Rewards Travel

[T_Minus]

Ended up paying the 120+fees for the 2nd flight instead of using 25k Alaska Air, 20k Starwood and saving only $144 (after fees).

On a related note BofA is terrible. They froze my CC and are making me go into a branch with my ID to "verify" my account. This is after 1hr on the phone with all accurate account verification!

I guess their loss, I got the companion discount and just used my Starwood AMEX LOL!

 

[StammesOpfer]

Yeah BofA is kind of know for bad Customer Support. Man the points game is a deep dark hole. Possibly even deeper than Homelabs. Of course if you do it right you are making money rather than spending it.

 

[Airbozo]

Congrats on the trip! I thought it was funny your wife couldn't be away from the kids too long. Give it a few more years and that won't be an issue... lol!

I hate BofA. I was a long time customer and so was the SO before we met. After we got married and combined accounts, they made horrible mistakes at least once a month and we ended up in court with them (we ended up winning but it took a few years). I fondly refer to them as a Bunch of ____holes. Just bought a car and they insisted financing through BofA. I told them I was walking if I had to do anything with them.

Enjoy the trip! If you get a chance, take a walk on the Kings Highway (lava rock path) to the secluded beaches. You will not regret it.

 

[T_Minus]

Thanks for the info!

I ended up talking to a higher level manager and he had no idea why they were 'blocking' me... after answering the same security questions again he activated my account.

I'm going to call the air line and let them know of the huge hassle BofA was and see if I can get some more points

 

[jjoyceiv]

Man the points game is a deep dark hole. Possibly even deeper than Homelabs.

No question... Flyertalk.com alone is crazy, not to mention all the other points-and-travel-game communities.

 

[T_Minus]

No question... Flyertalk.com alone is crazy, not to mention all the other points-and-travel-game communities.

Yep!

"Couponing" is the same way.


To follow-up on the BofA issue... I got a call back from an even higher level manager who verified my account security questions, and within a couple minutes had my account 'turned back on'.

My wife (1.5 weeks after I received my card) finally heard back and got her card approved... so we could have saved ~$400 on flight if we had used all points. Oh-well, now we have enough flight rewards and SPG left to go somewhere else for $0.

 

[dba]

We were planning to go to Hawaii this summer for two weeks with some friends and bring along the grand parents to watch the kids except now our friends are expecting their first, and as far as my wife knows we're not going.

I'm planning to try to coordinate something with my folks and surprise my wife for her upcoming birthday.

The hotels will be all starwood (amex rewards), and there seem to be options on the popular islands.

You'd think growing up and living in CA my entire life I'd have been to Hawaii but nope, not yet... this is my first trip and same for my wife.

I hope the STH members can point us in the right direction in terms of good activities and places to see while in Hawaii. We're not really into the dancing / bar / drinking scene more along the lines of hiking, water falls, beaches, fishing trips, boat trips, ruins, etc...

Suggestions on things to do?

What about Starwood Hotels? There are many to choose from, and on different islands we need to plan accordingly. On the beach and higher-end is what we're after, it's reward points after all


Looks like ~$800 round-trip per-person on Hawaiin for non-stop flights from SMF -- if you know of better/cheaper let me know... even flying into SFO are the same price or higher it seems and of course no Southwest yet so those points are no good


Looking forward to what you guys can share.

I'm not a big Hawaii fan (never feels exotic enough compared to say French Polynesia) but my favorite is Kauai for the hiking and kayaking. And I'm not above a zipline or two. The last time I was there we rented a primo four-bedroom house for two couples - nicer than almost all of the hotels and less expensive.

 

[Patrick]

My wife put the South Park zip line episode on years ago. It is one of the few SP episodes I have seen but it comes to mind every time I think about zip lines.

The house route is awesome!

 

[cheezehead]

We went last December and ended up being around $800/person for the flight round-trip out of the midwest with a connecting flight through ORD but it also included a 10day car rental (United and used BookIt). Highly recommend getting a rental car for Oahu if you ever plan on doing a of the hiking/nature excursions.

Since it was our first trip we ended up just staying on west side of Oahu for the duration. Did something everyday and there was still 3-4 days worth of things to do outside of the party scene. Can't say much for Maui specifically but make sure you have something to keep the kids occupied on the flight, I think it's 5 1/2 hour airtime.

 

[T_Minus]

@cheezehead kiddos are staying with grand parents

Another twist to BofA... logged in to pay my card and it says it's "frozen" and won't even let me make a payment on it! No clue what they are doing! They unfreeze it then randomly freeze it again before I can use it. Oh, and my wife also got approved but it took 3 weeks for her card to show up where-as mine came in ~1 week and was instantly provided on-line. Someone really needs to overhaul how BofA does technology and security At-least with our 2 cards now we have enough points on Alaska Air (and partners) to fly round-trip practically anywhere in the US for 2 people.

Also it looks like we are going to be able to squeeze in Chicago in September for a couple nights 100% rewards too. With the current southwest promo going on (ends in a day or two) we can get 2 free round-trip on SW CC/mileage points, and have enough starwood leftover to get a room as well. Now to figure out how to pull this off with daycare/house sitting/etc.. things were much simpler with no kids, dogs, animals, etc... LOL!!

 

[T_Minus]

Call BoFA and they tell me once again my account is frozen (no activity since they "fixed it before) and that once again I need to go into a local branch for "verification".

Oh, and now my account payment is Late since I can't make any payments online... WTF.

BofA is the absolutely worst company I've ever dealt with.

 

[T_Minus]

Just got back, great time... well, until I overheard others discussing this insane deal:

Score a Fantastic SPG Redemption at The St. Regis Maldives


Sadly, right now even if I cancel my upcoming Chicago trip I'll only have around 70k points!!
This would have made an awesome November, especially at that point : value

Maui was great, and actually much cooler than we'd been used to with 100-110 lately here!! The humidity was low for hawaii, and really compared to what I'm used to in the Caribbean. If we go back we'll go to another island for sure.