Any VacationHackrs?

[jeisensc]

@trism

About 1/3 of the passengers were hammered by the time they boarded, and along with most others they pounded champagne for the duration of the 5+ hour flight

My flight only had Mai Tais (which tasted like a bag of sugar mixed with a teaspoon of colored water) as the preflight cocktail. IIRC I wanted a Bailey’s and coffee and was told they weren’t serving anything else until we were in the air.

Also it was a very new Airbus with a brand new F cabin where every control from the tray table to lights was a contraption that was neither intuitive nor had instructions. Had I booked a r/t with them and discovered this on the outbound, I would have taken a different airline home and just abandoned the return ticket.

Like you, if the flight is over an hour I’m working.

@BYGFEET

I never needed WiFi before

I don’t expect to stream videos or have a lot of bandwidth, but I’m not getting in the air by choice with no ability to read/reply to emails until we land.

After the 3rd time UA didn’t tell me the wifi was broken on a cross-coastal until we had left the gate, I transferred 100k points to Marriott, donated the rest to charity and made them close my account. I understand it’s not perfect and it breaks, if you trap me before telling me we’re done.

[trism]

@trism

Works with the other product families also.

I believe the last BCE >> BCP upgrade offer was $150 with no AF for one year.

6% on groceries sounds good, but if you have to pay the AF and with the $6k annual cap, the most you can actually get from the card is 4.4%… and we would never max out the $6k, so the return is even lower.

4/18 - Annual fee posted
4/21 - Downgraded to the no-fee version
5/13 - Received another offer to upgrade back to BCP (annual fee waived for one year, $150 upgrade bonus after spending $1,000).

6% back on groceries, here I come (again).

[DG-X5]

@jananth1

What prevents people from booking a flight, cancelling and getting +10%, and then booking a more expensive flight with the voucher?

Technically, nothing - I ended up doing that for 2 J tickets earlier this year, albeit not intentionally. Worked fine, except for a currency conversion issue on the voucher (fare deposited in USD and taxes in QAR), which required an agent to manually reprice the new ticket.

When they originally introduced this 10% policy last year they also devalued the R business class fare bucket to remove a number of amenities like advanced seat selection, lounge access, etc., ticking off a good portion of their revenue paying customer base, hence they made this 10% policy “permanent” as a sort of mea culpa. (Judging by their track record, my money is on this “permanent” addition disappearing in the next 2 years )

[twelvetosix]

Finally finished booking my honeymoon this past week. Didn’t use points/miles for the hotels, but all the flights were paid for with miles. Took forever to find dates with Qsuite availability on the way back and hotel availability.
PIT → ORD → ADD → JNB (Admittedly this is on ET so not the best business class)
4 nights at a safari lodge
JNB → DOH → CMB → MLE (JNB → DOH leg in Qsuites)
5 nights in the Maldives
MLE → CMB - > DOH → PHL (Qsuites from DOH → PHL)

There weren’t any American flights at the award level I needed to get us back to Pittsburgh from Philly, but I wasn’t giving up the long leg in Qsuites so I’ll figure out that situation later lol. Still an expensive honeymoon since the hotels aren’t on points (and I typically refuse to use points without transferring them since the value typically sucks), but there is no way we could do this without using points/miles for the flights.

[HersheySweet]

Not really a vacation, more like trying to get home…

At $1100, this was the cheapest by $350 bucks in Economy, wish me luck.

---

This Saturday:

DXB → FRA

FRA → PHL

---

This August

PHL → FRA

FRA → ZRH

ZRH → AUH

[asdf1223]

Yeesh. That’s expensive. There used to be cheaper fares out ex-CMB especially in Business not sure if that’s still the case or if you want to backtrack. Sign up for the chase avios card/amex plat on the way back.

[HersheySweet]

@asdf1223

Sign up for the chase avios card/amex plat on the way back.

Signing up for VentureX, and backtracking was on my mind but I tried it and it didn’t work out. 1250 through Qatar and everyone, 1180 after student discount.

Business would be 3k through Qatar. Fares really hiked up

[hashone]

You’ll be able to afford it after flipping the trx.

[Ursus]

Chase Sapphire

Receive a 30% bonus with Virgin Atlantic

Now through June 15, 2022, get 30% more Virgin Points to use on daily flights to 34 worldwide destinations when you transfer points to your Virgin Flying Club account.

[Lvs23]

It’s not really a hack but just how we get to go on vacation and have spare $ for activities.
Trip to San Diego from JFK in August.

JFK-SAN - 5 economy tickets on AA @12,500 points each with a layover in Austin.
SAN-JFK - 5 economy tickets on Jetblue @ 17k - nonstop red-eye.

1 night upon arrival around the airport area using Hilton 1 night certificate.
1 night at Legolang hotel - that’s cash.
5 nights at some ING property also on points.

The only drawback is car rental most likely cash about $650 for 6 or 7 days. Don’t have any chase points left to do that and using Amex or AA points to rent a car doesn’t look like a good value.

Oh, and parking at the airport is about $150.

[Lvs23]

Btw, one of the interesting hacks doing credit card sign-up bonuses churn is to open cards separately for yourself and your spouse. Then pool these points to achieve better rewards. I know Jetblue and Hilton allow points pooling.

[trism]

Check your Amex Offers if you’re interested.

OFFER TERMS

Enrollment limited. Must first add offer to Card and then use same Card to redeem. Only U.S.-issued American Express® Cards are eligible. Limit 1 enrolled Card per Card Member across all American Express offer channels. Your enrollment of an eligible American Express Card for this offer extends only to that Card. Offer valid only for flights operated by select airlines (or a flight + hotel package) and booked directly with American Express Travel online through AmericanExpress.com/us/AmexTravelIAP, through the Amex® App, or by calling the number on the back of your Card. Select airlines include AeroMexico, Air France, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Delta, Emirates, Etihad, Finnair, Iberia Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, LATAM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic. Flights booked directly with a qualifying airline or through other third-party sites and apps, not listed as eligible, are excluded. Offer not valid for all other types of American Express Travel bookings or purchases not listed as eligible. International Airline Program benefits are valid only for eligible U.S. Consumer and Business Platinum Card® and Centurion® Members (Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Card Members are not eligible), on int’l tkts booked through Amex Travel for select 1st class, business class, and premium economy tickets with participating airlines, subject to availability. Travel must originate in and return to U.S. gateway and select Canadian gateways. An eligible Card Member can book for himself/herself and up to 7 passengers traveling on the same itinerary as that Card Member. Bookings must be made using an eligible Card in the Card Member’s name. Discounts are applied to the base airfare. Discounts are not combinable with other offers unless indicated and may not apply to codeshare partners. Airline fare rules and restrictions apply and are subject to change at the discretion of the airline. Tickets are non-refundable unless otherwise indicated. Tickets are non-transferable; name changes are not permitted. IAP benefits, participating airlines, and ticket availability are subject to change. American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. is acting solely as a sales agent for travel suppliers and is not responsible for the actions or inactions of such suppliers. Certain suppliers pay us commission and other incentives for reaching sales targets or other goals and may provide incentives to our travel consultants. For more information visit www.americanexpress.com/travelterms. California CST#1022318; Washington UBI#600-469-694. Offer is non-transferable. Limit of 1 statement credit per Card Member. You may not receive the statement credit if we receive inaccurate information or are otherwise unable to identify your purchase as qualifying for the offer. Purchases may fall outside of the offer period in some cases due to a delay in merchants submitting transactions to us. Statement credit will appear on your billing statement within 90 days after 7/20/2022, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. Statement credit may be reversed if qualifying purchase is cancelled. If American Express does not receive information that identifies your purchase as qualifying for the offer, you will not receive the statement credit. Limit 1 enrolled Card per American Express Card online account. The enrolled Card account must be active, not past due, canceled, or have a returned payment outstanding to receive the statement credit. Any benefit earned from this offer is in addition to the rewards (i.e. Membership Rewards or cash back) earned as part of your existing Card benefits, but your ability to earn spend-based rewards for the purchase will be based on the amount after any statement credit or other discount is applied. Amex Offers are dynamic and personalized, so the offers you see may change. For questions regarding your Card Account, please call the number on the back of your Card. By adding an offer to a Card, you agree that American Express may send you communications about the offer. POID: K3R4:0001

[john6866]

I need to step up my vacation hackr game. Looked at July 4th tickets (± 2 days) from Seattle to Miami and it was ~$830. Jfc! Don’t think I’ve ever seen air fares that high for a domestic flight ever.

[jeisensc]

@john6866

Looked

Doesn’t surprise me: coach r/t SoCal to Vegas in March (not spring break) was $800, 2 weeks later less than $300. Seems like where airlines might previously add a flight or cheap-sell the remaining seats they are just surge pricing.

Like leasing in the past 2 years: forget what you knew about travel costs. There is more demand than supply (revenge vacationing) plus fuel prices are high. Flexibility seems to be key right now.

I’m not a big churner of credit cards, I usually make a couple changes once a year, but I let most of my annual fee travel cards go during the past 2 years. Hilton/AMEX is running several different promos right now, I have a 5 day stay coming in July, so I opened the no annual fee card with 100k bonus and $100 Hilton credit that should all hit after that stay. I already have Diamond status from 2019 that has been extended without asking, so hoping to get some use out of those points before that resets next March.

[Lvs23]

It’s just unfortunate that 100k point in Hilton don’t go as far as they should they should. Most basic rooms are 30k or even 40k per night with average 2-3 start hotels. The only redeeming value this far is having 5th night free.

[jeisensc]

They spend easily elsewhere. I got down to 0 a couple years ago because amazon accepts them at checkout. Not to say I’d spend 100k there, but for rounding errors like those loose 3000-ish kicking around.

[trism]

Domestic award tickets for summer travel are ridiculous also (at least on AA).

Last week I was helping my mother evaluate her options, and for the trip she wanted to take it was 60-80,000 miles roundtrip in Economy.

Fiddling with the dates didn’t help much.

[Lvs23]

Depends what you are looking for.

Found 12.5k one way with layover NYC to SAN in Aug. there was also return similarly price but I took JetBlue nonstop for higher price.

Not looking for anything in June-July because of summer camps

[Lvs23]

Can’t bring myself to spend on Amazon and the ration like 30k for $50😂 give or take

[jeisensc]

That must have suffered inflation, I don’t recall the exchange being that bad. But I’ll take your word for it.