2013 Travel Year In Review

Well, it's the last day of 2013, and wow, I've had an amazing year. Since my father's an Asian math nerd, according to his excel spreadsheet, I have:

1. Flown approximately 84,860 miles this year.
2. Taken 48 flight segments (14 of which were 5-13 hours long).
3. Flown out of 32 airports.
4. On 12 different airlines.
5. Traveled to 10 foreign countries.
6. Earned 0 frequent flyer miles!

Of course, our #1 airline this year was United Airlines (14 flight segments), and we flew through Newark and JFK Airports most often (9 times each). My father earned United Gold Status and Aegean Airlines Blue Status for 2014, while my mother earned Aegean Airlines Gold Status and United Silver Status through 2014.

Most of our flights were paid for with out of pocket cash, though we did:

1. Save on my fare since I flew as a lap child for most of 2013;
2. Save $1,721 by using our Citi Thank You points for free flights to LA, Memphis and Phoenix;
3. Save another $1,348 by using British Airways Avios miles for our recent trip to Puerto Rico;
4. Taking advantage of mistake fares, such as the time we flew to Argentina on TAM for just $400/person (vs. $1,200/person normally); and 
5. Capitalize on United MileagePlus Awards for some of our long haul international business class flights (Thailand, Germany/France and Israel).

On the hotel side, we have:

1. Stayed 129 nights in hotels this year
2. Across 34 different cities
3. In 21 unique hotel brands

The hotel brands with the most stays was a tie between #1T Sheraton and #1T Hyatt Place (15 nights each) followed by #3 Westin (14 nights) and the #4T W Hotels (12 nights) and #4T Park Hyatt (12 nights, including the amazing Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires seen here). This year we earned Starwood Platinum Status (50 nights) for 2014 and benefited from Hyatt Diamond Status (ending Feb 2014), Hilton Gold Status and Marriott Gold Status.

Now, while many of you may just assume we're millionaires, let me be clear - we are not! Because of the crafty use of hotel branded credit cards, sign up bonuses and seasonal promotions, we've been able limit the out of pocket cash expenditures. From the 129 nights spent in hotels this year, 28 of those nights were for work related travel and reimbursed ($5,060 spent for an average of $181/night). The remaining 101 nights were for "leisure" travel and cost us an average of $83/night in out of pocket cash from using free night awards and Cash & Point discounted rates.

A quick recap of some of our favorite photos from 2013.

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm Famous!!!

Well, maybe not famous, but like my father before me (who had his photo in the New York Times a few years ago), I made my own appearance on a very popular travel / miles & points blog called Mommy Points this past weekend.

I checked it out this past Saturday while we were driving up to McCall, Idaho, and my family got some nice comments (OK 1 nice comment) from the readers.

If you haven't seen it yet, you can click here or just scroll down and read it below.

From Mommy Points (post dated May 11, 2013)

First, can you tell me a little bit about your family?

My parents and I live in Manhattan and are pretty frequent travelers. In fact, my Korean-American father actually met my Uzbekistan/Russian mother in Israel while he was on a 14 month around-the-world travel adventure after quitting his Wall Street job at a hedge fund back in 2008. I realized early on that being a part of this family means loving travel.

If you’re good at dates and math, you’ll realize that I’m pretty young. I’m about to turn 18 months old. I was born in November 2011 and had my own passport 19 days after I was born. My first flight wasn't until February 2012 when I was about 3 months old, but flown almost 100,000 miles so far before my 18 month mark.

Earlier this year, my parents encouraged me to start blogging our travel at Lap Child Diaries so that I’d have something to look back on when I’m older (since I’m likely not to remember most of what happens before my 4th birthday). But what started out as a travel diary for me has evolved into something that helps my parents’ friends keep tabs on where we are and how we were able to pay for it. It’s not really a “points/miles” news blog as much as it is a travel journal, but I try to address requests and questions we get about the frequent flyer points/miles.


How have your traveling patterns changed (or not changed) since you have had kids?

Well, I’ll have to speak for my parents on this one since I wasn't around for the “Before” part. I’d say they've had to make some adjustments, but they've refused to turn me into an excuse for not going somewhere. My father works in finance and my mother stays home with me, so we are pretty flexible with our four weeks of vacation a year. One week is spent in Israel visiting my grandparents, two of the weeks are spent somewhere in the US/North America, and one week is spent in a distant international destination such as Argentina or Japan.

After I was born, they kept to this strategy, taking me on every trip, even the 10-15 hour flights. The biggest change is having to check luggage, bring a car seat, and what we plan to do when we’re at our destination. Having me around doesn't let them enjoy the nightlife, fine dining, or adventure excursions, but my parents are very happy just enjoying spending time with me wherever we go.


Where all have you traveled with your children, and what have been some memorable experiences on some of those trips (both good and bad)?

Well, this might be a short list for some people, but I've tagged along with my parents to Chicago (3x), Miami, Block Island, Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Corpus Christi. Internationally,we've been to Israel (2x), Bermuda, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Turkey, Thailand, Argentina, Chile, and Canada.

My personal favorite was Miami where I went swimming for the first time, and also Thailand where we spent five weeks visiting Chiang Mai, Chaing Rai, Bangkok, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Krabi. And my all time favorite moment was going to Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai where I was able to play with a real baby tiger.


What are some tips for traveling with kids that you have learned along the way?

My parents used to get bulkhead seats when flying to give us some extra space and bassinets, but found that it’s easier to keep me under control when I don’t have so much space.  Now we sit one to two rows behind the bulkhead. Also, we prefer sitting closer to the lavatories because, well, you know…

Another new trick is to fly overnight on longer flights (5+ hours) so that I’ll be more likely to sleep. Of course, it does run the risk of me not sleeping and frustrating everyone around us while they’re trying to get rest, but I’ve been able to keep it together for most of the time.

And finally, the thing my parents always bring with them on flights is a few cheap plastic bags – the kind you get from the drugstore. Apparently, lap children like me create a lot of trash between all the plastic wrappers, dirty wipes and snacks, there’s no way a flight attendant could keep up. So we just keep a plastic bag with us to keep all our garbage until the flight attendant comes by.

As for hotels, we’ve found that the nicer luxury hotels such as St Regis Bangkok, Park Hyatt Buenos Aires, and Conrad Koh Samui ones are generally VERY family friendly. The next tier down with hotels such as W Hotels, Westin, Hyatt Regency isn’t quite as family focused in our experience because they seem to cater more to the business travelers, though there are many that do have amenities for children.


How do points and miles figure into your family travels?

We’re very fortunate in that we can travel more often than most. Points and miles allow us to make those trips better. For example, last year, we were going to fly to South Korea so that I could meet my two great-grandmothers living in Seoul. Instead of flying economy on United, we used our MileagePlus miles to fly round trip business class on United and Asiana. From reading the blogs about free stopovers, we added a few days in Tokyo on the outbound so we got to enjoy two cities on one premium class trip. Since I flew as a lap child, we only needed two award seats. We were planning on staying at the Westin Tokyo anyway, but it was a perfect time to use our Capital One Venture Rewards card that came with 100,000 points at sign up. That was enough to cover three nights at the Westin Tokyo.

Another example is when we were in Koh Phangan, Thailand this past February when Hilton decided to devalue their program. My father had 240,000 Hilton HHonors points (from opening Hilton Amex and both Hawaiian Airline credit cards), so we used the GLON Award for 6 nights at the Conrad Koh Samui for 225,000 points. After the devaluation, a night at the Conrad Koh Samui costs 80-95k points for just one night! Since my father learned how to get instant Hilton Gold status, we were enjoying free breakfasts every morning!

Sometimes, the points/miles/status thing isn’t necessarily intentional. We decided to go to Mendoza, Argentina to visit the wine country. Obviously, I’m too young to drink, but my parents thought it would be a nice change of pace from Buenos Aires. So we paid cash for four nights at the Park Hyatt Mendoza and used 6,000 Hyatt points to upgrade to a regular suite. But since my father was a Diamond, they upgraded us again to the amazing Presidential Suite. It was amazing!


What future trips are on your horizon?

Well, my parents and I are going to Berchtesgaden (Germany) and Paris at the end of May for about ten days. I’ve never heard of Berchtesgaden, but my father reads onemileatatime.com and Lucky mentions how much he loved the Intercontinental, so we decided to go there. He signed up for the Chase Priority Club Visa to get the 80,000 Priority Club Point sign up offer to almost cover three nights at the Intercontinental.

Then for Paris, we couldn't read all the blogs talking about how amazing the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome is and not go, so we’ll be there for six nights. We got two of those nights in a suite after signing up for the Chase Hyatt Visa and status-matching challenge to Hyatt Diamond.

What would you say to other families that are nervous about the logistics of hitting the sky (or road) with the little ones?

I realize that not all babies are the same, but you can’t let your children become excuses. The first few times might be painful for everyone, but very few things in life are so simple and easy. Know what the process will be like (getting to/from airports, getting through security/customs, etc) and pack very light. We babies are remarkably resilient and don’t need as much “stuff” as some American parents probably think. You can probably get most things you’ll need when you’re there. Remember, no matter where you’re going in the world, they probably have babies there too!

Flying Asiana to LAX

Flight #38 - Asiana Airlines 202
Seoul (ICN) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Friday, Mar 8, 2013 
Depart: 4:30PM / Arrive: 10:10AM (+1 Day)
Duration: 10hr 40min
Aircraft: Boeing 747
Seat: 9A and 9B (Business) 
Earned: 0 miles (5,994 miles flown) 
Cost: 60,000 United miles + $50 / person
Redemption Value: 6.6 cents / mile
Lifetime Miles: 80,407 miles

As I mentioned last week, I had a series of long overnight flights to get back home to NYC. The longest was almost 11 hours flying from Seoul to Los Angeles on Asiana 202. Luckily, my father used his United miles to book us in Business Class.

This is actually the 2nd time I've flown on Asiana 202 from Seoul to Los Angeles.  The last time was back in August when I went to visit my great-grandmothers in Korea.

On the first flight, we were also in business class but we had bassinet seats (7C & 7D) by the front bulkhead. My father didn't love sitting in the bulkhead seats even despite having a "crib" for me to sleep in. So this time around, we let fate decide our seat assignments and we randomly got 9A & 9B.

It was still upstairs (Asiana's 747 planes have a 2nd floor) so we were pretty happy with that since flying upstairs was such a rate novelty for me (as well as my parents).

Boarding was uneventful as we made our way up the short flight of narrow stairs. But when we found out seats, we knew we made the right choice. Unlike the seats in the rows 7 and 8 ahead of us, we had a lot more personal storage space.

Instead of the seats being flush against the windows, there was a small shelf with doors that gave us 3 storage spaces to put our shoes, diaper bag and neck pillows during take off.  I liked sitting up there watching the rest of the planes on the apron, but my overbearing/nervous Jewish mother said it wasn't safe for me to stay there the entire flight despite my Asian father's protests that I should stay there during take-off and learn my own lessons.

In addition, because the emergency exit was behind us, there was a lot of space between Row 9 and Row 10.  Therefore, we had 2 overhead storage bins (other rows only had 1). So for once, we had plenty of space for instead of having all our bags stuffed under the seat in front of us compromising our legroom.

I got seated and entertained myself with my parent's iPad as the rest of the plane was boarding. My father was talking to the flight attendants who kept suggesting we move up to the empty Row 7 (bulkhead bassinet seats) but he politely (but repeatedly) declined.

My mother was getting comfortable for the long flight when she noticed that the 2 women sitting across from the aisle (Seats 9C and 9D) kept looking over at me.

My mother and I immediately knew what to do.  My mother put me on her lap while I started to squirm to get free. I hate being confined and made sure the rest of the cabin knew it too. After about 3-5 minutes of a screaming 16 month old, the women across from us asked the flight attendants if they could move up to the empty Row 7.

Now, my parents and I had all of row 9 to ourselves (4 business class seats). My parents started to scheme and negotiation about who would take the baby shift first while the other would rest comfortably in the other seats.

We took off and about 30 minutes into the flight, they started drink service. While we could have ordered personal drinks, my parents didn't want to inconvenience the staff so they just took the pre-poured orange juice and champagne. Big sacrifice, right?

The meal service came shortly thereafter. I was fine with my milk, but my parents wanted to try what Asiana had to offer. The nice/annoying thing about Asiana is that they always have a Korean menu option but it's ALWAYS bibimbap (on every one of the 6 Asiana flights I've been on). Now, I love that dish as much as anyone else, but a little variety would have been nice.

So my father and mother went with the "Western Menu" options (beef tenderloin and a shrimp/scallop) for their man courses, respectively. The appetizers were prosciutto lettuce wraps and the salad was smoked salmon and onion.

Apparently, it's always tough for them to eat when traveling with me (based on all their complaining), but since the early days, my parents have found a way to manage. They usually put both meals one 1 person's tray and then turns eating while the other one holds me on their lap.

Since my father inhales his food like a ravenous wolf (rather than maturely eating it like a civilized human being), he usually eats first and then let's my mother enjoy her meal at a leisurely pace afterwards. But I decided to be good today and sat on my mother's lap calmly so she could enjoy her meal.

My mother tried to get me to try some of the food. Personally, I just ate the bread. This fancy food doesn't do much for me.

Soon afterwards, I started to get tired and decided to nap while my parents watched their in flight movies. My father watched Bourne Legacy and Perks of Being a Wallflower before he eventually dozed off.

My mother tried watching Lincoln, but said the English was too advanced for her to really follow. I found it boring as well, and despite his Academy Award, Daniel Day Lewis put me to sleep. My mother switched the TV to cartoons which she found much more entertaining.

They turned off the lights and tried to put all the passengers to sleep (like nap time for adults) and we did our best to sleep for a solid 6-7 hours before they would turn on the lights 2 hours before arrival (8AM LA time, or 1AM Asia time) for breakfast service. I guess they're trying to get you acclimated to the new time zone, but going to bed at 6-7PM and waking up at 1AM is tough for a baby like me to do when my parents usually put me down at 10PM and let me sleep til 8AM.

Breakfast was uneventful and we arrived on time. My parents looked exhausted but we still had a ways to go:  US Immigration, Baggage Claim, Shuttle to Hertz Rental Cars, 2 hour drive and then finally, I'd get to meet my new friend Peyton.