Cancun to Cozumel

Since we changed our hotel plans, we had to revise our transportation reservation. Originally, we were just going from Cancun Airport to the Intercontinental Cancun in the Hotel Zone (about 30 minutes north of the airport).

Now, we were heading to the island of Cozumel off the coast of Playa Del Carmen (about 50 minutes south of the airport). Thankfully, we had someone put together all the information we needed on a website with photos (click here).

We could have opted to fly 20 minutes from Cancun Airport to Cozumel Airport, but (a) the connecting flight times were inconvenient and (b) my mother is horribly afraid of those little "puddle jumper" planes. After the one we took in Puerto Rico to Vieques Island in 2013, she vowed never to step foot on a tiny plane again.

So that left us with some options. After landing at the airport, we had to make our way down to Playa Del Carmen's ferry terminal (about 50 minutes). Then we'd have to take a 45 minute ferry to Cozumel Island, then another 10 minute taxi to the Intercontinental Hotel.

Assuming we time everything perfectly and minimize waiting time, we'd have the following travel schedule (all times Central):

• 6:00AM - Take an UberX to Newark Airport ($65)
• 8:30AM - United flight to Cancun ($220/person one-way)
• 12:30PM - Arrive in Cancun
• 1:30PM - USA Transfer to Playa Del Carmen ($55)
• 3:00PM - Ultramar Ferry to Cozumel ($11/adult)
• 4:00PM - Taxi to Intercontinental Hotel ($10)

Sometime during all that traveling, I'm supposed to eat lunch and nap. Let's just hope my father remembers to ask me if I need the potty before we get on each vehicle.

Laguardia Amex Centurion Lounge

Thanks to our family friend Hannah, my family was able to check out the American Express Centurion Lounge in LaGuardia Airport before our flight to Chicago this morning.

Because my father was added as an authorized user under Hannah's primary account, he had his own Platinum American Express card in his name. Of course, my father promised not to use it for any charges, but we could use it to gain complimentary access to the handful of American Express Centurion lounges across the country. Currently, there are AEC lounges in Las Vegas, Dallas, San Francisco and New York.

So Thursday morning, before our 8AM flight, we arrived at LGA around 6:30AM, so we had about 40 minutes to enjoy the lounge and get complimentary breakfast. Unfortunately, the Centurion lounge is located upstairs BEFORE security, so we had to estimate how long it would take us to get through security. Luckily, we had TSA Pre-Check though.

The lounge is much better than the United Club Lounge as you can see from the photos.

But where these lounges really shine is in the kitchen. So we left the living room area and went over to the cafeteria section, past the hallway of green couches.

To their credit, American Express recruits some great chefs to prepare the meals. No carrot sticks and crackers here. We get something comparable to a hotel breakfast buffet. Today, we had our choice of fried eggs, breakfast quiche, brioche french toast, and Belgian waffles.

 How was the food?  Take a look at my face!

Bumped!

Normally, we never run into these issues where we get denied boarding because the airline oversold the flight. We thought it was due to my father and mother having United Gold and Silver status, respectively, but it turns out that stuff can go out the window.

Flight Cancelled
We were originally scheduled to fly out of Charleston on 7:29PM Monday evening (connecting through Washington DC) back to Newark. About 7 hours before our first flight, we received a notification that it was cancelled due to Air Traffic Control Issues.

Undaunted, my father went online to see what his options were to get us all home. As it turns out, the best alternative was to fly direct CHS-EWR the following morning at 6AM getting us into Newark at 8AM. This posed a few frustrating issues:

1. We'd have to overnight in Charleston at our own expense. The airline will only pay for your hotel if it's their fault (i.e., overbooking, mechanical, flight crew, etc.). It will not compensate you for weather or air traffic control related delays/cancellations.

2. 6AM departures are painful!

3. We couldn't get confirmed seat assignments.

Our Plan of Action
We bit our lip and just booked another night at the Aloft Charleston Airport hotel (about an 8 minute free shuttle ride away from the hotel) where my father had Starwood Platinum status. For $109/night + $14 in taxes, it wasn't that painful.

Now, I realize I'm a 3 year old toddler, but I don't wake up early like you other kids do. I'd snooze til 9AM if my parents would let me.

In order to safely make a 6AM departure time (at an airport that doesn't have TSA Pre-Check or priority security lines for elites), we were required to wake up at 3:30AM to get on the 4:30AM shuttle from the Aloft Hotel to make it to the Charleston Airport by 5AM.

However, the last item was the one most troubling to my father. Because of the situation, all the confirmed seat assignments were taken, so we'd have to get them at the airport when we physically checked in.

As the airlines will tell you, "Oh don't worry, they always leave a few seats available for just this situation," or "You've got United Gold status, they won't bump you," or the classic, "Seat assignments are just request, not actual confirmation."

My father was savvy enough to know all those statements were just plain mis-information. Having a seat assignment is HUGE. In fact, we always make sure to get confirmed seat assignments as soon as we book tickets. If you have an actual seat assignment, you're pretty safe from getting bumped off the flight. If you don't have one, then you're the first target.

The Morning At the Airport

So after checking out of our hotel (4:30AM) and arriving at the airport (4:50AM), we were told at the front check-in desk that we couldn't be assigned seats until we were at the gate. That's when we knew we were in trouble.

As it turned out, the flight was oversold by 7 seats. Chances were that a few people wouldn't make the early morning flight, so we were still hopeful. However, the fact that we were flying as a group of 3 really hindered us (versus being a single traveler).

Of course, at 5:15AM, the gate agent started making requests for volunteers. First, she offered $400 vouchers per passenger. Then she went up to $500. Realizing that we were likely to be bumped anyway, my father went up and inquired about what the alternative flight options were for us. We figured we had a better chance of getting the re-routing of our choice if we could be useful before they too were sold out.

A. There was a 4PM direct on Delta that would get us into LaGuardia around 6PM. 

B. My father found there was a 7:30AM Delta routing through Atlanta that would get us into Newark by 12:30PM. 

Option B was a lot more flying (backtracking a bit), but it would get us into New York a lot earlier. Plus the CHS-ATL and ATL-EWR flights were on real Boeing planes (737s) with headrest TVs and wifi (versus the regional jets without any amenities). So we asked her to reserve us on the connecting flight through ATL and said we'd potentially volunteer if we needed to.

"Now Boarding..."
As it turned out, we didn't have a choice to volunteer or not (since we didn't have assigned seats and it was easier for United to re-route a family of 3 rather than 3 independent solo travelers). But by then, the vouchers being offered were at $600/person! Pretty great since United vouchers are as good as cash in my family.

As the 6AM flight to Newark started to board, we were taken to another gate to process our new tickets. Then we were told that Delta didn't accept us being moved to the 7:30AM Atlanta flight. So we were now going to be on the later 4PM flight which meant my father would lose a full day of work he needed to get done.

On the (small) bright side, we were each given three meal vouchers each to use at the airport for up to $7 per voucher. Fortunately, we could combine them to get a larger breakfast and/or lunch, but we didn't really want to eat $63 worth of airport food. So we just picked up some coffee and juice and some breakfast sandwiches, saving six vouchers ($42) for later. That's on top of the $1,800 in United flight vouchers that we received.

Since my father had booked us into the nearby Aloft hotel room the night before, we called again to see if we could "check back into" our same room, since it was paid for through the afternoon anyway. Thankfully, Aloft agreed and let us back in (and granted us a late 4PM checkout). Thank you, Starwood! I needed those few extra hours of beauty sleep.

New Uber Fan - Just not in NYC

DISCLAIMER - clicking on one of the links on this page may give you $20 in free Uber credit from my Five Star Painting. You've been warned...by a 3 year old.

We've been hearing about Uber for years now. After it launched in San Francisco, New York was the next logical target market. Of course, for us, we didn't really pay attention since we're not "black car" types and prefer MTA options.

Background
Then the company launched UberX where it took "regular" drivers and turned them into make-shift taxi operators at a price point that was supposedly competitive with the NYC standard, the Yellow Taxi.

However, the few times we tried using UberX, the price always came out higher than a typical cab, because it was always set at Surge Pricing (where prices are temporarily increased 1.2x to 5.0x regular pricing to match higher levels of demand).

So we pretty much kept our Uber apps unused for months, if not years - even when American Express had special promotions of $10 off Uber rides last year. However, my father found some niches where Uber was a better value proposition.

A. Rides to/from Newark Airport
Given we're still loyal to United (more so because they have a hub in Newark where we can catch direct flights), we find ourselves driving to/from Newark Airport quite often. The most cost effective way would be to take public transportation - a $15/person shuttle bus from Bryant Park. Including the taxi/subway ride from our apartment, that would run around $50 total for our family of three.

However, since I joined the family, the logistics got more challenging and the premium to have a private car/taxi became most justifiable. So for $70-75 all-in ($52 ride + tolls/tip), we had been using Dial-7 limo service which lets us schedule in advance and gets us door-to-door to the airport.

But there's an expression we use a lot in my family - "You get what you pay for." So when you choose the cheapest option ($52), we don't expect to get the shiny 2014 Lincoln Towncar. We'd often get the 2003 Toyota Camry or even a Dodge Minivan. Basically, they offer the fare to any driver who's willing to take the lower fare.

UberX, however, offers a very compelling value proposition for this route.

First, they have a "flat fare" of about $65 (though it does vary very slightly to account for tolls). For example, our most recent fares were $67.45 and $68.15.

Second, they have much higher standards for all their drivers. Every car is kept very clean and relatively new.

Third, the payment system is seamless. No paper slips to fill out. No Square readers to swipe. No awkward moments where the driver stands over you while you fill out the tip. You just step out and say, "thank you."

So for a lower price, you get a better experience.

B. Non-Manhattan Cities
Uber is currently in multiple cities across the world, but they face a lot of political headwinds in just about all of them. Because they're so disruptive (basically adding tons of unregulated driver capacity into a tightly regulated ecosystem), there's a lot of push back from incumbent services.

Take Orlando for example. My father was suggested Mears Transportation to get from the airport to our hotel (Disney Swan). That's a 22 mile drive each way. To take 6 passengers, we would have needed a van and Mears quoted us $103 total. UberXL quoted us $41-53 total!

The customer will always gravitate towards the option that makes the most compelling value proposition. And when UberXL is able to offer ~50% lower pricing than Mears Transportation in Orlando, it's hard for many passengers to pass up that kind of savings for the benefit of the driver having a regulatory license. Unfair? Definitely. Dangerous? Perhaps. But well received? Absolutely! After all, the masses will vote with their wallets.

Another Orlando example. Each day this weekend, my father and Paul had to go to the Convention at the Rosen Centre. It was about a 10.5 mile trip each way, mostly on Highway 4. How much do you think it cost with UberX?

Before you answer, here are some NYC UberX data points.

(A) the above UberX trip from our apartment in Manhattan to Newark Airport was 17.5 miles and cost $68 including tolls.
(B) a Manhattan UberX ride going 22 blocks north and 2.5 blocks west in Midtown was 1.6 miles and cost $13.62 (before surge pricing was applied).

The 10.5 mile trip in Orlando (from Disney Swan to Rosen Centre) cost just $11.90.

Zurich Airport

Flight #87 - Swiss Air 256
Zurich (ZRH) – Tel Aviv (TLV)
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Depart: 10:45PM / Arrive: 3:30AM
Duration: 3hr 45min
Aircraft: Airbus 330
Seat: 28E, 28F and 28G (Economy) 
Earned: 1,747 miles
Lifetime Miles: 169,636 miles

After our 14 hour layover in Switzerland where we took an overly long powernap and checked out the city center, we made our way back to Zurich Airport for our connecting flight to Israel.

Our flight was chosen to maximize the time we had on the ground, but it meant that we'd be arriving at a very odd hour in Tel Aviv, 3:30AM. The flight was really too short to get meaningful sleep, so we just played it by ear - a first for my anal Asian father (Great. Now, I think my LCD blog will show up when people Google search for "anal" and "Asian".)

Background Context
Many years ago, my father took a connecting flight through Madrid on his way to visit my mother in Israel. He had previously been in London before Spain, so I'm not surprised that the El Al security team took notice of my father when the boarding passengers had to line up to be interviewed at the gate. Let's review the facts.

1. Single male traveling solo.
2. Asian descent but an American passport.
3. American citizen, but his ticket originated in London.
4. Traveling to Israel to visit someone he barely knew.

As a result of their fact pattern assessment, my father was taken downstairs to the secure area where the entire contents of his carry on were opened so that each individual item could be placed on the table and inspected. Worried that he would miss his flight, he was told that the flight would wait until they were finished with their search. Sure enough, the flight was held for my father (and the other Hasidic rabbi being searched alongside him). But the lesson was that you should arrive to the departure gate with plenty of extra time.

Back to Zurich Airport
We arrived at the airport just after 8PM. We checked in and dropped off our luggage at the front counter and proceeded to the security checkpoint. Interestingly enough, there was no line at all and we were through in a matter of seconds.

My father found a map of the Zurich Airport (seen here) and the layout looked simple enough - one long L shaped hallway with an upstairs. He checked both the boarding pass and the television monitors to see which gate they'd be departing from, but the gate had not yet been assigned.

Since most of the retail stores in the airport were closed for the evening, we decided to go upstairs to the closest Swiss Lounge so we could relax a bit with the extra time we had.

Remember, flyers with Star Alliance Gold Status get lounge access. My father had gold status on United and Turkish Airlines. My mother had gold status on Aegean Airlines. And I was about to get Aegean Gold status as well. Of course, only one passenger needed gold status to get the rest of us in, but the Songer Family is always prepared.

The Swiss Lounge was actually 2 lounges. One was the Business Lounge (for those traveling on business class fares) and the other was the Senator Lounge. Given there were probably more business class passengers in the world than Senators, we opted for the latter in hopes that it would be modestly better appointed and less crowded.

We didn't have a chance to see the Business Lounge to compare, but the Senator Lounge was exactly what we hoped for. It was pretty stylish, clean and had two levels. There were so few passengers there - unlike the overly crowded United lounges back stateside. We quickly found a comfortable area to sit on the 1st floor, and my mother went off to get us some snacks before our flight.

My father passed on the free hard alcohol and went for some local beer while my mother had some coffee. The food at this downstairs station, however left a lot to be desired - mostly pretzels, peanuts and small sandwiches. Not quite enough for a make-shift dinner before our flight, but you really can't complain too much when everything is complimentary.

My mother and I made the most of it and celebrated our successful Zurich adventure. But then my father decided to check out upstairs to see what else the lounge had.

And sure enough, his instincts were spot on. There he found even more seating and even more food. But not just more of the same snacks. There was hot food (beef with potato dumplings and cheese ziti) as well as several different salad options. Jackpot!

After we ate, my father decided to check the departure gate in case we had time to check out the other Swiss Lounge, but he noticed the TV monitor had Gate E46. He didn't see Gate E on the map prior, so he then pulled up an airport map he found online.

Sure enough, there was actually a Gate E that was actually pretty far from the Main Terminal we were at. The Lounge attendant said it would take about 20 minutes to walk over and that we'd have to take the shuttle train. Oddly enough, that was the section we arrived in 14 hours earlier, but we hadn't been paying attention.

Normally, we would have waited til just 5 minutes before boarding started before leaving the lounge. Thankfully, since we had asked her early enough, my family had enough time to pack up and prepare for our long walk over to Gate E.

After two different sets of escalators, a crowded shuttle train, another few escalators and an elevator, we finally found ourselves in Gate E with enough time to spare that my father picked up a Zurich magnet and postcard as souvenirs. Disaster avoided and lesson learned.

Car Seat?

So far since I've turned 2 years old, we've tried out a few different strategies for how I fly. Up until a few months ago, I had been perfectly content sitting on my parents' laps with the occasional flight where there would be an empty seat in our row for me to use.

Now that I have to pay for my own seat, my family has tried (a) bringing a child car seat onboard, (b) hoping I sit still without a car seat, as well as (c) continuing to sit on my father's lap the entire flight. I'm still not 100% convinced there's a way that I prefer over the others, but sometimes logistics dictate more than personal preferences.

For example, our flight down to Austin a few months ago, we had to make a tight connection in Charlotte, so checking our car seat would have been taking the risk that it didn't show up in Austin's baggage carousel when we absolutely needed it to drive an hour to San Antonio. So in that case, we lugged the car seat through the airport and brought it on board to secure to my window seat. On that same Texas trip, but on another flight, we called an audible since I didn't want to be strapped down. Instead of losing our 3rd seat to an unused car seat, we went to the flight attendant and asked to gate check it at the last minute before the boarding door closed.

And now, tomorrow we're flying trans-Pacific non-stop to Hong Kong. While it might be nice to have a car seat with us on board to alleviate my parents from having to hold/watch me the entire 16 hour flight, we really have no need for the car seat at all while we're in Hong Kong given the abundance of efficient and cheap public transportation. And if I again decide I don't want to sit in a car seat on the plane, then we'd just lose the use of that 3rd seat because there's no where else to store a car seat once we've taken off. Of course, not having me strapped down while my parents sleep for 5-7 hours could be problematic also, as I've been known to try to get out of my seat and wander down the aisles when they're not looking. Of course, that's in addition to the off chance of strong turbulence thrusting me out of my parent's arms and helplessly into the air.

So what should we do? I know most of my readers usually look to me for child travel advice, but I'm open to any ideas or suggestions.

Connecting Flights

Flight #76/77 – US Airways 
Austin (AUS) – New York (LGA) via CLT 
Sunday, January 19, 2014 
Depart: 11:51AM / Arrive: 5:52PM (Scheduled)
Duration: 5 hr 1 min 
Aircraft: CRJ 900 / Airbus 319 
Seat: Row 13A, 13B and 13C (Economy) 
Earned: 1,576 miles 
Cost: $254 / person (round trip) 
 Lifetime Miles: 142,469 miles

I'm fortunate enough to live in the BEST city in the world. In fact, it's so great that there are three well-trafficked airports serving New York City (JFK, LGA and EWR). And furthermore, EWR is a primary hub airport for United Airlines. That means that I can almost fly anywhere in the United States, most large European cities and the major Asian cities on direct non-stop flights.

However for many of us (especially those outside the main hub airport cities), there are times when the destination isn't served by a single direct flight. Connections can add a lot of frequent flyer miles and oftentimes bring down the cost of your airfare, but they can also often cause you to spend a lot of extra time in transit or worse, stuck at the airport if you happen to miss your connecting flight.

Background
Our return trip coming back from Austin was one of those risky connecting flights where there wasn't much room for error. We were scheduled to land at CLT at 3:19PM and our departing flight to LGA was scheduled to depart at 4:09PM, meaning they would start boarding at 3:39PM (just 20 minutes after our first flight was scheduled to land on the runway (not even dock at the arrival gate)!

Normally, my father thinks through these types of scenarios before booking the flights and plans accordingly. This time, however, he decided to risk the tight connection in Charlotte, because (a) he knew that CLT was a US Airways hub airport so there were several other flights to New York that afternoon and (b) we were flying in on Sunday and still had Monday (MLK Day) as a buffer in case we somehow weren't able to get on another flight that day. An extra night in Charlotte might not be so bad (especially since I've yet to visit anything other than Gate 15 of their airport).

Flight Delayed
Around 8AM the morning of our flight, my father received an alert on his Blackberry Travel App letting us know that our first 11:51AM flight was delayed by 25 minutes and wouldn't land in Charlotte until 3:45PM at gate E15.

Even at 2 years old, I realized that we would not have enough time to (a) taxi to the gate, (b) get off our plane, then (c) run to gate C10 (an entirely different airport concourse) with enough time to make our next flight that would stop boarding at 3:59PM.

I told my father to be proactive, so he went online to USAirways.com and looked up our itinerary. Of course, US Airways still had our flight being "On Time," but my father knew better than to go against Blackberry Travel, which always seemed to have better & quicker information than what the airlines choose to publicize.

Next, my father went on ITA Matrix to search for all afternoon flights from CLT to LGA (on both US Airways and other carriers) before he called US Airways to change our connecting flight. Why? Because he wanted to know what our alternate flight options were in case the US Airways agent had less than perfect reasoning ability information. He then went back to USAirways.com to see if they were still selling 3 seats on any of those afternoon flights. Everything was sold out until the 6:45PM flight.

Armed with some viable options, he then called US Airways (which he has programmed in his phone along with all the other airlines) and inquired about the flight status of his itinerary. Upon looking closer, the agent saw that the first flight was showing Delayed and that our connection might be too tight. She then gave us a second reservation on the 5:46PM flight so that we could still try to make the 4:09PM flight, but if not, we had a reservation on the 5:46PM flight. In this scenario, we'd have reservations on BOTH flights just in case.

If you're not familiar with traveling, this "solution" may sound like it would work out, but we knew better.

• First, having a reservation isn't the same thing as being ticketed (confirmed) with seat assignments. We'd essentially be going standby on the 5:46PM flight, meaning we'd only get ticketed if there were seats available. Assuming we weren't the only ones connecting, there may have been a mad rush for the seats on that flight, and we don't have any frequent flyer status/priority on US Airways.

• Second, we had a some luggage with us (including my car seat) that we could choose to either (a) check in or (b) carry on. This "solution" of double reservations pretty much meant that we could NOT check-in our car seat, because the baggage team would have NO idea if we were on the 4:09PM flight or the 5:46PM flight. In fact, given the tight connection, there was no way they'd be able to transfer onto the 4:09PM flight at all. So that meant we'd have to bring everything as a carry-on, which would make it that much harder for us to transfer all the way from Gate E15 to Gate C10 (as shown on the map above).

• And finally (and most importantly), my father already saw that the 5:46PM flight was sold out per USAirways.com.

So after confirming quickly with my mother (who always seems to see the right answer through a much simple lens than my over-analytical father), my parents decided to just take it easy and CHANGE our flight to the later 6:45PM flight.

By doing it this way, we would give up our seats on the earlier 4:09PM flight, but we would confirm our tickets and secure seat assignments on the 6:45PM flight. After a few minutes on hold for the US Airways agent to make the change, we were all set by 8:15AM and on our way to our free breakfast downstairs at the Westin Austin.

You Have Chosen Wisely
Now at the Austin airport we could check in my car seat and our larger bag (for free due to Star Alliance Gold status through his United Platinum status) and just pick them up in New York. Then we'd have about 2 hours to have an early dinner and relax at CLT airport between our flights. No frantic rushing or worrying. Plus, CLT Airport was a US Airways hub airport, so there were several US Airways Club Lounges we could access using either:

1. Our cancelled Platinum American Express cards that we kept for this exact reason even after closing the accounts;
2. My parents' Star Alliance Gold cards from foreign Star Alliance airlines (Aegean and Turkish); or
3. Our two US Airways lounge passes that came free with our Barclays US Airways credit card that we applied for in Feb 2013.

And to further reinforce our decision to confirm ourselves on the later 6:45PM flight, on our drive to the Austin airport, we received another notification that our first flight to CLT was further delayed another 40 minutes so it wouldn't depart until 12:55PM (more than an hour after originally scheduled).

At the end of the day, everything went as planned. We checked my car seat and large bag and had enough time to relax in the United lounge at AUS Airport before boarding our first flight. Then in the Charlotte airport, we enjoyed some mediocre Mexican food and virgin margaritas at one of the airport restaurants before going into the US Airways Club Lounge to watch the Broncos-Pats game. Our second flight departed on time and even had in-flight wifi available for $6.95. Our bags made it to LGA safe and sound and we were home by 9:30PM.

Summary Advice

• Use an App. It was key that we used a trip monitoring app such as Blackberry Travel that alerted us for flight delays before the airline notified us. If you're not a prehistoric smartphone user, then we recommend TripIt available on iPhones and Android.

• Have a BackUp Plan. We knew that there were multiple flight alternatives back to LGA (and even more to JFK or EWR). These were available to us because we didn't book the last flight of the night or the last day of a long weekend.

• Be Proactive. Checking available options BEFORE calling the airline. It's always good to know your options to feed the agent instead of relying on their concern for your well being.

• Think Through the Implications. Switching (and committing) to the later flight allowed us to check our bags and secure good seat assignments in advance (I love my window seats). We valued those features over getting home quicker and feeling rushed to get to the departure gate all the way across the airport.