Reward Travel

Our next planned travel adventure is a bike trip to celebrate our 25th anniversary as Mr. & Mrs. The actual anniversary was in May of this year, but the trip is planned to coincide with the prime color changes of October along the coast of Maine. We started planning for this trip nearly a year ago, and as I am prone to do, I was on the lookout for the best bang for our bucks. I chose Bike Vermont as the tour company, and locked in the tour and dates right after they announced the 2008 schedule. (In a future blog I will tell all about the trip, but as it hasn’t happened yet, my expectations are high.) This entry is about the adventures I’ve had so far in planning.

I have a Visa that accumulates reward points, and after many years of random purchases, I had enough points for two round-trip tickets anywhere in the continental U.S. In January I was thrilled to find a flight on Delta that met my criteria: it left Colo. Springs mid-morning and arrived in Bangor, Maine, before dark with one stop coming and going. This was not trivial, as Maine seems to be a difficult place to get to from here. I acquired these tickets using my reward points and was feeling quite proud of my conquest. Bangor was still an hour from our final destination and I was researching the optimal mode of transportation for the final leg – most likely a community shuttle. A rental car didn’t seem necessary as we were biking with a tour group.

Around March the emails started. At first, the flight times changed and we would be leaving Colo. Springs at O-dark-thirty in the morning. An additional stop was added, and we weren’t arriving in Bangor until very late in the day. I called the Reward Points travel agent, Ruby, who had set up the flight and was told there was nothing I could do to change flights or airlines. It started to get humorous as flight changes continued to occur every few weeks with notification via email from Ruby. At one point we were flying Colo. Springs to Atlanta to Cincinnati to Boston to Bangor, and the flight from Cincinnati to Boston left before the flight arrived from Atlanta. The last change took us west to Salt Lake City, then on to Atlanta, Boston and finally Bangor. (I was disappointed we were no longer going through Cincinnati as we had never been there.) The return trip included an overnight in the Atlanta airport, though Delta was not offering any accommodations or compensation.

Finally, in June, the Mr. said, “Enough!” He was afraid that by the time we arrived in Maine (if we arrived in Maine) we would be luggage-less and so frustrated we would vow to stay home for every future anniversary for the sake of the marriage. The Mr. flies United regularly for business and is close to earning Premiere status again this year, so he encouraged me to find another way to Maine, preferably on United. Ever the frugalist, I’m happy to report that I found $200 round-trip tickets from Colo. Springs to Boston with only one stop. As I said before, Bangor is one of those places hard to get to from here, so from Boston we are renting a car for the final leg of our journey. I reserved a room at a B&B in New Hampshire for the first night. We will enjoy a leisurely drive up the coast enjoying the colors before we join our bike group in Bar Harbor. I cancelled our “free” Delta flights. Don’t know if I will ever use the vouchers for future travel (which I have yet to see.) I think I will change my Visa to a cash-back program instead of Reward Points.

Watch this space for pictures and musings from our grand 25th Anniversary Biking Adventure.