2014 Travel Year In Review – The Year Of Traveling Dangerously

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Tara

It’s time for my annual tradition, a review of my year in travel. Here’s the 2013 edition. Although I had thought this would be a relatively quiet travel year, at least on the personal level, it turned out to be anything but! Read on to see how we braved road trains, kamikaze kangaroos, the Gaza War, hectic airline schedules and Ebola to complete some epic birding trips!

JANUARY

One quiet month, just needed to finalize the bookings for the Aussie birding trip. No credit card apps this time, I needed to let the dust settle after going strong last year. Wyndham devalued their conversion to airline miles rate.

FEBRUARY

We flew to Perth and picked up a rental car from Hertz for a 2 week trip around Western Australia. The birds were amazing! The trip was not without risks as we dodged humongous road trains and dodged kangaroos on the road who kept jumping out in front of us. Thankfully we completed the trip without injury to us or the car!

MARCH

Continuing on, we had a brief layover in Melbourne and saw several nice birds, then spent a week in Tasmania. The highlight was Melaleuca where we saw highly endangered Orange-bellied Parrots and flushed a Ground Parrot while walking to the boat excursion. Then we had a week’s excursion to Outback Queensland where we visited Bowra Station and Girraween National Park for more birds like Budgerigars, Cockatiels, Major Mitchells and several Rosellas. More kangaroos played “chicken” with my rental car but I managed to avoid them again. (trip not blogged yet)

Garuda joins Skyteam, most welcome as now we can use Flying Blue to book one way domestic awards!

Towards the end of March, US Airways and TAM officially joined OneWorld.

APRIL

Shock-horror in the miles & points community as AA eliminates North American gateway stopovers and does away with the OneWorld Explorer ticket – a popular way to travel around the world. And NO notice given so people couldn’t even squeeze in their last tickets!

Every airline and their brother was doing some kind of buy miles get bonus miles promo. Americans weren’t biting as they can manufacture spend but they proved popular with Aussies and other travelers around the world.

MAY

Sri Lankan Airlines officially join OneWorld. The annual Daily Getaways promo is announced but no bargains to be had since Wyndham points no longer transfer to airlines at an attractive rate. In the face of devaluations and airlines changing their programs with no notice, I decided to bring forward the two trips planned for 2015 which would become impossible if the programs changed.

The French Polynesia trip relies on Air Tahiti Nui remaining a partner of the “new American” since Air New Zealand doesn’t release seats between AKL & BNE and very rare seats between AKL & PPT. I brought the planned Feb 2015 trip forward to June 2014.

The Africa trip relies on no more United devaluations and the use of stop-overs and open jaws and would be way more expensive if these perks went away. I bring the trip forward from Aug/Sept 2015 to Nov 2014.

JUNE

We travel to the Marquesas and Rimatara to see some of the most beautiful lorikeets in the world. Meanwhile Daily Getaways tanks with most point packages going begging due to devaluations. Information about the AA/US merger starts trickling out.

JULY

Dramas with the award tickets booked on US Airways/Star Alliance for the upcoming trip to the World Parrot Conference at Loro Parque. Our planned stopover in Israel is in jeopardy when airlines pull out of TLV because of the Gaza War. I’m stressing big time when Turkish Airlines also pulls out. They later reinstate the flights but cut back the schedules. Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines cancels our PEK-SIN segment and rebooks us on an earlier flight that kills our quickie trip to the Great Wall. More stressing since US is no longer partnering with SQ since they changed to OneWorld. I manage to get the tickets reissued and communicated to all airlines involved after several hours on Skype.

Air India joins Star Alliance.

On the bright side, ANZ finally does a good deal on the Qantas card and I pick up 50k QF points with no annual fee! I scramble to meet the minimum spend domestically before the Israel/Europe trip as the card has a hefty forex fee. Bills are prepaid through December, one less thing to stress over!

AUGUST

The war in Gaza continues and I have to plan an alternate stopover in Turkey just in case things get worse by Sept when we will be there and we can’t go to Israel. I am not worried about the war as we won’t be anywhere near Gaza but the war could either spread or cause airlines to pull out again or leave us stranded in Israel if it happens while we are there. Ceasefire is declared on 26 Aug, less than 3 weeks before our trip. People on Trip Advisor advise that Israel is safe for tourists. The damage to the tourist industry is done and TK cancels the morning flight we are on and rebooks us on an afternoon flight so we now will arrive late into Jerusalem and miss a valuable sightseeing time. Once again, we need to have our tickets revalidated, more time on the phone and more time to make sure all airlines got the memo.

I send our passports to the Ghana Embassy in Canberra for the visas for the Nov trip and stress about them getting back in time and not getting lost. Thankfully they come back with visas in good time. Now I get to stress over the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia possibly spreading to Ghana.

In my spare time I have to pre-write 80 blog posts (mostly birding trip reports and bird profiles) to cover my one-per-day schedule while we are in Europe and Africa! I bet no one even noticed I was gone!

SEPTEMBER

Because of Ebola, Ethiopian Airlines pulls out of Monrovia and Conakry, both of which were routed via Accra. They cut back Accra to one flight a day and of course it is OUR flight that gets cancelled and rebooked to the other flight. I guess I should be glad they rebooked us! So yet another round of ticket reissuing and calling airlines to make sure they all get the new ticket numbers.

We fly to TLV via BKK and IST (fantastic lounge) and get the suites between BKK-IST on the wetleased plane! Mini-first class experience. Once we finally arrived in TLV, we found that one bag had gotten lost. We waste time filling out forms and stressing out as our evening clothes for the gala party at Loro Parque and the cruise are in the lost bag. The prodigal suitcase is delivered the next day to the Crowne Plaza Jerusalem while we are at Masada much to our relief. We enjoy the rest of our visit in Israel (which was perfectly safe), the stopover in Nice and the conference.

After the conference, we fly to Venice and boarded an NCL ship for a Grand Mediterranean cruise. This cruise won’t be blogged since it doesn’t fit the eco-tourism theme but it was the worst cruise I have ever taken. Incompetent service, cancelled Mykonos port, live animals in the magician act and lack of activities during sea days.

OCTOBER

Cruise continues, ports were great but we were exhausted as we DIY’d everything to save money. We did get to see most of the European sights we targeted. The stress doesn’t end with the cruise. Swiss Air has two late flights and we barely make it in time for the Air China flight FCO-PEK, huffing and puffing and praying the bags are on board. We stay in the Air China lounge since now we don’t have enough time to go to the Great Wall. SQ flight in J on the A380 is fantastic! We finally catch a break when the SQ transit desk lady manages to swap us onto the red-eye to BNE, sparing us an overnight in the albeit wonderful Changi Airport.

Avianca Lifemiles devalues their awards.

No rest for the wicked as I bite my nails and watch Ebola reports online. So far Ghana remains Ebola-free as does the rest of Africa. With shortened nails, I breathe a sigh of relief. I have 3 weeks to catch up on everything that happened while we were traveling and then we set off again for JNB via TPE & PEK. I have noticed the declining availability of J class awards lately so am relieved we are doing this epic journey in biz.

NOVEMBER

The African trip is amazing! I’ve only started blogging about it and am up through Port Elizabeth but in the New Year will finish blogs on the rest of South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar, Ghana, Addis Ababa (layover) and Tanzania!

DECEMBER

Realizing that we need to cool it on the long-haul trips next year since I have burned most of our miles squeezing in French Polynesia and Africa I cut back next year’s travel to only one overseas trip – South-east Asia and a week in Rarotonga so my husband can see his family and friends. I burn the last United miles we have to book a killer itinerary that totally maximizes the United routing rules – 2 open jaws and a stopover! BNE-BKK-CNX-BKK-USM /-KUL-BKK-PVG-AKL-RAR. I use Virgin Velocity to close the circle with RAR-AKL-BNE.

Air New Zealand announces service to Buenos Aires late next year. I am not holding my breath for award seats!

So there it is! We survived a stressful but fulfilling year of travel and birding!

How was YOUR year?

A Major Weedout Of Hotel Programs

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Tara

If you saw yesterday’s post about the Radisson Blu in Port Elizabeth, you got a general idea of how having the right credit card can save you lots of money on accomodation. Mainstream travelers who mostly visit cities have a huge advantage over eco-tourists because they tend to stay in one city for a couple days at least. Maximizing the Club Carlson Visa assumes you want to stay in one hotel for at least 2 days. There are a few places around the world where there are good birding sites within a short drive of a Club Carlson property so you can take advantage of the freebies and not waste your time in a city when you would rather be in a rainforest lodge. The example of Port Elizabeth with the day trip to Birds of Eden is one such example, Panama City is another and I really saved a bundle in Tahiti when we had to wait 2 days for the next flight to Rimatara to see the beautiful Rimatara Lorikeets. We also made good use of the “get one night free” during our travels in Israel & Europe before we went to Tenerife for the World Parrot Conference at Loro Parque.

WHY DID I HAVE ALL THESE HOTEL POINTS ANYWAY?

Although I am by nature a “free agent” and prefer to choose hotels by location and convenience, not because of loyalty to one chain; between 2009-2011 I found myself a member of just about every hotel program in the book. Why? Because I wanted “hits” in the US Airways Grand Slam promo. This was the cheapest way to get a large number of miles with very little extra cost over what I would normally pay for something. I did direct a lot of our discretionary stays to these programs to get these “hits”.

Fast forward to 2012. Everyone in the miles & points community was expecting Grand Slam to happen again in the usual time of Sept-Nov. We painstakingly did surveys, played Facebook games and did Foursquare “check-ins” to get free hotel points. Well guess what? 2012 came and went and no Grand Slam. 2013 came and went, still no Grand Slam. And now US and AA are merging so there won’t ever be a Grand Slam again. I had all these hotel points and had to do something with them.

Since we usually stay in small eco-lodges in remote locations, we have very little use for hotel points other than what has been mentioned above. Mostly we use them at airports before or after a flight. After several devaluations were announced, I knew I had to spend these points asap before they were totally worthless.

2014 was my year for massive burning of hotel points. 100,000’s of Club Carlson were used as above. 100,000’s of IHG Rewards were burned in French Polynesia, Israel & Africa (actually this includes the annual Chase free night certificate). I used E-Rewards to top up Hilton just enough to get us 2 free nights in Mauritius and used Choice for one night pre-cruise at the Comfort Inn Diana in Venice, then sent the remaining points to United Airlines. Now here I am at the end of 2014 and the only hotel points I have left are about 25k in Club Carlson, 30k in IHG and about 12k in La Quinta from the Facebook game last year.

MAKING THE DECISION – WHO STAYS AND WHO GOES

Looking to 2015 and beyond, I now need to assess which hotel programs (if any) I will keep. I also need to know which hotel credit cards to get rid of. To do this, I used two maps made by Drew at Travel is Free. One for Club Carlson and one for IHG.

1. IHG is a keeper for the long run. The $49 for the card which gets a free night certificate is easily worth it. In any given year, we would need at least one stay at an airport hotel and IHG serves this market well. They have properties at most of the gateway cities we would be transiting to get to eco-lodges.

2. La Quinta is easy, there is one near my Mom’s house so I know what to do with them.

3. Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Choice, Best Western & Wyndham are either zeroed out or have a few orphaned points (less than 1000) and we won’t be needing any of these chains for the foreseeable future.

4. SPG is more valuable for airline transfers into otherwise difficult programs such as Flying Blue. I have the credit card because of the bonus but never use it because they have no category bonuses and they charge forex fees. Plus I can use my Aussie Amex to transfer into SPG so this card can go, but I will keep my SPG account active.

5. My Club Carlson Visa also comes up for renewal next month – $50 since I only have the basic card (silver status) not the more expensive one that gets gold status. Using Drew’s maps, I can easily see that the only places I want to go to that have Club Carlson properties are Puerto Rico and Trinidad. I can see spending 2 nights at the Puerto Rico one as it is within easy driving distance of El Yunque National Forest and the value of 2 nights is easily more than the $50 fee. This trip is planned for mid 2016 so will be bookable in Oct this year. In Trinidad, a trip planned for 2018, I would much prefer to stay at the Asa Wright Centre’s Lodge for the superb birding, even though it costs more than paying the card fee for 2 more years would cost. So the verdict is keep this card one more year, then cancel it.

SO WHERE WILL I BE BOOKING HOTELS?

By the end of next year, I will be down to only one program – IHG for the annual Chase certificate. SPG doesn’t count as it will be used for airline miles, not hotels. The best thing for me to do moving forward is use the hotel booking engines that GIVE airline miles, not COST hotel points. No more being stuck at inconvenient locations just to get a free night! On the plus side, many eco-lodges also can be booked with these engines.

POINTSHOUND – I use it for AA or Flying Blue miles. Has a wider variety of hotels than Rocketmiles and cheaper options. Using my referral link gets us both 250-1000 miles depending on what promo they are running.

ROCKETMILES – larger miles payouts but limited selection and sometimes hotels cost more so check carefully. Good for United or Flying Blue miles. Using my referral link gets us both a 1000 miles bonus.

HOTELS.COM – used if I would rather get 10 nights for one free night (value is average expenditure for the 10 paid nights). For example if we have 5 nights at a $150 hotel, 3 nights at a $50 hotel and 2 nights at a $100 hotel the total we spent for the 10 nights is $1100. The average for the 10 nights is $110 so that is the maximum value of my free night. It’s best to get as close as possible to that maximum value as you don’t get any left over value. If you choose a $125 hotel you pay the difference of $15. If you choose a $95 hotel, you forfeit the balance of the free night value of $15. You can always maximize by booking a larger/better room or a bed & breakfast rate. Sometimes they have good 5x bonuses in the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall or Shop with Chase as they call it now. I haven’t seen a referral program for this company.

BOTTOM LINE

Having a good idea of where you want to travel in the next few years or even having a bucket list of ALL the places you want to go if you either get the miles or win the lottery helps you make wise choices in which hotel programs (if any) to participate in.

Hotel Review: Radisson Blu Port Elizabeth

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Tara

The seaside town of Port Elizabeth was the ideal gateway since our first destination was 3 hours east and our planned day-trip to Birds of Eden was around 2 hours to the west going towards Cape Town. Port Elizabeth is easy to get around and the roads are well-marked. The Radisson Blu Hotel is in the seaside suburb of Summerstrand. Just follow the signs, stay as close to the sea as possible when roads diverge and you can’t miss it!

This hotel is a bargain for those who have the Club Carlson Visa, only 38k points for 2 nights!

Like I said, you can’t miss it!

Nice spacious lobby

They have one of those annoying “open” bathrooms but at least there is a shade for those who prefer privacy. I must say I would have preferred the bathroom be completely enclosed, I’m not a fan of those open bathrooms. Beds are comfy with a nice assortment of pillows.

There’s a tv and work desk with a view of the sea. Internet connection was pretty good. There is also secure free parking. Overall, this hotel was a good option for us as we used our points. If we didn’t have points, we probably would have spent the night in a town closer to Birds of Eden to save a long drive but we had to spend at least one night in Port Elizabeth any way to catch an early flight to JNB. The breakfast was not included for a points stay and the restaurant didn’t have anything of interest so we went the cheapie route and bought food at the supermarket next door.

Fantastic Documentary On The Cape Parrot Project

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Tara

Although I normally embed YouTube videos, in this case I would prefer you click over to the National Geographic website as there is an excellent article to accompany it. Now I will worry the next 3 months that the poor birds aren’t getting enough to eat!

Click on the image!

Cape Parrot Project

Eco-Lite: Birds Of Eden Revisted – Part 2

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Tara

Continuing on from yesterday, we pick up the virtual stroll through the Birds of Eden walk-in aviary at the first pond where you can see Scarlet Ibises and other water birds, then past the grassy area to the main pond and the area surrounding the Jandaya Cafe. Sadly, the Jandaya Cafe is now screened in and the birds no longer are able to join you for lunch. The food was good though!

(Don’t look if you are under 18!)

Birds wondering why they can’t get into the cafe. Maybe because they don’t have credit cards?

Eco-Lite: Birds Of Eden Revisted – Part 1

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Tara

A little over a year ago, I shared some pics of the many gorgeous birds you can see flying freely in the huge Birds of Eden walk-in aviary and details of how you can visit them. If you are using miles, Port Elizabeth makes a great gateway city as you can easily get award flights there and redeem hotel points for free stays as I wrote in my main Port Elizabeth blog post.

Just last month, we got to revisit this awesome bird park and spend the whole day there. Since today is Boxing Day in Australia and tomorrow will also be a busy post-Christmas day, I will hold off on travel posts and simply enthrall you with some photos of beautiful birds!

I have WAY too many photos and not time to caption them so just relax and enjoy them!

In this part, I will show you the forest walkways and the birds that you can see there. Tomorrow, I will show you the Jandaya Cafe area, the ponds and the birds in those areas.

Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Tara

May your Christmas be as bright and cheerful as these Rainbow Lorikeets!

How To Save Money On Car Rentals In South Africa

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Tara

As one might expect, a continent as huge as Africa with all the amazing wildlife offers different types of safari experiences. In some countries, the infrastructure isn’t there for self drivers and you usually either have to join a group or hire a private car with driver. In later posts I will be blogging about the car/driver experience.

I’ve always been a more independent type and much prefer driving myself. I don’t like being in a group and I don’t like the feeling of being someone’s boss. South Africa is the ideal country to drive yourself in any of the wonderful national parks such as Kruger or to birding hotspots such as the Eastern Cape & Limpopo.

A few hours spent doing research at home can save you lots of money and hassle with your rental car. Here are some of my best tips.

1. Check each car rental company individually using the same dates and car type. Some of the major companies you will find are Hertz, Avis, Budget, Thrifty, Tempest, First and Europcar. Don’t forget to check the local version of the franchise’s website for example www.hertz.com and www.hertz.co.za. Take note of what insurance is included and what the

2. Check all-inclusive companies such as Holiday Autos, Driveaway. They sometimes have great deals that include insurance that are cheaper than what is offered on the companies’ websites.

3. Decide if you want full insurance, usually called “Supercover” or similar in South Africa or do you want to rely on your credit card’s insurance. The credit card may save you money but if you ding the car you may have a few headaches to sort out getting the matter settled. In my case, I decided it was worth a few extra dollars/rand for the peace of mind.

4. Look for specials offered to foreign tourists that include Supercover. Here is an example from Avis (and the one I ended up booking).

Be sure to select the Super Waiver option in your quote.

Check that the quote includes everything you want. I needed an automatic car, unlimited mileage (never rent a car without unlimited mileage in South Africa) and the liability has been reduced by the super cover to around $465 AUD.

Without the Super Waiver you save $16 AUD but you are on the hook for $2300 AUD if you have an accident! When you pick up the car you will be offered tyre & windscreen cover for a nominal $2-ish a day. I took it as there is a good chance we could have had a flat tyre or a rock thrown up by a truck that cracked the windscreen.

5. Once you are satisfied after checking every possible booking site for your car, go ahead and book it. Don’t forget to add your frequent flyer number if you have booked direct with a supplier.

6. Just because I reduced the liability from $2300 AUD to $465 doesn’t mean I want to pay it. When we picked up the car, I made a big show of circling the car, taking detailed photos (one of which had the employee in the background) and questioning any slight scratch or ding. This helps to avoid problems when returning the car. I never return cars after hours, I always have an employee check the car in and give me an “all clear” receipt. If we have an early morning flight, I would rather return the car the night before than drop it off before the office opens in the morning. I also want to be sure the petrol stations are open so I can refuel the car.

This all might sound like a ton of work but a few hours of research can help you get the best deal for your needs and also save you a lot of hassles when returning the car! South Africa is a pleasure to drive in with well-maintained roads and lots of wildlife reserves to explore!

Sasol/Princeton Field Guide: Birds Of Southern Africa

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Tara

I am a bit confused as this book seems to have two publishers, this may be a geographical thing. I bought the 3rd edition (2002) published by Sasol the last time we were in South Africa in April 2009 and found the maps and illustrations to be of a very high standard. The latest edition – 4th edition was published by Princeton in Nov 2011 (at least for the USA market) and is available on Amazon.com. The authors are the same – Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey, Warwick Tarboton & Peter Ryan.

*If you use my link to buy this or any other book through Amazon.com I will get a small commission. Thank you for your support!

Other Birding Locations Near King William’s Town

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Tara

Although the Cape Parrots were by far the main attraction, there are some other birds to keep an eye out for in and around King William’s Town.

HOSPITAL AREA

High up on a hill just in front of the hospital are a few trees with hundreds of birds – herons, egrets, ibises all crowding together in a few select trees. The sight and sounds of these birds has to be seen to be believed!

Undaunted by the larger birds, it’s business as usual for these little Cape Weavers.

POND OUTSIDE OF TOWN

I’m not sure if this pond has a name but it does attract a lot of different waterbirds such as various ducks and geese. I forgot to take notes so hopefully someone can help me identify them. Sadly there is a lot of rubbish dumped around the pond by locals which made me a bit uncomfortable being around there. What kind of people would want to spoil what would otherwise be a nice, peaceful area?

Miles To The Wild

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