Two Christmas travel miracles in one week!

Last week I experienced not one but two miracles in this season known for such events. Both were travel-related and both could have largely ruined an otherwise wonderful two weeks of family time.

Background

Last Friday I began a 2+ week trip with 6 legs. On Friday I flew to Chicago, Saturday to Oklahoma City, Monday to Boston, and tomorrow I will be heading to Cancun, followed by a return to Boston then a final trip back to DC. The first miracle occurred in Oklahoma City.

Miracle 1: The Bag

As this was a two-week trip involving two climates and many levels of attire, I chose to check a bag. I never do this because it adds a ton of time to check it when you get to the airport and pick it up at baggage claim, but I do admit I’m not entirely opposed to it because it does make the travel experience itself much easier since I don’t have to worry about boarding early because I have no bag to put overhead, and I also don’t have to lug it around a bunch of airports.

On Friday flying American direct DCA-ORD I checked my bag without issue. Saturday morning I checked it at MDW over an hour before I took off for a direct AirTran-operated Southwest flight to OKC. The flight was 30 minutes early on arriving – my bag was not. I went to the baggage office where I found out, along with about 15 other people, that there was a baggage ramp failure at Midway and my bag would probably be on the later flight.

No such luck. In fact, no such luck for 48 hours. Unlike the legacy carriers, Southwest is a bit behind technology-wise. Not only is there no way to track your bag online, there is in fact no way to track your bag at all. They provide you a central phone number to call to get information, but until the bag actually shows up at its destination, the system doesn’t keep track of its whereabouts. So for 48 hours neither I, nor more importantly Southwest, had any clue where my bag was.

In the meantime Southwest gave me $50 for toiletries. By comparison, Delta gave me $50 per day. This makes a huge difference when your bag is lost for more than 24 hours. I used Southwest’s $50 the first night on basics plus new underwear and socks. Luckily I had already met my girlfriend’s extended family once so they hopefully didn’t judge me too hard for wearing the same sweater, pants, and sneakers two days in a row (including at church). After two days though I felt gross enough in the same food- and baby-stained clothes to go to Kohl’s and buy a new sweater, pants, and belt (my other one snapped in half when I took it off that night).

On Monday morning, two days after I’d arrived in Oklahoma, I put my customary call into the baggage office and, lo and behold, my bag was on its way for delivery. It arrived at 1pm. We left for the airport not two hours later. A Christmas miracle!

As an aside I took a look at the bag tag when it arrived. For some reason it had gone through Houston on its way to Oklahoma. I’m guessing that since the only flights from Midway to OKC are on AirTran’s relatively small 717s, and during this time those planes are chock full of people and bags, they didn’t have enough leftover capacity to squeeze the missing bags on. I have written to Southwest to request reimbursement for both toiletries and clothes, and will also write to them requesting a significant number of points for their utter failure to get my bag to me on time.

Miracle 2: The Passport

On Sunday afternoon, at that point still bagless, I called my family to let them know the situation as I would probably have to head to Wal-Mart or somewhere at home this week to stock up for the Cancun trip. My father happened to ask if I still had my passport, which made me realize it was sitting in my desk…back in DC.

An outward-calm, inner-panic ensued. I thought perhaps I could change my flights and spend some points heading down to DC to pick up the passport on the way to Boston, as well as to get some replacement clothes from my apartment since my bag still hadn’t turned up and I figured it was gone for good. First, though, I called the front desk of my apartment building and told them the situation.

All I can say is, thank goodness for a young man named James. James answered the phone, followed my absurd rigmarole of instructions on how to get into my bedroom, and shipped my passport the next morning with FedEx Priority Overnight. Incredible person, thank you James.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the end of the story. The package arrived in Boston as expected on Christmas Eve morning, but then it didn’t move. It passed the 10:30am delivery time and it was still at the airport. I called FedEx’s 800 number and was told there was some delay due to high volume (duh it’s Christmas…) but my package would be delivered by the end of the day.

That answer wasn’t good enough for me. I called again around 1pm and learned that it wouldn’t be delivered by the end of the day, it would only get to the regional delivery center by then so I would have to go pick it up there.

Around 230pm I called again because it still had not moved from the airport and I was getting nervous. This time the rep couldn’t even promise it would get to the regional facility. With time running out my father and I dashed to CVS to print some passport photos and then sped downtown to the Boston passport facility to beg them to print me a new passport. It closed at 4:00; we arrived at 3:50. An incredibly kind officer named Scott gave me an appointment time for the 26^th and helped me put my paperwork in order. Problem solved.

But if I could avoid paying $500 for an emergency passport I wanted to. My dad and I headed to Logan airport and went into the FedEx cargo facility where we were told our package in fact had left their facility and was on a truck somewhere on its way to the Needham regional center. We called the 800 number and put a “tracer” on the package, meaning that at its next stop it would be pulled out so we could pick it up, and then we drove over to Needham.

Turns out we weren’t the only ones with package problems on Christmas Eve. There was a line of 5 people in front of us all with the same issue: their promised delivery hadn’t occurred. And boy were they pissed. I felt horrible for the FedEx staff since they had obviously been dealing with this all day and none of the delays were their fault. But that didn’t change the fact that FedEx (and it appears UPS) had royally screwed up this season and had not correctly anticipated the volume of shipping they would be handling.

Once it was our turn we explained the situation to a rep. She told us not only was the package probably not there, but even if it was there it was in a big shipping container and would be almost impossible to find until the container had been sorted. Oh, and the sorting wouldn’t take place until Thursday or Friday. She also questioned why we had sent it Priority Overnight in the first place, since FedEx can’t guarantee delivery times during the holidays.

Well that wasn’t exactly what we wanted to hear. And also the shipping guarantee is a load of crap. How could so many online retailers offer overnight shipping on the 23^rd with a guarantee of Christmas Eve delivery if FedEx couldn’t guarantee it themselves. Not possible. Anyway, we asked her very kindly to have the staff look for the package, which she did. She told us it would be awhile. We sat down, and while we waited we watched the FedEx staff magically appear from the back room every couple minutes with another and another astonished customer’s previously lost package. Our hopes were up, but we were still skeptical. 15 minutes later, a lady came from the back room and called my name. I was shocked. It was my passport.

Now who knows if this was an amazing delivery staff, a failed tracking system, or just bad back-end customer service. I don’t really care. I am very grateful to the staff that spent the time looking for my package, and I am grateful to have it.

FedEx has already agreed to refund the shipping costs for Priority Overnight. I have also written in to them to request reimbursement for the $25 I paid for passport photos. We’ll see what happens there.

Happy holidays to all!

Things to keep in mind when traveling for the holidays

The time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is both wonderful and terrible. Wonderful because the holidays are awesome. Terrible because it is by far the most trying time of the year to travel. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to the 2 or 3 readers I have to make a list of pitfalls to avoid and tips to make use of to ensure your holiday travel is a breeze.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Short connections

If you’re not traveling nonstop to your destination this season, leave plenty of time between flights. At the major airports I’d say leave a good 90 minutes or more if you can, and leave two hours at Newark. Delays are a problem at this time of year because of winter weather. But the bigger problem is actually fuller planes. Normally in a delay you can get switched to another flight pretty easily. But when planes are full, this gets much more difficult. Don’t take chances. Leave a lot of time.

2. Back of the plane

This time of year is the most popular for leisure travelers, and specifically for leisure travelers who don’t travel almost ever. They’re understandably cost-conscious so they won’t check a bag, but they also are not necessarily the most seasoned of packers. The back of the plane will be overfilled with huge carry-ons. This not only means you might not get your bag on there, it also means it will take an extra long time to get off. If you have an option to sit up front, even if it’s in a middle seat or you have to pay for it, I recommend doing so.

Tips

1. Underwear and miniature toiletries in your backpack

Checked bags get lost, and the increase in volume of checked bags during the holidays certainly doesn’t help. You won’t always be saved by carrying on either, since with packed planes it’s more likely you’ll be asked to gate-check your bag if you are not in the first couple groups on the plane. Mitigate the consequences of a lost bag by carrying a couple essentials in your regular backpack or carry-on that goes under your seat. I got stuck in Atlanta once without my bag and I was so glad I had a fresh pair of underwear and contacts solution for the night after traveling the entire day.

2. Take advantage of free changes during bad weather

The airlines have developed an extremely consumer-friendly practice of allowing free changes to itineraries when there is even the possibility of a storm. Take advantage of this. Last year when the hurricane was threating the DC area it looked like my girlfriend might not get out on her afternoon flight going through Chicago. We called United and they switched her to the direct Saint Louis flight only a couple hours earlier for free. Her old flights ended up going out just fine, but she saved a layover and a few hours with the change.

3. Show up early

Security lines are out of control at this time of year. No point in missing your flight because you didn’t get there early enough. I’d get there 90 minutes ahead of time. Better safe than sorry.

Happy holidays!

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Chase Southwest

We had a reader question from Victor this week. He was looking into whether to apply for the Southwest Airlines credit card issued by Chase. Specifically, he was wondering whether there was any way to get the annual fee waived. I told him that the Southwest credit card was, counterintuitively, not the best card for earning Southwest miles. Instead, he should sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Chase Southwest

Don’t get me wrong, this is a great card. It has a 25,000-mile signup bonus (sometimes even 50,000). It also comes with a $69 annual fee, however, and this is not waived for the first year unlike many other Chase and airline credit cards. In pure mile value this is a still a great deal, since 25,000 miles are worth almost exactly $420 (each Southwest point is worth 1.69 cents of airfare, although this number will go down 13% next year). The card earns 1 mile per $1 spent, and 2 miles per $1 when spending with Southwest.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

CSP earns Ultimate Rewards points, a Chase points currency that can be instantly transferred to Southwest, United, Hyatt, Marriott, Amtrak, and a few other partners at a 1:1 ratio. It can also be used like cash at 1.2 cents apiece on Chase’s travel site to pay directly for airfare or other types of travel. CSP earns 1 point per $1 spent, and 2 points per $1 on dining and travel (airfare, hotels, metro, parking, etc.). So right off the bat, even if the only thing you ever did with your points were transfer them to Southwest, you’d be better off using Chase Sapphire Preferred instead of Chase Southwest because it earns double points at more places.

But there are a few kickers that make Sapphire far and away a better card:

1. Points flexibility

As mentioned earlier, Ultimate Rewards points can be used not only on Southwest but on a number of other travel partners , all of whom you can transfer your points to instantly. The points can also be used like cash. Southwest’s card only lets you use your points on Southwest.

2. Annual fee

Chase Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee, which is higher than Southwest’s $69 annual fee, but it’s waived for the first year. You could do a year of earning your miles, transfer them all to Southwest, and have paid no annual fee to do so. And if you wanted to keep the card, it would take 4 years to pay the same amount in annual fees on Sapphire as on Southwest.

3. Signup bonus

The signup bonus for CSP is 40,000 points, versus 25,000 for the Southwest card. Chase also gives you a 7% bonus on all points earned on your Sapphire at the end of each year.

The one instance I consider the Southwest card to be a better choice

Chase Sapphire Preferred does the financial equivalent of kick the crap out of the Chase Southwest card. But the Southwest card offers one thing that I believe causes it to be the superior card for a very select group of people, and that is the companion pass.

Southwest’s companion pass allows the owner to name one person (changeable twice) who can fly with them for free anytime they fly Southwest, be it on a paid fare or on miles. It’s good from the time you earn it until the end of the following calendar year.

You can earn the companion pass by earning 110,000 Southwest points in a calendar year. This includes miles earned from flying but also miles earned from the credit card (including the signup bonus). It does not, however, include miles transferred from Chase Sapphire Preferred.

So, here is how I would describe someone who the Southwest credit card would work for:

1. You fly with one person a good amount of the time you travel for leisure
2. You generally use your Southwest miles to pay for your own tickets (instead of for family members or friends)
3. You spend $110,000 a year

If this fits you, I’d recommend getting the Chase Southwest card. Personally, I don’t meet any of these criteria. I imagine most of my 10 to 20 readers don’t either. So for me, the Chase Sapphire Preferred makes far more sense.

Results from my most recent credit card churn

Yes it’s that time of the quarter again. With the wind at my back and a fire in my belly, I was ready for another credit card churn. Here was my list of applications and the results:

Starwood Amex Business – APPROVED (Phone)

10,000 SPG points after first purchase

15,000 points after $5,000 spend in 6 months

$0 annual fee first year ($65 after)

Why I signed up

I signed up for this card to add to the ever-growing SPG balance from my personal card and my girlfriend’s two SPG cards. These points are very valuable as hotel points, with even very nice hotels often costing just 7,000 or 10,000 points per night. They’re also valuable because they transfer to a number of airline miles at a 1:1 ratio, including our favorite program, British Airways. When you transfer 20,000 points to an airline, SPG adds another 5,000 points, so you get 25,000 miles from 20,000 SPG points.

Approval process

I didn’t get an immediate decision on this one, but the landing page after I submitted the application had a number for me to call. Normally I’ve found this means I have to provide some additional information just to prove I really am me. That turned out to be true here, and it only took about 5 minutes on the phone to get an approval on this one.

Chase British Airways – APPROVED (Phone)

25,000 Avios after $2,000 spend in 3 months

25,000 Avios after $10,000 spend in 1 year

25,000 Avios after $20,000 spend in 1 year

$95 annual fee

Why I signed up

This is kind of the mother lode of cards for the traveling we do. DC to Chicago is 9,000 Avios roundtrip, so this card alone, if the signup bonus is achieved, yields 13 roundtrips. Not bad. I had already gotten this card in the 50,000-point version earlier in the year, but I waited until after I closed it and it fell off my Chase login to apply again. It’s very possible I don’t get the signup bonus, since I’ve already had this card and I wasn’t able to find in the blogosphere a definite time period you need to wait to get a Chase signup bonus again. We’ll see.

Approval process

Between my business and personal cards, I already have a ton of credit with Chase, and wasn’t expecting this one to go through instantly. I did get a “pending” so I called into Chase’s reconsideration line (888-245-0625) and asked if there was some information I could provide to get approved. The agent told me I had enough credit with Chase and they weren’t ready to offer more, but I could move the credit line from an existing card I had in order to be approved for this one. Well, this was about as perfect timing as I could’ve asked for since my Southwest annual fee was coming up and I was planning on closing it. They made the swap, no problem.

Barclaycard US Airways – APPROVED (Instant)

35,000 miles after first purchase

$0 annual fee first year ($89 after)

Why I signed up

This is actually my third US Airways card. And not just third of all time. Literally third currently open. I’m not entirely sure why Barclaycard lets me do this, but I will mostly certainly take a free 35,000 US Air miles. On their own they’re great. I can use them to fly any Star Alliance airline and US Airways agents tend to be pretty loose with the routings they’ll allow. But now that they’re merging with American Airlines, I’m just going to sit on them until they magically become AAdvantage miles. Barclaycard also often has a bonus after a few months where they’ll have you spend at least $750 in three consecutive months and get an additional 15,000 miles.

Bank of America Alaska Airlines – APPROVED (Phone)

25,000 miles after approval

$75 annual fee

$100 statement credit after $1,000 spend in 3 months

Why I signed up

Good thing I wrote this post, because it reminded me that I have to get that $100 statement credit! Anyway, the offer on this card essentially is getting paid $25 to receive 25,000 miles. I accept. I’d accept that in pretty much any mileage currency, but Alaska miles are especially valuable. Why? Alaska partners with both American and Delta, meaning that I can use these miles to fly on either airline, or on Alaska itself.

This is my second Alaska card with BoA. I opened my last one about a year ago, and have since closed it. BoA, like Barclaycard, is known for letting you churn cards like this.

Approval process

This was a difficult one. I actually got declined for this one, so I called the BoA reconsideration line (866-530-9829). I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with the rep, who asked me all kinds of questions about my income and work and reasons for getting the card despite not using my Hawaiian Airlines card I had with them. She also asked about all the inquiries I had on my credit score. I told her I do not use the Hawaiian card anymore because I do not fly Hawaiian, and that I was trying to build up credit since I left college so that I could show that I’m creditworthy. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes and finally came back and said she could approve me.

Citi ThankYou Preferred – DECLINED

10,000 points after $1,500 spend in 3 months

20,000 points after another $3,000 spend in the following 6 months

No annual fee

Why I signed up

I really like ThankYou points, Citi’s proprietary points currency. They act like cash usable on travel, gift cards, or merchandise, and they’re pretty easy to use. More importantly, however, they’re really easy to earn and they’re valuable. With my Citi Forward for College Students (my version is no longer available for new applicants) I earn 5 ThankYou points for dollar spent at restaurants, which includes bars. As a 20-something, those two categories make up most of my disposable income. Normally ThankYou points are worth 1 cent apiece, but because I also have the ThankYou Premier card, all my ThankYou points, even ones not earned on the Premier, are worth 1.25 cents apiece towards airfare. So basically anytime I use that card I’m earning 6.25 cents back. I would’ve been more than happy to add another 30,000 points from this Preferred card.

I also love cards without annual fees because I can keep them open forever. Lenders like credit card companies look at the age of your oldest account as well as the average age of all of your accounts. Having old cards therefore is a great thing for your credit score.

Approval process

I was declined for this right off the bat when I applied. I called into Citi’s reconsideration line (800-695-5171), which historically has been incredibly unhelpful but more recently has been reported to be able to reverse decisions. An analyst took my information then handed me to a manager to explain why I wasn’t approved. He said I was actually a great candidate for a card but had too many recent inquiries. He also gave me some fantastic insight into how Citi scrutinizes card applicants. He said next year, in 2014, I would probably be approved for the card and that was because my inquiries were in 2013 and they would not be considered in 2014. I’ll be honest, that makes no sense to me from an analytical perspective, but I’ll take it!

How I got to Poland and back for $295 (and NO miles!)

Christmas came a little early for those in the travel world this past weekend. Thanks to a small regional airline in Norway, we merry travelers received many gifts from the fare gods.

The deal

Sometime around noon on Saturday, TheFlightDeal (a must-read website, by the way) reported that there were some sub-$300 fares between the U.S. and Europe…roundtrip! The flights were all on United flights or United codeshare flights (where United slaps its flight number on a partner airline’s flight), but they were being sold by Wideroe, a Norwegian regional airline owned by Scandinavian Airlines. Scandinavian Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, which United is also in, hence why Wideroe is able to sell tickets on United. The question is though, why these cheap fares? And why only on Wideroe?

Many fares, especially international ones, are made up in part by a fuel surcharge. If you look at the breakdown of a fare, it’s called “YQ”. I have no idea what that stands for. Anyway, when you pay let’s say $1,000 for a roundtrip ticket from Miami to London, it’s possible that only $50 of that is actual “base fare”, and $950 of that is a “fuel surcharge”. I don’t have a great enough understanding of how airfares are put together to know why this happens exactly, but it’s important to know that it does. On Saturday at noon, it was discovered that Wideroe’s website was not charging customers these fuel surcharges for United flights (though it’s still unclear as to why). Suddenly $1,000 airfares were pricing at $300.

The booking

I myself went into panic mode looking for deals, but I’ll admit at first I was crushed by the deluge of possibilities. After searching for random weekends for 20 minutes, I figured I was running against the clock before this fare error was corrected, so I decided to narrow my focus to just spring break. My girlfriend, fortunately in this case, had some parameters for how far she was willing to travel given her hectic teaching schedule and short break. These were enormously helpful. We very quickly narrowed our options down to Europe, and from there I looked as far west as I could for a reasonable fare to a country that neither she nor I had been to and that wasn’t easy to get to with miles.

Enter: Poland. I found a roundtrip itinerary during her break week for just $295 per person. I booked it with my Amex Platinum because it has no foreign transaction fees (this is a foreign airline). Now the waiting began to see if the fare would actually be honored.

The waiting

Wideroe’s site quickly gave me a confirmation number that I was able to enter into United’s site and see our flights. That was the first good sign; the booking really existed. But the United site said that the booking had not yet been ticketed, which meant we weren’t actually confirmed on these flights yet. My credit card has also not been charged. We went to a movie and when we got out, still no ticketing or charge.

About five hours later, sometime around 1230am, I got a notification from Amex about a possible fraudulent transaction. Probably the first time I’ve ever been excited about one of those. Sure enough, it was Wideroe, attempting to charge my card. While I wish this one had gone through, I’m glad Amex didn’t automatically accept $600 charges from foreign companies onto my card.

This put us in a bit of a situation though. It was great the card had been charged because it meant Wideroe was actually attempting to ticket the reservation, but the fact that it had been declined made me wonder if the airline would cancel the booking entirely. I called Amex to clear my card for a possible future transaction, and continued waiting.

Within a few minutes I received an email from Wideroe saying that my card had been declined. At least, I think that’s what it said. It was in Norwegian. The email had a link that I followed to a Wideroe page that looked like it had space for a new card number, so I entered it…wrong! I mistyped one of the digits and it came back with a bunch of red Norwegian text which I assumed was an error. Oh no! I re-clicked the link in my email and again went to the page and typed the card in correctly. And we waited…

While we waited, I checked our confirmation on the United website again. It had been ticketed! I could pick our seats and everything! The only concern still was my card had not been charged.

The outcome

Fast forward four days to this morning and two charges for $295 magically appear on my Amex. Not pending or anything, just straight to my transaction list.

I guess we’re going to Poland!

Fun ways to use Avios: Dublin

East Coasters looking to get away for the weekend need look no further. Dublin, an historic city and the capital of Ireland, is just a 6 hour flight from Boston, New York, and Washington. And for just 25,000 Avios roundtrip you could go there.

British Airways Avios is a distance-based program, meaning that you pay based on how far you’re flying. One of Avios’ partners is Aer Lingus, the flag carrier of Ireland. Aer Lingus flies from both New York JFK and Boston to Dublin each day. It just so happens that the distance between Boston and Dublin is just under 3,000 miles, meaning that with Avios it costs just 12,500 miles each way. 25,000 miles to get to Europe. That’s ridiculous. Flying from JFK would cost 40,000 roundtrip, still a great deal I would argue.

Finding Aer Lingus availability

Unfortunately the British Airways site does not show Aer Lingus’ award availability, so you can’t search for flights there. Luckily Qantas, which also partners with Aer Lingus, does show availability. Here’s how to search.

1    1.       Go to www.qantas.com.au and make an account

2.       Go to www.qantas.com.au and log in

3.       Click Book – Flights on the top

4.       Enter your departure city (Boston) and then enter your dates

5.       Click the arrival city and check the “Show Qantas & Classic Partner Award cities” BEFORE entering “Dublin” (otherwise it won’t show up)

6.       Click “Flexible with dates” and search

7.       Up will come a list of dates with little people icons. The people icons show dates with availability. Click the dates you want and hit continue at the bottom.

8.       The available flights will appear on the next page. Only pick direct flights on Aer Lingus, otherwise this deal won’t work. Write down the flight numbers you’ve found.

9.       Call British Airways Avios at 800-452-1201 to book. Feed them the flights you found. It should price out to 25,000 miles roundtrip plus about $47. Ask them to waive the $25 booking fee because you are unable to book this online.

And there you have it. 25,000 miles to a wonderful European city. I’ve seen worse deals!

A word of caution about British Airways Avios points

I love Avios. They literally finance my long-distance relationship.  It costs me 9,000 Avios to fly nonstop roundtrip from DC to Chicago on American Airlines and just $5 in addition. Here are some other awesome things about Avios:

1. Priority AAccess on American Airlines

This means boarding right after the top elites and getting to go through the fast security line. I have AAdvantage Gold, but my girlfriend doesn’t so Priority AAccess is invaluable given how much she flies.

2. Free cancellation

We often switch flights a day or two before flying if something better opens up because we only lose the $2.50 each flight if we cancel.

3. No late-booking fees

I could book a flight 4 hours before I fly and just pay the $2.50. No $75 late-booking fee like American charges, and I’m flying American flights!

4. Easy to earn

The Chase British Airways card has a ridiculous 100,000-point  signup bonus. BA is also a transfer partner of both Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards. It is the easiest points currency to earn, in my opinion.

For all the greatness that is British Airways, there is one major warning about using them that I want to point out.

Sometimes I book a flight with Avios and need to cancel it only a few hours later. The BA website doesn’t let you cancel until 24 hours after booking, and if I wait until then I lose the $2.50 per flight. So I call (yeah I want those $2.50!). The Avios reservations line cancels my reservations, no problem. But I check a day or two later and my points aren’t back in my account. I have to call back and ask them to refund, at which point the points come back to me.

If this happened once, no big deal. But it happens nearly every time I call to cancel. So here’s the warning:

MAKE SURE YOUR AVIOS GET REFUNDED

And if they’re not, call back and request them.

Dining Rewards: a way to earn miles without doing anything differently

An unsung hero of the miles and points world is Dining Rewards. This program gets you extra miles per dollar in your preferred frequent flyer program when you dine at certain restaurants. For anyone that goes out to eat, and especially for business travelers who dine out frequently, Dining Rewards can be a great way to quickly build mileage balances.

How it works

After you pick the airline you want to sign up with (see below), you link up to five credit/debit cards (even your corporate card can be added) to your account. On the Dining Rewards website you can find restaurants that participate in the program, and then all you have to do is use one of your linked credit cards at that restaurant. After you’ve eaten at the restaurant (I’ve found it typically takes a week or two), you’ll receive an email stating that you have earned bonus miles from dining at the restaurant. The miles show up in your frequent flyer account a couple days later.

Sounds super easy, right? It is probably the easiest way to earn extra miles without doing a single extra thing (besides signing up). There happens to be a Dining Rewards restaurant right next to my apartment in DC, so I earn bonus points all the time! Make sure to sign up your friends’ or parents’ cards on your account if they’re not interested in doing the work themselves.

Signing up

The link to their main site is here and you can see their list of partners on the main page. I’ve made links to the major ones below.

Here are the major airlines (and hotel) that participate, and the website you can sign up at:

Alaska

American

Delta

Hilton

Southwest

Spirit

United

US Airways

Unfortunately you can only sign up for one program with each credit card, so choose wisely!

An airline lesson in how not to conduct business

The issue

Yesterday it was discovered that there was a glitch on United's website that allowed you to book tickets nearly for free. Here's how it worked:

1. Search for the flights you want using "Award" search

2. Open a new tab and search for the same flights using "Price" search

3. Refresh the first "Award" search tab

4. Refresh the "Price" search tab.

On the "Price" tab, the airfare cost suddenly disappeared, leaving the total price to be paid of just the taxes and fees on a ticket (~$5 for a domestic roundtrip).

I myself took advantage of this to book my girlfriend and me two first-class tickets to Australia for her school's spring break. I also booked my family a first-class New Year's trip to Israel, and my friends and I booked Montreal and Las Vegas for weekends. 

United's response

Well when a similar glitch happened a month ago, United decided to honor the mistake fares that were purchased. United was very proactive about deciding this and I applaud them for the customer-friendly move they made.

Not so this time.

This time around, a few lucky bookers of mistake fares sent tweets to United asking whether they would be honored. United sent this exact response to all of them:

"This is an intentional manipulation of our website. Resv won’t be ticketed or honored unless the required miles are available."

They sent this to every single person who tweeted at them about the glitch. Seriously, go look at their Twitter replies. But to my knowledge this was their only communication about the glitch. No press release or spokesperson commenting on it. Nothing remotely like what happened last month.

I personally received no communication from United about my reservations other than the confirmation email that the reservation had been purchased (but not yet ticketed). This afternoon, 24 hours after my original booking, the reservations suddenly disappeared from my frequent flyer account. 

My take

Personally I can understand the decision United made. Last time the fare was quoted as $0, whereas this time the price was quoted in miles and the site just didn't deduct the miles from your account at the time of booking. What I take issue with was how United handled this.

First, look at that tweet reply above. To me that is awfully accusatory. Yes, customers had to do something a little funky to the site to make it show the mistake prices. But as a company if you make a mistake, blaming your customers for taking advantage of it is nonsensical in my opinion.

Second, why wasn't I emailed that my reservation had been cancelled. What if I genuinely thought I had enough miles in my account and was booking something legitimate? It's possible it would have taken me until I got to the airport the day I was flying to discover my reservation had been erased. And I bet there's at least one person that this happens to. 

Finally, why no public comment? All the articles mentioning it quote United's Twitter account. That's just no way to make an official statement.

If I were running United I probably wouldn't have honored those mistake fares yesterday either. But I sure would have handled the situation differently.

My experience getting TSA PreCheck and why it might be right for you

For those unaware, TSA PreCheck is a program that allows you to go through a significantly dressed-down version of airport security. Instead of having to take out your toiletries and laptop, and take off your shoes and belt, you leave all your clothes on and place your carry-on bags directly onto the X-ray machine. You also go through a metal detector instead of a full-body scanner.

These things are all great, but what makes PreCheck really great is that it is its own line at the airport. And nobody is ever in it. This is partly because very few people have PreCheck, but it is also because PreCheck is so fast that it’d be very difficult for a line to build up.

Beyond the convenience of an easier security process though is the time that PreCheck saves and the uncertainty it takes out of the security experience. Before PreCheck I would always show up at least an hour before my flight, and sometimes I’d barely make it if security lines were long. Now I can show up only 30 minutes before my flight and have no problem making it. Every time. There’s no variance in my wait time.

Applying for PreCheck

TSA PreCheck is part of a larger program run by the U.S. government called Global Entry. Global Entry allows you to bypass customs lines when returning from abroad. If you get Global Entry, you also get PreCheck. Normally Global Entry costs $100 for a five-year membership. Even if you only fly 2-3 times a year, this is a great deal in my opinion. But for me the fee was free because I have the Amex Platinum credit card. One of the benefits of this card is reimbursement of the Global Entry application fee.

In order to get Global Entry you go to the GOES site, click “Global Entry”, and apply. It takes a few weeks to hear back about your approval. Once you’ve received approval you have to schedule an in-person appointment to present your identification documents. There are enrollment centers all over the country, and you schedule an appointment online to visit one. I’ve read you can also just do a walk-in, but it doesn’t always work.  

Global Entry Interview

I went to the Ronald Reagan building in downtown DC to do my appointment because I live nearby and there were tons of appointment times available. I waited about 10 minutes and was called into an office by an officer. They asked me a couple questions about my recent international travel, took my picture, and I was done. From walking in to leaving the total time was maybe 18 minutes. A couple minutes after walking out I received an email that I had been fully approved. Also in the email was my Trusted Traveler number, the number you need to enter in your frequent flyer profile.

Turning Global Entry approval into PreCheck security lines

In order to be eligible for PreCheck, you need a few things to happen:

1. Your airport must be a PreCheck location (list of airports here)
2. Your airline must subscribe to PreCheck at that specific airport (click an individual airport in the list above to see what airlines have PreCheck there)
3. Your Trusted Traveler number must be attached to your flight booking at least 72 hours before you fly.

So how do you attach your Trusted Traveler number to your reservations? First, log in to all of your frequent flyer program websites and add the number to your profile. That should add the number to any future reservation you make using that airline’s frequent flyer number. Also, if you book your flight on your airline’s website, there will be a space to enter your number. I also direct message with airlines on Twitter if I’m not sure my trusted traveler number has been added to a specific reservation.

How to know if you’ve gotten PreCheck for your flight

In order to know before you get to the security line whether you’ll be able to go through PreCheck, make sure to check in for your flight and look at your boarding pass. For most airlines you can see “PreCheck” right on the boarding pass, even on your phone. If you don’t see PreCheck on there, it doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t get it, but you’re certainly not guaranteed it. 

Why I paid $20 for a seat on JetBlue this morning

I hate paying for extras when I travel. To avoid the wireless fee at certain airports I have a free 4G hotspot. To avoid baggage fees I have a credit card or status with every airline I fly. To avoid fees for airport lounges I have the Amex Platinum. But today, anathema to everything I stand for, I purchased a $20 Even More Space seat on JetBlue.

Here are some facts about JetBlue:

1. I can’t stand flying them
1. They’re in the bad terminal at DCA
2. They’re in the bad terminal at BOS
3. Their customer service quality varies way too much
4. They don’t have PreCheck anywhere (apparently that is changing in the future)
5. They don’t partner with any airlines I want to use their points on
6. They don’t fly anywhere besides Boston that I want to go
7. They are consistently more delayed on the routes I fly than their competitors

2. They board their elites first, and then they board the rest of the plane back to front

So why am I flying JetBlue in the first place? And why am I paying them even more money to get a different seat? Well, it turns out that JetBlue is consistently cheaper between Washington and Boston than US Airways. So that answers why I fly them. What about the seat thing though?

I’ve taken the 640am to Dulles or Reagan a number of times on Monday mornings. The flight is always pretty full, and by the time the back rows get boarded there is no more overhead space. Since my first JetBlue flight, when I discovered that sitting in the back gives you a way better chance of putting your bag overhead, I’ve always been careful to pick a seat towards the back, somewhere around row 15 on their Embraer planes. Not so far back that it'll take forever to get off the plane, but also not so far up that I won't get my bag overhead. Goldilocks.

Last night when I checked in, I was surprised to find that I had picked row 4. Not only that, but the rest of the plane was full and I couldn’t switch seats. I was definitely going to have to gate-check my bag.

If I was flying into Reagan and the flight was at 6 instead of 640, I might have been fine with this. Reagan is a small airport where you can quickly get your checked bags from the baggage claim, and landing at 730 or 8 I am just fine waiting 20 minutes before heading to the office. But flying into Dulles at 640 is another story. The flight lands at 820, meaning if I’m on time I have 40 minutes to make a 20-minute trip to the office. Add on the 10-15 minutes it takes to get out of the uncomprehensively massive monstrosity (albeit a beautiful monstrosity) that is Dulles airport, and you can see how close that is cutting it. Plus, this flight never seems to be on time when I’m on it. Plus plus, bags take forever to arrive at Dulles. I don't fault JetBlue for that. If the people have to travel a couple miles to get out, I can't imagine how far the bags have to go.

I decided since there were no open seats available in the back of the plane that I would purchase an Even More Space seat at the airport the next morning. These seats are the exit rows and the bulkhead row on the Embraer jets, meaning they’re a bit more spacious (as the name indicates) and I could more easily get an hour of sleep in on this very early flight. Just as importantly, it meant I could board before everyone else.

I got in a nice nap. My bag went overhead no problem. The front of the plane did have to check their bags. And my flight was 10 minutes late. Best $20 I ever spent on a seat.