Category Archives: Trip Reports

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Around the World in 24 Days: Quick Update

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Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand!

It didn’t take long for me to fall way behind on blogging about my quest for a million SAS EuroBonus miles – with all this travel, it’s been harder than expected to find time to get work done, especially since flying in economy there’s rarely space to work on my laptop. But I wanted to give you all a quick status report.

Literal Data Points

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  • Number of flights taken since November 10th: 14
  • Number of qualifying SkyTeam airlines flown: 10 – AeroMexico, Virgin, KLM, Air Europa, SAS, Air France, TAROM, Saudia, Garuda, and Vietnam
  • Number of flights posted to my SAS account: 7 – AeroMexico, Virgin, Air Europa, SAS, Air France, TAROM and Saudia
    • I’m getting a “route not eligible” error when trying to claim my KLM segments. This seems to be a common issue, but nobody’s had any luck contacting SAS about it
    • Everyone else except Air Europa (UX) has posted automatically, and I was able to get instant retro credit for my UX flight through the SAS website
  • Shortest flight: Saudia JED-MED, 201 miles, 32 minutes air time
  • Longest flight: Garuda MED-CGK, 4,972 miles, 8h46m air time

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ExpressVPN Black Friday Deal: Get 6 Extra Months Free with 24 Month Plan

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Black Friday is right around the corner and ExpressVPN wants to get the party started early.  ExpressVPN normally offers a 1 month free trial when you become a member, but during this promotion, you can get 6 extra months free when you purchase a 24 month plan.  I have been using ExpressVPN since November 2016 and I love their desktop, laptop, and mobile app.  With data breaches occurring frequently, I think it is very important that we do our best to protect ourselves when we are online, whether that is at home or on the road.

I always use ExpressVPN when I am on free public wifi at hotels, airports, and lounges to protect my data.  ExpressVPN works very well when I travel internationally.  I connect to a VPN in the United States and then I can access streaming services that work in the US but are restricted / blocked internationally.  Lastly, since I am on the West Coast, I occasionally connect to a VPN in New York and watch TV shows that are airing on the East Coast.

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Around the World in 24 Days: Day Two

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Buenos días everyone, reporting in from Day Two of my quest to become a SAS EuroBonus Millionaire! Today is the most intense travel day of the entire journey, with four flights on three different airlines (and three separate tickets). Fortunately, everything has gone off pretty much without a hitch.

Day Two: LHR-AMS-MAD-BCN-CPH

Although I’d set my alarm for 5am, I woke up at 4:20am and didn’t feel like sleeping any more, so I took another shower and ate the rest of my snacks from Marks and Spencer before rolling out of the hotel around 5:10am. I quickly swung by the ticket counter to pick up a paper boarding pass and confirmed that my SAS number was on the reservation, then headed to security.  Security was quick, and I was at a newer machine where I only had to take out my bag of 100ml liquids (my electronics stayed in the bag). I picked up a bottle of water at WH Smith and then headed to my gate to board. Continue reading →

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Around the World in 24 Days: Day One

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Buenos días everyone, I started my journey to become a SAS EuroBonus Millionaire on Sunday night. Here’s a rundown of the first 24 hours.

a map of the first half of Tonei's route plan, with DCA-JFK-LHR highlighted in red

Flight 1: American Eagle 4781 DCA-JFK (Embraer 175)

I started my trip Sunday night with a short hop up to New York on American Eagle, booked with 4,500 Alaska Airlines miles + $19. I took Metro to the airport, and the Clear line saved me a good amount of time at security (one of the only times that’s been the case).  Before the flight, I used my Citi AAdvantage Executive Credit Card one last time to visit the Admirals Club at DCA.  My account finally got hit with the annual fee increase instituted by Citi last year, and I decided it wasn’t worth $550 a year to me, so I called to cancel while I was still in the lounge.

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Around the World in 24 Days: Rolling with the Punches

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Buenos dias everyone, I just wanted to share a quick update with you about a few developments on my way to becoming a SAS EuroBonus Millionaire.

A Dramatic Schedule Change

A week ago, I got a phone call and email from Trip.com that my Kenya Airways flight from Bangkok to Guangzhou had been canceled and rescheduled for the next day. Fortunately, I’d carefully planned my itinerary to allow for something to go wrong with this particular flight.  Since it was only scheduled to operate 4 days a week, I intentionally booked for a Tuesday knowing that there was a flight on Wednesday, and I gave myself two nights in Guangzhou before my Xiamen flight.

So I just switched my hotel bookings around.  I added a second night at my hotel in Bangkok, canceled my hotel and food tour in Guangzhou, and booked a $13 room near the Guangzhou airport since now I just have a 14 hour overnight layover, so I don’t think it’s worth trying to go into the city.

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