Year End travel update!

Wow, can you believe that it’s already November!? Where did this year go? We have had a very busy, but very exciting year so far. As we get in to the holiday season I wanted to give you all a little update about the upcoming year end travel we have planned, and hopefully hear from you about your family travel that you have planned!

American Airlines Status Run

So close, but so far!

I need about 12,000 Elite Qualifying Miles to re-qualify for American Airlines highest level of status, Executive Platinum. If you check out my post on airline loyalty, you will know that I don’t have to travel the full 12,000 miles, and it doesn’t all have to be on American Airlines. After looking at a number of different options, and crunching numbers in my mileage spreadsheet, I came up with a plan.

Lufthansa First Class

LH First Class from Lufthansa.com

I mentioned before that I wanted to see if Lufthansa First Class lives up to the hype that The Points Guy and One Mile At A Time build for it. Ideally I would fly it out of JFK so I could also review the First Class “Wining & Dining” lounge there, but there were no award seats available. I did find availability out of Boston, so I transferred 70,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points over to Air Canada Aeroplan and booked it!

Aeroplan offers one of the best redemption rates for this great first class product, since it would cost 110,000 United miles or about $12,000 for a one-way flight from Boston to Frankfurt.

British Airways Club World

BA Airbus A380

Once I am in Frankfurt I’ll hop on a quick flight to London City on British Airways Club World and spend Friday and Saturday in London. On my flight back from London to Tampa I was able to use Citi ThankYou Points to book most of my ticket as an American Airlines’ marketed flight getting a 60% bonus on my miles. I’ll be flying the British Airways A380 Business Class product from London to Miami, which has rear facing window seats. Since the flight I chose was marketed by AA, I won’t lose out on the extra 50% elite qualifying miles for my year end travel.

With this trip and one other weekend trip to Miami I project myself reaching 101,742 EQM on American Airlines this year.

Other Year End Travel

The day after Christmas, we are returning to Tampa from Pennsylvania and almost immediately getting on the Norwegian Jade for an eight day cruise! We were finally able to find a cruise that went to some new destinations that worked with both Mallory and my schedules. I’ll be able to add three new countries to the list I’ve visited and will put me at or over 40 visited countries!

Our Itinerary

1.  Roatan, Honduras – Home to some amazing scuba diving

2.  Harvest Caye, Belize

3.  Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala

We are especially excited for the cruise because my mom and brother will be joining us on the trip! I’ll be doing a more in-depth preview of this trip when it gets closer.

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Do you have any plans for year end travel? Let me know where you are going in the comments below!