Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[Donald - my hero]

Did any staff come around to check on you or bring you flashlights?
Glad you got it all sorted out. Hope you have a good flight home and yes sad it is over already.

Nope, hubby did wander down to see if there was an ETA on the outage but they had no idea - all together probably 40 minutes? The main building still had power but obviously people couldn't get into their rooms, and the front desk couldn't use their computer system since the Wi-Fi was down. When we were walking around this morning we noticed that about 2/3 of our building (7) is empty, this resort has been DEAD the whole weekend. There was a small round of applause when the power came back on, maybe 3 other families outside with us.

We went down to apply the last of our gift cards to the account and they told us we don't need to check-out until 12:30 to make up for the time we lost tonight? I'll take it, more sleeping in Disney time!!!

 

[bababear_50]

Happy Monday!
Hugs Mel

 

[Debbie]

Safe travels to those travelling to and from the south this week!

 

[ottawamom]

Mel you find the most appropriate pictures for every occasion. Safe travels.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

This week last year we were at WDW! What a week we had, so many memories. *sigh*

 

[dancin Disney style]

I don't recall a time with so many trips all at roughly the same time. One ending, one just starting and I go on the 6th. Guess I better figure out accommodation I spent a couple hours yesterday getting work schedules and staff sorted out. I texted those involved and have confirmation that things are covered....actually I've managed a little extra coverage for the 6th so that I won't be in a sweat all morning. I'll be working a few hours before going to the airport. It's kind of funny not all that long ago I thought I was never going to be able to take time away from my business. This year things have really changed. Partially, I have removed the pressure from myself to always be there.

 

[KandyM]

Was trying to decide if I buy my Canadian Resident Tickets through Air Miles Rewards today to get the 2500 bonus miles. The exchange rate Airmiles is using seems very high to me. 1.42. Pretty big markup and it doesn't look worth it.

 

[tinkerone]

Was trying to decide if I buy my Canadian Resident Tickets through Air Miles Rewards today to get the 2500 bonus miles. The exchange rate Airmiles is using seems very high to me. 1.42. Pretty big markup and it doesn't look worth it.

That does seem high. The exchange rate right now with the Bank of Canada is 1.3572 so they are adding on a 6% fee charge. Even banks don't charge that.
I guess you would have to decide if the 2500 AMs (approximately $260) will at least offset the cost of the exchange.

 

[juniorbugman]

I bought livestream concert tickets yesterday for a band that I follow and my exchange rate on my VISA was 1.425 so I guess that is the rate that they are charging right now.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Was trying to decide if I buy my Canadian Resident Tickets through Air Miles Rewards today to get the 2500 bonus miles. The exchange rate Airmiles is using seems very high to me. 1.42. Pretty big markup and it doesn't look worth it.

Basically it comes down to do you want to shell out a couple thousand dollars OPP or redeem miles and be OOP nothing? That’s a no brainer for me.

 

[KandyM]

My ticket 'bill' is gonna be $6111 CAD (ish - depends on the exchange rate of the day) through Disney direct and through air miles travel is 6480 CAD. Not worth the $260 airmiles to me.

But yeah, I'm short on the miles for my after hours tickets still. Will be pretty close I think after all my black friday shopping miles post but still short. Not sure yet what my plan will be, either wait to earn enough or get a quote on one less ticket via airmiles and pay cash for one.

 

[KandyM]

I bought livestream concert tickets yesterday for a band that I follow and my exchange rate on my VISA was 1.425 so I guess that is the rate that they are charging right now.

Thanks for this, interesting to know. On Nov21 I bought a touring plans subscription and my home trust visa charged me 1.38. Exchange rate that day per google was 1.37. So I am hoping I get that whenever I do lay out the cash for the tickets. It's all a gamble though for sure.

 

[tinkerone]

So I play this silly little game on my IPad. It's called Disney Magical Kingdom. You play to get the park rides, the characters, chests that hold items for the game, that sort of thing. Well, to get to my point, there was a chest you could get from Game Loft, the developer of the game, through their website, just give them your player number. I went and grabbed one and unbeknownst to me, it was also a contest. I received an email last week that I was one of the winners and yesterday I received the prize. I'm going to try and post a pic (pray for me) to show you it but in case I mess it up I will tell you it is a pair of Disney 100 Ears by Loungefly. Really cute.

 

[tinkerone]

Lots of AMs just posted. I'm not even sure where they are coming from, I just can't account for them all but thanks AMs!
Hopefully they don't claw them back.

 

[ottawamom]

I was just coming to post about the same thing. I got 4 x 100AM Cardlink offer. I can account for 3 I've been waiting for not sure what the 4th is for.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I got the 4 separate 100 mile dump as well, I can cross that off my list now - it was for August, September, October and November card link offer. I had given up on them, thought perhaps it was one of those "first time only" offers. Now I will continue to buy a single $30 gift card from Dollarama every single month they offer it!

 

[Donald - my hero]

Bunch of random thought, observations and comments from our spontaneous Birthday Weekend Trip in no specific order:

• Porter Airlines was spectacular! Service was top-notch, agents were friendly and helpful. The upgrade to the Reserve section was such a great birthday treat, it would 100% be worth the cost to do it again by choice.
• The bulkhead row in the Porter Reserve section is not wide-bottom friendly since the tray tables are in the armrest you are in a very solid little box. The legroom more than made up for it though- seriously, hubby has short legs and he couldn't touch the wall!
• If anyone in your party needs special assistance in any of the airports that use the Sunflower Lanyard program GET IT! You don't need to explain why you need it, they will mail it from Pearson or you can pick it up at an information desk. I love to fly but airporting is very hard on me - wearing this, along with my earphones, and the standard deer-in-the-headlights eyes while I was trying to open up the US border app someone came over and told us to just go to the Nexus lane, the agent had us look at the camera, asked where we were going and waved us thru, he didn't even scan our passports! Apparently the new-fangled facial-recognition tech that Air Canada forced us to use last trip has linked our picture to the US border services? Coming home the line at security was listed as 45 minutes but the Sunflower line had maybe 10 people in it. It doesn't mean it will be quicker but it is much more civilized, no pushing, no one barks orders at you and they are generally quite pleasant. From the moment we got into the car at the resort until we were putting our shoes back on at the other side of security it was 90 minutes.
• Before we left home I made a list of things that would need to go into grey bins and tucked an empty canvas tote bag into the front of my carry-on. When we got to Pearson we slowly put those things into the tote bag and zipped everything else up. I had included an empty zippered bag, think the size of a pencil case, and we emptied our pockets, took off watches, pins and various things that cause bells, put them into that bag and popped it into the top of my backpack. Got to the security line and it was SO EASY! Put the bags in the first 2 bins, then our shoes, jackets & sweaters and my headphones went in the next one, backpacks went into the next bin and our liquids and electronics went into the last one. That order meant that nothing was hanging out on it's own without one of us being able to see the important things. One thing got questioned, but we expected it (my polenta is dense and registers as a liquid) so easy! Did the same thing on the way home and it was just as smooth. Can't praise myself enough on this brain wave
• DO the trip - yes, just do it! Life is short and comes with no promises, we are both so happy we went. Money well spent, memories are priceless!
• It is 100% possible to enjoy a trip at the busiest time of the year and not step one foot inside a park (other than getting my Donald sipper and a gift for a friend in Epcot) One day we didn't even leave the resort
• If you need a scooter, just rent the danged thing before you leave home from a 3rd party and get it delivered to the resort - saw several people struggling to get from a park to the bus stop.
• So happy we got the Annual pass with Memory Maker, best use of our miles, seriously EVER!!
• Wear the buttons, for whatever you're celebrating, the whole trip. They are great conversation starters, we didn't get anything (gawd, some very entitled people who were demanding things!) other than a ton of good feelings
• I will be making many many MANY more goodie bags for our next trip. Everyone who got one was so happy to be recognized and the smiles we got warmed our hearts. It feels so good to give concrete thanks. There are a few "rules" for non-tipped CMs but homemade items and/or small items like candy are perfectly acceptable
• If you are anywhere during a holiday period (heck even at home) be sure to acknowledge how grateful you are that others are missing out on their family gatherings so they can work for YOU. I asked the cashier in the gift shop at MCO how her Thanksgiving was and she was touched that I even asked her.
• If you have 2-step authentication set up on any of your accounts to send a text to your phone and you plan on swapping out SIM cards, eeeek, havoc if you want to do any online shopping (Hello Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping that didn't go quite as planned) That's on my to-do list for next trip the switch to email confirmations instead
• If your phone decides to download a security patch/update while you're stateside, run screaming! That created a few headaches as well because the security "features" are different in the states and I could NOT convince my Samsung phone to deny the access. Several hours yesterday to clear that up (Side note, this happened to my Kindle about 10 years ago and we were never able to have it be CDN again, several apps didn't work including the library one. It became a useless piece of technology)
• When you see a good price for a flight, just BOOK IT! Porter cost about $100 more because I decided to sleep on it and our flights in February would have been about $350 more if I waited until the actual Black Friday and we wouldn't be able to travel on the dates we wanted.
• Reconsider how much you actually need in your personal item, how much will you really need access to? Bulkhead seating means no bag at your feet during take-off and landing, and using the tabletop to watch the surface because they swapped out the plane to one with no seat-back entertainment meant I couldn't reach the danged thing anyways. I was ready though and had a smaller bag in the top of my backpack that had the essentials - snacks, earbuds, wipes (eeew WestJet plane was on it's final run of 4 flights that day!) gum, kleenex I pulled that out and stuffed it beside me on the seat
• If you're flying after dark and you need to swap out your SIM card, good grief, do it in the airport before getting on the plane!
• For the love of all things holy, pay to either at least pre-select your seat or if you can afford it, upgrade for the flight home. Flight was delayed, everyone was snarly, and there was very little overhead space left. Online check in was a mess when the power went out at the resort, took us over an hour first using the app, then switching to a computer and finally calling support to get that task completed! I've already put a bid in to upgrade our flight home in March.
• Packing an empty duffle bag was another stroke of genius - stuffed it full of dirty laundry, leftover food, liquids we wouldn't need on the plane and could do without if they got lost and our jackets. That left one carryon to put the fragile items into and made travelling thru the airport much easier
• Download movies/tv shows/games whatever you need to stay entertained on the plane before you leave home

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I also got three of the cardlink bonus miles. I still have two 100 bonus miles offers from AM shops and one AM Receipts booster 100 miles left to post.

 

[damo]

I also got three of the cardlink bonus miles. I still have two 100 bonus miles offers from AM shops and one AM Receipts booster 100 miles left to post.

I am missing those AM shops ones plus the extra hundred for the Metro get 75 ams for 4 weeks, as well as the Global Pets 75 ams, as well as another Metro thing on Nov. 19 for 50 ams.

 

[hdrolfe]

I think almost all my AM have posted. I got the 75 for global pets and the 50 for spend $10 at Metro a few weeks ago, plus all those 100s for something. I am maybe missing 95 for a metro purchase at this point. Wow. They still haven't taken them for my SW tickets. Hopefully that happens soon. They quoted me at the non sale price any way so can't be charging more. I am doubtful I will get enough to help with the hotel before March break, but I did just earn about 6K in 2 months or so, maybe I will have enough for a couple nights.