Scotland: A Brave Adventure Meets Thread

[calypso726]

Originally Posted by SingingMom

That is SO NEAT!!! What airline? I have to start spacing those points!! :-)

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I thought so too! We are flying on United Airlines.

[SingingMom]

Originally Posted by calypso726

I thought so too! We are flying on United Airlines.

That was supposed to read "start saving those points". (dopey auto correct on the iPad lol)

You should be able to get some sleep on that flight in that comfy seat!

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[CaliforniaGirl09]

Very jealous of those first class seats! Sadly, we just used out miles for London so we'll be paying cash. Flights are super expensive right now. I'm waiting for a drop.

[Calfan]

After more calls to United than I care to think about, we too have finalzed our air travel arrangements to and from Edinburgh. I managed to use United miles for 3 of our party of 4, so all of the calls (and some angst over getting my husband's reservation ticketed) paid off. Alas, we are not flying first class like calypso726 (jealous!), but I am still satisfied with the arrangements. Another step closer to our fabulous adventure in Scotland...

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Originally Posted by calypso726

Hi everybody!

We are less than a year out for our trip. WOO HOO! We got our air travel secured already. DH and I managed to rack up enough miles to book round trip in First Class I am so excited! This will be a first. Anytime we've flown anywhere it has always been coach.

......

FYI, UA flies the 757-200 to EDI, which does not have a first class. It's BusinessFirst, which is actually business class. This is a reconfigured Continental plane. Of course, it is very nice and a huge improvement over a seat in economy, but it's not Global First class. Also, the seat you have pictured appears to be a global first class seat, not a BusinessFirst seat. Here's a good summary of the business service:

http://www.svenblogt.de/airlinerevie...n-txl-ewr-757/

[calypso726]

Originally Posted by lost*in*cyberspace

FYI, UA flies the 757-200 to EDI, which does not have a first class. It's BusinessFirst, which is actually business class. This is a reconfigured Continental plane. Of course, it is very nice and a huge improvement over a seat in economy, but it's not Global First class. Also, the seat you have pictured appears to be a global first class seat, not a BusinessFirst seat. Here's a good summary of the business service:

http://www.svenblogt.de/airlinerevie...n-txl-ewr-757/

FYI, There are a number of ways to get to Edinburgh from the US and United operates a decent number of planes from a decent number of airports across the country to get there. We are not flying direct. The long haul which is 7 hours 50 minutes from IAD connecting into FRA is on a Boeing 777-200 which is a 3 cabin plane and the seats are in Global First operated by UA. We then have a less than 2 hour connection from FRA into EDI.

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Originally Posted by calypso726

The long haul which is 7 hours 50 minutes from IAD connecting into FRA is on a Boeing 777-200 which is a 3 cabin plane and the seats are in Global First operated by UA.

With those seats sounds like there is room for me? Pretty please? Can't I tag along Sigh. Unfortunately not enough miles for us and I'll be relegated to "steerage" as my DS puts it

[calypso726]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaGirl09

With those seats sounds like there is room for me? Pretty please? Can't I tag along Sigh. Unfortunately not enough miles for us and I'll be relegated to "steerage" as my DS puts it

Sure! Why not Without the travel hacking blogs and forums we would have never had enough miles either. But, then again that was part of the strategic plan to get DH to agree to this trip when we hadn't budgeted for it. We'll probably be in "steerage" for our flight to the DCL Alaska cruise in 2014.

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Originally Posted by calypso726

FYI, There are a number of ways to get to Edinburgh from the US and United operates a decent number of planes from a decent number of airports across the country to get there. We are not flying direct. The long haul which is 7 hours 50 minutes from IAD connecting into FRA is on a Boeing 777-200 which is a 3 cabin plane and the seats are in Global First operated by UA. We then have a less than 2 hour connection from FRA into EDI.

I misread the post; should not have assumed the nonstop option from EWR would be most people's first choice. I try not to connect in FRA myself; spent too many hours there due to missed connections (late arriving flights, loooong security lines).

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Originally Posted by calypso726

Sure! Why not Without the travel hacking blogs and forums we would have never had enough miles either. But, then again that was part of the strategic plan to get DH to agree to this trip when we hadn't budgeted for it. We'll probably be in "steerage" for our flight to the DCL Alaska cruise in 2014.

LOL awesome! I think I need to have you do our strategic planning next time, DS (and the rest of us for that matter) would be much happier.

[Calfan]

Originally Posted by calypso726

FYI, There are a number of ways to get to Edinburgh from the US and United operates a decent number of planes from a decent number of airports across the country to get there. We are not flying direct. The long haul which is 7 hours 50 minutes from IAD connecting into FRA is on a Boeing 777-200 which is a 3 cabin plane and the seats are in Global First operated by UA. We then have a less than 2 hour connection from FRA into EDI.

We are connecting through Frankfurt as well (and then taking Lufthansa to Edinburgh). What day are you arriving? We will be there on Aug. 1.

Originally Posted by lost*in*cyberspace

I misread the post; should not have assumed the nonstop option from EWR would be most people's first choice. I try not to connect in FRA myself; spent too many hours there due to missed connections (late arriving flights, loooong security lines).

We had no problem connecting through FRA to Barcelona for our DCL Med cruise. My theory is I would much rather have to deal with a cancellation or missed connection when I am already in Europe (when trains, ferries, etc. can get you to your final destination) than when I am still in the U.S. and the Atlantic Ocean still needs to be crossed.

[sayhello]

Originally Posted by calypso726

Sure! Why not Without the travel hacking blogs and forums we would have never had enough miles either. But, then again that was part of the strategic plan to get DH to agree to this trip when we hadn't budgeted for it. We'll probably be in "steerage" for our flight to the DCL Alaska cruise in 2014.

"Travel hacking blogs and forums"? What are those???

Sayhello

[calypso726]

Originally Posted by lost*in*cyberspace

I misread the post; should not have assumed the nonstop option from EWR would be most people's first choice. I try not to connect in FRA myself; spent too many hours there due to missed connections (late arriving flights, loooong security lines).

The non stop from EWR would have been my first choice but it wasn't available for partner award travel. We're using US Air miles. Fortunately, we are coming in a couple of days early. If life decides to throw us an unexpected adventure we'll have plenty of time to deal with it.

Originally Posted by CaliforniaGirl09

LOL awesome! I think I need to have you do our strategic planning next time, DS (and the rest of us for that matter) would be much happier.

Happy to oblige. I think I might have posted somewhere on this board, but not this thread what my planning entailed.

Originally Posted by Calfan

We are connecting through Frankfurt as well (and then taking Lufthansa to Edinburgh). What day are you arriving? We will be there on Aug. 1.

We had no problem connecting through FRA to Barcelona for our DCL Med cruise. My theory is I would much rather have to deal with a cancellation or missed connection when I am already in Europe (when trains, ferries, etc. can get you to your final destination) than when I am still in the U.S. and the Atlantic Ocean still needs to be crossed.

We will be getting into FRA on Aug. 2nd.

Yup totally agree. I'd rather be there and come up with plan b or c.

Originally Posted by sayhello

"Travel hacking blogs and forums"? What are those???

Sayhello

You know how there are numerous blogs, forums and message boards dedicated to all things Disney? People read and share to learn how to make the most of their trip. Things like how FP's work, need to make ADR's at the 180 day mark for certain restaurants, best place to see fireworks etc.

Well, there are other forums, blogs, message boards dedicated to all the ways to travel free or near free. On these boards people share what airline or travel credit card bonus is worth signing up for. How to make the spend requirements without really spending as much. Which cards to keep and actually spend money with, utilizing bonus spend categories, which ones to cancel, which ones to sign up for again. Whenever there is an offer to earn bonus miles for something I find out from those forums.

I just started this when we booked the Scotland ABD and between DH and I we have hauled in 770K in miles. I'm helping my parents with the travel hacking now too since we are planning to do the London/Paris ABD in 2014. My mom knew what I was doing for our Scotland trip and asked if would be possible to do it for our trip with them too

[Calfan]

Originally Posted by calypso726

You know how there are numerous blogs, forums and message boards dedicated to all things Disney? People read and share to learn how to make the most of their trip. Things like how FP's work, need to make ADR's at the 180 day mark for certain restaurants, best place to see fireworks etc.

Well, there are other forums, blogs, message boards dedicated to all the ways to travel free or near free. On these boards people share what airline or travel credit card bonus is worth signing up for. How to make the spend requirements without really spending as much. Which cards to keep and actually spend money with, utilizing bonus spend categories, which ones to cancel, which ones to sign up for again. Whenever there is an offer to earn bonus miles for something I find out from those forums.

I just started this when we booked the Scotland ABD and between DH and I we have hauled in 770K in miles. I'm helping my parents with the travel hacking now too since we are planning to do the London/Paris ABD in 2014. My mom knew what I was doing for our Scotland trip and asked if would be possible to do it for our trip with them too

770k miles since booking this trip? Wow! Would you mind sharing what blogs and forums you are following? If you don't want to post them here (or maybe you aren't allowed to?) you can PM me or send me an email at calfan2009@yahoo.com.

[sayhello]

Originally Posted by Calfan

770k miles since booking this trip? Wow! Would you mind sharing what blogs and forums you are following? If you don't want to post them here (or maybe you aren't allowed to?) you can PM me or send me an email at calfan2009@yahoo.com.

Me, too? I'd love it if you could PM me the links to those blogs & forums! I'm hoping to do Greece or Scotland in 2014, and I'd love to fly not-steerage!

Sayhello