Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[hdrolfe]

Yeah I noticed that! Discovered that one of the DVC rental companies actually lets you look at the availability calendars geeze, nothing open. HOWEVER, I'm looking at several other options now!

No-go for the number one requirement on our list: Safe food that I don't need to cook. Hubby's only request is to be within the Disney bubble.

I didn't get much sleep last night, too many thoughts swirling around so I just got up and started crunching numbers. Looking for thoughts, opinions and any experience with the options I'm looking at. I'll add my questions at the end of each rambling section

First up is dealing with flight costs: Airmiles for our fall trip and apply for a WestJet Mastercard to help with the Feb/March trip. They have a current "deal" to get up to $450 WJ Dollars, not sure if we'll earn all of those before the Black Friday sales crop up but we'd have the companion fare after the first transaction to use for the trip in 2024 (as mentioned earlier, WJ is our preferred airline) I'll need to carefully balance the offer from BMO while still spending the required amount to get the full $450
Those who have this card - how long does it take for that companion fare to pop up and can you still book online yourself?

Next accommodations for the Fall trip: Reason for initial consideration of DVC was 2 fold- ability to cook something more than a regular room allows AND possibility of being closer to the Ale & Compass (Chef there went out of her way to source foods for me and gave me her business card to alert her about any future trips so they can get in even more choices so they can even BAKE for me!!!) That fell flat on it's face, back to the drawing board at 5 this morning when I remembered we have 4 free nights available at any moderate resort PLUS Disney has gone back to offering BounceBack offers!!! AND depending on which weekend we go with there are several discounts we're eligible for, I love a bargain.

Options for this trip I'm looking at since they're all on the Skyliner Route: CBR for free (given as a "do-over" from the staff at POFQ) POP or AoA with a preference of POP since the standard at the other one is heavily themed and doesn't appeal. OR POFQ for free since we love staying there and then using UBER (gawd the stories I've haven't shared, can't believe I'm even considering that!! We had a trip so down-right scary and unsafe that ALL of our charges for the entire trip were refunded and that one driver has been banned from both UBER and LYFT) but probably just go the route of eating breakie in the room and using Disney transit to get to the Boardwalk area later in the day. Paying for POP comes in under $1000 CDN
Thoughts here? Pay for POP, using our free nights at CBR to have access to the Skyliner or use our free nights to stay at our Preferred POFQ?

Options for the "Real Trip": Before we started down this rabbit hole we were looking at a full 2 weeks using the Airmiles for 4 nights at one of the Swalphin resorts, 6 nights we'd pay and then the 4 free at POFQ. However as I mentioned somewhere in this jumbled post, Disney has brought back the BounceBack offers and our dates are included with POFQ coming in at the 25-30% mark by most accounts so we'll just spend the whole trip there! That explains why I'm willing to use Airmiles for the flights for the fall trip.

Willing to entertain any other suggestions that will let us have a long weekend at some point this fall (Thursday-Monday anytime starting on Oct 26 thru to December) as well as our 2 weeks in Feb/March

I have no experience with the WJ card or points but I believe I have read you can book online yourself. I'm sure someone else will have a better reponse.

For a fall trip - based on your choices I would do the 4 free nights, probably at CBR since you can use skyliner. Then I'd book the bounceback for next year. However, I believe there are still discounts out for that time period? Not sure if you could get some sort of good deal at YC or BC, or another resort, that might be better than what you'd get in the new year?

Using airmiles and the free nights, you really only have to pay for meals, and of course skyliner takes you right over to Yacht Club area for Ale and Compass. So that seems like a good deal to me. But I would also jump at a chance to stay at YC or BC lol. Even though it costs so much more, we just love Stormalong Bay But I have a teenage boy lol. I'm not sure I'd love it as much if I didn't travel with him

 

[Aladora]

Willing to entertain any other suggestions that will let us have a long weekend at some point this fall (Thursday-Monday anytime starting on Oct 26 thru to December) as well as our 2 weeks in Feb/March

I'm always checking out dedicated DVC rentals so I took a quick look for the dates you are looking for and I found two. Not sure if I can link them here so I will send you a pm.

One of them is a studio at Bay Lake 11/16-11/19, the other is a 1 bedroom at Riviera 11/23-11/26

 

[dancin Disney style]

all we care about is a chance to be in the bubble, food that I can eat without cooking, no one able to just show up at our front door, no business interruptions, just not here! We might or might not go to any of the parks, probably not.

LOL…sorry I was just meaning in terms of availability. Reservations could be hard to get.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Good grief that man of mine! I fell into bed at 10:13 (I know because I reached up to punch the do not disturb button on my phone since both kids have been wanting to chat with me), slept until the doorbell rang at 12:45. I didn't go to bed until after 1 this morning since i was a tad excited about pricing things out and then we both woke up around 4:30 to thunderstorms and loud yelling under our bedroom window. URGH got up, worked on the plans I laid out here and when hubby was stumbling around making his coffee, breakfast and lunch (his trainer for today bailed so he had to actually go out to work) I relayed the bare bones of what I'm thinking about.

I woke up to multiple texts from him that basically boil down to him whining that we can't go tomorrow and after I obviously wasn't answering "I want to stay at one of the EPCOT resorts, can we make that happen PLEASE"
Back to the drawing board! Thanks for the links to the dedicated reservations, I'll look now

 

[Donald - my hero]

WOAH, this is incredible to me gang, look at these numbers and the milestone we're approaching. Almost 8 years since I started this thread when I was in the middle of planning a trip as a late celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary and stumbled across an offer for VISA gift cards at Rexall. Here we are, planning the trip next year to be an early celebration of our 40th and somehow we've generated 4 MILLION views, 34 THOUSAND replies and we just started on page 1700. Thanks for joining me on this journey and helping to form a family of choice for all of us. I love that the conversations are continuing even though we're not all earning miles anymore.

 

[alohamom]

WOAH, this is incredible to me gang, look at these numbers and the milestone we're approaching. Almost 8 years since I started this thread when I was in the middle of planning a trip as a late celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary and stumbled across an offer for VISA gift cards at Rexall. Here we are, planning the trip next year to be an early celebration of our 40th and somehow we've generated 4 MILLION views, 34 THOUSAND replies and we just started on page 1700. Thanks for joining me on this journey and helping to form a family of choice for all of us. I love that the conversations are continuing even though we're not all earning miles anymore.

View attachment 787486

For bringing us all together, for guiding and planning on our behalf, for gentle, kind moderation and for keeping us coming back again and again.... @Donald - my hero you truly are OUR HERO

 

[bababear_50]

Happy Thursday
Are we all ready for our big 30X spends tomorrow?
Hugs Mel

 

[Donald - my hero]

HOLY crap all of our Toronto and Ottawa gang -- did you know that Porter is flying out of Pearson now??? The flight I'm looking at (on my birthday at the moment) is direct at a decent time but if we don't want to leave Orlando at butt-crack of dawn we'll have a connecting flight thru Ottawa! That says to me that you should have options for direct flights now. This is Nov 23 - 27th.
All in at the fare that includes a carry-on and personal item for 2 of us is $730
Out of Ottawa it would come to $671

I had no idea until I looked on the Airmiles site and it popped up at a unbelievable rate compared to any other of the crappy options!!

 

[hdrolfe]

HOLY crap all of our Toronto and Ottawa gang -- did you know that Porter is flying out of Pearson now??? The flight I'm looking at (on my birthday at the moment) is direct at a decent time but if we don't want to leave Orlando at butt-crack of dawn we'll have a connecting flight thru Ottawa! That says to me that you should have options for direct flights now. This is Nov 23 - 27th.
All in at the fare that includes a carry-on and personal item for 2 of us is $730
Out of Ottawa it would come to $671

I had no idea until I looked on the Airmiles site and it popped up at a unbelievable rate compared to any other of the crappy options!!

wait wait - so Porter MCO to Ottawa is an option!? Umm I did not know that and am rather excited about the option!

 

[Donald - my hero]

Here's where you can find out the deets about Porter's flights and the new planes they are using on the longer flights. I love that if I want to, we can choose to fly the top-level of their service, which includes all the luggage, seats with more space, food & drinks (not just the cheap stuff for those that care), dedicated check-in and priority security lines & it's coming in for about what the mid-level of WestJet service is currently pricing out at for our Feb trip. Now that Airmiles lets you book one-way flights we can take this to Orlando at noon and have a good chunk of that day on-site and then take a WestJet or Air Canada flight home. The return non-stop flight leaves at 8 which is too early for my hubby
Where Porter Flies

 

[dancin Disney style]

Porter has been at YYZ for a little while now. If it's a concern for anyone, keep in mind they fly small jets. These are a 2-2 or 1-2 configuration. The seats are a little on the small side and leg room is minimal. It's a short haul set up and MCO is not technically considered a short haul.

 

[Aladora]

Here's where you can find out the deets about Porter's flights and the new planes they are using on the longer flights. I love that if I want to, we can choose to fly the top-level of their service, which includes all the luggage, seats with more space, food & drinks (not just the cheap stuff for those that care), dedicated check-in and priority security lines & it's coming in for about what the mid-level of WestJet service is currently pricing out at for our Feb trip. Now that Airmiles lets you book one-way flights we can take this to Orlando at noon and have a good chunk of that day on-site and then take a WestJet or Air Canada flight home. The return non-stop flight leaves at 8 which is too early for my hubby
Where Porter Flies

I'm flying Porter in September from Victoria to Montreal then Ottawa to Victoria. I priced out their top level vs WestJet and Air Canada and I was shocked!

Porter cost me $766.25, similar flights on WestJet were over $1600.00! Even WJ basic economy was going to be over $720, after you include the cost for selecting seats.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Well.....I'm bummed. I think this was mentioned on here a little bit ago about cruises through Redtag/Airmiles. You can't redeem your airmiles anymore for a cruise I had been hoping to redeem them to cut the cost down of a cruise for our 30th anniversary. Back to the drawing board.

Guess I'll keep them for our Florida trip

 

[bababear_50]

Off Topic
Need some help

I am in need of a Good Trust Litigation Lawyer in the Brampton/ Burlington /Mississauga area?
Anyone have any recommendations?
If they are somewhat *shark* type all the better.... lol
Thanks
Hugs Mel

 

[Donald - my hero]

Porter has been at YYZ for a little while now. If it's a concern for anyone, keep in mind they fly small jets. These are a 2-2 or 1-2 configuration. The seats are a little on the small side and leg room is minimal. It's a short haul set up and MCO is not technically considered a short haul.

Yup, we're aware that we won't be getting the same amount of room but as mentioned above I simply can't justify the price difference for a 3 hour flight. With it only being a 2-2 configuration we know there won't be someone else's thigh touching ours and no elbows to fight off
Let's see - free wifi Yes please
snacks that are a *tad* more elevated than WestJet - hubby says yes please
Wine, beer, juice, whatever free - we don't drink but yeah, hubby will have a pop
Pay a bit more and get a bunch more perks that WestJet and Air Canada charge a LOT more for, yeah, I might be convinced for the longer trip in Feb/March but for our birthday trip we can manage without.

It will take 1800 miles plus for both of us to go one way on Porter leaving at noon
It will take 4700 miles for both of us to go one way on Westjet leaving at 7:30 OR 9,340 if you leave at 10:30?!?!?
A bit of a no-brainer if you ask me, so long as we go in with our eyes wide open about what the plane is like, I think this will work our for us.

***ETA on his way to bed hubby said "just pay the $400 direct to Porter and we know it's done" This guy really wants a trip!

 

[bababear_50]

My BMO Airmiles Dollarama posted
August 24, 2023

BMO DOLLARAMA 5X MILES
+75

 

[bababear_50]

Well.....I'm bummed. I think this was mentioned on here a little bit ago about cruises through Redtag/Airmiles. You can't redeem your airmiles anymore for a cruise I had been hoping to redeem them to cut the cost down of a cruise for our 30th anniversary. Back to the drawing board.

Guess I'll keep them for our Florida trip

So sorry Pumpkin
You'll find something fantastic for that special Anniversary Hon!
Hugs
Mel

 

[Donald - my hero]

Last post for tonight about porter, I promise!
Has anyone booked flights using miles since the platform changed? I can't sort this out in my head ... will I be paying taxes and fees on top of the miles or not! One spot says yes, the other says it's included is there a booking fee on top of this as well? The next step wants me to enter all of our details and I don't want to commit until I know what the bottom line will be.

 

[ElCray]

Last post for tonight about porter, I promise!
Has anyone booked flights using miles since the platform changed? I can't sort this out in my head ... will I be paying taxes and fees on top of the miles or not! One spot says yes, the other says it's included is there a booking fee on top of this as well? The next step wants me to enter all of our details and I don't want to commit until I know what the bottom line will be.
View attachment 787822

Yes with the max Air Miles, they still require payment of taxes and fees. Just booked my stepmom yesterday.

 

[bababear_50]

Have fun shopping!

Hugs Mel