More Work Travel: Getting busy!

I learned today at work that if all goes through I will have quite the busy travel time. I am already booked for Maine and Boston. I still have Baltimore at some unknown time for at least 3 trips. Now looks like I will be adding Salt Lake City, UT and Tennesse and WV/VA/NC and Scranton, PA. That is a LOT of road time!

I am seeing lots of per diem, miles, points, and good times in my future. Of course I will be working a lot but will do my best to throw in some fun stuff when I can. I will be adding new states to my list as a result and seeing some great scenery in Utah. I am assuming more of the same around Scranton as well as West Virginia. It is great to see the country on someone else's dime!

Time to dust off the travel bags. Here we go!

New Points Churn complete!

Today I applied for a few attractive points offers. In total I should get 30,000 Chase points, $500 from citibank, and 40,000 Hilton points (waiting approval on this one). They all have low spending requirements so it should be easy to meet. Only one of them has an annual fee which I will cancel before it is due next year.

This is certainly not as impressive as 2011 but it is a good start. I am trying to let my new account activity cool down so I don't get flagged by the various banks as being a greedy churner. I have read stories of people losing all of their points and relationship with the bank for doing it too much. Moderation is a key aspect of this game. Pick your battles and don't get carried away.

I also already have all the points I need this year to cover all of my travel until 2013. I of course will keep and eye out for great offers on certain cards. My goal this year is to learn more about hotel points and their programs so I can use those to my advantage also. Always learning new tricks is the key to maximizing points value!

Booked Trip: Easter Island 2012!

This past weekend I scored 2 LAN Airlines rewards tickets for Easter Island. It is a place I have always been curious about and is very expensive to get too normally. I also worked in some time to visit Mendoza, Argentina so we can relax in the wine country during the harvest season. All in all I have a very nice 1 week getaway planned for us.

I used my 100,000 British Airways miles that I scored from my credit card game. We are going outbound in business class (great since it takes 17+ hours to fly there). We are coming back in coach since the trip is broken up by our stop in Mendoza. I was able to land a cheap local airfare to and from Mendoza so I just bought it outright. Overall I am extremely pleased with the deal I got:

• Cost to obtain 100,000 BA Miles: $95 annual + spending I would have done anyway
• "Buy up" portion of the fare: $383
• Local flights purchased (also LAN): $174x2 = $348

All in cost: $826 out of pocket. That may seem high but the COACH tickets alone to Easter Island and back from Miami would have cost over $2,000 per person. This is a great use of the miles and I get business class on the way there so we can actually get some rest and enjoy our time on the island. This is a great example of how playing the miles games pays off in a big way. For me it made this trip affordable when I previously could not even dream of it financially.

Now I have to figure out what I want to do for Thanksgiving 2012!

Mileage Run: Short turn around trip tomorrow!

Tomorrow I am taking a very quick mileage run to Chicago and back on United. I used up the last of my vouchers before they expired and will spend roughly 2 hours in the lounge in ORD before coming back to Atlanta. I had Gold status with them and got upgraded both ways. Yay!

This one will not be as great as my first mileage run to San Diego via Boston a couple months ago but it is certainly better than throwing away the free money. I have never been to ORD airport and am looking forward to seeing how it compares to Atlanta since it is the second busiest airport in the world behind Atlanta.

I will have breakfast in Chicago and lunch in Atlanta!

Back home: More travel coming!

Today I am back home in Atlanta and have an odd work schedule: 2PM to 10PM since we are doing quarterly server upgrades. Everyone has to be out of the office for us to complete it so I am on an odd schedule for the next 2 days as a result. I also have to work this Saturday for an all-day quarterly meeting. Joy.

I just got back from a mini-vacation back home and I am looking at 2 more trips in the very near future. I am going back to Boston for 2 days July 12-13 for work and then a same day turn mini mileage run to Chicago on July 16 to burn the United voucher that otherwise would have expired. I am not getting nearly as much miles as I would normally but it is better than losing the voucher!

I am also looking at travel in August to Baltimore and Boston again. I will take any miles that I can get since I have been burning a lot lately booking vacations and a flight for a friend. I just got the United Airlines card for another bonus that will help boost my balance a good bit too!

Travel Delays, Voucher, More Personal Travel?

Yesterday I flew back home from BWI to Atlanta on Delta. I arrived quite early to the airport to beat traffic and get a little work done on my laptop. I was on the last flight out of the day. The plane we were supposed to get on had mechanical issues.

Two hours later than the scheduled 7PM departure we are boarding. I get in my exit row seat (as usual) extra tired from the long day. Once in the air I write my official complaint to Delta. It was their fault I got home after midnight end felt they should compensate me somehow for it.

Today I got a response and they are giving me a $50 travel credit. Fair considering we left 2 hours later than scheduled. This got me thinking and now I am looking into a weekend trip to New Orleans (one of my favorite cities in the US) for voodoo music fest in October. Between the $50 and another voucher my ticket should be close to free.

I am not completely done planning for Asia but mostly there. I am waiting on airfare sales from the discount airlines there and have a few loose ends to take care of but I am ready to go tomorrow if I had too. I am excited!

This got me thinking about next year and the 100,000 mile British Airways bonus I am sitting on. Thanks to some learning about the ins and outs of their system I determined that I can use the miles to get myself and my girlfriend to Easter Island off of Chile for 40,000 miles round trip in coach. Awesome! I have always wanted to go to Easter Island and it is a very expensive place to get too. This is my chance!

This is a great case for planning ahead. I start figuring it all out now and nab the award tickets when available. In this case I am thinking April 2012 for a week and the rules allow me to include 2 stops in Argentina on my way back. It will be a bit of a fast trip but it makes the best use of my miles at the same time. Either way I am excited for the possibilities!

Mileage Run Success!

I had a long weekend starting at 4AM Saturday morning for my first flight up to IAD. That is one of 6 flights I would take over the next 36 hours. I was upgraded on only my first leg and came very close on 2 others. For the $60 I had invested I certainly cannot complain!

I next went up to Boston, over to Houston, then San Diego, back to DC and finally back home to Atlanta. I was quit tiring going between airports, in and out of planes, etc. More so that I expected! Overall it was a good experience and I would certainly do it again if the opportunity presents itself!

I met some great people from the Flyertalk.com forums who were also in on the great deal on the flights. We discussed all sorts of geeky frequent flyer stuff as we enjoyed free drinks in the lounges. We shared road stories, successes booking award tickets using our miles, and comparing to other airlines' programs. I learned a lot in that short time and made some great new friends.

I organized a group to share a taxi to In-N-Out in San Diego. We had about 3 hours to kill around dinner time. It worked out well for all as the food was great and cheap and the taxi was also only $5 per person. I spent the rest of time in the lounge waiting for my flight back east and more free drinks!

I now have enough miles banked to book my one way first class ticket to Asia. It was certainly worth the hassle when I think about what I will be getting in return. A little rough flying now to save my sanity for a much longer haul this November. I am learning the ropes of the system and how to use it to my advantage. I also had a great chance to compare Delta to others here in the USA. They all have prs and cons.

Mileage Run This Weekend!

I will be spending the majority of this coming weekend in airport lounges, San Diego, and Boston. I am earning about 15,000 miles for $62 out of pocket. I am looking forward to meeting other mileage run travelers and having some laughs and drinks along the way.

My plan thus far is to eat In-N-Out in San Diego and I have around 6 hours to check out downtown Boston on Sunday. I will be using my time in the air with GoGo Wifi to get some work done. I have plenty of small projects that need to be knocked out.

Hopefully I will get upgraded at least some of the time while flying. We shall see!