SKYEG

It’s been almost a decade since I’ve written my one and only trip report. I hate to admit that I’ve been selfishly enjoying all the other trip reports over the many years, so I thought it’s time to contribute another one. Feel free to skip the long introduction and scroll to the “Planning the Trip” as I’ll be writing some background on what I’ve been up to since that first report (some people have been curious), including current elite status situation and match opportunities. Feel free to skip all the boring writing completely too and just look at all the pictures!!! 😊



***Warning – I am taking inspiration from my favourite TR legends like Seat2A, Worldtraveller73, Wakesetter93, offerendum, DanielW and SFO777. This will be an extremely detailed and photo heavy trip report… as I enjoy reading those ones the most! English was my worst subject so excuse my grammar and terrible writing.

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Introduction

After discovering FT, I’ve been very lucky. I went from NEVER flying INTL J to ONLY flying J/F. I’ve probably had to sit in economy maybe 4 times by choice since then, and it was just to sit with friends. Pretty unbelievable, so very blessed. When I recently read back my genuine first-time INTL J experience, I even surprised myself haha. I was so forgiving, naïve and accepting of everything the airline provided. LOL!!! Plus I loved every minute of it. Now I can’t even imagine flying long haul in Y, and even short hauls I look for widebodies to be able to stretch out. Yikes. No-direct aisle lie flat 2-2 J isn’t real J to me anymore. Knowing exactly what is out there has not only become a blessing, but a curse as well… ☹



I’ve also been through rough times due the oil crash and in result, all my condos losing insane value in YEG. I wouldn’t normally share something personal, but I know I owe some answers to some people as I ghosted for so many years. Almost lost everything I had, which caused some major stress. I never knew what anxiety felt like until it hit me like a brick. It made me more empathetic to people that deal with it, as I thought I was literally dying… no joke, crazy stuff. Being super confident my whole life and never having health issues before, it was pretty eye opening. I had three condos fully furnished where I couldn’t find renters and paid three mortgages out of pocket savings for 1.5 years. I held on hoping things would bounce back so I wouldn’t sell at a loss, but it just got worse. I was the first one of my friends that owned multiple condos by age 21-23 self-made, and I was the ONLY one that ended up owing the bank 6 figures after selling. Everyone else I know made tons of money, one buddy did over a million. Just awful, terrible ugh (for me). It’s one of the biggest reasons I moved out of YEG, too many bad memories. It has some awesome people but such a trash city. I had to sell my dream car to pay my lawyer at one point. I just didn’t have the heart to go to my parents since they worked so hard their whole life and now just starting to enjoy their efforts at old age. The worst part was that it was completely out of my control. If I didn’t buy the condos, I would not have lost the money and been in a crap spot. I had a six-figure career by 21. Should have had at least an extra half million++ in the bank saved now. Anywhere but YEG. I down paid 30%-40% each property, huge amounts for me, to avoid paying mortgage insurance and to keep monthly payments down. There was just no way of me knowing that things were going to end up like that in YEG, especially at my age. This resulted in taking quite a big break from FT. All that real life stress, bunch of partying, new gfs, LOTS of growing up to do and putting together a career. Anyways, moving on… onto the positives lol.



Even though I wasn’t active on FT, I never stopped flying. Or stopped enjoying flying. Just my priorities changed. I was still going to places, but not due to the chase of miles or for the sole love of flying.



It first started with completely stopping mileage running. Or flying just to fly. I used to go to Cabo and Cancun for lunch (15x one year), Honduras and El Salvador for same day turns, just to check out the approach/landing. London and Amsterdam for cocktails, etc. Instead, I shifted to buying most direct J seats rather than FF loyalty and picked destinations based on where I wanted to really go. Not where miles & points can take me or cheap premium fares. My new +1 doesn’t understand or have any interest in mileage runs. She thinks it’s completely nuts. I did take some epic vacations and experiences with amazing people because of this, rather than jetting off mileage running on my own all the time. Clearly some positives came out of taking a break from the FT lifestyle.


Average weekend for me on UA

I was also severely distracted with life at this time, which made me not even think about the value of miles and points. I’m a little disappointed as I’m now back in the game and the amount of value they have is still substantial. I let most my miles expire, not paying attention at all or caring fml. But I don’t have any regret, as the tough times really built some character. I fortunately had it pretty easy my whole life, so it feels amazing to overcome a bunch of garbage by myself and be able to bounce back stronger than ever. No help or handouts from anyone. I’m very proud of that.

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Fast forward to now --- I moved from YEG->YYC->YWG->YVR all for work, and ultimately landed working out of PHX. Doing awesome, healthy and very happy. No anxiety since leaving YEG many, many years ago. Even though I had terrible luck with real estate, I’ve been extremely fortunate with my career. Always had amazing clients, companies and friends backing me up, providing me great opportunities. Especially with all the travel and racking up miles/points on business expenses. Having the opportunity to live and work in sunny Scottsdale is a massive privilege (especially being Canadian), so I don’t take that for granted.



Unfortunately…. when covid hit and things started to shut down, everyone was eventually forced to work from home. I ended up deciding to move temporarily back to Canada to ride things out. It was a solid move as I got fully vaccinated for free and very quickly in Canada. I’ve never gotten a vaccine before and was very hesitant. I only did so as I needed to travel and can happily say that there have been zero issues from it so far lol. Well worth the extra protection. My kid sister contracted covid and has been staying at my house in YYC while attending University, so I know rough it can be. My parents also recently relocated from YEG to YYC to retire, which made it an easy choice to go back temporarily. With all the spare time on my hands (with the lockdowns and decimated hours at work), I found myself back on Flyertalk! I’m getting that same feeling I first got when I discovered this site. So much has changed and it’s been fun to explore everything all over again… from new plane configs, the best use of miles, and all the great discussions held on this site. I did notice that there’s quite a bit of division even in the community due to mask, vaccine, etc. which is sad, as generally people got along much better before covid on FT. Regardless, I love being back, it’s like meeting an old friend again! Especially on on the Trip Report subforum.

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Frequent Flyer Programs and Elite Status

With regards to elite status, I was able to luckily maintain UA(United) 1K all these years because of US business travel. For Canadian travel, I switched to WS (WestJet) from AC (Air Canada) as they only had a spend component required for status. In result, I earned WS Gold status very quickly. It was getting harder for clients to justify the fares I needed on AC for 100% status miles – J fares on AC are monopolized so they are usually crazy, and sometimes Flex fare would be double the standard… sometimes TRIPLE. With my 1K status set to expire, I looked at options to status challenge to prepare myself for the travel I planned to do in 2021/2022. I wanted to write about this because I’ve never had the holy trinity of airline status all at once before, so I wanted to share my experiences. Some of you may find it helpful.



Throughout this pandemic, organizations have oddly been extremely generous with status match and challenges. They were far and few in between when I was a regular FTer, so I was shocked to see the all the offers out there. This ended up in me obtaining top tier alliance status in every alliance and completing each challenge. I also got a fast track to Marriott Platinum. It was the first time I had status matched to any program. This has allowed me a lot of flexibility for 2022 on deciding where to focus my programs --- having experienced near top tier status on them all. Here’s how it went:



UA 1K -> Delta Plat. They outright matched it, no $ or miles requirement. ST Elite

UA 1K -> American Airlines EXP. 28k EQM and $4k EQD. 90 days. OW Emerald

UA 1K -> Alaska 75K MVP. 20K BIS AS miles or 75K EQM. 90 days. OW Emerald.

AA EXP -> Air Canada 75K. Outright match, 1 roundtrip on AC required to keep 2022. *A Gold

Accor Platinum -> Marriott Platinum Challenge, 16 nights in 3 months.



The Delta Plat outright match was the most surprising. As a Canadian, you don’t need $ spend for status and Delta is also running a promotion for all their flights right now for bonus EQM. I had only silver status with Delta prior to match. If I were to have gotten their regular status challenge, it would have only taken one quick round trip in J to Central America to lock down Plat until next year, so it would have been easy. But the outright match was kind of them. Saved me $1500 and two days. As a result, I chose to fly Delta a couple times extra this year. Thank you, Delta! I will likely requalify for 2023 too due to no EQD for Canadian and excellent DL J fares. I also would like to say DL overall has the most pleasant FA’s, all age groups.



For AA EXP and Alaska 75K, I had some serious thinking to do. I can hit either requirement easily by end of the year, but it really didn’t make sense at all to do or keep both… so I thought. I’ll come back to this later, but I ended up obtaining both statuses… LOL! All thanks to BA. I will be crediting to AS moving forward, as you just earn way more RDM on AS flying AA paid J (which will be a big chunk of my 2022 travels). EXP has EXP Desk and Flagship First Check-In compared to AS75K - which I’ll rarely need/use. Unless I find insane SWU value, keeping AA EXP doesn’t make any sense. Especially for someone who buys 95% J. I was able to keep AA EXP for AA J flights and one round trip on BA PY (for EQD), and AS75K through AA J flights, including this trip. I have a AS mileage run/vacation in December to Alaska that will complete my AS segment requirement for MVP75k. It was quicker and more convenient to hit the normal 75K EQM requirement instead of the 20K BIS AS miles status challenge offer. Go figure. I’ll take it (and the extra 150K+ Alaska RDM’s from it lol). I plan to keep AS75K and lose AA EXP for 2023. Doubt I’ll go for MVP100K as the benefits aren’t much better and the number of AS segments needed jumps to the mid-twenties. Too much narrowbody for me lol! I know, I’m spoiled. AA will remain my #1 choice carrier as long as they continue to fly so many domestic widebodies.



Air Canada 75K is one that’s been highly controversial. AC partnered up with the Destination Canada (CDN Govt) to status match any US based elite flyer, and you can keep that status until end of next year with just one round trip on AC. This has caused a lot of issues amongst the community as there has been cases of fraud. Pretty disgusting. Also, there’s confusion on what the actual rules are as you don’t need to be an American but a US resident. It wasn’t very well executed at all, and I completely understand the frustration from AC elites. With my Aeroplan account already been updated to my US address for well over two years now and having my physical residence in the US addressed only to me… I applied and got instantly approved! Status updated within 5 business days. It is very disappointing that people have been faking status and defrauding AC and Canadian taxpayers! I can’t believe that people would even think about doing that!!! Losers. I believe I went through with it the correct way, and if AC wants to chat about my US residency and the validity of my status match, they are welcome to discuss with me anytime 😊 (I hold L-1 visa). I wish that they will go back eventually and audit the matches properly to do an extensive review of all the fraud. Regardless, it’s a very generous offer by AC and I’m very thankful. I have had status with AC in the past, and it’s solid for mainly Canadian domestic flyers/INTL flyers connecting. Working exclusively in the US all next year, I won’t be benefitting much. I likely will not requalify with AC as I won’t be flying through Canada except to visit family.
***Update: AC contacted me and asked for documentation. They were satisfied, and I'm also so happy they are actually looking into this. I pay Canadian taxes, and I would like to not have scammers get away with this



I hold Marriott Gold status but got a Marriott Platinum status challenge through the Marriot Bonvoy Lurker here on FT (thanks!), due to Accor Platinum that I hold based on $ spent. I also have Hilton Gold earned from stays but not a big fan of the Hilton properties nowadays. I used to have Hyatt Diamond, but that is now sadly long gone. Company switch to Accor ☹. With the Marriott Plat Status challenge, I changed most my upcoming stays to Marriott brand from Hilton. I still choose to stay at Hyatt even without globalist status as they are still my favourite brand. Hope to requalify next year but with Marriott Plat, I might just focus there. I will still have Accor Plat, Hilton Gold all through 2022 too due to requalification (although they extended status to everyone recently for free lol).

SKYEG

Planning The Trip

With things starting to finally go back to normal, I am expected to head back to Scottsdale before American Thanksgiving. TOO SOON! Before heading back to the USA, I wanted to travel INTL. I’ve been sick of USA/Canada. Things are finally starting to open worldwide, with safe measures. With my favourite continents still shut down (Asia/Auzzie), it left me with MiddleEurope, Africa and South America. I’ve been to Europe almost every year since I turned 21, and Middle East for business. Entry to Africa wasn’t looking easy when I looked, although I ended up booking a trip to CAI too. But I realized that I never have been to South America. To be honest, I had no interest in it due to fear of getting robbed/kidnapped lol. Too much YouTube and TV I suppose haha. Until I started properly researching… WOW!!! what a beautiful continent. Very underrated. Hearing that the locals barely speak English and that it will be a challenge for a non-Spanish speaking gringo like me?! Sounds like a fun adventure. Time to learn some basic Spanish other than my brutal “May I have a beer” and “can you drive me to xxx hotel” in broken Spanish lol. Things have also changed quite a bit down south in recent years, for the better.


I never really pushed myself out of my travel comfort zone and realized I’ve always chose major tourist friendly destinations. Asia/MiddleEuro/Auzzie anyone can travel leisurely without the language. Heck, even the Spanish speaking countries I go to are always in the Caribbean or Mexico. I first looked at the easier, beginner friendly SA major players like Chile, Brazil and Argentina but they were all not open when I was booking the trip. I shifted my attention to Peru and Colombia... and WOW! I was pleasantly surprised. Peru is pretty cookie cutter amongst travellers with Lima, Cusco and Machu Pichu. I decided to skip Machu Pichu and Cusco for an extended trip when I had more time, as my best buddy has been wanting to go. Even though I didn’t have much time, I was really drawn to Miraflores and Peruvian food. Especially after seeing a Mark Wiens episode in Lima, eating Ceviche. Next, I dialed in on Colombia. This is a country that is still not well travelled, and has some bad reputation… But I was completely blown away by the number of interesting places to visit! I saw DanielW’s report a while back and revisited it to confirm my excitement for the country. Must go check it out and even add a couple more stops on top of Daniel’s trip. Great food, friendly locals, well priced hotels and photogenic areas to sightsee. Plus, a little danger ha-ha 😉. Escobar’s legacy isn’t great but still lingers. I didn’t realize this until I saw the tours being offered.



So… how to get to Peru and Colombia? I decided to fly AA J over AC/DL/UA for insane RDM earnings on Alaska. AA flies DFW/MIA-BOG/LIM daily on lie flat widebodies too. Great! I ended up finding a nice open jaw that arrives in LIM and departs from BOG. YYC-DFW-MIA-LIM///BOG-MIA-DFW-YYC .



Now, why did I book through MIA and not DFW nonstop both ways? A couple reasons.

1) I’ve never flown AA’s “Flagship First” hard product. Mainly because every other F available is better. Although the product is ancient, not private and not actually up to INTL first class standards, it’s an opportunity for me to fly a new product. One that may soon be extinct. Also, the MIA Flagship lounge was announced to be open by then, which I’ve also never been to. Not a big fan of Admirals club and the overcrowded Centurion lounge, so I wanted to check out the FL. I usually go to a priority pass sponsored restaurant for a proper meal.

2) For the way back, I would have preferred BOG-DFW-YYC instead of BOG-MIA-DFW-YYC… but it was $800 more to take the direct flight. Basically, I was cheap lol. Slight consolation that I got to snag another 77W Flagship First Seat2A(my favourite seat and FT trip reporter lol) MIA-DFW. But still, mainly because I’m cheap --- if it was the same price, I would have taken the BOG-DFW 10000%. I also know through FT that BOG-DFW still receives full flagship INTL business service, even though AA stripped Colombia off the flagship INTL J service list. This includes a hot dinner AND a breakfast served prior to landing, with proper blankets and B&O headphones. But BOG-MIA remains a mystery since the Sept 2021 AA Flagship Biz changes, at least on FT forums. It’s also 2 hours shorter flight, so it may have no service at all lol. I will be the one to find out, stay tuned.



Now time to figure out how to get from LIM to Colombia..



The only airlines that fly reliably nonstop for my dates to Colombia from Lima are VIVA, a LCC and LATAM(LA). LCC for me is never an option, certainly in a third world country, and I knew that I was going to have to fly LATAM in Colombia anyways. So, I looked for other options. Okay cool, COPA(CM) has a pretty sweet deal where you can build in a 24-hour stopover as part of your J fare in Panama. I’ve been to Panama once before, but it was a same day turn for a lunch meeting by the airport. I never explored the city or seen the canals, causeway. Plus having never flown COPA at all before, it made for an easy decision. I found a cheap one way $400 J flight LIM-PTY-MDE, with a 24-hour stopover in PTY. Cool! Plus, they are *A, so I can credit to my new AC status to earn more AE miles. Always exciting trying a new airline.



Now, the domestic Colombia flights...lol



Colombia flies VIVA, Avianca and LATAM domestically. Avianca is the only one that belongs to an alliance(*A), but they are having financial issues. This meant they recently decided to get rid of all their 2-2 business class seats for every single one of their domestic flights, starting JUST before my trip LOL. Just my luck!!! Y only now. Ugh. I guess that’s okay for short Colombian flights, but I wanted better options damnit I’m on holidays!!! LATAM doesn’t have domestic J but recently launched a regional PY product. It’s the EXACT same as Euro J, middle seat blocked with J type service on ground. They even have it displayed on the seats as PY, which is pretty funny lol. It’s not a true premium product but the best option I had IMO. Even though Avianca would give me lounge access at their domestic lounges through *G, I went with LATAM for their PY seat. I’ll just use Priority Pass or Amex lounges instead, if they are open and worthwhile. I had heard the Avianca domestic lounges are lackluster anyways. PY tickets on LATAM also allows refund, free SDC, and unlimited changes with fare difference. I actually changed the time of two of my flights using the free change and planned to free SDC the two others flights as well. I also could just refund the ticket and fly Avianca if I found LATAM PY terrible on the first leg. Lots of flexibility.



I ended up booking MDE-SMR, SMR-BOG, BOG-CTG and CTG-BOG to connect to my BOG-MIA, all on LATAM PY. It was a nightmare to book, impossible through their website/phone agent with Canadian issued CC’s. Amex, Visa, MC, NONE worked. This is a known issue, agent said it happens to Canadians lol. I had to pay 50% extra and book through an OTA called Kiwi.com. This is same for the COPA flights, I used Edreams.com. Both very sketchy but it was the only way I could get it ticketed with my Canadian CC’s. You can credit LATAM to Alaska or Delta, so I had some choices here. Felt so good when I finished booking all the flights! Each LATAM one way cost me $75 dollars in PY, with the 50% markup. It was $40 on LATAM site lol. Anyways, flights complete!!! Hype. Planning took a solid week.


it's not my card!!! UGH LATAM!!!



I also realized that I still have the one round trip requirement on AC still to maintain the status through 2022. I flew back to Canada on AA before the offer, and my flights on AC after I got home were also before the match. Having to move back to the US, I figured I can just fly AC YYC-PHX but I needed a round trip to qualify for the status match. I had plans of going home for Christmas, but I’d fly back to PHX in the new year which wouldn’t work with the challenge. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time doing this and thought of a short same day turn, but I found out through FT that AC is refitting their A333!!! With the new Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats. Feeling this sort of excitement just to try and fly a new config reconfirmed my aspirations of becoming a Flyertalker again LOL!



I started hunting routes and tail numbers to find a reconfigured A333 domestically and found YUL-YYZ-YYC, two different planes same day OMG! I also found out that AC still has their old A333 classic pod style seat on some YYC-YYZ red eyes, so I though maybe I can fly the old one for one last time and the new one on the same day! Ended up booking the redeye YYC-YYZ-YOW-YUL-YYZ-YYC, adding YOW-YUL on the AC’s new A220(C Series) built right up the road from YUL. It’s my favorite narrowbody to fly, so I booked it. Best part was this was a same day turn that cost $850, in 3x lie flat J, leaving 2 days before Peru to warm me up on some frequent flying, on a new config, plus AC status until end of 2022. Nice earn on miles on Aeroplan too. I could have booked in Y and used the new e upgrades but confirmed J fare was only $200 more than Y. Flights were all R9 a day before my flights, so it would have been an easy upgrade in hindsight. AC also opened their lounges with at table service in YYZ/YUL, so I wanted to compare that to the US legacy and Amex Centurion lounges during these times. So, for those many reasons, I ended up booking this crazy trip on AC two days before my South America trip. The new AC config isn’t reviewed on FT yet, so I thought I’d include it as part of my report😊.



For car rental, I have earned Hertz PC (ex-platinum) and National EE for over 8+years but unfortunately won’t be renting any fun vehicles. I think it makes much more sense to hire a private driver and guide for this type of trip. Almost essential in Colombia and much more convenient… plus a better way to experience the places I want to see. Cramming in on a group tour bus isn’t my ideal way to explore, especially with limited time. You can hire an E class for $50/h, $35/h for Cadillac SRX and regular sedan or SUV for around $10-$20h/h for Peru/Panama/Colombia. Bi-lingual driver. Armored vehicle also available in Colombia for same price as E class LOL. I’ll take a mixture of everything to see how the driver service compares, as the high end doesn’t exist in Santa Marta/Cartagena. I plan to explore on my own the other times and will only stay at hotels with high walkability and safety.


I’m a huge car guy at home, so I love driving. I’m a big fan when Hertz delivers your car directly to the airport for you. Here are some decent cars I’ve gotten for free upgrade (booking a $20 midsize) w/ Hertz in the last few years:



Cobra GT-H



C7 Stingray, impressive for a chevy


Panamera, not a bad value porsche


488/911


C63 AMG


Cayenne (junk imo)


Dirty RR Sport (much better)


M550 I think, can't remember. A surprise for Hertz



For hotels, as mentioned earlier, I ended up sticking with Marriott to complete the Plat challenge. Even though I get free breakfast as Hilton Gold, it’s hardly worth it in countries where food is so cheap. Free breakfast is never a deciding factor for me. I picked Hyatt for where Marriott wasn’t a good option, and I chose Accor for those same reasons. I also have Plat status with Accor and they had a stay promotion, while Hyatt had no promotions. I chose Hyatt solely because I like their properties. I could have picked all Marriott if I wanted to maximize points (1500 per stay promotion), but I wanted to still enjoy and like where I am staying since it’s technically still a holiday (no Four Points please). I did switch hotels for one-night stays twice during the trip as I wanted to check out the other property. I’m travelling solo, so I’m not staying anywhere luxury like Aman/FS/MO/SHGLA for this trip. I will be for my next trip and maybe I’ll be motivated to write another report after this one, instead of waiting 8 years lol. 😊


My itinerary:

AC Signature Class J/Y YYC-YYZ-YOW-YUL-YYZ-YYC (*A330/A220/Q400/A330/A330) *old & new config

AA J/F YYC-DFW-MIA (E75/77W) / Stop 1 night – Marriott Stanton Miami South Beach

AA Flagship Intl J MIA-LIM (788 Zodiac) / Stop 2 nights – Westin Lima and JW Marriott Lima

CM J LIM-PTY (738A) / Stop 1 night – JW Marriott Panama

CM J PTY-MDE (738B) / Stop 2 nights – Novotel Medellin

LA PY MDE-SMR (A320) / Stop 2 nights – AC Marriott Santa Marta and Marriott Santa Marta Dormida

LA PY SMR-BOG (A319) / Stop 3 nights – W Bogota and Grand Hyatt Bogota

LA PY BOG-CTG (A320) / Stop 2 nights – Hyatt Regency Cartagena

LA PY CTG-BOG (A320)

AA J/F BOG-MIA-DFW-YYC (772 Zodiac/77W/A319)

****FOR THE FOODIES***I also did schedule some nice restaurants, including El Cielo Medellin. This is the only Colombian restaurant in the world that won a Michelin star, and serves a 22 course tasting menu. Stay tuned!

Certainly NOT the most exciting airlines, configs, or hotels but I hope the destinations and many pics will make up for that. If you made it this far… You’re completely mad like me, enjoying the little details haha. Congrats!!! Here we goooooooo:

SKYEG

AC J YYC-YYZ

A330 (old config)

Seat 9A

***Equipment Swap 787-8

Seat 5K

I want to start with saying that SeatGuru SUCKSSS lol. It flags seats that are the best as not desirable! If it’s missing a window, close to PY bassinet or have a bulkhead behind your seat for “restricted recline”, they flag it red. Most the times it’s false. Especially on the A330 on AC with the old classic pods, where the last row 9A is the best seat due to significant extra shoulder space since no seat behind you. The most private seat too, as you are facing a wall rather than looking at feet on the other side. Yes, there is no window but with the 1-1-1 herringbone layout facing outwards, you can’t see anything out the window anyways. IMO, 9A is easily the best seat on that layout. I encourage people to use FT funded www.aerolopa.com ,if their airline is currently funded, for best seat maps. Ditch SeatGuru completely. They even gave up updating their layouts years ago... most are completely outdated. I ended up getting an equipment change to a 787-8 a day before the flight, so my plans of flying both a330 configs ended up failing.



Giving it some thought, I noticed I hardly ever benefit from any priority services. I don’t use Priority Check In, as I NEVER check bags. I MIGHT use it to print stock BPs if it’s my first airline. Same with Priority Security, I use Nexus/Precheck. Priority baggage? Read sentence two. Priority boarding? I like to board last if I don’t need overhead space. I don’t drink liquor on solo flights and skip some meals… especially nowadays with the crap that is served on post-covid US legacy. I tend to also skip lounges if they are junk. Nevertheless, for the sake of the report, I will try to hit ALL the points to make this a more a complete experience. Especially with CM, LA and the small airport processes - which is not reported on much on FT.



YYC is a great airport in Canada. Much better than my old home base, northern neighbour YEG. Mainly because it serves as the home base for Westjet. With Flair/Swoop also in the game, it has brought fierce amounts of pricing competition in and out of YYC. AC/WS prices are low, flights are plentiful, and airport is modern. The new international terminal is beautiful, albeit a bit far from the furthest domestic A gates and some design faults. Transborder area is super nice, but no lounge access except a mediocre priority pass (can’t reach WS/AC lounges). They have a little trolly service that transports you back and forth from A to D gates, but the walk is doable at around 15-20 min. Quite a trek still. YYC is using the international gates for domestic flights during some A gate construction, so I have been caught off guard and had to make the long trek before assuming WS will fly from A gates. It was completely empty when I got here around 9PM.






Super friendly check in agent, no lines.



Empty priority security and nexus lane this evening.





The YYC Maple leaf lounge is open but has reduced hours, so for this red eye flight the lounge is not open. Currently, no lounges are open at night at YYC with the excellent WS Elevation lounge also closed by 950PM. I remember when YYC MLL stayed open until the last redeye to YYZ… the good old days. Sometimes they even waited for a flight delay, 1AM+. The elevation lounge is a brand-new lounge accessible by WS elites, Priority Pass or flying WS J on the 787.


Westjet Elevation lounge



You can scan yourself in if you’re a WS Elite… If not, you chat with the dragons waiting outside. They also check for fully vaccinated status to get in the lounge.






For the food, you order off a QR code and within minutes someone delivers everything to you. The menu is extensive, and delicious! So are the drinks.


There are two shower rooms. I felt weird taking a picture of the bathroom but it’s very nice… full marble and excellent hand soap.





Lounge closes at 950pm so I made the long walk from A gates to D gates… The trolly is down due to covid.





Boarding started on time, flight was pretty full.


5K, which are missing both windows… lol.



Wants Les Essentiels amenity kit, blanket and pillow + seat cover.




Menu, full bottles of wine are back!


AC COvid kit

amazing contents for 3 hour redeye, plus solid bag



I fell asleep almost immediately and woke up when the FA had my meal ready. I took a picture of it and fell asleep again until we were landing. Standard AC omelette which has been around forever.



Got to YYZ slightly early, and made my way over to the domestic maple leaf lounge








Empty with social distance seating


Order at table menu



I took a quick nap and made my way over to my next flight

SKYEG

AC J YYZ-YOW

A220-300

Seat 3A

The A220(bombardier c-series) is a fantastic aircraft. It’s quiet, beautiful and comes loaded with AC’s new seat. It’s unique as it has a extendable leg rest, with fantastic recline. The updated touch screen IFE is a welcome change to the old enroute.

This flight was super surprising because we were served a FULL HOT BREAKFAST for a 226mile, 25 minutes in the air flight. They used to have hot breakfast on this route but it got replaced with a smaller cold one, but it has come back. Considering AA can’t serve a hot meal for a 6 hour transcon… Good job AC! Nice to see upgrades in catering during covid. A rarity amongst mainline carriers.



priority boarding

amazing seats.

HD Touchscreen

coathook


tray table has a lotch, so it comes out when you press it. much better than the manual ones.


huge windows

AC Covid pack and PDB waters

foot pedal thingy

rare to see this on a narrowbody, leg extender

breakfast. 25minute flight. 226 miles. what are you doing AA??



Busy leaving YYZ, some nice views approaching YOW.



Landed and walked my way over to the YOW Maple Leaf lounge. There is no QR code menu here, you just walk up to the food area and there is an agent that runs around that grabs what you want.








Walked my way over to the dreaded only Y segment of my whole trip... lol

SKYEG

AC Y YOW-YUL

Q400 Dash-8

Seat 1A

This was an uneventful flight. Not a fan of Dash 8’s but the Q400 is the best of them all. I slept before wheels up and woke up and wheels down. I didn’t even notice the lady that sat down next to me as I fell asleep before she was seated! She said I slept like a baby and asked for tips… haha! Be a FTer I guess.



bulkhead. 1C has unlimited legroom but i wanted window

AC Covid kit

No jetbridge


YUL isn’t my favourite airport. Quite crowded and dated IMO, especially the domestic maple leaf lounge. You used to get access to the INTL lounge, which is MUCH better. You needed to have gates 50++ on your boarding pass to access. But now, with the INTL area blocked off unless you have an INTL ticket, this benefit is no longer possible. You must fly INTL AC J to get into the INTL lounge, not just a BP with a gate higher than #50. I was #51.



Lounge tarmac views

Lounge

Maple leaf lounge menu

soup was good. Tuntar tartare and sandwich umm.... lol

Made my way over to the gates and saw our bird has the Star Alliance livery today! coooool
AC J YUL-YYZ

A330-300 New Config

Seat 1A



This was a fantastic flight. There definitely has been some improvements made by Collins Aerospace Super Diamond update. The screen isn’t larger but it definitely is sharper. The footwell is MASSIVE, allowing more space. The seatbelt is also cross body strap. Few other things are different like extra cubby space in the arm rest, and how the consoles open. There’s not extra storage where the remote is, which I found odd…


Surprised to see separate jetbridge for this flight! Love to see it !

Seat 1A

massive amounts of legroom and cubby space

smoked salmon snack for this quick hop

Nice Canadian touch to the lav



I got back to Toronto and found out that my flight back to Calgary had been swapped to the old A333 config. Go figure… After everything switching, I went full circle again and got to experience the old layout. And the AC lounge dragon got me Seat 9A again LOL!!!!


YYZ MLL evening menu. The meatballs were actually really good...

SKYEG

AC J YYZ-YYC

A330-300 New Config *** Equipment swap A330-300 Old Config

Seat 9A



Funny that we came back full circle and I ended up on this plane. We were delayed as the inbound aircraft was parked at the US departure gates... Not a good sign when even the flight crew can't get in.





Flight was fully stocked the same as the red eye with the “lunch” menu(630pm flight lol), blanket, mattress cover, pillow but no amenity kit. Just the overnight red eye got one. But oddly enough, I got headphones in this one. Not on the redeye. Inconsistency probably.


A333

Old classic AC pods. 1-1-1 Herringbone, weird layout. But comfy. This was my very first lie flat almost 10 years ago lol

proper menus

I know chef Park!

same options AC offered for years lol. They are both good though


Proper glasses. Hi American. You suck.

I actually got the Pasta, but was given the tenderloin too as extra. Amazing FA today.




The FA was fantastic. She was older and seasoned. On AA, it’s pretty consistent that the younger FA’s are not yet hating their jobs and grandfathered in from better days. On AC, it was the opposite. Her experience made her take meal orders based on status. Not just Super Elite where this is a benefit, but for 75K and 50K as well. I was appreciative of this, as there were non-revs that didn’t get their first meal choice, but all the elites did. Sure sign of experience, and in this instance the experienced FA’s win.

I was so tired I pretty much turned on classical music(my favorite in the air) and passed out the whole time after meal service. Food was solid, they are now doing coursed meals again. Not served on one tray. Bravo.

Landed in YYC, long walk from D gates back to A gate exit. Passed out for 9 hours straight.


I had 24 hours to get my covid tests done, haircut, do dinner with my +1 and have drinks with friends. Two of my buddies bought new whips(one is a doctor another made a few milli off coins this year) and brought them out. The guy with the M5 also has a Lambo, G63 AMG, Range Rover, S550 and C63 AMG too. He added another one to the fleet.... Staying out until 2am when I have 7AM flight wasn't a good idea in hindsight, but I was moving back to USA so we wanted to do a dinner.


RT-PCR test... RIP my throat

Fresh Fade Fridays

Steak. Lobster. And other things

Blurry pic Sums up the night. Brownie points if you're a watch guy and can guess what this is... hint S.O.B.B.

Whip #5 for my friend lol

Would you buy this over a lambo? Costs the same. Not sure most would.

SKYEG

AA J YYC-DFW

E175 by Envoy

Seat 1A



Not off to a great start, as my covid results didn’t arrive in time for my 7AM flight… I got rescheduled onto a later flight, leaving me 1 hour for my connection instead of the planned 5 hours + food/drinks with wakesetter93 in Dallas. Also, with strong winds at DFW my inbound got delayed an hour. Leaving me 5 minutes to connect, with high probably I will miss this flight. Pretty annoyed. At least I didn't have to go to the airport at 5am lol...



New YYC INTL/Transborder terminal

Priority check in to do document checks.

Empty customs

What is life without GE? I don't want to know tbh

Some top shelf whiskey... Surprised to see these in YYC




I happened to book Five Star service with American Airlines, where someone tracks your flight and also waits at the end of the jetbridge to deliver you to your next flight. I’m glad I did, and will put the service to the test in case of IRROPS.

Calgary INTL/Transborder terminal is actually quite nice. It was pretty deserted when I came.

Global entry was quick and easy, no lines for customs at all. CBP agent didn’t say anything to me, just told me to have fun. Nice lol.

Aspire lounge, which is the only lounge available for transborder fights, was closed for the day.


Only lounge available for YYC US Gates, and it's closed(priority pass)

USA E Gates yyc

Gate. inbound delayed

I found a desk to chill out at, and waited for the delayed inbound to come in. It still completely blows my mind the incompetence of AA. They never update their delays on their app!! It's always incorrect info. There was no notification of the inbound delay, I only knew due to flightaware. So silly. Get it together AA. I got on board knowing that I will land around the same time my flight leaves. Uh oh...


My late E175 birdy



1A on E75 might be the best domestic F seat on a narrowbody AA flight. It’s a single seat, tons of legroom/space, plus direct aisle access. I love it. It also gives me the best chance to make the connection being up front, it will save me a minute LOL haha.


legroom for daaaaays

E75 J cabin


Service started with a glass of water in a plastic cup. Isn’t this sized cup meant for the dental office to rinse out my mouth??? AA plans to bring back real silverware on Nov 10th. Long overdue. It just feels wrong drinking bourbon out of a plastic cup.




All I got was a pack of nuts as usual for this route. 3+ hours, 1500mi+ intl J flight(albeit Canada). Completely disgrAAceful.

There's also a known issue currently on AA IFE on iphone if you updated to iOS15. so I had to use my computer to watch some TV shows.




FA also disappeared after the first tiny cup of water for the rest of the flight. To read her book. sAAd service indeed.


approach. APPROACH!!!

land of eagle


For some reason, we ended up making up a ton of time in the air and landed on time... I had the AA Five Star agent waiting for me on the jetbridge. Complete waste of money, she told me to go find the gate/lounge by myself. I will write in about this, as it was rude and completely disrespectful. Not the service I paid for (I’ve used it before). She should get in trouble for this, it was almost baffling. Update***: Got an immediate refund, apology from an executive with a full investigation promised.


My DFW-MIA ended up being delayed right as we landed, for 1.5 hours lol. All that worry for nothing… Pilots not arrived on time. I thought about running out to grab In & out, but with a carry on and backpack I decided against it. I went to the Admirals Club close to my gate at D23 to get some work done and grab some water. I knew the food was going to suck there, and since I wasn’t going to expect anything at all on my next flight… I will need to eat. I ended up having to BUY food from their menu to find anything edible. I should have found a restaurant in the terminal after seeing the garbage they had at the Admirals Club, in hindsight. Too bad the flagship lounge still isn’t open at DFW! Oh no wait.. oven is down so you can’t even PAY for hot food at AC. Time to go look for a restaurant in the terminals. (Centurion lounge had a line LOL no thx).


Thanks for personally delivering me to the gate as promised AA?! What a joke lol.

Admirals Club DFW d23 bar. Where you have to pay for anything drinkable or edible. lol

None of this was unfortunately edible. It was the best offered for free in the AC. Took a pic.

Ok this is edible but its junk food.

The mexican restaurant I chose to eat at

forgettable meal


Found a nice Mexican spot the AAngel recommended for me to eat(she was sympathetic lol). Some okay tacos and queso. Not worth $30 USD. Chilled in the restaurant until it was time to board my flight to Miami. OKAY, I know I'm a newly minted AA EXP but they do not impress. Glad they increased their requal to $32000++ CDN for new EXPs. Gives me another excuse to just stick with AS for next year.

SKYEG

AA F DFW-MIA

77W

Seat 2A





The delay was due to waiting for pilots lol. After around two hours delay, we began boarding. Very surprising that there was ZERO Concierge Key pre-boarding. Usually a few at DFW. The 77W was completely full front the back too, with people running out of space for their bags in the overhead in Y…(RIGHT?!)


the familiar Cirrus J seats, also found on Cathay


This was my first time in Flagship First hard product, and I was impressed. Definitely an upgrade over business, without a doubt. A ton of working space, and of course the signature “office in the skies” where your seat faces the windows. Paired with two amazing seasoned FA’s, it made for a wonderful short flight to Miami. Both Dallas based FA’s with THICK accents, with fantastic hospitality and style. Complete different attitudes from my last AA flight!



American Flagship First Seat2A

triple windows are nice

Office mode everyone knows

Big cubby. Legroom for days.

Plug ins, IFE contrl, vanity mirror

Working on the trip report lol. The chair turns over to face the windows, making it an excellent desk.

seat controls. massage function actually worked pretty good...

F bathroom. Nothing special, tiny bit nicer

Massive tray table...

Terrible meal. Some hummus dip, crackers, chocolate brownie, choice of cold turkey/tomato pesto which is all that is served on AA right now alongside sunflower seeds aka bird food. Salad is okay but they need healthier dressing

To the left that little pocket lights up and can hold a small laptop like mine.

MIA

Driver showed up 30 min late and I almost died in the heat wearing a hoodie lol


There’s nothing I can really fault on the American Flagship Seat. It’s old, it’s not private and it is what it is…. But it’s still way better than business class.



Food on AA is sAAd, with two cold choices of Tomato pesto or turkey sandwich offered. The tomato is actually better, but the TOMATO ITSELF has been missing from the sandwich occasionally. The FA told me there may be missing tomato’s on the tomato sandwich today… lol. Took the turkey. I barely touched the food. And drank more water out of plastic cups.



I was surprised that there were disposable AA earphones provided. I’ve only had the B&O one’s from flagship biz so I was surprised to see these. Better quality than any other earbuds I’ve received on an airline, as it has gel cap inserts.



My seat was extremely clean, and well maintained. Everything also worked, which isn’t true for all Flagship F seats. I can’t complain about this flight at all. Best way to travel on a 3 hour DFW-MIA domestic USA besides private jet. I’ve flown on a few PJ’s and this seat has more room than some of the light jets I’ve been on!



Because of the delay, I landed in Miami super late. I grabbed a uber and headed straight towards the Marriott Miami Stanton South Beach.

SKYEG

Marriott Miami Stanton South Beach


I could have stayed at an airport hotel but I wanted to check out the beach quick in the morning. Plus I have a friend that is in Miami out in Brickell who wanted to chill. Didn’t want to spend a ton for such a short stay, so I went with the Marriott Stanton South Beach. Could have stayed in Brickell area but beach was the goal. It has a fantastic location right by the south point, and is walking distance to anything you want. Very basic hotel, and chances of upgrades are slim. I booked a skyline view, and got a "skyline" view lol. Small balcony. Also came with two drink tickets I gave to some girls at the pool before leaving. The hotel has the beach accessible right behind their pool, and is in a prime location. Right beside Hilton Bentley.


Front of hotel

Reception

Basic King Room

Small but usable bathroom. Dual shower head and amazing pressure. Great shower.

Room Balcony


Partial ocean views from balcony. Aka peasant ocean views.



Gym, which was well equipped and I took advantage of

Hotel has two pools and hot tub. Empty when I went, but got busier as the morning went. A lot of beautiful people... I am in Miami for sure



Pool bar, you can see the Ocean in the distance

Sobe. Beautiful. worth it.



I went out with my friends the night I landed, and pretty much chilled all morning. he happens to be the son of one of the wealthiest billionaire real estate developers, so he has a nice place out here. He rolled up in his lambo and he spent a small new Kia worth popping bottles of Ace , 1942, Dom etc … lol. Miami lyfe. Definitely not something I’m used to, he’s on a new level. I have some wild videos but I won’t share them here… haha





Present from daddy for 21st bday



Not anyone can spend $20000 a night on drinks …




Would I stay at Marriott Stanton again? Probably not, as Id stay somewhere nicer if I was here longer. So many better options, and I do like the Brickell area better. It was good value and I guess I can't complain. I’m also just Marriott gold so I don’t expect anything. Maybe plat will bring some upgrades. Free enhanced internet, list of what $35 resort fees covered and 500 points were given to me. Resort fees gave beach and towel access at the nice pool and maintained beach. Plus two drink chits for the bar.






nothing like a morning jog on the beach barefoot!!!

I got a late check out for 2PM and headed to the airport for my flight to Lima, Peru! The real vacation begins...

SKYEG

AA J MIA-LIM

787-8 Zodiac ** Equipment swap to 787-8 BE Aerospace

Seat 5L

I took an uber to Miami airport, which was pretty straightforward. I got dropped off at doors 2 to access Flagship First Checkin.

As an AA EXP, you can use flagship first check in travelling on INTL itins. Not many dragons know this, and they deny access if you're not on the list. I was crediting to Alaska, so I was obviously not on the list... She was really rude until she went and talked to who knew what they were doing. They apologized promptly and let me in. Wasted 5 minutes arguing access which isn't premium at all, and I let them know this. The experience would be horrifying I already didn't know that there's a chance they were going to be like that anyways. There was another gentleman who was EXP and got denied but he was so pissed he just walked off. lol.







The service itself is fantastic. You check in, you can sit down(no one does). But the best part is, they escort you to the front of the precheck line. They actually start tearing down the rope dividers to push you through in Miami, compared to the elevator/drop off in LAX. It felt really weird as there was a MASSIVE line of at least 50+ people, and just opening ropes to get through them all. She had both my passport and BP in hand, so I didn't even talk to the TSA people. Right through security. Fantastic benefit I'd use more often if I was based in MIA. You feel VIP for sure... I got a TON of dirty looks lol.


Escorted through security, I made my way over to the Flagship lounge. Promptly handed an invitation by the friendly AAngels at the door, who welcomed me a bunch of times. I was impressed with their hospitality and cheerfulness, all the way up into the flagship lounge entrance! Those AAngels welcomed me again multiple times and directed me to the newly added champagne greeting station. Louis Roederer is pretty decent for a business lounge. Tania manning the champange station was so friendly and I can see the smile in her eyes through the mask! I forgot about the riff raff at FFCI almost right away because of her




Tons of mid-top shelf SELF SERVE booze. no covid restrictions here folks, lets go back to normal .

massive tv room

make your own tequila cocktails



lots of self serve bevvies

Fantastic salmon station



Desserts were delicious.

All pretty good. Steak surprisingly good, and cooked medium,


I was impressed how spacious the lounge was. It has quite a lot of people but never felt crowded. Good selection of mid-top shelf, and great lounge food. The steak was good, but the desserts IMO were the best. They even had snapper Ceviche, prepping me for my flight to LIM haha!


I might be responsible for polishing at least one of these today...

Wines aren't super exciting but still better selection than copper moon

The 14 year was a nice touch

wine wine wine

runway views, niceeee

AA stronghold for sure. MIA

Best part of the lounge, the cake, ceviche and dessert. soooo. gud.


Also, every lounge staff was very helpful and super kind. Almost all of them are saying hello and acting cheerful. An older gentleman took care of me, and the Table constantly cleared and cleaned, champagne REFILLED AND DELIVERED multiple times?! Desserts offered and delivered. I left a $20 for the gentleman and he was so grateful. I wish AC’s and other lounges can learn from this. Happy that they took time to elevate the service and offerings at the FL’s, rather than downgrading. I am impressed. There are also a few famous people tonight in the FL, judging by the amount of pictures being asked to be taken, instruments, and the Patek Philippe’s I see them wearing lol… Not sure who they are.


I chilled here until it was time for boarding… When I got there I was 45 minutes early and they were already on group 8!!! lol


Walking on board, I noticed that there was a 788 swap for the new reconfigured BE. So this doesn’t happen much, as only 4 of the fleet has this new config. To prepare for the awful “motion in the ocean” seats on the 788 Zodiac, I booked 5L. Row 5 is the only row that doesn’t have the attached seats on the zodiac, which moves around when the other person connected sitting there moves. Very annoying. So since I took 5L and there was a spot, 5L is the worst seat. Not only do you get last pick of meal, you have missing windows. Both. Lol. Oh well, I should be happy I got BE right?!






Everything was provided, with a solid menu for only a 5 hour flight. A light meal for landing too. Unfortunately, there was only chicken left when the order came to me. I wish AA would take orders based on status like UA/AC for at least their top tier, but wishful thinking. The appetizer was disgusting but dessert/chicken was pretty good. The polenta and the rest was blah. I wish I could have had the salmon. Buddy in front of me, who flew business for the first time, got the steak and said it was delicious lol





pretty good

meh

B&O headphones handed out after takeoff



I chilled and hopped on wifi for most the flight. I messaged a few people, mainly the ones that I was planning to meet. I was also getting organized for a few business opportunities I'm looking at while I was on this trip. The amount of investment opportunity was incredible in Colombia and I definitely didn't want to miss out on some.


warmed nuts.

Cuban Sandwich was delicious



1 hour before landing, they served the Cuban sandwich warm. Which was delicious. It's actually my favourite airplane meal of this trip so far. It was pretty good all things considering. The fruit that came with it was okay too.
Another mind blowing this was the couple sitting in the middle seats beside me. They had an infant, and he didn't make one noise the whole flight. craziest part was he was wide awake. Just didn't cry at all... A sharp contrast from my first infant experience when we had to bring... SO JEALOUS. They let me take a picture of the baby as he was very interested in me the whole time. They are truly living the dream as new parents lol. Buddy in front of me didn't even know there was a baby lol!!!


Never seen a baby not cry on such a long flight..amazing

Peru has double mask rules in the airport, which definitely made me super stuffed up. The baby couple and I were almost the first ones out of the plane, so we were pretty happy.





Ugh. Two planes got in before us. Getting out first didn't mean anything... 1 hour wait.

Baggage area

Drivers have to wait outside now




I prebooked an airport pickup, tour and drop off with www.limacabs.com. They come highly recommened on Flyertalk and I can see why. Edward sent me a whatsapp message when I landed with the picture of my sign, where he was standing and exact details of what to do. Since drivers are not allowed to wait inside, he gave me detailed directions that couldn't be clearer. In fluent English too! I found him with my name on the sign instantly after walking out of door 3. He was also professionally dressed, while I looked like a slob lol. We made our way over to San Isidro to the Westin Lima, around a 40 minute drive.


Edward, excellent guide/driver.

Lol... I saw some sketchy things on this drive I won't write here. nighttime in Lima is quite interesting. I think there is a night curfew still.

wakesetter93

Good stuff so far, looking forward to the rest!

zip10001

Great TR, my kind of vacation!

wakesetter93

Let the record show that SKYEG bailed on lunch with me in DFW

Synapseturquoise

Great Trip Report. Not sure why South America gets such a bad rep. There are so many amazing places to visit. Colombia is a fun country to visit. Like in most places, you just have to pay attention to your surroundings but people are super friendly and the food is great. I've been to Argentina as well and loved it. As a matter of fact my husband and I plan to do Patagonia in 2023. We were supposed to go last year but covid happened. Peru , Chile and Brazil are on my radar too.

wakesetter93

It was fun getting to relive the YYC-DFW-MIA saga after messaging you about it all day yesterday. I'll make sure we find you some In-N-Out when you pass back through