succumbing to the credit card "point" game?

I read with some bemusement the miles and credit card blogs reporting on all the sign-up bonuses and benefits offered by credit cards. For the most part, I have avoided playing that game. Yes, I have chosen my credit cards based on the benefits — admission to airline lounges and travel credits. I once applied for a pair of British Airways cards — one for my wife and one for me — because they were offering 100,000 miles per card; I've held onto that card for the annual 2-for-1 award travel opportunity. In other words, I choose credit cards based on their perceived usefulness to me.

I'm going to Australia this September and recently purchased tickets for that trip. I could find no award availability on the SFO-SYD non-stops; I was unwilling to fly United economy to Houston for business class flights to Sydney. How to pay for those tickets? I contemplated the possibility of cashing in (most of) 42 years of accrued American Express points for one of the tickets but wrestled with the suspicion that getting 1¢ of value per point was not my best use of those points.

Posting a question on FlyerTalk for advice, I was surprised by the answer. While my American Express Platinum personal card yields 1¢ for a redemption, the American Express Platinum business card yields 1.5¢ per point. By procuring a business card (which I did on the last day before its annual fee increased), I increased the value of my stash of points by several thousand dollars. I reason this transaction was well worth the annual fee.

Moreover, Amex offers a signing bonus of 75,000 points when spending $20,000 within 90 days. My tickets on Qantas would get me most of the way there with one purchase, but... herein lies the wrinkle. The Platinum business card yields 5x the points only when purchasing airfare through American Express Travel Service. However, I didn't want to book through Amex, meaning point yield would be only 1.5x the spend (for a purchase over $5000). My personal Platinum card, on the other hand, yields 5x the points on any air booking, even one made through the air desk at Brownell Travel. Because I will receive a substantial commission on that booking, it made sense to use my personal card for this transaction. (Because commission percentage information is proprietary, so I can't publish that.)

So I bought the tickets with my personal Platinum Card. This yielded me an extra 3.5x points per dollar and a four-figure commission in cash. The personal Platinum purchase will net a return roughly equivalent to the 75,000 point sign-up bonus, but leaving me in the position of still having to make that 20K spend by the end of April. Decisions still to be made: canceling the personal card in May, canceling the business card after one year (and spending my points), or keeping both.

Have I succumbed to the credit card game? I'd be interested in your thoughts.

copyright (c) 2019 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

5 reasons to use a travel advisor to book air

Norwegian Airlines 787 at OAK (c) 2019 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Note: I am not an air agent. I specialize in luxury hotel bookings. Want the best luxury hotel in Paris or London given your preferences, I can help with that decision. And I'll get you value-added hotel amenities for no extra cost — like complimentary daily breakfast for two, $100 hotel credits, and sometimes upgrades even at the time of booking. For air bookings, I turn to my colleagues at Brownell Travel's Air Desk or Virtuoso Air.

Here are five reasons to use an experienced air advisor, especially for complicated international itineraries. Inexperienced consumers, armed only with the internet, often make expensive mistakes, all in the attempt to save money.

1. Connections that make sense. Is that connection long enough (or is it too long)? Should you avoid connecting at that particular airport? Is there a non-stop flight you should consider instead? An experienced travel advisor will sweat questions like these so you don’t have to.

• While that 50 minute connection at CDG might be legal, your dash through the immigration and the airport will be stressful and tiring ... with a high chance you'll miss your connection.
• Will you have to switch terminals? Passengers who switch terminals at LHR have to wait in long queues just to catch the shuttle bus between terminals.
• Beware of itineraries that make you change airports. Some options that come up on the British Airways website require taking a 35 mile bus ride from Heathrow to Gatwick (good luck during rush hour!). Always look for an alternative, even if it costs more.

2. Be protected in case you misconnect. I've read many stories about unknowing travelers who've done something like the following: After searching the internet to find the absolute lowest price, they bought one ticket on British Airways to London, then bought a separate ticket on AirFrance to connect to Paris.  They are unaware of how much can go wrong. Always book your connecting flights on the same airline (or their partner airline) and ensure they're on the same ticket. It's then the airline's problem if you misconnect. If your connecting flights are ticketed separately, you'll be out of luck:

• If you miss your connection, your non-refundable ticket is void, and you’ll have to buy a new ticket at the full, non-discounted, last-minute fare.
• Good luck if you intend to check your baggage to the final destination. You'll be in for an unpleasant surprise if the two airlines do not have inter-airline baggage agreements. You'll need to go through immigration, retrieve your checked baggage, check in again at the front of the airport, then re-enter immigration and security all over again. If you miss your connecting flight, you'll have to buy a full-fare ticket.

An experienced air agent will protect you from mistakes like this.

3. Flight monitoring. What happens when there's a schedule mishap? if your flight across the Atlantic is delayed, and it appears you'll miss your connecting flight, there's nothing you can do from the middle of the ocean. But an experienced air agent can monitor your flights and solve the problem before you even know something's wrong.

4. Time, money, and comfort. You will pay a service fee when using an air agent, but it can still save you time and money. Here are some possible ways you can benefit:

• Hate paying for seat assignments on BA? A savvy air agent can do this with no fee.
• Sometimes booking a code-share saves on taxes and fees.
• Is there a better itinerary that google flights doesn't know?
• Sometimes it pays to put all legs of a multi-segment itinerary on one ticket. Sometimes it pays to split the flights up among several tickets.
• Do you want a flight with a true lie-flat business class seat?

An expert air agent can advise about all these issues.

5. Intelligent, coordinated travel planning. Your flights and itinerary should coordinate to provide you the most convenient connections available. An expert travel advisor, working on your behalf throughout the entire planning process, can ensure your trip flows as smoothly as possible.

Note, I'm talking here about expert air agents. Just because someone works at a travel agency doesn’t mean they know what they're doing. I read a post yesterday on fodors.com. This traveler wanted to spend a week in Paris, then visit Spain or Portugal. But, she wrote the forum asking for advice, “our travel agency wants us to return home from Paris.” She apparently wandered into a travel agency and sat down at the desk of someone who didn't know what they were doing.


Here are some questions you should ask when choosing a travel advisor:

• Are you a member of the Virtuoso network? Using a Virtuoso travel advisor is the only way you can enjoy exclusive Virtuoso amenities at over 1300 luxury hotels and resorts around the world.
• Are you experienced with booking international air or — if not — do you have access to international air experts at your agency?

copyright (c) 2019 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

British Airways | you've got to be kidding...

You've got to be very careful when airlines send an email informing you of a flight irregularity for an upcoming flight.

We were scheduled to fly home from London to Oakland today on BA's Gatwick-to-OAK non-stop. Unfortunately, British Airways decided to abandon that route a week early.

What's wrong with the new flight details? Notice the word "Traveller" to the right of the new flight number? This refers to BA's economy class. We were booked on Avios award tickets in business class. There being no business seats left, or even premium economy, their computer rebooking system assumed we'd be happy with two economy seats instead. Not! Imagine how I would have felt to have arrived at Heathrow this morning only to learn that we had been double-downgraded from lie-flat business class comfort to the torture of too-narrow, too-tight seats in coach.

When I phoned British Airways to make alternate arrangements, I was quite impressed at how unhelpful I found the telephone agent to be. There were no available business class seats on LHW-SFO nonstops that day. He first offered me connecting flights through Phoenix, with a 5 hour layover before a flight back to the Bay Area. Declined.

He offered a non-stop to San Jose, California, arriving 5:40 pm. No thank you; not exactly interested in taking an Uber to Berkeley during the height of rush hour.

I proposed that BA put us on the BA code-share through Dublin. He couldn't (or wouldn't) rebook us on Aer Lingus metal.

Would he rebook us on a Virgin non-stop to SFO? No.

Would he rebook us in Norwegian Premium Class to OAK? No.

The ultimate solution — I chose to delay my return by a day, flying the SFO non-stop in Club World on Friday instead of Thursday.


P.S. — We are traveling with a friend who received the same re-booking notice. Did BA put her on an SFO non-stop (economy seats were available)? NO! Their nifty computer system decided her best options would be to fly to Dallas ... with a connecting flight to San Jose (not to San Francisco or Oakland).

BA, you can do better!


ADDENDUM — Although we had paid the fee for early seat selection, the BA agent with whom I spoke yesterday was unable to select seats for us on the upper deck. When I checked in online just now, they were all gone — only possibility were two very center seats in the 2-4-2 seating scheme, the very seats we would have avoided. Poor, poor service, BA.

copyright  (c)  2018 by Ourisman Travel LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit our website.

going on a trip — 6 ideas to make travel easier

Packing is the least fun part of traveling. I'm leaving for England in just three days — I'm literally  counting down the days — and I've had stuff sitting on our guestroom bed for a week or so. But putting it all into a suitcase? That feels like work.

Here's how I get ready for a trip — six things you might do (or bring) to make your travels as easy and pleasurable as possible:

#1 — create a laminated packing list. Before I had a packing list, I had to re-invent the wheel each time I travelled. I had to remember all the clothes to bring, all the toiletries I'd need, and all the various gadgets I'd want. How many times have you forgotten a belt, a tie, a hat, a tube of toothpaste, or forgotten to cancel the newspaper?

So I created my own customized packing list, printed it in a column on both sides of a sheet of paper, and had the friendly folks at Staples laminate it (about $5). Every time I get ready to travel, I consult my check list. It reminds me of all the things I need to do: fully charge my electronics; put my passport and foreign currency into my carryon; pack power adapters if I'm visiting Europe or Asia; etc.

#2 — save your business class amenity kits. They are the perfect size to store electronics items you always need. One for my MacBook holds the computer's power plug and cord, a multiport adapter, and a USB-to-lightening cable. Another for my various iDevices always has a Dual USB wall charger and two USB-to-lightening cables.

#3 — Bose noise-cancelling airbuds; click here to see the item. I find in-ear headphones preferable to over-the-ear when traveling because they take up so much less space in a carryon. Expensive but worth it if you fly a lot, my Bose eliminates most jet noise. With my earbuds, I can hear clearly the audio from the flight's entertainment system or my iPad. They also serve as headphones for my iPhone.

#4 — Cree LED mini flashlight; click here for a photo. Light and tiny, this item takes up no space in my toiletries bag. A flashlight on your side table is very handy if you need to use the WC in the middle of the night — no need to turn on the room lights which tends to wake you up ... or stumble your way into the bathroom in the darkness. A flashlight also comes in handy when you need to get ready while your partner is still sleeping.

#5 — LL Bean travel pillow; click here to see the item. This isn't for the plane; it's for my hotel bed. I'm very picky about pillows. I prefer soft, thin feather pillows, cushy with just enough support for my neck. If a pillow is too thick, it pushes my neck and head forward all night and I wake up with a neck ache. When packing, the pillow compresses and takes virtually no space — and I only use it if the hotel pillows are too thick.

#6 — check in online 24 hours in advance, print your boarding pass, confirm your limo, and track your flight on the morning of your departure. If you're flying over the pond (as I'm doing on Monday on British Airways), I'll also check the incoming flight. If you know ahead of time if an incoming flight is going to be very late, you'll be able to make alternate plans.

copyright (c) 2018 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

I was just about to give up on miles...

... when I hit the superfecta. It's getting harder and harder to actually use those tens of thousands of airline miles accruing in our accounts. Extremely few seats are made available for award tickets, and some routes never seem to have award availability. Of course, when those seats are released, they're snatched up right away.

It's not like the good old days. I had one of the first Continental OnePass accounts back in the 80's — my account number begins AB — and you could always upgrade from Coach to First for 5,000 miles — any seat booked in any fare bucket. Once I was armed with a Continental MasterCard, I never flew Coach on Continental. Though the ability to use miles slowly tightened, I was always successful using miles to sit up front and pay coach prices. I could call an airline's 800#, give them my dates, and ask how I could use miles to upgrade my desired city pair. If all else failed, my favorite fallback was a 50% discount off any US Airways fare for 30,000 miles.

These days, awards seem to be few and far between. I have seriously reconsidered my strategy of using airline-branded credit cards to collect miles. Would it be better, I wondered, to get a 2% cash-back credit card? And then, when I was about to switch directions, I hit the superfecta. Like a pusher aware that his customer was about to break free from an addiction, the mileage gods conspired to give me four pure hits of success cashing in miles.

#1 — United/SAS to Oslo. I was scheduled to fly to Oslo on SAS this past October - an award ticket for 1 pax, one-way, in business. The morning of my departure, I checked the inbound flight and learned it was over 4 hours late. No good! I would misconnect and miss the beginning of my tour of Norway. I called United's Mileage Plus desk — it was the morning of my flight — and for 15K additional miles, UA flew me to LHR in First, then onward to OSL in business.

#2 — British Airways to London. My wife and I are traveling to England next fall. I've been checking British Air, Virgin Atlantic, and United possibilities on a periodic basis but without much hope; award space on nonstops from SFO to London is extremely rare. Delta Vacations was a more realistic hope, but their great bulk fares still aren't showing up for my dates for non-stop Virgin America flights.

Then I hit success with BA and its poorly designed award booking engine. Oh to be able to search award flights between any San Francisco area airport (SFO, OAK, SJC) and any London airport (LHR, LGW) in one search, but alas you cannot. I hit pay dirt by doing a search by month for OAK-LGW. I found a pair of business award seats for a set of dates close enough to my preferred dates that they would work. I was even able to use a Companion Certificate for my wife. Of course, BA socks award customers with a crazy amount of taxes and fees — and then charges for seat selection — but at the end of the day, we're flying to London in lie-flat business class for about the cost of flying Premium Economy on Norwegian.

#3 — Paris to Vienna. I'm doing site inspections in Paris for four days in April, then joining the Brownell 1887 Club trip to Vienna and Budapest. With my over-the-pond flights already taken care of. I just had to get from Paris to Vienna. My desired AirFrance flight was $157 in coach, $547 in First. For a 2-hour flight (gate-to-gate), I was planning to pluck down the $157, but on a lark, I checked Delta's award booking engine. I could book a Coach flight for 15,000 miles + 40€ tax. Then I checked First ... and it cost 25,000 miles + 40€. After transferring a few AMEX points to Delta to top off my account, I was immediately able to make the booking in First. SOLD!!!

#4 — San Francisco to Baltimore. I'll be traveling to Baltimore next May for Ourisman Travel's annual meeting of our team of nine travel professionals. I was surprised to learn that Alaska Airlines now flies this route non-stop (yay!). Though the round-trip fare in First is extremely reasonable, award seats were available for 130,000 miles round trip. I had to transfer some Diners Club points to Alaska to top off my account (it took 3 days with expedited service for the miles to appear), but I made that award booking this morning. (With just two rows in First, looks like this flight will be on Virgin America metal).

What's the moral of this story? I frankly don't know, but I guess I'll be playing the mileage game again in 2018.

copyright (c) 2017 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

hot showers in Heathrow Terminal 3?

It is a wonderful luxury to get off a long flight and take a hot shower. That's one of the perks of flying in Club World on British Airways — beyond the completely horizontal sleeper seats that enabled me to get five good hours of sleep last night. And I was looking forward to the treat of enjoying a hot shower after 10 hours on a plane from SFO to London.

As our connecting flight to Lisbon departs from Heathrow Terminal 3, we caught the bus that takes transiting passengers from T-5 to T-3. Long lines for the bus are a thing of the past, and in five minutes we were on a coach that meandered through Heathrow, taking us directly to the airside entrance to T-3.

And that's where this tale of woe begins.

1. There are no "Fast Track" security lines in T-3. First and Club World passengers stand in the same security line as everyone else.
2. BA's Terrace Lounge in T-3 is in the midst of upgrading. The showers and spa won't open until the end of October.
3. We inquired at the American Admiral's Club to which we enjoyed complimentary entry as Club World passengers on BA. The showers in their business class lounge were under construction — and the showers in the First Class lounge (to which we did not have access) had no hot water.
4. The Servisair Lounge (open to Priority Pass or Diners Club members) has no showers.

The lesson to take away from this adventure? If you're flying into T-5, want a hot shower, and have at least 2 hours between flights, use the BA Arrivals Lounge before transiting to another terminal.

Heathrow Terminal 3 (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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