New York, Maui, and Anchorage, here I come!

My apologies for the lack of updates yesterday. After a fairly boring second half of the month as far as travel goes, I’m back in business. I flew up to New York yesterday to help my brother move, so was doing nothing but carrying boxes up stairs yesterday. My mom flew up as well to help, and I was reminded once again what an adventure it can be to travel with parents. My mom is well aware of my miles/airplane obsession (after all, she benefits quite a bit from it, since she almost exclusively flies international first class on miles), and she tries to embrace it as well. As we flew into LGA yesterday, she pointed to a plane and said “look Ben, it’s a  777.” It was an Airbus 319. I give her credit for trying, though.

I was also reminded how sensitive some people are to turbulence. One of the questions I get asked most often by non-frequent flyer friends is what the most turbulence I’ve experienced is. In my million plus miles over the past few years, I can’t think of one case of even moderate turbulence. But then again, I fly Cessnas and know what’s categorized as chop vs. turbulence, so I’m not all that sensitive to it. But after my Washington Dulles to LaGuardia flight yesterday, which had a bit of chop, I overheard a girl in the jetbridge saying she thought we were going to crash due to turbulence. We had a few bumps on the way down, but nothing that can even be categorized as turbulence.

Next month is looking pretty fun on the travel front, though. Next week it’s off to Maui for a couple of nights on a nested ticket. United has some great fares to Hawaii out of Seattle right now, thanks to Alaska’s crazy expansion to Hawaii, which is keeping the prices low. Instead of doing a direct turn I ended up booking a couple of nights at the Hyatt Regency using “Big Welcome Back” nights from Hyatt’s promotion, which I have to redeem by the end of next month anyway. From what I can tell, upgrades to Maui are an absolute joke. Not a single exit row seat is taken (meaning most likely very few Premier Executives and above), and there’s a total of eight Economy Plus seats taken on the outbound. I’m hoping I clear. 😉

After that it’s off to Anchorage for a quick mileage run. Gotta love United’s seasonal service. Though 6.5 hours on a 757 with nothing more than a fruit plate will make for a long flight.

And then it’s off for one more international trip for the summer. Stay tuned.

Anyway, happy travels to all, wherever they make take you!