Guess Where We Are Headed

For about three months I’ve been trying to use my Delta miles to get us to Vietnam for Philip’s birthday trip in March.  In spite of me increasing our flexibility considerably, I was unable to find anything that I could afford.  Going into the search with almost 600,000 points and the request for two business-class seats anytime in March from any US gateway, I thought it would be a breeze.  But, the confederate-money nature of Delta’s SkyMiles quickly presents itself.  There was either no availability or seats that ran 700,000 or more for two.  (Me to the agent who quoted that:  “You must have a lot of practice at this:  it sounds like you were able to say that with a straight face.”)  I expanded the search to include Hong Kong, Taipei, and Shanghai, but, still, nothing good at a realistic price.

 

In the end, though, that may be all to the good.  It is common knowledge among in-the-know Delta frequent travelers that award availability on Delta partner Virgin Australia is often quite good, so I started looking at availability to Sydney.  Philip was never keen on the idea of Sydney (“It’ll be too much like the US and Canada.  I want to go somewhere different.”), so I dug a little deeper:  Brisbane; Melbourne; Perth.  All had availability and at quite good prices.  Where else could I look?  “Tasmania,” I thought, “that’s pretty exotic.”  Bingo!  Availability!  And at only 150,000 per seat for an all-business-class itinerary, out of LAX.  I sent Philip the a link to a photo set of Tasmania (the link to that is here), and it was a pretty easy sell.  Before long I had the airfare booked.

 

For me when I’m planning travel, one of the most exciting pieces is flexibility and willingness to cast a wider net.  What fun to start out the day trying to remind myself to call about the Hanoi tickets at lunchtime to having begun planning on a trip to Tasmania instead!  And now to plan the itinerary, sightseeing, rental car, hotels, and so on and on.  The research and planning are always a good bit of the fun.

Why We're Skipping Dubai

Getting to Berlin, and Throwing In Dubai Along the Way

In September we were booking travel for the rest of the year.  For two years we had been talking about going to Berlin at Christmas time.  I determined earlier in the year that I was going, no matter the obstacle.  When I started searching for seats, I was finding fares in the neighborhood of $1200 for each of the two of us, which is more than I'd ever paid for a plane ticket, I think.  Looking at possible alternatives, I saw that we could add in a stop in Dubai for just $200 more.  It seemed like a bargain and we went ahead and booked:  we would leave out on a Thursday night, transit in Paris, arrive into Dubai after eleven Friday night and head out in the wee hours of Monday morning, transit through Paris again, onward to Berlin for a week before transiting Paris a third time on the way home.

Dubai had been on my list for a few years.  It looks exciting and I looked forward to going up in the world's tallest building, exploring Old Dubai, and getting to see some of the great architecture.  We'd been to Istanbul and I imagined, given everything I had seen, read, and heard, religion’s influence would be at a similar level.  So, I didn't give a second thought to not going.  Why would I?

Leave Your Drugs (and Pastries Containing Poppy Seeds) At Home

Well, after a few weeks a guidebook arrived.  I had lots of other travel going on so I didn't really have time to delve into it nor to give much attention to planning.  About a month before we were to leave Philip said something along the lines of "we'll need to clean all of our stuff out really good and make sure we don't have any drugs or drug residue."  I laughed:  there is not drugs nor drug residue in my stuff. It was then that I started to explore the issue and to read some pretty scary stuff.

I am not interested in doing drugs, much less trafficking in them, so I always think I'm pretty safe at customs, here at home and abroad.  But, when rules are stringent to the extreme and the possibility to do something illegal purely by accident is a strong possibility, I take notice.  Here's a sampling of the instances I read about in our guidebook and online, mostly via newspaper reports:

• An incoming tourist who had melatonin with him was held for weeks in jail before authorities determined that it was not illegal.  He was held for a further few weeks while they thoroughly searched and tested the rest of his belongings.
• A twenty-year-old was arrested and sentenced to four years prison because he'd smoked a joint the day before he arrived into Dubai.  (Having drugs in one's system is considered possession, just the same as if he had the joint with him.)
• A German flight attendant unwittingly ate a pastry that had hash in it, offered to her at a gathering.  Still unaware what she'd eaten, she went to hospital because she wasn't feeling well.  A blood test revealed THC in her bloodstream.  The police were called and she was arrested.  She spent the eleven months in prison, fighting for release.  Her argument was that she was actually the victim of a crime.
• A British visitor ate a poppy-seed roll at Heathrow before his flight to Dubai.  Authorities at the airport discovered three (three!) poppy seeds on his clothes.  (Regular poppy seeds are illegal in the UAE; possession of them carries a minimum jail term of four years.)  Another story told of a visitor who had a pastry containing poppy seeds; the offending pastry landed him in jail.

There are lots of other stories of tourists unwittingly entering with routinely-prescribed medication that is illegal in Dubai and are carted off to jail.  Still more are detained while authorities test their belongings and decide the legality of medications (and, presumably, pastries) they may be bringing with them.

There are more prohibited items on the entry list than any other country and it is very easy to fall afoul of the rules without knowing it.  Add in the fact that they have "invested" in the most sensitive detection equipment in the world, and it becomes quite scary.  And, if one is inclined to intentionally bring in drugs, well, ask the guy who brought in and tried to sell 3/4 ounce of pot to an undercover officer and was sentenced to death.  (My sympathy at him getting caught is nonexistent but the punishment seems harsh.)

Making the Trip Less Stressful

I know people who have been to Dubai and liked or loved it and had zero problems.  I think that we would have entered also without issue and would have enjoyed our couple of days in Dubai.  But, I found the possibility of having issues just too daunting.  For me the standard is just too stringent and the consequences too great to bother with.  And, with that level of power, all it takes is ending up with the wrong customs agent, and things can quickly go wrong.  The more I read the more worrying it all was.  I finally talked to Philip Friday night about just bagging the Dubai piece and think of going somewhere else instead.  He agreed that it was likely the best thing to do.

If Not Dubai, Then Where?

Saturday morning I woke up and started looking at other options.  Possibilities I offered Philip as viable were Stockholm, Helsinki, Vilnius, Kiev, Dubrovnik, Venice, Milan, Straßburg, Zurich, Budapest, Munich, Vienna, and spending more time in Berlin.  In the end, after we started digging down and looking at hotels, flights, and so on, we settled on Budapest.  Once we made the decision, the entire trip was re-booked and sorted within an hour.

So, we will be missing Dubai, which I'm sad about.  But, I prefer my piece of mind and to not have to worry about accidentally falling afoul of rules that are just extreme and harsh in my opinion.  On the positive side, Budapest is an excellent destination and Philip has never been to Hungary, so he can mark another from his list.  It'll be a great trip, no doubt.  And, I don't have to scrub my luggage!

Going Nowhere, Part Four: 20 Minutes in San Francisco

The Planning

For the third and final of my (Philip’s second and last) pure mileage runs for 2012, we flew on our final BWI to SFO trip.  (Read about the first here and the second here; I also did a mileage run to Manila and wrote about it here.)  We would again go out of BWI on Friday, this time through Atlanta, arrive into San Francisco, overnight there, then fly out the next morning, through Detroit, back into BWI.  Because we would be late getting in we would overnight near BWI.  Again, as with my run the weekend before, we made our plans but they never quite worked out perfectly.

...And The Troubles Begin

In Baltimore our inbound aircraft was late arriving from Atlanta, so we took on a twenty-minute delay, not inconsequential with a 55-minute connection time through Atlanta.  We boarded and were ready to go; or so we thought.  There was some issue with getting the engine started, so we had to have it started by a piece of equipment, which took a while.  Then, after we pushed off the gate, we were given a departure time by flight control of twenty minutes later.  By the time we landed it was too late to make the connection, which was the last SF flight of the night.  We went to the SkyClub to see what our rebooking options were.

Rebooking

I had booked the three BWI-SFO mileage runs before I booked the trip to Manila, so, with that Manila trip, I did not really need this run.  If I had been on my own I’d have had them just send me home.  When there is a situation where you miss a connection, especially when it is the airline’s fault, agents have a lot more latitude about what they can do.  But, Philip needed the miles, so we had to start from that point-of-view, and, of course, I rarely mind being in a plane.

As luck would have it, there was still space—two seats—in First on the first flight the next day from Atlanta to SFO, that would get us into SF an hour before our originally-scheduled flight back east was to leave.  We decided to take it.  Because the delay was the airline’s fault and not the weather, we overnighted on Delta’s dime.

Here’s another instance where one’s status plays a part in the quality of the travel experience.  We were traveling on two different itineraries and were each entitled to a hotel room.  I was offered the Best Western; I asked if there were other options and was given the choice between two different Marriotts or a Crowne Plaza.  Philip, as Gold Medallion, was offered the Best Western or nothing.  So, we went with the airport Marriott.  (No clue what he would have been offered if he was Silver or had no status.  I imagine a spot under a freeway underpass!)  We also each received $20 in meal vouchers.

We headed out to find the shuttle for the Marriott.  It ran every fifteen minutes and we were quickly on our way and checking into the hotel.  It was a nice-enough hotel and room, even if the guestrooms were really quite small; but, in an airport hotel, where guests are usually there for just one night, that is not so important.

Small, but quite adequate, accommodations at the Atlanta Airport Marriott

A Day of Flying

Our rebooked flight was at 08:10 the next morning, so, by the time we got to the room, there was not much time for sleep.  05:30 Saturday morning was time to rise and shine.  We were to the airport by seven, quickly through security (thanks to Pre-Check), and getting a quick bite to tide us over until breakfast was served on the plane, using one of the meal vouchers the Delta agent had given us.

Boarding was on-time and without issue.  We were traveling in Business on a 767 with an international configuration; though it was not Delta’s updated cabin, which has lie-flat seats.  The footrests and in-flight-entertainment were nice to have, the latter especially, since the international configuration meant no Internet onboard.

The flight was nice, with an attentive crew, a pretty-okay breakfast, and IFE to keep us occupied.  The flight was quite choppy from about two thirds of the way in until its end.  At some points the chop was bad enough that the flight attendants were ordered to their jump-seats.

Breakfast on Delta

We landed in San Francisco perfectly on-time and our next flight was out of the gate just across from our arriving gate.  I was upgraded to Detroit and also to BWI; Philip was upgraded Detroit to BWI but not the first leg, so he needed to get something to eat, again with those handy Delta meal vouchers.

Boarding was an absolute mob scene, for who-knows-why.  Eventually we boarded, settled in, and it was time to fly.  The flight was uneventful, except for the two idiots who sat across the aisle from me and talked to each other at such a level that other passengers two and three rows up asked them to please not talk so loudly.  It did not work.  Even with a noise-canceling headset on I could still follow their “conversation,”  dreadful and boorish as it was.

Lunch on Delta

We made it into Detroit and set out on the sprint to our connecting gate; we had just 37 minutes to make it to the flight to Baltimore.  When we arrived at the gate about ten minutes later, the flight had already boarded, so we quickly got on and found our seats.  We pushed off of the gate about ten minutes early and were likewise early getting in.  We found our shuttle to the BWI Doubletree, checked in, and ordered up some room service, which was surprisingly good.

Doubletree BWI

Beating Hurricane Sandy Home

The following morning we slept in a little and then had breakfast at the hotel before checking out, getting to the car, and heading home.  Hurricane Sandy was set to hit so we stopped by for groceries and provisions, and we were home before the rain began.

Again, even though there were delays and missed connections, the end-goal was achieved:  the accumulation of qualifying miles.  For me, the trip netted me 5294 qualifying miles and 11,912 redeemable miles, and all for $170.  Not too bad.  And, for Philip, including our booked trips, he’ll requalify for Gold.  Also not too bad!