Plans for 2011
 

Happy New Year!

What's everyone's travel plans for 2011?

I'm looking forward to Hawaii in February, and possibly Cancun in the latter half of the year. Other than that, I'm hoping to have to travel for work much more!

Also, who are you planning on spending your time pursuing rewards with?

I'm currently using Southwest for air and Priority Club for hotels.

I have no idea :)

I know January will see me going from RDU to DFW for a week, and in May, RDU to Budapest and Budapest to Zurich...

Somewhere in between there I am pretty sure there's a trip to Boston and a trip to Taipei.

Then there'll be another international trip in July or so, a domestic in October or early November, at least one trip to London this fall, possibly a second to Taipei in August... and from there, who knows.

This year I did two mileage runs, one from RDU to LAX which got me well above Gold on US Air, and then one from RDU to Providence, RI for a day that got me Platinum...

Happy travels!

I'm starting off with two AA mileage runs to Boston next week, but it's been a challenge finding cheap fares on AA in the weeks ahead. Plan on a paid London ticket in February for London Do, and then award travel in May to OzFest in Darwin (AA miles on Qantas), and in July to World Swimming Championships in Shanghai (AA miles on Cathay).

This is the first time I have not seen a decent AA U.S.-Europe sale covering January to March. Usually I'd jump on those but the cheapest fares from SFO are running over $700.

All business travel aside, lets talk about fun/adventure trips: I'm starting with Norway in March. Costa Rica, Panama and Belize in April and into May and then Japan and South Korea in June. So far that's all for the first half of the year but I'm always looking for those quick 4 or 5 day getaways.

Nothing wrong with business travel ;-) Heck, thanks to international business travel, I've seen lots of awesome places... plus i usually tack a few days holiday onto the end of those trips so I can count them as both work and vacation :-)

But for strictly pure travel, I'm planning on Switzerland this spring to see a friend of mine from High School, and hopefully a trip to London with my brother for 4 or 5 days because he's had a rough year and could use a nice getaway from all the stress in his life.

Beyond that, who knows... I'll certainly be doing some MRs as well. My last one to PVD was just so I could get miles for Platinum on US, but also picked because the raw bar there was highly recommended... heh... so technically, I went to Providence for a $150 bowl of Clam Chowder :-)

I'm also keen on a RDU-SFO trip for a few days later this summer, perhaps, to see the Napa Valley.

Still firming up most of the year but we do have set plans for Japan in April. After that it's Maui sometime during the year, Australia & New Zealand possibly in the Sep-Oct timeframe. And a couple of trips, one already set for Feb, to Ft Myers to take advantage of my cousin's vacation home that we can use for free.

Work travel is unpredictable and nothing exciting that I know of (which could change I hope!) Will be hitting STL several times, FL panhandle area later this month, MCO a few times at least, hoping for a couple of TATL and TPACs but still trying to work those out.

Here's to hoping 2011 is a great - and lucrative - travel year for us all!

With the relocation and second kid coming up, everything is in the unknown...hopefully will manage to travel Europe.

Now that my wife's permanent residence status is almost worked out, we are planning two weeks down in Mexico this spring. Will be nice to be able to travel outside the country again :)

Seychelles in February/March
Iceland/Reykjavik in April/May
Japan/Malaysia in June/July
..plus some long weekends not planned yet.

In a couple of weeks, a week in Costa Rica. March is Salt Lake City for some skiing. September is a trip up the Pacific Coast Highway, flying into LAX and flying out of SFO.

That should be it, barring any more Expedia deals :)

Norway and Australia are our dream trips.....but it looks like we will be doing only domestic travel.....

Yap and Palau in Feb, maybe biking trip in Europe over the summer; India for tiger reserves in Nov. Summer--long driving trip to Canadian maritimes. I'd love to slip a trip to Japan in in the summer.

I'm going to NYC in two weeks for some appointments, but mostly pleasure (hoping to see The Daily Show!). It'll be cold, though!
Then St. Thomas in late April with another couple. Debated using miles for this trip but I think I'd prefer to pay out of pocket.
Other than that, just a business trip to New Orleans in September. I'd like to take my son somewhere exciting where he can experience a real culture shock for his spring break (2 weeks mid-March) but I don't know if I can take all that time off work (no paid vacation) in the spring.
If I can't, then I'll definitely go somewhere international in the winter.

The usual for me. Several trips to Northern California/Central Valley to visit my long distance girlfriend. A few trips to go see baseball games at various parks. A trip or two back to my old home in Phoenix. Pretty standard stuff.

But you never know where the year will take you. Maybe I'll get lucky and get to go somewhere really awesome.

First half of the year is pretty much planned but not fully booked. Winter getaway to California, family on the East Coast, friends' birthdays in CVG, and YVR to SAN on the ground over 10 days in May.

Mileage goal is 125,000 miles/points earned over all programs combined without a credit card signup.