Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
All original content by me is licensed under the CC BY-NC 3.0 License
I’m flattered that you’re asking me of all people for advice, haha :3
If you’re a young globetrotter, I would consider…
- Where do you fly? Who [airline + alliance] serves the best routes to your most frequently visited airports? Delta was best for me until United/Continental merged and I had more EWR and NRT flights.
- Points aside, what actual perks does the card offer? Delta offers up to 9 of your companions free checked bags - Good for families. United offers 2 free passes into their lounges - Good for people who have to use connections or travel in unpredictable winter weather. Click for a list of each of their perks.
- Visa or Amex? This is pretty important. I have a Plat Amex, but find that a lot of little boutiques and restaurants I usually venture to won’t take it - But they do take Visa. If you go to France, many vendors will take Amex, but can’t take a chip-and-PIN-less Visa card from the US. Try to remember your fave stores/restaurants and whether they take Amex/Visa or not. It’s useless to have a point card you can’t use.
Vacation time. Later y’all!
Going off grid for a week - Time for our yearly big vacation! We’re making our way Eastwards; Year 1, Japan. Year 2, Hawai’i. Now we’re three years in and finally making it to the Caribbean! It’ll be my first time going South of Texas in the Western hemisphere :D
The Minutiae of an Airline Merger
Before the merger, Delta used to cut its limes in 10 slices while Northwest cut them 16 ways. The lime debate was even mentioned at a meeting attended by Mr. Anderson, the chief executive, who was told it saved Northwest about $500,000 a year. In the end, Delta stuck with its 10 slices. But the airline also realized that it had been loading more limes on its flights than it needed. So it is now carrying fewer limes.
…This about sums it up.
Ah, weather delays/cancellations.
Got the call at 4am that our original fligt had been cancelled from JFK-NRT. Delta auto-rebooked us onto Korean Air to connecting through Seoul, but forgot a minor detail: That we paid for first class seats. They had rebooked us in economy. Fine and dandy if we were going to be refunded the difference but they said that wouldn’t be possible unless we cancelled once and rebooked again on Korean. Well, we tried, and in the minute it took the agent to rebook the same seats, they were gone. A search for the next available flight brought us to DTW before ultimately leaving on Tuesday for NRT…not so much. We had all but given up, but one of the fantastic agents at IACE found us first class tickets on ANA/United for about the same amount, and so we’ve cancelled our original and rebooked Delta flights (good riddance) and hopped on a cab to catch our new flight leaving an hour earlier than our original.
Ah the joys of traveling…
Just can’t escape the bad weather… Minneapolis MN
