In The Spirit of the Holidays...

[MickiSue]

I am so grateful to have learned about MS and travel hacking over the past five years. Tonight brought home one of the biggest reasons, and I wanted to issue a big THANK YOU to all the people who generously share their knowledge of and passion for travel.

Daughter and Grandson were due to arrive at 9:18 PM, having left VCE at 5AM CST. (Noon, their time.) They had three flights, VCE-CDG, CDG-DTW, and DTW-MSP. They made to DTW without incident, unless you count the meltdown of a 3 year old 1/2 hour before landing in Detroit.

Having made it to about 1 AM his time behaving beautifully, that's not so bad.

Then the nightmare started. They went through customs and picked up their bags for rechecking, and got to the gate, only to find their flight was delayed three hours. Then 4. So I offered to check on flights for tomorrow, and to book them into the Westin that's inside DTW, so they'd not have so far to go.

Told Daughter just what to do: Find the Delta info desk, ask if they could be booked on a flight tomorrow, and then get to the hotel. Meanwhile, I went to the SPG site, and learned I could either spend $326, or 10K SPG points for a king room for them. You all know what I chose.

So. Not only have I, and Husband, been the beneficiaries of so much information, and been able to travel significantly more, and in better style, than would otherwise be possible. But to be able to, at a moment's notice, be of assistance to an exhausted daughter and grandson? There is no price that can be put on that!

If Delta had no flights that would work, I also would have been easily able to spend the 40K AA miles for one way tickets for both of them. It would have been less than ideal, as there are no direct AA flights. But better than spending the day at DTW.

Oh. BTW: Grandson was very impressed that he could lie in bed to see the TV.

What is it that you are most grateful for in pursuing "The Hobby"?

 

[Newgene]

So far, the wife and I have realized that we can make it through our first time in Europe for 2 weeks, by ourselves, with only a couple backpacks. At no point did it get difficult. Without this hobby, we likely would have never tried that.

 

[smittytabb]

Love hearing these stories. I was quite an avid traveler even before miles and points existed. I cannot tell you how much value has been added to my travel and my life by all of this. As many of you know, I have been to all 7 continents now and have never even checked to see how many airline tickets I have bought with miles. And the number of free hotel rooms is a large number indeed. When I was younger I always flew coach, but in the last decade I have really enjoyed the ability to fly in business and first when I would never have paid cash to do so.

And for events like graduations and weddings, to be able to provide airline tickets to my children has been amazing. I have family on another continent and regularly use miles to get there and have them fly home for holidays. And once one of my children had a ticket booked on my miles home and had a major snafu with their visa to leave the country to get home. I was able to change the airline ticket, not once but several times for free as she returned to the consulate each day to try to work out the situation. It was stressful enough. Knowing I could just keep reticketing the seat until the visa came through was a huge help.

 

[MickiSue]

Smitty, I also was able to use my MR airline credit to help Youngest get home for Christmas. Always a bonus!

 

[R.R.]

What is it that you are most grateful for in pursuing "The Hobby"?

Easing my Spouse's mind!

While we have the knowledge, money, and support (i.e. fantastic live-in pet-sitters) to travel widely even without miles/points, Spouse works very hard and feels guilty about taking much time off. Can you say Workaholic???

Reducing or eliminating the financial cost of travel (& appearing to be clever about it ;-) ) seems to help tip the scales back toward a willingness to take time off and venture away from home. I always say, "No one can work 52 weeks a year; everyone needs a vacation." Pairing this logic with award nights & flights, plus cashback for per diem spending, helps melt away the tension and allow true enjoyment of our travel adventures.

 

[MickiSue]

LOL, RR, I know just what you are talking about. I'm married to an accountant.

It's not just the taking time to travel, it's the spending, isn't it? In the fall/winter of 2015-16, we went to Italy in Oct/Nov, to DC in Dec, to Jamaica in Jan, and he went to Steamboat with his dad in Feb. He was in shock about that!

The only ticket that was paid for was the Steamboat one, because he found a RT for about $300, and the conversion of miles would have not been worth it to us.

 

[DavidNJ]

Numerous times I have booked hotel stays for my Daughter when she was required to attend functions for her employment right after she graduated from the University. She is now on her feet running in a new position and a company CC. I really enjoy sending the Mother & Father-in-Law on jaunts for the weekend where they otherwise would have not gone. A couple weeks ago, some friend's we hadn't seen in 25 years were in the area so I just booked a weekend stay @ a resort for us all. We had so much fun, I booked them 5 nights in Curacao w/ my points when we were there in November and showed them how to transfer MR points for airline miles. Could never have done any of the above w/o the knowledge gained by this community.

 

[MickiSue]

Exactly, David. It's lovely, of course, to be able to travel and create your own memories. But being able to offer memories to our loved ones is so important.

Years ago, before I even had travel hacking on my radar, I had miles from business travel that let me get my daughter home from Italy, a few weeks after she'd returned there and my dad was dying. THOSE were probably the most well used miles I've ever had.

 

[R.R.]

But being able to offer memories to our loved ones is so important.

Agreed. Every time Spouse or I have gotten award tickets for others, it's been a special joy. And when that other is a member of Spouse's family (especially a hard-working, low-paid member of the military), that too eases the mind!

 

[italdesign]

Agree with everything that's been said. On a more basic level, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to broaden my horizon and care more about the world. A few years ago I didn't know anything about SE Asia. Now it's practically my 2nd home. We all learned the history of the world in primary school, but to actually visit the sites is surreally enriching and gives a new level of appreciation. My American media-fed perspectives are constantly being challenged by what I see in other parts of the world, and I think that's a good thing.