Award Availability on Lufthansa's Denver to Munich Service

I've written several posts on Lufthansa's brand new (started this week) service from Denver to Munich.  While the route won't have first class forever, availability is quite good at the moment.  

New routes are often great places to look for award availability especially "lower tier" routes like this one.  For those of us living in Denver, having another nonstop option to Europe is awesome.

Keep in mind that Lufthansa only makes first class award seats through partners (i.e. United) available 15 days in advance.  So if you want to fly first class (before it goes away) on this route, you'll have to wait until the last minute.

Here is what first class looks like this month:

As you can see, 8 of the next 15 days have a seat available in first class on the nonstop flight.  This will cost you 110,000 United MileagePlus miles and $55.60 in taxes and fees (one-way).  Close-in business class availability is also quite good at 70,000 miles and $55.60 each way.  

Beyond that, there are only a handful of days this summer with availability in economy or business class.  Hopefully that opens up over time.  I am looking forward to trying the new service out in first class before it's removed next year!

Review: Abu Dhabi US Immigration Pre-Clearance

During our trip home from London and Abu Dhabi, we were able to use the pre-clearance facility to clear immigration and customs in Abu Dhabi.  If you're ever traveled to Canada, you've experienced a pre-clearance facility.

Essentially you are cleared to enter the United States prior to departure via a US Customs and Border Patrol facility that is managed and staffed by US officers.  Once through the checkpoint, you're in an isolated area prior to departure.  When you land back in the US, you head straight to baggage claim or the curb.

Beyond Canada, there are pre-clearance facilities in the Caribbean, Ireland, and in Abu Dhabi.  We've traveled to Vancouver and Toronto recently but I was interested to see how the experience differed on another continent.

Etihad AUH Premium Lounge bar

After a couple of hours in the Etihad Premium Lounge, we headed back into the terminal towards the pre-clearance facility which was well marked with signage.  At this hour (2AM) the facility was pretty empty despite three (JFK, Chicago, San Francisco) US bound flights.

We passed through another security checkpoint before entering the pre-clearance facility.  The hall looked like any other US immigration checkpoint complete with USCBP officers and pictures of The President and Secretary of Homeland Security on the walls.

The facility contained a half dozen or so Global Entry kiosks.  We soon had our printouts and were headed to speak to a USCBP officer before leaving the UAE.  Kind of a surreal feeling.  We were through after 30 seconds or so of conversation - essentially "back in the US" with 45 minutes to go before boarding.

Etihad AUH US pre-clearance lounge setup

Etihad has built a lounge specifically for these US bound flights which although small, was perfectly serviceable for 45 minutes.  The lounge contains a small amount of seating, a bar, food offerings, and restrooms.  We had a coffee and a few snacks before heading out to board the waiting A380 bound for JFK!

Waiting for us on the plane

I had heard horror stories about long lines and mismanagement of the pre-clearance facility.  That doesn't seem to be the case any longer.  Everything was clean and efficient - in many ways a more pleasant experience than going through this process in the US.  When we landing at JFK, we were in baggage claim in 10 minutes claiming our bags before our Etihad Chauffeur whisked us off to The New York EDITION!

How to Get Started with Miles & Points

I'm often asked how to get started with this hobby.  Many people are intimidated by the vast amounts of knowledge (often times conflicting) and advice on the internet.  While I don't have any earth shattering advice, I do think the most important step in starting in this hobby (or any other hobby for that matter) is just to start.

Start learning, start reading, start asking questions, start experimenting.  The same advice could be said about a new workout, a new sport, a new skill, a new job, etc...

If you are interested in reading about how I got started, you can check out part one and part two or click on the "About Me" tab on any page of the blog.

Flying Lufthansa First Class - complete with tarmac transfer

Beyond just starting to read/learn/question, this is a hobby in which having a goal is very important.  It's key to understand how you want to travel, when, with how many people, your dream destinations, etc...

Once you have a handle on the answers to these questions, you can start to craft a strategy before you begin accumulating points.

Champagne in Singapore

One challenge in this hobby is the accumulation of points in disparate accounts without a goal.  This can lead to hundreds of thousands of "orphaned points" in which you have a lot of points but not enough to redeem any of them for anything cool.  Thus the need to have a goal and a strategy before you start applying for credit cards, maximizing spend bonus categories, dining out, or shopping online.

I don't believe this is a "10,000 hours" type hobby.  After a year of effort, I knew a lot,  After two years even more.  After four years of concerted effort, I'm pretty much an expert in a lot of the basic strategies so maybe more like a 1,000 hour hobby.  I've earned and burned more than 5,000,000 miles and points for my own travel and helped others earn and burn millions more to help them make their travel dreams come true.

So get started today by reading more on this blog (and others) and drop me a line if you have any specific questions.

Getting Started With Credit Card Signup Bonuses

This is an update to a post I wrote back in 2014.  While the specifics have changed a bit, the strategy remains the same.

The last few years of traveling have been unreal.  We've taken trips to Hong Kong, Maldives, Dubai, London, Singapore, Amsterdam, Paris and Bangkok!

Hong Kong!

Many of you have asked us how we afford to go on all these trips.  The answer is pretty simple…we pay less per trip than the price of an economy ticket from the US to Europe.

Etihad First Class Apartments

Review: Parker Palm Springs

By the time April rolls around in Denver, there is always a bit of Spring fever since it's not uncommon for us to get snow (as was the case during this weekend) while the rest of the country gets 70+ degree temps.  So we like to get out of Colorado for a long weekend and have historically gone to the Phoenix area of somewhere in Mexico.

This year we wanted to try something a bit different and Palm Springs fit the bill.  I grew up in San Diego and spent a fair amount of time in Palm Springs as a kid.  Emily had never been so we were both excited for different reasons.  The Parker has been on my list of domestic hotels to check out and despite extremely high cash rates, award availability wasn't an issue.

We met at Denver's Union Station a little before 9AM on Friday morning for the 37 minutes train to the plane.  A little breakfast (pro tip:  ModMarket and then Lounge 5280 in Terminal B are the go-to's for a quick breakfast and a relaxing cocktail) and some work and we were on our way for the ~2 hour United mainline flight to PSP.  Economy Plus on a refurbished A319 meant working (kind of) wifi and power but not much anything else.

On approach to PSP

 Soon enough we were wheels down in Palm Springs.  Seven minutes (seriously) later we were on the curb and in a taxi.  Note that Uber cannot pickup at the airport (yet) but they can drop off.

Welcome to The Parker

$10 Free to Starbucks

I'm a little late posting this but the deal is still alive so figured I'd share.  Starbucks is offering a $10 bonus when you purchase a $10 gift card and pay with Visa Checkout.  If you aren't already signed up for Visa Checkout, you can do that during within the purchase path.  I just completed my purchase at 9:15AM MT this morning and can confirm the deal is still working (limited to the first 325,000 purchases).  If you want all the details, Lucky has more here.

All you have to do is click on this link and purchase a minimum of a $10 gift card.  The bonus won't show during the purchase path but you'll get a $20 card (on a $10 purchase) via email in about 2 minutes.  Make sure to use your Chase Sapphire Preferred for 2x points on the purchase (coded as dining).

Review: Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Abu Dhabi

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Planning & Booking II
Washington Dulles (IAD) Lounge Hopping
United Airlines 777-200 Global First Washington to London
United Arrivals Lounge London
Andaz London Liverpool Street
Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge London
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment London to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment Abu Dhabi to New York
American Express Centurion Lounge LGA

As we checked out from the Park Hyatt, our Etihad Airways chauffeur arrived in a black A6.  We received a somewhat threatening text (some odd translation issue it seems) and an email that the car was arriving and the driver came inside the lobby to greet us and assist with our bags.  

I have to hand it to Etihad - the ground service experience with pretty flawless.  

We were soon in the card headed to AUH where we arrived around 11:40PM for our 3:25AM flight.  That was going to leave plenty of time to relax, get a massage, and a shave.