The biggest change is moving from a hosted site on WordPress.com to a self hosted site. For the most part everything has been transferred although I’ll be going through various parts of the site to make sure everything is still working OK. If you see something out of sync chances are I am already working on but if it doesn’t change in the next few days then feel free to shoot me an email (Bruce AT NonRevAdventure DOT com) or leave a comment.

Along with the transfer to a new host comes a completely new look for NonRevAdventure. One big pro of moving to a new host is the ability to expand beyond anything WordPress offers and being able to fully customize the site and go above and beyond with design work, etc.

Hope you enjoy the new look. I’m in the middle of planning my next trip, the details of which I’ll write about soon.

I came across a “Free 2 Day Weekend” rental code online for Avis and after reading the ToS I decided it would be fine to use. I certainly didn’t see any restrictions on it that excluded me. I booked the rental car and everything was set–or so I thought. I was double checking all my reservations today and when I came across my Avis reservation I saw that it had been cancelled. I double checked the confirmation number/reservation and sure enough, “Thanks Bruce, your reservation has been cancelled. It has come to our attention that the discount code you have entered is invalid” Well that’s great. I am just happy I caught it before I arrived to pick up the car.

In this day and age the internet can produce tens of hundreds of coupons, etc. for any service so I am not surprised that this coupon didn’t work out. It would have been nice if it had worked out but it didn’t. What does bother me is the fact that I haven’t been contacted from Avis about this. Maybe they’ll contact me in the future with an email but as of right now I have not received a notification or anything of the like.

So Avis – I don’t mind you canceling my reservation but next time give me some heads up. It’s never any fun traveling and coming upon a reservation that isn’t working.

UPDATE:
Multiple people have reported getting emails notifying them of the cancellation. I have yet to receive one.

I just bought my ticket for the event but have yet to book a room at the Hyatt (The location of the confernece – Grand Hyatt Tampa) or book a plane ticket.

More details are located for FTU Tampa on this page and fellow buddy/blogger HackMyTrip has a fun post on upgrading your room at the Grand Hyatt Tampa here.

This will be my first time attending and I’m hoping to meet a lot of you guys there. See you in September.

United + Chase offer a few different cards. Some don’t contain a fee, some are cheap ($95) and some like the United Club Card are $395 a year. I already had the Chase Freedom, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and now the Chase United Club Card. Some people sign up for it and then cancel after a year to avoid the annual fee. Some people spend quite a but of time every year trying to beat the game and getting the yearly fee waived. After having it for the past few months I can say that it absolutely worth the annual fee.

I applied for the United Club card and was immediately approved, and had the card + package the very next day. I was expecting a small envelope but this card came in a 9-10 lb. package and came complete with multiple booklets explaining various benefits. Most of the United cards have the same benefits but the one difference between the Club card and the others is that this one comes with an annual club membership.

The club membership is the biggest factor to me so that was what convinced me to get the card. If you search online you will find mixed reviews for the club but after experiencing it in multiple airports and situations for a month or so, I can say it’s definitely worth it. A look at THIS thread over at FlyerTalk will see more details than I could give here.

Multiple reasons could be given for not wanting a membership but I haven’t experienced any of them. It’s never been crowded enough I couldn’t find a seat, I’ve never had to wait to check in to the club, and it is worth the membership simply to get out of the hassle of the airport. I like the “airport vibe” as much as the next person but having a quiet place to go to get work done or have a drink & relax? It’s great.

I use this membership every time I fly (At least twice a week) and I couldn’t imagine not having it. Now, if only we could get a restaurant at each one to provide a nice menu with actual food–I would gladly pay more for that.

Wait! We could go to Singapore, THEN Kuala Lumpur THEN Bangkok. THEN….

Other than the flights I plan, I like to go on chance and see what will happen. I like the rush of stepping off a plane in a foreign country and wandering into the heart of the city. Everyone has a different style in which they travel and mine is to immerse myself in the new culture around me.

My first trip to Europe was to Amsterdam and (after somewhat stumbling along the way) I eventually made it into a fantastic experience. I stepped off the plane at 9 AM and after almost getting thrown off a train I ended up wandering the famous canals, trying out the local cuisine, and meeting some new friends along the way. It certainly didn’t hurt that a big part of my heritage is from this area so I blended in–certainly more than when I was in Tokyo.

Sometimes I get so roped up in trying to plan such a unique experience that I forget that simply being there and interacting will be the biggest experience. I spent this past week trying to plan a trip and it started off as a US trip then migrated to Europe then hopped all the way to Australia and eventually it flamed out and I didn’t end up planning anything. After that flamed out I found award availability on Lufthansa from Denver-Frankfurt-Singapore all in first. Once again, that idea flamed out.

The hardest part of any trip is taking that first step. Once you start on the journey the rest will fall into place.

New York City for the weekend? Here we go.

We did the complete loop (Clark wouldn’t have any less) and it was a whole day drive. We started early, around 6AM, and got back to the hotel that night around 6PM. While the locals say the back side of the highway is badly damaged, we had no trouble going through it. As you’ll see in the later photos, it presents a whole new landscape people don’t normally see when going to Hawaii. Although the drive doesn’t seem to take that long, it goes through a course of 59 bridges and 640 curves. 46 of the bridges and most of the ocean-side curves are only one lane.

Enjoy!

Earlier this week I wrote about how my flight from Chicago to Tampa was cancelled. That’s ok, travel is often chaotic and cancellations and delays happen everyday. However, due to time constraints, it didn’t make any sense in waiting for the next plane that afternoon . I ended up scrapping the whole mini-trip last minute and for the most part it worked out great. I was able to cancel restaurant reservations on OpenTable right away and I was able to cancel my rental car with National right away.

Know what I couldn’t cancel? My hotel reservation at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort–Which by booking beforehand was going against my biggest travel rule. I immediately tweeted @SPG and as usual they were of help right away by passing my information along to the hotel manager and saying that he would contact me this week.

It’s Friday and I haven’t received a call.

Part of me didn’t expect a call at all but since it was SPG I had high hopes as their customer service is one of the best in the travel industry. It’s one reason I book with them more than anyone else. I can understand that the hotel room was non refundable but if you make a point to tell a customer that you will reach out to them to discuss something, it would be great to actually follow up on that. SPG is the first hotel in 3 years that hasn’t contacted me after a missed hotel stay to offer a full refund or at least a credit towards a future stay. I guess most companies realize that the person that missed the flight will be back eventually – and by contacting them and talking with them they know they’ll eventually get their business. Or you could keep the room rate and not contact that person. That option certainly does less for the long term though. What incentive do I have to stay there in the future?

I wrote recently about hotel loyalty and maybe if I had elite status I would have been contacted. That gets back to my original point though – Is it worth it to pay a premium for added incentives? If a hotel only gives great service to “top” members then is it a hotel worth doing business with at all?

Time to chalk this up to “live and learn”. It’s often a common theme when traveling. Especially with anything non-refundable.