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Yes I currently have booked two RTW awards in the <35000 mile category in business. Mine was booked via miles on OneWorld but I am pretty familiar. What questions do you have? OneWorld offers a bunch of different types of explorer tickets. What is your proposed routing? Time of year? With Qatar joining on oct 30 and Malaysia joining this past Feb there are some really interesting options. My advice: spring for business if you're traveling for any length of time both in flight time or consecutive days. Also with OneWorld what country you start the ticket in matters. Previously you'd save thousands by starting in an odd place, much more that the positioning flights would cost to get you there.
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Oct 8, 2013 07:49
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 18:55 |
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Mackieman posted:To that end, chasing upgrades may not be the best plan for you. AA offers buy ups at the kiosk only, but there's no guarantee they'll be offered or that you'll want to pay what they're charging. A point of clarification here, LFBU (load factor based upgrades) are based on space available inclusive of the upgrade list. So if you're on the upgrade list it will clear before you can purchase a LFBU. For Platinum this begins at 72 hours in advance but can run all the way until the door closes. So elite status will always yield an upgrade before a LFBU. Also, 500 mile upgrades can be purchased if you don't have enough in your account. A LFBU upgrade costs you $45 per 500 miles, a 500 mile upgrade costs $30 per upgrade, so elite status + 500 mile upgrade will always be cheaper than an LFBU. LFBUs are OCCASIONALLY offered at international stations for anywhere from $500-1000+, but definitely not guaranteed and those flights will leave with open seats in J and F without offering the upgrades. Jealous Cow posted:Thanks for all the info. I do have a Sapphire Preferred card but I never use it. I'm considering switching to it as my primary and shelving the Amex, or asking for a product change to MileagePlus Club for the Preferred Access, free checked bag, and club access. If your company is willing to foot a 395 fee I'd shoot for Amex Platinum, you get access to 3 airlines clubs and your global entry application is free, amongst other perks. Doesn't help if you fly UA but if you've got a choice it's an option if you decide to stick with AA. With 25k being the lowest tier available you definitely fly enough to earn status. Flying with it, even at the lowest level, is much better than without. sellouts fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 22:51
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Absolutely. And no soft landing either. But lots of promotions going on that will get you some level of status. I will say that for anyone with paid business travel the revenue levels are pretty easy to meet, at least in my experience. But I fly mostly transcons. Just no more 199 specials to JFK through Miami round trip with double EQMs to get you gold for like 400 dollars (like those fares exist regularly anymore!) I'm a huge OW / AA homer, so if anyone has any specific questions about the airline or alliance I can try to help.
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Oct 9, 2013 22:58
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Eh. Aside from being an international destination fly a few JFK-LAX transcons. I was getting mine for ~440. and it's 2500 each way. But yeah, use your miles. It took me 10 years but I finally did this year and it felt so good to at least use 400k of them while they had a little value.
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Oct 9, 2013 23:13
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Anyone remember when SWA had 25 min connections? Yeah, there's a reason it is 45 min to be a legal connection now. That should be fine
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Nov 10, 2013 03:16
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Consult a travel agent within thre country in which you're traveling for hotels and resort pricing. Flights? Not so much. For both Peru and the Maldives a travel agent saved me 20%+ and helped me find properties at varying qualities or in the case of the Maldives that checked the boxes of what I wanted in a resort and room. The rest of my trips recently? Not so much so it can be really hit or miss. But it's free to check with them.
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Jun 19, 2014 08:20
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When I did the Maldives using a travel agent for hotel only saved us a non-negligible amount of money vs booking on the web. This was compounded by the sea plane required to get there which is a pretty unique thing to the Maldives so this advice isn't always applicable. Do your research, find the properties that have the room and amenities you want, note the costs, and take the short list to a travel agent online and see if they can beat a deal. What you'll find a lot of times in those packages is a lower level room than you want. But like anything else it kind of all depends on budget and the level of property/service you expect. Also with over water bungalows think about things like distance walking to beach/pool/food, if you want a pool within the bungalow for night swimming, proximity to snorkeling, etc. I highly recommend overwater bungalows if you have the means as its a sure fire way to avoid being next to loud families as kids almost always can't stay on the overwater bungalows. Don't book any excursions until you get there. When you get done traveling and get to the room you might realize that it and the beach are all you need. If you have any further questions feel free to PM me. Our honeymoon was pretty complex and outside the realm of every travel agent I spoke to and I like helping with this sort of thing. Not to mention doing it yourself can cut out the crap. sellouts fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Dec 16, 2014 |
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Dec 16, 2014 09:07
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Cruises are pretty simple in the grand scheme of things and are made largely for people who don't want to worry about much. You should post your questions and I'm sure people can answer.
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Dec 26, 2014 07:50
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Anyone traveled to Saudi Arabia? I am a US citizen. My brother in law is moving there for work. My understanding is that I can't visit him and family visits for residents are limited to immediate family and father/mother in law. Any way I can get into the kingdom?
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Jan 5, 2015 05:33
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I much prefer vrbo renters to airbnb. Vrbo usually has executed paperwork far in advance. Airbnb's cancellation policy leaves too much flexibility for either side to cancel. Airbnb is cool to browse through though. Sometimes the properties will have their own sites you can browse to and booking through that vs airbnb can be cheaper.
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Apr 6, 2015 16:10
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Yep. When I am putting together trips for people from multiple destinations with flights I want a house locked in before people have to book tickets. Often I am looking for rare properties with certain features that eliminate most other options. I've had 2 airbnbs cancel after having availability and one try to lure me into discussing terms offsite. Airbnb apologized for that one immensely. If it was just me and my wife or another couple, airbnb could be cool because we could almost always just stay in a hotel or find another property. But figuring out that poo poo with a week to go limits availability and is a pain. I guess I am an outlier.
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Apr 7, 2015 20:52
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LLSix posted:My wife really loves visiting Europe and I like Greco-Roman architecture so we're thinking about doing a cruise that stops at different ports on the Mediterranean Sea for our honeymoon in September. I've never booked a cruise before so we're still in the Googling around stage without any great ideas on where to start. Are there good sites to book cruises? Has anyone taken a Mediterranean or coastal cruise before and had good or bad experiences? Are there any cruises that spend more than a day in any given city? A single day doesn't seem like nearly long enough to see a city. Very few stay overnights. If you're doing mediterranean I'd look at Windstar or Star Clipper -- things that are much more "sailing" rather than massive cruise liners with smaller amounts of people/crew. They also can be great if you don't need/want excursions booked by the ship. It seems pretty romantic for a honeymoon. I had a friend who really enjoyed their Windstar cruise. But the appeal of cruises as a whole are to maximize a day in a city and moving while you're sleeping. I've only been on a cruise for work via Celebrity and the ship was very nice but it's not my thing mostly for those reasons. Night life is a huge part of a city - stressing about being back by 5pm before you can even have a local dinner is not appealing to me.
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Jul 11, 2015 20:39
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Likely no. My travel agent saved me literally thousands in the Maldives, everywhere else they didn't. Doesn't hurt to ask for a quote.
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Jul 16, 2015 08:59
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oops wrong post
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Dec 19, 2016 03:40
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And what's the destination and what's the budget? Midrange in the Maldives is very different than in Thailand.
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Jan 8, 2017 17:19
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 18:55 |
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You can just take it to the bank. I took a bunch even like UAE dirhams and the teller in the grocery store branch exchanged it.
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Jan 16, 2017 07:47
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