DoD personnel banned from traveling to France for at least th rest of the month. Paris I can see (although it's still kind of a horse/barn situation) but "all of France" seems excessive.
Isn't this a negative for all involved, whether you're an SPG or Marriott guy? As an SPG customer, my points may get seriously diluted / wiped when the merger goes through; for Marriott customers and in general I assume status will become harder to reach and points more difficult to accumulate... less competition means less need to build loyalty with customers and reward them for sticking with your chain. Would have been much happier keeping Marriott / SPG / Hilton / Hyatt separate and a financial firm (PE / hedge fund) buy Starwood. Would have still been sub-optimal but now I'm worried to be so loyal to SPG.
just use your points within 12-18 months? Probably not ideal, but it would likely prevent a situation where you're poitns become devalued
I'm hoping for the best, as I have a lot of points and am constantly pissed with the amount/quality of the Marriott hotels available. Also, whenever they bought Ritz-Carlton, it really wasn't a big deal for the loyalty members, correct?
Anyone flown Norwegian internationally? I'm guessing just a basic budget experience? Just figured out I can fly one way from JFK to London for about $300 and then one way back to Boston for $280. I'm using points to get from NC to JFK and Boston so this works out to save me around $150 a ticket, so $300 with me and the BFF. It's also kind of weird but this price is with paying in Euro, it's an extra $100 if I pay in USD. Kind of weird but doesn't matter to me since it's going on my Chase card anyway so no foreign transaction fee.
is there a master post for "using your CC or currency in europe" starting to get closer. I have the United Mileage Plus explorer card which touts no foregin transaction fee, but I haven't don't my diligence on what the scope of that is. Any feedback from you guys? Going to be in UK, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Call your bank and cards that you plan on taking with you and let them know the countries you'll be in and what dates. Don't bring a lot of US cash and exchange it, most places will take a large % Other than hotels/lodging and some restaurants, most everywhere will want cash (unless you're in like London or Paris), so I generally take out the equivalent of $3-400 at a time and just go on that. Makes things a lot easier, imo.
I've seen them all over the place, all the time, regardless of how far out. Just set like a weekly reminder on kayak and some other good sites and they'll email you the lowest fairs. And you can follow twitter/this thread for deals.
marriott is the most difficult chain to attain platinum. So, if you're traveling a bunch, this still works well for some of us.
I don't know if any of you are big AAdvantage miles guys, but the points guy did a good write up on their change and what it means http://thepointsguy.com/2015/11/aa-2016-aadvantage-program/
I used to have united milage plus and yes, theres no foreign transaction fee so use that as you can, but a lot of places don't accept CC in europe. Also, make sure it has a chip. Europe has been on the chip for a number of years and if a place accept CC a lot of them won't if its just strip. Since many places only accept cash, as BamaNug said above, usually the conversion rate makes it a rip off to bring US money and exchange when the ATM gives you the going rate. (Some countries are an exception, but I don't know of any in europe). Best thing to do is open up a Charles Schwab brokerage/checking account which charges no transaction fee and reimburses all atm fees. I keep one open solely for traveling so you can pull out of atms at zero fee any time. Big banks like B of A and wells fargo tend to charge $5 plus a conversion fee of 1-2% for every atm transaction. So save the $5-$10 every time you use an atm and just open up a Schwab account.
Pretty much seems all around terrible unless you are someone who flies a shitload on one airline. Since Delta and United switched to revenue based milage I pretty much have only flown american because you could accrue miles so much faster. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time, but it still sucks.
This sounds obvious but since you're coming to the UK, make sure you get pounds sterling as well, as the UK doesn't use Euros.
So ended up booking those flights last night! Very pumped. Leaving May 27 and coming back June 13. JFK - London London - Boston Booked through Norwegian and ended up being $620 a ticket. If your going solo and only bringing carry on it would be a decent amount cheaper. I upgraded to the lowfare+ tickets which gave me the checked bag, meal, and seat reservation. Those are like an extra $50 - $60 each way so if you went without those it would have been closer to $500. That price is tough to beat.
So I have one extra united club pass that expires 11/30/15 and wont be traveling. Anyone traveling maybe next week for thanksgiving and want it? I'll throw it in the mail today.
So you can get to Cuba pretty cheap over the summer. $400 flight to Cancun, $200 flight from Cancun to Havana. On the radar.
I should know this, but is there a website that does a point/mile vs. dollar comparison to see whether it's smarter to book on points or real money? I have a flight returning from new years across country and I'm debating whether to spend ~$500-550 real bucks for a Virgin direct or 50,000 American miles. Point figure seems a little high for a one-way so leaning to just spending the money but maybe I'm wrong...
Just booked NYC-DUB for $667 on DL, 9/1-9/11. Anyone ever been to Dublin/Ireland? Wondering if I should spend 10 days in Ireland or fly somewhere else once I get done with Dublin.
Going in March for St Patty's Day. Planning on Dublin for most of the time, and a 1-2 day trip to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway (about a 2-3 hour drive). Gin Buckets did the Dublin thing I believe
Did it for St. Patty's... Was fun as hell, but take that away and it's nothing special relative to other European cities.
I'm gonna try and get out of Dublin and see more of Ireland while I'm there. Galway is supposed to be a really cool town, and the Cliffs of Moher look out of a movie: Spoiler
I want to get out of Dublin and see other cities, but not sure how best to do it since we aren't sure how long we will be in Ireland and have to get over to our Munich/Vienna/Prague triangle. Could also do that first and then head to Ireland.
Go to Belfast. Its amazing. Galway was cool, pretty much a little college town. also did a tour of County Wicklow that left from Dublin. Also see the cliffs from a boat, Think it was 15 Euros. The northern part of the country has lots of Distilleries and the Giants Causeway.
It's between Galway or Belfast for one day at the end of our trip, kind of chose Galway because we could also see the cliffs. Can't fit in both, unfortunately. Would you still recommend Belfast?
very nice of you. I'm traveling on United tomorrow, returning in about 5 days, but not thru a united hub which has a good lounge. Best of luck to anyone travelling throuh ORD, IAH, Newark, SFO, or LAX.
My dad (whose Global Services on United) just offered my wife and me business class RT to Sydney/Melbourne for a xmas gift for anytime next year.
I asked one time before, but no bites. Need Portland (and Mt hood/Columbia River) area hiking recs (or even dt food/bar spots) for my trip. Please don't make me use google.
Honestly I had more fun in Belfast but I was there for 3 days as opposed to 1 day in Galway, and we had a really cool time with the people in the Hostel so that helped. We took a black taxi tour in Belfast and got a rundown of the history and violence of the city between the Catholics and Protestants. Im a history buff, so I loved that and probably makes me a little more biased. I would recommend it but honestly if it makes your feel rushed or you have to go out of your way then so be it. Galway is still cool and centralized, we also used it as a jump off for the cliffs. BTW I was like a 2-3 hour bus ride from Galway to Belfast.
Wife and I are off the week between Xmas and New Years. Looking for somewhere in the Southeast to spend a few days. Any suggestions? My first thought is to head to the mountains, maybe Asheville for a few days. Any hidden gems with a 6-8 hour drive of Jacksonville?
If you haven't seen this movie yet, watch it asap. Fav little-known movie of 2015 by far, and it's about the Catholic/Protestant violence -- think Behind Enemy Lines only in 1971 and in Belfast. Same to you BamaNug
Asheville is awesome. Gatlinburg isn't as much, but people go there, and it's centered around tourism. It'll be cold as hell though. I don't think you ski, but Sugar Mountain I think is the closest to Jax. Wilmington? It'll be cold, personally, I'd go south or monitor the google flights map to see if anything came within my price range.
jet blues got some good sales going on if you buy today http://www2.jetblue.com/deals/quit-cold-turkey/?source=MKTEM111915&cpgnname=20151119_FareSale_Remail
Good deal for early march #NewYork to #Budapest #Hungary for $464 R/T | https://t.co/D6z7AG2F8l https://t.co/juQDPazeTS
I may go to Playa del Carmen for NYE... Flights to Cancun are quite affordable. Thought about Decadence, but IDK 47 straight