FIJI! It’s finally here!!

Tags

australia, fiji, miles and points, new zealand, travel, united

After almost a year of planning, 2 flubbed United itineraries (thanks to their terrible IT), and over a year of collecting miles and points…

We’re finally off to Fiji this Saturday. FINALLY! I feel like I haven’t had a vacation in ages.

Originally we were just going to go to Fiji and back, but every time United screwed up I was able to make lemonade out of lemons and add another country to our trip itinerary.

The agenda:
1 night in Auckland, New Zealand
8 nights in Fiji
4 nights in Sydney, Australia

The total flight cost: 140,000 United points and $235/pp out of pocket (cheaper than a Hawaii flight from Northern California)
The hotel cost: $100 USD for Auckland, $60/night and 4,000 SPG points/night for Fiji, and in Sydney we’re staying at Justin’s cousin’s place for free.

I really could not have done it without the help of miles and points bloggers like The Points Guy and Million Mile Secrets.

Once the trip is over, I will be documenting it in the “MY VACATIONS” page on the blog, with lots of photos and tips if you ever happen to visit one day.

We will also be completing our diving certification there. I’m a little nervous to be honest. I’m nervous about finally scuba diving in the ocean (I did it when I was little and in my late teens but it has been a while) and I’m nervous about going to a new country!

The flight to Sydney for our first layover will be about 14 hours O__O

Do you have any plane-sleeping tips for me?

❤E&I

We’re having a Hawaiian Halloween!

Aside from our Fiji & Sydney trip in May, we’ll be having one more ‘big’ vacation in 2013.

Halloween in Oahu is supposedly epic and Justin has always wanted to experience it.  So we’ll be going for a week in October!

We’ll be staying at the Westin Moana Surfrider at Waikiki Beach:

This will be our 2nd Starwood property stay.  According to the spg.com website normal rates start from $350/night.  EXPENSIVE.

But after using 28,800 Starwood points our rate will be $90/night.  Some extra fees will be tacked on (sigh) but I’ll take a 50%+ discount for a property as nice as this!  I remember seeing this hotel on our first Oahu trip in 2011 and I thought it was SO beautiful… and now we’ll actually be staying there!  I recently completed the minimum spend for the Starwood AMEX Business card so the 25K points I got funded most of this hotel stay.

I also booked 2 tickets through Alaska Airlines using 50,000 British Avios points.  (Thanks to the Chase British Airways card).  The final cost out of pocket was $60 for the two of us.  Sweet deal.

Has anyone been to Hawaii during Halloween?  If so, let me know!

♥ E&I

Disneyland and SoCal Trip Photoblog

Tags

california adventure, disneyland, santa monica, socal, Vacation, venice beach

I had been waiting for this trip for a very very long time! This was our first Disneyland/Southern California trip with each other.  We bought 2-day park hopper passes.. I think 2 days is enough time to complete everything on our Disney experience wishlist.

Justin was a trooper… we woke up at 3 AM and he drove us the entire way to Anaheim.  At the 100 mile mark to LA County, the sun was just rising.

When we finally got there I felt like I was dreaming.  :) I really couldn’t believe that we were there… yup I was that excited.  Mornings were cloudy and sometimes drizzly!

A view of the Matterhorn ride from the Finding Nemo submarine ride:

The submarine ride was one of my favorites as a kid.  I was sad when they shut it down for a few years.

I wore my DIY Minnie Mouse ears  Here we are in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle… Justin is looking quite tired.

We were running on very minimal sleep yet we were too excited to even nap!  And we definitely tried mid-day but sleep wouldn’t come.

Waiting for the Tiki Room:

This was also my first time visiting Disneyland complete with Halloween trimmings!    They had a special Halloween event under this big tent with performers, evil villains and pumpkin carving displays.

Mickey said he liked my UNIQLO pixellated Mickey shirt

Unfortunately once Donald saw my shirt later that day he put his head and his hands and started crying.. LOL!!!!

Later in the day we took a quick break at the California Adventure park.  I tried to dress comfortably with legging jeans and workout shoes.  I think no matter what I do my feet will always be killing me at the end of a Disneyland day.

California Screamin’ is one ride that I will never get sick of… When I was in high school our choir group would make a trip there every year together and this ride makes me think back to those goodl ol’ days

Disneyland is really going crazy with the variety of hats in their stores!  Most are $20+ (*cha-ching!*) and it looked like at least 60% of park visitors were sporting one.  It seems like they have a pair of Mickey Mouse ears for every character/theme imaginable.  Justin was particularly excited about the Star Wars hats!

I liked these guys  The Vinylmotion line is right up my alley

Space Mountain had a long queue time… I’m really glad they have the Fast Pass program.  The ride was changed to “Ghost Galaxy” for Halloween.  :)  So fun!  I miss it already.

We stayed at the Orange County Hyatt just a few blocks down from Disneyland, using Chase Ultimate Rewards points for the two nights.  All we had to pay for was parking!

After we had our fill of the parks we stopped by Downtown Disney for a much needed smoothie…. and hat test drives.

The next day we woke up bright and early to get a Cars Land Radiator Springs Racers Fast Pass at the California Adventure park.  The line to get a Fast Pass was over 45 minutes long. Ridiculous!  But if you’re not waiting in some sort of line I guess you’re not getting the theme park experience, right? -_-

Even the line for Starbucks coffee took at least 15 minutes to order.  In the meantime, I ogled some fun Halloween-themed pastries.

Toy Story Midway Games is sooo fun  Justin beat me in this one… Our arms were hurting by the end of it!

BUT!!! I did manage to beat him at the Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters game.  I have never won before!  He said he wished he let me win… but I won fair ‘n square ;D

Our strategy was to get Fast Passes for the major rides as quickly as possible.. and then do the minor rides and viewing experiences (like the Sleeping Beauty Castle) while we waited for the FP’s to activate.

During this trip I visited the Tom Sawyer island for the first time as well… In all of my years of visiting Disneyland I never thought to check it out.  The island is much bigger than I thought it would be.

I was itching to check out the Haunted Mansion ride!  They update it to include The Nightmare Before Christmas for the holidays.  Needless to say the lines for this one were very long.

When I was a kid my parents bought me this Disney Singalong VHS tape and the “Grim Grinning Ghosts” song was one of my favorites:

After 80 minutes of combined Fastpass and regular queue time, we experienced the new Cars ride.

The queue was over 120 minutes on the Saturday that we went! So we skipped it and waited until the next day. And trust me the ride was not worth a 2 hour wait!  It was fun but it was basically a fast paced kids ride, or a stepping stone to much faster rides like Space Mountain or California Screamin’.

On the way home we visited the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica! It has changed drastically since I was attending UCLA wayy back when.  That janky enclosed mall is gone and I really like the outdoor mall opposite the beach.

We also stopped by Venice beach & Sunset boulevard  I miss southern California and I’m excited to go back.

Some quick Disneyland tips:

• Take a break in the middle of the day if you can… you can do the most in the mornings and the evenings anyway.  And you can get a reasonably priced meal outside the park!  I cringed at the ~$10 clam chowder bowl
• Download apps like MouseWait and the Lines Disneyland app to get an estimate for wait times before you trek across the park. They’re not perfect but they can give you a good idea on what to expect before you waste your time
• Iced water is free!
• You don’t have to use your Fast Pass in the allotted time frame.. you can go way past that until the end of the day, or in some instances you can ask nicely about using a pass from the day before
• Bring lots of snacks!  The night before we left I bought a bunch of fruit snakes and baked chips to eat in line.

♥ E&I

A Travel Lesson: My Fiji Flights Disappeared!

Tags

airline, award booking, fiji, miles and points, united

So not too long ago I booked 2 flights to Fiji using United award miles.  We were flying to Fiji using Air New Zealand (an award partner to United) This is what I got in my confirmation email:

We are processing your reservation and will send you an e-ticket confirmation once this has been completed. Typically, this process takes less than an hour, however, in some rare cases it could take a couple days. Please be assured that your reservation will remain confirmed during this processing period, and there is no need to contact us unless you are traveling within 24 hours.

Okay so my reservation had been confirmed.  Great!

Then when I clicked through my United reservation I saw this:

Thank you for choosing United Airlines.  Your purchase is confirmed.  You will be promptly notified once the internal processing of your reservation has been finalized so that you can request additional receipts, export to Microsoft Outlook, refund or change your flight, view/change seats, check-in, or email or print your itinerary.

Still ok, right? I thought to myself.. hey.  It’s almost a year in advance, maybe there are no set flight numbers yet and everything will be fine when it comes time to go in May.

Well guess what.

It wasn’t!  It’s a good thing I called United today on a whim, because it turns out that United “made the reservation” but somehow Air New Zealand didn’t receive it.  And in the end, Air New Zealand cancelled it and I was completely unaware.

Apparently this has happened before with United and their partner airlines.  Example 1 (They were stuck and had to re-buy the tickets at the time of their flight.)  Example 2.

Today I re-booked another set of flights for Justin and I.. unfortunately the dates and itinerary that I had originally wanted have now since disappeared.  The taxes and fees are now a few hundred more expensive than the original setup. And we have more stopovers.

The silver lining is that we can now stay for one night in Sydney, Australia before we head back to San Francisco.  And, since this was a big mistake on their part, I told them to waive the phone-booking fee and they did as promised.  I called Air New Zealand right away (wow their accents are amazing!) and they confirmed that yes my flights were booked and ready to go.

Also, if I keep checking back for award availability and a better itinerary pops up, I can schedule it (and subsequently pay a booking fee, but it would have to be worth the change)

So.  I learned a lesson today.  I should have checked with Air New Zealand RIGHT AFTER BOOKING with United.  I didn’t, and my travel plans and my wallet paid the price.  Always check your third party airline.  Always verify your travel plans in advance.  If I hadn’t called United today and waited until my May Fiji trip…. I would have found out that I had NO FLIGHTS when it came time to leave.

When I was growing up, my mom would dispute the littlest things, especially when it came to money.  If a small banking fee popped up, even if it was just a few dollars, you can bet she called customer service to contest it.  Every time she left the grocery store, she’d check the receipt as she was walking out.  I was young and I found this behavior honestly a little embarrassing.  (“What’s the big deal everything is probably fine… nothing to cause a fuss about”)  But now I know she was right to do these things…to always re-check and follow up.  It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

♥ E&I

My Experience with “Miles and Points”

Tags

miles and points, rewards credit cards, travel

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So in this post I mentioned briefly how I got into the miles and points game. For those of you who asked about it, this is my experience! It’s a bit lengthy, sorry!

If your credit is in good standing (over 700+), you can potentially do what I’m doing now and travel very cheaply. BUT. I must tell you now that if you’re thinking of starting this, it’s not that simple and there is a lot of research involved. After all, you are affecting your own credit here.

I’m not an expert when it comes to miles and points, but once again I’ll mention some helpful links that got me started:

• Million Miles Secrets (Newbie guide)
• The Points Guy (Beginners Guide)
• Extra Pack of Peanuts (Beginners Guide)

Credit card bonuses are one of the most lucrative ways to accumulate miles and points the fastest. And after reading lots of miles and points blogs like the ones above and some thorough research and investigation on Flyertalk.com, here’s what I did.

1. I checked my credit score before I started any credit card applications. I just recently refinanced my mortgage and received a credit score from my lender. You can also get an estimation of your Transunion score through CreditKarma.com. Also check out Credit Sesame for another credit score estimation. (Weirdly enough, I just recently found out Credit Sesame is just down the street from my job!) Another way of checking your credit history is by getting 1 free credit report (but not score) every year from each of the 3 credit bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com.

2. I decided what my travel goals were and chose cards that fit my goals accordingly. This is what makes the miles and points game very personal. People have different travel goals or ways of doing things.. this is just my way.

Justin and I love Hawaii and other beachy destinations. So any airline or hotel program that can get me there is what I focus on. I wanted to find the credit card bonuses could get me the most nights at a specific hotel, or what bonuses could get us the airline tickets to destination “X” for little or no money.

I ended up choosing the AMEX Starwood card, which has a reasonable minimum spending requirement, 25K bonus points, and high cash and points redemption value. They have properties in Hawaii (and Fiji) with reasonable redemption rates.

I also focused on Chase cards that gave Chase Ultimate Rewards bonus points for their versatility in point redemption options, for both hotels and airline flights. I used Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book my hotel in Monterey just recently, as well as book my flights to Fiji for next year.

I was just recently asked if I closed my old cards when I got my new ones.. the answer is no. I’d recommend NOT to cancel ANY credit card that you have prior to getting new cards. You could potentially cancel a card with a longstanding relationship with that bank.. and the longer your average credit history, the better. Just put it in a drawer somewhere for safekeeping.

Before I started using travel rewards credit cards, I had only the Blue/Green American Express with cashback rewards and Costco membership, as well as some random Citicard with cash back.

This is what I have right now, and I’ve accumulated each over time:

1. AMEX Starwood (everyday spend card #1)
2. Chase Sapphire Preferred (everyday spend card #2)

3. Chase Ink Bold (will downgrade to the fee free one before my year is up)
4. Chase United (I just got the 50K miles from this, will cancel later when I get a new Chase card)
5. Chase British Airways Visa (I just got the 50K miles which equals 4 RT tickets to Hawaii, will cancel later when I get a new Chase card)

3. I made sure that I could meet minimum spending requirements for each card. Before I started, I took a look at my past credit card payment history to see what I had been averaging per month on everyday spending. Many rewards cards require minimum spending amounts that need to be finished within a certain amount of time. If a credit card had a minimum spending requirement that was higher than my baseline, I’d pass. There’s absolutely no point in applying for a card and taking a hit on your credit report when you can’t meet the minimum spend in the first place.

4. When applying for cards, constant bookkeeping and timekeeping are important. When meeting minimum spends, I checked my spending activity frequently. Checking your card’s activity online on the bank website or using a tool like Mint.com is helpful for this. Card anniversaries have to be noted before you get charged another year of annual fees, and then you have the choice to keep the card, cancel it, or downgrade to a fee-free card. Once again, checking Credit Karma and Credit Sesame is important for credit score monitoring as you get new cards. I also try not to get a new card until I’ve finished the bonus requirements for the old card. I space out applications as much as I can so there aren’t too many inquiries on my credit reports at one time. You can apply for lots of cards at the same time (aka the “app-o-rama”) but I’m not that brave.

4. As points accumulate, I check AwardWallet.com to see all of my rewards points in once place. I also upgraded my service for a small fee so I can be alerted when miles are expiring. This is also good for Starbucks, Sephora, Ebates, or other rewards program monitoring, just FYI.

5. I cash out my points! Once I hit that spending requirement (for some cards, there is none at all) and the points have been deposited into my account, I cash it in! There should be no surprises on what I use my points on because from Step #1 I have already planned out what I wanted to use them for anyway.

Phew. Does it seem a bit crazy? I did simplify it a bit, but please do your research to see if this ‘hobby’ is right for you and your travel needs. As for me, I don’t take my credit lightly…I watch my credit like a hawk. Justin said he realized how serious I was when I started printing out credit reports and figuring out which bank inquiries hit which bureau’s credit reports!

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask me. Also, Travis from Extra Pack of Peanuts has said in my last miles/points post that if you need some help or advice in how to earn and use frequent flyer miles, you can contact him here.

♥ E&I