Save as much as 8% on gas for life

 

Let me preface this post by saying,“I LOVE AMERICAN EXPRESS!“

My relationship with Amex has brought me tons of benefits, and this one is just more icing on the cake.  Through 1/31/2012, American Express is offering 5% reimbursement on all purchases from BP (and also assuming Arco, though I personally haven’t tested it).  Only 3 days left, get in on it soon; register your Amex card here.

Now to lock in this savings for as long as you can afford to, up front, go to a BP gas station and ask to buy prepaid gas cards.  If you try to buy the gift cards online, you may not get the 5% reimbursed as it seems BP’s gift card purchases online are handled by a third party, and your purchase may not show up on your statement as a BP purchase.  The great part about these BP gift cards is that if you live in an area where they charge a different gas price for cash purchases and credit card purchases, these gift cards allow you to pay the cash price.  If you always purchase gas with a credit card (as I do, gotta rack up them points & miles), then this is a way to save up to 8% on your gas purchases, AND get the points for them too.

Double MR points if you are buying them with the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card.  If you don’t have one and want to get one, leave a comment below with an email to contact you (or email me at getgowing@gmail.com and I can give you a referral link that is better than the current public offer.  It is first $175 annual fee waived, and 25k MR points after only $2,000 spend in 3 months.

If you’re in a full service state, make sure your attendant charges you the cash price before they start pumping.  So if you’re willing to invest and pay in advance your gas for the rest of the month, year, or many years, this is a way to keep your gas prices a little lower.

For the math proof continue reading.  Otherwise, feel free to tell your friends about this post and save them money too!

Last week, a local BP station was charging $3.15 for cash, $3.25 for credit.  If I buy $1000 in gift cards, I will get a statement credit of $50 reimbursed from Amex.

$1,000 in gas at $3.259/gallon = 307.692 gallons

$1,000 in gas at $3.159/gallon = 317.460 gallons

But since I effectively only paid $950 for the 317.460 gallons, I paid $2.992/gallon.

($950/317.460 gallons = $2.992/gallon)

Since I usually pay the credit price, I just saved 26.7¢ per gallon.

($3.259 – $2.992 = $0.0267)

Saving 26.7¢ is approximately saving 8.2% per gallon off of the regular price of $3.259 per gallon.  Of course gas prices fluctuate, so the savings will vary as well.  But its still a significant enough of a savings that I’m definitely going in as much as I can to maximize this deal.

Recap of benefits from Amex Platinum

In my first few posts of this blog I wrote about my first major credit card churn, the American Express Platinum Charge Card:

1. American Express Platinum Charge Card
2. American Express Platinum benefits 
3. American Express Platinum benefits part 2
4. American Express Platinum benefits update
5. 300 Membership Reward points for Delta Skyclub visits
6. 5,000 Membership rewards points for Extended Payment option signup
7. 50,000 Membership rewards points for making a phone call

Again, this card carries a hefty annual fee.  $450 / year.  But even the average non-travel hacker cardholder should be able to reap more than $450 of value from its benefits.  Here’s what I got out of it in the first 10 months of having it:

• 76,500 Delta Skymiles (cost =  51,000 Amex Membership Rewards points)
• 25,000 Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles (cost = 0.  Stacked a promo from the 51k MR points transfer)
• 50,000 Delta Skymiles (from a promo to requalify for Platinum Medallion)
• 50,000 MR points (signup bonus after $1000 spend in 3 months)
• 5,000 MR points (for a free signup for Extended Payment option signup)
• 10,000 MR points (for downloading American Express inSite browser toolbar, see ThePointsGuy post here)
• 50,000 MR points (for 3 easy phone calls to ask for a bigger bonus match)
• 8,100 MR points (for visiting Delta Skyclubs)

Thank You Gold promotion

MR Get Away & Get More Skymiles promotion

This brings me to a net grand total of:

1. 126,500 Delta Skymiles

2. 25,000 Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles

3. 73,100 Membership Rewards points

Now those points & miles alone are definitely worth the cost of the $450 annual fee, an inquiry on my credit report, and temporarily lowering my credit score a couple points.  Assuming there is another 50% transfer bonus from American Express and I make use of it, this card could possibly net me 236,000 Delta Skymiles!  That’s 4,000 miles away from TWO business class tickets to anywhere in Asia!  At a very minimum, those two tickets could be worth $8,000.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

One of the card’s benefits, the $200 airline fee reimbursement.  The Platinum card gives you up to $200 reimbursed in fees such as checked bags fees, change/cancellation fees, on-board purchases, etc.  But they can’t be used for the purchase of tickets.  While it’s not a published qualifying transaction, I have had success getting award ticket taxes/fees getting reimbursed.  AND as a Platinum Medallion, you don’t get charged a fee to return award tickets.  You guys are smart, I’m sure you can put two and two together…….

You need to select one airline, and you’re locked in to that airline for the calendar year.  The other good thing is that the $200 runs by calendar year, not anniversary year date.  SO, if I were to get rid of my card before my next annual fee is up in March (but I have no intention of doing so), I would have been able to harvest $400 in reimbursement, bringing down the card’s cost to $50!

The last major benefit I love is the free Global Entry.  This has definitely saved me loads of time instead of waiting in line at Immigrations and Customs.  Now I just bypass the lines and go from the plane to curbside in less than 10 minutes.  I only returned back into the US 3 times in 2011, so it hasn’t saved me that much time.  But for people who travel internationally at least once a month, this can be a real lifesaver.

I know that to replicate these results, certain planets need to be aligned at the right time, but for the most part, great value can be still be achieved for almost no cost.

Stay tuned to read about how to save upwards of 8% on gas, possibly forever!

Stacking deals to increase your miles / cash-back bonus

In 13 days, I will be arriving in Tokyo for my trip to Japan.  And after Japan, I’ll be heading to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands.  Since there will be a decent amount of non-flying travel involved here, I want to use this trip to try out backpacking through these areas instead of lugging a suitcase around everywhere.  Last time I went to Japan, I was lugging two suitcases through the Tokyo subway during rush hour.  First and LAST time I ever do that again.  So I did my comparing, shopping, test-fitting, and was ready to purchase, what I think, is the perfect backpack for me.

Whenever I buy anything online, I’m not trying to just find the best price….I’m also looking to maximize my mileage earning potential (or cash-back bonus potential) while paying the best price I can find.

I first use Google, Yahoo, or Amazon to find what site has the best price.  In this case, Campmor.com was the cheapest, by about $39.  Next I take note of the other sites that were more expensive.  Many businesses will match, or even beat, a price a competitor offers for the same item.  Even if a business doesn’t advertise price matching, many times if you call them, they will do it for you anyway for the possibility of repeat business from you.

Now I have a pool of a few sites where I can buy my item for around the same cheaper price.  I next check to see if my credit cards have them as a vendor in their online shopping malls (like: ShopDiscover or Membership Rewards Shopping) where I can get extra points/cashback/miles just for shopping through their online mall.  Also I will check if any hotel or airline programs offer deals like 4 points/$ or 3 miles/$ for spending through their link of a site.  A GREAT site to compare all of these at once is evreward.com!  It’s still in beta, but it compares all these deals so you can see how much bonus you can earn on your purchase, and handpick what you want to use.

Evreward.com search for eBags

Lets say in this exercise, you are trying to maximize your mileage earning (instead of cash back).  Recapping:

• Negotiated a cheaper price through price matching
• Earning miles by making a standard purchase on your mileage earning credit card
• Earn BONUS miles by making the same purchase through the airline’s website

So instead of buying in a brick-and-mortar store, you buy online, hopefully save yourself from paying sales tax, probably get free shipping, and earn a handful more miles doing so.

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BUT WAIT, there’s more!

If you know in advance you will be making a big purchase, or if you don’t but are a habitual shopper, you should go through another site to reap some cashback rewards from a certain site, as well as all the bonuses from above.  That sentence was a little vague, sorry.  Big Crumbs (link is one paragraph later), offers cash back on purchases made through vendors on its site, even on purchases on eBay, and signup is FREE!  But where you can get a triple dip from this site is that they offer cash back on gift cards!  SO….

• Using your mileage earning credit card, buy an American Express gift card from Big Crumbs(1.6% cashback)
• Negotiate that price match to a cheaper price
• Shop through your airline’s online shopping mall to earn bonus miles
• Use the gift card to purchase the item

If you like what you have been reading on this blog, or even if you don’t, please help me out and use my referral link to sign up for Big Crumbs.  Just use my link or click on the banner below.  Besides gift cards, they have some crazy awesome rates for other vendors, like 36% return on fees from eBay, or other stores/services that give upwards of 40% back!  And as your cash back builds up, payouts occur monthly.  (Original post continues beyond the banner)

Lets make some assumptions to give you real world numbers.  Be forewarned – math intensive from here to the end.

You are buying a $1,100 TV.  You are able to price match it on a competitor’s website for $1,000.  Your mileage earning card earns 1 mile/dollar.  Your airline’s online shopping portal gives 5 miles/dollar for shopping through them.

Scenario 1 (buying with no regard to what I have talked about here):

• Investment:  Spend $1,100
• Return:  Gain 1,100 miles for using your mileage earning credit card

Scenario 2 (using these techniques to maximize return):

• Investment:  Spend $1,000 + an hour of time for research
• Return:  Gain 1,000 miles for buying a gift card on Big Crumbs.  Gain $16 (1.6% cashback) on  your $1000 gift card from Big Crumbs.  Gain 5,000 miles for buying through your airline’s online shopping mall.  In total = (1,000mi + 5,000mi) + $16 cashback = 6,000mi + $16 !!!

Scenario 1 vs. Scenario 2:

Scenario 1 you gain one hour of work.  Scenario 2 you lose one hour of work.  But you gain $116 and 4,900 extra miles.  Is an hour worth $116 and 4,900 miles to you?  I’d take a job that pays ~$116/hour in a heartbeat.

However, this is not what I did when I bought my backpack.  I chose a slightly different route.  Because of the recent British Airways Chase Visa credit card signup bonus I wrote about, I now have 100,000 miles with British Airways.  And I also have a plethora of miles with Delta.  Now, one of my new adventures that I want to take is a true long-haul First Class experience.  Delta doesn’t have any real first class in their fleet, and therefore doesn’t allow any first class redemptions on any partner airlines either.  That is not the case with my British Airways miles, however.  I plan on flying First Class on Cathay Pacific to Asia, which will cost me 150,000 British Airways miles.  That is in addition to the backpacking trip through South America that I want to take in Business Class on LAN Airlines which will cost 80,000 British Airways miles.  So I need to get to 230,000 miles on British Airways somehow.  (Let’s not forget the extra 50,000 Membership Reward Points I was given just for making a phone call!)  My options are:

1. Spend on my British Airways Chase Visa credit card which earns 1.25mi/dollar
2. Spend on my American Express Platinum card which earns 1 Membership Reward point/dollar

I can transfer my AmEx points to British Airways, 1 point = 1 dollar.  This would be a no brainer, since with my Amex I’m essentially only getting 1 mi/dollar vs. BA Chase getting 1.25 mi/dollar.  BUT American Express is running a promotion, now through July 31, 2011, where you will get a 50% bonus on any transfers to British Airways.  Now the AmEx gets 1.5 mi/dollar if I transfer before July 31.  So I’m going to be using my AmEx to buy my backpack.

The backpack costs $279 full retail.  And I found that most stores are charging that much.  I did find one store Campmor.com, that sells it for $239.98.  Sweet.  Now I have a significant price difference to get it matched to.  After contacting several stores, the best price I could work out is either from Eastern Mountain Sports, or eBags.  Both offer free shipping.  EMS has physical stores in my state and all the nearby surrounding states, so I’d have to pay sales tax on my bag.  eBags is online only, so free shipping and no sales tax.  I was able to negotiate EMS’s price match lower, so that after sales tax, I would be paying the same, about $239.  I went with eBags because you get a 5% rebate on all purchases which you can redeem on a later purchase with them.  Not sure if I will ever use them again, but at least its something more than EMS offers.

At this point, I have all I need to come out ahead of the curve with this purchase.  BUT, if I shop through American Express’s Membership Rewards shopping mall (but also requires the use of my card attached to my account, not a gift card) I can earn 4x bonus Membership Reward points!

So I could earn 4 MR points/dollar, with a transfer bonus of 1.5 mi/point, comes to a whopping 6 MILES / DOLLAR!  I already feel like a million bucks.  BUT…..I actually will get even more points than that.

The price match guarantee policy for eBags is that you buy your item first, then if you find the same exact item in stock from another site within 10 days of purchase, they will reimburse your credit card the difference.  So I will still get the 6 mi/dollar for the original purchase, then get back $39.02 for the price difference.  Here’s the math:

Investment = $279.00-$39.02 = $239.98

Return = ($279.00 x 4 MR shopping mall bonus) x 1.5 AmEx/British Airways transfer promo = 1,674 British Airways Miles

Overall miles per dollar = (1,674 / $239.98) = 6.975 Miles / Dollar

I think I did pretty well compared to just using the British Airways Chase card at only 1.25 Miles / Dollar.  Now in actuality, American Express will probably take away 39 Membership Reward Points ($39.02 rounded down) because it thinks that the $39.02 reimbursement is a return.  In that case, I will only earn:

($279 x 4) – 39 = 1,077 points

(1,077 x 1.5) = 1,615.5 miles = ~1,616 miles

which would bring my overall to 6.73 miles / dollar.  Still a good deal.

New York JFK lounge surfing: KLM “The Oasis”, Air France Salon, Korean Air (April 2011)

After arriving home from London and Amsterdam about 24 hours prior, I was back on my way to the Asian portion of my quasi-‘Round the world trip:  Thailand, Malaysia, and China.  Here are the previous posts in this series:

• JFK Airport/Delta Skyclub and Delta Economy Class to London
• London Part 1
• London Part 2
• London Heathrow (LHR) and the Skyteam Lounge
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 1010 (April 2011)
• Amsterdam (April 2011)
• Amsterdam follow up (April 2011)
• Amsterdam Schiphol KLM Crown Lounge (April 2011)
• Delta Airlines Amsterdam (AMS) to Boston (BOS), April 2011

I had a difficult time finding a ride available to get to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). (My plan was to get dropped off at EWR then take a bus/shuttle direct to JFK.) My mom was getting home from work soon, so she said she’ll just take me all the way to JFK (though I drove the way there). Did you know that from Central Jersey, without traffic, you can get to JFK in about 45 minutes?? I thought that was a crazy good time. I was prepared for 2 hours. Unexpected good news……more time to lounge surf, the theme of this post.

Since my Korean Air flight departs from Terminal 1, AND I will have extra time to visit (for the first time) non-Delta branded airline lounge, I will be able to visit and give you a brief rundown of the two lounges in Terminal 1 (Air France & Korean Air) and KLM’s “The Oasis” in Terminal 4.  Luckily, that lounge is before security (landside) so I don’t have to deal with any fuss of not flying out from there.  I dropped off my bags and got my boarding passes.

Terminal 1 Korean Air check-in

Terminal 1 security

I took the AirTrain to Terminal 4.  First up:

The Oasis by KLM

This lounge is located on the 2nd floor of the main concourse in Terminal 4, though when walking from the check-in area you enter the concourse on the 2nd floor.  When I tried to enter, I was initially met with some resistance.

Starting March 1, 2011 Delta changed its benefits for Gold Medallions to align more with the rest of the industry.  Golds will now be considered SkyTeam Elite Plus, which means that if the Gold Medallion is traveling on any Sky Team airline in ANY class, they will be allowed access to ANY airport lounge run by a SkyTeam airline.  

But Delta seems to have implemented this benefit without really telling any of the other airlines.  The lounge check-in girl said that only Delta Platinum and Diamond members were allowed.  I had to direct her to Delta.com and navigate a few clicks to show her that Gold Medallions were now SkyTeam Elite Plus.  Just a quick road block but I made it in.

Taken from left most side of the lounge, if you are facing the windows.

The lounge is laid out length-wise with one side being a floor to ceiling window with a view of Terminal 4 tarmac between the two “football field goal” gates.  Here is a JFK airport map; it should make more sense.  It was getting late at night so there wasn’t much traffic activity, but I imagine during the day or heavy traffic times the sights of all the big airplanes are spectacular.  The Oasis has a very homely feel in its decor and furnishings.  One of the neatest features of this lounge was their “living room” area.

Living room / dining room

The dining table was sweet.  I set up camp on a corner of the table.  But its definitely a cool place to relax, with the couches that surround a fireplace at the end and bookshelves with books to read.  Another thing that is much better about non-Delta lounges (with the exception of the Delta Tokyo lounges) is the selection of food, especially hot food.

White rice / Red baked potatoes in vodka sauce

Vodka sauce is my absolute favorite.  And what man doesn’t like potatoes?  Too bad the combination of the two does not make an ultimate dish.  They were actually kinda bad.  I almost wanted to not finish them and throw them away.  But again, I hate wasting food.

Chicken lo mein

The chicken lo mein was good.  It had a certain flavor I couldn’t quite place but it tasted of Indian origin rather than Chinese.  An interesting flavor.

Cheeses, turkey croissant sandwiches, turkey wraps, crackers, fresh fruit

Booze & mixers

Beer available were Red Stripe, Miller Lite, Heineken, and Kingfisher.  Kinda a weird mix, but whatever.  One positive that many Delta lounges have draft beer, whereas these were all cans.  But as I found out over the next few weeks, cans are the norm.

I tried for several minutes to connect to their wifi, but it wouldn’t connect.  Oh well.  After tasting all the hot food choices, and having a Red Stripe and a glass of Glen Ellen cabernet, I gave up trying to connect and decided it was time to move on to the Air France Salon.

I make my way back to Terminal 1.  Next up:

Air France Salon

By now it is about 10:30pm.  The last Air France flight takes off a little after 11pm; therefore the lounge closes around 11pm.  So I only got to enjoy this gem of a lounge for about 30 minutes or so.  It is located next to Gate 1 and the end of the terminal.  Quite a big space.  Two floors, with identical food/beverage spreads on each floor.

View just as you walk through the doors

As soon as I was allowed entry, I started taking pictures, telling the attendants that it was for my blog.

Alex and I

This is Alex, one of the Salon attendants.  He was quite helpful.  After they requested all the patrons to exit at 11pm, he came up to me and gave me some more information about the lounge.  Apparently there will be a complete lounge overhaul.  Remodel so that First Class lounge is upstairs, Business Class is downstairs.  I don’t remember many more of the specifics of what the difference will be between the floors.  But I know Alex has been waiting anxiously for this post, so he can comment on the future differences.  Thanks Alex!

Upstairs area

One of the upstairs private rooms

The 2nd floor has a few private rooms good for about 8 people.

Unfortunately, the views out of most of the windows is not as pretty as The Oasis. The lounge takes up a corner of the building, and one side overlooks the roadway, not the tarmac. The other window wall, mostly when looking out from the 2nd floor, has a roof outstretching from the building so that also detracts from the view. However, you can still get a decent view of the plane sitting at the gate, and a small section of a runway.

The best part of the Salon was their food and drink!

The French definitely know how to eat

Champagne & Grey Goose!

Caprese wraps, assorted meats

Alex finishes the tour, takes down this site’s address, and I’m on my way to the last stop of this tour.

Korean Air Lounge

Right down the terminal from the Air France Salon, about 30 yards away on the left, is the Korean Air lounge. Its on the 2nd floor, and has a cool white tunnel you walk through before you enter the lounge.

Kinda reminded me of the Matrix, or that long corridor in Resident Evil where you had to dodge the laser beams

To the left is the First Class section, to the right is the Prestige (business class) section.

There was a little sign on the desk (forgot to snap a pic of it) that showed which elite cards of the various Skyteam member airlines could have access. After the little debacle at The Oasis, I was happy to see that the Delta Gold Medallion card was showing having access. After mentioning it to her, she asks to see it, and because of it, she says,”If you would like, you can use the First Class lounge.”

“Oh.  Thank you.” though in my head, I was thinking, ” OH Hell Yeah!  Score one more for Gow.”

Before I stake my area in the First Class side, I go in to the Prestige section and scope it out.

Prestige class lounge

The Prestige side is pretty packed, with a not so great selection of food. Almost none. Pastries, chips, and the Tillamook REAL cheese that most of the Delta Sky Clubs have. (Cheese was a large topic of discussion on flyertalk.com last year) The Delta Sky Clubs are all mediocre at best, except for the Tokyo clubs, with the only redeeming factor being usually having decent beer selections at their hub airports. This lounge was barely a step up from a Sky Club. For an international lounge, from a very well respected airline, it was very disappointing.  The selections were pretty much the same on both sides.

Meager spirits selection

Almost like the snack basket passed around in First Class on non-meal flights on Delta.

Korean Air First Class lounge

View out the window of our plane

I enjoy some Korean OB beer and Remy Martin (at least they had snifters), then the time came to board.

Oh.  Also on the Prestige side, there were a couple rooms with massage chairs and a table.

Overall, I had a great experience using my Skyteam Elite Plus status to lounge surf for the first time.  I only with my Priority Pass (free lounge benefit from my American Express Platinum card) came in the mail before I left.  I could surf some other lounges as well.  Perhaps next time.

JFK Skyteam Lounge Rankings

1. The Oasis
2. Air France Salon (Really a 1.1 instead of 2.  Oasis just edges out AF because of the hot food selection and accessibility. But if in the mood, the Grey Goose could be enough to tip the scales in AF’s favor)
3. Korean Air
4. All the Delta SkyClubs (Although in Terminal 3, the first Skyclub, farthest from the gates, there is a cute bartender (Cassie) that works there. 🙂

Be sure to Like my Get Gowing Facebook page.  You can get all my posts, pictures, videos up on your news feed.  On it, there are ALL my pictures and videos related to these travels.  (I don’t put them all up here because Facebook doesn’t have a storage limit.)  

Delta Airlines Amsterdam (AMS) to Boston (BOS), April 2011

The previous posts of this quasi-‘Round the World adventure:

• JFK Airport/Delta Skyclub and Delta Economy Class to London
• London Part 1
• London Part 2
• London Heathrow (LHR) and the Skyteam Lounge
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 1010 (April 2011)
• Amsterdam (April 2011)
• Amsterdam follow up (April 2011)
• Amsterdam Schiphol KLM Crown Lounge (April 2011)
  

Delta Airlines

Flight #231

Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) – Boston Logan (BOS)

April 12, 2011

Departure:  11:04 (Scheduled 11:10)

Arrival:  13:20 (Scheduled 13:00)

Duration: 8’16”

Aircraft: Airbus A330-300

Seat: 12A (Economy class)

Miles flown including this flight: 7,139

View from my window. Those turbine engines look REALLY big from here.

This was a fairly standard economy flight.  There were individual TVs for each seat, but because I stayed up all night, I was using this flight as my time to sleep.  So when I woke up at around 1pm in Boston, for my body, it would be like sleeping in late.  Even though the other two slept, they were pretty tired too and we all pretty much slept the whole way.  The main thing that I remember from this flight is the food service.  I think it was lunch.

Bread & butter, salad, balsamic vinegar, cheddar cheese & crackers, chocolate chip & vanilla biscuits

Main entree: Chicken and rice with yellow sauce and vegetables

I feel I’m a pretty adventurous eater.  This entree was probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten.  The vegetables were fine, but the sauce had this weird taste that made it difficult to put the food down.  I was soooo hungry though that I did eat almost all of it.  (If you’ve ever had a meal with me, I HATE wasting food.  Even if its something I don’t like, I’ll still eat it.  If you have some food left on your plate, I sometimes eat that too.  I used to be a waiter, and it sucked throwing away almost full plates of food.)  If you’re ever flying Delta trans-Atlantic, you may want to steer clear of this food choice.  Take the other.  Thankfully I was able to fall asleep again after eating that horrific meal.

A few hours later, I was nudged awake to be served our pre-arrival snack.

Pizza and ice cream

Of course, the pizza sucked.  They were microwaved warm, so the crust was chewy.  But after that awful chicken and rice, this was a 5-star meal.

The plane arrives at the gate a 20 minutes late, but its alright.  Our bus that takes us to New York leaves at 3:30pm.  We get herded to immigration, and its here where I get to try out Global Entry.  (One of the benefits of being an American Express Platinum card member.  Read about that benefit in this post.)  I go straight to the Global Entry kiosk, give my fingerprints, and voila I get my immigration & customs ticket.

Global Entry ticket

I don’t have to wait in line, no answering any questions, almost no interaction with any Border Patrol.  After I pick up my luggage, I just hand the customs agent this ticket, and I keep walking.  If you don’t have to wait for your bag, you could off the plane and out of the airport in less than 15 minutes.

For those that have never traveled internationally, as you exit the plane in a new country and are not connecting to another flight, you have nowhere to go but to immigration.  After that, you pick up your luggage, then wait in line again for customs questioning.  

Global Entry is definitely worth its 5-year fee of $100.  Even if I only flew internationally once a year, I would feel that $20 a trip could be worth it.  Maybe not in Boston, but arriving into JFK or LAX you could easily wait 30-60 minutes for immigration.  After a long haul flight, that’s the last thing I want to do (like we did in the Fast Track lane in LHR).

Getting home from Boston, we used Bolt Bus.  One way, its about $15, and takes 4 hours, more or less.  The seats are all leather, there are plugs at every seat, and there is wifi onboard.  Throughout the “flight” the wifi connection was pretty slow, but still better than nothing.  Definitely one of the best options if traveling between the major cities in the Northeast.  And its price is so much better than flying or Amtrak.  Transferring to Boston South Station is a 15 minute commute on the Silver Line on the T, and only about $2.  What I didn’t know was that the Silver Line is a bus, not a subway/metro.

Well my attempt to stay awake for the rest of the day failed.  Oh well.  After I arrive home, I have about 24 hours before I leave for the airport again to start my 11-day portion in Asia!