So after writing this blog semi-regularly for four to five months, it became painfully apparent that it does, indeed take a good bit of serious time and effort in order to publish a decent quality blog on a regular basis. My last post was six months ago, as I was about to embark on my annual trip…
Well, it’s that time of the year again — it’s time to head over to the happiest place on Earth — Oktoberfest! This will be my fourth year in a row that I’ve attended the world’s largest festival, and every year it’s the highlight of my year!This year, I will be meeting eight friends in…
Introduction Ten Things I Did in Rio Getting There, Getting Around, and General Impressions Review: JW Marriott Rio de Janeiro As detailed in an earlier post, I decided to head on down to Rio for Labor Day for a weekend of sun, fun, and caipirinhas! Over four days and three nights, I managed to see…
Introduction Ten Things I Did in Rio Getting There, Getting Around, and General Impressions Review: JW Marriott Rio de Janeiro As I landed in Istanbul last Valentine’s Day, I received an e-mail alerting me to an inordinately low fare to Rio de Janeiro on United for pretty much all year. I just happened to be…
Two weekends ago, I booked an impulsive, last-minute weekend trip to Anchorage, Alaska on a Wednesday night — my flight was scheduled for first thing on Friday morning. After a late Thursday night out in DC, I found myself at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport for an early-ish 7:45am flight to Chicago. Before I booked…
In early 2012, I started to really understand how to seriously accrue a ton of airline miles, and I began to travel on a regular basis using many of the things I learned. That year, I flew over 96,000 miles on a variety of trips. This year, I’ve already eclipsed 2012, by traveling over 100,000…
What happens when I have a wide-open long weekend, $1,300 in United eCertificates, and the desire to not do the same-old, same-old in DC? Why, I book an impulsive trip to Alaska for the weekend, of course! So I’ve been thinking about this for a while, as the fare has been out there for a…
I hear it from people all the time: “I can’t earn enough miles to do anything!” Well, what these people generally don’t know is that there are a myriad of ways to earn miles. And odds are, they don’t know how to effectively redeem miles in a way that offers the maximum value for those…
Probably the most common question that people ask me is, “how do you find such good deals? Where do you look for these cheap fares?” There is not a quick, simple answer to that question. There are several different avenues that I monitor on a regular basis for good fares. I’ll detail those later in…
Introduction Planning TAM Economy Class New York JFK – Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Santiago LAN Economy Class Santiago – Sao Paulo TAM Economy Class Sao Paulo – New York JFK United BusinessFirst Denver to Tokyo Seattle (Emergency Landing) United BusinessFirst on the 787 Seattle to Tokyo Cathay Pacific Regional Business Class Tokyo Narita…