China Airlines deals to Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

China Airlines is having a fare sale from both New York City and Los Angeles.

From Los Angeles
Taiwan/Hong Kong/Bangkok book by 1/28/10 and fly between period 1 (1/9/10-2/3/10) or period 2 (2/12/10-4/11/10). Fares starting at $720.

From New York
Taiwan ($780) and HK ($740) book by 2/5/10 fly between 2/12/10-4/11/10

Last March, my wife and I flew first class from Salt Lake City to Bangkok, Thailand on China Airlines using our frequent flier miles. It was an absolute dream vacation.

International Trip Day 3

We arrived in Almaty at 7 am in the morning. A quick trip through the grumpy customs officials and I was off to the hotel. The taxi driver said that it would cost 5000 tenge to get to the($30) airport. This seemed a fair price.

Once we arrived at the hotel, the taxi driver said it would be 21,500 tenge ($125). Yeah right. Apparently, the taxi driver had said 500 tenge per kilometer at the airport. Perhaps it was the jet lag or perhaps he was trying to take advantage of some poor American soul. Whatever the case, there was no way I was paying $125.

I told him that in Moscow where it takes two hours to get to the hotel, I only pay $50. There was no way he was getting $125. He kept trying to convince me, but saw I was going to budge. He started to come down on price and we finally agreed to 7000 tenge ($40).

I went in and checked in at the Intercontinental Hotel and slept for 5 hours. I was picked up at the hotel and whisked off for some meetings in regards to our proposed operations there. An hour and a half later, we had agreed in principle.

It was time for my hosts to show me Almaty. We went to a traditional Kazakh restaurant. My host ordered at least 5 entrees off the menu (at least as far as I could tell since I don’t speak Russian). The first two dishes came and my plate was piled high by my hosts. The food was very tasty, seasoned well. The next two entrees came and my plate was piled high again. I could tell my hosts were very keen on knowing how I liked Kazakh food. It actually tasted quite good.

Finally there was one more round of entrees, but I couldn’t hardly eat anymore. I made sure and give lots of compliments through the translator to my hosts.

As were were taking the taxi back to the hotel, I asked the translator what exactly we had had for lunch. Her reply was “Pony, pork, and horse”. Lovely.

They picked me up again at 8 pm for another round. They tried to go to a couple of clubs that were full, we ended up at a nice restaurant. The drinking and eating continued until about 11 PM. At this point, I told them I would have to heard back to the hotel as my flight was leaving at 3 AM.

My hosts were very gracious the whole time and Almaty was suprisingly a very good city, that felt a lot like Kiev rather than Moscow.

International Trip Day 2

The second day in Russia was one of lots of meetings. After our meetings, we decided to meet up for lunch in downtown Moscow. 3 hours later, we had made it through the stand still traffic.

When it was time to go the airport, I noticed that there is a new express train to the airport from the Belarusskaya subway station. I’m all about the trains as you get to avoid the gnarly traffic jams.

I left the hotel at 6:45 PM to take the express train. The signs to the train weren’t exactly clear, but I was able to make the 7:20 train. I got off the train, only to realize that I would have to take a bus to terminal C. I navigated my way down to the bus and took it to terminal C. I ended up arriving at 9:30 PM for my 11:30 PM flight. So much for added speed from the express train.

There was absolutely nothing to do in the airport terminal. There was two restaurants and no plugs anywhere to charge my laptop. I ate a “burrito” and got on the plane at 11:30 PM. 8 hours later I was in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Get 1000 Continental OnePass miles for email sign up

From the January 2009 Continental magazine:

Sign in at Continental.com, go to “My Account”, and select “Email subscriptions” on the manage profile page.

Offer valid for new subscribers who are residents of the 50 United States. Must subscribe by 01/31/09 and remain subscribed for 60 days to receive bonus miles.

I didn’t even have a Continental OnePass number as I always credit everything to Delta, but for 1000 miles I’ll go ahead and sign up and get their emails.

Possible 500 Delta Skymiles

Fill out this short survey with your Skymiles number and see if you qualify.

$50 for test driving a Dodge

Okay, there are no Skymiles associated with this deal, but go test drive a 2009 Dodge and they’ll give you a $50 Visa gift card.

EDIT Jan 1 – This offer is over.

Airline miles expiration

Many of you probably already have airline mile accounts previously set up. Make sure and log in before the end of the year to check the expiration dates.

All airline miles expire if you don’t have any activity in them after usually a year to a year and a half.

The good news is that if your miles are about to expire, you can do plenty of things to get activity besides doing a flight. As mentioned in class, you could order flowers from FTD.com and get 25 skymiles per $1 on top of the mileage for using your Delta American Express card.

If you have some miles that are about to expire, use the links to the right to order from those airlines partners.

Presidential dollar coins

You heard me talk in class about ordering Presidential dollar coins. Here is the link to do it.

Remember, this is actual currency. Have this package shipped to a trusted address. I had it shipped to my work address because I knew it would be delivered safely.

You can only order $500 per President. Make sure and used a mileage earning credit card.

If you’re going to do this one, you better hurry. I expect them to shut it down soon.