JoeCha's Photo Bucket

[JoeCha]

I'm not good at writing up trip reports, but I still want to show (off) some pictures of recent trips and what the costs were.

I’ll divide each trip in a separate post.

[JoeCha]

First up:

Colorado 2012

Flights:
LGA-DEN UA Y
DEN-EGE UA Y
EGE-DEN UA Y
DEN-EWR UA Y

Hotel:
Park Hyatt Beaver Creek

Cost:
25k UA
4 Hyatt credit card certs


I want to comment about the United Club in DEN:
It's a simple standard UA lounge, but what made me not forget about it till today is the staff. No kidding.
There's one middle-aged, terribly-shaped, scary-looking women working there who made our two lounge stays an unforgettable experience.

We arrived in DEN UA East Club hungry after a 4 hour no meal flight. My wife prepared a few sandwiches to eat, but before even getting the second bite that lady noticed us eating, she came over to us with an unapologetic tone informing us that we can not eat our own food in the lounge.
It didn't help explaining her we're from NY and we still have a few hours till our next flight and we can only eat kosher.

I'm not saying what I did was appropriate, but when she left we started eating again. And guess what, she came back again warning us not to eat.
I noticed her peeking from the sides like a spy making sure we don't eat... for two hours (!) we played cat & mouse...
After two hours she managed to see us eating. She called in a lounge manager for backup.

The manager didn't seem to really care, she just told us with a smile that per the lounge rules we should only eat the in-house food and left.
But that other lady just didn't stop coming back warning and harassing us again and again until we left for boarding!

On the return flight we decided to use the west club instead so we can avoid her. Anyone who's been to DEN knows what a long walk this is.  But lo and behold, after a few minutes she showed up! (apparently she 'serves' both lounges).
She immediately noticed her trouble makers. We made eye contact, and boy was that scary.

After trying a few bites I decided it's just not worth the hassle and left my sandwich for our flight home.

The most ridiculous lounge experience I ever had.


Descending into EGE:






EGE Airport after landing:






Park Hyatt Beaver Creek














Chair-lift in back of hotel:






Hot air balloon:

There were two balloons flying some are pictures I took of the other balloon and some are from a (company) photographer who was down there and gave (sold) us the pictures when we landed.



























Driving on the highway:








Next up: Germany - Israel - SQ Suites - FCT FRA

[Yaalili]

Wow, such an interesting DEN story too.

[Dan]

Nice pics.

FT has a name for those lounge agents, they're called dragons.

[Joe4007]

Great stuff. Keep it coming!

Flights:
EWR-DEN UA Y

Are you sure you didn't depart LGA?

[JoeCha]

Great stuff. Keep it coming!
Are you sure you didn't depart LGA?

You're right. How'd you know?

[Joe4007]

You're right. How'd you know?

How could I miss your first departing airport

[TimT]

Great pics. Which camera did you use ? Are those storm clouds in the last 2 photos or just a darkened window ?

[JoeCha]

Great pics. Which camera did you use ?

Canon Rebel T3i DSLR

Are those storm clouds in the last 2 photos or just a darkened window ?

Honestly I don't remember.
Either that or maybe because my photos are stored on G+ and they applied some awesomeness to it.

[E-MAN]

Keep em coming!

[Toasted]

Amazing stuff!

[Achas Veachas]

Amazing pics!

[AharonInIsrael]

Great pics, thanks! (and crazy story- she could probably be a mashgiach somewhere with her diligence )

[TimT]

(and crazy story- she could probably be a mashgiach somewhere with her diligence )

Perfect. http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=1343.msg1069445#msg1069445

[Chapshnell]

Great pics! Went to Beaver Creek, CO in 2012 & had a fantastic summer experience.

[moish]

Driving on the highway:

amazing - the greens look so unnatural

[TimT]

amazing - the greens look so unnatural

maybe because my photos are stored on G+ and they applied some awesomeness to it.

[JoeCha]

Great pics! Went to Beaver Creek, CO in 2012 & had a fantastic summer experience.

I was also there in the summer of 2012.
I guess not at the same time because Beaver Creek was judenrein during our stay.

[JoeCha]

Germany/Israel 2014

Flights:
JFK-FRA SQ R
FRA-TLV LY J
TLV-IST TK J
IST-FRA LH Y
FRA-JFK LH F

Hotels:
Sheraton Tel Aviv
Prima Palace Jerusalem

Lounges:
Luxx Lounge FRA (crap)
Dan Lounge TLV
Turkish CIP Lounge IST
FCT FRA

Cost:
57.5k SQ (wife was on a standard award)
30k AA
75k UA (good old days)
12k SPG
Paid for Prima Palace


Short preview:

Fun part: It all started with a Twitter SMS from Dansdeals about the Alitalia Israel sale for $590 RT, which was a good incentive to get our acts together and pull trigger for a Israel trip.
Mrs. JoeCha wasn't that thrilled about flying coach on Alitalia, but a sale is a sale.
One day after booking, something popped up in my mind: AJK!
Inspired by his amazing trip report I decided to copy it (thank you for the idea!). I quietly cancelled the ticket (at 23 hours) and I booked an amazing award trip which included SQ suites, TK lounge in IST, Lufthansa first class terminal and LH F.

AZ departs from T1 in JFK while SQ departs from T4, so I arranged a Global Entry interview for my daughter so I can get my wife into T4 without realizing what I'm up to. But when we arrived at the airport my wife insisted we first check in our luggage with AZ in T1 so we don't have to schlep it to the interview. I had to be a really bad and overpowering husband to convince her that it doesn't make sense.

It was hell of a fun when I proceeded to the SQ first class check-in counter after the interview. It took her a minute or two to realize what happened...

We arrived in FRA early morning and left in the evening. So we had a prearranged driver waiting for us to tour Frankfurt and Worms.

Thrill part: AA shut down my account a few weeks before my booking because I exploited a loophole in Citi's system (how this is their business is up for debate).
But I had a second account which I used to book our business class tickets on ElAl.

American Airlines is notoriously known for not cancelling tickets in advance, letting passenger's check in but being denied boarding. I was nervous not knowing whether they flagged my second account. I got a tip from one of the DDF admins/mods that AA is usually notating the PNR if they plan on 'surprising' the passenger and it's viewable in Sabre. A DDFer with access to Sabre emailed me the PNR notes (thank you!). It looked good.

When the GA scanned our boarding passes a red light started blinking and beeping, I almost missed a heartbeat. He took the boarding passes to the computer and typed something. I was sweating, almost convinced we're not flying. But after a minute he told us we're good to go and the issue was because of the infant on the reservation so he had to manually process it (whatever that means).

Flights: SQ was amazing. Flashy hard product and a staff excitingly willing to go out of their way making you happy.
TK and LH air crew were very nice.
LY FA didn't even try to be nice.

Lounges: I was way more impressed with the Turkish Lounge in IST than FCT in FRA, It's just beautiful and massive. But of course you don't get the personal service that the FCT is known for. And it was clear the IST ground and lounge staff didn't love us. I can't blame them  .

Hotels:
Sheraton TLV is beautiful.
Prima Palace is bad. They offer mediocre kosher breakfast but air conditioner didn't work,bathtub was dusty, bed uncomfortable and tiny rooms.


I'll post some pictures in the following posts.



Next up: a hop into Washington DC

[JoeCha]

SQ couples suite:

They even had a airplane toy for the baby! (not the big one you see on the picture).