2015 Travel Year In Review

Well, it's the last day of 2015, and we've had another amazing year. Click here for the 2014 recap.

Since my father's an Asian math nerd, according to his excel spreadsheet, I have:

1. Flown approximately 33,825 miles this year (vs. 51,422 last year)
2. Taken 23 flight segments (vs. 26 last year) with only 2 longer than 8 hours
3. Flown out of 14 airports (vs. 16 last year)
4. On 2 different airlines (vs. 6 last year)
5. Traveled to 4 foreign countries (vs. 6 last year)
6. Earned United Silver status

The biggest takeaways were that we really decided to stay "local" this year oftentimes driving instead of flying. Further, unlike 2013 and 2014, we only left the country a few times in 2015. Once was a spring break to Cancun. Then we had our annual trip to visit extended family Israel (stopping in Belgium on the way home). The other was our early Christmas trip to Costa Rica a few weeks ago.

On the hotel side, we have:

1. Stayed 52 nights in hotels this year
2. Across 20 different cities
3. In 14 unique hotel brands

Our most frequent brand was Westin (18 nights across Orlando, suburban Chicago, Cancun, Kansas City and Scottsdale). We re-qualified for Starwood Platinum status, and matched to Hyatt Diamond and Hilton Diamond statuses for 2016. And we didn't realize until just now that this year we went to see baseball games at the stadiums for each of the World Series teams, the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets.

 So as we close out the year, here's a photo snapshot of our favorite lapchild adventures this year.

Why We Save Our Boarding Passes

My father is a big nerd. It's not enough we fly around every chance we get, but he also scans, saves and logs each boarding pass we get on every flight segment. Why? "Just in case," he says.

Well, this time, it came in handy.

On June 27, 2015, we boarded our first flight on Brussels Airlines, departing Tel Aviv for Brussels. As a Star Alliance partner airline for United, we were able to add our United MileagePlus frequent flyer numbers and earn credit for the flight. However, as my father overlooked the fare class, we would only receive 50% credit for the 2,022 miles flown between TLV-BRU.

Usually, mileage credit for partner airlines will post within a few days after you arrive. However, after 2 weeks (July 13), we didn't see anything post, so my father went onto United's website to request partner mileage credit.

He input all the information requested, including the Airline, Ticket Number, Passenger Name, Flight Number, Fare Class, Departure/Arrival Airports, Date and Seat Assignment. United emailed a confirmation and said they would revert back 2 weeks later.

July 27 came and went and still no United credit. So my father called this time to the United MileagePlus Service Center. Apparently, Brussels Airlines rejected our request for mileage credit.

The United representative confirmed she saw the same booking info that my father did as well as the United.com webpage confirming the 50% mileage credit for Brussels Airlines flights booked in Fare Class T.

The United phone agent requested my father submit another form the MileagePlus Contact page. So he did, plus he printed a PDF of United's mileage earning page so he had a record (in case it changed) and submitted that PDF as well as copies of the boarding passes and the receipt.

Submitted: 7/29/2015 12:43:59 PM
Remote Host: XX.XXX.XX.236
User Agent: AppleMAC-Safari
Signed In: Yes

Message:
I have flown on a flight on Brussels Airlines on 27 June 2015 and did not receive credit (either RDM or PQM).

I should receive 50% credit for both the redeemable miles and 50% credit for United premier qualifying miles.

I have attached copies of (a) my boarding passes, (b) my confirmation receipt and (c) a copy of the Brussels Airlines page from United.com
[ Attachment 1 Type: application/pdf Name: Fly with Brussels Airlines _ United Airlines.pdf]
[ Attachment 2 Type: application/pdf Name: 150627 - TLV-BRU.pdf]
[ Attachment 3 Type: application/pdf Name: eTicket Itinerary and Receipt for Confirmation CNNH66.pdf]

Then on August 3, we received an email from United (bolding mine).

We’re always glad to hear from Premier Gold members like you. Thanks for writing. Your request for flight credit was rejected by the Star Alliance member carrier.  We have sent a request to them for verification and authorization.  It may take up to 14 business days for this discrepancy to be corrected so that we can credit your and your family's MileagePlus accounts.  Please monitor your accounts during this time and if you do not see the posting after that time, please contact the MileagePlus Service Center or reply to this e-mail and we will investigate further.Thank you for your patience during this processing delay.
We appreciate you taking the time to contact us.
Regards, [name redacted]
MileagePlus 

So my father called United again to inquire what was going on. United assured him that this time, they were submitting a dispute (vs. a request), and that it would be resolved in our favor in due time. We just had to be patient. We'll see what happens in the next 3 weeks.

But this annoying experience just turned us off on Brussels Airlines. While Belgium is indeed beautiful, we're going to fly through Zurich (Swiss Air) or Munich (Lufthansa) next time we transit through Europe on our way to Israel.

[UPDATE 8/6/2015 - The missing miles posted today.]

Beware of Fare Classes

I guess we all make mistakes. After going through a complicated analysis to find the perfect Phoenix flight itinerary to allow me to get my first United Silver elite status, it turns out I'll still miss out.

The other month, we flew back from Israel via Europe. We booked a connecting flight because it saved us a lot of money, but we had the choice of stopping in either (a) Brussels, Belgium or (b) Zurich, Switzerland.

We had already been to Zurich before (also on a 1 day stopover), so my father thought it would be fun to visit a different city together, even if it was for a short over night stopover. Plus there was a very convenient Starwood Sheraton hotel connected to the Brussels Airport.

However, not all flights earn miles equally.  Since we were flying on Brussels Airlines in Fare Class T (a deep discount economy fare), it only earned us 50% Elite Qualifying Miles with United Airlines.

So that 2,022 mile Brussels Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Brussels only earned us 1,011 EQM. That really threw off our calculations!

Had we chosen to stop in Zurich instead, however, we would have flown Swiss Air and their T Fare Class would have earned the full 100% mileage credit!

That meant that because we innocently chose Brussels over Zurich, both my mother and I will fall short of the 25,000 EQM we need for United Silver elite status.

Sheraton Brussels Airport

Hotel Details 
Hotel: Sheraton Brussels Airport  
Dates: June 27-28, 2015 
Rate Paid: $103/night 
Upgrade: Club Room ($155/night)
SPG Points Earned: 791 Points
Chase UR Points Earned: 206 Points

About a week before our intended stay in Brussels, SPG Hot Escapes had a flash sale where they were offering a prepaid rate at this hotel for just $103 USD. By booking in advance, we saved about $15 on a hotel we were going to stay at anyway. We earned 291 SPG points for our stay, another 500 SPG points for the welcome amenity and 206 Chase UR points for paying with our Chase Ink Bold (because our SPG Amex still charged FX fees).

Aside from all the amenities and features of this hotel, we picked the Sheraton because it was literally across the street from the Brussels Airport.

The Sheraton's front entrance was actually outside the exit from Airport Level 3. However, when you come out of the customs/immigration after arrival, you exit on Level 1. Finding the Sheraton from Level 1 (when you're under the overpass) isn't that obvious, as you have to find a small elevator with a Sheraton sign on it, so we'd suggest going up to Level 3 within the airport and then exiting the airport from there.

Since we were in a rush to get to dinner downtown, we were thankful the check-in area had a dedicated line for SPG Platinums and Gold elite members. Without having to mention it, my father was given all his Platinum benefits (including 500 SPG welcome points, free club lounge room upgrade and access, and high-speed wifi). We received our keycards and were up in our room #5028 within minutes.

As you can see, the room was basic, but very clean. The Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed was as comfortable as expected and we definitely needed a good night's sleep in an air conditioned room after spending 2 weeks at my grandparent's spare pull out sofa bed.

They had a fully stocked mini-bar, which would be great if you were a single traveler, but not ideal if you were a young family who would prefer the empty space for our own things. Nevertheless, we took advantage of the 2 free bottles of water as we took them with us on our way downtown.

And since we were upgraded to the Club room on the 5th floor, we had access to the Club Lounge where they had complimentary drinks, including a beer machine serving chilled Stella Artois.

The Lounge was pretty empty at 8:15PM on a Saturday night, but that made sense since the hot food service was from 6PM-8PM.

It's important to note for airport hotels, that despite being so close to the actual runway (see below for the view from our 5th floor room), we didn't hear any planes at all. They put double glass on the windows so soundproofing was amazing. Combined with the air conditioning and the blackout shades, we had a great night of sleep.

The next morning, we woke up early at 6:30AM to make sure we had plenty of time before our 10AM flight. They always recommend people arrive at Brussels Airport 3 hours before international departures, but we took our chances that arriving 1.5 hours would be enough. After all, we already had our BRU-EWR boarding passes from when we checked in at Tel Aviv the day before.

Of course, if we did want to play it safe and happened to arrive at the gate with extra time, we could have visited the Brussels Airlines lounge in Terminal B. But we preferred to get some extra rest in our private hotel room.

Plus, since we were given complimentary hotel breakfast for being SPG Platinums, we'd rather have real restaurant food at the Sheraton over airport lounge snacks.

So around 8:00AM, we made our way down to Gulliver's Restaurant in the hotel lobby where they were serving a hot breakfast buffet.

And unlike most European hotel breakfasts we've had, this offering was very extensive beyond the typical yogurt, cold cuts and cheese.

If we didn't have the SPG Platinum status to get us comped breakfast, my father would definitely not agreed to pay in cash. Look at these prices! A whopping €26 per person for the American Hot Buffet that we just enjoyed!

Overall, the Sheraton Brussels Airport is an amazingly convenient hotel and we'd definitely recommend staying there for an overnight layover. Between the 791 SPG points (worth about $20), the 206 Chase UR points (worth another $4), plus free breakfast (worth only ~$30 to us, despite what the menu said), our $103 hotel could be considered just $51 of net spend. Pretty great deal!

However, if we had a daytime layover, we would probably have stored our bags at an airport locker and taken the 20 minute train downtown.

Grande Place

After dinner at Chez Leon, we decided to spend the last hour walking around and looking for some Belgian waffles. So we walked down the Petite Rue de Bouchers towards the lighted tower in the distance where we would find the Grande Place.

The Grand Place is actually a plaza (and not a palace). It is the most important tourist destination and most memorable landmark in Brussels

Widely regarded as the "most beautiful plaza in Europe", it is surrounded by amazing guildhalls and two larger edifices - the Town Hall and the Breadhouse building containing the Museum of the City of Brussels.

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself in the following photos.

  

Since we I was too young to go to the Brussels clubs and bars, I asked my parents if we could have some tasty Belgian Waffles instead. They were more than happy to comply, and we just so happened to pass a place called Gaufre de Bruxelles (which translates into Waffles of Brussels).

So of course, my father goes inside to the waiter and asks the waiter, "Excuse me, do you know somewhere around here we could find a place that sells waffles?"