Palo Will Travel Blog

Lufthansa A350 @ SAN 2

8 Year Anniversary

8 years, 3,000+ photos & 250 posts later… I still enjoy contributing to my travel blog. The past 2 years have been different given COVID-19, but we are seeing the world back to normal for the most part and travel is open šŸ™‚ Iā€™m truly blessed with the opportunity to...

B737 MAX 9 0

Alaska Airlines Premium Class: SFO-HNL B737 MAX 9

At the end of 2021, I was short on qualifying for Alaska MVP 75K Gold so I decided to do a 28 hour trip to Hawaii. I was sitting on some expiring credits due to COVID-19 so the $408 trip was well worth it. I was lucky to be able...

Seat 1A B777-300ER 0

American Airlines First Class: EZE-MIA B777-300ER

It was around 4 weeks before this flight, I saw an in-app upgrade offer from Premium Economy to First Class for $1,056 on my EZE-MIA segment. With a flight length of ~9 hours, it was over double my threshold of $50/hr to upgrade my cabin out of pocket. This was...

Buenos Aires, Argentina 0

American Airlines Business Class: DFW-EZE B787-9

My first international trip outside of North America since February 2020 when COVID-19 started was to Argentina. I was able to find ā€œCā€ class availability using ExpertFlyerĀ on the DFW-EZE segment which allowed me to upgrade my Premium Economy ticket to Business Class for 15,000 AA miles one-way. Flying on American’s...

Nā Pali Coast 1

Happy New Year! 2021 Review

Happy New Year! 2021 was an improvement over 2020, but still restricted due to COVID-19. During 2021, I was able to fit in an international trip in March & November, but all of my other trips were domestic. I flew 67,000 miles and visited 2 countries. This reflects a ~49%...

Separate Cargo Hold 0

Using Apple AirTag for Luggage Tracking

Technology keeps evolving and tracking your luggage just got easier. I used LugLoc previously in 2017 and was disappointed with the accuracy of tracking as it relied on cellular towers for triangulation to provide the location. Apple released AirTags in April 2021 to track your items. “AirTag sends out a...

Alaska Lounge SFO 0

Alaska Airlines Lounge SFO

Alaska Airlines recently renovated the old American Airlines Lounge at SFO in Terminal 2 into their own Alaska Airlines Lounge. The grand opening was just a few weeks ago on August 31st, 2021. I was lucky to be able to try it out on a recent trip during an evening...

Kauai 0

Summer 2021 Car Rental Experience: Lihue, Hawaii (Kauai)

Summer travel is in full swing and car rentals are difficult to find. Between high prices and limited availability it’s the worst I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. Car rentals were typically the last item to book after locking in your flight and hotel, but check availability before you plan...

DPS-SYD 0

Garuda Indonesia Economy Class: DPS-SYD A330-300

I made my way back to the US from a week in Bali via Sydney. The ticket was super cheap from SYD-HNL-SFO so I figured why not spend a few nights in Australia. Booking Garuda Indonesia flights is best direct via their website. The fare was around USD 250, but...

LAX 0

Singapore Airlines Business Class: LAX-NRT B777-300ER

My last international trip prior to COVID-19 originated at LAX headed to Tokyo. This was the 1st segment of my 3 aircraft sampler with Singapore Airlines which included theĀ B777-300ER, A380 & B787-10. Checking in at LAX with Singapore Airlines in TBIT was flawless as usual. I proceeded to the Star...