Off to Easter Island!

Today I am reaping the rewards of my credit card churning. I redeemed my British Airways miles to get us both down to Easter Island and back. Business class outbound and return in coach. It was a great value since it would have cost more than $5,000 for the airline tickets alone. We are also stopping in Mendoza, Argentina for some fantastic steak and wine.

I am working on my broken spanish vocabulary and getting everything packed for the flights. I am doing a 100% carry on trip for the first time for an international vacation. I will be gone a total of 10 days covering the spring break period. I am sure I will take 100's of photos and have plenty of stories to share when I get back.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!

Water Heater fixed!

I went with my dad to Lowe's this morning to get a new water heater and related materials for installation. We decided to convert from gas to electric for safety and cost reasons. It will pay off over the long term in utilities costs and efficiency.

It took my dad most of the day to get the electrical and plumbing redone but I now am mostly back to normal again. It is nice to have a hot shower!

I spent $300 on materials and am taking my dad out for a nice dinner tonight for his help. All said and done I am looking at close to my $500 estimate. Luckily I had money saved for house repairs to pay for this.

This is the perfect example of why we all need an emergency fund!

Bangor, Maine: Day 2

Today was a relatively uneventful day on the road. I got the rest of the work done and the client trained on the new system. They were very pleased with the results which always makes me at ease after a lot of work, planning, and travel to make it happen.

I have to say the TSA security line at Bangor Airport is one of the worst I have been in. They went through my entire bag and took everything out which I of course had to take 20 minutes to repack properly. I understand wanting to be safe but running pens and iPad cables separately is taking it too far.

It is obvious these people have nothing better to do than to waste our time and tax dollars.

Time for the flight back home and a quick stop in New York to change planes. A trip to the sky club for a celebratory drink is in order!

Bangor, Maine: Cold and boring!

I have spent my first full day in Maine for work. I got 90% of the work I came for done and have had some free time. I admit there is not a lot to do around here! Flying in from 75 F weather to 30 F weather doesn't add much to my motivation. Their seems to be very limited good food options around too. Bleh!

I have all day here tomorrow and head back home tomorrow night. My dad should arrive around the same time and we will assess the hot water heat situation. I am estimating at least $500 in costs to get things back to normal if no further damage is found. I am glad he is coming up as hiring someone would easily be north of $1000+.

It is time to head to a local Irish pub for dinner. I hope the food is at least edible! I have had bad luck with finding decent local restaurants in the northeastern USA.

When Disaster Strikes...

I woke up this morning to have a shower as usual. I noticed that the water was barely warm. I found it odd but went on as usual getting ready for work. As I was shaving it hit me. I knew what the problem was but finished getting ready.

I went downstairs. Broken water heater. Leaking. I was none too pleased.

Immediate call to my Dad and work begins. End up shutting the water off to the entire house since the valve for the water heater is of course not closing all the way. Drained out the water heater and started to soak up the water as best I can.

Did I mention I have a flight to Maine for work at 5:40PM? Yeah.

I get to the office around 10AM. I am late, stressed, and already had a shortened day and week due to travel and I am going to Easter Island on Friday!

Ughhh...

At least this happened now and not while I was gone for 10 days. It could always be worse.

Luckily my Dad will get time off to come for a long weekend and we will install a new water heater and get things sorted out. It will be a lot cheaper than a plumber/electrician and I will buy him a nice dinner and his gas here and back.

Now I am off to Maine!

WOW!: Frugal uses for old phone books

It amazes me what people come up with. This is why I love blogs and the internet. All of the different thinkers out there can share their ideas freely and I can learn form them. This is a great example:

27 Uses for a dead phone book

I usually get these fairly often from the phone company even though I don't even have phone service...go figure?

I would normally just toss them in my recycle bins for the weekly pickup. Not anymore!

Two weeks in Michigan complete!

Today I have finished my last job site for this big trip up to Michigan. It was a large project for the company and it went well. I got all 35 locations up and running on relatively short notice with no major hiccups. I call that a win any day of the week.

I am going back home (well the office) tomorrow morning. No need for me to stay another full day just to sit around on slow WiFi and get half as much done. We have more work coming and I need to tend to it soon!

This trip has earned me a lot of points and per diems that will be handy for Easter Island, Guatemala, and beyond. I am off to Maine next week for a quick 2 day, 2 night trip for a smaller project. I have never been to northern Maine and am hoping for some decent weather.

Flying for free takes points: FLEXIBLE points

I fly nearly all of my vacation travel using the points I earn from my fun game of promotions and credit card offers. And of course my work travel that earns me points with a few programs. Now that I have been in the game for a while I have my overall strategy figured out: Do not put all my points into one program!

A lot of programs lately have "devalued" their points by changing the rules. These changes make the rewards I want take a lot more points to redeem. Delta was the worst and fell way down my list. British Airways switched to a distance based approach with removed some great redemptions but added others. Half of the battle is to keep up with the rules and tricks to get what you want for the least amount of points.

The only way to stay a step ahead of the game is to earn points that you can transfer to multiple programs. As it stands today my top 3 are American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Sapphire Preferred Ultimate Rewards, and Starwood Hotels Group. Each of these allows me to transfer their points to a long list of programs. I can move to where I find the best deal and am not married to a single program.

My current favorite is Chase Ultimate Rewards since they transfer to United. I am most interested in international business/first class. United has lots of great partners in Star Alliance and availability. I can first find the seats I want, transfer to United instantly, and book the ticket. Fantastic!

My main problem is earning points fast enough. With promotions and credit card offers slowing down I will eventually run out if this trend continues. I know this game is not going to be sustainable forever so I need to make the most of what I can get today.

Red Oxx Sky Train Bag Review

Last week I started traveling for work with my new bag. I wasn't sure at first when it arrived and I did a trial packing of all of the essentials. Now that I have lived out of it for a week I can form a better opinion. I have figured out all the little quirks and tricks to make it work better.

The result: The bag was worth every penny!

It is smaller and more light weight than my older backpack (which was meant as a laptop bag!). I can get all the clothes, electronics, work stuff, and everything else I need into it with room to spare. I use the large section for clothes and toiletries. The middle section I put electronics, notebook, and other odds and ends. The outer pocket happens to fit my macbook pro by itself.

I had to change the way I organize my stuff since it has essentially no internal pockets. I am using small bags and ziploc bags to keep things organized. I have ordered ditty bags from Amazon to save weight and space in the long run. I highly recommend them!

It construction is solid. I can tell they used very high quality materials and workmanship when building the bag. It does everything I need it too and more. I can certainly see using it for longer trips too and fully intend to do so. My main gripe is that it is not great for laptops. They are not really protected at all in the bag. I also have to note that it wasn't built for that purpose.

I will probably end up getting a small separate laptop bag as a solution. While I don't like to carry 2 bags I can see where it will be useful. Firstly I will have proper protection for the laptop. Second it transfers a lot of electronic stuff out of the main bag. That leaves room for more clothes needed for longer trips and better weight distribution. I also like having the big bag in the overhead and my smaller bag with everything I need under the seat.

Overall I am very happy I bought the bag. It will give me a lifetime of good service and easy traveling in the air. I have a lifetime warranty, no questions asked, and can get a new one if I have any issues. They are USA based and manufactured so I don't have to worry about getting stiffed on some sort of warranty exclusion.

United Economy Plus Review

This morning I flew United from Atlanta to Dulles to Detroit. I booked a reward coach ticket for work in exchange for some points. It definitely worked out in my favor!

I decided to buy and Economy plus seat on my leg from Dulles to Detroit. The Atlanta leg did not offer it (very small plane). It cost me $19 over and above the ticket price. Now that I have done it I am wondering: Was it worth it?

My Answer: Maybe.

I bought it since I needed to deplane quickly and get to my rental car and ultimately my first job site in the city. It saved me about 30 minutes (my own estimate) over a standard seat.

The seat itself: I thought it was pretty good. Being 6'2" I really liked the extra leg room. It seemed to be the same as most smaller plane exit row seats. It was appreciated. The recline seemed to be the same as all other economy seats. If there was more I certainly did not notice it!

Would I pay for it again?

My Answer: only if it was a longer (3+ hour) flight. I can survive a couple of hours in a normal coach seat if I have too. If I am going across the country the value of the extra space increases since I will be stuck there a lot longer.

Pricing: It would be more fair of United (or any other airline) to make the Economy Plus seats an upgrade fee per direction instead of per segment. Those costs can really jump if you have to connect a lot. It also helps us not feel nickel-and-dimed. Just combine the two fees and drop the price a little.

As a Delta Elite flyer I will certainly be using the economy comfort seats as they become more widely available. I rarely, if ever, get upgrades and the extra room means more to me flying all the time. I am interested in trying them on a longer haul international flight also. If I have to buy a ticket instead of using miles I would pay for the extra comfort.