Category Archives: Trip Reports

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Do you Still go to Movie Theaters?

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Do you have something special you do when you travel that gives you a greater glimpse into the local culture? I do. I go the movies! I really enjoy seeing a movie in other countries and observing their local movie theater customs. In Australia, for instance, people ate ice cream cones in the theater. So I had an ice cream cone, too. It felt really odd to eat a cone in the dark. And I made quite a mess. The first time I was ever asked to reserve a seat in a movie theater was in New Zealand. The movie goers in Portugal stay until the very end of all the movie credits. And as I mentioned here, in Lisbon I went to a theater that didn’t have any food or beverages for sale. No concession stand at all!

I even enjoy sitting through movies in languages I don’t speak or understand. I’ve done that in Japan. In Vienna, I went to a wonderful old movie house. Those are the best. I also enjoy reading about the history of movie houses, why we go to movies at all, and in many cases how movie going culture has changed. Here’s an article I found written by a film historian and critic. It’s a fun, easy read!

a group of people in a theater

Village Movie Theater in Coronado. Image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/78742693458651847/

Maybe you don’t go to movies when you travel, but do you do something that’s fun and unusual that puts you in the local scene?

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$150 Discount Code from Alaska Airlines for a 5 Hour Flight Delay from Hawaii

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  2 weekends ago, I was flying back home from Hawaii on Alaska Airlines.  Everything was going well until we got to Maui airport.  We were supposed to depart from Maui (OGG) at 4:15pm and land in Oakland (OAK) at 12:14am.  Unfortunately, our flight departed 5 hours later than planned.  Our inbound aircraft was coming from San Diego (SAN) and was supposed to depart San Diego at 7am.  But due to mechanical issues, that flight departed 10 hours later at 5pm (I feel bad for people on that flight who were stuck at the airport for 10+ hours).  The late inbound flight caused our flight to be delayed by 5 hours.  I was tracking both Alaska Airlines flights and here were the last flight emails I received for each flight.

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Paid & Award Booking Tips

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Using our miles and points to book award flights is the reason we all spend hours upon hours of reading blogs, learning the ins and outs of airline programs, and attaching sticky notes to all our credit cards to make sure we use the right one for each purchase! But booking a flight using an award is not without its challenges. If you’ve ever used miles/points for an award ticket either for you or someone else, I’m preaching to the choir because you already know this but………there are tips I can give you that just might make your experience go a little bit more smoothly.

1. Booking one-way flights is actually a tip I received last year from a fellow blogger, and now I do it all the time. This allows for two different benefits. If you need to make a change, you only have to do it on one ticket and not on the roundtrip ticket. I find this easier to do. For me, whether I’m using an award or paying for a ticket, I now book the outbound and inbound separately. Maybe an even greater benefit is that when booking an award ticket you can use two different airlines, different alliances, and different sources of miles/points. This gets you thinking creatively, as seeing a trip as two different segments often means you’ll see possibilities you might have missed otherwise. Continue reading →

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The Complete Guide to Southwest Airlines (Updated April 18)

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Update: This post was updated on April 18, 2018.

Southwest Airlines continues to be one of the most asked about topics here at Travel with Grant. We have so many posts covering all-things Southwest that we’ve created The Complete Guide to Southwest Airlines. Now you’ll have all you need to know about Southwest Airlines in one place. Of course, this guide will be a work in progress, and we’ll update it and add to it over time. We’ve organized the information under various topics so you’ll easily be able to access what you want to know about.

Southwest Fares:

Reservations and Tips for Flights:

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Up Close and Personal with My Award Booking Team

Do you ever wonder where the expression, “You don’t do business with a business, you do business with people,” originated? Ok, I’ve never thought about where it originated either, but after all my years in business, I can tell you it’s a total truism. When I find good business people to do business with, I love it! As a frequent traveler who likes to travel “well” and use miles and points for award tickets, I’m a long-standing client of Juicy Miles. But that’s just a business name, isn’t it? The man behind the business, and at the helm of this great group of people, is Adam.

A few weeks ago, it dawned on me that the image that many people must have of award booking businesses is that they aren’t “real” businesses. I think many people think it’s something people do in their spare time to help friends and family members figure out all the rules and regulations for using that stash of miles/points. But in the case of Juicy Miles, it’s the real deal. It’s very well run and they’re great at what they do. And they’ve just redesigned their Juicy Miles website which makes submitting your requests super easy! I want you to get to know Adam better, so I reached out to him with a few questions about what he does, why he does it, how he trains his team, and more. Hope you enjoy the interview!

  • Shelli: Juicy Miles started in what year?
  • Adam: Believe it or not, Juicy Miles went live all the way back in 2011 (I think we first communicated in 2014 or so).

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