Okay, the public has spoken. Many people were clearly unhappy about the location and price of the meet-up this weekend. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can really do about the price. If it's cheap enough, 30 people will show up, but then I need a reservation to ensure there is space. The catch is most restaurants want a minimum guarantee, so it becomes expensive, too many people drop out to meet that minimum. The only real alternative is to have 30 people show up en masse at a bar for drinks, but that's a bad idea on St. Patrick's Day. For various reasons, we're not changing the date. I was fortunate to get Maggiano's to waive the deposit so I am no longer responsible for a minimum guarantee, but we will order from the regular menu … [Continue reading]
Save over $300 on Machu Picchu with the LANPASS Visa
As Amol has been walking us through his awesome trip report to Easter Island and Machu Picchu, this reminds me of another reader who booked a similar trip and paid cash instead of redeeming miles. Not a problem -- most of my flights are like that. My goal is to see how much I can save while still buying revenue tickets. The LANPASS Visa card from US Bank offers a 20% discount on one LAN purchase each year (up to $1,000 savings on a purchase up to $5,000). That's a great deal if you're buying longhaul tickets to visit South America from the United States. Assuming you spend $800 per person to fly in economy class, you could easily save $320. You also receive three (3) upgrade coupons. These are in addition to any you might earn as a … [Continue reading]
Adios, Avios: Easter Island
Introduction American Airlines Admirals Club New York JFK LAN Business Class: New York to Lima LAN Economy Class: Lima to Cusco Machu Picchu LAN Economy Class: Cusco to Lima Radisson Decapolis Miraflores SUMAQ Lounge Lima LAN Business Class Lima to Easter Island Easter Island LAN Business Class: Easter Island to Santiago Santiago LAN Neruda Lounge Santiago LAN Business Class: Santiago to Lima LAN Business Class: Lima to New York Yotel New York City American Airlines Transcontinental Business Class: New York to Los Angeles I arrived at my hotel early Sunday morning, early enough to eat breakfast with guests who had just woken up. The island is rather dead on Sunday, and given that my friend was not … [Continue reading]
Adios, Avios: LAN Business Class Lima to Easter Island
Introduction American Airlines Admirals Club New York JFK LAN Business Class: New York to Lima LAN Economy Class: Lima to Cusco Machu Picchu LAN Economy Class: Cusco to Lima Radisson Decapolis Miraflores SUMAQ Lounge Lima LAN Business Class Lima to Easter Island Easter Island LAN Business Class: Easter Island to Santiago Santiago LAN Neruda Lounge Santiago LAN Business Class: Santiago to Lima LAN Business Class: Lima to New York Yotel New York City American Airlines Transcontinental Business Class: New York to Los Angeles Realizing that 12:15am was probably much earlier than LAN intended for a 1:15am departure, I didn’t get to the gate until about 12:25am. No activity. Not even a gate agent. This … [Continue reading]
The Ultimate Points Transfer Table
Jonathan emailed me last week asking if I had any good ideas where he might find a table of all the transferable points options available. There aren't really that many programs that allow transfers, but those that do are large enough and with enough overlap that it can be confusing. There also isn't, as Jonathan pointed out, any good way to view all your options at once. Starwood has a good table, Ultimate Rewards has a simpler program I find easy to memorize, but I found myself clicking on far too many links to collect data for Membership Rewards. I have organized this information in two ways, and I'll be uploading these files as two PDFs on the Award Charts page, which you can find within the Travel Resources section on the top … [Continue reading]
