As a relatively infrequent flyer, I mainly view myself as an airline free agent and will usually just chase the best deal for that particular trip. However, I do have one exception to the rule, and that’s for flying Alaska Airlines to Hawaii.
I’ve taken a handful of JetBlue flights recently and in each and every case, despite having my Singapore Airlines Krisflyer membership number entered in my reservation, I haven’t automatically received credit for the flight. After the first couple flights didn’t credit automatically, I suspected that something was amiss, but was still hopeful and chalked it up to bad luck. But after it happened several more times, I was almost certain that there just wasn’t an automatic process in place, and my suspicions were confirmed by others who were facing the same issue.
In recent years, I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to fly both Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific’s First Class products. But when I think back and try to compare the two, it’s actually been kind of hard to do. But during this trip I’d truly have an opportunity to get a head-to-head comparison of the two, since I was flying both in the same 24-hour period. And I made sure to use this chance to keep a running tally of the pros and cons of my flight on each airline.
I had already burned enough miles on my flights from San Francisco to New York, so I wasn’t looking to do anything crazy for the return home. As I shopped around for tickets back to San Francisco, since I was booking just a week prior to departure, ticket prices across the board were really high. However, I noticed that JetBlue’s Mint Class was priced at $549, and with the relatively small difference between that and the price of an economy ticket, I decided to give Mint it a shot.
As much as I enjoyed all the food on the plane and at the airport during my 40-hour journey to New York City, the real eating began after I landed in the Big Apple.
Just a friendly reminder that today’s the final day of the Alaska Airlines Annual Fall Sale, which features flights starting at $64 across their entire route network. Each city has their own set of deals, but at least from rhe San Francisco Bay Area, there doesn’t appear to be any amazing deals to traditional vacation destinations like Mexico and Hawaii. However, there are pretty good deals to various West Coast cities, including Salt Lake City, Portland, and a couple southern CA cities.
Our truffle adventure was sadly over and it was time to head home the same way that we had come. The drive from Piedmont, Italy to Zurich took about six hours, and after stuffing our faces at the Christmas Market in Zurich that evening, we spent the night once again at the Marriott. We were up bright and early the next day, and the first leg of our journey home was an uneventful flight from Zurich to London.
Alaska Airlines had recently announced new routes between San Jose, CA and both Orange County and San Diego, and before those flights have even started, they are back at it again with even more new routes to Southern California. Today, they announced that 3x daily service between Sacramento and San Diego, as well as San Jose and Burbank, will begin March 16, 2017.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times to travel internationally, but the trade-off is not being home to enjoy one of the most gluttonous holidays of the year, which traditionally involves stuffing my face with turkey and pumpkin pie. But somehow we were able to bring the holiday spirit with us to Italy, and in fact, this would go down as one of the most memorable Thanksgivings ever. Just instead of turkey, this year I’d be stuffing my face with truffles and pasta.
The Piedmont region is located in Northwest Italy and is well-known for several things. Perhaps most famously is its wines, and in particular is the home of the Nebbiolo grape that is used to make Barolo and Barbaresco wines. Piedmont is also well-known for hazelnuts, and you can even visit the Ferrero Rocher chocolate factory in the city of Alba. But as much as I like wine and Nutella, I was here for one thing and one thing only, the TRUFFLES.
In case you missed it, here’s a recap of the top posts from the past couple weeks, and Happy Mother’s Day!
Cathay Pacific’s First Class is one of the most desirable products out there today, and It’s also one of the hardest to book with miles, since award availability for these seats typically opens up just a week or two prior to departure. So up to this point, my only experience with Cathay Pacific First Class had been over two years ago. Luckily, this trip had come together last-minute anyways, and I ultimately had my pick of three out of the four daily flights that Cathay Pacific operates between Hong Kong and New York.
