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For the 2nd day in a row, it was off to the airport in the wee hours of the morning. We knew it would be a long and exhausting day before ending in stunning Palau, but we had no idea how long it would become.
Or that a 50 minute connection in Guam would allow for some pretty cool snorkeling (Be sure to change the quality up to 1080p HD and don’t miss the school of fish dispersing at 0:46) After a decade of snorkeling my only regret is not investing in a GoPro earlier!
My kids favorite stuffed animals, “Da” and “Nordy,” getting ready in Honolulu’s United Club for a wild ride to the Far East:
Flying over Kwajalein:
The 2 schools of thought on how I pick my next flight destination…
The United Island Hopper:
There was a surprising amount of traffic going from Waikiki to the airport at 5:30am. You’re in Hawaii folks, sleep in a bit 😉
Da and Nordy enjoying the Camaro:
Ready and raring to go:
1 day, 7 boarding passes (Parents, this is why you don’t give your boys middle names that start with the letter A. Though with 6 boys and no girls, it figures that my mother would have her revenge with a DANIELA and GAVRIELA)
As I mentioned in part 1, this trip would be memorable enough to make it worth hanging onto the boarding passes to tell the story. I don’t love the flimsy boarding passes from the checkin machine, so I asked for paperstock passes to keep as a souvenir. Unfortunately while the checkin machine printed out passes for each leg of the flight, the agents were only able to print a single boarding pass for the entire hopper as the segments were all lumped together in our itinerary. We also weren’t able to change seats at all for the different segments due to that.
Apparently what we should have done was called United and asked them to split off every segment from the direct flight. Though odds are that would have taken several HUCAs to accomplish.
One of the reasons to do that though is that it’s ideal to be on the left side of the plane from Honolulu to Majuro for views of the approach to Majuro, while for the rest of the trip the best views are generally on the right side.
We had a little time until boarding, so we went to the United Club. Honolulu’s airport is sprawling and it was at least a 10 minute walk from our gate to the club. But I did get to fill up my Hydro Flask with ice water. After reading so many trip reports on DDF about people wishing they could live there I started a thread asking who’s ready to start a frum community there. As it turns out a DDF’er did just that when he took a job transfer to Hawaii. He raved on his blog about the Hydro Flask and I’ve been in love with it since I made the splurge on it as well. It will literally keep ice frozen even when I leave it in my car overnight. This straw really ought to come with it as it’s a must-have as well. No, it’s not cheap. But I use it daily and love it.
Da and Nordy enjoying the view in the United Club Honolulu:
United Club Honolulu:
United Club Honolulu:
Ship N14240, the 737-800 that would host us for the next 6 flights:
First stop: Majuro
United maintains a subfleet of 737-800s just for the island hopper route. First class has modified seats so that the extra set of pilots that are required on the route can recline their seats much further back than normal. United doesn’t sell row 2AB as the seats recline too far into them and the pilots keep some of their belongings there. A mechanic with lots of spare parts is also always onboard the island hopper flights, though the mechanic sits in coach.
Mark, the international service manager for the flight, was excellent. You can tell he’s a regular on the route as he seemed to know most of the passengers on the flight. He kept our glasses filled with our preferred beverages throughout the hopper and was very attentive.
He informed us that they had just 1 kosher meal for each of us for the entire flight and it didn’t consist of any hot dish. Ouch. He told us that the instructions were for it to be served on the final leg of the hopper. And he begged us to “write to Chicago” to let them know to please improve the kosher offering on the flight that had been slashed since the Continental days.
Of course we had come prepared and Mark was thrilled to be able to warm up our chocolate cheese blintzes from Pomegranate that were double wrapped for heating in an oven.
My wife makes delicious chocolate chip cheese blintzes and that’s kind of what I pictured these being. These are actually chocolate wrappers around heavy chocolate infused cheese filling. Now I’m a chocolate fan and all, but this was even a bit too chocolatey for me! Mark gave us some packets of jam that went very well with the blintzes. The serving size is huge, 6 big blintzes in one meal that’s easily enough for 2 people. In general Pomegranate’s dairy meals are all plenty of food for 2 people:
There is no wi-fi or even power on the island hopper birds, though those features are supposed to be added in the future.
The first island hopper leg from Honolulu to Majuro is the longest at about 5 hours. We left Honolulu at 7:20 on Monday morning and would arrive in Majuro at 10:35am on Tuesday morning.
Aloha Oahu:
Taking off from Oahu:
Taking off from Oahu:
We got in some shut-eye, though it’s not that easy in the domestic style first class seats.
Finally our first stop came into view, Majuro in the Marshall Islands:
Pictures do no justice to how stunning of a sight it is. The island hopper is a day full of incredibly beautiful sights:
Landing in Majuro:
Landing in Majuro:
Majuro is a narrow atoll in middle of the ocean and the runway is just about as wide as the atoll.
If you choose to de-board you have to bring everything with you, as a security sweep is done at every stop. If you stay on the plane you have to take down your bags and identify them during the sweep.
Luckily there is a very convenient ramp that is used at all of the stops. I have no idea why all airports without jet-bridges don’t use a ramp instead of a staircase.
The humidity in Majuro was unbelievable, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Note to others: Wear lightweight clothes!
We had been warned to always use the bathrooms onboard the planes. The facilities in the boarding areas leave a lot to be desired.
Most of the airports do have vendors that sell snacks and trinkets. I picked up earrings for my wife at every stop along the hopper route. US dollars are used at all the stops along the hopper.
Of course what we really wanted was a stamp from each of the stops. I had to get a new passport 2 years ago because I had filled up my previous passport with stamps and I’d be happy to do the same again.
So we asked if we could get our passports stamped even though we were just transiting and we were led through the door as seen in the picture above next to the NTA WiFi sign, into this room:
And we waited to get our first stamp of the day:
Except that AJK didn’t have his passport. He frantically dug through all of his bags but could not come up with it. Now, in his defense, he did seem to be coming down with a fever. But this trip would turn very interesting if he didn’t have his passport… [AJK: Yep, unfortunately, by this time I was in the throes of what I guesstimate to be a fever of at least 100, perhaps slightly more. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me from enjoying this epic, once-in-a-lifetime, borderline insane adventure, especially the passport stamps. However, when I looked in my bag to grab my passport for the Majuro stamp and then discovered it wasn’t where I thought it would be, that 100 fever must have gone to 105 easy. Trying to remain calm, though at the same time thinking how I would adapt to permanent life in Majuro, whether I could start a Jewish community there, and whether mileage runs were better from this part of the world, I realized that I had to have had my passport upon departing Honolulu, and in fact, I had distinctly remember taking the passport out of the TSA security bin in Honolulu, so I surmised prayed I had simply left it on the plane due to my “fever cloudiness.”]
So AJK ran back to get back on the plane and search for his passport and I got my first stamp:
Maybe one day…
They wouldn’t let AJK return to the plane but said that an agent would search for it and let him know. And hey, worst case is that AJK would probably become really great at surfing, fishing, and diving while he waited for a new passport to be flown in 😉
[AJK: I waited on pins and needles for the Majuro security agent to walk back to the plane, disappear onboard for 5 minutes, and then finally, in the distance, I could see the agent start walking back towards me in the terminal. Honestly, I don’t think she could have walked any slower, and all the while, I was frantically scanning her hands for my passport.
About halfway back to the terminal, I noticed she was coming e-m-p-t-y h-a-n-d-e-d.
I couldn’t believe it. I had flown more than 7,000 miles in the last 18 hours to make this trip and it was about to come to an abrupt and unplanned end. Is rent in Majuro cheap? Would my wife come and visit me? Could I learn Mashallese? Would my NY law license to the Marshall Islands? Would Dan stay with me? (The only question to which I knew the answer was the last: “Absolutely not.”)
My last and final hope was that this security agent didn’t have the same motivation as I would when looking for my passport so I hoped she simply overlooked it…
Finally, after the sweep, I ran to the plane and just as I passed the doorway, I noticed my passport sitting in plain view on one of the galley counters. Back in business, people‼
Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I snatched the passport, and ran full speed–to heck with the 105 degree fever–to get my passport stamped, wondering if the plane would wait. I waited for what felt like an eternity, and then the Majuro customs agent appeared, stamped my passport, and I made it back on the plane just as they were pulling away the jet-ramp. Success!]
With that excitement behind us, we bid adieu to the Marshall Islands:
Boarding in Majuro:
The ETOPS 240 certified aircraft can fly up to 4 hours away from the nearest diversion airport:
AJK and I had seats 4EF for the entire journey and were going to switch off between the aisle and window seat every other leg. But after being spoiled by the first leg, AJK decided that he didn’t want to forfeit the window, so he asked the gentleman sitting in 3F if he wouldn’t mind switching to 4E.
He readily agreed, but we both felt terrible when we saw that his foot was in a cast…
At any rate he wound up being a really interesting guy. He lives in New Jersey and surveys the school systems in these remote Pacific islands. He had just been in Majuro for several days and was going to be surveying the schools in islands in and around Kwajalein next. He had injured himself in a diving accident.
Then he asked how I dealt with Sabbath travel and the international dateline. My jaw dropped. The international dateline is one of the more complicated topics in Jewish law. The most erudite explanation on the topic that I’ve heard was a several hour long class by R’ Aaron Dovid Gancz, but the class was given on Shavuos so I wasn’t able to record it, which is a shame. Hopefully someone will record it and upload it online one day as I’d love to listen to it again.
At any rate, turns out my seatmate was a Seventh-day Adventist and while he doesn’t keep Shabbos as a religious jew does, he does worship and avoids flying on Saturday. We talked about Samoa switching to the other side of the dateline and other complications of travel over the dateline, such as counting sefira and the need to cross back over the dateline before Shavuos in order for the sixth day of Sivan to fall out on the day after counting the 49th day of sefira.
And inevitably we discussed the mileage game and travel hacking which lasted until we landed in Kwajalein, where he deplaned.
Taking off from Majuro:
Taking off from Majuro:
Flying above the clouds:
Landing in Kwajalein:
Kwajalein:
Kwajalein:
Kwajalein is a US military base and only authorized personnel can exit the plane.
At this point AJK was sitting in 3F and was not feeling well at all. When the passenger ticketed in 3F came by, AJK again asked if he would mind moving to 4E. He said sure, but it became evident that he was not. And that is why I almost never ask somebody to trade seats. He went on to tell me that he’s fine switching, but that he’s not going to switch again until he gets to Guam. And that if I need to go to the bathroom at all then he’s going to switch back for good.
I told him he could just switch back now, but he declined.
This was going to be fun!
Next, he just lost it when I was taking pictures of Kwajalein. Apparently you’re not supposed to take pictures of the island, though that was never announced. [AJK: It was indeed announced, but apparently Dan didn’t hear it, probably because from takeoff to touchdown Dan dons his noise-cancelling Bose headphones… Missed the announcement accidentally or by design, huh? ]
I did wind up using the bathroom after he got up to do the same…
The views though made up for all the awkwardness.
Taking off from Kwajalein:
Taking off from Kwajalein:
Taking off from Kwajalein:
Kwajalein:
Landing in Kosrae:
Landing in Kosrae:
Landing in Kosrae:
Landing in Kosrae:
Landing in Kosrae:
A fire truck is on hand at every stop along the hopper route:
In case you’ve ever wanted to fly on an extra special flight…
Snack bar in Kosrae:
Car rental anyone?
I told AJK that I had more than my share of General Grumpus, so I was going to move up to 3F while he would take over at 4F.
[AJK: OK, I’ll admit, he was indeed General Grumpus… initially. But Dan forgot to use one of the most potent weapons in his arsenal… A weapon that could turn the heart of some of the most battle-hardened travel warriors from metal to mush. Lo and behold, would you believe General Grumpus turned into the General Gracious when we began talking about the credit card game, our current itinerary, first class travel, and elite status? There is more than one way to skin a cat ]
Take-off from Kosrae:
Take-off from Kosrae:
Take-off from Kosrae:
Take-off from Kosrae:
Take-off from Kosrae:
Take-off from Kosrae:
It was now Tuesday afternoon and the sheer exhaustion of traveling without a good night’s sleep since Friday began to catch up with me. [AJK: And that’s being healthy. Me, I was still fighting a fever that just didn’t want to break…]But the experience and the breathtaking views made it all worthwhile:
Landing in Pohnpei:
Landing in Pohnpei:
Landing in Pohnpei:
Exiting the plane I hear someone behind me call out “Hey Jew!”
Um, OK. Not something I hear everyday despite the Hawaiian print yarmulkah I was wearing. It got more interesting from there…
Turns out though that a lot of people were interested in knowing about Judaism and asked about my yarmulkah and tzitzis and what it represented. Many of the people had never seen an Orthodox Jew before.
AJK and I turned left to get a stamp along with the arriving passengers and my new friend started tagging along and went nuts that we were going the wrong way. When I told him what we were up to he decided that he loved me and that he had to go into business and become friends with me…so yes, you’ll meet some interesting characters along the hopper.
It was raining in Pohnpei, though United is prepared for that and handed out umbrellas to everyone:
In Pohnpei a husband and wife were flying with their infant after a long weekend in Pohnpei back home to Chuuk. They had one first class seat next to me and the husband wisely gave it to his wife who was nursing the baby. In a previous life I’d have been annoyed at the prospect of sitting in first class next to a baby. But once you have kids these things don’t bother you anymore. I was just happy the crying baby wasn’t my responsibility 😀
Taking off from Pohnpei:
Taking off from Pohnpei:
One of the most epic drives in the US is Maui’s Road to Hana, possibly the only place in the world where you get “waterfall fatigue” where despite their beauty you begin to find them routine. Well the island hopper may be the only flight in the world where “island fatigue” settles in.
Islands between Pohnpei and Chuuk:
Eventually you start seeing shapes in the islands, is that a stingray?
Landing in Chuuk:
United brings the mail to all of the islands:
Firetrucks in Chuuk:
Local entertainment: Watching the island-hopper land!
Nordy taking a dive:
Chuuk boarding area:
Gift/snack shop in Chuuk:
And here’s where things began unraveling. Someone was transporting their dog with them, but it wasn’t properly documented. The pilots said it would take just a few minutes, but it turned into a 40 minute delay. Our connection in Guam for our flight to Koror, Palau was just 50 minutes long.
Without any internet connection or cell service, there was no way to check or make a phone call to see if they would hold the plane for the 6 people aboard that were going onto Palau. So it was just wait and see.
In the meantime AJK was really under weather at this point and was in the bathroom throwing up. [AJK: Yup. But the silver lining to this wonderful experience in the bathroom is that I felt much better afterwards, though not completely 100% yet.]
The final Chuuk-Guam segment was booked as its own flight broken off of the Island-Hopper, so we both selected window seats in row 4.
Another couple was seated in the aisle seats in row 4 and they asked if we would trade. Now I’ve never refused a seat trade before, but we were both so mesmerized by the sights outside the window that neither of us were keen to trade. I was rewarded with endless amount of coughing and just kept my face glued to the window, enjoying the sights, and hoping they would hold the plane to Palau for us.
Taking off from Chuuk:
Taking off from Chuuk:
Islands between Chuuk and Guam:
And finally it was time for our kosher meal. Which consisted of a pita, matbucha (spicy tomato dip), and a cookie. And that is why I never rely on kosher meals, and always try to bring my own meals for the crew to heat up.
Landing in Guam:
Landing in Guam:
Landing in Guam:
We exited the plane with 20 minutes until our flight to Palau was scheduled to take off. Unfortunately they decided not to hold the plane for us and they handed us a hotel voucher and tickets to travel to Palau on the next flight out. In 25 hours. Which would get us to Palau at 9PM Wednesday evening, just hours before we were set to depart Palau at 1AM Thursday morning.
Others that were connecting in Palau to go to Manila were given boarding passes for the direct flight to Manila, so luckily we didn’t book the Manila hidden-city ticket that we were considering in part 1.
But we were crushed. United had held the flight 45 minutes for a dog, but wouldn’t hold the Palau flight for a few minutes for 6 people. When would I possibly make it back to this corner of the world to get to Palau?
Thanks to Global Entry we cleared immigration in less than a minute, but we were told that our bags were already offloaded, so even if we tried to run to the gate for the Palau flight we wouldn’t have our food. And besides they said we’d have no chance to making it as we would have to go through security again.
It took United a full hour to get us our bag of food. And the Palau flight took off 10 minutes late.
We were angry. And exhausted. And angry.
So we went to the ticketing counter to declare the entire trip in vain. AJK had to be back at work Friday morning. My father-in-law was coming to Cleveland with his sister to spend Shabbos with us. Palau was toast.
The first agent had no idea what to make of our ticket, so she punted us off to Joseph, the lead United agent in Guam that evening.
Joseph was amazing.[AJK: “Amazing” would be an understatement actually…]
He was willing to do anything we wanted.
At first he rebooked us to fly home at 6:55am the next morning flying via Tokyo and Chicago. When he printed the boarding passes though, we noticed that he had booked us in ANA business class instead of first class. When we pointed it out, he quickly fixed that and put us in first class from Tokyo to Chicago and in first class onto Cleveland and Newark respectively.
We were hoping to possibly try to get our miles back from United, but that seemed like a long-shot. It was made even more complicated as our ticket was booked in 3 separate reservations with the first reservation booked using Singapore miles.
So we decided to add an overnight in Tokyo and try to salvage something from the trip. We could check out the famous Tsukiji Market fish auction in Tokyo and stay a night in the renowned Park Hyatt there.
We were on a one-way United award, so technically we weren’t able to stopover for more than 24 hours, though Joseph was more than happy to allow us to stopover in Tokyo for 36 hours. I’ve been able to pull off stopovers on one-way awards before, but those take a number of HUCAs…
Joseph rebooked us in a full revenue fare class. I gave my United 1K mileage number and wound up with no miles. AJK gave his Aegean mileage number and wound up with tens of thousands of miles. [AJK: 35,000 miles to be exact. Not only that, but this one-way travel earned me Star Alliance Gold for another year, through 2017! Bottom line, if United moves you from an award bucket to a revenue fare due to being bumped, the flight being cancelled or delayed, make sure to switch your frequent flyer number to a partner to be able to earn miles free miles on a free ticket. United will not award them to its own program and you won’t get retroactive credit after the flight.]
Lesson learned.
AJK then smartly asked Joseph if he wouldn’t mind changing the Tokyo-Chicago-Newark flight to the Tokyo-JFK nonstop.[AJK: When you get an agent as good as Joseph, you make sure to leave it all out on the floor 😛 ] ANA award space from Tokyo-Chicago is much easier to find then Tokyo-JFK, but as Joseph was rebooking us in a revenue fare class that didn’t matter at all. He happily rebooked us to the JFK flight and booked a connection from Newark-Cleveland for me with enough time to grab dinner in Manhattan along the way.
And he was also happy to give us an extra hotel voucher so that we’d each have our own room.
At this point we were both running on fumes from exhaustion.
Joseph gave us vouchers to pay for a round-trip taxi ride from the airport to the Aqua Suites hotel. The hotel was a dump and normally I’d have used a Hyatt anniversary night to stay at the Hyatt Regency or have used some Starpoints for the Westin, but we were far more interested in grabbing a bite to eat and going to bed.
The hotel had no space to freeze our Pomegranate meals, but the in-house restaurant gave us a cooler that we filled with ice to keep our meals frozen. The restaurant grudgingly warmed up our meals for 15 minutes until they closed, at which point the meals were just lukewarm.
Even at that temperature the lamb meatballs and the honey mustard corned beef were both delicious:
The lobby and the hallways were hot and humid. The room itself was hot as well, though eventually the air conditioning unit started cooling it down.
There was paint peeling and the room could have used a nice renovation, but it was fine for a night.
For some reason when using the shower the bathroom sink filled up
And with that we tried to get some shut-eye. Except I couldn’t sleep.
I was wired at this point, despite the lack of sleep in several days. I still couldn’t believe that Palau was gone as I watched the Youtube videos on Jellyfish Lake.
I called Mimi over Google Hangouts to let her know the change in plans.
Except she wouldn’t have any of it. I didn’t leave home and travel to the other side of the world only to miss Palau. Yes, it would be nice to have me home for Shabbos, but better that I get Palau out of my system.
I waited a bit and then called AJK in his room and asked if he was still interested in trying to salvage Palau. [AJK: Actually, Dan waited precisely 37 minutes after we finished eating dinner, and me telling him not to bother me until the morning so I could get a decent night of sleep and get over this fever, but you see how well Dan follows directions when he gets an idea in his head…] And he said in no uncertain terms that his boss was counting on him being back Friday morning.
I called Mimi back and asked what I should do. She said that I should just go without him. Besides, if I say I’m going anyway he’ll probably find a way to make it work. [AJK: Ah, a woman’s intuition. Bah!]
So at 4am, a few hours before our newly planned flight to Tokyo was set to depart, I called AJK once again and let him know that I was going to head back to the airport to try to salvage the ticket to Palau. And he said there’s no way I was going to Palau while he went back to NYC. [AJK: No way he was going to continue on without me, not a chance.] He called his boss and it turned out that the project he was supposed to work on Friday wasn’t going to be ready for him to work on anyway. [AJK: The stars aligned, and my boss, the person for whom every lawyer should want to work for, told me I didn’t have to rush back because the project had been pushed to early the following week. God bless him! Then, I called *my* eishes chayil, who similar to Dan’s wife, agreed that this was an opportunity that I could not miss, and graciously gave me permission to continue on to the glory that was going to be Palau.]
Palau was back on the table!
We packed up our things once again and took a cab to the airport to work on our tickets once again. We brought our suitcases just in case they couldn’t get us to Palau and we would have to take the 6:55am flight to Tokyo.
Unfortunately the lead agent in the morning wasn’t nearly as good as Joseph was. She had a hard time understanding what we wanted to do and why we should be entitled to continue onto Palau.
Luckily Joseph had left the original itinerary for the island hopper intact, so we actually still had a ticket that evening to Palau. So all the agent had to do was rebook us from Palau to Tokyo via Guam at 1am on Friday morning, arriving into Tokyo at 9am Friday morning. She spent quite a lot of time verifying that we had miss-connected the previous day due to United’s fault and that verification took a bizarrely long amount of time.
And then I needed to explain to her why we needed to stay in Tokyo for 2 nights until Sunday due to Shabbos. Luckily Joseph left good notes and had created an ideal routing for us, so she was able to get us rebooked.
Then I asked for her to give us PR-1 status on the upgrade list as displaced business class passengers for the flight to Palau, for which we were currently seated in coach as business class was full. She seemed flabbergasted that I knew their jargon, but insisted that she would have to remove us from our bulkhead seats in order to waitlist us for first class. Which is of course utter nonsense. After some back and forth consisting of me walking her through the process we did get our PR-1 status, though for some reason AJK was listed as #1 despite the fact that he doesn’t have United status and I was listed as #2 with my 1K status. Go figure.
Meanwhile AJK sat in the corner taking pictures of “me in my element”
Finally I asked for another hotel, taxi, and meal voucher. The agent pushed back a little, but there was no way I was going to checkout of the hotel at noon and wait round at the airport for 7 hours, so she issued those vouchers again as well.
In all it took several hours, but the new itinerary was looking nice:
Sunday:
UA1040 CLE-EWR 6:04am-7:31am, 73G First
1:39 connection in Newark
UA15 EWR-HNL 9:10am-2:15pm, 764 Business
1 night in Honolulu, time on ground 17:10
Monday/Tuesday:
UA154 HNL-MAJ 7:25am-10:35am+1, 738 Business
0:45 connection in Majuro
UA154 MAJ-KWA 11:20am-12:20pm, 738 Business
0:39 connection in Kwajalein
UA154 KWA-KSA 12:59pm-1:12pm, 738 Business
0:35 connection in Kosrae
UA154 KSA-PNI 1:47pm-2:50pm, 738 Business
0:41 connection in Pohnpei
UA154 PNI-TKK 3:31pm-3:43pm, 738 Business
0:37 connection in Chuuk
UA154 TKK-GUM 4:20pm-5:55pm, 738 Business
0:50 connection in Guam
UA193 GUM-ROR 6:45pm-7:55pm, 738 Business
Thursday:
UA158 ROR-GUM 1:45am-4:45am, 73G Coach
2:45 connection in Guam
UA165 GUM-FUK 7:30am-10:50am, 73G Business
2:20 connection in Fukuoka
NH2144 FUK-NRT 1:10pm-3:00pm, 73G Coach
2:10 connection in Tokyo
NH1012, NRT-ORD, 5:10pm-2:45pm, 77W First
5:00 connection in Chicago
UA1037 ORD-CLE 7:45pm-10:03pm, 738 First
1 night in Guam, time on ground 25:35
Thursday:
UA193 GUM-ROR 7:30pm-8:40pm, 738 Coach
1 night in Palau, time on ground 29:50
Friday
UA158 ROR-GUM 1:45am-4:45am, 73G Coach
2:45 connection in Guam
UA828 GUM-NRT 6:55am-9:40am, 772 Business
2 nights in Tokyo, time on ground 55:00
Sunday
NH1010, NRT-JFK, 4:40pm-4:25pm, 77W First
5:11 connection in NYC
UA330, EWR-CLE 9:36pm-11:20pm, 320 First
And once again it was back to the Aqua Suites to try to get some shut-eye. I tossed, I turned, but sleep remained elusive.
The restaurant refused to warm up any food for us even when we offered to pay. So we bought some items from the gift shop with our meal vouchers to wrap the food in to heat up in the microwave.
This is 1/4 of the Mac & Cheese meal from Pomegranate, like I said, the dairy meals are very generously sized.
AJK was doing some work but I wasn’t about to stay indoors all day. [AJK: And, I knew I had to pay the fever piper, so it was either going to be at the expense of Guam or Palau. I chose the former, and thankfully, it turned out to be the right decision as the fever was completely gone by the time we took off for Palau. Ain’t no substitute for rest!] Guam isn’t known as an island with a lot to see or do. But the #1 activity in Guam is Ypao Beach which was within walking distance of the hotel. Well technically it was within walking distance. I didn’t realize that there would be a steep hill with no sidewalks whatsoever, but full of speeding drivers. After a rather harrowing walk though I made it to the beach:
I had read there would be snorkeling gear for rent on the beach, but I wasn’t able to find any. So I walked down the beach and did find several places with snorkeling gear, but they all belonged to hotels and the gear was for hotel guests only.
Airplane flying over Ypao Beach:
While I was walking along the beach trying to find some snorkeling gear I came by one stand, that once again belonged to a hotel.
2 guys were running the stand and apparently they had never encountered a Jew before, though they were pretty convinced that Jews run the world. We got into a theological discussion and I did my best to dispel whatever odd stereotypes they had. When I started to say good-bye they handed me snorkeling gear and showed me the best places to go.
The snorkeling was actually really good, with lots of great fish to see. Be sure to change the quality of the video to 1080p:
Taxis aren’t cheap in Guam, the cab I took back from the beach to the hotel was under a mile, but cost $15.
With more time to kill in Guam I took a swim in the hotel’s pool:
Finally it was time to say goodbye to the Aqua Suites:
And head back to the Guam airport for the 3rd time in 24 hours:
The airport has several cows statues in it, though I’m still not sure why:
Duty-free in Guam airport is surprisingly well priced, especially for high-end scotches with a 15% discount for using a Visa Signature card. But carrying bottles of scotch around the world didn’t appeal enough to make it worthwhile.
Before the flight we hit up the United Club:
And after a 50 minute connection that became a 25 hour connection it was finally time to fly to Palau, where an action packed day was in store for us. Our fortune finally appeared to be turning around.
At checkout select the Ultimate Rewards card that you linked, click on “choose a different amount,” and enter 0.01 as shown below:
On the next page enter the following promo code for $10 off $10 (Exp: 06/30): SWP15CH10
Of course you can use more that just 1 point if you want to, but the value is just criminal. You’ll do way better using them for travel or selling them on the grey market.
Did this promo work for you for gift cards, anything sold by Amazon, or nothing at all? Were you successful after chatting with Amazon? What did you buy with $10 off? Hit the comments!
We’ve been using this high chair for our kids for a few years, it’s awesome!
-Fits easily under tables with pedestal base
-Glides smoothly in all directions
-Five-point harness and safety post
-Six urethane casters to protect floors
-Effortless continuous height positioning.
-Up to 40MB/s transfer speed
-Compatible with multiple SDHC/SDXC hardware devices
-Recommended for DSLR Cameras and Full HD Camcorders
-File rescue downloadable software helps recover photos and video that have been accidently deleted or damaged. Supports 3D/HD files.
–Bookable on Priceline. Priceline tickets are refundable until 11:29pm ET the business day after purchase. Just click on “view full itinerary” in your email confirmation and then click on cancel flights.
In other words a ticket purchased from Priceline on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday can be cancelled until Monday night at 11:29pm. A ticket purchased from AA.com can be held for a day, but can’t be cancelled after ticketing.
People always seem to doubt this, so I booked a ticket from PHL-TLV from 01/20-01/31 just to get these screenshots 🙂
-Prices for this sale range from $822-$876. -Limited seats are available on each date. Always search for 1 seat and then work your way up to the number of seats you need in order to book as many seats on sale as you can. -A Saturday stay in Tel Aviv is required.
-Valid for departures from Philadephia only. Not valid for flights originating in Tel Aviv.
American still award miles based on the flight distance, so this trip will earn 11,542 miles (An $822 Delta or United flight credit to those programs would only earn 4,110 miles, though you can still credit United flights to Singapore where they still award full miles based on the flight distance)
Bookable on Priceline. Priceline tickets are refundable until 11:29pm ET the day after purchase. Just click on “view full itinerary” in your email confirmation and then click on cancel flights.
Add 2 $25 gift cards to your cart and use $10 off $50 code (Limit 1 per account): CFATHERS10
This code works for any $50 purchase on eBay, but if you use it to purchase an eBay gift card you can save the 20% off $50 now and use the discounted gift card whenever you want.
–Find more articles like this by clicking on the “Mileage Posts”tab on top of the DansDeals banner at the top of this site.
Update, 06/11: This post has been updated with the current information on the Avios program including Avios new award charts and why some flights like Philadelphia-Toronto in business class now cost fewer Avios than they did before.
Originally posted on 01/14/15:
British Airways Avios are awesome. They effectively fill the gap that is left by the major programs like American AAdvantage and United MileagePlus. The major programs provide a fantastic value for long-haul flights, but most programs are not great for short flights.
In 2011 BA launched the Avios program and since then it has continued to provide an incredible value for short-haul flights. A last-minute one-way flight that would otherwise cost $600 can be had for just 4,500 Avios plus $5.60.
Everything you need to know about the program can be found after the jump:
If you watch the six videos and answer the questions via the link above you will earn 1,000 free American Airline miles.
First go to the link and enter a destination. Then you will be moved to a page with 6 video options. You can skip to the end of the videos and enter the answers provided below. After the video you will enter your information and the 1,000 bonus miles will be deposited into your account 6 to 8 weeks after this promotion ends. This will extend the life of all your miles by another 18 months.
Bonus Miles earned by each entrant will be allocated to entrant’s AAdvantage account approximately 8 weeks after the end of Promotion Period.
1. Principles of redeeming miles
Question: Most people redeem there AAdvantage miles for?
Answer: Flights
2. Inside Elite Benefits
Question: Which is not a level of AAdvantage elite Status?
Answer: Iron
3. Exploring My Account
Question: You can save what information in your AAdvantage account?
Answer: All of the above
4. Earning Miles with Credit Cards
Question: You save how much off your in-flight purchases when you use your American Airlines and US Airways operated flights?
Answer: 25% off
5. Earning with Partners
Question: How can you earn miles with AAdvantage Dining program?
Answer: Dining out
6. Seeing the world: Flying & Earning
Question: American Airlines offers around how many daily flights?
Answer: 6,700
Copa used to majority owned by Continental and they used Continental’s OnePass mileage program instead of having their own program. They even adopted a very similar logo to Continental’s. When Continental moved from SkyTeam to the Star Alliance they brought Copa along with them. When Continental merged with United they brought Copa into MileagePlus and the globe logo continued to be used by both airlines.
For now you can’t transfer any miles into Copa, though I’d imagine that we’ll see transfer partnerships in the future.
You can get 4,000 miles for enrolling in the Copa program here.
You’ll get 1,000 miles instantly for enrolling and another 2,000 miles instantly for completing your profile after creating your account for a total of 3,000 miles that will post instantly. Another 1,000 miles will post with the hard launch of the program in July.
2. Click here to activate free shipping. If free shipping does not appear in your cart you can enter your email via the pop-up when you first visit Chicco.com and receive free shipping on $50+ orders. (If you have a popup blocker enabled you may not see the sign up window.)
The list price for this is $189.99, but $90 will be automatically deducted in your cart for a total of $99.99 shipped.
-4-In-1: portable playard, infant bassinet, changing station, removable playmat with toy gym
-Changing Table: elevated for ease of use and thickly padded for baby’s comfort, side-store for quicker changes
-Toy gym and toys: Plush fabrics and toys for baby’s amusement, used on bassinet or as a play-mat
-Music, vibration, nature sounds and nightlight to soothe baby
-Removable Mattress Pad machine-washable
Receive $20 off when using Visa checkout and entering code: VISADADGRAD20
You can use any credit card type with Visa Checkout.
-Full X, K, SuperWide Ka, and Safety Warning System radar capability, digital “POP” radar alert, and Safety Warning System message display
-Advanced AutoScan processing and digital signal processing increase range and virtually eliminate false alerts
-Easy-to-use programming allows you to customize up to 7 options for your specific driving style
-Immune to VG-2 radar detector detection, so law enforcement cannot detect its use
You can earn 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for opening a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and spending $4,000 in 3 months. Those points are worth a minimum of $1,000 cash back or $1,250 towards travel and other categories, but they can be worth much more as shown below.
There is a $95 annual fee for the primary card and no annual fee for additional cardholders.
Signup bonus terms:
If you received your last Sapphire bonus on 6/3/17 or earlier, you are now eligible to earn another Sapphire bonus!
You won’t get approved for this card if you have received a signup bonus on Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, or Sapphire card within the past 48 months. You can call Chase to find out when you last earned a bonus on those cards or you can pull up your old statements online to check when you last got a bonus.
You won’t get approved for this card if you currently have an active Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, or Sapphire card. However you can change those cards to a Freedom Unlimited or Freedom Flex card, wait a few days, and then apply for a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card !
You can apply and Chase won’t pull your credit or approve you if you are not eligible to get the card bonus.
5/24:
All Chase cards appear to be subject to 5/24 restrictions, meaning that you are not likely to be approved if you have been approved for 5 or more consumer credit cards in the past 24 months. Note that the Chase system automatically counts cards like authorized user cards and store cards as cards that count towards 5/24, but if you explain to Chase that those cards are merely authorized user cards or store cards they can manually approve you for a new card.
You can check your credit report for free at the federally authorized annualcreditreport.com to check how many accounts are shows as being open in the past 24 months.
Card earnings:
2 points per dollar on travel, including airfare, hotels, car rentals, cruises, subways, trains, taxis, tolls, parking, Airbnb, Uber, etc.
2 points per dollar on dining.
5 points per dollar on Lyft spending through 3/31/22.
1 point per dollar elsewhere.
There are no foreign transaction fees.
Spend Threshold:
You’ll need to spend $4,000 on this card within 3 months.
My local natural gas company allows me to prepay up to $1,000 on a credit card for a $1.65 flat fee. That’s a great way to earn miles and help meet a spend threshold. My electricity supplier allows me to pay with a credit card for free as long as I am enrolled in autopay.
Card benefits:
Primary rental car CDW insurance in every country.
Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance
Lost Luggage Insurance
Trip Delay Reimbursement
Baggage Delay Reimbursement
Travel Accident Insurance
Purchase protection for items damaged or stolen within 120 days
Peloton Credit And Bonus Points:
Charge your Peloton membership fee to your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and you’ll automatically get $60 back through 12/31/21.
Make a Peloton purchase of $1,800+ and earn 5 points per dollar spent through 3/31/22!
Increased points value:
If you or someone in your household has a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned from any card at a value of 1.25 cents towards paid travel.
If you or someone in your household has a Sapphire Reserve card you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned from any card at a value of 1.5 cents towards paid travel.
Chase has extended those categories through 9/30/21 and tells me that Pay Yourself Back will be a permanent feature of the Ultimate Rewards program, and that they will add more cards and categories for the program in the future. This adds a ton of value to the Ultimate Rewards program as you can buy anything from those stores, even gift cards to other stores, and make them free by redeeming points at a value of 1.25 or 1.5 cents each. The ability to get that kind of value from your points even when you’re not traveling is outstanding.
A great feature of the program is that you keep the original points that the purchase earned, even though you paid yourself back for the purchase. That means your points will be worth more than 1.25 or 1.5 cents each!
In other words, if you spend $300 on groceries or dining on Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can use 24,000 points to offset that purchase and make it free. Plus, you’ll still earn the 600 points for groceries or dining, so you effectively used 23,400 points to offset the purchase. That means your points were actually worth 1.28 cents each!
If you spend $300 on groceries or dining on Sapphire Reserve, you can use 20,000 points to offset that purchase and make it free. Plus, you’ll still earn the 900 points for groceries or dining, so you effectively used 19,100 points to offset the purchase. That means your points were actually worth 1.57 cents each!
Airline and hotel transferability:
If you or someone in your household has a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points into valuable airline and hotel mileage currencies.
Card convertibility:
You can call Chase to convert this card or any of the following cards into another card from this list:
Note that some reps will only allow card conversions after you have had the card for 12 months.
If you or someone in your household has a Sapphire Reserve, then your points will be worth at least 1.5 cents towards travel!
If you want to get a Sapphire Reserve, your best path is to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and then convert it to a Sapphire Reserve as you’ll get 100,000 signup bonus points+$50 back instead of 60,000 points!
Killer Combos:
Stacking multiple Ultimate Rewards cards together can supercharge your earnings by getting you more points per dollar while increasing the value of all your points.
A Chase Bifecta would consist of a household that has the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Sapphire Reserve and the Freedom Unlimited. The total effective annual fees would be either $95 with Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or $250 with Sapphire Reserve after accounting for that card’s $300 annual travel credit. With the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card+Freedom Unlimited you would earn 1.5 points per dollar everywhere, 2 points per dollar on all travel, 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores, and 5 points per dollar on travel booked via Chase. You’ll be able to transfer all of your points into airline miles or hotel points or use the pay yourself back feature. Read more about Freedom Unlimited here.
A Chase Trifecta adds a no annual fee card like Ink Cash or Chase Freedom Flex into the mix, so your total effective annual fee will still be $95 or $250. Both of those cards give options to earn a whopping 5 points per dollar in various categories on top of the 2-3 points per dollar that the Sapphire cards offer and the 1.5-5 points per dollar everywhere else with a Freedom Unlimited card. Read more about Freedom Flex here and read more about Ink Cash here.
A Chase Quadfecta would add both the Ink Cash and Chase Freedom Flex on top of a Sapphire card and an Unlimited card, so your total effective annual fee will still be just $95 or $250. The Quadfecta is the sweet spot and allows you to really supercharge your spending everywhere.
A Chase Quinfecta could add the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card to that mix, adding $95 to the annual fee total. This make sense if you spend money on shipping, social media advertising, or search engine advertising, or if you want free cell phone insurance.
Alternatively, you can create a Chase Quinfecta by adding the Chase United Explorer card,United Gateway℠ Card, or Chase United Business Card into the mix. Those cards don’t earn Ultimate Rewards points, but it makes your Ultimate Rewards points more valuable. Having a United card enables you to have access to significantly expanded United saver and standard award space in addition to benefits like 2 free club passes, a free checked bag, a free carry-on bag, and priority boarding, even when you’re on a basic economy fare. See more about those benefits here.
Again, all of these cards don’t need to be in one person’s name. 2 people from the same household can split up the requisite cards that make up the Quinfecta, as they can transfer the Ultimate Rewards points back and forth between themselves freely and they can add each other as an authorized user on their cards!
DoorDash DashPass Membership:
DoorDash DashPass allows you to get free delivery and lower service fees on $12+ orders from select restaurants that have a blue checkmark. There are also lots of promotions and free food offers available to DashPass members.
DashPass normally costs $9.99/month.
If you add your Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card to your Doordash account and open the Doordash app, you can enroll for free through 12/31/21!
Airline transfer partners:
You can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to:
United (Star Alliance)
Singapore (Star Alliance)
Air France/KLM Flying Blue (Skyteam)
British Airways (OneWorld)
Aer Lingus (OneWorld)
Iberia (OneWorld)
Emirates
JetBlue
Southwest
Virgin Atlantic
Hotel transfer partners:
You can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to:
Hyatt
IHG
Marriott
The great thing about Chase Ultimate Rewards is how versatile and valuable they are:
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card allows you and anyone in your household to transfer Chase points into miles. They also allow you to use points at a value of 1.25 cents each towards travel.
The Sapphire Reserve also allows you and anyone in your household to transfer Chase points into miles. Plus it allows you to use points at a value of 1.5 cents each towards travel.
The fixed value is excellent and doesn’t require hunting down award space, but those points can be much more valuable by transferring them into airline miles or hotel points.
If I want to stay in a 5 star Park Hyatt in the Maldives, Melbourne, NYC, Paris, Sydney, or Tokyo that would cost over $1,000/night, I can instantly transfer 25-30K points to Hyatt to do that, a value of up to 6 cents per point.
If I need a one-way flight from Cleveland (or Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Montreal, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Toronto, etc) to NYC that can cost $500 each way, I can instantly transfer 7.5K points to British Airways to book a short-haul on American with no last minute booking fees. Or if American doesn’t have availability I can instantly transfer 10K points to United for their short-haul award. That’s a value of up to 7 cents per point.
If I want to stay in a non-chain hotel that costs $300/night and don’t want to pay cash, I can redeem 20K points for the room thanks to my Sapphire Reserve card’s minimum redemption value of 1.5 cents per point or 24K points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card ’s minimum redemption value of 1.25 cents per point
If I want to book a $2,281 business class ticket on Air Canada to Tel Aviv I can redeem 152K points for the flight thanks to my Sapphire Reserve card’s minimum redemption value of 1.5 cents per point or 182K points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card ’s minimum redemption value of 1.25 cents per point, plus I’ll earn Qantas miles for more future travel as it’s considered a paid flight instead of an award flight.
Free shipping on $50+ orders or $4.97 ship to home on orders under $50. Pickup at any Fedex or WalMart store for free shipping on all orders!
-Fun pirate ship themed outdoor, water play table loaded with spinning features
-Water moves with pump or by pouring water into the crows nest
-Aim and squirt water from the water cannon
-Anchor raises and lowers by cranking the handle
This was never below $139.99 from Amazon and has 4.5 star ratings.
-This camera has exactly the same specifications as the SZ-16
-Wide angle 24X optical zoom with 25-600mm range (35mm equiv.)
-1080P HD video
-16 scene modes and 11 Magic Filters for creative shooting
-Smart Panorama mode
Stackable offers:
-25% off with code (Exp: 06/10): DAD25
-$10 off $50+ orders with code: VISA10
-Receive free shipping with no minimum purchase required.
-A tote bag will be added to all $99+ orders for free.
-Receive free samples with every order with no code needed.
Includes:
-One Keurig Rivo Cappuccino and Latte System
-Two 12-count variety packs, featuring all four blends: Espresso Classico, Espresso Intenso, Espresso Delicato, and Espresso Decaf
-A bonus 18-count pack of Espresso Delicato pods
Bookable on Priceline. Priceline tickets are refundable until 11:29pm ET the day after purchase. Just click on “view full itinerary” in your email confirmation and then click on cancel flights:
Some very good deals for Clevelanders looking to take their talents to South Beach or for Miami folk looking to escape the humidity and check out a real theme park as opposed to the Disney version. It wasn’t long ago that United had a monopoly and commanded $500 round-trip for nonstop flights between CLE and FLL.
If you book your JetBlue tickets now you’ll also get a free checked bag. Previously they announced that they plan on adding a checked bag fee in June that will take effect for tickets purchased after that announcement. If you book before the announcement you will be grandfathered into the free bag policy.
Cleveland-Fort Lauderdale valid $73 travel dates:
July 4, 8, 14, 15, 21, 28
August 22, 24, 25, 26, 31
September 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 29, 30
October 26, 27, 28, 29
November 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18
December 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15
January 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28
February 1, 2, 8, 9
Fort Lauderdale-Cleveland valid $73 travel dates:
July 21, 29 ($83)
August 10, 18, 19, 25, 26
September 1, 2, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30
October 5, 7, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29
November 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12
December 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 16
January 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28
February 1, 2, 3, 4, 9
Find valid dates via the Google Flights links above and then plugin those dates into Pricelineto book with free cancellations until 11:29pm the business day after booking.
Download the coupon printer and print the coupon via the link above to receive $1.25 off a 16 ounce tea or juice drink or a 18.5 oz straight up tea at participating stores.
-A limited amount of coupons are available to print.
-The coupon says “Redeemable at Walmart” which is not the same as “redeemable only at Walmart.” It can be used at any store that accepts printed coupons for free items.
-Limit of 2 coupons per computer.
-Coupon Expires 06/15.
-The coupon says “Free (Up to $1.25) when you buy one bottle. It doesn’t require that you actually buy one to get one free, it’s just poorly worded. It will give you the bottle for free when scanned without needing to pay for one.
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Update, 3pm: American will indeed add daily Los Angeles-Sydney service on their new 77W aircraft featuring lie-flat business and first class effective 12/17/15. Qantas will also be adding S. Francisco-Sydney service effective 12/20/15. Tickets are not yet on sale for either route.
————————————————————————————————
American is poised to announce at 3pm that they will finally begin flying from Los Angeles to Sydney, duplicating a route currently served by Delta, Qantas, United, and Virgin Australia. Well, they didn’t announce that they will be flying that route or even that they will fly to Australia, but the Kangaroo in their tweet is a bit of a giveaway and it’s only logical route for them to serve.
Park Hyatt Sydney and Sydney Opera House. Picture taken from Sydney Harbour Bridge:
Business and first class saver award space between the US and Australia can be difficult to find.
Delta rarely has saver award space on their own planes, though you can use 80K Delta miles for a one-way business class award on Virgin Australia, which has decent availability.
United has decent premium cabin award space within a few weeks of travel on their own planes, and the value is pretty good, 40K coach, 70K business, and 80K first. United also allows you to route from the US to Australia via Asia and allows for a free stopover and a free open jaw. That means you can get very creative at opening award space as long as you don’t mind the extra travel time.
If you’re already in a place like Hong Kong (say you used 67.5K American miles to fly in first class on Cathay Pacific) you can actually take advantage of one of the best awards in the entire United system. It’s just 30K miles to fly business class or 40K miles to fly first class from Hong Kong to Australia via Thailand. In Bangkok you’ll be shuttled from your plane to a free hour-long massage in the Thai first class lounge. On a round-trip you can even stopover in Thailand and have an open jaw between Sydney and Melbourne for free.
It only costs 37.5K American miles in coach, 62.K in business, or 72.5K in first class to fly from the US to Australia. However American has much stricter routing rules, not allowing to you to fly via Asia to Australia without purchasing a 2nd award. American doesn’t currently fly to Australia, which leaves Qantas as the only good option for which you can redeem American miles on.
It wasn’t always this way. In 2010 I redeemed for an around-the-world OneWorld award in first class and wrote about our experiences in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Melbourne/Great Ocean Road, and Sydney, though I never did finish writing about Tasmania, Hamilton Island, and Hong Kong. We flew Qantas first class from Hong Kong to Melbourne as part of that 20 segment journey around the world. That award allowed you to route however you wanted but the option was eliminated as part of the AAdvantage MAAsacre (That was just part 1. Parts 2 and 3 will come later this year or next with the switch to revenue based mileage earning, a devalued award chart, and possibly systemwide upgrades that have a fare class requirement)
Unfortunately Qantas is notoriously stingy with the premium cabin award space. They do sometimes release some space within a week of the flight, but for the most part they only release award space 355 days before the flight when they open their schedule. American only allows booking 330 days into the future, meaning that people with British Airways Avios or Qantas miles can snap up those award seats before people with American miles can. However British Airways and Qantas both charge insane amounts of miles and fuel surcharges for premium cabin awards to Australia, making that a poor solution. One workaround would be to book an award with British Airways 355 days into the future, pay the $55 cancellation penalty, and hope that the award goes back into inventory so that you can rebook it with American miles. But aside from the $55 gamble, that approach takes a whole lot of BA Avios, 2 one-way first class seats from Los Angeles to Melbourne would require that you are sitting on 400K Avios in addition to 145K American miles.
It seems from American’s tweet that this will be a joint venture with Qantas:
Is it realistic to hope that American will release premium cabin award space on a joint venture with Qantas? At this point we don’t even know if the route will be served by a 77W with first class or by a 772 or 787 with just business class. Either way there probably won’t be much award space, but hopefully it will be more than Qantas has. American’s top-tier elites are sure to be delighted with the new route, thanks to their systemwide upgrades working on a more valuable route than ever before.
The best odds for premium cabin award space may be hoping for a glitch when they load the inventory for the flights.
Twiceearlier this year we saw glitches open up tons of premium cabin award space on tough routes like Tel Aviv. I booked 6 awards on that glitch for us to fly with our in-laws to Israel for Purim in business class using American miles.
Can we hope for another glitch like that to occur when this route goes for sale?
If I can hope that the Cavs can pull off an against-all-odds miracle to bring Cleveland its first championship in 51 years, then surely we can hope for wide open award space down under as well 🙂
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-NAND Flash: 32 Layer 3D V-NAND
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-Sequential read speed 550 MB/s; Sequential write speed 520 MB/s; Random read speed 100K; Random write speed 90K