Rapid Travel Chai

A quiet week for my points accounts, not for others’ though, never have 4 miles gone so far…or gone nowhere. I weighed in on the United 4-mile tickets to Hong Kong imbroglio and loved the intense, intelligent debate with readers all over the map on the issue. I take some small pride that readers kept it almost entirely civil and reasoned, which was not the case everywhere. My suggestion for a charity resolution landed with a shrug, but my analogy contest got a little traction.

Ongoing from last week:

• UA Star Alliance partner missing mileage requests still have produced nothing. Why can’t UA focus on my 500 miles instead of 4 miles. 😉
• Hilton/Bmi: Wife’s bmi miles finally posted from her Hilton stay, took about 3 weeks. A gavy train I am only grasping at the caboose as it pulls away.
• Marriott certs: Used my certs to book annual Labor Day trip to brother in Iowa, easy to use if you know you have them, thanks to New Girl in the Air for noting that Award Wallet tracks certs.
• Club Carlson: not going to try for the Park Plaza promotion, though it pains me to not head to my home state, Minnesota.

Delta:

• Tried to book Delta+Gol trip to Fernando de Noronha (FEN), Brazil. That torture requires a dedicated post. Final answer is that Gol excludes the exorbitantly priced REC-FEN flights from its award partnership with Delta. Now I need to see what can be done with Tam. Readers, little help please!
• Booked a trip for my parents to NYC next week. Our family has Delta Diamond, Platinum, Gold and Silver. We try to find the lowest account that can get a low award, and save the higher for tougher reservations (which is all). Silver was hopeless and Gold touch and go, but did get decent nonstops.
• Canceled some placeholder awards for an August Miami trip. Only way to (sometimes) get a reasonable price with Delta awards if Diamond/Platinum is book all possibilities way in advance if low awards are available and then weed them as the plan is ironed out.

Hertz: Bonus points from my rental two weeks ago have not posted, looking for the free weekend day to get my suburban NJ Chinese buffet and Costco trip. Weird thing about Hertz: their website does not show points activity, only the current balance. They redirect you to the monthly email statement for activity. Any other frequent travel program not show activity?

United: signed up wife and I for the 1,000 bonus miles from MileagePlus Shopping.

Club Carlson: Asia promotion, one of those to register and forget, best to do it and clear out the inbox. If my late August trip goes through I may revisit.

Accor: the bookmarked item on the 500 Delta SkyMiles was getting dusty so made one more attempt to reigster. No dice.

Credit Cards:

• Wife used the wrong card for a NY Restaurant Week dine, but at least not at a British Airways Visa Signature dining-credit restaurant, so  it is forgivable (translation: don’t poke the beautiful bear).
• There was a lot of hype about the offer for the BA card. Yawn. Offers come and go. Apply on your calendar, not others’.
• Dinner with new reader and friend, abcx, who relocated to NY. Quickly clear that I know less that 1% of what he does about award bookings.  Chinese vegetarian food. China has a long (Buddhist) tradition of vegetarian food? Food is the pillar of Chinese civilization and daily life, so this is not some pile of leaves or mushy beans. From mock duck to mock shark, it is unreal what the best chefs can do. Unfortunately, House of Vegetarian on 68 Mott St, is not the NY outpost I was hoping for, the mock meat/seafood dishes do not have pizzazz in presentation, though the taste is decent.

About House of Vegetarian, this review on Yelp is classic:

The waitresses are interesting.
There are two.
While both are very nice, one does almost everything, the other will bring water or something, but mostly just sits and talks to the other waitress, when the other waitress is not doing something. Sometimes, Talkie goes out for a while, It like the cook sends her for things, Now, Talkie can be a little loud when the place is almost empty.

Analysis:

• The one doing everything is not related to the owner.
• The one doing all the socializing is related to the owner.