Pay No Attention

Qantas: possibly the last good frequent flier program left

I've just booked a round trip ticket to Boston on American Airlines using Qantas frequent flier miles.  It cost me a mere 16,000 points, a $5 fee, and two minutes of my time online.  Those of you who have tried to use frequent flier miles recently will appreciate how terrific this is.

I've rarely booked a trip using frequent flier miles.  For one thing, I generally get the cheapest possible tickets, which means that I don't get many points (some aren't even eligible for points), and the points I do get are scattered across a few different frequent flier programs.  For another thing, as any of you who've tried to use frequent flier points recently will know, it tends to be a real pain in the butt to book flights with miles.  Most of the programs have upped the miles one needs to get a free flight, attached all kinds of fees, and limited the dates you can fly and the available seats until it's just about impossible to use your miles, and not particularly worthwhile when it is possible.  Most programs require an absolute minimum of 25,000 miles to book a round trip flight within the U.S., and these days, it's usually more (sometimes a lot more). 

Well, not with Qantas miles.  My flight from New York to Boston cost me 8000 Qantas points each way (yes!  you can book a one-way ticket with a mere 8000 points!), and a whopping $2.50 booking fee.  What's more, with the Qantas program, you can book award flights at the last minute, assuming there's room on the flight, with no fee for doing so.  Better yet, it's quick and easy to book award flights -- I booked online in about two minutes, and one minute later was holding an e-ticket in my hot little hands.  

Here's what's a little crazy about this:   I earned my 24,000 Qantas miles on my trip to Australia, taking  Qantas/American Airlines codeshare flights.  I could have received the same number of American Airlines miles for those same flights.  I didn't do so because some glitch in the system was refusing to accept my brand-spanking-new AA frequent flier number, and since I had no miles accumulated in that program anyway, and rarely if ever have had occasion to fly with American, I shrugged and went with Qantas. 

(ASIDE:  For those of you who are not frequent fliers and don't already know, most airlines these days are part of big airline alliances.  If you fly with any airline in the alliance, you can get points for your flights on any frequent flier program for any other airline in the alliance, not just the airline with which you flew.  And you can use your points on any other airline in the alliance, regardless of the program you chose to participate in.  Nifty, huh?  The one thing you can't do, unfortunately, is combine points on different programs to purchase a ticket.  If you have 10,000 points on one program in the alliance, and 20,000 on another, and need 30,000 for your ticket, you're out of luck. )

But get this -- if I had chosen to receive American Airlines miles instead of Qantas miles for my flights on my Australia trip, I would not have had enough miles to book this trip to Boston on American Airlines.  It would have cost me 25,000 to 50,000 American miles to book an economy class ticket, depending on the timing of my flight, and my Australia trip entitled me to only 24,831 miles.  So, in order to get my ticket, I would have had to buy 1000 additional miles (the minimum amount you can buy) for $27.50, plus pay a $30 processing fee, and thenwait 72 hours for those miles to post to my American frequent flyer account.  Plus I'd have to pay a minimum $20 booking fee --  oh wait, since I'm booking within 21 days of my flight, it would be a $50 booking fee.  (If I'd waited until within 6 days of my flight, it would be a $100 fee). 

So -- if I'd taken American miles instead of Qantas miles for my Australia ticket, I'd have to pay $107.50 to get my "free" ticket to Boston -- just about enough to buy a round trip ticket without using points! -- and I'd have had to use all the miles in my frequent flier account to do it.  But because I took Qantas miles, I paid only $5 for exactly the same round trip ticket to Boston, and I still have 8000 miles left -- which believe it or not, is enough to get me another one-way ticket to Boston (with another $2.50 booking fee, of course).  

FYI, my 24,000 Qantas points would also have been enough for a round trip ticket from NYC to Chicago or to Miami -- those trips would have cost me 12,000 Qantas points for each leg, plus the $2.50 booking fee.  However, I did not have enough Qantas points to get me to California or Dallas.   If I'd wanted a round trip ticket to California, I probably would have been better off if I'd chosen American points for my Australian trip.  Weird, isn't it?

The trick is this:   The Qantas program determines the number of frequent flier miles required for a free trip by the number of miles you plan to fly on the free trip -- it charges you fewer points for shorter trips (which makes sense, doesn't it?).   American, on the other hand, charges exactly the same number of points for any domestic flight, whether it is 200 miles or 3000 miles.  With American miles, a round-trip flight between Boston and NYC would require the same amount of points as a trip to California -- 25,000 to 50,000, depending on the date of the flights.  With Qantas miles, a round-trip flight between Boston and NYC would require 16,000 points, but to California, it would require 50,000.  Oh, and with the Qantas program, you can use miles for one-way trips, which you can't on American.   (One-way trips up to 600 miles cost 8000 points, one-way trips from 601 -- 1200 miles cost 12,000 points,  one-way trips from 1201 -2400 miles cost 18,000 points, one-way trips from 2401 - 3600 miles cost 25,000 points, and so forth.  http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/program/usingPoints/pointsTables )

So the upshot is this:  If you often fly American or its airline partners (including Qantas), and you want to use your miles for longer flights, you might be better off getting American Airlines points for your flights.  However, if you don't often fly those airlines, or if you think you'll want to use your points for shorter flights or one-way flights, you are unquestionably way, way better off getting Qantas points for your flights.

I really should start charging for my travel advice.

I'm leaving for Egypt tonight

I'll be back on October 15.  It's weird, this trip still doesn't seem quite real -- I think because I've spent more time this week fretting about the economy and the election than about my trip. 

I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to do when I'm gone.  I'm going to try, but I don't know how much internet access I'll have or how expensive it will be.  To the extent I can't blog, I'll keep a paper journal and plug in a few blog entries when I get back.

Have a great couple of weeks, everyone.  To my family and friends, I love you.  Keep safe and have a good time while I'm gone.

Random pointless travel goals

I don't know about you, but I definitely have a bucket list of places I'd like to see before I die.  I've accomplished quite a few of them, but still have so many to go.  I want to go to China, India, Greece, Turkey, Chile, Israel, Cambodia, Vietnam . . .  . and so many other places.

But on top the places I really want to see for their own sake, I also have some really random, whimsical travel goals that don't have much to do with the places themselves.  For example, after my upcoming trip to Egypt and Kenya, I will have accomplished one of my random travel goals -- to have traveled to each of the six occupied continents -- North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.  (I'm not counting Antarctica -- it would be cool to go there, but it's expensive and I'm honestly not sure what exactly I'd do when I got there.)

During my run today, I starting thinking of another really pointless travel goal -- going to countries that start with each letter of the alphabet.  Actually, I'm not doing too badly in this department.  Including Egypt and Kenya (since I now have non-refundable tickets to leave in a couple of weeks), I've already been to the following countries:

A:  Austria, Australia

B:  Belgium

C:  Croatia, Czech Republic, Canada

D: Denmark

E:  Egypt, England

F:  France

G:  Germany

H:  Hungary

I:  Ireland, Italy

J:  I haven't been to any J countries.  I clearly need to book a trip to Japan and/or Jordan

K:  Kenya

L:  I haven't been to any L countries.  Lithuania's on my short list, though.

M:  Mexico

N:  Norway, Netherlands

O:  I haven't been to any O countries.  Are there any, other than Oman?

P:  Portugal, Peru, Poland

Q:  I haven't been to any Q countries.  Can't think of any, other than Qatar.  I've been to the Queensland province of Australia, if you want to count that, but that's kind of cheating, isn't it.

R:  Russia

S:  Spain, Sweden, Scotland

T:  Thailand

U:  United States

V:  Vatican City State (oh, yes it does so count!  But I'm keeping Vietnam on my short list of go-to places anyway.)

W:  Are there currently any countries that begin with a W?  I was in West Germany when it was still West Germany (I've also been to Germany since reunification), so I think I should get to count that.

X:  I think I get a pass here -- as far as I can recall, there are no countries beginning with an X.  Find me one, and I'll visit it.

Y:  I think my only option here would be to go to Yemen.  Croatia used to be part of Yugoslavia -- can I count Yugoslavia?

Z:  I haven't been to any Z countries.  Add Zimbabwe to my list.

Frequent But Inconsistent Flyer Woes

As much as I've traveled this past couple of years, I can't seem to accumulate enough points on any one airline to do anything useful.  It's really annoying.  It is partly my own fault, for always shopping around for the cheapest flights, and it's partly those freaking airlines, who keep raising the bar for free flights, having miles expire after fairly short periods of time, and who now won't give you miles for some of the cheapest flights.

Get this:  I have 27,135 miles on US Air (enough for some, but not all, round trip flights within North America).  I have 20,344 on United (not enough to do anything).  I have 24,831 points on Qantas (169 shy of what I need for a round trip flight from New York to either LA or San Francisco, although it will only cost me $20 to buy enough miles to get the free flight).  I have 1,500 on Delta, although I'll be acquiring a fair amount more on my trip to Africa, because all of my flights will be with Delta partners.  I have about 50,000 on one of my credit cards, but unfortunately I can't transfer those points to any of the above frequent flier mile programs.  I can transfer them to American or British Airways, but unfortunately I currently don't have any points in those programs.  Arrgh!

This next calendar year, besides my upcoming trip to Africa, I'd like to get to China, Cambodia, India, Greece, and I want to hike the Camino de Santiago in Spain.  I'm trying to figure out how I can use miles for at least a portion of those trips.  The 50,000 on the credit card should take care of getting me to Europe.  Perhaps I combine my Greece and Spain trips.  I'm not particularly itching to go to LA or San Francisco, but perhaps I can use the Qantas points to get to LA, visit a friend or two, and then fly out to China and Cambodia. (Hmmmm . . . wonder it it's feasible to combine China, Cambodia, and India on a trip -- or maybe combine India with Greece?)

Anyone want to gift me 30,000 miles or so on US Air or United so I can go somewhere good?  There are some brownies in it for you, and a bottle of wine.

Airlines could make more money and improve services -- here's how

If you travel at all, you know that airlines are nickel and diming us for the most ridiculous things.   We all know fuel costs have gone up, but I for one would rather see fuel surcharges than these ridiculous new charges that make it difficult to assess the actual cost of your ticket.

Fees to check a single bag, for example -- they're infuriating, and also counter-productive because they provide an incentive for everyone to carry everything on, which will create more chaos in security lines, and result in loading difficulties.    Now we're paying for bottles of water, aisle seats and pillows -- what's next?

Airlines -- listen up.  Here are a few ideas.  First off, stop nickel and diming us.  Stop charging us for a bottle of water and a single checked bag.  (I'm OK with charges for excess luggage.)  You're just pissing us off.  Passengers understand fuel surcharges that go up and down with the cost of fuel, so do that instead.

Moreover, there are some services for which I'd be more than happy to shell out, and I bet other people would too.  What with increased security and more airline screwups, more and more people are stuck for hours at the airport.  Why not give us more services, and then charge us for them?  I'd be damn happy to pay for them, and I bet I'm not the only one.

For example, some airlines are closing those fancy business and first class lounges because they aren't bringing in enough money.  I have a better idea.  Right now,  the only way to get access to a lot of those lounges is to buy a first class ticket or to pay a hefty annual fee for membership (or, as I've done once or twice, to befriend someone who has a membership).  Most of us peasants can't afford to do that, or don't travel frequently enough to make a membership worthwhile.  So why not allow coach passengers to access the lounges for a daily fee?  I'm not willing to pay hundreds of dollars to use the lounges a couple of times a year, and I'm not going to buy a first class ticket just to get access to those lounges, but I'd happily pay a daily fee.  Ok, maybe not if I'm just making a quick connection and will only be at the airport for a little while.  However, if I were stuck at the airport for hours (and who isn't these days), this cheapskate would be happy to shell out money to hang out in a comfortable lounge with couches, newspapers, magazines, and coffee instead of on a plastic chair in the middle of the terminal.

I'd also be happy to shell out money for access to a computer and the internet.  Why not have internet cafes at the airport?  I bet they'd make a bundle.  Some hotels charge $12 an hour (and more) for internet access, and people pay it.  I would love to be able to check email or the latest news (or check out alternative flights to my delayed one, or rebook my hotel room . . .) at an internet kiosk.  We don't all have blackberries and I-phones, and we don't all lug around laptops everywhere.

How about airport gyms, with showers?  If I'm stuck for hours at the airport, I'd love to be able to work out instead of sitting and fuming.  Even people who don't want to work out might be willing to pay the access fee to use the showers after long flights.  I know I would.  The airport spas seem to do OK (given that I've had a hard time getting an appointment for a last-minute massage or manicure at one of them) -- I think the gyms/showers might also be a hit.

Have some ideas for services you'd be happy to pay for?  Add them in the comment field below.  Who knows -- maybe the airlines will pay attention.

Off to Africa

I've just booked a trip to Egypt and Kenya, starting at the end of September.   I'll start off in Egypt, check out the pyramids, sail down the Nile, visit some temples, etc.  Then it's off to Kenya for a week of safari, where hopefully I'll see lions, hippos, elephants, buffalo, etc.

It is going to cost an absurd amount of money, and (gulp) I'm going with a tour operator instead of on my own, but frankly, Africa doesn't seem like a place where a lone petite white American woman should travel alone on the cheap and fly by the seat of her pants. 

Of course, I knew the Kenya safari was not something I could do on my own -- I didn't cherish any hopes of long lone day hikes with the lions.  However, apparently I won't be having any solo explorations even in Nairobi.  The woman at the tour agency told me flatly that I could not wander around Nairobi by myself, even in the daytime.  She said if I wanted to check out the markets and such on my free afternoon, the agency would send an escort with me.  "Trust me," she said, "when you get there you'll see what I mean."  Hmmmm.

Egypt evidently used to be pretty American-friendly -- don't know how true that is now, what with the Iraq war.    And to my dismay, I've been hearing that despite the heat, I'll be well advised to cover my sexy elbows, shoulders and knees at all times.  From what I've read, women there used to wear modern western clothes, but now 90% of them are in headscarfs and modest clothing that doesn't expose those wicked limbs.   I've also read that Cairo is the number one place in the world to get grabbed, pinched and otherwise sexually harassed.   Ugh.  I'm looking through my ankle-length skirts and long sleeved, high-buttoned blouses, and wondering whether they're sufficently modest. 

Which reminds me -- last night I ran with my running group, and a few of us were working on lyrics to an appropriate theme song for my trip.  Right now, I'm thinking it'll be a variation on Nelly's "It's Getting Hot In Here."  Something like:  "It's getting hot in here, so put on all my clothes, I'm gettin' too hot, I've got to roll my sleeves up . . . "

Really -- I am excited.  I've been fascinated by pyramids and mummies and things since I was tiny.  And the safari has been on my wish list for a long time, too.  I'm very pleased I'll be able to combine them in one trip.