How to Deal With a Flight Schedule Change

Emily and I had planned to go to Hawaii in late October for a few days at The Andaz Maui.  We booked flights in early January and our upgrades (using United miles) on the outbound leg cleared at the time of booking.  While we were excited about the trip, we were actually looking to "get out of it" at couple of points across the past few months.  We could cancel the trip straight away and receive credit on United minus a $400 penalty - pretty step.

As luck would have it, a United schedule change moved our outbound aircraft from a wide body to a narrow body 737 (slower and domestic first class) and our inbound (direct from OGG to DEN) flight up a little over an hour.  Typically United won't notify you of these changes - you have to be diligent about gardening your reservations.

Our hotel reservations (booked with Hyatt points) were refundable so I figured this was our opportunity.  I called United and spoke with a great agent and explained that the changes were somewhat annoying (okay maybe a stretch) and she put my on hold to see what she could do.  She offered to waive the change fee penalty making the cancellation essentially fee free.  We now have roughly $1800 in credit on United - something we'll definitely use over the next year - so no big deal.

The best part is that flight costs have actually come down - so we could rebook similar flights to Maui for a few hundred dollars less.  So we may end up taking the trip after all.

United Double Bills...and Actually Apologizes

I booked our tickets to Hawaii at united.com last week.  I logged on to my American Express account to pay my bill on my Business Gold Card (earning 3x Membership Rewards points for airfare purchases) only to discover that I had been double billed for the the tickets.

I contacted American Express to let them know and they opened up an inquiry and promised to investigate.  I also contacted United via email to let them know.

After a few days, they responded.

I was really impressed with the email and the apology.  While I did ask for 10,000 miles in my email, I wasn't expecting anything.  Impressive service if you ask me to both take care of the issue and provide some "goodwill" compensation.

The 10,000 miles have already posted to our accounts and the duplicate billing issue resolved.  Thanks United!

Hang Up, Call Back

It's amazing how many airline phone agents lack basic understanding of their airline's policies.  On our upcoming trip to Hong Kong and Taipei, we were booked on United's 6AM departure from Denver to San Francisco.  That segment was in coach and we had a give hour layover before our long haul flight to Hong Kong.  Certainly less than ideal given that we'd have to wake up at about 3:30 AM the day after Christmas to get to the airport.  So I've been gardening.

I found availability in first class on Christmas night - departing Denver around 7PM and getting into SFO at 8:30.  We've always wanted to fly on Christmas and have found that waking up and having a somewhat normal routine prior to a long haul flight helps us adjust upon arrival.

So I called United and asked to make the change.  I fed the agent my confirmation number and fed the new flight number and seats we'd like.  From there, the conversation went something like this:

Agent:  "I see the available seats on the DEN - SFO segment but I can't make the change."

Me:  "Why not?"

Agent:  "There must be availability for ALL segments to make a change to an award.  And there isn't availability on the SFO - HKG segment."

Me:  "That's weird.  I've made lots of changes to awards in similar situations.  When did that change?"

Agent:  "I don't know.  During our last computer upgrade.  Our new software doesn't let us make changes like that anymore."

That explanation made absolutely no sense.  So I thanked the agent for her time and called back later in the day.  Same script - much different result.  The agent thanked me for being prepared, for my loyalty to United and had the change made in about three minutes.

Moral of the story is that some agents just don't know the rules.  Most are awesome and happy to help.  So hangup and call back!!

Ringing in 2015: Planning & Booking

Introduction
Planning & Booking
United 747 Global First San Francisco to Hong Kong
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Grand Club
Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Taipei
W Taipei
Cathay Pacific 777 First Class A340 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
W Hong Kong
American Airlines 777-300 ER Flagship First Class Hong Kong to Dallas

We're only 40 days away from our trip and we're pumped.  Emily is always slightly bummed in the few days after Christmas (no more presents to open or family to hangout with) so it is great to have a trip to look forward to.

In the scheme of things, this trip was relatively easy to book.  There are three award tickets (two one-ways and a roundtrip) and three hotel stays.  Not like our last trip where we had five hotel stays including two overnights and four flight segments to get to our first destination!  If I had more time, we could make the itinerary MUCH more complicated but I still feel like we got great value from our hard earned miles and points.

Here's how we booked the trip:

Ringing in 2015: Introduction

Introduction
Planning & Booking
United 747 Global First San Francisco to Hong Kong
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Grand Club
Cathay Pacific A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Taipei
W Taipei
Cathay Pacific 777 First Class Taipei to Hong Kong
W Hong Kong
American Airlines 777-300 ER Flagship First Class Hong Kong to Dallas

I've already dripped a couple of posts around our flight to Hong Kong and the return flight so figured I might as well write the first couple of posts since the holidays are coming up and things tend to get busy.  Beyond that, we had a flood in our house a few days ago and while everyone is okay, our house is a mess.  We were looking forward to this trip before but now we are REALLY looking forward to a week on the other side of the world.  And writing about the trip gets me even more excited.  Anyway..now on to the intro.

We had originally planned a more robust trip to Asia where we could spend more time in each place and also see more places.  For a variety of reasons, we had to rethink our itinerary so that we could be here for Christmas and return prior to the first week of January.  That left us with 8-10 days to play with.

Nearly 18,000 miles in the air - courtesy of the Great Circle Mapper

We knew we wanted to go back to Hong Kong as it's easily one of our favorite places in the world.  The combination (and juxtaposition) of cultures, sheer size of the city, and the setting make it a great place to visit.  We'll be leaving for Hong Kong on the 26th of December which has special meaning for us - we took the same flight two years ago when we departed on our honeymoon and also got engaged on the 26th four years ago.  Last time around we stayed on the Kowloon side at the W...this time we decided to mix it up and stay on Hong Kong Island at the Grand Hyatt.

So we'll spend a few days in Hong Kong exploring before we head to Taipei for three nights.  We are really excited about Taipei.  It's just a quick hop (2 hours) from Hong Kong and from everything we've read, is a real gem of a city.

We're staying at the W which is supposed to be one of the best of the W's.  The location is perfect and we'll have a great view of the Taipei 101 (second tallest building in the world) New Year's celebration.

We then head back to Hong Kong for one night where we'll return to the W we stayed at in 2012 before heading home on American's 777-300ER direct to Dallas.

Hong Kong taxi and view of the skyline

Flying "legacy carrier" first class from the US to Asia was once the way to go.  Not so much anymore with all of the competition from Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines among others.  But it will be fun to ride in the nose of a 747 (I'm in seat 1K where the window faces slightly forward) and see what American has to offer on their brand new 777.  And it will be fun to compare to our previous first class experiences.

I'm most looking forward to the actual trip and getting there in style just makes it that much more fun.  The entire trip was paid for with miles and points with the exception of our last night in Hong Kong.  I'll have all the details on each redemption in the next post but I believe our total cash outlay (for flights and hotels) will end up being less than $600!

Earn an Additional 5x United Miles for Shopping Online

United has another shopping bonus this week offering 1,000 miles after spending $200.  That's 5x miles in addition to what you would earn from the portal and your credit card.  Not bad if you were going to make a $200 purchase (by 10/18) anyway.  I value United miles at $.02 so by spending $200, you're getting an "extra" 10% rebate on your purchase.

This isn't the best bonus of the year but it's still pretty good.  I would expect some serious increases as we get closer to the holidays in both the bonuses and standard payouts.  So if you are thinking about getting an early start on holiday shopping, you might want to wait a few weeks.

Panama City in 2015 - Economy or Business?

Last week I posted about our travel plans for next year.  We are strongly considering heading to Panama City for my birthday in March.  We've always wanted to go and the fact that United flies direct from Denver maximizes our time on the ground.  Award availability on the route is scarce so our plan is to pay cash for the tickets.

Looking at flights for the weekend we want to go, they're actually pretty pricey.  Economy tickets (roundtrip) are going for $951.

But business class tickets (United domestic first) are only $200 more.

The business class tickets book into United "P" class which earns a 50% bonus over economy on both award miles and PQMs.

So while I certainly don't "need" the meals, drinks, and bigger seat that come with United business...$200 is a pretty small premium to pay to be a bit more comfortable during 12 total hours of flying.

The flight is 2,630 miles each way.  So as a United Gold, I'd earn 7,890 award miles.  The "P" class fare would give me an incremental 3,945 United miles which I value at about $80.  Even discounting the extra PQMs, is flying upfront worth $120 each?  The flight is expensive so I don't think it's that good of a deal but certainly interesting that the flight is only pricing $100 more upfront each way.

How to Find Saver Award Tickets

Over the last couple of weeks, a few readers have asked how I find "saver" award tickets.  To answer the question, I'll focus on United MileagePlus since that is my go to carrier/frequent flier program.  Earlier in the year, I posted on how to book a United award ticket so that's a helpful guide if you're not familiar with United's booking engine.

In my opinion, booking any award ticket thats not a "saver" ticket is a waste of miles.  While programs have certainly made it easier to accrue miles/points over the last few years, paying more than 2x is equivalent to paying 2x at a restaurant you really want to go eat at but can't get a reservation.

Take this hypothetical example.  Let's say you want to fly (one-way) from Los Angeles to Seoul in December or January.  Here's a screenshot showing the search.  If you want to fly economy, you are looking for yellow or green.  If you want to fly business/first, then you are looking for green or blue.  The days that show up as white only have "standard" award availability.  You want to avoid those dates.

As you can see, besides the two weeks around Christmas, there is saver award availability pretty much everyday.  Maybe you want to spend New Years in Korea so let's take a look at the options for December 30th.

There are a couple of good options.  You can fly Thai Airways direct to Seoul in economy for 35,000 miles or you can fly Asiana's business class for 80,000.  Either way, you'll notice that the standard awards are priced at 2x+ that of the saver awards.  Not that you could also fly through San Francisco on United's metal (United's own plane) in first class for 80,000 miles.  I would definitely select United first over Asiana business if given the choice for the same amount of miles.

Keep this in mind as you're searching for award availability.  The more flexibility you have on dates and routing, the more likely you are to find saver awards.  The more saver awards you book, the more value you'll get out of your hard earned miles.

Why International First Class is a Steal

Emily and I both love Hong Kong.  We were there for the first time in 2012 on our Honeymoon and loved the city.  So we've been itching to go back but dates/flights just haven't worked out.  Until now. Yesterday, I was able to change a speculative award (that was booked under the old United award chart) to an award that we actually plan on using.

First Class availability on United's SFO - HKG route has been hard to find...especially for two seats.  But it opened up yesterday and we pulled the trigger.  United First Class certainly isn't as cool as Lufthansa or Singapore but it's still 15 hours in the nose of a 747.  Hard to complain about that.

But here's the thing - the two award tickets (one-way) cost 140,000 MileagePlus miles.  Had we paid cash, the tickets would have set us back $19,125.  While I certainly wouldn't pay that (or really anywhere near that) price, that is an unreal value.  Maybe the best award I have ever booked at 13.7 cents/mile.

And this is why leveraging your miles and points for international first class is such a "deal."  You'll never get anywhere close to this type of value out of your points if you just book coach tickets to Vegas, Miami, or Chicago.

Even if you use your miles to book international coach or business class tickets, you still won't get anywhere near 13.7 cents/miles because the premium to book first class tickets (especially on United metal) is so small.  A first class saver ticket costs roughly 2x the amount of miles as a coach ticket.  But the cash cost is more likely to be 6x or 8x a coach ticket.

So we are pretty stoked to be heading back to Hong Kong.  We hope to spend a few days in Taipei as well over New Years.  I will keep you posted as we make progress on putting the trip together.

Now on to the next challenge...finding a flight home!

Another MileagePlus Shopping Bonus

The United MileagePlus Shopping portal is out with another great bonus running through 9/18.  You'll earn 1,000 United MileagePlus miles after spending $225 through the portal.  You can read about the basics of earning miles/points through online portals in my introductory post.

In July, the portal offered a similar bonus offering 4x bonus points for meeting certain spend thresholds.  Note that you can spend the $225 at multiple merchants across multiple transactions.

The $225 threshold is steep but could be a great way to stock up for the holidays or grab some gift cards for future spending needs.  You could also stack this deal with the Staples.com Amex offer.  The current payouts aren't outstanding but the bonus is solid (~$20) if you were going to be spending the $225 anyway.

United MileagePlus Shopping Back-to-School Bonus

As I've written about in the past, one of the best ways to earn miles is through online shopping portals.  United's shopping portal is offering pretty lucrative "back-to-school" bonus that is worth taking a look at.

The promotion is tiered but basically you'll earn an additional 4 miles per dollar spent up to $500.  I needed to reload my Starbucks card and Emily had a few items in mind from Nordstrom's upcoming Anniversary sale.  So I went through the portal to Staples and purchased a $200 gift card to each store with my Chase Ink Card.  Here's a recap of my earnings:

• I spent >$375 on the back-to-school bonus so that's 1,500 United Miles ($30 value)
• I earned 4 miles/dollar at Staples through the portal so that's 1,600 United Miles ($32 value)
• I earned 5 Chase UR points for using my Ink card so that's 2,000 UR Points ($40 value)
• Nordstrom is currently offering 10x United miles through the United portal so when redeeming the gift card, I'll earn an incremental 2,000 United Miles ($40 value)

So all in, I spent $404 (with Staples gift card fees) and will earn 5,100 United Miles and 2,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.  I value those points at $142 so that's a 35% discount on purchases (coffee and clothes) that we would have made anyway across the next six months or so.

Elite Status "Status" Update

As we near the half way point of 2014, I wanted to provide an update on where things stand in terms of status qualification.  The last time I discussed status qualification was prior to 2014 in one of my first posts.  Being based in Denver, my main airline program is United.  In terms of hotels, Starwood is my program of choice although I have a lot of Hilton and Hyatt stays coming up in the next 6 months.

United:

After United gutted their award chart and the MileagePlus program earning structure, I feel much less included to go out of my way to re-qualify for Premier Gold (requiring 50,000 miles flown).  Half way through the year, I've flown. 18,491 qualifying miles.  I have another 8,000 or so miles booked already so will easily qualify for Premier Silver which essentially provides no value.  I really value Premier Gold for the ability to select Economy Plus seats at booking and change flights within 24 hours of departure for free but there's no way I am going to fly an incremental 23,000 miles  this year for those benefits.

I will likely fly more on award tickets next year anyway as we are sitting on about 300,000 United miles that need to be used.

United Guts MileagePlus

Today's big travel news was United's absolutely destruction of (formerly the best frequently flier program in the country) their MileagePlus program.  The program will move to a full revenue based program (taking a giant leap from this year's baby step into the revenue based world) starting in 2015.

Instead of earning miles based on the distance flown, MileagePlus members will earn a ratio (pretty much identical to Delta's program) per dollar spent (on their ticket) depending on their level in the program.  Ratios range from 5x for general members up to 11x for Premier 1K members.  United is making some other changes to the program (nothing really earth shattering in terms of value to the consumer) which you can read about on their website.  It is important to note that this change will not impact Premier Qualification which (as of last year) requires miles flow and dollars spent to qualify.

While this was widely expected, it still sucks for most people.  The exception would be business travels spending heavily on United or people flying very short routes.  In some cases, they will benefit form this change.

I have been a pretty big United fanboy for a long time but this change definitely hits hard...loyalty only goes so far.  To that end, I likely won't spend any extra effort (time or money) to qualify for Premier Gold or higher for 2015 and instead leverage my significant mileage stash to fly for free or look for the cheapest fare on another carrier.  When it does make sense to fly United, I will.

My Latest Round of Credit Card Applications

As I discussed in this post, I apply for a new round of credit cards every 90 days.  Remember, this is not for you if you are a) working on improving your credit b) planning on applying for a loan such as a mortgage in the near future or c) if you periodically carry a balance on your cards.  The rewards that you'll gain in these cases will be heavily offset by either not being able to qualify for the lowest lending rate (due to recent inquiries on your credit report) or actually paying interest if you carry a balance.  Each application will typically ding your credit 2-5 points (those inquiries fall off over time and your score will go back up) thus the reasoning for applying for cards every 90 days on the same day.  The inquiries fall off roughly at the same time and on the day you apply, the other banks don't see that you applied for a card earlier in the day.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way...Here's an overview of my most recent card application including what I applied for and why.

1)  American Express Everyday Preferred

This is a new card from Amex that offers 15,000 miles after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days.  The annual fee (not waived for the first year) is $95.  Even though this sign-up bonus kind of sucks, I needed a quick way to rack up some Membership Rewards points to top off my account for an award and wanted to try out the new offering from Amex.  I value MR points at $.02 teach so this bonus is worth $300.

Result:  Instantly approved

2)  Chase United Explorer Business

This card offers 50,000 United miles after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days after approval.  The annual fee is normally $95 but is waived for the first year.  It is essentially the same version as the consumer card which I have had a couple of times in the past.  I wanted to pick up a couple of cards for my business and also need to work on replenishing my United mileage balance.  I value United miles at $.02 each so this bonus is worth $1,000.

Result:  Application pended but was approved without a call after a couple of days

Chase MileagePlus Explorer Business Card Welcome Email

3)  Citi AA Advantage Business

This card offers 50,000 American Airlines miles after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days after approval.  The annual fee is $95 and is not waived for the first year.  I value American miles at $.02 each so this bonus is worth $1,000.

Result:  Approved after a quick 10 minute call to Citi

Summary:

So I went 3/3 on this round.  After spending $6,000 (should be a slam dunk thanks to Amazon Payments) in 90 days and paying $190 in annual fees, I'll earn 115,000 points/miles that I value at $2,300 which will be put to good use towards future airline and hotel awards.

Suite Trip to Bali: Planning & Booking

Introduction

Planning & Booking

Sheraton JFK

Asiana 777 First Class Suite New York to Seoul

Asiana First Class Lounge Incheon

Asiana 767 Business Class Seoul to Bangkok

Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Thai Airways Business Class Lounge Bangkok & Royal Orchard Spa

Thai Airways 777 Business Class Bangkok to Bali

Four Seasons Bali at Sayan

St. Regis Bali Resort

Exploring Bali

Singapore Airlines 777 Business Class Bali to Singapore

Conrad Singapore

Exploring Singapore

Singapore Airlines The Private Room

Singapore Airlines First Class Suite Singapore to Los Angeles

As I mentioned in the introduction, we originally booked this trip for February of 2014.  So the planning process actually started late last summer when we had amassed enough Amex Membership Rewards points to book two first class return tickets from Singapore.  We knew we wanted to go to Bali and we knew we wanted to fly Singapore Suites.  So once we got that piece of the trip booked, most everything else fell into place.  Since we booked one-way tickets, I've broken up the booking thought process for each leg of the trip below.  If you have questions about the trip, let me know in the comments or email me.

This is the last pre-trip post.  Get ready for the actual trip reports coming in July.

Denver - Bali:

Getting to Bali is hard.  It's not that close to anything and from Denver, you're in for three flights at a minimum.  Last summer, I booked one-way business class tickets flying from Denver to Toronto United.  Then Toronto to Taipei on EVA with the final leg on EVA continuing on to Bali.  In December, first class space opened up (see:  importance of gardening reservations) on the Asiana New York to Seoul route.  This is the only Asiana (until they launch their A380) flight operated from the US with the closed door suites so it was an easy decision to change the routing.  The change required a nerve racking call to United (they weren't sure they could book the ticket and I was on hold for almost 30 minutes) but it ticketed and we have seats and an Asiana booking reference number.  There was no cost to change the routing - just an incremental 10,000 miles a piece for the first class segment.

Asiana First Class Suite

Because of the routing change, we'll have four flight segments and two overnights (first in New York then in Bangkok).  It's a lot of flying but we'll get to experience the Asiana suite, first class lounge in Seoul, and the Royal Orchard Spa in Bangkok.  Our final itinerary looks like this:

DEN - LGA in United First
JFK - ICN in Asiana First
ICN - BKK in Asiana Business (Two Cabin Flight)
BKK - DPS in Thai Business (Two Cabin Flight)

Total Cost:  140,000 United Miles & $28.80 in taxes and fees

Bali - Denver:

First, we had to figure out how to get from Bali to Singapore which was pretty easy.  I booked us in Singapore Airlines for the 2.5 hour ride to Singapore using United miles.  There are no fuel surcharges on this route which is great.

Singapore Airlines used to only make Suites class tickets available for around 1,000,000 miles per ticket.  They changed this policy at some point and now enable their own frequent flyer members (KrisFlyer) to book at the standard first class price.  Finding one seat at the lowest level (saver) is pretty easy but it's virtually impossible to find two seats on a flight to the US.  So if you want two seats on the same flight, your best bet is tell book one at the saver level and one at the standard level.  Luckily, we had been stocking up on American Express Membership Rewards points from multiple credit card sign-up bonuses.  Once I found the flights, I transferred the points in my KrisFlyer account and waited.  The transfer took a couple of days and it was time to book the flights online.

Singapore Airlines A380 Suites

Singapore Airlines provides a 15% discount if you book online.  The saver award ticket cost us 91,375 miles and the standard ticket cost us 178,500 miles.  Certainly a lot of miles but worth it considering this is the only way to fly this product together.  We also had to pay the fuel surcharges which total $796 USD.  During the 19 hour flight, I am pretty sure we will polish off a few bottles of Krug.  So we're getting a good amount of value for the fuel surcharges:)

Since the Singapore - LA flights using Singapore KrisFlyer miles, I had to pay our own way back to Denver.  I booked one way economy tickets on United for $290.  Our final itinerary looks like this:

DPS - SIN in Singapore Business (Two Cabin Flight)
SIN - NRT in Singapore Suites
NRT - LAX in Singapore Suites
LAX - DEN in United Economy

Total Cost:  35,000 United Miles, 269,875 Membership Rewards Points, and $1,086

Hotels:

Emily and I have traveled a fair amount together but we've only had a couple of airport overnights.  So we are doubling that with this trip!  We land at LGA around 10PM and will take a cab over to JFK and stay at the Sheraton JFK.  Rates were reasonable ($180) given the holiday weekend and I've heard the hotel is serviceable for a quick overnight (our flight leaves at 1PM the next day).

In Bangkok, we land around 10:30 PM and have a 9AM flight the next day to Bali.  We both want to be at the airport early the next morning to enjoy the Royal Orchid Spa for a bit so we decided to stay at the Novotel at the airport.  We found a prepaid rate on hotels.com for $130 and we can walk to the hotel.  I'm pretty happy with the decision especially given the current situation in Bangkok.

In Bali, I booked three nights in a pool suite at the St. Regis for 113,250 SPG points.  I have heard amazing things about the hotel...the rooms, property, service, and food are all supposed to be among the best in the SPG portfolio.  It was certainly a lot of SPG points to spend on a few nights but  a pretty good redemption given that rates for this room category (2,000 square feet, pool, butler service, breakfast included, airport transfer included, etc...) typically go for around $1,000/night.

St. Regis Bali

The St. Regis is on the beach and we wanted to spend a few days in Ubud to get a feel for that part of Bali.  We agonized over where to stay since there are SO many places none of which can be reserved with points.  We finally settled on the Four Seasons at Sayan which we are both really excited about.  I booked through American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts.  The hotel is pricey but it's the Four Seasons and daily breakfast and a couple of massages are included.  Since most everything else was paid for with miles and points, we figured we could splurge on this hotel and pay cash.

In Singapore, we booked the Conrad using points.  We stayed here last year and loved it.  It is in a great location with a phenomenal lounge.  We hope to explore a bit more of the (albeit small) country and this is a great jumping off point to do just that.

Total Cost:  113,500 SPG Points, 120,000 Hilton Honors Points, $310 plus cash for the Four Seasons

Summary:

This is our second anniversary trip so we wanted to go pretty big.  We managed to redeem 678,375 points and miles for this trip.  Our total out of pocket (with a significant portion going toward our hotel in Ubud) cash expense for the entire trip should be under $3,500.  Considering coach paid tickets to Bali would have set us back about $2,000 each, I feel pretty good about the cost.  We leave in early July so look for the next installment in the next 6 weeks or so.  Thanks for reading!

Great Start to the Holiday Weekend

Just received this email in my inbox.  Somehow both of us just got upgraded at the opening of our upgrade window (48 hours from departure) for our Friday evening United flight to New York.  We're headed to Long Island for a wedding so this is a really good start to the celebration.

I've probably flown to New York a couple of dozen times since moving back to Denver in 2007.  I've had a minimum of Gold each year but was 1K for three years.  I can't ever remember an upgrade cleaning at the opening of the window for one seat...let alone two.

Must be the holiday weekend (a lot of people off for the day or flying earlier in the day) as the seat map showed 21 open first class seats when I looked a few days ago.  Regardless, this is the best kind of Wednesday night email to get!

Toronto for the Weekend

We just returned from our weekend in Toronto.  The weekend was awesome and we had a great time exploring the city.  Here's my consolidated (flights, hotel, city, concert, lounge) review of the weekend.  Enjoy!

We left downtown Denver around 3:15PM for our 5:40PM departure.  Traffic was light and thanks to TSA Precheck we were at lounge 5280 (the best spot for a drink at DEN - located in terminal B) enjoying a pre-flight cocktail.  We made our way to the gate and were quickly on our way to Toronto. If you are ever on a United CRJ-700 and have access to Economy Plus, definitely pick row 7.  The "bulkhead" separating the seat from first class is a "curtain" so you have essentially unlimited leg room.

Mayor Ford welcomes you!

Sorry not Sorry

We landed in Toronto around 11PM and parked at a remote gate.  So we had quite the hike (seriously it took us almost 20 minutes) to get to immigration.  I've always found entering Canada to be pretty comical.  I have made over a dozen trips over the last seven years yet always get interrogated upon arrival.  I think that is the standard treatment but who knows...maybe they think I'm super dangerous.

United Selling Miles for Up to 35% Off

United is offering miles at a discount again...this time up to 35% off for purchases above 25,000 miles.  The minimum purchase is 5,000 miles.

Generally, I don't recommend buying miles for the sake of buying them but if you are close to an award, it can be a great strategy.  Check out this post for more background.

This isn't the best deal considering United sold miles at a 40% discount in April.  I won't be taking advantage of this deal but if you are close to an award, you might as well pull the trigger to get the bonus and push you over the edge.  The deal lasts through May 19th (Sunday).

Determining Required Mileage for an Award Ticket

One of the most challenging things about this hobby is figuring out how many miles are required to book a certain airline award (this is far easier with hotel redemptions).  It took me a couple of years and over a dozen awards to really get the hang of it.  Complicating matters is the fact that airlines have (obviously not best practice) changed their award charts recently with literally zero notice.

Fortunately, there's an easy way to get the miles required for a specific award.  On United, the chart is interactive and shows all classes of service on both United metal and partner airlines.

United Interactive Award Chart - US to Europe

United Miles Required - US to Europe

Generally speaking, this is the "101" version of award booking.  There are a variety of written and unwritten rules around routing on each airline.  For me, that is the fun part...figuring out how to get the most of my hard earned miles/points.  But this is a great place to start especially for simple (point A to point B and back) awards.

United Launches Denver to Panama City Service

Earlier this week, United announced brand new daily, non-stop service from Denver to Panama City (PTY).  Outside of Mexico and Canada, the route to Tokyo (NRT) was the only international route United was serving from Denver so this is exciting news.

City and economic development officials have been working on this route for a long time.  Panama City has been on our list for several years and we've almost pulled the trigger (previous United options would have routed through Houston) on a trip a few times so this is an exciting development. The route will be served by a 737-700 with 118 seats - 12 in United First and 106 in Economy.  There will be 40 E+ seats so 52 of the 106 are "premium" seats.  This will also be a great way to get from Denver to other South American destinations as Star Alliance partner connects to over 30 cities from Panama City.

The is expected to begin November 2nd after receiving government approval.  As a reminder, round trip saver award tickets go for 35,000 miles in Economy and 60,000 in First.  I haven't seen the flight times yet but this route clocks in at about 6h30m so I would expect at least one direction to be a redeye.

This is a great development for Denver and United and I hope to try this route in 2015!