vaccination — your ticket to ride

 

Eiffel Tower at Dawn (c) 2021 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

E.U. Set to Let Vaccinated U.S. Tourists Visit This Summer          .

It's been way too long. I was last in Europe in the autumn of 2019 when we took a Baltic cruise on Windstar, a luxury small ship cruise line that can get into smaller ports that cannot accommodate the large ships. We loved the cruise and enjoyed out-of-the-way destinations as well as highlights like Gdansk, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm. We finished up our tour by flying to Paris (my favorite city in the world) for a few days before flying home.

A lot has happened since 2019. Covid-19 struck with a vengeance in March 2020, forcing me to cancel a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii to see the brand new Mauna Lani as well as inspect the new room product at Four Seasons Hualalai. I held out hope that things would settle down by April, letting us visit Amsterdam during tulip season, then board our Tauck River Cruise from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland ... but little did any of us know 13 months ago. Covid sadly necessitated the cancellation of that trip.

But Europe promises to be back this summer for vaccinated U.S. tourists. Anticipating its reopening, I was able to rebook my Tauck River Cruise three months ago and was able to score a pair of business class "Saver" award tickets on United. I received my second Pfizer vaccine on Feb. 19th, and Claire got hers on April 5th, so we're all set to go.

Getting vaccinated is your ticket to ride. I can't offer medical advice because I'm not a M.D., but if you're feeling a strong desire to travel the world again, vaccines offer the path forward to satisfy your wanderlust. If you're curious about the remarkable scientific advances that enabled the development of RNA-based vaccines, I highly recommend Walter Isaacson's recent book, The Code Breaker. A well-told story and a good read, the book provides an accessible introduction to the technology that led to the creation of the highly effective Pfizer and Modern vaccines.

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copyright (c) 2021 by Ourisman Travel LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member.

using frequent flyer miles is frustrating

It used to be a LOT easier to take advantage of frequent flyer miles. I discovered the usefulness of airline miles back in the early 1980's while living in New Jersey. At that time, it was possible to upgrade virtually any Continental ticket from Coach to First for just 5,000 miles, as long as you booked early enough. Once I started using a credit card that earned OnePass miles, I never had to sit in coach.

Even in the 1990's after moving to California, I had a lot of success getting upgraded. Virtually every seat was eligible, and USAirways even had an award that allowed using miles for a 50% discount on any fare including First. I enjoyed a couple of years as an Alaska Airlines MVP Gold later in the 1990's which got me upgrade certificates that could be used at time of booking to secure an upgrade.

But no longer. While I've got a ton of airline miles, as well as Amex and Diners Club miles, it's increasingly difficult to use them. I recently had to book a round-trip flight from SFO to ATL for this coming October. It was possible to use 80,000 miles to score a round trip ticket in First — with a 6 a.m. departure on the outbound and a late afternoon return, times that did not work for me. As a discounted first class ticket was only $1100, that didn't seem a judicious use of 80K miles.

It takes an expert to get the best value from our miles. It's a full-time job just keeping up with the airlines' games, but fortunately there are experts out there who can help mileage amateurs get the best value from our miles. I have used Points Pros. Ben and his crew know how to find available reward seats and they'll take care of getting the award tickets booked. Ben helped me use a combination of British Airways, Alaska Airlines, and Diners Club points to score a pair of tickets on Cathay Pacific in their incredible First. His charge? Just $150 for the first passenger on an itinerary and $100 for any additional passengers. Worth every penny!


frequent flyer miles (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2012 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..