Marking more items off the list

Last month was a very good month for the List. Two of the items were seeing the Harbor Lights show in Hong Kong and flying on Singapore Airlines. I flew on Singapore Airlines to Hong Kong and Singapore for vacation.

I put the light show on the list because I once read a blog post about it and loved the pictures posted of all the buildings lit up so beautifully. Seeing the show would also be a good reason to go visit the city in general. I like big cities (and I cannot lie…) and Hong Kong is one of the biggest of all.

Singapore Airlines made the list because I read a lot of frequent flyer blogs and forums and several of them mentioned how fantastic the Singapore service is and how they usually rank among the best airlines in the world. At the time that I wrote the list, I had never flown on any non-North American-based airline, so I was really curious what airlines in other countries were like. It turns out that Singapore really is as nice as the other bloggers say, especially in first class.

Since I like to be a tease, I’ll write more about both experiences next week. But I’ll say this much- if it wasn’t for the list, I would have missed out on the opportunity to do this trip because I wouldn’t have been looking out for it.

Happy adventuring!

 

Dealing with grief on the road

My grandfather and I.

During my trip to London and France back  in March, I had to deal with something no traveller ever wants to deal with.

The death of a loved one.

My grandfather’s passing was not a surprise. He had suffered a fall earlier this year and had not been doing well since then. I did see him the weekend before I left and got to tell him one last time that I loved him.

At one point I wondered if I should cancel the trip or make changes. But both my mother and my grandmother wanted me to go. And so I went. Since my family didn’t want me to change my travel plans, I didn’t want to be notified of my grandfather’s death if it occurred. It’s not because I didn’t care- far from it. But I wasn’t going to be in a time or place where I could really go through the grieving process.

My grandfather died a day after I left. Since the trip lasted about a week, my family wanted to let me know that he had passed before I found out about it on Facebook. So they waited a couple of days while I took my flight across the English Channel and enjoyed all the other activities associated with that event.

After the event, I went back to London to spend a few days exploring the city. As I walked to Buckingham Palace, I spotted a Starbucks. Some people see their logo as the international sign for a coffee fix. I see it as the place to get my wifi fix. So I stopped and hopped online. I try not to spend too much time online while travelling, but I was coordinating with some online folks that I would soon get to know offline the next day. That’s when I got the e-mail from my dad letting me know that my grandfather had passed away.

I didn’t break down and cry. I didn’t sob. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t feel anything. Psychologists say that the first stage of grieving is shock. Thank goodness for that. I needed to stay in that moment. To put my feelings aside for a while. So I packed all my grief into a bag to unpack when I got home.

The e-mail also let me know that his funeral was going to be the next day. I was going to miss it. My family wanted to postpone it until I got back, but other circumstances prevented that.

The British have a saying: “Keep Calm and Carry On”. So that is what I did. That was all I could do. I did all the touristy things I had planned from wandering the Tower of London to posing with the red phonebooth to meeting up with friends at an English pub.

I kept calm and carried on through the airport and on the flight. I kept calm and carried on through the next day when I visited my grandmother.

And then I went to my grandfather’s grave. I couldn’t keep calm and carry on anymore. But I didn’t need to. I could finally unpack all the emotional baggage I had been carrying.

Six month later, I don’t regret one moment of my trip. I knew it was something my mom and grandmother wanted me to do, and I’m sure my grandfather would have wanted the same. I do wish I could have been there for his funeral, but it wasn’t to be.

I miss my grandfather very much, and I do expect to see him again someday. But in the meantime, I think he would be happy knowing that I’m out seeing the world. He did the same thing himself when he was younger and in the navy. It is important to grieve, but also important to live.

 

 

Brushes with fame

During my travels I’ve had a couple of unexpected brushes with famous people. They were never planned, but they were always fun.

My first brush with fame came in 2008 when the presidential election process was in full swing. I decided to take a few days off and go explore Philadelphia for the first time. I was walking by Independence Hall one evening when I noticed that a crowd was gathering and that part of the street was blocked off. I asked a bystander what was going on and they told me that John McCain, the Republican candidate for president, was inside the building doing a speech. The crowd was hoping he would come out and shake hands afterwards. I didn’t need to be anywhere soon, so I joined in with the crowd and waited. The Secret Service soon came out and moved everyone to the sidewalk. They confirmed that McCain was there and would take a moment to greet the crowd before leaving. The Secret Service also told the crowd to keep their hands empty when reaching for McCain’s hand for a handshake.

The view of Independence Hall was obscured by security cars and news trucks, so it was hard to see what was going on. People in the crowd were getting restless. But finally people came out of the building. First out was Meredith Viera, the co-anchor of the Today Show at the time. Then the crowd went wild as McCain came out and waved. He didn’t try making a speech- even if he did, it would have been impossible to hear him over the crowd. He went down the line and did the handshake bit. Despite my 5′ 2″ frame I somehow managed to reach over the crowd and shake his hand for barely a second, and he then moved on. At the end he gave one last wave before being escorted to his car.

McCain lost the election two months later. But the experience of meeting such a prominent politician in a city known for its political history became the highlight of my Philly trip.

My second brush with fame came earlier this year in the UK. I went to a Women of Aviation event that celebrated the first time a woman flew over the English Channel. Pilots from around the world came out to the event, which involved flying over the Channel to the French side. Two of those pilots was the drummer of Pink Floyd, Nick Mason, and his wife Annette. They flew in their own beautifully-painted helicopter. Nick couldn’t stay long, but he did talk about how he became a pilot. Annette stayed as she was going to join the aerial convoy in the helicopter.

I was going to be flying in a different plane across the Channel. But plans changed and passengers were getting shuffled around. Shortly before the first plane took off, another girl asked if I wanted to fly in the helicopter with her. Fly in the

Annette Mason working the helicopter across the English Channel.

Pink Floyd helicopter? With the wife of one of the band members? Oh heck yes! Annette was every bit the rock star as she posed for the cameras with the helicopter before we loaded up.

The flight was spectacular and talking with Annette and the others in the helicopter made for good conversation. The flight lasted nearly45 minutes and went by the Cliffs of Dover, over the water and along the French countryside. At the airport, we were all treated like rock stars with media taking pictures and a large crowd welcoming us.

For one moment, I got to pretend to be a famous person too. Annette eventually had to fly back, but not before participating in some presentations and posing for many pictures.

I don’t know when I’ll run into a famous person next, but when I do, I hope it’s another memorable travel experience.

 

Interview with Million Mile Secrets

I did an interview about travel and what inspired me to start this blog with Daraius of Million Mile Secrets. If you want to find out what goal I’m working on next, go visit Million Mile Secrets.

 

 

Help send me across the English Channel!

I’m a finalist in a contest to win a free trip to Europe, but I need your vote to win. Head on over to the Women of Aviation site and vote for Elizabeth. Thank you so much!

 

Help send me across the English Channel!

I’m a finalist in a contest to win a free trip to Europe, but I need your vote to win. Head on over to the Women of Aviation site and vote for Elizabeth. Thank you so much!

 

Friday Photo #9- The Absence

The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is this weekend. To honor those who lost their lives and for all the first responders who ran in to help, I’m sharing a photo from my first trip to New York in 2009. I never had the opportunity to visit the World Trade Center before the attacks occurred. But standing next to the WTC site gave me a sense of absence. Several times during my trip people would point to the gap in the skyline where the towers were. I felt the absence of the towers and of the loved ones who perished. It was a sorrowful moment, but a hopeful one as well. Construction cranes were busy repairing not only the damage to nearby building, but the damage done to good people everywhere. While nothing can be done to bring the dead back, it is good that the people of New York and the world can keep moving forward while keeping the memories of the absent alive in their hearts.

Ground Zero. The World Trade Center towers stood in front of these towers.

 

Friday Photo #6- Blooms in Buenos Aires

When I went to Buenos Aires in April, I expected to find things like lots of wine and tango dancers. I found both, but I certainly didn’t expect to find this giant metal flower located near one of the city’s universities. And just like a real flower, it closes up at night.

The "Floralis Generica", located in the Palermo district of Buenos Aries.

 

How I got flights to South America for $150

Flights I booked to South America.

Earlier this month I made my first award redemption using frequent flyer miles. And it was a bit of a doozy. I’m flying to South America with a friend and we’re flying out of Miami to Lima for a couple of days, then to Easter Island for a few more days and then on to Buenos Aires before returning back to Miami. It’s a total of three countries in 11 days, so it’s a bit of a whirlwind trip. It’s the first time either one of us has been to South America.

And the ironic part about the booking? Despite the miles being called “frequent flyer miles” I’d never set foot on the airline that I got the miles from. Plus, I got all the flights in business class. And my share of the taxes and fees only $150.

Here’s how I did it, and how it can still  be done through other methods.

I got the idea for the trip about a year ago. Near the end of 2009, Chase Bank offered a credit card that earned British Airways miles. Most of the time, banks will offer a 25,000 mile sign up bonus, which is enough miles to get a coach seat on a US domestic flight. Chase offered a whopping 100,000 mile sign up bonus. That’s enough to get 4 roundtrip domestic tickets or two roundtrip coach tickets from the US to Europe. It was an insane offer.

The folks over at a discussion forum for frequent flyers jumped all over this. They discussed creative ways those miles could be used. One of the suggestions was to use the miles on another oneworld carrier. Oneworld is one of three major airline alliances that most airlines belong to. Alliance members can usually book seats on each others’ flights, share lounges and use miles for award redemptions on other airlines. Because of the way British Airways redemption chart is set up, 80,000 miles could be used to book a business class seat from North America to South America. British doesn’t actually fly from the US to South America, but both American Airlines and LAN do.

Another bonus is that British allows for a stopover in each direction when booking a roundtrip. So I could fly from Miami on LAN to Easter Island and stopover in Lima, Buenos Aires or a number of other possible destinations in South America.

So, just by getting a credit card, I could get myself a very cheap trip to South America. Unbelievable! I jumped on the deal and applied for the card. The card itself had an annual fee of $75 and in order to get the full 100,000, I needed to spend $2,000 on the card in six months. Since I run most of my normal spending through a credit card and then pay it off in full each month, meeting the spend requirement was not a problem.

I got the card in January, and by the time summer rolled around I had the miles. By then, I had decided that I didn’t want to go to South America by myself. Which meant that I would need to find a way to get another 60,000 miles so I could get two tickets and take a friend along.

Enter the Starwood Preferred Guest card. SPG was running a promotion where you could get 30,000 points for signing up for their card. Now SPG is a hotel program for the Starwood chain of hotels (which include Westin, Le Meridian, etc.). How would that help me get airline miles? The program allows member to transfer points to over a dozen airlines and most have a 1:1 ratio of points to miles. And if a member transfers 25,000 points in one transaction, SPG throws in another 5,000 points because they’re just that awesome. So that put my mileage total to over 135,000 miles. Getting the last few miles involved a number of tactics, including running my normal spend through the card, getting a referral bonus for getting another person to sign up for the SPG card, and yes, a little flying too (thanks to an earlier deal offered by Expedia).

This month, I finally got all the miles I needed so it was time to give British Airways a call. Because of the complexity of the itinerary, booking online wasn’t an option. Before ringing them up, I used their website to make sure there were award seats available on all the flights I wanted. I also picked out some backup flights just in case I couldn’t get on my first choice. One phone call and 25 minutes chatting with a gentleman with the most charming accent later, I had all the flights. The flights were free, but I had to pay some taxes and fees on them which added up to just under $150 for each ticket. Had I bought the tickets outright, it would have cost more then $3,100 per ticket. Not bad at all for getting a couple of credit cards and doing some online research.

While both the Chase and the SPG promotion are both long gone, banks are constantly offering new promotions. They’re a quick way to get a bunch of miles if you don’t fly much, have good credit and can avoid carrying a balance.

If you wanted to do a similar trip, Citibank is offering some cards that will give 75,000 American Airlines miles for signing up. American offers business-class flights on LAN for 100,000 miles, but doesn’t include the extra stopovers. You can have multiple airlines though, so it makes it easier to get to a LAN hub. Of course, there’s plenty of other partners and options to choose from, including to many destinations in Asia, Australia and Europe.

If you’re looking for other ways to save on travel costs, check out my post on travel hacking.

 

The Travelling Adventurer has moved!

Well, with a new year comes a new blog layout and a new server. This blog is now being hosted under a new domain name at thetravellingadventurer.com. This version of the blog will no longer be updated. So click on over to the new version of the site and be sure to update your bookmarks. Hope to see you there!