Author Archives: Shelli

About Shelli

Shelli Stein is a health and fitness entrepreneur who travels the world in search of culture, food, and fun! Besides contributing to Travel with Grant, you can find her at Joy in Movement.

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TAP Portugal Airlines Removes Telephone Support, Now Only Provides Email Support (Travel Agents Only)

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UPDATE: Grant just confirmed with TAP Portugal on Twitter that this change is only for travel agents, not for passengers.  Sorry for the confusion.

A few months ago, I booked my first ever flight on TAP, the Portuguese airline. I called TAP and within a few minutes, I had my seats picked out and assigned. I haven’t taken the flight yet. The whole process was very easy. That’s ALL changed now.

Somehow TAP thinks that they’ll better assist me by NO longer offering telephone support. Strange reasoning, don’t you think? And their new process looks, well, confusing, to say the least. Not only are they not taking phone calls and only handling support through emails, but they have this wildly complicated construct of coding that we have to use in our emails to them. They don’t specify response time, and this whole email process is just ridiculous.

Here’s the full text of the email they sent.

Dear Valued Partner,

As part of our ongoing effort to improve our service to our customers we are implementing a Customer Relationship Management program to better assist you.

As of Thursday, July 27th, all Agency Help Desk assistance will be handled through email only. Telephone assistance will no longer be available so we ask that you submit all requests to tapusa@tap.pt. Continue reading →

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2 Expiring United Club Passes and my Chance to “Pass it Forward”

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Is one of your mottos, “Waste Not Want Not”? For sure, this is one of mine. One of my friends has this saying embroidered and hanging in her kitchen. It was given to her by her beloved mother-in-law, so it’s really special. And when I’m in her kitchen, it always gets me thinking… especially this past week. Turns out, I had two United Club passes expiring on July 31. I wasn’t going to use them. I asked everyone I knew if they could use them. Nope. Grant did the same. No luck. I had this nagging “Waste Not Want Not” feeling and today the inspiration for what to do with them came to me. I would do a random act of kindness and, at the same time, take myself on a nice walk. I would go down to the San Diego Airport (SAN) and walk up to people by the United Airlines counter and see who could use them.

This could be fun!

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Continue reading →

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Conde Nast Traveler: Top 10 Zoos in the United States

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Do you and your family enjoy visiting zoos when you travel? If so, how many of the top ten zoos in the U.S. have you been to? A few friends sent me the same article, so I’m sharing it with you! Conde Nast Traveler recently ranked the top 10 zoos in the U.S. The San Diego Zoo came out on top, which is probably why my friends wanted me to see the rankings. I wasn’t surprised to see the Bronx Zoo in the top five, but to be honest, I had no idea some of these other cities had zoos. Who knew Anchorage has a zoo? I had a great time in Anchorage and am sorry I missed visiting their zoo.

Here is the rest of the top 10 zoos from the article. What do you think of Conde Nast’s rankings. How many of the zoos have you been to, and are there others you’d add to the list?

  1. San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California
  2. Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis, Indiana
  3. Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, Washington
  4. St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis, Missouri
  5. Bronx Zoo, New York, New York
  6. Living Desert Zoo, Palm Desert, California
  7. Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Columbus, Ohio
  8. Alaska Zoo, Anchorage, Alaska
  9. Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, Omaha, Nebraska
  10. Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield, Illinois
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How to Book Flights with Citi Thank You Points

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With the recent 75,000 point sign up bonus for the Citi Prestige Credit Card, I started thinking about my Citi Thank You Points. I’ve accumulated a rather large number of Citi Thank You Points, and have recently decided to start spending them on flights. I don’t put much spend on my Citi Prestige Credit Card EXCEPT for using the card at hotels for the 4th night free hotel benefit. Since I’ve been using that perk for a few years now, I was pleasantly surprised when I logged into my Citi Thank You account and saw my stash of Citi Thank You Points.

Citi Thank You Points are earned through credit cards issued by Citibank and can be redeemed for a variety of rewards. I’ve looked at using points at hotels, but I’ve decided that redeeming them for flights makes more sense. This meant I had to learn to use the site to book flights. When I learn something new, I like to share it with you all too, so this post focuses on redeeming Citi Thank You Points for flights.

I consider Citi Thank You Points to be almost the same as cash. I say almost because, on some occasions, tickets might cost slightly less on sites like Kayak, Expedia, or Travelocity. It’s always good to check the other OTAs to compare prices. And remember, using your Citi Thank You Points does earn you frequent flyer miles for the tickets you book, so I’ll show you below how to filter for specific airlines.

How much are Citi Thank You Points worth?

The value of Citi Thank You Points toward flights depends on which Citi credit cards you have:

  • Citi Thank You Credit Card & Citi Thank You Preferred Credit Card: 1 cent per point
  • Citi Thank You Premier Credit Card: 1.25 cents per point
  • Citi Prestige Credit Card: 1.6 cents on American Airlines (changing soon) and 1.33 cents on other airlines

Continue reading →

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Has the Dalai Lama Stayed at your Home Hotel? He Stayed at Mine!

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Have you ever wondered which hotels famous people, dignitaries, or important international figures choose to stay in? I don’t usually ponder these questions, but recently, I had an experience that DID get me wondering. I hope you’ll enjoy this story about His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, staying at MY home hotel.

I’ve seen the Dalai Lama in person twice. Once was 20 years ago when he gave a talk in NYC. Then I saw him again 6 years ago when he gave a talk at the University of Hawaii. Earlier this year, the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) reached out to the Dalai Lama and asked if he’d give the commencement speech at graduation, and much to everyone’s surprise and delight, he accepted this invitation. So in mid-June, the Dalai Lama was in San Diego.

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Image source: http://commencement.ucsd.edu/

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