What have I done? What am I thinking? Do I need an intervention and FAST? OK, deep breath and let me break this one down and what I have booked.
First I love Utah. I love the mountains. I love the snow. I love the people in Utah as most are nice, courteous and they know how to make a good micro brewed beer. What is not to love right!
I also just live for some runs at powder mountain and even more so when the day happens to be a full on powder dump day. Feet of fresh champagne powder is stuff that winter dreams are made of!
Even “blue bird” days are a ton of fun and can cause a squeak or two from my Lisa over the bumps!
But that is all about the fun. Back to the award tickets. I do brag about only, to my knowledge, having booked a part way mid award ticket ever and that was for a friend. To me, a full on mid or “standard” level coach ticket at 40,000 points is just way too much “point money” to spend for a ticket. Plus, I know I can always, with work, find low save level seats with creative routes ( see E7 posts ).
On mileage runs I often fly out of MKE or LAN or ORD to save money and that does take 2-3 hrs of driving each way. But that is for just me and I have a goal in mind.
This winter Lisa & I have a TON going on and time is limited to say the very least. So, we have a chance to go for just two days of fun with my “crew” from out west. Time is THE factor in all of this. We must fly out of SBN as even a longer drive to AZO could impact the timing. I found low saver seats for the return leg at 12,500 but the outbound was mid at 20,000 so the total round trip came to 32,500 each. Considering what a ticket would cost to purchase for us two out of SBN ($500+ each) this is still a bargain but I am burning up 15,000 more Skymiles than I would like total across the two tickets. Ya know, in this case for the perfect flight times, it is worth it!
Don’t get me wrong, $150 worth of Skymiles is not chump change and I will as a Diamond keep working to get the low saver seats if I can and I do have the luxury of not having to pay a fee to make those changes that a Gold or Silver medallion would have to.
After all, I am using Hertz points so the car will cost almost nothing and hotel will be free on points. My hotel program elite status means breakfast will be free as well. All I will have to worry about is lift tickets plus other meals and some gas.
I guess the point of this post is to always count ALL the costs. If you have to spend a few more points for the perfect schedule and time matters, live with that and enjoy the trip – I know I will! – René
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Couldn’t agree more. I’ve had to make those cost / time compromises often as I don’t have a lot of flexibility or free time.
Your dear Lisa is going to be flying in Coach!?!? For a “vacation”, no less?!? Oh, the humanity!!!!
You’ve got a keeper if you sticks around after this! J/K
@uclalum – no we will split the PNR, I will upgrade, she will ride up front, I will ride in back 😉
What hotel do you stay at when you guys ski powder? We have a boys trip there every year.
@E – wherever I have points. This year it will be Sheraton SLC but have stayed all over north and south. Plus, I will ski PM one day and Alta the next or vice versa.