244 for the exact 8am departure / daytime flight that Stephen took! The daytime flight would likely be less painful, but by the time I decided to book, that flight had already increased to $364. I was stuck with the overnight flight.

However, wanting to pay as little as possible, I pulled out one of the tricks of the trade.

Virgin Atlantic partners with Delta and many of their flights can be booked either through Virgin Atlantic or through Delta. In this case, the price was the same whether I booked through Virgin Atlantic or Delta. It was a little less clear as to what the fare class would be if I booked through Delta and whether it would qualify. I’ll dig into that after I see whether this flight credits as expected.

I recently wrote about how I opened a new American Express Business Platinum card under the targeted 250,000-point offer. I’ve since earned the 250,000-point welcome bonus, but I haven’t yet used all of the “coupon book” benefits. One of those benefits is up to $200 per year in airline incidental credits. I had a plan for how to put those credits to use for this flight!

First, I chose Delta as my Platinum card chosen airline as soon as I thought about doing this since I know that you usually need to wait until the next business day after selecting your airline before making a qualifying charge.

While flight tickets don’t qualify as an official way to trigger Amex Airline incidental credits, our guide to what still works to trigger credits has shown that many readers have reported that using a gift card to pay part of the cost of the flight and a Platinum card to pay the balance will often trigger an airline fee credit if the part charged to the card isn’t far more than $200. In this case, I redeemed $50 worth of rewards in the Pepper Rewards app to generate a $50 Delta Gift Card. I used that gift card and my Platinum card to pay the other $143.30. As expected, the Delta charge for this Virgin Atlantic flight booked via Delta got reimbursed.

Again, in this case, I was booking a Virgin Atlantic-operated flight through the Delta website. Since the charge came from Delta, it triggered an airline incidental credit even though it wasn’t a Delta flight (of course, since I booked through Delta, it had a Delta flight number also). And even though flights aren’t among the listed things that get reimbursed, this experience further illustrates that sometimes you have to look beyond the terms and for actual data points.

I’ll add the answer to the question that some may have: no, you can’t use your Platinum card to access the Delta SkyClub when on a Virgin Atlantic flight. I went to the SkyClub to try even though I’d read that the flight needs to be Delta-operated (except if you’re flying WestJet, in which case a Delta-marketed by WestJet-operated flight could still get you in!).

Still, Since I just opened this card and earned the 250,000-point welcome bonus, it felt like a win to trigger $143.30 in incidental credits without having to fly Delta :-). Keep in mind that for the purposes of the SAS promotion, the operating carrier is the one that counts.

A slight wrinkle could still ensue. While the $194 fare booked through Virgin Atlantic was a T fare class, which earns miles with SAS, booking via Delta put me in E class. A Delta-operated flight in an E fare class does not earn SAS miles. However, I looked up my itinerary on VirginAtlantic.com, and sure enough it shows that I’m in E class — and the good news (I think!) is that Virgin Atlantic E-class does earn miles with SAS EuroBonus (50% of mileage flown). We’ll see how that actually shakes out.

I have reason to believe that the ticketing carrier assigns the fare class for the purposes of this promotion, but I can’t yet explain why I think that to be true. Hopefully, this flight will credit to SAS in a few days and we’ll know….

In the meantime, I’m up in the air and about to work on Week in Review before (hopefully) getting a couple of hours of sleep sitting straight up. The good news is that I have an inflatable neck pillow. The bad news is that even when I inflated it, the seat in front of me didn’t move any further away. I’m hoping I get some sleep though….or else tomorrow is going to be a really long day…..

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