kevin_standlee: Kevin after losing a lot of weight. He peaked at 330, but over the following years got it down to 220 and continues to lose weight. (Montreal)
kevin_standlee ([personal profile] kevin_standlee) wrote2008-12-03 08:42 am
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Travel Planning

I'm dithering over a trip I plan to Montreal to attend an Anticipation planning meeting scheduled for April 18-19. I have just over 50,000 Northwest Airlines miles, which I intended to use to travel to the meeting. I've already taken Friday, April 17 off as a vacation day so I can travel out there, so I don't have to deal with a red-eye flight. The question is whether I should take another vacation day and fly back on Monday, April 20, and thus take an extra hotel night (three instead of two).

There's another factor influencing my choice. Both directions on the Northwest flights are a minimum of 25K miles, so I'll use my entire points balance for this trip. However, if I fly back on Monday, I can fly first class for the same 25K miles. (Oddly enough, on the flight in question, there are no coach seats, just a 25K mile first class seat.) So is it worth an extra $100 worth of hotel room and a vacation day to fly back in first class?

Addendum: The first-class flight requires two plane changes (MSP, SLC), whereas the coach flight is only one change (either DTW or MSP).
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[identity profile] mishalak.livejournal.com 2008-12-03 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
You have a very good job. I cannot imagine having enough money to get 50,000 airline miles.

Frequent Flyer

[identity profile] kevin-standlee.livejournal.com 2008-12-03 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Not all of those are flight miles. Many of them are from having taken advantage of a bunch of different incentive offers -- miles for credit card purchases, miles for long-distance calling, and so forth. But actually, that's not the largest balance I have or had have. On Alaska Airlines, I had (after buying 9K points to get to the top-off level) 180,000 miles, which I used to buy the two business-class tickets to Japan in 2007. On United, I have (before the trip I start tomorrow) 146,830 miles, which does include something like 60K miles I purchased by redeeming Diners Club purchase points when United was running a bonus sale (just before they dropped out of the Diners Club program entirely).

But most of these are lifetime accumulations, and I'm 43 years old. I've rarely ever used my miles, except the Alaska miles in 2007, a batch of Northwest miles in 1995 and 2005, and some United miles used for a business-class upgrade to Aussiecon Three in 1999. And I'm also deeply in debt, not cooincidentally because I've traveled so much.

Yes, I do have a good job -- I'm an engineer earning the median salary for San Mateo, California -- and the company sends me traveling about 2-3 times per year. I also travel to a number of conventions (fewer than I used to do), and I'm pretty good at taking advantage of every bonus offer I can find. For instance, the Priority Club Platinum status was earned by being careful to watch for all of the bonuses and working them as econcomically as I could, plus having a number of conventions I wanted to attend be in Intercontinental (Holiday Inn, etc.) Hotels within a relatively short time.

Compared to a lot of road warriors I know in fandom, though, I'm a piker.
Edited 2008-12-03 20:35 (UTC)
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