Author Archives: Tonei Glavinic

About Tonei Glavinic

Tonei Glavinic is an Alaskan travel expert, educator, social justice advocate, and digital nomad currently based in Mexico City. Find them on Twitter @tonei.

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Riding the Rails of China’s High Speed Train Network

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During our trip to China over the winter holidays, we took three trips on Chinese high-speed trains:

  • Shanghai to Hangzhou – 99 miles, 52 minutes
  • Chengdu to Leshan – 62 miles, 1 hour
  • Chengdu to Xi’an – 528 miles, 4 hours, 15 minutes

I was really impressed with our experiences. The trains were clean, modern, reasonably comfortable, very punctual, and extremely reasonably priced – the shorter trips cost $8-12 USD per person, and the longer one was $62 USD in first class – much cheaper than flying.

Photo of a panda in an outdoor enclosure.

Taking the train is a great way to visit the pandas in Chengdu.

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Trip Report: Holiday Inn Rotorua, New Zealand

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During our trip to New Zealand, we spent four nights at the Holiday Inn Rotorua. I chose this hotel because I could expect a consistent experience, and the price was in line with other properties in the area. Rooms are available for 20,000 IHG points per night, but I chose to pay cash (since our rate was about $94 USD/night including tax, using points would have gotten a value of 0.47 cents per point, which is below average even without considering the points we earned on the stay.)

a building with a parking lot

Holiday Inn Rotorua. Photo from hotel advertisement in Franchise New Zealand magazine.

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Use InterCity Buses to Explore New Zealand Without a Car

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Buenos dias everyone! Today, I want to tell you about InterCity, the bus network we used to travel around New Zealand during our 3 weeks on the islands.  InterCity is the largest bus network in New Zealand, and is jointly owned by 3 different bus operators in the country. In addition to its own Intercity-branded buses, it also uses coaches from its subsidiary brands (like Gray Line and GreatSights) and its parent companies. You can buy tickets for individual routes on their website, at very reasonable prices (like Megabus in the United States, some routes start at $1).

A map of Tonei's route in New Zealand, as described in the article Continue reading →

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Three Weeks in New Zealand – Without A Car!

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Buenos dias everyone! Back in November, I was able to snag two economy tickets from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand for a jaw-dropping $395 per person roundtrip, nonstop on Air New Zealand. (My understanding is tickets twice that price would still be a good deal – right now, the lowest price I see for these flights through the end of 2018 is $1,150). I used Citi Thank You Points from my Citi Prestige Credit Card to book these tickets at a value of 1.25 cents per point (so a little over 63,000 points total).

At first, I avoided making any further plans because I thought the tickets might get canceled – but after a couple of months, I was pretty confident that they would stick. I eventually booked tickets from Mexico City to San Francisco (using American Express Membership Rewards points with the 35% AMEX Platinum Card rebate), and a few days before our trip, I finally started sketching out our plan.

A map of Tonei's route in New Zealand, as described in the article

Map created on Travellerspoint.com

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Amtrak Quietly Makes Big Negative Changes to Cancellation & Refund Policies

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Buenos dias everyone,

For a long time, Amtrak has had a very generous cancellation policy, similar to Southwest Airlines – as long as you canceled your ticket before departure, you could get the full amount paid back as an eVoucher valid for one year. And depending on the type of fare you purchased, you could even get a refund back to your credit card (possibly with a 10% service fee depending on when you canceled your ticket).

This has all changed. For tickets purchased starting March 20, 2018, most tickets will be hit with a 25% service fee when refunding to an eVoucher. Unfortunately, the news of these changes is buried in the fare rules on Amtrak’s website and on their Refunds and Cancellations page – and even that doesn’t note that there’s been a change, or when it went into effect.  Here’s the breakdown of the new policy (credit to AmtrakLKL on Amtrak Unlimited, via NovaEngr on Flyertalk):

Advance Purchase Saver Fares

  • Full refund to original form of payment (or eVoucher) within 24 hours of purchase
  • 75% refund to eVoucher after 24 hours, as long as you cancel before departure
  • No refund for no-shows

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