Messages

1

Goods For Sale/Trade / Re: $100 Away Credit

« on: November 08, 2019, 05:00:54 PM »

They stopped selling gift cards within the last few days. probably because it was crediting.

2

Up In The Air / Re: What Award Itinerary Did You Just Book/Hold?

« on: October 14, 2019, 06:38:32 PM »

correction

4X KQ J NBO-JRO 54,000 Flying Blue + $272 fees (flights were retailing around $461pp)

3

Up In The Air / Re: What Award Itinerary Did You Just Book/Hold?

« on: October 14, 2019, 02:10:15 PM »

Finalized all our flights for our Safari/Seychelles trip  for next year:

4X QR-J LAX-DOH-NBO, SEZ-DOH-LAX - Portal pay with points $3800/pp X 4 - 1.013 million UR (two separate accounts) Didn't have a ton of flexibility for the safari so instead of chancing it with ideal award availability just decided to pay with points since it was a decent price.

4X KQ J NBO-JRO 54,000 Flying Blue + $272 fees (flights were retailing around $200pp)
4X KQ J NBO-SEZ 158,000 Flying Blue + $612 fees (flights were retailing around $1375/pp and this is the only airline that flies direct NBO-SEZ)

4

On The Road / Re: What Hotel Award Reservation Did You Just Book/Hold

« on: October 08, 2019, 12:40:56 PM »

Status does not matter at SLH hotels

Its an Alila not SLH, will that make any difference?

5

Trip Reports / Re: Aerial Dag's trip to Tanzania & Rwanda

« on: October 07, 2019, 06:31:32 PM »

Just read through this TR a bit and looks amazing. Very excited for our safari we just finished booking for next year. We will be going to 3 different camps in Tanzania and doing game drives in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire, Lake Manyara and the Serengeti. Next September feels so far away.

6

On The Road / Re: What Hotel Award Reservation Did You Just Book/Hold

« on: October 07, 2019, 05:09:36 PM »

Very nice, stayed there a few weeks ago.

How was it? Do you have any status (Im explorist)? Any upgrades or anything ?

7

On The Road / Re: What Hotel Award Reservation Did You Just Book/Hold

« on: October 04, 2019, 12:14:58 PM »

2 Nights at Ventana Big Sur - 30K Hyatt points/night cash rate was $1500/night

8

Goods For Sale/Trade / Re: Marriott Certs Sale

« on: September 12, 2019, 06:02:16 PM »

Selling 1 - New Category 6, 7 Night Cert - Gold Account - $1400 Exp 6/2020 - Still Available

Bump

9

Goods For Sale/Trade / Re: Marriott Certs Sale

« on: August 21, 2019, 04:16:09 PM »

Bump

Selling 1 - New Category 6, 7 Night Cert - Gold Account - $1500 Exp 6/2020 - Still Available

Also selling 1 35K Award Night Cert - Gold Account - $150 exp 3/2020 Gone

10

Goods For Sale/Trade / Re: IHG nights for sale

« on: August 15, 2019, 07:45:18 PM »

$150  - 1 Uncapped Free Night Exp 9.28.19 Spire Elite Ambassador Account Sold Thank you @ahron15 for a smooth transaction.

$150 -  1 Uncapped Free Night Exp 2.20.20 Platinum Elite Account Sold Thank you @unicorn_cactus for a smooth transaction.

11

Goods For Sale/Trade / Re: IHG nights for sale

« on: August 15, 2019, 12:23:04 PM »

$150  - 1 Uncapped Free Night Exp 9.28.19 Spire Elite Ambassador Account Sold Thank you @ahron15 for a smooth transaction.

$150 -  1 Uncapped Free Night Exp 2.20.20 Platinum Elite Account

12

Goods For Sale/Trade / Re: Marriott Certs Sale

« on: August 14, 2019, 02:08:26 PM »

Bump

Selling 1 - New Category 6, 7 Night Cert - Gold Account - $1500

Also selling 1 35K Award Night Cert - Gold Account - $150 exp 3/2020

13

Goods For Sale/Trade / Re: IHG nights for sale

« on: August 14, 2019, 01:58:05 PM »

$150  - 1 Uncapped Free Night Exp 9.28.19 Spire Elite Ambassador Account

$150 -  1 Uncapped Free Night Exp 2.20.20 Platinum Elite Account

14

Up In The Air / Re: What Award Itinerary Did You Just Book/Hold?

« on: July 31, 2019, 02:55:39 PM »

In your experience what time do they release and how many seats were unbooked.

It's mostly happened in the morning by 11AM PST at the latest, I found the availability I needed around 7 AM and immediately called in to change, I had checked the night before when I went to bed around 11PM.  It does not seem to be a set time and seems to vary by day. There were typically 5-7 open seats left and anywhere from 1-3 F seats were opened up for saver awards. There were a couple times however where EF alerted me around 11PM but that was the exception.

15

Up In The Air / Re: What Award Itinerary Did You Just Book/Hold?

« on: July 31, 2019, 01:47:46 PM »

A couple minor updates on this.. The LAX-IAH initial leg had a schedule change of about 30 minutes, I was able to cancel this flight, get the points redeposited and have the redeposit fee waived.

Also, the DXB-MLE EK F leg plane has changed from the old 777 to the new 777, so pretty excited to get to try out the new suite... even for a shorter flight. So will get to be on EK F A380 and New 777, EY F, A380 and AA Flagship F A321T on this upcoming trip in a few months. Pretty excited.

Originally on the outbound we had LAX-IAH-DXB-MLE and then were able to get LAX-SFO-DXB-MLE.
I had set up some EF alerts for LAX-DXB for each day of the 2 weeks before our flight was leaving so I could see how they were releasing last minute availability.

Started to notice they were releasing extra award seats between 3-5 days out when the cabins were relatively empty.
I was finally able to switch our flight to LAX-DXB-MLE 4 days out and while I had to pay the AS change fee its worth it for the peace of mind about not worrying a delay will mess with anything and to have an extra 4 hours at home in the morning before we go.

 I actually caught the award availability before any EF alert came through on that specific flight while they previous alerts did help me get an idea of when to keep checking to see if they opened up. Really looking forward to our trip in a few days.