We hope you never have to sit near any of these people while flying off to an exciting adventure!
Category Archives: Air Travel
Cheap Airfares – Copa For Lucky Americans
I really envy those who are able to take advantage of these sales, especially since it costs me a fortune in either miles or cash to get to these bird-rich countries in South America! Click on the image for details and don’t forget to read the T&Cs!
Why You Can’t Get AA/BA Partner Awards On Lan To The Galapagos
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I experienced it myself – the frustration of trying to get award space on Lan from Guayaquil to the Galapagos. Most people want to get to GPS (Baltra) as that is where the Galapagos cruises depart from and Lan flies there daily. In my case, since we aren’t doing a cruise, I wanted to get to SCY (San Cristobal) since it has the best land-based birding options but Lan only has 4 flights a week there. For the purposes of this demonstration, I will use GPS so you can see the fluctuations throughout a week on a daily basis.
Most people going to the Galapagos will want to book as far ahead as possible, especially if they are connecting to a cruise. At the time I wrote this post, Lan has availability loaded to 25 July at the 20,000 round trip level (10,000 each way). BA has picked this space up although it usually doesn’t at this level. On the 4 days preceeding 25 July there is no award space on BA for this route.
You can see here the different levels of economy awards. Lan only flies economy class to the Galapagos. Usually you need seats at the 8000 km each way level to have it show up on a partner award request. These seats are selling for anywhere between 11,000 – 14,000 so you can only book them on Lan.
It can get much worse – have a look at these flights over Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week) which is ultra-peak season! Award seats can go up to 22,000 each way!
You can sometimes get lucky with close-in bookings. Although surrounding dates have the high award rates, there is a window of opportunity on a few dates in September as shown by the red dots.
And this is how it looks on BA’s booking system.
So how can you get to the Galapagos?
1. Lanpass: Get the US Bank Lan Visa card, then supplement the award with miles transferred from SPG. It takes about a week for the miles to land which is really frustrating as the award prices can fluctuate daily.
2. Fly on Aerogal, the Avianca partner who is a member of Star Alliance. Unfortunately Avianca doesn’t have any transfer partners such as SPG, Ultimate Rewards, Thankyou Points or Amex MR so you have to buy miles, preferably on a promo deal. They do have a co-branded card with US Bank.
3. Use United, although availability has been patchy in the past, I am seeing good availability at time of writing. Oddly enough if you are in GYE, you have to transfer in UIO to get to the Galapagos.
4. Use your miles to Quito or Guayaquil and pay for the flights to the Galapagos. Expedia search on random dates for RT flights.
However you manage to get to the Galapagos, rest assured it will be well worth it! We are going next year and can’t wait!
Bargain Flights USA – Colombia
Colombia is a birder’s paradise and with bargain fares like this you don’t even need miles to get there cheaply!
A few sample fares:
Depart from:
Washington DC: $248
New York: $262
Cleveland: $263
San Francisco: $266
Air New Zealand’s Dreamliner Shanghai – Auckland Economy W/Skycouch
We had to get our boarding passes issued as Thai had been unable to do it the night before. Although I had us booked in the best possible free seats, they upgraded us to a Skycouch! Barring redeeming in business, this was the best possible outcome for a long flight in a Dreamliner!
Purple is one of my favourite colours so I was pleased with the mood lighting!
Here you can clearly see the layout of the economy cabin 3-3-3 configuration.
Touchscreens made it easy to control the AV.
In the 4th photo below, you can see the diagrams of how to use a Skycouch. There was no way we were going to fit side by side so we went with the 2nd option for couples with 2 seats extended and one seat used as a normal airline seat. My husband can sleep sitting up and I can’t but I did manage some sleep in the space of the 2 seat Skycouch.
It was interesting how the mood lighting changed throughout the flight.
The city of Auckland came into view and the flight was over.
Gotta love bird paintings!
We used my Amex’s Priority Pass to access the Emperor Lounge where I spent as much time as possible online. They keep careful track and we were unceremoniously kicked out when the 3 hours were up!
Oh joy! Our flight to Rarotonga was delayed 3 hours! At least they gave us food vouchers which we spent at the Burger King to maximize the value.
Since I have already blogged about the Cook Islands and the remainder of this trip was about visiting family, I’ll end this trip report here.
Back To The Back: Thai Airways KUL-BKK-PVG Economy
I had run out of United miles so it was back to the back of the plane for this trip. It was still a phenomenal use of miles since the routing got us from Brisbane to Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai to Koh Samui with a 23 hour layover in Bangkok, then an open jaw from Kuala Lumpur to Rarotonga via Bangkok and Shanghai with a 10 hour layover. In this post, we will look at the Thai economy experience on the Dreamliner.
In economy class you don’t get lounge access unless you have a credit card that includes Priority Pass (Amex) or Lounge Club (formerly include with Chase Ink). We wandered around the airport and checked out a few shops but didn’t buy anything. The kaftans were nice but out of my budget.
A quick shot of the business cabin as we walked through.
And here’s the economy cabin. This is where dreamliners become “nightmare-liners”. Seats are in a 3-3-3 so couples will usually have a stranger with them unless they get lucky and have an empty middle seat. We weren’t lucky but at least it was a short-ish flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok.
The one thing I did like was the controls in the seatback instead of buried in the side compartment of the seat.
Trying to sneak more photos of business class on the way out.
We had a 3 hour layover in Bangkok so we used Lounge Club to use the Louis Tavern lounge. It’s nowhere near as good as the Thai lounge from the last time we were here but better than sitting at the gate!
I was too tired to take photos of the plane between Bangkok and Shanghai so managed to pass out despite being in economy. At least this time we had no one in the middle seat! We quickly got transit visas and headed off to take the Maglev into town.
Having The Best Possible Economy Experience
Devaluations and other changes in airline mileage programs will see many more people traveling in economy. While in the past it was easy to find business class seats for long-haul travel at a small mark-up over economy, those days are pretty much gone. If you are using miles based in the USA such as United and America, you will find that some partner airlines such as Singapore, Air New Zealand, Eva, Qantas, Qatar & LAN have really tightened up on business class awards. While they may continue to make these awards available to their own members, many of these programs will have very high YQ surcharges so your “free” ticket isn’t so free anymore. Gov’t airport taxes can’t be avoided no matter which program you use but most people prefer to use miles that don’t attract surcharges and just book whatever availability they can find……………..even if all they can find is economy. So how can you increase your chances of a good experience in economy?
USE AIRLINES WITH BETTER ECONOMY SEATS
Seat Guru has a nice filterable chart on various airline products – long-haul and short-haul in economy, business and first class. Let’s look at long-haul economy as that is where having a better seat can make the biggest difference. Obviously, you can filter on airline to find out what kind of seat map you will have. You want to try to avoid a 3-4-3 arrangement as that means the seats will be smaller and you will feel like a sardine. I prefer 2-4-2 arrangements so my husband and I don’t have to sit with a stranger. If it’s a 3-3-3 arrangement we either book opposite aisles or if the flight doesn’t look full we book an aisle and a window and hope for an unoccupied middle. When I do this, I do keep track of seats up to departure time so I know if the middle seat is likely to be taken and I can adjust as needed.
If there is a choice of airline, you can filter based on other criteria such as aircraft type, seat pitch and seat width.
Many people like the A380 so would choose one of these airlines if possible.
This sort based on seat pitch (length from one seat back to the next one) has some surprising airlines at the top of the list! USA based carriers are usually shunned by award bookers in favour of Asian or Middle-Eastern carriers so maybe think again about that!
A sort by seat width puts the Asian carriers back on top so if you’d like a little more wiggle room, look for these airlines.
Conde-Nast Traveler has a nice infographic for a visual.
CHOOSE YOUR FLIGHT TIME WISELY
It’s very hard to sleep in most economy cabins so try to choose flights that arrive in the evening so you can go to a hotel for sleep. Just stay up and watch movies during the flight.
IF YOU HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE PLANE
I’ve found my doctor to be helpful in prescribing meds to help me sleep. My lucky husband is the type who falls asleep at the drop of a hat! Many blogs will tell you to stay hydrated but I don’t do that. That hydration will wake you up prematurely with a trip to the loo. I try to drink sparingly, just sips at the beginning of a flight, then after I wake up naturally, then I drink water or juice. I don’t drink alcohol other than the free champagne in business class – but those days are over. If I have trouble falling asleep on a plane, I will put a boring movie on, one with little action and lots of dialogue.
PLAN A DAY TO RECOVER
If you fly business and get a good night’s sleep, you can usually hit the ground running once you arrive. I would have really struggled with that 3 hour drive after arriving in Port Elizabeth after the long journey to get there if I hadn’t had a lie-flat seat. When I travel long-haul in economy, I wouldn’t try to do a long drive right after the flight. Sometimes it can be very cheap to get a massage when you arrive in countries like Thailand, Indonesia or the Philippines. And whatever you do, don’t sleep during the day at your destination as you will get into a vicious cycle of being awake all night and sleeping or feeling tired all day. Force yourself to stay awake until at least 8pm in your destination and set a wake up call for around 8am to get yourself de-jetlagged.
BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE ACCESS ON AN ECONOMY TICKET
This is the other perk besides the lie-flat seat I miss when traveling economy. I love being able to kill time in a lounge, use internet and have free food and drink or even a safe place to lie down for a nap using my phone as an alarm. To some extent, I can make up for this by using credit cards that give lounge club passes. Chase Ink will give you and each authorized user 2 passes per year. Amex cards that give Priority Pass membership will give 2 free passes per year as well.
Use them wisely if you have a lot of flights. Look for lounges with good food, good reviews by other travelers and free wifi. Don’t waste a pass in nice airports that have good facilities for everyone such as Singapore and Incheon. Even Bangkok Suvarnabhumi has a massage parlour on the 2nd floor with reasonable prices that anyone can use. Always use a pass to get into Istanbul’s lounge, it’s awesome! Other airports that I would use a pass are Santiago and Auckland if it’s a long layover and I want to use the internet and it’s too expensive in the terminal. If an airport has free wifi for everyone, I won’t waste a pass there.
THINGS I WON’T MISS ABOUT BUSINESS CLASS
Tablecloths! They annoy the crap out of me. I always seem to be pulling on them or trying to keep them from falling off.
Hovering flight attendants, I hate being fawned over!
Fancy-schmancy “gourmet” food. Just give me spag bol, chicken rice or something simple and be done with it! And please remove the tray promptly!
Meals that drag on forever while they bring you different courses. I’d rather watch the movie and not be offered something every ffew minutes.
Last but not least – snobby travelers who give us “the eye” when we board with carry-on backpacks. Like “Who let YOU in here”?
New Routes To Australia & Ghana From USA
Two new routes open up more exciting eco-travel opportunities for miles and points collectors! The whole miles and points world is talking about the new routes from California to Sydney. American Airlines will begin direct service on the busy LAX to SYD route 17 Dec 2015 – just in time for the peak season down under. This will add more potential award seats which for AAdvantage members go for 37,000 in Y, 62,500 in J. Since it does commence during peak season, I don’t expect there to be much award availability until perhaps Feb 2016. At least AAdvantage members will have a fighting chance to get J awards since they will have the same access as any OneWorld member!
Qantas is re-launching SFO to SYD service from 20 Dec 2015. Economy awards are generally easy to get but premium class award on QF have always been as rare as hen’s teeth. At least it’s another connecting point and once you are in SYD you can use the same award to get anywhere in Australia you want. I have a guide on planning a birding adventure using Western Australia as an example.
If you collect Star Alliance miles/United Mileage Plus, there’s good news for you too! South African Airways is adding a stop in Accra, Ghana enroute to JNB. This makes a nice birding itinerary similar to what I did last year.
Premium Travel – Been There, Done That, Got Selfies – Now What?
Conde-Nast Traveler does some interesting articles as do some miles & points bloggers who specialize in luxury travel. In this slideshow, they show the first class cabins of several airlines – Singapore, Etihad, Air France, Qantas, All Nippon, Asiana & Emirates. Sure they look fancy but do we really need all this luxury for a mere 8-15 hours of your life? Redeeming miles for first class could be anywhere from double to triple the miles for an economy flight.
Yeah, I know economy sucks but at the end of the day, you get to your destination the same time as everyone else and at worst you have to wait for them to disembark first. But then once off the plane, even a middle-aged backpacker like me can outrun someone dragging a rollaboard!
I’ve had my fair share of flights in business class which in recent years could be had for around 25-50% extra miles over the economy redemption. I’ve never flown first class but on our last trip to Europe, we had one segment BKK-IST in a wet-leased Jet Airways plane (they are no longer doing wet-leases). These trips were booked using US Airways miles obtained from lucrative promos such as Grand Slam that are now obsolete.
Thai Airways Business Class BNE-BKK
Turkish Airways wetleased Jet Airways first class suite (sold as business class) BKK-IST
Normal Turkish Airways Business Class Seat (as comparison), still pretty nice!
Swiss Euro-business Class BCN-ZRH-FCO, I would never redeem an intra-Europe award in J but this was part of a longer route back to Australia.
Air China Business Class FCO-PEK
Singapore Airlines A380 Business Class PEK-SIN, these seats were huge!
Singapore Airlines Business Class SIN-BNE, not an A380 but still nice and plenty of free Singapore Slings!
SO NOW WHAT?
So I’ve been there, done that and got the selfies. Now what? Airlines are tightening up on business class award availability. They are also devaluing their miles making premium seats much more expensive. It can come down to a question of do you want to travel in a larger seat, eat fancy food and drink champagne or do you want to have two trips instead of one?
Sure it was nice to have the lie-flat seats and get a good night’s sleep but we did have to take some very convoluted routes to do that. BCN-ZRH-FCO-PEK-SIN-BNE That’s 4 changes with security screening and lines at each stage which kind of negates the relaxation from the larger seat. The first 2 flights were delayed. Yes SWISS was delayed, who’d of thunk it? We could have been home a day earlier if we had done BCN-SIN-BNE but it wasn’t available at time of booking. We aren’t fans of fancy-schmancy food, I actually prefer the simplicity of economy food. The big seats that lie flat do make a big difference in arriving somewhere well-rested and I love having lounge access to surf the net on layovers and have free snacks.
Now that I have had the experience of luxury travel, it’s made me rethink what is important. OK, so I’m a destination based traveler so I know what’s important to me. Definitely not the food. Some airports have free wifi, otherwise I can just read or watch something I downloaded. Free snacks and drinks are nice but not a deal-breaker. Economy seats suck but my DR helped me out with sleeping pills and my husband can already sleep anywhere at the drop of a hat. The journey is basically what gets you to the destination. Some bloggers will have you believe that you shouldn’t leave home if it’s not in a premium cabin, but what’s the real point of travel? You need to GET some place first and if economy is the only affordable way to do it than so be it!
I’ve been blogging a series about a trip to Africa which was the last trip we did in business class using United Mileage Plus. Our most recent trip in April 2015 was Thailand, Malaysia & the Cook Islands all in economy. I’d blown my stash of UA miles and that’s all we could afford. Thankfully we survived! I’ll be blogging about this trip starting in June.
Now I am looking towards next year – 2016. This will be a major trip to Ecuador, Colombia, some Caribbean islands to see some amazing birds and a visit to family in the USA.. Looks like we are in for economy tickets again. If you are using AA miles, it’s almost impossible to get business class between Australia and South America or the USA and Australia as Qantas members have earlier access and snap them up. While I do participate in Qantas’ program, I am not about to pay their hefty fuel surcharges. I don’t have enough QFF points anyway. So once again, it will be the back of the plane but to some pretty amazing destinations!
A Bittersweet Farewell To Thai’s Business Class
The last few years have been great not only for the places we have been but the way we got there. Although in normal circumstances, we would never aspire to business class the US Airways promos and Chase credit cards meant that we had plenty of miles. This luxury will soon be coming to an end for several reasons. I’m running out of credit cards to churn. US Airways is gone. And airlines are getting stingier about releasing premium award seats. So knowing that these would likely be our last business class flights for several years at least I wanted to really enjoy them.
THAI AIRWAYS BRISBANE BNE TO BANGKOK BKK
This was the first of a complicated USDM award to Israel returning from Barcelona. We settled in, got comfortable and had champagne.
This flight leaves at 2pm and arrives at 8pm Thai time so it really isn’t necessary to sleep. I watched Bollywood films with English subtitles through dinner, then lay down for a nap just because I could!
The onward flight was on Turkish Airlines so we couldn’t use the Thai Airways Spa. We used the public spa upstairs for a half hour massage, then went to the lounge to relax, check emails and have some snacks before the next flight left.
THAI AIRWAYS BANGKOK BKK TO BRISBANE BNE
I’ve blogged about this route before so I’ll just supplement it a bit here. There was no way we were going to pass up one last massage in the spa, even though it was a tight squeeze before our flight.
Purple is one of my favourite colours so I love the TG cabin decor. The smiling crew were lovely as usual.
I had to have my champagne!
We were pretty tired so we rushed through dinner so we could get some sleep. The lie-flat beds were very comfortable and had some fancy controls. I love the quilts they use, so soft and comfy!
I slept like a log and didn’t even have time to see a full movie before arriving at BNE. I don’t know if the future holds more mileage earning activities that would get us in business class again so we are on economy for at least the next 3 trips. But this one sure was nice while it lasted!