Tech & Travel Guru
Hyatt makes it easy to transfer points between members allowing you to combine points. You do have to share your Name, Hyatt #, Mailing address, Phone # and Email address so you’ll need to be comfortable sharing those details with who you are transferring the points to. This shouldn’t be...
After using United miles to fly ANA First Class twice now, I was determined to understand how to do it with AMEX points. On April 24, United doubled the cost of miles needed to redeem for ANA Business & First Class. Business Class went from 88,000 miles one-way to 110,000...
After a wonderful experience last year, I had to try ANA “The Suite” again. This time it would be an evening flight departing from Tokyo. I was able to lock in the one-way First Class flight using 121,000 United miles + $49.85 in taxes for NRT-ORD-SAN, but the ORD-SAN segment...
I’m always excited to plan a trip to Japan! My friends invited me to go skiing in Nagano in January. I was able to find award availability 5 months in advance of the trip using my Alaska Airlines miles for redemption on Japan Airlines. It cost me 85,000 Alaska Airlines...
After traveling around Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia & Singapore for 2 weeks, I was ready for my flight home. Luckily, I had a nonstop booked from SIN to SFO. I’ve flown this nonstop route once before, but this time I was flying on their Premium Ultra Long Range layout where they...
After a wonderful flight over to Europe on Lufthansa in Business Class, we decided to book British Airways in Premium Economy (World Traveller Plus) nonstop back into San Diego. Using 42,500 Alaska Airlines miles + $237.15 in taxes per person we were able to lock in VIE-LHR-SAN. Taxes are high...
Happy New Year! 2023 continued to improve and saw strong travel demand over 2022 as COVID restrictions are now nonexistent. During 2023, I was able to fit in a few fun international trips. I flew 94,000 miles and visited 10 countries. This reflects a ~8% increase in miles from 2022....
We needed a flight to attend the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier this year and I was able to snag 2 Business Class seats on Lufthansa using 77,000 United miles and $41.30 in taxes per person one-way for LAX-FRA-VIE. Flying into Budapest was soldout using miles, but a few hours on...
With the upcoming holiday travel season, I wanted to share with you the travel power strip I’ve been using this year while flying and staying in hotels globally. It fixes so many of the common issues… Adapter falling out of a worn out plug (common on inflight outlets) due to...
As award availability has become harder and harder to find, there is an app to present the data you need without creating 100+ searches with each airline. A former Robinhood Security Engineer, started Seats.aero as a side project. I’ve been using it since March 2023 and have found value in...
ANA released their latest First Class product, The Suite, back in July 2019. The COVID pandemic limited the possibilities of flying this product. It’s featured just on a few routes (SFO-HND, LHR-HND, JFK-HND) as only nine 777 planes feature the latest seats. The routes change based on the season, but...
Wow! I’ve traveled 1 Million miles since 2013 which is enough to circle the world more than 40 times in less than 10 years. I did travel prior to 2013, but didn’t track it with TripIt. I crossed the 1 Million miles mark after arriving on JL66 into SAN from...
I visited Torres del Paine, Chile to hike Patagonia and needed to get back to Santiago (SCL) for my flight back home. There is an airport nearby in Puerto Natales, but very limited seasonal flights operate to/from PNT. Punta Arenas (PUQ) is the major airport in the region, but a...
In May 2022, I was able to secure JAL (Japan Airlines) Business Class on CGK-NRT-SAN for 65,000 Alaska Airlines miles + $73.67 in taxes. It’s much harder to lock in a connecting itinerary via Tokyo on JAL now due to availability and it also costs 100,000 Alaska Airlines miles. I’m...
Alaska Airlines is my primary airline and I hold MVP Gold 75K status with them. Late last year (November 2022), I was invited to beta test a new electronic baggage tag for checked luggage. For longer trips, I check a bag so this was a cool new technology to test...
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