Update, and money savings in Australia

Greetings

from

Sydney!

(Though I’m sure with my posting frequency by now I have probably 5 people reading this)

Koala hug, though more like a cheap feel 😀

I’ve only been here a little more than a week, but so much has happened!!! An Aussie Christmas, a few more scuba certifications while swimming with massive rays, New Year’s Eve on the Sydney Harbor, and of course trying out Virgin Australia long-haul business class.  And I haven’t even done my 2 night stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney which would usually go for about 850 USD per night.  But I wouldn’t Get Gowing if I actually paid that much for it.  Nor could I afford it anyway.  I’ll be writing some of those posts while I’m here in Oz so you will get some good reading in.

In the meantime, here’s a tip I just stumbled upon in the Sydney CBD (Central Business District, all their cities have one, and it’s pretty self explanatory what it is). As an American traveling here, costs can eat you alive pretty quickly. A typical meal that would be about 6-8 USD, like a sandwich and a drink, will be around 10-15 AUD (Australian Dollar). One of the obvious ways to save money is to cook your own food, but sometimes that isn’t feasible. If you head into Chinatown, there are relatively cheap meals there, and also in shopping mall food courts. The Market City shopping center 5 minute walk away from Central Station has all Asian food in the food court, but most offer a selection of 3 entrees + rice or noodles for 7.90-8.90 AUD. OR in the heart of the CBD in the MLC Center underground where there are several eateries; most of them cater to businessmen and women and only serve lunch.  So when I got there around 3:45-4pm, many of them were offering their leftovers from lunch for only 5 AUD!  I picked up a combo box of rice with green and red curry chicken from a Thai place, and an awesome chicken avocado cheese mixed greens pesto panini for 10 AUD.  Every dollar here and there adds up.

British Airways & SWISS first class for $700, & background on the cheap Myanmar first class fares

In the travel hacker world, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding one-way and round-trip tickets originating in RGN (Yangon, Myanmar).  For now a third time this year, there have been INCREDIBLE fares for travel from Myanmar to various Canadian destinations.  For example, I recently booked this one-way:

Yangon-Kuala Lumpur-Singapore in Malaysia Airlines business

Singapore-London Heathrow in British Airways First

London Heathrow-Zurich in British Airways business

Zurich-Montreal in SWISS First

Usually a one-way itinerary like this would cost in the range of $9,000-$12,000

I PAID $702

Now I cannot take any credit in discovering this “fare mistake.”  I originally read about the first version of this from a post by Matt at upgrd.com (late April/early May 2012), and the most recent version originally from a post by View from the Wing (Sept 27, 2012).  The current FlyerTalk discussion about the latest round can be found here.  The crux behind this is somewhat of a mistake fare by the airlines, but primarily due to the Myanmar government fluctuating their currency by ENORMOUS magnitudes.

Compared to the USD, the Myanmar Kyat (MMK) changed from 6.41:1 to 822:1.  That’s a factor of ~128x.  If you took $1,000 to purchase MMK, you would have 822,000 MMK.   After the valuation change, if you sold them at 6.41:1, you would then have ~$128,000!  What a payday that would be!

The red bars (which I added) are the approximate time periods for the airfare mistake sales.

The MMK fluctuations occurred primarily around 3 periods:  early April, early August, and early September.  And about 2.5 weeks after the initial fluctuation is when the feed frenzy of airfares happens.  So if you took a $12,800 fare, it would only be about $100, of course overly simplified.

I bet that Burmese government is enjoying the extra tourism revenue caused by this, at the expense of the airlines.  My guess is that this is not the last time we’ll see them play with their currency.  Keep an eye out for the next dip, I’m sure another sub-$1,000 premium class fare will pop up shortly thereafter.

Currency fluctuations are key ways to Travel above your means and within your budget.  I have a friend that used to buy round-the-world tickets in business class and first class, and only pay about $5,000 for it.  After you include the miles you earn which you then redeem later, it was a steal.  And again, he would buy a round-the-world ticket from a country which has a high exchange rate to the USD.

Shortcut to Elite Status benefits, incl. waived checked baggage fees

For most people, the act of flying (airports, checked baggage fees, TSA screenings, and middle seats) can be a painful experience.  When you fly enough with an airline to attain elite status, many of those painful experiences go away.  Elite passengers don’t pay for bags, have expedited check-in and security lanes, access to more coveted seats (bulkhead, exit row, window & aisle seats towards the front of economy), and even get to board earlier so it almost guarantees them overhead space, at the very least.

Unfortunately, most of us leisure travelers don’t attain any status with an airline because we only fly a few times a year.  Well I have recently stumbled across a solution to remedy this.

The three main airline alliances: Star Alliance, One World, and Sky Team represent the majority of the airlines around the world.  And within those alliances if you have elite status on a member airline, there are reciprocal benefits for all the other airlines in the alliance.  When you become elite on a Star Alliance airline, you also become that airline’s elite member, as well as a Star Alliance Silver or Star Alliance Gold elite, depending on what level you achieved on that individual airline.  In regards to United States based airlines, US Airways and United/Continental are members of the Star Alliance.  Using United as an example, their entry level Premier gets Star Alliance Silver, while their Premier Executive and 1K elites get Star Alliance Gold.

United MileagePlus partial elite benefits chart

Usually, you would need to fly 25,000 miles in one calendar year to attain status on either of those airlines to achieve their entry level Elite status.  And then you would need to fly another 25,000 miles in the next calendar year to re-qualify as an elite for the following year.  Well, also in the Star Alliance is Aegean Airlines.  Aegean holds the key to the elite status door that so many of us usually can’t open.

When you fly one airline in the Star Alliance, most of the time you can credit those miles to another member airline within the alliance.  (Same goes for One World or the Sky Team Alliances)  For example, if you took a flight on United, you could “bank” those miles to Aegean Airlines’ Miles&Bonus frequent flyer program instead of to United’s MileagePlus frequent flyer program.  The key to Star Alliance Silver or Gold is the mileage levels needed to attain status on Aegean Airlines.

ONLY 4,000 miles for entry level status!

Only 16,000 more miles for one full year (not calendar year) after you attain Miles&Bonus Blue status, for a total of 20,000 miles for TOP TIER alliance status!

As you can see, qualifying for Aegean Airlines’ elite status is astoundingly much easier than any other airline I’ve ever seen.  And an Aegean Airlines’ Blue member is a Star Alliance Silver gets certain benefits when flying United, such as:

• 1st checked bag free
• Priority check-in area
• Priority boarding
• If you’re nice, you may even be able to get Priority Baggage Handling just by asking the agent when checking your bag (meaning your bags are supposed to be the first ones that come out at baggage claim)
• Better customer service treatment when things go awry, like when weather affects things, or when a flight is oversold.

What being a Star Alliance Silver does not do is make you a United Airlines Premier member.  By looking at the chart above, Premier members would also get complimentary first-class upgrades when available.  By being an Aegean Airlines elite, you are only privy to the benefits granted to Star Alliance Silvers.  A slight difference.  Even the baggage fees alone make it a worthwhile deal.  If you took two domestic roundtrips and checked one bag, that would be $100 in baggage fees.  The waived baggage fees is a big benefit, though for me not waiting in line for anything is one of the biggest benefits of being an elite.  When I first became an elite, I was accustomed to showing up around 2 hours early for a flight, allowing 20-30 minutes for checking-in, and another 20-30 for security.  Now, its rare that I spend 20 minutes total doing all of the above.

If you flew one transcontinental round trip (NYC to Los Angeles), that is already 4950 miles.  For the price of one roundtrip, you could already be an elite.  HOWEVER, there is a catch.  (Of course it couldn’t be just that easy)  Not all tickets earn the same amount of miles.  The deepest discounted tickets that leisure flyers purchase (on United/Continental or US Air) may only earn 50% mileage instead of 100% mileage, so it would take about two NYC-LAX roundtrips to qualify.  So if you wanted a ticket that earns 100% mileage on the same flight, you would have to spend a little more.  If you know you will be taking this flight again in the next year, and the ticket only costs $40 more, you would still be saving $10 in baggage fees next year. ($25 fee each way, $50 total for a roundtrip)

Here is the chart describing what each fare earns on Star Alliance partner airlines when banking the miles to Aegean.

To determine how many miles your ticket will earn, check either the fare basis code, the fare class, or the booking class of the ticket.  It is a single letter, sometimes in parenthesis…or if it is a fare basis code of several letters and numbers, it is the first letter in that code.  Go to the chart from the above link, find the corresponding airline that ticketed your itinerary, and see where that fare class is.

Sign up for a new Aegean Airlines Miles&Bonus account here, and if you want to try this method for elite status, assign your Miles&Bonus number to your next flight instead of banking it to the operating airlines’ program.  New signups to Miles&Bonus also get a 1000 mile bonus for enrollment (not used for elite qualifying purposes, only for redeeming for awards).

If you have multiple accounts over various airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc., read my previous post regarding Award Wallet.  It will simply your life….never have to remember another password again….and show you your mileage/point balances as well as expiration dates….All in One Place!

This can be a complicated topic for the uninitiated.  Feel free to ask me any questions via
email, Facebook, or the comments below.

Resurrection!…. and managing accounts.

Hello everybody!  I’m back from the dead.  Throughout my hiatus, I was meaning to update this blog, but enjoying my destination kinda got in the way.  Sorry.  I’ll be writing my reports from my first round the world trip back in April and this trip too.  Stay tuned.

After signing up for a few credit cards and doing various promotions, I have too many accounts with various airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and other miscellaneous reward programs to keep track of.  Luckily I came across Award Wallet.  Not only does it store your account numbers and passwords (can have the website securely store it, or store your passwords natively on your computer), but also shows your balances, as well as expiration dates.  Its free to sign up, and nowadays, I’m not sure what I did before without it.  Currently it helps me remember information for over 15 reward programs (airlines, hotels, car rentals, survey sites, casino points, credit card rewards).  Even if you don’t have that many accounts, even if you only have 2 or 3, its still a valuable tool to keep track of all your expiration dates in one place.

One of the great features of the website is that you can use it to manage multiple users.  Lets say I manage my entire family’s accounts of frequent flier miles.  I could use the site to store all their account numbers & passwords/pins and I can label them “Mom” or anything I choose.

Sign up for a regular account is free.  I was skeptical at first, too.  But then all the major players of this travel hacking game use this site too.  Can’t be that bad or unsafe then.  (Here are the FAQs if you are still a little wary.)  Until they last, I have a few free coupon codes to upgrade to an Award Wallet Plus account.  As long as you are a new user, you too can have a free Plus account.  From the FAQs, here are the benefits of upgrading:

Regular vs. Plus account

I have a referral link for anybody interested in joining.  (Get Gowing Award Wallet referral signup link)  If you are interested in the code for a free upgrade to Award Wallet Plus, leave a comment here or on the Get Gowing Facebook Page and I’ll send you one.

Calling Delta Customer Service

Sorry I haven’t been updating any trip reports (since I now have two Asia trips pending).  I am here in Japan to rehearse with the Tenrikyo Aimachi Marching Band.  We are performing in exhibition at the Basel Tattoo in Basel, Switzerland, in mid-July.  I’ve been busy catching up learning my positions and music.  But once those are learned, be assured I’ll be putting up all my pending posts!

Part of my itinerary coming to Japan was FRA-SVO-NRT (Frankfurt-Moscow-Tokyo Narita) on Aeroflot, a SkyTeam partner with Delta.  Now when I purchased the tickets, I made sure to purchase a high enough fare class so that I would earn 100% MQMs (Medallion Qualifying Miles – miles solely for gaining status with the airline) instead of 75% or 25% with cheaper fares.  Well apparently in the past week or so, Delta changed the earnings so that my fare classes would only earn 75% instead of the full 100%.  I wrote an email (through their comments/complaints section on their website) stating my disapproval of this, and their response was that I was given 100% MQMs, though the amount definitely wasn’t 100%.  SVO-NRT is about 4675 miles, and I was only given 3,600 miles.  Clearly not 100%.  After two phone calls to Delta, and one email complaint about this, I was given full credit of these miles.

Anyway, the point I was going to make is that if you are calling Delta, or perhaps any other phone customer service that is 24 hours, you may have better luck with agents that are more cooperative and helpful late at night, rather than during normal calling hours.  Many seem to not worry as much about their call handling time and are just helpful.  However, I think these are the times where there are also a handful of agents that are still new to the job, so they don’t encounter as much volume in their training process.  But at least late at night, your wait times will be considerably less.  Your mileage may vary.