Tagged With "Miles Canyon"
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Re: Christmas in Arizona--what to do?
Anywhere around the Phoenix area would be good. Northern Arizona (Grand Canyon) gets winter. Scottsdale is a popular destination with great resorts and there are many budget hotels in the area. I would use Fashion Square Mall as your search area.
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Re: United's Award Chart: Premium Award Cost Goes UP
I've seen a lot of "award creep" in my days, and I think there's more to come. A "mile" is worth less and less all the time. It's clear that airline miles aren't worth banking for any period of time. Use them when it's logical to do so. They likely will be worth less in the near future. Thanks for the link, PHeymont.
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Re: United's Award Chart: Premium Award Cost Goes UP
Not sure I agree with the "burn 'em" philosophy. At the premium class end, there's certainly been a lot of creep, but not so much in coach, which is more price-sensitive, even for awards. True, summer awards to Europe have generally gone from 50K to 60K, but on the other hand, off-season at American went DOWN to 40K--and with the flexibility of taking one-way awards and combining them in interesting ways...it's actually a better situation. Also, there are some card-linked sales on flight...
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Re: United's Award Chart: Premium Award Cost Goes UP
I think you'll find reward trips from the Western USA are harder to get for European travel than from the East coast. But if your schedule is flexible, you could be lucky.
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Re: United's Award Chart: Premium Award Cost Goes UP
I think for premium travel,it makes sense. It has always surprised me that premium travel is so much cheaper from a frequent flier perspective (2:1) vs economy than when you actually buy the ticket. Just as a side note, aeroplan has recently reduced miles required on some of their reward charts as well.
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Re: United's Award Chart: Premium Award Cost Goes UP
John's point about the ratio between the two tiers is interesting (we looked at that a little in a forum post this week on value of miles). My guess--and it's just that--is that the same kind of yield-management used to set prices has taken a look at this and is carefully balancing loyalty vs. burn... I can't really compare East vs West availability personally; my school schedules have defined when I can travel well enough that I'm able to start hunting tickets 330 days out, when the...
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Re: Up, Up and Away: Airline miles cards with big bonuses
I LOVE my airline credit card, but it's great to have all this information in one place to see if I could do better. Probably not without some whopping fees, but whopping bonuses, too. Thank you sir, for showing us all these choices!
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Re: Up, Up and Away: Airline miles cards with big bonuses
I have a Delta American Express Platinum card that has served us well. The fee is higher than the gold card, but we can check two bags free, priority boarding, and a free companion pass yearly. We fly two or three times a year and the value of the waived baggage fee and the companion pass far exceed the $150 annual fee. The card also accrues one mile for each dollar spent and lately has offered cash back incentives. For example: spend $15 at Panera's using the card and receive $5 credit on...
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Re: Cruising California's 17 Mile Drive
Fine houses in their pristinely manicured gardens. Don't think I could even afford the taxes. I do like the areas that remain untouched by golf and the hand of fortune. I prefer the untouched to the "candy box tin" painting of nature. I've been to many places where the presence of paupers - like myself - detract from the ambiance of opulence. Even today I had a note attached to my car, that parking in a non-designated zone was being selfish. Even though they were full !
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Re: Cruising California's 17 Mile Drive
Far be it for anyone to say you are selfish, Garry! It is one of the most expensive places to live in California, but I suspect all those drivers going through help subsidize the neighborhood more than that homeowners might want to let on. And I'm not sure most of us could afford the taxes, even if we wanted to. Being an average guy, this is just not my scene.
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Re: Cruising California's 17 Mile Drive
Breathtakingly expensive if I recall. I'm surprised that you are allowed to take photos without paying into the local coffers! :-)
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Re: Cruising California's 17 Mile Drive
I'm also surprised there's no per photo toll imposed on the great unwashed masses visiting the shores of the drive, Mac!
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Re: Cruising California's 17 Mile Drive
Well, the unwashed mass did enjoy his time there.... :-)
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Re: Cruising California's 17 Mile Drive
Cars and bikes are fine, JP, but hogs aren't. The road is good enough so I suspect the home owners (much of the drive is through residential areas) don't want the noise of a big pack of motorcycles passing their gates and fine-trimmed lawns.
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Re: American, USAir loyalty programs will merge Q2 2015
Finally! I've been hanging on to my measly 5,000 USAir miles by buying something through their site every 18 months and must again by January to keep them. It's ok as I only buy things I would anyway. The problem is remembering to go through the USAir site to do it. Last time, whew!
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Re: AA/USAir miles programs merge starting Saturday
All my miles in one pile this morning, enough to go anywhere, and I still can't decide, a truly terrible problem.
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Re: AA/USAir miles programs merge starting Saturday
Yes, the transfer seems to have gone very smoothly...too bad, in a way; I was hoping for an accidental bonus as I once got from Delta (which added an extra zero, back in 1999).
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Re: AA/USAir miles programs merge starting Saturday
Originally Posted by PortMoresby: All my miles in one pile this morning, enough to go anywhere, and I still can't decide, a truly terrible problem. But an enviable problem, PM. If it's the worst thing you have to deal with this week, you're having a pretty fine week.
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Re: AA/USAir miles programs merge starting Saturday
I'm always aware, DrF, I've lived a charmed life (for a commoner).
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Re: AA/USAir miles programs merge starting Saturday
Now I'm really confused. I just learned from your POD yesterday that you were a princess pretending to be a commoner....
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Re: AA/USAir miles programs merge starting Saturday
No, DrF, you read it wrong. A commoner with delusions.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, April 13, 2015: Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii
Hi Marilyn and Garry Marilyn, I'm so glad you enjoyed this POD. Thank you for the kind words. They are much appreciated. If you have not yet had the chance, I do hope that one day you will be able to visit this magnificent canyon. Garry...if a lovely attractive lady asked me if I hiked to the top of a mountain to take these photos, the answer of course would be "Why yes...yes I did (cough cough)." Between you and me, I took the easy way by climbing the short staircase from the parking lot to...
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Re: Northern Arizona: Sedona & Surrounds, Part 2
Arizona has many small historic and natural sites of interest like these, one of the reasons it's one of my favorite states to visit. Seems too many people are in a hurry to head to the Grand Canyon or to drive through the state to properly explore it. Thanks for bring back some great memories.
Member
VegasClub
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Costs for the existing parks is mostly maintenance and salary. In the face of a broke federal government, I would favor increased user fees. $10-20 for a family to visit a national park for a week is the greatest bargain out there. People who love the parks would happily pay twice as much and I don't think the extra cost would be a deterent. Also, it's reasonable for those with concessions to pay up more than they are. They are given a monopoly and some of those profits should go back to the...
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Re: Crater Lake — The Most Beautiful Lake In The World(!?)
I would describe both Crater Lake and the Grand Canyon as Awe inspiring.. A fitting use of the word. You all have yourself an Awesome year too - eh ?
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Re: "New AA" Details Dates for Alliance, Loyalty Change-overs
Thanks for the update. It's already been useful. I have a few thousand USAir miles, not a lot but still enough to not let lapse. I've been making the occasional purchase of gifts through their site to keep them alive. After reading the article and the miles merge date I just bought my mother's gift through the AA site instead, the better to see them added to the bigger pile sooner. Thanks!
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo? #64
Train seems right. It's long and narrow. Green. Not a rock canyon. Plenty of flat terrain - except right where it's crossing.
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Re: Rafting Montana's Clark Fork River
Great pictures! quite different from the Upper Delaware (my only rafting experience). I noticed the old water chute in one picture...what was it used for? It looks a bit like the wooden aqueduct we saw a few years ago in Colorado that moved water along the edge of a canyon to a work site.
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Re: A Day at the Zoo: San Diego, California
Thanks IslandMan! Probably the rarest animal at the zoo is the California Condor. Only the San Diego and Los Angeles zoos exhibit these birds and were instrumental in saving them from extinction. With only a few dozen birds left in the wild, a controversial decision was made several decades ago to capture them all and place the remaining birds in these two zoos for a captive breeding program. They now number several hundred and are slowly being re-introduced into the wild, with limited...
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Quebec — A Walled European Fortress In America
Quebec, like New York, is both a city and a state (or rather, a province). It’s an island of French heritage and culture within our Anglo-North American continent. We combined this visit with stops in Montreal and...
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A springtime hike on the Yakima Rim Skyline Trail
After a rather long winter I was ready for a pleasant dayhike. While I’d rather head up to the mountains for a stroll in an alpine meadow, there’s way too much snow up there in April. Fortunately in the Northwest there are some...
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Steamboat Rock, Washington — Wildflowers and Vistas galore!
The large basalt mass of Steamboat Rock is a distinct landmark in Central Washington state. Steamboat Rock State Park is a dozen miles southwest of the massive Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. The Park is on a peninsula...
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Christmas in Arizona--what to do?
Two friends at work and I are trying to plan a Christmas trip to somewhere warmer than New Haven...and one of them says Arizona is where we should go. All I know about Arizona is from old westerns and a Barbara Kingsolver book. I know it's got...
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United's Award Chart: Premium Award Cost Goes UP
United Airlines has released a new award chart that bumps up the miles required for nearly all business and first-class awards, and (for the first time) makes flights on its Star Alliance partner airlines cost more miles than on United. Details HERE
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Columbia River Gorge, Where Gumbo Was #82
Gumbo was visiting the beautiful Columbia River Gorge, which straddles northern Oregon and southern Washington states. Specifically, Gumbo was enjoying the amazing view of the Gorge through the lobby window of the Skamania Lodge in...
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Colorado National Monument
While many of the units of the US National Park system are frequently visited and very busy, there are also a few less crowded places. Colorado National Monument (known to locals as " The Monument" ) falls into the latter category....
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AA, USAir frequent fliers: the next step is here
Starting tonight (January 8), frequent fliers who are both AAdvantage members (AA) and Dividend Miles members (USAir) will be able to start the process of eventually merging their accounts into one. The step now is to match up the two accounts so that...
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Tahquitz Canyon, Palm Springs
It's a great time of year to be visiting the desert regions of the Southwestern USA. The weather is warm and pleasant, the wildflowers are starting to bloom, and the oppressive heat of summer is a distant...
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AA/USAir miles programs merge starting Saturday
The time has come for the next step in the 15-month-old merger of American Airlines and USAir: merger of the USAir Dividend Miles program into American's AAdvantage. All USAir accounts will be frozen on Thursday, Mar. 26 for the transfer; anyone...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, April 13, 2015: Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii
Located on the west side of Kauai, Waimea Canyon stretches 14 miles long, is one mile wide, and is more than 3,600 feet deep. These photos were taken from the Waimea Canyon Lookout (elevation 3,400 feet) which provides these...
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American, USAir loyalty programs will merge Q2 2015
American and USAir have just notified their frequent flier program members (AAdvantage and Dividend Miles) of more detailed plans for merging the two plans, including a date: 2nd quarter of 2015, as well as details of the merger plan. All USAir...
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Cruising California's 17 Mile Drive
There are a lot of famous road trips in the USA, like California's Pacific Coast Highway and Montana's Going to the Sun Highway . One of the best known drives in America is scenic 17-Mile Drive (actually distance depends on how you...
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Historic Route 66 (pt 2) - Needles CA to Flagstaff AZ
Leaving Needles CA, I drove a route that is a MUST DRIVE if you are the kind of person that loves road trips. The main portion of my day was spent on the longest continuous stretch of the original Route 66 that is still in place - From Topock AZ to...
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Death Valley National Park
Death Valley is one of the most desolate place I have been. Others include central Greenland and the Dead Sea. Death Valley is the lowest place in the western hemisphere at 282 feet (86 metres) below sea level. The Dead Sea in Israel is 1,370...
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Yellowstone National Park in Winter
Seeing all fifty-nine national parks was never a dream of ours--especially not in fifty-nine weeks. We'd call it more of a whim, an impulse or an inspiration. Going to Yellowstone National Park in the winter was something we had...
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Back to Oaxaca: Xochimilco
PortMoresby finds her ideal neighborhood for a return visit to colonial Oaxaca, Mexico.
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Hiking Angel's Landing in Zion National Park
Nate shares one of his favorite hikes, the famous Angel's Landing trail in beautiful Zion National Park.
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Yellowstone HQ, Mammoth Hot Springs
PortMoresby spends her last night in Yellowstone National Park at the historic headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs and meets the famous elk "Touchdown".