委内瑞拉行(1)

四月的时候，收到老板一封email,说想组织一个旅行团去委内瑞拉，想看看究竟有多少人感兴趣。 说到委内瑞拉，以前大家第一想到的可能是石油，然后是可可。这几年可能有了改变，一提委内瑞拉，查韦斯就蹦出来了。 对于我来说，自己去旅游可能永远不会想到去委内瑞拉，有人组织，还能增加见识，何乐而不为呢？

最后发现，去的人当中只有我一个人需要办签证。 委内瑞拉的签证倒也方便,填个表格，去银行办了个存款证明， 把我的绿卡复印一下，两张照片，交$30块钱，材料寄到大使馆，护照一个星期就回到了自己手里。 唯一比较怪异的一点是交钱必须是money order,别的任何形式的货币都不收。

买飞机票比较费劲。 United不飞委内瑞拉，查了一堆航空公司，最后还是delta的时间最合适，价格也比较合理。

整个旅行团是老板他娘Nancy,一个75岁的老太太组织的。我也是第一次不需要自己为旅游操心，所以买完票后就是万事俱备，只等出发了。

Dining Rewards Program

There are several dining rewards programs available. If you pay more attention, you may find out that all of them are from http://www.rewardsnetwork.com. So basically all of them are the same. RewardsNetwork itself has a cash program: http://www.rewardsnetwork.com/program.jsp. The membership fee used to be $29, and they increased to $49 from 2005, but it seems they still charge me $29.

Happy new year!

Happy new year everybody!

I finished my first travel today:)

Living cost in different cities

Check this website: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/movecalc.asp

With 100k earning in Chicago area, you need to earn 174k to maintain the same living standard...and SF 146k, Houston 75k, Austin 80k, etc...

United Chicago double bonus miles posted

Today, united posted Chicago double bonus miles to my account. But I did not get this promotion bonus miles for those itineraries which I have got other promotion miles (like targeted double miles, Fly3 for 25k miles).

All the promotion terms and conditions have: Offer not combinable with other noncombinable offers. What is "noncombinable" offer? I need to call United to check the status of other bonus miles.

Bad travel day

Today overall travel is really bad. Denver airport is closed. ORD generally has delay for 3 hours...etc

Here is a good website to check the overall status: http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp

Year end summary

Countries traveled: US, China
Miles flew: 82130 total, 78640 on United, 3490 on American
Longest Delay: ORD-PEK 5.5 hours mechanical problems
Train took: round trip from Beijing to Yangzhou(non-stop, 11 hours each way)
Longest driving trip: 3700 miles round trip from Chicago to Yellowstone
US States visited: Illinois, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, New York, Nevada, Oregon
POI visited:

• Theodore Roosevelt National park
• Yellowstone National Park
• Grand Teton National Park
• Bighorn National Forest
• Devils Tower National Monument
• Mountain Rushmore National Memorial
• Jewel Cave National Monument
• Badlands National Park
• 17 mile drive and Pebble Beach
• California 1 scenic drive
  
• Yosemite National Park
• Muir Woods National Monument
• Napa Valley
• Universal Studios, Hollywood
• Sea World, San Diego
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Hoover Dam
• San Francisco Gay Parade
• The metropolitan museum of Art, New York
• Tiananmen Square for 5 minutes
• Wang Fujin for half an hour

Looking foward to visit Hawaii and Alaska

Maximize your bonus miles if you fly United between ORD and SFO

United is running several promotions right now. If you fly ORD-SFO, you may want to register the following promotions to maximize your bonus miles:
1. Double miles from Chicago to 6 cities: Direct Link
2. Earn a free* ticket with 3 qualifying round trips, see my previous post or this direct link

Enjoy travel!

Earn up to 25k bonus miles with three flights

This is not targeted deal, here is the promotion link.

Ticketing dates: November 10, 2006 – January 31, 2007

Travel dates: November 10, 2006 – January 31, 2007†

Offer: Purchase and fly qualifying United, United Express® or TedSM roundtrips during the offer period and earn:

* 5,000 bonus miles for completing one qualifying roundtrip†
* 10,000 bonus miles for completing two qualifying roundtrips
* 25,000 bonus miles for completing three qualifying roundtrips—enough for a free* Saver Award ticket

†First qualifying roundtrip must be completed by December 31, 2006, in order to be eligible for any bonus.

23 1k members in one flight?

There's no way to clear my upgrade again. The gate agent told me that there were 23 1k members in my flight(around 120 passengers). What's happening in the flight between SFO and ORD?

Crazy Halloween?

On the way from hotel to the office, I need to pass Mexico Consulate. Every morning, the street in front of the consulate is packed with people waiting for passports or visas. Today, it looked a bit different. The doors and windows are poured with different colors of paints. I'm not sure if it's halloween trick.

SF is not a safe place....Last night, several people were shot at Castro, Link. Also my friend's building at eBay was bombed last night. He does not need to work today.

United launches E-ticket for Chinese travel agencies

Recently, I had a trip back to China. Chinese travel agencies could provide lower price on ticket prices, but it had to be paper ticket. I gave it up since I was in a hurry, and there was no way for me to get the ticket on the mail before my trip.

Recently United launched the E-ticket for Chinese travel agencies. Now I can go through travel agents in China to buy my tickets to China. This is an exciting news: Link to the Article

Hanging out at Portland Airport

Today is an interesting day.

Most part of the Portland downtown had power outage. I decided to leave for the airport early. Due to the power outage, nobody could buy ticket from the ticket vending machine. After I got to the airport, my flight is delayed indefinitely, and I switched to an earlier flight, which is delayed for 2.5 hours.

Portland has a "fare free" square. Basically, if you take train within downtown area, it's free, which makes downtown commute fairly convenient.

The first glance of Portland

Today I arrived at Portland from the rainy Chicago. My first impression of Portland is really good. Lots of sunshine, nice weather, nice train.... The train from Portland airport to downtown is new and clean. It only cost me $2, and based on your own trust. Nobody checked my ticket.

Downtown Portland is very quiet, even on Sunday afternoon. Lots of fast food restaurants are around, and I need to find a good restaurant for my dinner.

On Portland street, you can see a lot of folks with interesting decorations. It reminds me of Key West.

In general, Portland is a quiet, clean, colorful town.

Life or money?

I started a new travel project one week ago. Now I need to spend around 16 hours each week to travel. But one of the client folks has travelled for the last 10 years, and he travels from SF to Tampa every week. Here comes the arguement of life or money again. What do you think?

United increased required awards miles to Asia

Recently, United increased the required standard award miles from 100k to 120k. I can not find any saver ticket to China anymore, which means the reward ticket for me requires doubled miles.

It's snowing in Chicago!

It's snowing in Chicago. Apparently, there is no fall in Chicago. A lot of my friends were talking about seeing the fall color this weekend.

Start travelling again

After being in Chicago for more than one month, I'll start travelling to San Francisco again. San Fran is a fun place to go, and the client building is facing the bay, which could be fun.

The travel itself could be very bad, since I have to spend more than 15 hours to commute every week.

The spring and summer of San Francisco was great, now it's time to "enjoy" the fall and winter. One of my friends told me that the raining season is coming. I'm visiting SF at the worst time of the year.

Earn up to 30k bonus miles at United

I got united promotion email about the 30k bonus miles.

Here is the deal:
1. Prior to travel, register at http://united.com/offer/mpdf36.

2. Simply book and complete your qualifying roundtrip travel by December 15, 2006.

3. Enjoy earning double miles—up to 30,000!

It should be targeted deal, but it does not hurt if you just try.