Palo Will Travel Blog

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Pro Tip: Renew Your Passport 1 Year Prior to Expiration!

When traveling internationally, you’ll need to have a valid passport in your possession. Unfortunately, some countries require your passport to be valid for many months after your arrival. Always check the Passport Validity requirement for entering the country prior to your travel. Resource for US Passports: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages.html Some countries I’ve visited...

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Emirates Economy Class: MLE-DXB B777-300ER

After an out of this world stay at The St. Regis Maldives, I had to head back home. This trip was designed around this mistake fare when I booked Emirates from MLE to LAS via DXB + SFO for USD 110 one-way. I would be flying home in Economy after a First...

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Pro Tip: No ATM Fees Globally!

In 2017, I saved $59.85 in ATM fees globally by utilizing my Charles Schwab ATM card. I blogged about this card back in 2014 and 4 years later it is still the best card to have in your wallet to get cash out of an ATM globally and even domestically. Why...

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Farewell Virgin America

The merger between Virgin America and Alaska Airlines closed ~15 months ago and now the full takeover by Alaska Airlines will be completed on April 24th, 2018. All airport branding will change over to Alaska as all flight #’s will be Alaska flight #’s plus Virgin America’s website will shutdown....

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Surf Air: MYF-SQL Pilatus PC-12NG

Surf Air had a promotion late last year offering Elite status members of commercial airlines to try them out for 1 flight at no charge. I was able to book my trial flight from San Diego (Montgomery Field – MYF) to San Carlos (SQL) which was a new route for...

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Pro Tip: Earning Airline Miles & Extending Expiring Miles

Earning Airline Miles Always signup for the airline mileage program account prior to your flight in order to earn miles. If you signup after your flight, the airline might deny your request to retroactively earn miles. This happened to a reader while trying to credit a British Airways flight to...

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The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort: Restaurants & In-Room Dining

The St. Regis wouldn’t be the finest address in the Maldives without world class dining. It isn’t cheap to dine in the Maldives so expect to pay 3x what you are used to paying in California for a meal. We were lucky and able to try a few restaurants during...

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The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort: Island Amenities

The St. Regis offers a vast amount of island amenities to keep you busy during your stay. Even though you are “stuck” on the island during your stay, you have plenty of choices. During our 3 night stay, we didn’t get around to trying everything out. There were plenty of...

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Elite Upgrades in 2017 & Status for 2018

During 2017, I carried elite status on American Airlines, Virgin America and United. The upgrade results were almost 100% which isn’t typical! Checkout the results below… American Airlines Executive Platinum American Executive Platinum is top tier status and required 100K+ of flying in 2016 to use this status in 2017....

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TSA PreCheck Lines Long? Signup for CLEAR!

The secret of TSA PreCheck is out and the lines are much longer in the last year than they were 5+ years ago. Many travelers have taken the time to signup and most haven’t even paid for it. A few premium credit cards such as Chase Sapphire Reserve and AMEX...