Apr 2012 - Bermuda Flight

Flight #5 - United 1419 
Newark (EWR) – Bermuda (BDA) 
Friday, April 6, 2012 
Depart: 11:54AM / Arrive: 3:04AM 
Duration: 2hr 10min 
Aircraft: Boeing 737 
Seat: 8E and 8F (Economy Plus)
Miles Earned:  779 miles
Lifetime Miles: 13,629

After successfully demonstrating I could be trusted on a long flight, my parents started to get more aggressive with our travel schedule.  Good Friday was coming up in early April and my father never  met a long weekend he didn't like.

Upon our return from Israel, he started looking around different destinations for Fri April 6, returning Sun April 8.  He was ideally looking for something warmer than the early spring weather of New York, but flights to the Caribbean were excessively expensive that weekend.  

However, growing up in the 1980's he recalled a popular song by the Beach Boys where they would basically name different tropical getaway destinations.  Among the locations, there was one that didn't show up on the map next to all the others... Bermuda.

Bermuda is a very different "Caribbean" island.  First, it's located east of Virginia making it a much easier flight from New York (about a 2 hour flight).  Second, it's a much more posh, established island without the pockets of poverty and crime you might find in Jamaica or the Bahamas. And finally, the seasonal tourism schedule peaked (got expensive) in the Summer/Fall unlike it's island cousins to the south that peaked during the Winter/Spring.  Jackpot.

My father then booked the flights and started researching hotels.  The predominant chain was Fairmont Hotels, but they didn't strike him as ideal for our weekend trip (ie, too expensive).  Instead he found some pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor about a place called Newstead Belmont Hills Golf Resort & Spa.  The key selling point to my parents was that the rooms there were actually apartments, so they came with a full kitchen - ideal for families with children.  Sold!

The best part was that on TripAdvisor, one of the posts said they saved a lot of money by booking through a website called Vacationist.com which was kind of like a Gilt.com flash sale website but for nice hotels.  As it turned out Newstead was going to be on sale for 40%+ off in a few days, so my father patiently waited like a Manhattan mom stalking her favorite preschool.

Vacationist.com was also having a promotion where if you referred a new member, then you'd get a $25 credit for both people.  So of course, my sneaky SOB father signed up my mother and we got two $25 credits. Then my mother used it to book 2 nights at Newstead for $225/night (vs. $400+/night regular rates).

So we were all set and before I knew it, we were in April and headed to the airport.  Here's where my parents being United frequent flyers came into play yet again.  Another perk of having frequent flyer status is that you can sometimes get complimentary (free) seat upgrades on "domestic" flights (but including nearby international flights to Mexico, Canada, Caribbean, etc).  My mother was a United Silver (flew 25,000 miles prior year) and my father was a United Gold (flew 50,000 miles prior year).  I didn't go to school yet, but everyone knows Gold is better than Silver.

Now in April 2012, United had just merged with Continental and their IT systems were a bit screwy during the integration.  So the day before our trip, my mother (silver) was upgraded, but my father (gold) wasn't.  Now, could it be because my father had a lap child on his ticket and the airline didn't want babies up in first class?  Or was it because they were racist or sexist?  Who knows?  But my sweet mother declined the upgrade choosing to sit with her family instead.  That's some good parenting right there.

Helpful Links:

• TripAdvisor
• Vacationist (a Travel+Leisure website)