Gateway City: Las Vegas

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Tara

Yes, you read that right. Sin City is more than a place to gamble away your life savings (hopefully not) and see Elvis impersonators. Vegas is an ideal gateway airport, especially after returning from Central or South America on Copa Airline’s direct flight from Panama, especially if you are a US citizen.

We were in economy and the majority of the passengers seemed to not be (USA) Americans. Since I had booked these flights so far in advance, I had selected seats as far to the front as I could, row 9. Having only carry-on backpacks meant that we were off and running. When we reached immigration, I told them we had 1 American and 1 Australian with an ESTA and we were directed to the US Citizens line and were through in minutes. There is a shuttle to the rental car building in which all car rental companies are housed.

Las Vegas (LAS) has very few international flights landing so you don’t find the congestion you do at larger airports with lots of international flights such as LAX, JFK, IAH, MIA. Most of the other international flights originate in Canada so they will usually have done pre-clearance in Canada. There are several flights from Mexico, Condor flies from Frankfurt, Korean Airlines has one from Seoul, British Airways & Virgin Atlantic fly from LHR (possible use of Ultimate Rewards points).

Since our final destination was my Mom’s place in central California, I also thought the driving would be easier than taking the heavily trafficked 405 to 101 from LAX. Having a stopover in Vegas opens up some nice opportunities for free accommodation and oddly enough the best choice isn’t using standard hotel points unless you are chasing status on Hyatt with their MLife partnership.

GETTING FREE ROOMS IN VEGAS

If you are a high roller, you have other means of getting free rooms and probably already know about them. This is meant for the casual visitor who is just getting back from an eco-tourism trip and wants to chill for a day or two.

The major hotel chains do have properties in Vegas but this is one time I don’t advise you to use them as they are in most cases inconveniently located off the Strip. I did have a Chase free night certificate to spend and since we were there on Labor Day weekend, I couldn’t get the Venetian or Palazzo so we ended up at the Holiday Inn Desert Club Resort. The rooms were nice, like 1 bedroom apartments but the location was terrible! They supposedly have a shuttle to the Strip but we couldn’t make it work with the show (Ka) and buffets we had planned and I didn’t want to drive since I knew I would be drinking so we got stuck using taxis.

Not to worry, free hotel rooms, buffets & shows on the Strip can still be had for free if you don’t mind Facebook games!

There is a silly Facebook game called MyVegas that I found out about over a year ago. It’s free and fairly painless to play. Every few hours you can refill your chips and gold coins. You can see by the Santa on the left that I took this screenshot around Christmas time. They have sub-games that vary by time of the year. See their fan page for free chips and updates. You should also join the MyVegas Guides group to learn more details about rules, strategy, free chips and game play.

You increase your chips, levels & gold coins by playing slot machines. Contrary to what you read on Facebook, you do NOT need to add strangers as friends. My husband and I got our awards (buffets, KA tickets, free drinks) with only each other as friends.

Since we won’t be back in Vegas for a while, I just cruise by daily to get my free daily spin. When they have double XP days, I play the game in the background while I am otherwise occupied online or watching tv so it isn’t wasting my time.

If I had known about this in advance, I would have planned our quickie visit during the week, as it was we were there over Labor Day weekend so did the best we could. Since I do plan to go back to Central & South America (Peru & Bolivia in 2016) and will do the same thing, enter the USA via that Copa flight to Vegas, I am still collecting more chips. Next time, we will use them on free hotels & buffets. More money in our pockets means more to spend on eco-tours!

Copa Airlines – Routes For Eco-Tourists

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Tara

Copa Airlines is a member of Star Alliance and a very good member to know if you are headed to Central or South America for your eco-tourism adventure. Copa is a member of United’s Mileage Plus program and can be easily booked online using United miles and Avianca-Tava Lifemiles.

Some gateway cities I’d like you to take note of are Las Vegas (LAS), Toronto (YYZ), Mexico City (MEX) and Bogota (BOG). If you are either originating or transiting the USA to/from Central/South America, Las Vegas’ airport is a much less painful place to go through the formalities. We were on a full 737 in economy so no special privileges but we were through Customs and out to the car rental shuttles in less than 10 minutes (we didn’t check bags). People who are originating in Europe and don’t want to bother with a ESTA for the USA might want to fly to Toronto, Mexico City or Bogota to hook up with other Copa flights to their final destination.

This is a list of all their destinations.

SERVICE ON THE GROUND & ON BOARD

Seats in economy are in a 3 x 3 configuration, not my favourite. When I made the booking, I reserved an A & C seat for us and luckily no one took the middle seat. Entertainment is the old-fashioned over-head viewers, no AVOD at individual seats so you may want to bring your own entertainment. Business class seats are like US domestic first class seats.

The service was very good, I found the flight attendants friendly and competent. The flight was right on time. Although we were in economy, we had access to the Copa Club in Panama City (PTY) airport via a United Club pass from the Chase credit card; so got a free continental breakfast (cereal, toast, fruit, yogurt, coffee, juice, tea). They wouldn’t let me take photos inside.

The airport has a nice variety of gift shops if you have time to spend in transit here. The lines at immigration are extremely long, it took us almost an hour to clear as we were staying a few days. Think twice if you are in transit as the time to get out of the airport, then braving the traffic to get downtown to sightsee might take longer than you expect causing you to miss your flight. I wouldn’t try it unless I had at least 6 hours between flights.

BOOKING AWARD SEATS

Use United Airlines’ tool for best display options.

Getting award space is pretty easy, especially if you book in advance. United charges 17,500 miles in economy, Avianca Lifemiles charges 15,000 miles for the same.

Lima to Las Vegas is a very reasonable 20,000 miles in economy. A round trip at 40,000 miles would be an excellent use of either Ultimate Rewards points or United miles if you have gotten in on any of the credit card deals. Not quite a free trip, taxes add $50 each way but quite a bargain! You could also take a stop-over in Panama to extend your trip for the same price, well worth it for the superb birding!

Orange-chinned Parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis)

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Tara

The Orange-chinned Parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis), also known as the Tovi Parakeet, is a small mainly green parrot of the Brotogeris genus. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and heavily degraded former forest. Its name comes from a small clump of bright orange feathers located under the lower beak.

Radisson Summit, Panama

Laguna del Lagarto

WHERE TO SEE THEM

Orange-chinned Parakeets are found from southern Mexico, throughout Central America to the northern parts of Colombia & Venezuela. A Central America award will get you to the main places you can see them. We saw them from the balcony of the Radisson Summit in Panama albeit at a great distance. Views at the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Costa Rica were much closer! The parakeets enjoy the bananas put out for them and tend to frequent the surrounding trees as well.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PARROT

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

VIDEO

Although the dialogue is is Spanish, the footage of the birds is beautiful!

Hotel Review: Courtyard Panama At Metromall Mall

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Tara

Courtyard Panama at Metromall Mall is a good place to stay if you have an early morning flight as it’s a straight shoot down Av Domingo Diaz to the airport.

Since Panama City (PTY) is the hub airport for COPA and a solid Star Alliance connection, many people will find themselves in need of an overnight near the airport. It’s a decent 3 star hotel and a bargain using 10,000 Marriott Reward points. Since I had points from a Facebook game in 2012, I thought this was a good use of them.

Beware of taxis which can be a rip-off $15 or even more coming from the airport. You can get a bus from the bus stop across the street from the hotel (use the bridge over the highway) for $1. Normally you need a bus pass which would bring the ride down to .40-.50 cents but it’s hard to find them so we just offered locals who had bus passes $1 each to get us on board. It would be really nice if this hotel would offer a free airport shuttle but they don’t.

The hotel is next door to a large modern shopping centre with a supermarket if you need to stock up on drinks. There is a food court with all kinds of cuisines on offer at reasonable prices. It has a swimming pool which we didn’t have time to use and free wifi with an average speed.

I would only recommend this hotel as a pre-flight stay as there are much nice places in Panama City, let alone the Radisson Summit near Soberania National Park! But since many flights do leave early in the morning, it may come in handy. Trip Advisor reviews seem to also agree the hotel serves it’s purpose as an airport hotel but nothing to get excited about.

If you are on a points stay, breakfast won’t be included. We used United Club passes to get into the Copa Club for continental breakfast.

If you don’t have Marriott points and are looking for a reasonably priced cash stay, also consider the Riande Aeropuerto Hotel which is a bit closer to the airport, has a free shuttle and has more attractive grounds (that look like they may attract birds)!

Quick Visit To Panama City: Casco Viejo & Craft Market

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Tara

After checking out from the Radisson Summit, we followed the hotel’s shuttle to Albrook Mall so we wouldn’t get lost in the city. I didn’t trust myself to drive and not get lost in the old city, Casco Viejo. I was also concerned with security since we had all our belongings in the car and I had heard it was a risky part of town.

I parked the car at the Albrook Mall, took a photo of it with the shop in the background so we could find it again, then went to the taxi rank. I arranged a price with a taxi to drive us to Casco Viejo, show us around the highlights, let us have a few photo stops, then drop us off at the craft market for shopping for around $15 including waiting time. I find this is the best way to explore a city I don’t know very well but taxis are reasonably priced. I also felt more secure leaving the rental car at the Albrook Mall where it wouldn’t stand out.

A – Albrook Mall
B – Casco Viejo
C – Mercado de Artesanias

CASCO VIEJO

There seemed to be renovations going on and there were a lot of police standing around. The construction blocked a lot of the roads and the taxi had trouble finding places to park long enough so we could walk around a bit but he did his best.

There were crafts on offer at a market near Casco Viejo but we couldn’t find a place to park so decided to just move on to the main craft market.

CRAFT MARKET

Since I knew I wanted to take my time shopping (poor husband had to drag along while I shopped), I planned to let the taxi drop us and not wait. I figured we would be there over an hour and also get lunch there. The best part was seeing some of the Kuna ladies making molas. Molas are a kind of applique/embroidery technique to make beautiful pictures with fabric. You can use the molas as wall hangings, clothing embellishments, tote bags or pillow cases. I was especially pleased to see bird themes on many molas!

You can bargain with the shopkeepers, especially if you are buying multiple products but I found a more subtle bargaining worked better. I wanted to be fair to the craft makers since they do put a lot of work into these products so I didn’t go as hardcore as I would in the Middle East. I would express how much I liked something, but what a shame I didn’t have enough money………………maybe next time. If they were amenable to a discount, they would call me back and offer somewhat less, usually 10-20%.

Albrook Mall (as with other malls such as Metro Mall near the Courtyard) was a typical mall just like back home complete with food courts, nothing of interest to tourists unless you wanted to stock up on food or other staples.

US Airways Emails An Update On Alliances & Codeshares

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Tara

This is great news as it means you will still be able to book certain Star Alliance airlines after the merger with AA takes place. It’s also good news for people who have already made a booking for travel that will take place after the merger as US will still have access to award seats and a relationship with these airlines in case of irrops. Here is the full email. I bolded the most important facts you will want to remember.

An update on our alliances and codeshares

We’re excited to be a part of the new American and look forward to bringing you a stronger airline. In early 2014, we’ll be entering into a codeshare agreement with American, which means that you’ll be able to seamlessly book travel throughout the US Airways and American network.

On March 31, 2014, we plan to join the oneworld® alliance, so you can look forward to mileage earning and redemption opportunities, reciprocal elite benefits and lounge access on oneworld carriers. Some of these benefits will be phased in as we work toward full integration.

There are a few important changes to keep in mind for future travel:

We’ll be exiting Star Alliance on March 30, 2014. You’ll be able to earn and redeem Dividend Miles on Star Alliance carriers until that date. Any existing reservations for travel on a codeshare flight with a Star Alliance partner after March 30, 2014 are safe, however, you’ll be rebooked with a new flight number from the carrier operating the flight and you’ll no longer earn Dividend Miles or receive Star Alliance Gold or Silver benefits.

Since the legal close of our merger with American on December 9, 2013, we no longer offer codeshare flights for sale with United Airlines. When we exit Star Alliance on March 30, 2014, we will no longer offer codeshare flights for sale with Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa or SWISS. Any existing reservations are safe, but you will not earn Dividend Miles for flights on these carriers after March 30, 2014.

We plan to continue relationships with the following airlines, so you can continue to earn and redeem Dividend Miles on these select partners even after we’ve exited Star Alliance: Aegean, Air China, Air New Zealand, Avianca, Ethiopian Airlines, Eva, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, TAM, TAP and Turkish Airways.

US Airways customers with Star Alliance Gold status will no longer have access to Star Alliance lounges after March 30, 2014.

You can learn more and stay up-to-date by visiting usairways.com/arriving.

Air India Joining Star Alliance Soon

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Tara

The Indian national carrier was originally accepted as a future member of Star Alliance in December 2007, but the integration process was halted in July 2011. The suspension was a joint decision which allowed Air India to focus on completing its merger with Indian Airlines, without the distraction of the work required for full integration into the Star Alliance network.

With India being a country that boasts many fantastic national parks and eco-tourism ventures, this is great news! It’s also great news for Indians who are seeking more airline miles opportunities for their own travel plans and want to use a local credit card to earn miles.

A date has not been confirmed yet but the full story is here.

I just got back from a birding trip to India & Sri Lanka which I will be blogging about in the New Year.

Air India website

Domestic Routes

International Routes

If you live in India, you may wish to investigate the ways they have to earn frequent flyer miles. I see 2 co-branded credit cards and various other partners.

Live from a Lounge is a blog based in India and has more detailed information on Air India along with a free 1000 miles promo link to join Air India’s program.

Hotel Review: Radisson Summit Hotel & Golf Panama

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Tara

The Radisson Summit Hotel & Golf Panama offers a rare chance to use points to stay in a location where you can watch birds from your balcony if you ask for the rainforest view. It’s even better value for holders of the Club Carlson Visa from US Bank (not affiliate link). Using the “last night free benefit”, 28,000 points gets you 2 nights here.

Getting here is pretty straightforwards from the airport in a rental car. I just printed the Google map and memorized where I had to turn. The one tricky thing is you need either cash or a card for the toll booths. You can get a card from either the rental company (Alamo in my case) or the toll booth. The hotel is situated on the outskirts of the Soberania National Park just a mile or so from the Panama Canal as the crow flies.

There is a free car park in front and a golf cart facility to the left. The hotel attracts a lot of golfers. The rooms are spacious and comfortable and some have a fantastic view of the rainforest.

There is a bar next to the reception and one floor up you will find a restaurant and a swimming pool. You can even watch birds from the swimming pool, I saw 4 Brown-throated Parakeets (distinguishable by their long tails and noisy Aratinga screech) while we were swimming, not to mention a few Toucans & other birds. Unfortunately, my camera isn’t waterproof so I missed the shots.

I love how they have photos of the local wildlife on this wall near the pool! The first morning we went to the Rainforest Discovery Centre & Pipeline Road. The following morning we relaxed on the balcony for a couple hours and watched the mist rise from the rainforest and birds began to appear. We saw lots of Toucans, Aracaris, Tanagers, Orange-chinned Parrots, Blue-headed Pionus Parrots and a few other birds I didn’t know. Unfortunately, the sun was behind the area I was trying to photograph so more silhouettes!

Once the action quieted down, around 8:30-ish, we went down to breakfast, then had a walk on the trail behind the swimming pool. This takes you through a small patch of rainforest and ends at a butterfly house.

When we checked out to move to a hotel near the airport for the last night, we were able to follow the hotel’s shuttle to Albrook Mall. This prevented us wasting time getting lost as the city can be confusing to drive in. All in all, we were really happy with this hotel and highly recommend it especially to eco-tourists given it’s location and views from the balconies!

La Quinta Facebook Game Wins Free Points & Stays

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Tara

Since La Quinta only has domestic USA properties, it will be of limited use to eco-travelers unless you need an airport stay or a stay for some other reason. There’s a LQ less than a mile from my Mom’s house so they come in very handy for me! Free points are free points! The game continues until 31 Jan and most people get 1000 LQ points the first day and between 100-300 points every subsequent day so you will end up with at least enough points for a free night at a lower tier property. A list of all properties is on the La Quinta website.

Using my link to join the game gets me 30,000 tokens (30 spins). You will then get your own link to share on Facebook or Twitter. If you are not already a member of La Quinta Rewards, the game will prompt you to sign up or log in if you are already a member.

A few lucky people will win instant free nights!

You get 5000 tokens (5 spins) per day. The bonus wheel can give you more tokens.

After you win some points, answer an easy question for more points.

Share on Facebook or Twitter to double your points.

Humans Only Please!

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Tara

I have added a new human verification program to the comments section. This is to combat spammers who have been relentlessly spamming this little niche travel blog with the most ridiculous advertisements.

All you have to do is answer a simple question such as “How many wings does a bird have?”

I apologize for the inconvenience but it will only take a couple seconds to answer the question. If you are a new commenter, you will go to the moderation queue automatically. I don’t censor comments so once I wake up in Australia and see it, I will approve it, then you will be able to comment with automatic approval.

If I happen to be traveling in a remote area with no internet, there may be some delay to first comment approvals or my replies to comments. Sorry in advance, birds usually are best seen out in the bush so these things can’t be helped!

Miles To The Wild

Create unforgettable eco-tourism and birding adventures using miles & points!