Friday, December 29, 2006

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...

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

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.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

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

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

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