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Lyon posted:I'm just going to come in here and be excited/brag a little because I'm sure my friends are sick of it and you guys can deflate my head with your awesome trips. I landed in Philly today after a trip out to Portland, OR and when I turned on my phone I found out my trip to Germany got extended and San Diego is now confirmed. So in a week I'll be flying to Munich to work there for a week, then taking the train to Frankfurt and working there for a week, then flying home out of Frankfurt. Pretty excited, Germany is probably the last of the major Western European countries I haven't been to. Sounds way more interesting than my repetitive trips to 2-3 domestic locations over and over.
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Apr 5, 2013 16:14
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Shbobdb posted:I am an idiot. About a year ago I realized that I could use the iPass (the service my company uses that lets me connect to pretty much any hotspot from a major provider) to connect to GoGo inflight. That was an amazing day for me.
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Apr 30, 2013 17:12
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melon cat posted:Another question came to mind. Let's say I'll be in the U.S. for an extended period of time. Say, 3-6 months. Is there a simple, cost-effective way to travel between states via air? I'm thinking of something along the lines of CityPass, but between U.S. airliners that frequently fly between U.S. states. Budget airlines are about as close as you'll get to that. As far as I know nobody has anything where you can just pay a lump sum to be able to hop on whatever flight you need for a period of time. Your travel options will vary wildly by what part of the country you are in.
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May 6, 2013 18:02
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If you'll be in the Northeast rail is an option and AmTrak might have something like that. Since I'm in the middle of the country I've never looked into it so couldn't give specifics. Renting a car could also end up making more sense than buying a bunch of plane tickets, depending on how far apart your destinations are.
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May 6, 2013 22:57
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Belldandy posted:I haven't traveled in 2 weeks due to a job change and I think I am losing my mind. It feels like a year. I know this is just the calm before the storm and I should be happy for the downtime but I miss the cold, itchy, reassuring fabric of a 737 seat. My travel is way down this year due to moving into a new position and I feel the same way. I get antsy when I spend more than a week or two in the office at a time. Last time I went through the TSA line they even were asking me if something was wrong at work since they hadn't seen me in a while (It's a small airport so my freedom grope is always from the same group of 4-5 people).
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May 8, 2013 15:42
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Tai-Pan posted:Am I missing something or should I just take the $1,200? Figure out what the value of the points are if you don't change them (i.e. how many nights can you book, and how much would they cost at the normal rate), do the same thing for what they would be worth if you transfered them to another program. Is either of those more than $1200? If not, then cash out, if they are, then use that. For example I am trying to burn through most of my airline/hotel points this year so I have a room booked in NYC in August that cost me 70,000 a night in Hilton points. But that same room would be $450 a night after taxes, so I'm getting about .65 cents per point. I also have a room booked in Munich for Oktoberfest that is costing me 34,000 a night for a room that would be going for about $500, so for that week I'm getting closer to 1.4 cents per point. So which is better is going to depend on how much a point is worth at the specific time and place you plan on staying. Since you can convert to different chain's points the value won't be the same for every chain. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Jun 8, 2013 |
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Jun 8, 2013 02:27
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Pissingintowind posted:This is kind of a misleading way to value points. You should be comparing the value to a room you would be willing to pay for, not to what the room is being priced at. If you would never pay $450 for a room when a "good enough" one next door is going for $250, your actual value is not 0.65 cents per point - it is 0.36 cents per point. NOTE: I'm not saying a very similar room is in fact available next door, I'm just saying don't value the points at the MSRP of the redemption you are claiming. I agree with what you are saying. Points are only worth what you are substituting them for. But if you are going to be staying at a specific location (in this case Paris) at a specific time (whenever his/her vacation is) and want to use points to pay for it, it is a worthwhile comparison. Especially since cashing them out a 1 cent a point is an option. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Jun 8, 2013 |
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Jun 8, 2013 03:39
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Vomik posted:What is some really good/durable luggage for frequent traveling? Samsonite? Tumi? What are the good things that frequent travelers use? It isn't cheap, but Red Oxx has great quality. I don't think I could damage those bags if I tried. I have an Air Boss and a Sky Train. The Air Boss holds more but I tend to use the Sky Train more often because of the backpack straps.
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Jun 10, 2013 21:43
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FunOne posted:Seconding the B&R on luggage. Expensive, but lifetime warranty and service. Yeah, I even put my shoes into my carry on, so I just have one bin (laptop and toiletries) and my bag. Mainly because I always opt out and go for the patdown so that makes it easier on the agent who grabs my stuff and carries it over to the groping area.
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Jun 11, 2013 03:25
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Mackieman posted:PreCheck is the best thing to happen to America since beer and it is worth whatever effort you have to go through to get it. The only thing I hate about PreCheck is that it isn't at my home airport. Jerks.
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Jun 11, 2013 18:44
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CaptainPsyko posted:I don't fly enough to justify the hassle; You're confusing PreCheck with Global Traveler, or whatever that customs streamlining thing is. PreCheck is something your preferred airline sponsors you for if you have status. You don't actually do anything to get it other than fly a lot and make sure your name and birthdate are properly entered in your frequent flyer profile.
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Jun 11, 2013 18:46
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I didn't realize Global Entry was linked to PreCheck. I very rarely travel internationally but if I fall off of being elite on Delta that might be worth it. PreCheck eligibility is weird though. You'd think it would be tied to something like having a security clearence. But no, it is just tied to whether you have status or are willing to pay for Global Entry.
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Jun 11, 2013 22:30
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Hertz question. I'm taking a personal trip to Germany in September, mainly using up a bunch of my Delta/Hilton points. I was going to use Hertz points to get a car from Frankfurt, returning it in Munich several days later. But due to Hertz having some weird restrictions on what I could use the points for (only a compact manual car was eligible for points even though I'm President's Circle and have like 20,000 points) I ended up actually paying for a reservation. I got a really, really good deal. I booked a luxury car for 40.02 Euros/day, giving me a total after taxes of about 225 Euros for the four day trip. But I'm running into a dilemma. I was on the Hertz website recently printing out some receipts for expense reports and decided to just take a look at my reservation. When I tried to bring it up I got an error. So I called Hertz to ask what was up. The first agent said the reservation was showing up as being 600 Euros. After a few transfers ended I up talking to an agent in Germany. The best advice she could give me was "Just be insistent on getting the rate you booked and hope for the best." The difference is big enough that if I'm not able to get the reserved rate I'd want to totally change my itinerary and use train travel instead. Which would mean staying in different cities along the way, impacting hotels and other things. So I don't really want to just cross my fingers and hope. If it is unlikely my reserved rate will be honored I'd rather just scrap the reservation now. Has anybody run into an issue like this, where they have to get Hertz to honor a substantially different rate? Did you have any luck? Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 18, 2013 15:05
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Mackieman posted:I have a feeling that if you have a print out from the Hertz site of your reservation (or perhaps the e-mail they sent when you originally made it) that shows the lower rate, they'll honor it. You could also try booking a second identical rate to see if you can make it happen again without the odd change. What you may be seeing is the authorization amount they'll put on your card after it's converted from Euros to US Dollars, but it's tough to say. A printout of the confirmation email is my current plan. It is definitely a different rate now, when I try to recreate it it shows up at 109 euros/day and a total of a bit over 600 Euros, ended up being exactly the amount that the agent I talked to on the phone mentioned. So it really is a question of whether Hertz will honor the rate I booked.
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Jun 18, 2013 16:47
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Mackieman posted:United announced spend requirements to achieve status today. Thankfully it's for the 2014 qualifying year. Delta did the same thing a few months ago. I don't really care about the spend levels, since most of my travel is booked a week or less before I go I'll hit them no problem. But I really wish that it was miles or spend. not miles and spend. If you are going to cull the ranks at least give me more of a reason to pick your airline for my last minute trips.
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Jun 18, 2013 16:49
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TheLizard posted:At least they didn't try to add some type of bullshit about how this change is good for consumers. I'm still upset about Delta "enhancing" away my ability to do same day confirmed changes.
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Jun 19, 2013 14:25
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I think a big part of the problem frequent flyer programs have is there are lots of different types of frequent flyers, but their programs are one size fits all. Personally unless I have a legitimate business reason to fly at a specific time, or get a specific routing, I have to buy tickets that are close to the cheapest of the day. So really my only choice is which airline to fly. When they start differentiating between L,U,T,Q,B and all the various ticket types it is really annoying, because as a customer I only care if I am in coach or first class. Everything else is just bookkeeping. If you don't want people to fly on an "L" ticket then don't offer it. That is my biggest complaint about a lot of the changes Delta has been making to their program. They are basing it on things that matter to Delta (fare class) rather than things that matter to me (coach/first).
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Jun 19, 2013 18:14
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I think the problem is that a frequent flyer program isn't something that is immediately profitable, and in the short run might even cost them money. For example, I generally fly Delta. In the short term they don't really gain any money from me being a frequent flyer. But by keeping me captive (because I don't want to have to start over to get status elsewhere) they will probably easily get over $1,000,000 in sales over the course of my working career, including more than a few last minute full Y or first class tickets. Skymiles makes it so they get all that money, rather than it being spread out among them and their competitors.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:14
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Feeling kind of smug right now. I was stuck in the middle seat on a Delta MSP-SNA flight. The flight was delayed so they gave me some free rebooking options. One of the options was the flight I was already on, but the only seats available were in first. I selected that and it rebooked me into first. I even went and had an agent reprint my boarding pass to make sure it actually worked. So Yay for Delta having a glitch in their rebooking engine.
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Jul 15, 2013 15:05
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sellouts posted:My tip is to fly to and from airports that have TSA pre check I wish that was always possible. The difference between the Precheck experience and the normal TSA experience is night and day. But my home airport doesn't have Precheck and only some of the airports I travel to have it.
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Jul 17, 2013 13:53
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Slightly off topic question in regards to JFK. I'm going to be flying into JFK in a few weeks for a short personal trip. What's the most reasonable way to get from JFK to Manhattan?
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Jul 17, 2013 16:09
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Small White Dragon posted:Question - Does anyone here feel they're getting a good deal out of their hotel loyalty program? I'd like to hear why and how. I am spending 5 nights at the Munich Hilton during Oktoberfest this year for zero dollars. I consider that a pretty good deal. Delta us flying us there for free and Hilton is putting us up for free. I only have to pay for the beer.
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Jul 21, 2013 23:30
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kansas posted:Official policies are usually crap: Kinda disagree there. You might have a manager and/or somebody booking your travel that is willing to ignore the rules, but that could easily change overnight. I'd be much more interested in what the official policies are. If somebody is traveling a lot that can have a substantial quality of life impact. If the travel policies aren't reasonable I'd consider that to be a huge warning sign.
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Aug 15, 2013 20:52
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Xandu posted:How do you guys generally pay for business travel? At my company everything is supposed to be done through the corporate card, though nobody really cares if you use your own card for small stuff like meals (just claiming you paid cash) or in situations where you actually have to pay cash. But if you started trying to put stuff like your hotel on your own card you'd get in trouble pretty quick. Most of our stuff is billed to the government though, so having everything on the card makes it easier to get through audits. Agreeing with "gently caress that noise" if they expect you to be floating them an interest free loan for thousands of dollars. At the very least if they are requiring you to use the corporate travel agent they should be able to bill the flight and hotel directly to your company. Honestly I'd ask your boss about it. You can't be the only person to be in that situation. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Aug 17, 2013 |
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Aug 17, 2013 03:21
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Pissingintowind posted:This might be a bit off topic for this thread, but is anyone here on an ex-pat package? I haven't done ex pat but I did do a domestic assignment not to long ago. I got a paid for furnished apartment, a rental car, and a tax free per diem of $71 above my normal salary with a plane ticket home once a month. I also got a $1,350 a month bonus but they have since gotten rid of that. It owned. Coming home sucked .
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Aug 18, 2013 16:52
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Woohoo, Delta's IT system screwed up and allowed me to give myself an upgrade into Business Elite on my return flight from Oktoberfest next month. All my international travel is on my own dime/miles so I've never flown international BE before. Pretty stoked.
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Aug 18, 2013 19:50
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oxsnard posted:I'm applying for a TWIC card next week as my company does dock/shipping business. Are there any travel related perks to having a TWIC? Does anybody know if I can use it in a priority line at the airport? I doubt it. CAC cards don't unless you are uniformed military and from a quick google of TWIC it seems like to be pretty similar to a CAC.
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Aug 19, 2013 19:20
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sink the biz posted:How's everyone doing with the points and miles? My update: Got a promotion plus had a few extended stays at places that don't give loyalty points so I'm stuck at -Hilton: 13 stays, 16 nights -Marriott: 2 stays, 11 nights (had to travel with my boss so had to split out my Hilton stuff, boo on that) -Delta: 41,089 MQM with no current work travel planned before the end of the year. I'm giving serious consideration to a mileage run on Delta to get myself at least up to Gold for next year. Sucks that I'll be losing high tier status on everything but I'm taking advantage of it hardcore while I still have it. I've taken two trips to Europe this year on miles already with a third coming up, plus a trip for my first time in NYC as well as just using up my points and getting nice upgrades whenever I have to go somewhere for a wedding or something. Doing my best to go out with a bang and zero Skymiles/HHonors Points left.
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Sep 7, 2013 02:25
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Shipon posted:How common is this lifestyle for engineers? Say, someone who is asked to go from headquarters to a site out in the field? I was doing that as an engineer working integration for DoD projects for for three years or so. This year I have moved more into a project engineer role which is why I haven't traveled as much lately. In my experience every big project has 1-2 engineers who seem to be always out at a customer site trying to make things work.
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Sep 7, 2013 04:38
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Thoguh posted:Woohoo, Delta's IT system screwed up and allowed me to give myself an upgrade into Business Elite on my return flight from Oktoberfest next month. All my international travel is on my own dime/miles so I've never flown international BE before. Pretty stoked. Trip report: Holy crap, I could get used to that. 11 hour flight from Munich to Atlanta on Friday and it was basically just a continuation of our vacation. I was just slightly nervous until we were fully checked in that they were going to catch the glitch and send us to the back of the bus but nobody batted an eye. I don't know that I'd ever actually pay the like $10k the pair of tickets would have cost but damned if that wasn't the best flight I've ever taken.
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Sep 30, 2013 00:16
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Arzakon posted:What happened? Did you get misbooked into Y/B/M and get to upgrade with miles? I have an award ticket next year in BE from ATL-NRT-SIN after doing that trip many times in coach for work I think I might be looking forward to that more than vacation itself. I sent you a PM detailing the process. This was all miles but I've done it on purchased tickets as well. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Sep 30, 2013 |
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Sep 30, 2013 13:00
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Morby posted:I'm 5000 SkyMiles short of Gold this year with no travel scheduled for the rest of the calendar year. Goddammit! I normally wouldn't care, but that is maddeningly close. I am in the same boat. I have never done a mileage run before but I am seriously considering one in December.
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Nov 4, 2013 17:23
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I spent about a month wavering on it but at the end of the day it was looking certain that I'd end up about 1,500 miles short of Gold on Delta for next year. So I found the cheapest place to fly to from my home airport on Delta and am doing a one day turnaround. 3 hours in San Fransisco here I come. I feel kind of stupid doing a mileage run but if it gets me a single upgrade over the course of next year, or if I run in to any IROPs, it'll be worth the price.
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Nov 22, 2013 17:52
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Uncle Jam posted:Why the hell is DTW -> BOS on Delta so goddamn expensive? Or any surrounding airports? I'm told its usually this bad... Because DTW is a hub so they know they can get away with it.
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Nov 24, 2013 19:54
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Small White Dragon posted:For the future, it may be worth looking into an airline credit card that nets you preferred/elite/whatever qualifying miles. Delta has several. The miles from the Delta American Express cards don't count towards status. I could have upgraded from the Gold AmEx and gotten some miles, but the increase in annual fee would have been more than the cost of the ticket. I'm probably going to drop the card next year anyway since they got rid of the $99 companion ticket offer.
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Nov 25, 2013 14:41
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Delta announced their MQM buyup program for the year, I'm glad I decided to just do a mileage run. My ticket was $240 and I'm getting about $100 worth of miles out of it (plus it'll give me an extra 100% bonus on miles I fly next year), so as long as I fly at least 14,000 miles next year I end up even, not even counting the better chance of an upgrade, lounge access on international, etc. To get the same number of miles using this program it would cost $695, and I wouldn't even get any actual miles out of it, just the higher status. And they are being really blatant about it. For people with no status the cost is: 2,500 MQMs $475 5,000 MQMs $675 7,500 MQMs $875 10,000 MQMs $1,075 And it goes up for every level you are short of, until by Diamond it is: 2,500 MQMs $795 5,000 MQMs $1,195 7,500 MQMs $1,595 10,000 MQMs $1,995 That's a shitload of money. I felt stupid just about the $240 that's going to more than pay for itself. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Dec 4, 2013 |
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Dec 4, 2013 14:08
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I'm going to be in San Fransisco for three hours this evening for my mileage run. Anything close enough to the airport that I could get out to it and back in an hour or two?
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Dec 7, 2013 16:02
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drat. Airport bar it is.
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Dec 8, 2013 00:10
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I ended up just walking around a bit and then going back through security and hanging out at a hotel bar with a drunk guy who was making up a whole bunch of stories about himself. Entertaining at least.
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Dec 8, 2013 18:25
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nikosoft posted:I just finished up my business travel for this year. That's 98 flights on Southwest since January, and 8 other ones on Alaskan/Horizon. I have a ridiculous amount of points and I've been holding out hope for the past 2 years that I can just redeem them all when SW finally flies to Hawaii, but who knows when that will actually happen Why not try to move your travel from Southwest to Alaska? Alaska is partners with multiple major carriers so you can assign your miles to one of them and get access to their whole network even though Alaska is just west coast.
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Dec 21, 2013 17:50
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