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Reminder to check your old mileage programs

4/19/2008

A couple of days ago I received a newsletter from Lufthansa.

Usually I would delete the email (except for Aeroplan) but this time I opened it and while reading the latest Lufthansa news I spotted an interesting number in the corner- I actually have 47,000 Miles and More points.

47,000 is not a huge number of points- but it is enough for a free flight in North America- or if I can manage to get 13,000 more I will have enough for a flight to Europe, or 2 flights within North America.

If I had not signed up for the newletter I would have forgotten for sure and the miles would have expired, probably without me even knowing about it. I checked if these miles expire and sure enough they do expire after three years- which gives me only 11 months to use them. Many miles programs expire even sooner than three years.

So this is a reminder to check your old plans- you may get a nice surprise like I did.

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Redeeming Delta Skymiles

4/6/2008

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In general I have been a fan of Delta… until today. My girlfriend reserved a week in the Dominican for my birthday, and because I have a lot of Delta miles I thought we could use my miles to fly there. One of the great things about the Delta website is that if your dates are flexible they give you a calendar which can help you determine which days require less miles.

Last week I made a reservation which had to be completed by this weekend. So a couple of days later I decided to complete my reservation online. I went through the entire process on the Delta website and entered all of my information… Uh-oh.. I get the following message

Call Delta to Complete Reservation

We are unable to complete this reservation online at this time. Please contact Delta immediately and provide your reference number to complete this reservation. Call 888-750-3284, or the number on the back of your SkyMiles card for assistance. Non-U.S. based customers, please call the Delta Reservation Sales office for your country. You must call within the next 4 hours to confirm your reservation. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I called the reservation number- thinking, this shouldn’t take long- after all, I had a reference number. The person took all of my information, my reference number, and my credit card number (for the taxes)… confirmed my address… and I waited… Then I was asked for a different credit card- so I gave them one… and I waited some more… the person I was dealing with came back and asked me to stay on the line.. then put me back on hold… for over an hour!!!

I didn’t want to hang up and have to start all over again but after 75 minutesI was worried that my cordless phone was going to die on me so I called the reservation number back from my cell phone, and sure enough, while explaining everything to the second person the first person came back on the cordless phone. They had finally worked it out, but in the process have given me two seperate reservations for my flights.

I don’t know if it due to the fact that I was making a Skymiles redemption but my total time on the phone was 88 MINUTES!!!

Seems to me like Delta is making it complicated to redeem miles.

It’s interesting that I never had to wait that long to reserve a regular ticket.

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The importance of packing light

11/26/2007

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This summer I took a trip to Ukraine and Russia. As it was for a couple of weeks, between my girlfriend and I we had one large bag and one small carry-on. The two large bags weighed approximately 20 kgs each- while the smaller bags were much less.

The first time I faced how important it is to keep things light was when we stayed for a day at a hotel in Kiev, Ukraine. Our room was on the fourth floor but there were NO ELEVATORS. My girlfriend could not carry her bag, so, I hauled one suitcase in each hand up to our room. When I finally got to the top I swore that I would not be doing this again… Or so I thought…

A week later we arrived in St-Petersburg to a mini-hotel. This hotel was on the fifth floor of the building- our room was on the SIXTH… and once again, no elevator.

A few days later we were packing up to leave St-Petersburg and I found that half of the clothes I had brought I had not even used once. This got me to thinking that it is really important to carefully consider what you will pack and be sure that you will use it.

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The importance of checking prices

8/5/2007

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This week I have been making preparations for my vacation to Ukraine in a couple of weeks. I will be using CIBC Aventura points for one of the flights but will have to pay for the second one. So I called CIBC Aventura travel agency to find out the prices be for my airfare.

The first person I spoke to said that the flights I wanted would cost me a total of $2,000. This was more than I expected ( I was expecting $1,500), so I told her that I would think about it, gave her my phone number, and asked her to call back the next day.

One day passes, then two, then three… I guess she was not going to call back, so I called back myself, resigned to the fact that I would be paying $2,000 for my flight. I went through all of the details of the days I want to travel and this time I was given a total price of $1,447. Much better. Just for interest I asked if we could check the option of coming back one day later and now my total was $1,235. This is $765 less than the original fare I was given for travel on the same dates from the same travel agency!

It just goes to show that it is important to check your prices. Equally important, if possible, is to have some flexibility of your travel dates. Check all possible date combinations, there may be a big difference.

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Airport Delays in the US getting longer

7/17/2007

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I was sitting in a hotel room last week- waiting for my luggage to arrive when I picked up USA today to see an article about problems at JFK. The article identifies several problems wich are contributing to the problems at JFK- but I am sure that they are similar to other airports also.

The last time I flew to california my first flight was late which made me miss my connection- on my latest trip I made it to Atlanta but my luggage did not (it did show up at midnight, but not before I had to buy a whole new set of clothes). That was not the only thing that went wrong on this trip- on the way back one of my flights was cancelled, I asked why it was cancelled and the agent could not give me any reason.

So, I have had problems with three out of four of my last trips. Is this normal for travel in a first world country?

I wonder how bad it will have to get before the FAA and the airlines actually do something about this. I keep hearing that there are problems but have seen no solutions. Maybe we need a network of high speed trains like they have in Europe to give the airlines some competition.

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Tips for getting through airports in Africa

6/30/2007

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If you are traveling somewhere like Africa, for example- you do have to take some additional precautions for your safety- especially in airports. Here is my advice for navigating through the airports in these countries.

1.    Have someone meet you at the airport and do not take a lift unless you are completely sure that the driver is from the right organization.

2.    Make sure that you have a world phone so you are able to call your local contact/hotel/etc….if you are not sure of the person picking you up.

3.    Always carry on you a bunch of US One Dollar Bills. This is especially useful when someone wants to offer you a service such as carrying your bags. If someone does wants to carry your bags- let them. When you get to your bus/taxi- give them a dollar. I have seen people get hassled all the way out of the airport- but if you have a local guy carrying your bags noone will approach you.

4.    Dress down… far down… do not be wearing expensive watches or sunglasses as they attract attention. I am 6′ 4” and 250 pounds so I can’t be hidden- but I don’t stand out.

5.    Do not get upset- some things take a lot longer in other countries- especially african ones. Remember that you are the visitor.

The more often you travel off the beaten path, the more used you will get to this. And there are incredible things that you can see and do which make it worthwhile to try sometime.

I have had the good fortune to have had a few of these experiences. I have ridden on a camel around the pyramids in Egypt… There is no way to explain the feeling of this kind of experience but it can really be life changing.

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Timeshare Advice

6/27/2007

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A couple of months ago while I was in Las Vegas I was given a chance to get $150 Cirque du Soleil tickets for $35. The only condition was to listen to a Timeshare presentation.

The next day- after a three hour presentation and tour I ended up buying a timeshare property at the Grandview Las Vegas.

I have spent the last couple of months thinking over my decision- sometimes pleased and sometimes kicking myself…

Here is what I know so far about the pro’s and cons of timeshare ownership.

Disadvantages

·         Some people talk about timshare as an investment. This is totally wrong. it is like buying a new car- the value of timeshares goes down over time- you cannot look at it as an investment, it is more of a luxury purchase

·         I did one of the worst things which is to buy from the developer- if you are considering timeshares look into buying on the resale market where you can easily save 50-70%.

·         You are locked into paying maintenance fees on the unit- whether you use it or not. My maintenance fees are over $600 per year

·         If you do buy from the developer- watch our for the financing. The financing which is offered is VERY expensive- avoid it at all costs. The one I was offered was to pay 50% down and 50% over the next 12 months at 0%, or 10% down and 90% over the next five years at 17%!!

Advantages

·         If you take a lot of vacations (as I do), or if you like to go to the same place every year- you can save money compared to staying at hotels.

·         If you are member of a network such as RCI you have many different places which you can trade for.

I haven’t used my timeshare yet- but as I take two or three vacations each year to different places, I am hoping to save some money on my yearly vacations.

My best advice- whether you own a timeshare or not- for the best information on the net about timeshares, go to the Timeshare Users Group. It is an excellent resource which I wish I had known about before buying- there is a ton of free information on the site.

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Camping Tips

6/25/2007

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I have just taken my first camping trip of the year so I thought I would share some of my ideas to make the most out of camping

·         If you are car camping- bring as much as you can. Food is usually more expensive close to campsites- and even things that you would not expect to cost a lot of money do end up costing a lot. Our example was firewood. We spent a total of sixty dollars for two nights worth of firewood!! If I had a fireplace at home (which I dont), we could have saved that expense.

·         Check the weather before you go. Nothing is worse than waking up in torrential rain.

·         Get a tent which is easy to set up. There is a wide range of prices and quality of tents- but the most important factor is how the tent is set up. I have an inexpensive tent which I can set up myself in under 5 minutes.

·         Do not bring uncooked chicken or pork to eat- whether you are cooking on a camping stove or directly on a fire it is common to cook food unevenly. You do not want to be eating raw chicken or pork.

Let me know if you have other ideas…

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What to do when you miss your connections

6/13/2007

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During a trip I had recently my plane was delayed for a couple of hours before leaving Montreal so I got to Chicago late and missed my connection. I was a bit concerned because I had an important meeting the next day in Southern California.

The first thing I did was call the United airlines toll free reservations number and the people there told me that I had already been put on a flight the next day. This was not going to help me because I had a meeting the next day. They recommended that I talk to customer service.

It took more than an hour of waiting in line because United only had three customer service agents on duty, and when I got to the front of the line there were a couple of hundred people behind me. The customer service person we met did not seem interested in helping too much. They did not offer anything at all. This surprised me because I have been stranded at other airports and been offered hotel rooms for the night. No, all I got was them telling me that the earliest they could get me to San Diego was by the next evening. I asked her to get me to Los Angeles or Orange County and she told me that I would still only get to SanDiego by next evening. I had to explain that if she could get me to Los Angeles or Orange County I would drive the rest of the way. Then she finally understood.

So, I was put on a flight to Orange County and drove a couple of hours to my hotel. The only problem I had is that my bags were sent to San Diego- so I had to pick them up the next day.

Funnily enough I was in a hotel room a couple of days later watching a report about how only 75% of all flights are on time. This does not seem reasonable to me. You can see the statistics for yourself at the Bureau of Transportation. Scroll down the page and click on Airline On-Time Performance.

If you have the unfortunate but common experience of missing a connection the first thing you should do is call the airline. I recommend doing this while waiting in line at customer service. If you do need to be somewhere: try to fly to another airport else which is relatively close to where you are going- and drive the rest of the way.

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Checking your car rental receipt

6/10/2007

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I rent cars for my company travel once or twice a mont. This week something happened to me which reminded me of the need to check my car rental receipt.

I had made a three day rental in Houston, Texas and was returning the car in Dallas. When I had made my initial reservation the estimated total was $394. This is a lot for three days, but I justified it to myself with the fact that this included a GPS and a second driver, and that I was returning the car to a different location.

When I dropped off the car in Dallas I was asked if I wanted to charge the rental to the same credit card, I said yes, and was then given a receipt for$650!

I am fortunate in this case to have taken a look at the receipt- normally I just put the receipt in my briefcase to expense it later. Of course I went to customer service to complain, they told me that I had been charged more because I was returning the vehicle to the airport rather than a regular location. This did not really make sense to me- they had changed the daily rate because I was returning it to a different place? I only had a car for three days, and no, it was not a Mercedez, it was a minivan.

The customer service people did change the daily rate and brought the rental down to $420 but said something about taxes that they could not change. I did not have time to stay around and argue but it did leave me thinking that it is a good idea to double check the receipt that they give you when you return a rental car.

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Reminder to check your old mileage programs

Redeeming Delta Skymiles

The importance of packing light

The importance of checking prices

Airport Delays in the US getting longer

Tips for getting through airports in Africa

Timeshare Advice

Camping Tips

What to do when you miss your connections

Checking your car rental receipt

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