Halloween Weekend in Chicago

Since we live in the urban jungle of New York City, I never get to enjoy the "traditional" Halloween trick-or-treating that many other American kids do.

So now that I'm old enough to understand and appreciate Halloween, my parents decided to visit our friends Jack & Connor in the Chicago suburbs where we could trick-or-treat in their residential neighborhood.

Of course, we flew out on an early Friday afternoon fight United Airlines from LaGuardia after stopping by the American Express Centurion Lounge for a complimentary lunch (juicy fried chicken and buttery mashed potatoes).

The flight board took off on time and arrived a bit early. Aside from the gate lice at the LGA boarding gate, we had no complaints on our flight. I took my nap during the flight

After landing at Chicago O'Hare, we took the complimentary hotel shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express. Normally, we'd opt for a Starwood property, but IHG was running an Accelerate Promotion where we'd earn 43,200 IHG points.

That Friday evening, my parents and I went over to our friends house where we kids made our own personal pizzas. It's not exactly Chicago Deep Dish, but hey, we're only children!

Then after our pizza dinner, my parents and friends surprised me with an early birthday party. They even got me my favorite My Little Pony on the birthday cake.

The next day was Halloween. Unfortunately, there was a huge thunderstorm for most of the day, putting our trick-or-treating at risk. But thankfully, by 6PM, the rain passed, and it ended up being a cool autunm night - perfect for house hopping.

I was supposed to be dressed up as a princess, but it was too cold for me. My mother insisted I wear sweatpants, a jacket, gloves and a hat. So my outfit wasn't really screaming royalty. But I was just happy we were able to trick-or-treat!

Happy Birthday, Connor!

One of my two favorite friends, Connor, just turned 2 years old. He's the younger brother of my best friend, Jack.

Even at his young age, Connor had his share of lap child flights, visiting me in New York last year and meeting me in Orlando earlier this year. Now, his parents will have to pay for his own seat on the plane.

While that will be an additional cost, I'm sure his mother will appreciate not having to put him on her lap for multiple hours at a time. Connor's a big boy!

Happy birthday from New York, Connor!

Easter Egg Hunt

I'm only 3.5 years old, but I'm already trained to expect a plane ride every Easter weekend.

My first one (2012), we went to Bermuda for the long weekend. There, my parents got me a babysitter while they drove around on a scooter all over the island.

My second one (2013), we were in Mendoza, Argentina enjoying South American wine country.

My third one (2014), my family and I strolled through the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans as we watched the fantastic NOLA Easter Parades.

This time around, we were flying to Chicago (well, NW suburbs), to visit my friends Jack & Connor. Having never experienced a "normal" Easter holiday, I was looking forward to seeing how most American families celebrated.

Of course, my father always likes to remind me that Easter is actually a religious holiday to commemorate the day "Jesus came back after going away." I'm not sure I really follow yet, but 3 year old kids like me enjoy the bunnies, eggs and chocolate that our local CVS promotes as soon as St Patrick's Day is over.

On Good Friday, Jack & Connor and I decorated some cookies. Apparently, not a well known Easter tradition, but we had a lot of fun. I made some awesome desserts.

The next day, we all drove out to a farm in rural Illinois where someone's cousin was throwing a family get together. I tagged along with my buddies and wow, there was so much space!

The adults had hidden plastic eggs all over the property so we kids went wild looking for our egg surprises.

At the end of the day, I found plenty of eggs and had a few nice souvenirs from my first real Easter. Thank you Jack & Connor!!!

Cheap Chicago Weekend

Well, to be completely fair, we didn't actually go into downtown Chicago. We spent 4 days (3 nights) in the Northwest suburbs for my father's small business and to visit my friends Jack & Connor.

Nevertheless, including flights, transportation and hotels, we got through this weekend trip having spent just $143 out of pocket. Here's how we did it.

Taxi
We had to get from our apartment in Manhattan (Flatiron/Chelsea) to LaGuardia at 6AM. LGA Airport is the closest NYC airport and has the shortest security lines, though it also has the least amenities. But to save time and money, we prefer flying out of LGA. We just caught a regular NYC Yellow Cab and it cost us $41 including tolls and tip. Since it was a business trip expense, we put it on my father's Business Starwood American Express.

Cash out of pocket: $41

Flights
From LGA-ORD, we used 7,500 Avios + $5.60 for each one way tickets on American Airlines. We were lucky that the aircraft used was one of American's newer configurations, with a revamped main cabin seat and sleek touch screen in-flight entertainment system. Unfortunately, they charged for most shows and movies, so we just caught up on our sleep.

Our return flight home used the same British Airways Avios redemption scheme. So another 7,500 Avios + $5.60 per person. Unfortunately, the return flight was less than ideal: (a) not on the new aircraft with no entertainment system, (b) we were seated in the very last row, (c) it ended up delayed 2 hours and (d) being 2.5 years old, I had a screaming fit for a good 30 minutes for an unknown reason. But it still cost us just $17 in taxes for 3 passengers.

Cash out of pocket: $34

Hotels
Given my father was just 3 nights away from hitting 2015 Starwood Platinum status, we decided to focus all our hotel stays with them. Fortunately, we had a Sheraton Suites nearby in Elk Grove Village and they had availability to book with points. Thursday and Friday nights were 3,000 and 4,000 SPG points, respectively, for a free night award. So 7,000 SPG points got us 2 free nights with no cash out of pocket. Because my father was a 2014 SPG Platinum elite, we also received (a) 500 SPG points as a welcome gift, (b) free wifi, (c) free access to the Sheraton Club Lounge where we could have complimentary breakfast and evening snacks and soft drinks.

For our final night, we decided to stay closer to O'Hare Airport given we didn't want to be rushed in the morning. So we stayed at another Starwood hotel - Four Points O'Hare in Schiller Park. While not the most glamorous location, behind an office building construction site and BP gas station, it served its purpose of having a clean place to sleep the night before our flight home. For just 3,000 SPG points, we had another free hotel night with (a) 250 SPG as a welcome gift and (b) free wifi internet. The Four Points did not, however, have a lounge for free breakfast in the morning, but they did offer a free airport shuttle every 20 minutes.

Cash out of pocket: $0

Taxis
To get from our friend's place to The Four Points in Schiller Park, we used my father's Uber account. They're currently giving away Free Rides (up to $30) for new sign ups. We weren't entirely sure how much the ride would be, but it ended up being just $23 (including tolls)! By way of comparison, a few months earlier when my father took a regular taxi from ORD Airport to Rolling Meadows (15 miles or about 20 minutes), it ran him about $55 (more than double).

And after we landed in NYC, to get home, we took a regular NYC taxi from the "secret" taxi stand and it ran us another $45 (including tip and toll).

Cash out of pocket: $68

Conclusion
So for a 3 night long weekend vacation/work trip, we only spent $143 in cash in travel (of which $86 for NYC taxi rides to/from LGA Airport). That's just $48/night! Obviously, we spent money on food, but we would have spent that anyway had we stayed at home. But it was a great way to see my best friends for a very reasonable amount of money.

Chicago for $6/person

Flight #94 – American Airlines 315
New York (LGA) – Chicago (ORD)
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Depart: 7:29AM / Arrive: 8:59AM
Seat: Economy
Earned: 0 miles (733 miles flown)
Cost: 7,500 Avios / person + $6
Regular Price: $160 / person
Mile Redemption: 2.1 cents/mile
Lifetime Miles: 186,217 miles

After a month off, we're finally back traveling. While this is more of a work trip for my father's small business, my mother and I are tagging along to visit our friends Jack & Connor and their parents. Because we're so points/miles heavy these days, we decided to use one of our favorite mile redemptions -- the short-haul flight on American Airlines using British Airways Avios.

Booking

Remember, British Airways Avios is a distance based program. Since NYC-Chicago is about 733 miles apart, this would fall into the 7,500 Avios redemption band for our one-way flight. We only had to pay cash for the associated taxes (about $5.60/person).

Just 83 miles closer and it would have saved us 40%!!! But compared to the typical 12,500 frequent flyer miles it would normally cost on American, United or Delta, we're very thankful to pay only 7,500 Avios and $6 per person.

We did this Avios for AA redemption back in December when we flew NYC-Puerto Rico roundtrip for just 20,000 Avios miles (vs. 35,000 AA miles). My father also "used" this redemption when he was trying to get his lost passport replacement expedited. You can read those other posts if you want the details behind the Avios program and how to redeem them on American Airline flights.

Post-Booking
Now, since my father has his new Citi American Airlines Mastercard, he gets the benefits associated with the credit card on his American flights, including free checked bags and priority boarding, but only when his AA frequent flyer # is on the reservation. But when you make an Avios booking, it automatically puts your BA frequent flyer # on the reservation and AA's website can't update it.

Last time, he still got TSA Pre-Check and priority boarding without having this AA number on the reservation. But just in case, my father went to Finnair's website (a OneWorld partner of American Airlines and British Airways) to find his reservation and update his frequent flyer #.  It's important to note that BA has its own reservation code and American has a different one. But to find it on Finnair, you use the BA one.

Now when it came time to selecting seats, my father remembered why he liked having elite status on United. We weren't able to pre-select seats together, and had to pick from a variety of middle seats in different rows. So we picked seats 21B, 22 B and 23B. Since he knew that the airlines alway keeps a few seats together for families traveling together, he knew we'd get re-seated at check in. And worst case, I'm sure someone would give up their aisle/window seat to avoid being seated next to a 2.5 year old sitting by herself.

Conclusion
We were able to get a direct flight on American Airines for a fraction of the miles normally required. So thanks to BA Avios, we're able to spend some quality time with our good friends in Chicago. Unfortunately, this Chicago trip is just a long weekend. In fact, we didn't find great availability on the return back to NYC, so we're flying back home Sunday at 12:30PM. I suppose that will be good for us to get back to our apartment by 4PM, but it would have been nice to spend all day Sunday relaxing with my buddies.

Jack & Connor in NYC - Part 2

The next day, we went to Central Park where I took them to my favorite playground there.

 

Before we left, we made sure our parents took us to the Central Park Carousel.

 

  

Because we got tired, we decided to go back home in the afternoon to take a nap so we could meet up later for dinner, then walk up Fifth Avenue towards Midtown. Here are Connor and I getting some quality stroller time together while Jack and his father check out the NYC Public Library.

We then walked behind the Library to walk through Bryant Park on our way to Times Square to see all the neon lights.

Despite the crowds of tourists, Jack was able to find some more of his favorite heros and celebrities, though Spider-Man seems to have gained 50 pounds since the day before.

Monday was Memorial Day so we all had the day off. Unfortunately, Jack and Connor were also going home that afternoon, so we decided to take them for lunch to get some traditional NY pizza near our apartment. We went to a local place called Bravo (not a famous NYC pizza joint), but they definitely had a wide variety of slices for our Chicago friends.

And finally, as we had some time to kill, we went to Union Square where they had a nice children's playground where I could show Connor how to swing like a toddler.