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.

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bienvenidos a Buenos Aires!

Flight #41 – TAM 8012
Rio De Janiero (GIG) – Buenos Aires (EZE)
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2013
Depart: 9:50AM / Arrive: 1:05PM
Duration: 3hr 15min
Aircraft: Boeing 767
Seat: 29A and 29C (Economy)
Earned: 1,240 miles
Cost: $400 / person
Lifetime Miles: 88,908 miles

After a brief stop in Rio De Janiero Airport (GIG) (that ended up only being 20 minutes because our inbound flight was delayed for 2 hours for de-icing), we made it on TAM 8012 to our final destination - Buenos Aires, Argentina yesterday afternoon.

The 3+ hour flight was pretty short relative to some I've been taking recently, but it was long enough for me to take a nap on my mother before throwing a small fit as we got off the plane.

Once we finally disembarked, I was anxious to get in my stroller, but they told us that the stroller we gate checked in JFK would meet us at the baggage claim after going through Immigration. Apparently I've been packing on some pounds because my father was complaining about his arms burning from holding me up while waiting in the Foreigners line until we were finally called up.

Immigration was pretty simple since my mother and I had my Israeli passport. My father and his US passport had the extra step of requiring proof of paying the Argentina entry reciprocity fee ($160 USD paid in advance). But since he was prepared, he just flashed the print out, and after a few keystrokes, he was cleared.

After getting our checked luggage (and my stroller) from baggage claim, we cleared customs and upon exiting, immediately came across 6 different taxi/rental car stands offering their services. It's a bit overwhelming and the similar signs made it seem like they were all the same company, but you had to look at the logo on the right side. Since my father never trusts random taxi drivers on the street (and likes using credit cards instead of cash), he opted to get one of these pre-paid taxis (called "remises") from one of the vendor stands.

He arbitrarily picked one vendor, but after reading up on it, they're all comparable prices (about $200-220 Argentine Pesos or about $40-45 USD) and levels of service. Many people liked using the "official Ezeiza taxi" but that stand was outside the 2nd set of doors and my father had already booked with another car service for $211 Argentine pesos ($41 USD). No sweat.

From the airport, the taxi took about 50 minutes with some light city traffic to our hotel in the Palermo neighborhood of the city. Unlike our adventures in Thailand, the taxi drivers in Argentina only speak Spanish. But I guess it's not as if NYC taxi drivers speak languages other than English, such as Arabic or Hindi... uh, wait a minute.

For those of you unfamiliar with Buenos Aires, it's a beautiful city that really reminds you of Europe for being a South American metropolis. From my naive perspective, it seems like Argentinians share a lot culturally in common with Italians, including their love of good red wine and never using the top 3 buttons on their shirts.

From what I've heard, Buenos Aires (aka BA) is a diverse city filled with a lot of culture, food, dancing and of course nightlife. However, since being 17 months old doesn't quite get you into the popular bars and clubs, I'll have to stick with the daytime activities like visiting El Caminito (seen here) and shopping around Recoleta.

For our first 5 nights in South America, my father decided to check out a non-chain hotel first, primarily because the major chains didn't have great hotels in the city (especially at attractive prices), but also because BA is well known for having amazing boutique hotels everywhere at very reasonable rates.

Based on TripAdvisor reviews, he picked Own Palermo Hotel (ranked #16) - a stylish small boutique 3.5 star hotel - for $142.50 USD per night including breakfast and wifi (2 out of the 4 best perks for having elite status at a chain). I guess it was kind of a non-Starwood version of W Buenos Aires but with only 16 rooms.

But since he didn't want to give up the chance to earn points, he booked the reservation using Pointshound.com which will award my father 3,040 United MileagePlus Miles for his 5 night reservation (just over 4 miles per $ spent). This will be the 3rd time my parents have used Pointshound (1st in Bangkok and 2nd in Koh Phangan). Both times, a few weeks after checkout, the miles posted to their United accounts as expected (albeit a little late). So far, so good, Pointshound.

Layover in Rio (Airport)

Flight #40 – TAM 8079
New York (JFK) – Rio De Janiero (GIG)
Monday, Mar 18, 2013
Depart: 8:10PM / Arrive: 6:55AM (+1 Day)
Duration: 9hr 45min
Aircraft: Airbus 330
Seat: 26D-26G (Economy)
Earned: 4,786 miles
Cost: $400 / person
Lifetime Miles: 87,668 miles

By the time everyone reads this on Tuesday morning, my parents and I will be in Rio De Janiero's airport waiting for our connecting flight to Buenos Aires.

The flight down to Rio was actually pretty decent especially since I only paid for a lapchild ticket (10% of adult fare). Originally, we were sitting in 29A and 29C along the left side of the plane that was configured in a 2-4-2 set up in Economy.

They called all passengers with special needs (disabled, pregnant or with infants), so we head right up to the front, by passing all the Brazilians waiting in line for regular boarding. When we boarded the plane, we secured overhead bin space for our backpacks and sat down in our seats with me sitting on my mother's lap as usual.

When you're accustomed to flying on United (and getting E+ seats with extra legroom), the TAM seats seemed very 1970's (tight seats and ugly fabric). I'm shocked they didn't allow smoking! The In Flight Entertainment systems were very small (3'x3') but at least they were touch screen and had about 20 recent movies including Life of Pi, Skyfall, and Silver Lining Playbook among others.

As the rest of the passengers boarded, the TAM flight attendant came up and said we could move up to row 26 and take all 4 center seats since they were open. She did warn us that they were right by the lavatories (but who cares when you're a small baby and can spread out over 4 seats?). So my parents and I traded our 2 left side seats for 4 center ones.

The good news was that the 3 of us spread out over 4 seats. The bad news was that the center arm rests (between seats E and F) didn't go up, so you couldn't lie completely flat - unless you were a small infant who only needed 2 seats to lay down. The other bad part was that being next to the bathrooms on an overnight flight meant that every time an old grandmother or large smelly man opened the door, the bathroom light hit you every time. Man, those Brazilians like to use the bathroom between 2-5AM.

But overall, my parents and I got some pretty decent sleep (and some less than decent in flight meals) and we were descending to Rio de Janiero before we knew it. Now that the long 9hr 45 min flight is over and now we just have a much more manageable 3hr 15min flight to Buenos Aires.

When we originally booked this flight, we thought about having a 23 hour layover so that we could leave GIG airport and spend a day in the actual city that I heard so much about in the Rio movie. After all, my father's 2008 Brazil visa was still valid through December 2013 and my mother and I had Israeli passports that didn't require a visa.

But my mother wasn't a fan of that idea claiming that Brazilian women were "dirty sluts and prostitutes." Now, despite my father's arguments otherwise, she didn't budge so we just kept our 3 hour layover and planned to stay in the airport.

Luckily, having a United Gold, Platinum or 1K card (which gives him Star Alliance Gold status) meant we could use either the TAM VIP Lounge or the Smiles VIP Lounge.

If he didn't have United status, he could also get access from either (A) his American Express Platinum Card which gives him membership to Priority Pass lounges or (B) his Chase Ink Bold card which gives him membership to Lounge Club.

So now after our 10 hour flight, we're likely going to head over to the TAM Lounge in Terminal 2 while we wait for our next flight. Hopefully it won't be as bad as the reviews that say it's "too crowded" and has "horrible food." At the very least, hopefully the showers are working because that would be a nice treat after the long overnight flight.

But, how does my father always know what lounges are available at which airports? Well, simple.

First, he first logs onto the Star Alliance Lounge Finder website and inputs his flight information. But sometimes, it comes up with nothing as in this particular case.

However, savvy flyers know never to take no as the final answer. So second, my father searches on Flyertalk.com.

For example, the Google search "site:flyertalk.com GIG airport star alliance lounge" leads to this Flyertalk Message Board post where a recent flyer confirmed he was able to enter the Smiles VIP lounge using his Star Alliance Gold card.

Reference Websites:

• Star Alliance Lounge Finder
• Priority Pass Club
• Lounge Club
• Flyertalk

South American Adventure

So back in November, my father was on Facebook comparing me against the babies of his high school friends when he came across a post by The Flight Deal that promoted TAM Airlines flights from New York to Buenos Aires for under $400/person. So he checked his March 2013 calendar, and surprise surprise... it was wide open. Booked!

Now I'm not an expert, but a $400 flight is damn cheap! In fact, because he likes to do such things, he checked the price for the same itinerary the next morning. It went back up to $1,200/person.

Apparently, it was a "mistake fare" - meaning someone in the pricing department accidentally published the wrong fare.

Maybe they left off the 1 in front of the 400?

Maybe someone in IT was disgruntled and played a prank?

Maybe it was part of a conspiracy by an international media mogul to get Americans to buy Argentine jeans because the Cuban embargo cut off the supply of Sansabelt slacks.

Who knows? But nevertheless, our tickets were booked and paid for at $400 each. And next week, we're off to tango in Buenos Aires!

Best of all, we'll be earning around 12,000 United miles because TAM is still part of the Star Alliance (until their merger with OneWorld's LAN Airlines closes early next year).

As my 3 readers know, I've yet to visit South America. The closest I've come is watching Disney Junior on cable where every other cartoon character that isn't Mickey Mouse has a Mexican accent.

My father figured that while we were all the way down in Argentina, we might as well swing by some other places. He was considering Iguazu Falls or Patagonia, but let me pick and I decided on Santiago, Chile instead.

Given we had just done the whole Amazing Nature thing in Thailand, I wanted some more cosmopolitan surroundings with museums, sidewalk cafes and historic landmarks. And my mother wanted some proper shopping in stores where the salespeople weren't barefoot or eating lunch in front of you.

So my father booked some flights between Buenos Aires and Santiago with a stopover in Mendoza (Argentina's wine country), returning to BA two days before our return flight back to New York.

I'm really looking forward to our next adventure and getting some more stamps in my Israeli passport (American passport holders have to pay $160 entry fees for both Argentina and Chile).

Even though it would have been nice to space it out a bit more from our recent Thailand trip, my father said he preferred having our big exotic trips done while he was still technically employed and getting health insurance benefits. Fine by me since my calendar was pretty wide open for March.

Here's our itinerary (for now):

1. Buenos Aires - 5 nights at Own Palermo Hollywood (cash)
2. Santiago - 5 nights at W Santiago (cash & SPG points)
3. Mendoza - 4 nights at Park Hyatt Mendoza (cash)
4. Buenos Aires - 2 nights at Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires (Hyatt points)

Guess Who's Back In Town

Flight #39 - United 912
Los Angeles (LAX) – New York (JFK)
Sunday, Mar 10, 2013
Depart: 10:45PM / Arrive: 6:59AM (+1 Day)
Duration: 5hr 14min
Aircraft: Boeing 757
Seat: 8C and 8D (Business)
Earned: 2,475 miles
Cost: 27,000 Citi Thank You Points + $65 / person
Lifetime Miles: 82,882 miles

By the time everyone reads this on Monday morning, my parents and I will have likely have landed at JFK after the 3rd red-eye flight on this return trip (BKK-ICN and ICN-LAX). After being away for such a long time (1 month in Baby time is like 4 years in Adult time), it's really nice to be home...

But we're only here for about a week.

You see back in November, my father (always on the lookout for a great deal) found a ridiculously low fare from NY to Buenos Aires (Argentina for those of you bad at geography) for only $400 / person on Brazil's TAM Airlines. Normally, a flight would cost at least $1,200.

NOTE:  For great airfare deals like this, sign up for The Flight Deal daily email. Or better yet, LIKE them on Facebook for real time updates, because the deals they find don't always last for more than a day (or sometimes a few hours).

Because TAM is a part of Star Alliance (until Q1 2014 when they merge with LAN and join the OneWorld Alliance), this Argentina trip will yield my parents 12,080 United Elite Qualifying Miles at a cost of just 3.3 cents per mile. Anything 5.0 CPM or below is a good mileage run, but 4.0 CPM or below is an amazing mileage run. So by early April 2013, my father will have already earned at least Silver status (25,000 miles) on United for 2014.

But of course, my parents are too cheap to fly JUST for the frequent flyer miles. They definitely take miles and points where they can but as long as it's a side benefit of their primary objective. In this case, we all get to visit Argentina (and Chile) for 2 weeks during their late Summer for a super low price. This will be the first time to Argentina for my mother and me, but my father was lucky enough to go there back in 2008 (as he loves to remind us).

Back then, it was free for an American passport holder to enter the country, but now, Argentina has followed the footsteps of its South American siblings (Brazil, Chile, Bolivia) and required a "Reciprocity Fee" of $160 USD to enter the country.

While technically it's not a visa fee (since Americans don't need a visa to enter Argentina), it's an entry fee that gives you 10 years of access. And it MUST be paid for in advance of your flight or they will likely not let you board the plane. Luckily, you can do everything online by clicking here (or going to https://virtual.provinciapagos.com.ar/ArgentineTaxes).

Luckily for me, I'm a dual citizen and can use my Israeli passport to avoid paying the fee. (But somehow, being legally required to join the Israeli IDF Military for 2 years when I turn 18 makes the Israeli Passport value proposition a bit less compelling.)

So anyway, for the next few days, look for some good general travel / miles & points / credit card sign up advice on Lapchild Diaries while we're in NY (since I'm sure you don't really want to read about my father running errands or my mother's dentist appointment). We'll get some good Argentina trip reports up on here shortly.