UMTravels

A customer at the shop today was paying with an Alaska Airlines branded credit card and I ask, “Where are you planning on travelling on your miles?” He mentioned a destination, but he also mentioned that there was an award sale going on that I didn’t know about (and I thought I knew EVERY sale)….40,000 frequent flier miles for a round-trip to France. Just FYI – that’s a 20K discount off what it normally is – though it turns out that this is the standard award chart which discounts early fall trips on American.

My response – the end of the day at the shop was busy, so I had to wait until I got home (and had dinner) before logging in and seeing what I could find. I found:

• Dates: mid-October to early December
• Cities: London, Paris, Amsterdam
• Only works with Alaska/American or all American Airlines flights – but you can book them all from the Alaska Airline site.

My problem is that I need to go out on a Monday (though I just realized that there are some Sunday red-eyes that would have worked) and fly back on Monday, so Paris 10-31 (Halloween!) to November 4^th was the answer – booked it for 40,000 Alaska frequent flier miles (in Main Cabin Extra since I’m MVP Gold on Alaska) and $119 in taxes/fees. If you are travelling on other days, like over a weekend, then there are MANY more dates available for all three cities.

THEN, having booked that, made myself a congratulatory drink and realized that I’d only checked Europe – what about SOUTH AMERICA. Here is what I found:

• Same date range
• Cities: Buenos Aires, same as Europe (40K)
• Citites: Lima, Quito (even cheaper: lowest was 30K frequent flier miles roundtrip)
• Same airline combinations

I might have made the wrong choice – BUT, I can redeposit those miles I used for Paris and rebook to Lima (or Quito) which I haven’t been to. Must talk to Courtney at dinner tomorrow night and see if she’d kill me if I went to Lima before she did.

And then you keep searching…

Tokyo for 50,000 miles – seems what the REAL thing is redeeming your miles in the early fall when less people travel. Which also means that if you are paying real money for those flights, they should be cheaper. Downside is that Business or First Class awards are the same throughout the year.

Stay tuned for the update on where I go in November before my trip to Santa Fe to hang with The Colonels in their new time share.

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