Author: youshouldgoanyway

The three things I use to travel well for cheap

The three things I use to travel well for cheap

youshouldgoanyway

For just about $2,550 in cash for airfare, I completed the following flights in 2019 using a combination of frequent flyer miles, vouchers, deals from Scott’s Cheap Flights, and miles earned from my Delta SkyMiles American Express.

  • Las Vegas (Delta SkyMiles) + 3 mileage tix for companions
  • Miami (DSM) + 1 mileage ticket for companion
  • San Antonio ($200 cash)
  • Honolulu (Got refunded by Delta because of a broken plane!)
  • Tokyo ($200 cash + $400 United Voucher from wheelchair issue)
  • Helsinki ($450 deal via Scott’s Cheap Flights)
  • Ecuador ($250 – Mistake Fare deal via SCF)
  • Peru ($250 – Mistake Fare deal via SCF)
  • Montreal (Part of the above trip to Ecuador)
  • Toronto (Part of the above trip to Peru)
  • Madrid ($450 deal via SCF)
  • Canary Islands ($200 cash)
  • Tahiti ($550 cash deal via SCF)

I reached Platinum on Delta for the second straight year as well. This comes with lots of upgrades and other perks which I love — including flexibility on award ticket bookings.

I also get Priority Pass lounge access, TSA Pre-Check, and Global Entry in addition to a whole slew of travel and purchase benefits.

Here’s what I do. (I get referral miles for the Delta cards if you use my link, but I’d recommend the card even if I didn’t!)

  1. I subscribe to Scott’s Cheap Flights. For $50 a year you set your home airports or any airports you want deals from and they’ll email you as soon as they find them. This is how I got tickets to S. America and Spain for under $300 — round trip, main cabin, including bags. You don’t buy the tickets through Scott’s, which is just an alert system. They’re regular fares that let you accumulate miles and everything. They’re just really good sale prices or mistakes.
  2. I use my Delta American Express card and fly Delta whenever possible. I get miles for the credit card expenditures and bonuses for various purchases. If you coordinate your purchases, you can get medallion status without having to spend a lot of money on airfare at all. As a Delta card member you can also use their Pay With Miles feature for some flights, which allows you to earn Medallion qualification miles on the flights even though you’re using award miles to buy the tickets, which isn’t true for regular award tickets.
  3. I also have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. The rewards points here are available to use for everything from cash back to travel. And if I use these points to buy Delta tickets, I will get mileage credit because it’s not an award ticket on Delta, it’s a paid ticket using rewards from Chase. This is also the card that gives me $300 per year back towards travel purchases, access to lounges, travel insurance, Pre-Check and Global Entry. The fee is high but after the cash back and the travel benefits, it’s worth it if you travel a lot.

If you use the rewards shopping portals with the Amex and Chase card, you can get more miles for everyday purchases as well. In addition there are often bonuses available if you pay attention to their emails.

I will mention that if you travel a lot, these cards are a no-brainer. If you only take one trip here and there, you might opt only for a lower or no fee airline card miles credit card. Just make sure the miles don’t expire.

What happens when you pull the emergency/assistance cord on a Carnival Cruise?

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Traveling by myself is 99% just fine. I have a device I use to help myself get out of bed and it’s still a work in progress but does the job the majority of the time. On occasion, however, it doesn’t get me into the right position and I need to get help.

When I’m at a hotel, I’ll call the front desk. Usually I bring a phone cord extension with me so I can put the hotel phone on my bed and call the front desk directly. I also have my cell phone just in case the front desk doesn’t pick up and I need to call the hotel chain’s main number (I did have to do this once when an IHG hotel in NYC literally answered the phone only after thirty rings and then just put the phone on the desk and ignored it.)

Onboard, however, the phone system was ethernet-based so I didn’t have an extra long ethernet cable with me to be able to put the phone on the bed. There were, however, two of those emergency/assistance strings above the bed that I placed within reach.

The only other time I’ve experienced what happens when you pull this string is when I was in Amsterdam with my cousin and she pulled the string in the bathroom thinking it was how you flush the toilet! Staff came up to the room within a minute and it was actually sort of reassuring even though we didn’t need them! So I wasn’t too scared that pulling the string in my stateroom would put the entire ship in lockdown mode.

So when I woke up one morning and had to get help to sit up from the bed, I reluctantly pulled the string. The phone rang almost immediately and I was like, “Uh, ok, how the fuck is this gonna work if I can’t get to the phone to call for help in the first place and now I’m supposed to answer the phone?”

It rang about ten times and then I sat there thinking that the next logical step would be for them to send someone to my room to check on me.

A few minutes passed and that’s exactly what happened. I had to communicate through the door that they needed to use their key to come in and once that was complete, I got the help I needed.

The funny thing is that it happened again on the last day and the steward for my room came to my door but didn’t open it. He thought I was saying “No, don’t come in” but I was trying to tell him “I can’t get to the door, so come in!” It was kind of funny when he said, “OK Mr. Dan, I’ll see you later!” and left without coming in at all.

I just pulled it again and a few minutes later he came back and I decided not to answer him so he would just come in, and that’s what happened.

In any case, if you are ever afraid to pull the cord when you need help, DON’T BE. It won’t set off alarms and you’ll get the help you need, so don’t struggle! Just be patient and someone will show up.

I forgot my laptop and had one delivered to the airport

youshouldgoanyway

Five minutes from arriving at my departure airport, I realized I left my work laptop at home. The only way I can feasibly travel like I do is to take it with me and work on my trips. That’s also the only way I could afford it! Once the “Fuck!”s stopped, I just decided to figure something out when I landed in Florida.

The problem was that I was getting on a cruise ship the next morning and was only going to be at the Fort Lauderdale Airport, not a hotel, for the night before. A person without a wheelchair would probably just hop in any old taxi and go to Best Buy but the accessible taxi options were slim-to-none. I also didn’t want to spend $100 on a taxi fare.

Essentially, my options were:

  1. Don’t do anything and just work on my phone. (This idea makes me cringe since I am a programmer.)
  2. Use the onboard computers in the ship cafe. (Probably limited ability to do the things I would need to do, e.g. connect remotely to my computer at home.
  3. Buy a computer in a port. (We weren’t stopping anywhere for two days and the first two ports were barren.)
  4. Buy something in the airport tech store. (There wasn’t one in my terminal and those places are expensive!)
  5. Call my cousin’s new wife and get one of her family members in Miami to bring me one to use for the trip. (I just can’t bring myself to be THAT guy tho.)
  6. Stop working completely, stay in Aruba, and change my career to shell-necklace-maker.

The last option I had was to see if Amazon would deliver me a laptop at the airport before my flight.

So I fired up the Prime Now app, changed my location to Fort Lauderdale, and bingo — a small selection of computers I could have delivered during a two-hour window the next morning.

Unfortunately, the only options were cheap ChromeBooks which wouldn’t allow me to install the software I use and a MacBook Air, which is not my preferred platform — but it was on sale.

Once I figured out the address of Terminal 2 at FLL and gave very specific instructions to the driver — “Meet me under the Air Canada sign at the end of Terminal 2 and look for me in my wheelchair” — I crossed my fingers and clicked Confirm Order.

I was a little concerned they would cancel the order because I was nowhere near home and the purchase was both expensive and RANDOM AS FUCK. This happened to me in France once and I had to call to tell them it really was me. But the order kept processing and the next morning at 7:30AM, the driver was there in front of the Air Canada door with my new laptop.

The best part is that although I didn’t want to spend that much on a computer, I won the money back in the casino on the ship the first night!

Aruba, cruise port on Carnival Horizon

Aruba, cruise port on Carnival Horizon

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Looking out my balcony door, I see one lone tree guarding the reef here in the Aruba cruise port. It’s a stark contrast to the action happening on the other side of the boat.

There are tour buses lined-up to gather passengers from boat and head out on excursions. A diamond store sits prominently adjacent to the port parking lot. Steel drums echo faintly. I can see dozens of stores, bars, and restaurants without even leaving the deck of the Horizon. Everything looks close.

I exit the port and easily roll over to the main strip. The curb cuts aren’t exceptional but they exist, which is 99% of it. I weave my way past the slow-walkers and sunburned as they stall in front of any of the twenty or so souvenir shops along the sidewalk. Pretty much every local I pass says, “Welcome to Aruba!”

The feeling is different here. The people seem outwardly friendly. The music pumped out from the Royal Plaza shopping area doesn’t hurt in creating an upbeat, “I’m on vacation” vibe.

I wandered about for several hours and there was a lot to see in a very small area, which was nice. I felt like this was the only port on this trip where you didn’t have to work to see the city.

One thing I did notice is that the interior ramps for wheelchairs are a bit steep. After having slid down the steep exit ramp from the boat earlier, I was unintimidated by these however. Side not: I would have crashed through a glass window had this amazing Carnival crew member not jumped in front of me and pushed back on my chair. I wasn’t even rolling….just sliding down the slick ramp. So much for those anti-slip stickers.

In any case, Aruba wins the cruise! I’d go back on a different trip and spend some time in the resort areas near the beaches if I ever have a chance.

Curacao, port on Carnival Horizon

Curacao, port on Carnival Horizon

youshouldgoanyway

I had high hopes for this stop in Curacao as it has always been on my list. The pictures and descriptions paint the port as one of the prettiest you’ll see, reminiscent of Amsterdam. Staying in the port area, however was a bit underwhelming to me. In hindsight I wish I’d booked a tour of some sort and I am open to coming back and checking out the Dolphin Suites — an accessible resort — at some point.

The port itself is accessible and flat. You can roll through all the little bars and stands, then roll over the pontoon bridge and get to the downtown area pretty easily. There are a lot of shops and restaurants and you could wander around there for quite some time if you wanted to.

I wanted to see a beach but every time I thought I was getting close, I’d get blocked by either a dead end road or an enclosure for a building of some sort. Since it was getting hot, I headed back towards the port area and the Renaissance shops/mall. From there I headed into the A/C at the casino and hung out for a short time during which I won $400.

The sunset behind the ship was beautiful and the Horizon was impressive there at the dock.