point fu

Note to self: When planning a trip, I need to remember that if I find a good mileage fare to just book it — even if my plans aren’t totally finalized, even if it’s not exactly what i want. Points flights are usually free to cancel or change, so there’s no harm in grabbing a Plan B ticket while I’m still looking for Plan A.  I have a friend who constantly does this and I even gave her a drag name for it: Edith D. Itinerary. I tease her that she's not really happy unless she makes a substantial change to an upcoming trip at least once a week. I can definitely relate to the dopamine hit of clicking "Buy" on an airline website, so I get it! While I lovingly tease her for doing it too much, I definitely err on the side of doing it too little.   For this year's annual Sydney Mardi Gras trip I changed that, though! For whatever reason (general ennui?) I just didn't get around to booking it until 3 weeks before the trip. Yeah, flying to Sydney during its absolute peak tou...

UPDATE 3/2026 : I flew Qantas again (A380 LAX > SYD, no full trip report, sorry) and I wanted mention that it was a much better flight than the one I describe here from six months earlier. I don't know if it's the A380 versus the 787, or just a Dallas vs. LAX crew, but on the A380 I had proper turndown service like you'd get on ANA or Singapore, onboard espresso (with oat milk on offer), and a vastly friendlier and attentive crew than on my Dallas flight. The rest of the voyage (food, seat, no-wifi, etc.) was largely the same.    This was my first-ever trip on Qantas (!!) and, in short, it felt like United Polaris on a good day – pleasant staff, comfortable bed, decent food. 85,000 Alaska miles (topped up with my BILT card). It's a well-timed flight: take off around 10pm, eat dinner, go to bed, wake up, have breakfast, land at 6am in Sydney. I didn't even have time to watch a movie, just a couple games of Balatro ;) *gay gasp* 👎 As already mentioned, no wif...

United announced 3 big crappy changes which are all general devaluations of their miles and their overall program. I never personally used the Excursionist Perk , nor the instant full-fare coach upgrades, but I get why people are sad they're going away. For us, the news that Mileage Upgrade Awards are becoming dynamically priced later this year sorta blows a hole in our current, Australia-heavy strategy .  As I'd already mentioned, the per-leg cost of: a $1000-ish coach fare  + $300-$450  co-pay + 30,000 miles   was already starting to add up, but if I'm suddenly paying, say, 60,000 miles per leg for an upgrade instead of 30,000 then it's time to look at other options.  No good points game lasts very long (check my similar gravy-train farewell from 2014 ), and while I'm grateful for the 2 years of togetherness (and back health!) it's afforded us, it's time to start looking around at other options. For my next Sydney visit in June, I decided to follow a Sea...

UPDATE 5 Nov '21 : I've been checking every one of Qantas' flights departing LAX since the reopening and every one of them has had 30+ empty seats... Make of that what you will.   As I mentioned before : The second half of the reopening – allowing foreign tourists to enter Australia – will be greatly affected by these new flights' ability to draw down the number of "stranded" Australians abroad. The Prime Minister felt they needed to get these folks home before allowing foreigners to compete for seats on these flights. Given that, you'd think that the soon-to-resume Qantas flights from Los Angeles to Sydney would be packed to the gills. But no . Here's the first post-reopening flight's seat map: Now, keep in mind that those seats are currently going for $1200 each – literally 10x cheaper than they were going for before the reopening. The 5 flights following this one are similarly cheap, and similarly empty ( see seatmaps below ), even though i...

As I've mentioned before , Australia is planning on reopening its borders for Australian citizens/permanent residents to come and go. Even though we're really excited to be reunited with our Timbo, we've been very cautious about believing much of what we hear from the authorities down under. Even this very reopening announcement from the NSW Premier required a contradiction from the Prime Minister. I got an email from Qantas today that gives me some concrete reasons to believe that at least the first part of the border opening will happen – service from Sydney to London and Los Angeles will begin within a week. (Our boy Tim has a ticket the US in December, so we can spend the holidays together).  The second half of the reopening – allowing foreign tourists to enter Australia – will be greatly affected by these new flights' ability to draw down the number of "stranded" Australians abroad. The Prime Minister felt they needed to get these folks home before allowi...

The big news today is that Jetstar, Qantas, and Virgin Australia have all banned the Note 7 on their flights due it's exploding batteries.  Samsung's hokey way of handling the recall itself can't be helping matters. Hopefully none of them have trips to Australia planned anytime soon. Sadly, a child in Brooklyn was hospitalized this weekend by his exploding Note 7. UPDATE 4 (19 Oct): It's now a federal crime  in the USA to bring one on a plane.  UPDATE 3 (14 Oct): Now the airlines are stocking fireproof bags to contain them, and Samsung has discontinued the phone altogether. UPDATE 2 (5 Oct):  Looks like even the replacement versions  of the Note 7 are blowing up. Southwest airlines had one catch fire today before takeoff. UPDATE 1:  The Consumer Product Safety Commission  has urged all owners  to power them down, stop charging them, and await a proper recall. 🔥