Columbus Day Weekend Trip

Flight #114 - United Airlines 1929 
Newark (EWR) – Phoenix (PHX)
Friday, October 9, 2015
Depart: 4:30PM / Arrive: 6:58PM
Duration: 5hr 28min
Aircraft: Boeing 737 
Seat: 15D, 15E and 15F (Economy) 
Earned: 2,133 miles
Lifetime Miles: 212,705 miles

After a long 3 month hiatus, we're flying again. Since our last trip to Israel in June, it's been a summer full of road trips (Seasame Place, North Fork, Sunflower Farms and Niagara Falls).

This long weekend, however, we're back to TSA screenings, boarding gates and seatback trays. Recall, my father used Google Flights to find a destination that met a few criteria: (a) enough miles to qualify for United Silver status through Feb 2017 and (b) a reasonable price.

So later this week, we'll be on our way to Phoenix...well Scottsdale to be more precise. There we're doing nothing but relaxing. After all, we already visited the area almost 2 years ago as my last flight as an official lap child:

• Our stay at The Phoenician Resort (Part 1, 2 and 3)
• Seeing the sights - Taliesin West Frank Lloyd Wright  
• Touring the area looking for Vanilla Reload cards

So this time around, we're not leaving the resort at all.

In fact, we're skipping the car rental and just taking an UberX from the Airport. Per the Uber Phoenix website, it estimates the ride will take about 30 minutes and cost about $25-33.

Actually, it will be $20-27 after our 20% rebate from CapitalOne. Even after our return ride on Monday, it will still be much cheaper than the cost to rent a car for 3 days just to have it sit in the parking lot while we park ourselves in an inner tube all weekend.