Since this trip was for "personal business", I decided to use miles and points for as much as possible. It actually worked out quite well. The entire cost of a two day trip to Seattle and back, with a full-sized rental car, two nights in a hotel, a first class flight, and parking at the airport, came to about $300. This covered an upgraded coach flight, gas for the rental car, and a bit of Starbucks.
For the flight, I bought a discounted coach ticket for the qualifying miles, then immediately upgraded the return flight using miles, since it was showing pretty full. I later regretted not upgrading both directions right then, but I was conducting an experiment at the time (see my previous post on how that went...). At least I'm sitting up front on the way home, and I don't have to fret over whether I'm going to make the upgrade at the airport or not.
I stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn, which is a favorite on business trips when it is an option. All rooms have a full kitchen and living room. This allows me to store food and snacks in the refrigerator, and even cook if I want to. For a 2 day trip, this isn't much of a problem, but eating out every meal for a week can get old. Two days in this Category 3 hotel was just 30,000 Marriott points.
Normally for a short trip like this I would take a taxi (or train when I can) to the hotel and to the various events, but since I was trying to use points and miles instead of cash, I decided to get a car. Since I have an abundance of Continental miles, I rented a car. I usually rent from National, I love the ability to just show up and grab any car in the lot and just drive off. This time, however, Avis had a much better deal, for less than the cost of a one-way first class upgrade, I got a Chevy Impala with 280 miles on it for two days.
Meals in Seattle were provided by the company I met with, a decent breakfast is included with the room (or technically apartment I suppose) at the Residence Inn, and a very large lunch was served on the first class flight home. That left only the requisite Starbucks as the only meal-related expense.
When I get back to my car, I'll check out of the remote lot with a points certificate earned for previous trips.
All and all a pretty good deal. Now to head back home for a couple weeks, then I'm off again back to Germany!
Friday, January 27, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Coach to Seattle - Experimenting With Continental Elite Priority Upgrades
Today I'm on a Continental flight from Houston to Seattle for a meeting. This is a short trip, the first of several over the next few weeks, just two days and back home. I'm sitting in coach for a change, though I'm in an isle seat in the exit row, so I am actually pretty comfortable.
The reason I'm sitting here is my own fault. I usually use miles to upgrade coach flights, choosing not to leave it to chance that my Gold Status upgrades will clear. This time however, I decided to try it out. After reading up on how to monitor the number of open upgradeable seats through the Continental web site, I saw the flight had 9 seats available to upgrade immediately at the time I bought the ticket, and only 4 of the 20 first class seats were taken. There were also plenty of seats open in the front of coach where only elites, or those who pay the fee, can reserve seats. I thought, hey, I'm pretty confident I'll get the upgrade, so I won't spend the 17,500 miles required to upgrade right away.
Two weeks later, just outside the 100-hour window when the highest elite members get their complementary upgrades, there were still 14 open first class seats, and 7 slots for mileage upgrades, I sill thought I'd be fine. However, when the 48-hour came and went and I didn't get the upgrade email, logged in to check the list. To my dismay, there were now only 6 seats left, and I was 7 on the list.
At this point I could only 'hope' that someone else didn't make the flight, or was delayed inbound to Houston (Ok, maybe it's not cool to wish bad things on someone else, just for a first class upgrade, but I've been that person enough times, it's someone else's turn!). Needless to say, by the time I boarded the plane, I was number 1 on the list of the remaining 20 or so people who were also not upgraded.
Ah well, you win some, you loss some, right? But, I did learn a lot about how the process works...and I went ahead and upgraded the other flights I have next month with miles... ;)
The reason I'm sitting here is my own fault. I usually use miles to upgrade coach flights, choosing not to leave it to chance that my Gold Status upgrades will clear. This time however, I decided to try it out. After reading up on how to monitor the number of open upgradeable seats through the Continental web site, I saw the flight had 9 seats available to upgrade immediately at the time I bought the ticket, and only 4 of the 20 first class seats were taken. There were also plenty of seats open in the front of coach where only elites, or those who pay the fee, can reserve seats. I thought, hey, I'm pretty confident I'll get the upgrade, so I won't spend the 17,500 miles required to upgrade right away.
Two weeks later, just outside the 100-hour window when the highest elite members get their complementary upgrades, there were still 14 open first class seats, and 7 slots for mileage upgrades, I sill thought I'd be fine. However, when the 48-hour came and went and I didn't get the upgrade email, logged in to check the list. To my dismay, there were now only 6 seats left, and I was 7 on the list.
At this point I could only 'hope' that someone else didn't make the flight, or was delayed inbound to Houston (Ok, maybe it's not cool to wish bad things on someone else, just for a first class upgrade, but I've been that person enough times, it's someone else's turn!). Needless to say, by the time I boarded the plane, I was number 1 on the list of the remaining 20 or so people who were also not upgraded.
Ah well, you win some, you loss some, right? But, I did learn a lot about how the process works...and I went ahead and upgraded the other flights I have next month with miles... ;)
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