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Us at DTW “prancing fluids”
As you can see from yesterday’s post my wife and I have made it home to SBN. We had a blast and the skiing was so much better than our last trip out to SLC. Last time some of the ski runs needed a mower not a snow groomer. This time all was white!
I used 25k Delta seats for me wife and I and used pay with points for a friend so he could end up on the same flights as us as he was connecting from another city. His cost 30k from SDF so not too bad. Our upgrades cleared 5 days out and my friend got to enjoy exit row at least. I did my normal thing with a pop in to see Jeff at the oraoxygen spa and the flights were uneventful and on time. All our luggage made it but two of my bags had BIG cuts. This is where my US AIR GS “hits” worked out great. One of the things I purchased was tiny rolls of duct tape.
They worked great until a permanent patch can be made. Who knew the GS points would help me so much when I travel. I will buy these each year GS or not as they are great to have I have found. Others in the TOPTIPS have said just use your big roll and wrap some around a pencil. That works too but I like simple.
The next big score was my rental car. I went with the Enterprise $9.99 a day weekend deal that BTW is good until MAY 23 if you need a car. If you have rental that spans more than the weekend you just book two reservations and then call and have them put into one afterwards by calling the local office where you will pickup. Now that worked really well for me as they gave me the $9.99 daily rate for the entire time!
Loved loved loved the little Dodge even though I only had 400 miles for the 4 days and went over by just 8 miles. All in it cost me $53 including TAX and was FREE with the last of my Capital One points from last year ( I will miss my C1 points so much )!
Now here is a tip you don’t want to forget. Ready? Every 3 months the Priority Club point breaks list comes out. The DAY it comes out, it does not show up in their system for a while. Sometimes as long 24 hours. Now, as soon as list is out, you can call and book rooms. What has to happen is this. They will first say rooms are sold out. You say no way in 1 hour? You will then ask for a supervisor to make an “AWARD NIGHT ADJUSTMENT” for the amount of points you need to book the room. For example: I booked my room at the Candlewood suites.
Normal rate was 15k/night. Point Breaks was 5k/night. I stayed 5 nights 2 rooms. So, I got 100k deposited and the rooms were booked. Here is the kool part. With my PC Visa card I get 10% rebate on all points spent. So, I will get 15,000 BACK.
Thus, my ALL IN cost in points for 5 nights 2 rooms will only be 35,000! I have done this several times and other readers have too so try it the day the next new list comes out sometime in mid-March!
The skiing was great! We had big fluffy flakes falling all day the 1st day at ALTA. The rest of the trip were “blue bird” days at Brighton, then Snowbasin and lastly Powder Mountain. PM is one of my favorite places to ski on the globe. If you go to Utah, please make the drive and go. You will love it. Plus, I had the chance to meet up with a blog reader, Steve, who is a ski patroller at PM as you can see below (before you say anything – yes I got some sun)!
If you go, look for him as he is a top notch guy and a great skier. It was good to make some turns with you Steve and hope to run into you next time at Powder Mountain!
I only used one Restaurant.com coupon on this trip as the other nights we HAD to go to some of my favorite “dinner stores”. Those are Red Rock and The Bohemian. The schnitzel at the Bohemian is so good – numm. The one coupon place we did try was Rinos (check your SOUND settings if you click link LOUD Italian singing on the way) and I would have never gone without the coupon.
It was great. Family run for 35 years. Food was WOW! Osso Buco in the photo was amazing! These people know food & for $2.10 cent cost I got $75 off my bill! I will be back to this place again.
The trip home I talked about yesterday and I hope you all saw the tip about thinking outside the box about how to score upgrades as a Medallion flyer. All-in-all a great trip and time to put the skis up for the season. Next up for us is my first ever 1st class trip on Lufthansa to Sweden that cost $220 + 270,000 miles. I can not wait. Then our summer trip on Delta in biz 200k and thanks to the mighty schedule change rules the flights are PERFECT and even biz class intra-Europe! Also my Award Wallet now shows 2.1 million points still to burn – where shall I go next?
To end today I will give away 2 more Delta Drink Coupons. How about this. Tell me if you like cold weather vacations or prefer warm weather when you take time off for a chance to win!
▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
American Express – RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
Click here for more information
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Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Warm, warm, WARM!!!!
I love cold weather getaways. I’m a cold weather person…and I just so happen to coach ice hockey, so it works for me! 😉
I always head to the Southern Hemisphere during summer, so I prefer cold weather vacations.
I prefer cold weather vacations! Opportunities for a vacation on the mountains and to ski is much more limited than those beach vacations.
I love the cold
Question, how do you know when the point break list comes out? Do you just keep checking every few hours each day? And why would they say its all booked? And why would they allow you to book rooms if its all sold out?
Are you saying to book any hotel room and just get that adjusted as point break and they wont even know?
Warm weather and sunshine for me!
@ Mike – I check. I will post on the blog that day. Others at BA will post too. The national reservations line will say the Point Breaks are sold out since it does not show in their computers yet. So, thus you need the adjustment. Clear? Rene
Warm weather is better for me to unwind
Thanks for the great report and tips. I prefer warm weather destinations only because I don’t ski anymore.
Warm weather, definitely.
I like it all….warm, cold. Its still a vacation! ps, still not sure how to get 35K points from 10 stays….5 nights x 2 rooms = 10 nights total @ 5K points per nite = 50K points. Less 10% PC Visa card…wouldn’t that be 45K points spent altogether? What am I overlooking? Next time you are in SLC, the Red Iguana is my favorite restaurant…you should check it out.
@ Gussomer – PC gave me the extra 100k to book the room at the normal rate of 15k/night. So, when the room was booked, it cost 150,000 points not the 50k on break price. So, when I get the rebate it will on the 150k not the 50k. Thus I spent 50k of my own points – the 15k 10% rebate and I am out of pocket only 35k! 🙂
I prefer to be near the equator!
Cold, with a nice submersion into an outdoor spa, ahhh!
Live on the beach, craving cold.
Warm, hands down. Grew up in NY but went to college in NC and now live in Florida. I got sick of the cold!!
Warm weather hands down!
I like it warm!
Warm weather, absolutely.
No point in taking a cold weather vacation when you live in MN.
Cold. Heading to Park City in April. Thanks for the great reviews and tips!
warm weather!
prefer warm weather vacations
Living in the foothills of the Rockies, we get plenty of cold snow time! Sunshine and warm sandy beaches are the preference here.
warm weather…cant stand the cold.thanks!
I prefer warm – beaches and waves! btw, Rene, do you respond to emails with questions about Delta?
@ Larry. Yes. As fast as I can. Many times comments are updated from my phone. Hard to email from it. – Rene
wife loves the beach and looks great in a bikini…….so
I prefer warm weather vacations
I prefer a nice hot beach vacation.
Hi Rene,
are you saying you book two weekend rentals through enterprise for the $9.99 rate, then call and ask to append the second weekend rental to the first one — thus getting several weekdays for the $9.99 rate? If so, why don’t the enterprise folks see right through this? do you have to do some smooth talking to get them to keep the 9.99 rate for the weekdays?
@Tryingtotravel – no what I am saying is this. Say you book the weekend deal FRI/SAT/SUN at $9.99. But you also want it MON/TUS as well. You book those days at what ever best rate they have like $25/day. Then you have the two put into one reservation. They were just nice to me and it was just one day extra! – Rene
@Rene – got it! so really it depends if they’re nice and how much advantage one is trying to take. I could see where if one were trying to add on an extra 5 days, the agent might balk at making the entire reservation at 9.99/day… thanks for the tip!