travel bargains in the age of COVID-19

 

United Airlines must have a lot of availability per the email blast they just sent me. Look at all the unsold seats on that route ... only 51 seats left at this price.

A chance for a last minute weekend getaway, you'll depart this Friday on the 7:01 p.m. flight to Kona. With the three hour time difference, you'll arrive Kona at 9:33 p.m., giving you four full days to soak in the sun and enjoy the waves of the Big Island.

Here's a suggested itinerary to take full advantage of this travel bargain:

13MAR (Friday)

United # 1723 departs SFO 7:01 p.m., arrives Kona 9:33 p.m.

13MAR-4NT — Mauna Lani 

Virtuoso Mauna Lani Journey Promotion (requires a four night stay)

• $250 daily resort credit

• Daily buffet breakfast for two in HaLani Restaurant

• additional one-time $100 resort credit

Ocean View Deluxe King room @ $774 per night 

17MAR (Tuesday)

United # 435 departs Kona 2:46 p.m., arrives SFO 10:49 pm.

Mauna Lani has just reopened following an extensive $200 million renovation. Guest rooms are large and gorgeous, and The Mauna Lani Journey Promotion is one of the best values I've seen. With $1100 in total resort credits for a four night stay (the promotion combines with Virtuoso amenities), your NET per night room rate is $499 per night, an amazing price for a luxury resort. With complimentary buffet breakfast for two and (hopefully) an upgrade to an Ocean Front King room if available at check-in, your resort credits could pay for virtually all your meals.

Hawaii, anyone?

copyright (c) 2020 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.

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.

looking forward to JetBlue's Mint Suite

JetBlue is proud of the special touches on its Mint service

I last flew JetBlue in 2008. We flew to Boston for my son's wedding, and you can read my review of the flight here. Instead of booking United First for $2200 each round-trip, we bought a row of three "38" Extra Leg Room" seats ... it worked out to $450 each round-trip with plenty of room for our legs and shoulders. While we didn't get free alcohol or the chance to experience airplane food à la United, we each saved $1750 — which will buy a LOT of much better meals.

Nine and one-half years later, I'll be on JetBlue again. This time I'm flying their SFO-FLL nonstop route, and I've booked their Mint service. Having made my booking early (5 months ago), I was able to select a Mint Suite for both flights. The Mint cabin has five rows of seats. Rows 1, 3, and 5 are configured with 2x2 sleeper seats. Rows 2 and 4 have a 1x1 configuration and contain the Mint Suites, four small private cabins with both a window and a door closing to the aisle.

Each Mint seat converts into a 6'8" lie-flat bed, and the meal service is supposed to be something special. The JetBlue website shows the intent to provide an experience unlike the typical legacy airline's first class — they serve artisanal ice cream, bakery items, espresso, and even provide an amenity kit.

Be watching Travel Horizons — I'll write a review after my flights.

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.

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.

Tahiti non-stops from San Francisco

picture yourself in French Polynesia (c) 2017 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Flying to Tahiti will get a lot easier beginning next October 30. United Airlines has announced nonstop Dreamliner flights from San Francisco to Papeete. Flying three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday), United plans serve this route from October 30, 2018 through March 28, 2019.

Why I'm excited by this news: 

You can avoid LAX, a monstrously inconvenient place to connect. Domestic flights arrive at one of eight terminals, and you have to schlep yourself and your baggage to the international terminal, check in again with Air Tahiti Nui (which means leaving airside), and go through security again (plan for a long wait in line). If you plan to check bags, you'll have to see if your domestic airline has an interline agreement with Air Tahiti Nui.

Flying through SFO will be a dream by comparison. Being a United hub, you'll have easy connections from all over the US with your bags seamlessly checked all the way through to PPT. Passengers can walk between United's domestic and international gates without having to go through security again. And SFO offers a choice of lounge experiences — the American Express Centurion Lounge or United's Polaris Lounge.

The timing of the flights is bit disappointing. The outbound flight departs SFO at 2:45 p.m., arriving PPT at 9:25 p.m. Because this is too late for connecting Air Tahiti flights onto Bora Bora or Moorea, you'll have to overnight in Papeete; I recommend the InterContinental Tahiti. The return, departing PPT at 11:45 p.m. and arriving SFO 10:50 a.m. the next morning, is fine.

However, the "season" for which United is flying the route makes no sense — from October 30 until March 28. This is "summer" in French Polynesia, the rainiest and most humid time of the year. The best months to visit Tahiti begin in April when you'll enjoy the driest weather and most comfortable temperatures. Oops! Guess someone at United failed to check the "high season" for Bora Bora and Moorea.

I've been twice ... so please contact us to plan your dream trip to Bora Bora and ask about the value-added Virtuoso and Four Seasons Preferred Partner amenities. We can save you hundreds of dollars on your trip of a lifetime.

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.

carry-on luggage | UA, AA, and DL problems

It makes me wonder whether there's a conspiracy between the airlines and luggage manufacturers. United, American, and Delta have recently shrunk their carry-on luggage specifications, now setting maximum sizes of 22 inches long, 14 inches, wide, and 9 inches high… as opposed to Southwest and JetBlue who still allow bags that are  24 x 16 x 10.

Just today, United sent me a promotional email reminding me of their new policy. Suspiciously, the webpage to which the email points also offers "exclusive discounts" on "approved" carry-on bags. What kind of exclusive discounts? Well, a Tumi T-Tech Cargo offered through United's link for $295 can be purchased for $206.50 from Amazon.com. That's a heck of a discount — United's price is $88.50 more. I assume United is getting some sort of kickback from these sales.

Let's let our voices be heard. My current bag always fits in the overhead compartment of a full-size jet; why should I have to spend a few hundred dollars for a new bag that falls within a new arbitrary set of dimensions. Our message: "How about installing newer and better designed overhead compartments that easily fit the carry-on bags we already have. And as you always remind us at the end of a flight, we have the choice of air carriers. Don't tempt us!"

copyright (c) 2014 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

inedible glutinous broccoli breakfast something

inedible glutinous broccoli breakfast something on UA

I've had this once before, this inedible glutinous broccoli breakfast something on a United morning flight. Took one bite of whatever this was supposed to be last Thursday morning, as I sat in First on my SFO-EWR breakfast flight, and left the rest... Not a complete waste, though, as it gives me something to blog about.

United, how about retiring this menu item? The swiss cheese omelette was fine, the roasted potatoes OK, and it's not possible to ruin yogurt and fruit. But no more of this breakfast thingy, please!

It is possible to serve good meals on an airplane. In fact, my return EWR-SFO flight on Saturday offered a fabulous lunch. Of course, it was on a Continental flight (they still run two distinct airlines within the new United). The lunch was served in three courses, and I enjoyed all three — especially the hot fudge sundae for dessert! Here were the lunch entree options; I chose the Spice-rubbed Breast of Chicken... moist, flavorful, and even healthy!

copyright (c) 2013 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

dealing with travel stress | be proactive

view down the aisle of a Continental Express regional jet

Let me preface everything I write by saying that the travel stress I faced yesterday pales in comparison to what the passengers on Saturday's Asiana flight 214 have endured. My heart goes out to them, especially to those travelers who were injured or lost their lives in the crash at SFO.

My trip to upstate New York had been planned for some time. I had planned to fly Delta from SFO on Sunday morning to Albany, NY, connecting in Minneapolis. When Asiana 214 crashed at SFO on Saturday morning, my first reaction was typical of most of us who turned on the TV and watched the horrifying image of the burning jet just across the Bay.

It also occurred to me that this tragedy could affect my own travel plans as SFO was completely shut down for several hours. When it re-opened, the two north-south runways remained closed with some flights diverted to Oakland and San Jose, international arrivals being routed to LAX, and many flights simply cancelled. So I faced a very pragmatic question: what was the incoming Saturday flight that would become my outbound flight on Sunday morning? A phone call to Delta reservations obtained that information. The inbound plane, coming from Atlanta, would not arrive until Sunday morning, although an on-time departure to MSP was still anticipated. Because I had a three hour scheduled layover in MSP, I was not overly worried.

However, Sunday morning brought a new and unwelcome wrinkle as I kept on top of developments via Delta's website. My outbound departure to MSP was now said to be "diverted" to SLC (I suspect because of FAA requirements about the number of hours that a flight crew can operate an aircraft before a mandated rest period.) My revised itinerary now showed a minuscule layover in SLC before a connecting flight to MSP. 

And then one more, and devastating, wrinkle. The departure to SLC now was delayed, making it impossible to make my connection MSP. I learned this fact a mere 15 minutes before I planned to leave for the airport.

Sometimes being a travel agent has its advantages. Booting up Sabre to determine alternative ways to get from SFO to ALB that Sunday, United actually had space on its 10:45 a.m. flight to CLE, with a short but legal connection onto ALB. I booked the flight, then left for the airport.

There was still work to be done, however. (1) Checking in online while in the car to San Francisco (I was not the driver!), I even changed my assigned seat on my iPhone. (2) I phoned Delta to cancel the first half of my itinerary. Important fact to know: if you don't show up for a flight, the airline will cancel your entire itinerary. Delta had wait times of 30-60 minutes, so I took advantage of their helpful service to automatically call me back when an agent was ready for me.

SFO was pure pandemonium. Ticket counters were jammed with endless lines of passengers, but with my iPhone boarding pass, Priority security line status, and TSA Pre-Check clearance, I was literally through security in 30 seconds and spent 30 minutes in an absolutely packed United Club before heading to the gate. The UA flight to Cleveland actually departed on time with no line of planes waiting to take off, and we landed in CLE 20 minutes early. I had an entire hour to catch my Continental Express flight to Albany and arrived in Albany a couple of hours earlier than my originally schedule flight with Delta.

Lessons to be learned. When there is trouble at the airport, anticipate that there will be problems and that you're best off dealing with them yourself: 

(1) Don't wait for the airline to contact you. Delta never contacted me with any of this information, either by phone call, text message, or email. I obtained all of this information only by proactively seeking it from the Delta website.

(2) Don't wait for the airline to suggest alternatives. Their website said that while I'd miss my connections, they would get me to my destination, but they didn't say how or when. That wasn't good enough. I got to my destination the same day only by taking matters into my own hands.

(3) Spend the money. If you have to be someplace at a given time, spend the money and straighten it out later. Last night Delta refunded the outbound half of my trip with them.

(4) Be proactive. Get the facts. Determine the alternatives. Make decisions. And then sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight.

copyright (c) 2013 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

the gift of christmas

How does an airport-closing snowstorm in Colorado affect me when I live in California and have no plans to travel east for the holidays? Well, I'm a travel consultant (actually quite new in the industry ... just seven months now), and I have clients whose travel plans included Denver.

The phone call came at 7 p.m. Thursday night. I hadn't even eaten dinner yet! One client was already at the family's condo near the ski slopes. Her tree was trimmed and the home was decorated for the holidays, awaiting the rest of the family. Her husband and daughters had managed to change their canceled flights to Saturday. But United had just canceled the next-day flights for her two sons who were scheduled to fly in from the east coast.

This mother called with a plea that anyone can understand. All she wanted for Christmas was for her whole family to be together. She couldn't get through to United on the phone. Nothing seemed to be working. Could I help?

Let me pause the story with a true confession. I really don't do air, and I'm not alone. Sabre is a beast of a program, and it's very easy to make a simple but expensive mistake booking with Sabre, so I don't even try. I book air travel for my clients, when they need me to do it, the same way you do ... through the airlines' web sites.

However, I know enough Sabre to punch in the codes to see what flights are available and how many seats are open in what classes of service. Armed with that information, I went to Continental's website and secured two reservations (they had different return dates) for her sons. The first reservation went through without a hitch. The second reservation ... well, apparently someone had bought the same seat just moments before I clicked the button.

That's what was happening Thursday night. Flights to Denver were being bought quicker than the computers could keep up with the itinerary. Option after option failed to produce an itinerary that I could book. Finally I entered a one-way search for WAS-DEN on orbitz, and after a few misses, scored a nonstop flight for the second son! (He'll be happy; the only remaining seat was in first class).

How can I explain this seat suddenly appearing? Probably passengers were holding multiple reservations, and someone released this seat when something less expensive became available for them.

So after a couple of hours of really stressful work, I had saved Christmas! My client's whole family would be together. And what did I charge for my services? It was my gift. (My general manager will shudder to read this!) It was my pleasure to be able to give my clients ... the gift of Christmas.

travel agent consultant airline airport closing United Continental Denver snowstorm Christmas gift family together Sabre orbitz ski slopes tree