I've been in downsizing hell for the past two months, and I've finally gotten a chance to catch up in the last couple of days. In random order ...
First movie date: Beauty and Beast. I think I saw someone else had this, too
Travel hacking plans:
January: Heading to WDW with my family and
@Calfan for the WDW Marathon Weekend. We tinkered with the idea of doing the Dopey, but sanity prevailed and we are "just" doing the half. We are in between companion passes on this one so we are (horrors!) paying for all our airfare on SWA. My CP finished in 2018 and DH is currently in Chase purgatory. He was approved for the Business a couple months ago. A couple weeks ago while in Maui with Calfan and her husband we decided to try the link for the 50k for the priority personal card. Stupidly I forgot that we had our credit frozen, and he wasn't approved immediately. After lifting the credit he was asked TONS of questions, and told that it needed to go for second approval. The whole thing is pretty ridiculous given his numbers, but I really think the self-employed thing is hard no matter how much $$ you make. They prefer an employer with a fixed income. Anyway, he's had the 30 day message for a long time. I don't want to jump the gun on the reconsideration line so I'm trying to be patient.
February: London for ski week. We just bought a timeshare in London and this will be our first stay. So excited! Hopefully we won't have to change our dates, but it may overlap with our house being on the market. The nice thing is that we can move it up to two weeks ahead of time. I've been scanning for airfare, and I'm holding off until we are 100%, Right now the best option looks like premium economy on VS using URs or possibly gambling on a United upgrade.
April: back to WDW with family and
@Calfan for Star Wars Half. Hopefully DH's CP will be operational. If not, we'll get DS's ticket with the points from the SW business card. Probably head to Maui with DD for her spring break for a week.
May: My epic British Isles/Faroes trip through an Alumni travel group with a friend for 3+ weeks. The Faroes are my #1 bucket list. As @Calpyso and
@Calfan can attest, I was so bummed when our Disney Norway/Iceland cruise a couple years ago changed ports from the Faroes to Orkney. I've been to the Orkeny's four times, LOL. I'm supposed to go to St. Michael's Skellig (Star Wars island), too, but I think it's been closed to tourists so well see. I'm flying BA 1st class with Avios one way using Alaska miles (& $544) that I received from a Marriott Flight and stay plan, and I scored a unicorn on Delta the other way:
Virgin Atlantic Upper class for 75,000 sky pesos and $5. I knew these existed, but I couldn't believe I finally found one.
June: London to pick up our daughter who is attending university in England (and our second stay at our timeshare). I'm planning to do United in business over there using the everyday miles (155k) and keep an eye out for savers. Back we will do savers in coach and pay for the upgrade with points and cash. They might not clear, but I'll keep an eye on our flights and hopefully something will open last minute.
July: ABD Japan! So excited for this trip. Wish we could have overlapped with Calypso but we were limited in when we could go because DD has to do a summer dig. I was able to get 3/4 of the legs in first class through a combination of Avios on JAL (DD and me are first class both ways) and Virgin Atlantic's incredible deal for ANA one way in business and one way in first. We have already looked at the alcohol list, LOL, and DD and I can't wait to toast with our Cristal! DH is looking forward to his $400 whisky. And the best part for me .... jammies! Since I did all the work, I made DH agree to give me his ANA jammies so I can compare
All four of us were originally booked on the same JAL flights (two in first and two in business), but when the VS deal with ANA opened up DH and DS decided to switch to try out the first class. We will be coming/going from different Tokyo airports, but we figured it was worth the added hassle.Right now I"m debating on whether to stay at the Tokyo Grand Hyatt for our pre-nights on points or pay for the Tokyo Station hotel with URs. The Tokyo Station hotel is more convenient for both airports, but the Hyatt is a bucket list after Lost in Translation
September: back to London to take DD back to school. We may stay in timeshare, but haven't decided. Hoping to use Alaska miles for American or BA business going and United saver economy back.
Nov/Dec: London and Maui, but haven't decided which in which month. My mom has a place in Maui so we don't have to plan.
Fun to see everyone's plans.
HAHAHAHA!
