Around every New Year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how well I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. One thing that's different recently is now all the airlines I fly with and the hotels I stay with are doing it, too. They've been emailing me " ( Read more... )

Panama Travelog #40
IAH United Club - Tue, 31 Dec 2024. 4pm.We're about halfway home from Panama right now. We're cooling our heels at the United Club at IAH. We relaxed in the Copa Airlines club in Panama before our first flight, and on our connecting flight from Houston to San Jose we've been upgraded to first class. These are all benefits of my ( Read more... )

Panama Travelog #2
IAH Airport - Sun, 22 Dec 2024. 6am.

We're headed to Panama. Now we're farther than a mere 10 miles away from home; we're about halfway there. We're making a connection in Houston ( Read more... )

Alaska Travelog #1
Flying at 38,000' - Fri, 14 Jun 2024, 10pmThings should have gone smoothly with our flight to Alaska this evening. We both got upgraded to first class... almost 36 hours ahead of time, even... and I finished up my work early this afternoon so we didn't have to rush getting up to SFO through rush hour traffic. We left comfortably ( Read more... )

I'm checking in how I'm using- and not using- my frequent flyer/hotel points for travel in June 2024. As usual, our trips use a mix of points and cash. That's because while points rates are almost always available for bookings in modern airline/hotel programs, they are often poor values for the high number of points required relative to the cash ( Read more... )

Right after I posted my almost-leaving-for-Mexico blog from the United Club Lounge yesterday morning I saw this little number: a robot busing dishes.

Click to view

The first thing that struck me was, "Yeah, this is the kind of thing that happens when we raise the minimum wage." I'm not anti-labor or anti-paying people living wages. It's just the reality of ( Read more... )

New Zealand Travelog #2
SFO Airport lounge - Sat, 6 Apr 2024, 9:30pmIt's almost time to board our flight to New Zealand. We've got a nonstop from San Francisco to Auckland. It's a nearly 12.5 hour flight. And we're flying in coach- which means the food we'll get aboard the flight will be hit-or-miss. Thus we've filled up here at SFO prior to ( Read more... )

Australia Travelog #48
Somewhere over the South Pacific - Sun, 31 Dec 2023, ??pm

I've been enjoying my unexpected upgrade aboard our flight home from Sydney for a few hours now. This op-up, or operational upgrade, came as we'd been sitting in our seats for over an hour while the aircraft was still at the gate. Ultimately we left about 90 minutes ( Read more... )

Australia Travelog #47
SYD Airport - Sun, 31 Dec 2023, 3pm

Hawk and I boarded flight UA 870 over an hour and a half ago. We haven't gone anywhere. I mean, the aircraft hasn't gone anywhere. It's an hour late for departure and still waiting ( Read more... )

Australia Travelog #46
SYD Airport - Sun, 31 Dec 2023, 1pmWe arrived at Sydney Airport just fine this morning. Days before starting the trip we rebooked our return from a noon flight to 2pm, which gave us an extra 2 hours. (Yes, United Airlines runs two flights a day each way between SF and Sydney!) Strictly speaking we didn't need those extra 2 ( Read more... )