United Archives - asthejoeflies

Jul 07 2016

Surveying Scotland: Introduction

Two kids creates more than twice the work. That holds true for regular life and travel. Nonetheless, we took it upon ourselves to travel to the United Kingdom to celebrate our son’s first birthday. Just kidding, it’s just when we were free.

As always, we paid for the majority of our flight with points. We even booked our first transatlantic flights in coach for the first time in five years. Slumming it! Just kidding, I’m just practicing what I’ve been preaching in my family travel hacking guide.

Read below for details of what we booked and the thought process behind it all.

Flights for Four

I wrote about booking our flights to the UK awhile back. Man, can’t believe I booked this trip back in August 2015. Either way, Delta availability still remains great. We elected to book in Delta One (aka business class) for the extra space. We figured since it was a redeye it’d be good for the kids to have “beds” overnight. I had to pay about $560 for the infant ticket: on international flights you pay 10% of the base fare even on award tickets. So overall call it 187.5K miles + $600 in taxes and fees for the four of us.

I'm convinced screen time is half the reason she flies — I’m convinced screen time is half the reason she flies

On the way back, the decision was between buying three business class tickets on United or four coach seats. Like I said, we haven’t flown coach across the Atlantic in years (though we did fly it to Aruba). That being said, we would fly our kids to California in coach and Europe only takes an hour longer.

Here’s how the pricing broke down:

Business Class (3 seats plus lap infant): 172.5K miles + $819 taxes and fees + ~600 for infant fare

Coach (4 seats): 120K miles + $384 taxes and fees

So basically, flying coach would save us 52.5K miles and a thousand dollars.

This ended up being a much easier decision than expected. You can do a lot of things with $1000… Plus 52.5K Ultimate Rewards points is like another $500. Anyway, we decided to fly in the back on the way home: it’s a day flight anyway. Gonna be interesting!

Not gonna lie: was pretty tired after this flight. We'll see how the return goes — Not gonna lie: was pretty tired after this flight. We’ll see how the return goes

We also used some Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards points to book a quick hop from London to Inverness, not much worth writing about there. Miss you Wells Fargo!

Lodging

While we use miles and points to save money, at this point we have committed to traveling to where we want to go – not necessarily where we can get everything for “free” (note: not free). Thus we decided on Scotland knowing full well that the Scottish Highlands are mostly devoid of chain hotels that we could use points redemptions on.

I’ve written about the importance of having a separate room, especially for my one year old. We can do without but then lose access to the bathroom. Only two of our stops have chains we can even redeem at: London and Edinburgh. I decided to book a room with a confirmed Diamond Suite Upgrade in London at the Hyatt Regency The Churchill. I figured we’d really need that second room to recover from jetlag.

Our first and last hotel room on this trip - not complaining — Our first and last hotel room on this trip – not complaining

We booked everything else through airbnb, Trip Advisor, or directly from websites. For the rest of our trip we will not be staying in chain hotels. Though in this case we’re only giving up staying at a Club Carlson or Hilton in Edinburgh – but I really wanted to avoid getting stuck with a small room. Maybe when H is older. If only this kid would sleep in bed with us!

Ground Transportation

Our one final cost was ground transportation. We bought round trip tickets on the Heathrow Express and then took a taxi to our hotel. We’re planning on doing the same in reverse but will eat the sunk cost and take a cab if we are running low on time for our departure (still recovering from jet lag).

We rented a car for a week in the Scottish Highlands. No tricks or gimmicks just looked for the cheapest price I could find and called it a day. Too much running in the background to worry further.

We’re planning on taking a train from Inverness to Edinburgh, though that is subject to change as well. Everything depends on the kids!

Final Thoughts

When we traveled with one kid, I’d say she only affected about 60-70% of our decision making. Maybe even less (40%?) once we had gotten used to traveling with her. With two under four, about 95% of our decision making has revolved around them. That’s just life for us now. So we’re flying coach, not worrying about saving every last penny, and thus far, having a great time. Will update with thoughts as we go along!

Aug 13 2015

Thoughts from a Quick Trip to Las Vegas

I recently was in Las Vegas for a wedding and had a few random travel thoughts that I thought I’d put down on paper. Nothing earth shattering, but maybe a useful tip or two nonetheless.

Let’s cut to the chase:

Flying

On this trip I had the chance to compare two domestic first class flights, though both had their downsides. On the outbound I flew United first BOS-EWR-LAS. My major issue here? On the BOS-EWR, United was happy to have me pay $6 to watch half an hour of Direct TV (I was in the back for that leg), on the five hours EWR-LAS leg, there were zero IFE options. I know a lot of people don’t care about IFE, but I do and that was downright annoying.

On the return, I knew there wouldn’t be IFE, but I got hit by a bunch of delays due to traffic reduction in Boston. I was stuck in Charlotte for two extra hours, which I didn’t mind. What I DO mind a little bit is when they say that your flight is delayed to 4:40 PM and it is 4:45 PM and they still haven’t updated the time. I assume it’s some operational thing, but I’d love for someone to enlighten me as to why they don’t just tell the truth and say “we’re not sure how long this is gonna be”, or at the very least, update the estimated departure time to a time that isn’t BEFORE the actual present time.

To US Airways credit, the pilot was very up front when we were hit by a further delay on board – in fact he gave us the up to date minute we were supposed to be wheels up (from ATC) and it was right on the money.

A couple other travel related thoughts: Autoslash is awesome. Not only does the service just automatically rebook you into cheaper vehicles, on my literal day of travel I need to make a few adjustments. I just e-mailed Autoslash and they took care of it for me. It’s like having a travel agent that you don’t have to pay.

I ended up using a IHG free night at the Palazzo (and then paying for my last three nights). I was staying with friends and we had a bunch of various parameters so that was the best fit for us. Now we have my wife’s IHG free night floating around with no real way to use it, which I’m sure FQF will be delighted to rub in my face! Jk…sorta.

Oh almost forgot – when we landed in Las Vegas United wouldn’t let us get off the plane because apparently the baggage in the rear cargo hold was too heavy and they were afraid if people got out the plane would tip over. So many thoughts about that, but mainly – if they’re so afraid of the imbalance, was it safe to fly? Seriously never heard that one before…

Food

Las Vegas remains a wonderful place to eat. Some thoughts:

– We have a tradition of going to Fatburger. We decided to try out Fuku Burger instead. Mistake and a lesson – never try new things. 😛

– The Wicked Spoon buffet at the Cosmo was thoroughly underwhelming. We went for weekday brunch, but it definitely didn’t live up to its lofty reputation. I had read that it had dropped off a bit in the last couple years but we might as well have eaten at the Flamingo (okay maybe that’s extreme). Just my two cents on the matter.

– Anchor Bar is a branch of the place where Buffalo Wings were supposedly invented. It didn’t disappoint (and we didn’t have to go outside to get there, score).

– Carnevino remains one of the finest steak houses I’ve ever been to, though the markups on the cheaper wines are pretty nuts (5X). Still…what a steak.

– Grimaldi’s pizza is pretty good but goes down way easier than expected (four of us split two smalls but were still hungry). The sauce is slightly on the sweet side as well.

Fun

What’s Vegas without a little bit of gambling?

– A lot of the casinos only pay 6 to 5 on blackjacks at the lower limit tables. This is straight up horrible, the difference between 3 to 2 and 6 to 5 is significant for your bottom line (aka how much money you lose). I could only find $10 minimum tables paying 3 to 2 at the Flamingo and the Cosmopolitan (and maybe Harrah’s?). Venetian/Palazzo for sure did not have any.

– That being said, there are these new (to me at least, it’s been two years since I’ve been) blackjack machines where five people can sit down with a cartoon dealer. It’s not as fun as interacting with a real human dealer (well, the ones that are not robots), but most of these machines pay 3 to 2 on blackjack. Just check the pays table. As an added bonus, some of these machines even use four decks instead of six. The biggest drawback is that at a real table, if you do something stupid like try to double down on a twenty, your dealer will ask “are you sure?” The computer just happily takes your money. This is something I actually saw happen, except I think the person thought they were making a brilliant play. DOUBLE DOWN ON A TWENTY. Still cracks me up thinking about it.

– Don’t expect to win any money while gambling. Duh. So fun though.

– Parlays are evil. Soooo evil. Yet I still can’t resist.

– Roulette has horrible odds, but I love it. What can I say, I’m a sucker.

– We drove to the Palms to watch Mission Impossible. A good movie with the added benefit of only costing $8 for two hours of entertainment.

Final Thoughts

These were just some random thoughts from my last trip. Thanks for indulging me. Back to parenting!

Jul 13 2015

Baggage Charges for Infants and Toddlers – A Guide

Earlier today while Matt was gearing up for a trip with his family he wrote the following tweet:

Have to start researching bag charges to Mexico with a lap infant… No status and some cards- any other posts to look at first?
— Saverocity (@Saverocity) July 12, 2015

Nobody seemed to reply to him (or I don’t know how to use my Twitter properly, which is probable) and he got my curious, so I decided to look up baggage fees for infants and children.

When we were only dealing with one infant we managed to still travel light – two roller carry ons plus caddy/carseat combination were enough. It was a bit cumbersome at the airport but doable.

When our infant became a toddler, we ended up getting a car seat bag – in all our travels we were able to check the car seat bag for free (and stuff it with diapers and other stuff). At that point we still could have gotten away with two carry on rollers (plus gate checked stroller), though we never had to pay bag fees for one reason or another so we started checking bags.

Either way, I was curious whether checking car seats for free is a standard thing for all US based airlines or whether we had just gotten lucky. I decided to write it in the form of a guide of baggage charges for infants and toddlers – what can you expect to pay/not pay for when flying US based airlines with children and infants. And remember you can use a car seat bag like the one we bought as a de facto checked bag for a couple items in addition to the car seat itself. Feel free to let me know if you’ve experienced otherwise in the comments!

This stupid car seat bag is ugly and bulky but can be very useful

Alaska Airlines

Infant policy here, carry on policy here.

Carry on Baggage – Diaper bags DO count against the regular carry on allowance. So if you are bringing a lap infant that’s one less carry on for yourself. A FAA approved car seat/infant restraint seat can be brought on for free if your child is going to occupy it on the plane. Strollers can be carried on subject to space availability (space guaranteed only with purchase of a ticket for an infant.

Checked Baggage – Strollers and car seats can be checked without charge when traveling with a child/infant. All other standard fees apply.

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

Allegiant Air

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – Each fare paying passenger may travel with a diaper bag at no charge. Diaper bag does not count against carry on allowance

Checked Baggage – There is no charge for checking or gate checking both a car seat and a stroller for children and infants

Car Seats and Strollers – See checked baggage policy above.

American Airlines

Not the greatest website. Information on children and infants here, general baggage allowance info here. Also notable that they group children and pets together…okay then.

Carry on Baggage – You are allowed to bring an umbrella stroller, approved safety seat, and diaper bag on in addition to the regular carry on allowance. My guess is in practice they’ll make you gate check some of that stuff (I’ve never successfully gotten a stroller into an AA cabin).

Checked Baggage – It doesn’t look like you get anything above the standard adult allowance which means it technically costs money to check baggage in for your infant or child (unless traveling internationally on flights that allow free checked bags for adults). However since you’re allowed to bring a car seat on as carry on, my guess is they’ll let you check that at the counter as well.

Car Seats and Strollers – See carry on policy above.

Delta Airlines

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – It’s unclear whether a lap child gets a carry on baggage allowance, but I think so, since the website says “In addition to the one bag carry-on allowance, you may bring a booster seat, other infant seat or bassinet onto the plane as an additional free item (subject to carry-on size restrictions).” This has been my experience in practice as well. I read this as lap infants get one bag to carry on, ticketed children get the regular allowance adults get of course.

Checked Baggage – For unticketed infants, none. For ticketed international lap children 1 checked bag up to 20 lbs with a maximum outside dimension of 45 inches, for all other ticketed children the standard adult baggage allowance applies.

Car Seats and Strollers – You can check both a car seat and a stroller for free anywhere between curbside and the gate. They are not counted against the standard baggage allowance.

Frontier Airlines

Another airline that groups family and pets! Policy here. Baggage policy here.

Carry on Baggage – A diaper bag can be brought on board for free.

Checked Baggage – No charge for checked strollers or car seats.

Car Seats and Strollers – Stroller must be gate checked.

Hawaiian Airlines

Infant policy here.

Carry on Baggage – If a seat is not purchased, no carry on or checked baggage allowances apply (read: the diaper bag will cost you a bag, theoretically). However you may bring a child restraint seat on board if there is an empty seat available for the infant AND the car seat bears the following two required labels:

This restraint system conforms to all applicable federal motor vehicle safety conditions.
This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft. (in red lettering) (NOTE: Labels that indicate U.S. or Foreign Government approval or show the seat was manufactured under the standards of the United Nations are also valid.)

If there is no space available you can gate check the car seat.

Checked Baggage – Strollers and car seats can be checked free of charge (including at the gate).

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

Jetblue Airlines

Policies here.

Carry on Baggage – Infant car seats are considered a special item – each customer can carry one on board the aircraft. Each infant is allowed a diaper bag.

Checked Baggage – Lap infants receive no checked baggage allowance. For ticketed infants/children, standard allowances and fees apply.

Car Seats and Strollers – Car seats and strollers can be checked free of charge at the gate or at the counter.

Southwest Airlines

Infant policy here.

Carry on Baggage – A child restraint device for a ticked child is not considered against your allowance. No mention of a diaper bag.

Checked Baggage – Child restraint device and stroller can be checked for free in addition to regular free baggage allowance (two bags per ticketed customer). I assume that means paid tickets.

Car Seats and Strollers – See above.

United Airlines

Find their policy here.

Carry on Baggage – In addition to the regular carry on allowance, you may bring on a diaper bag and government-approved car seat

Checked Baggage – “The standard checked baggage allowance applies to children with purchased tickets, including infants traveling internationally on 10 percent of an adult fare.” The takeaway here is if you pay for an adult checked bag, you pay for a kids’ checked bag on United.

Car Seats and Strollers – United accepts one stroller and one car seat free of charge for each child. In my experience we’ve been able to check these anywhere from the curb to the gate.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is, if you have to pay for a checked bag for an adult you probably have to pay it for you infant/toddler/child/adolescent. If you feel you need a little bit of extra space, I think the car seat bag is the way to go. Also, it’s not mentioned in any of the policies explicitly, but you never need to worry about gate checking a caddy/car seat combination. Hopefully this list helps you as you plan for your travel with your young ones!

The caddy and car seat is the way to go for infants in my opinion

Apr 23 2015

Turks and Caicos: Getting to Paradise

We just got back from a family trip to Turks and Caicos. Rather than do a full trip report (for reasons that should quickly become apparent), I thought I’d just do some random thoughts spread over a couple posts.

This was our first family trip with two grandkids in tow – we took up seven seats on the plane – grandparents, two sets of parents, M in her own seat, and her little nephew in lap. Amusingly enough, we found out the day we left that Providenciales just topped Trip Advisor’s Travelers’ Choice list – great timing by us!

This post is mostly the boring logistical stuff, mostly parent related – but I’ve tried to include pictures foreshadowing what’s yet to come!

Disclosure: Some links to products in this post earn me a small commission on Amazon if you buy through the links. I only linked products that we found useful and used ourselves, appreciate the support!

Booking Flights and Accommodations

It’s easy to brag about hacking travel costs, but a bit more embarrassing to admit spending a bunch of money. But the reality is, at one point the logistics of this trip just got too complicated and I bit the bullet and had all of us book everything in cash. If I hadn’t, I might have been on the receiving end of an actual bullet which is the excuse I will use to hide my embarrassment!

Anyway, nothing much to write home about here – we bought seven seats in economy for a direct flight from Newark to Providenciales in Turks and Caicos. Jess and I determined that we’d rather drive down to my parent’s house in NJ than deal with a connection – we haven’t been down to visit for awhile anyway. M was really into the idea of sharing a flight with her grandparents again so that factored in as well.

I'm not gonna complain about Economy Plus seats on a three hour flight - plus the view over the engine was nice — I’m not gonna complain about Economy Plus seats on a three hour flight – plus the view over the engine was nice

We spent about $500 per ticket – not cheap by any means but it would have cost $900 from Boston (with a connection). The only real money saving I did here was make sure two tickets were bought at the lowest fare bucket available before buying the other five. This saved us all about $80 overall.

If you’re not familiar with the concept – basically if you search for multiple seats, you’ll always be quoted the fare bucket that contains enough seats for your entire party. But if you’re looking for seven seats, the odds are there are at least 2-3 seats at a lower (cheaper) fare bucket, so if you buy those separately you can save some money.

The other plus was we booked the flights through my dad’s account so we all got Economy Plus for free thanks to his United Platinum status. Every inch counts!

For accommodations, we decided to stay at the Villa del Mar – we rented a couple of rooms for $800/night. I’ll talk about the pros and cons of the hotel throughout, but we essentially saved 50% by staying at a hotel across the street from a beach as opposed to direct beach access. 50% for 2 extra minutes of walking is not a bad deal.

If it’s not becoming readily apparent – Turks and Caicos is not a cheap place. If I had planned better, we could have cut down the costs for sure, but I didn’t so this is where we ended up. Hey at least I cleared a credit card bonus for the flights and my brother in law paid for the hotel with his Arrival Plus…

Packing

I generally find with a toddler these days that getting ready for a trip is more stressful than the trip itself. I’ve spoken a few times about the car seat dilemma. We decided to bring it in our huge canvas bag (affiliate link) again.

We’ve pretty much figured out our packing situation these days – one carry on roller and the huge car seat bag. The important stuff goes in the roller while unimportant stuff goes in the car seat bag (like extra diapers and my clothes – thanks Jess!). We check both in and board the plane with a backpack, diaper bag, and Jess’ purse. One of the benefits of traveling semi-regularly is getting a system that works down.

I will say that this time it might have been nice to have the car seat transporter since M fell asleep on the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel (and wanted to sleep at the airport on the way home). But hey, she got to rest through check in after some careful car seat maneuvering.

The Flights

Though I should really trust M by now, I was a bit worried since we spent six hours driving down to NJ the night before. I opted to start the drive at M’s naptime which turned out to be good for her but bad for traffic since we hit rush hour in Connecticut.

Luckily, the flight down wasn’t a problem at all. It left at 915 AM and she just had a grand old time listening to her music, looking out the window, and stickering up everything. We did have to pay for food on the plane – $10 for an egg skillet – but at least it tasted decent and kept M happy.

The immigration line at Providenciales airport runs pretty slowly, so something to bear in mind – but at least there’s a festive band playing! It reminded me a bit of Bora Bora’s airport. After grabbing our bags we picked up a taxi – all the taxis seem to be vans taking multiple customers. It cost around $120 for the eight of us – babies and toddlers counted.

My dad later realized that you could rent a car for $60/day (actually it could be cheaper but he paid for insurance and stuff like that) so on the way back we ended up taking two trips with a rental car back to the airport.

We spent a lot of time in all forms of water

Villa del Mar and many of the hotels are only about 15-20 minutes away from the airport so it’s pretty convenient and the roads are pretty empty all things considered. The only thing tough about driving is they drive on the British side of the road but a lot of the cars are American made so be prepared for that.

The flight on the way back was pretty smooth as well – again M entertained herself for the entire flight, though this time she skipped naptime to do so. But hey, no news is good news.

Final Thoughts

This wasn’t the cheapest trip ever but it was a great time for our family. Turks and Caicos is a beautiful, relaxing, though expensive destination. But more on that later.

Other Posts in this Series

Expensive Eats

Getting to Paradise

Villa del Mar

Feb 05 2015

Remember to Check Award Space Regularly: Slightly Discounted Business Class on Asiana A380

Halfway around the world for 70,000 miles in business class (gcmap.com)

Update: Since I wrote this last night, United has actually made their “non-advertised” sale official. See details here (book by 2/28!)

When friends ask me about awards they want to book – the resourceful ones often want to learn how to fish. One thing I always tell them is: keep checking for award space – you never know what you might find. Recently, two separate pieces of information surfaced in the blogosphere that I didn’t even think to connect in my head (though I’m sure many did). But everything clicked when my buddy Dan messaged me today: “Hey I can fly from JFK to Seoul on an A380 for 70,000 miles in business?”

Why, yes, Dan, you can right now! When I first saw that Asiana would be starting a new A380 flight from JFK to Seoul on One Mile at a Time, I didn’t really think too much of it, mainly because I don’t have the Star Alliance balances to book such a flight.

But then when Dan said he saw business class space for 70,000 miles I remembered that I had read somewhere that United was doing another unadvertised award sale. I’m not trying to plagiarize or anything (don’t want to incur PFDigest’s wrath!), but I really do not remember where I saw that.

For the unfamiliar, after United’s devaluation, partner premium cabin awards have become much more costly than awards on United metal. For example, business class to North Asia on United metal costs 70,000 each way, while business class on partners costs 80,000.

The recently devalued United award chart - more expensive partner premium cabins — The recently devalued United award chart – more expensive partner premium cabins

So the business class seats on the Asiana A380 should cost 80,000 miles each way. But for some reason, United has been having these random “sales” where they price partner awards at the same cost of United metal awards – currently it seems like that’s happening for both Asia and Europe. So right now this award is pricing at 70,000 miles each way.

Current pricing - 10,000 miles cheaper than usual in business — Current pricing – 10,000 miles cheaper than usual in business

That’s pretty good news, because in today’s prices that’s a fair (though not cheap) price to Asia in business class.

The even better news is that right now Asiana has released a ton of award space. Here is my July and August search for 4 seats:

Notice that space basically becomes wide open after the A380 starts operating every day in mid-July.

Here is my September and October search for EIGHT seats:

So the bottom line is, there is a ton of award space – even enough to get a family of four to Asia in business class if you have the miles. You get to fly a new plane, on a new route, for a temporarily reduced price!

In terms of the product, it’s a lie flat business class seat – very “Smartium”.

Business "Smartium" class — Business “Smartium” class

Final Thoughts

If you know when and where you want to travel and you don’t see award space at first, try, try again. You’ll never know what you might find – in this case a new route plus an unannounced award “sale” led to a pretty good deal. I’m not sure how long this “sale” will go for, United had one before, it ended (Asia was pricing at 80K when I went last minute two weeks ago), and now it’s on again – but if you know you need to go somewhere, book while it’s hot!