Travel Post Two: Flying

We will be leaving for a vacation in the states in just over a week so the long flight from Johannesburg to Atlanta is on my mind. As such this blog will be about flying and in my opinion the most important thing about flying is LOYALTY. Pick an airline, sign up for their mileage program and then use that airline exclusively for your travel needs. While some people prefer to use websites like Priceline and Travelocity to find the best deal, I prefer to stick with one airline. By using a travel sites people usually end up using various airlines and therefore accrue a small amount of miles on several airline programs. However if you choose one airline to use exclusively you will rack up miles faster and obtain elite status and all the perks that come with it. Using one airline exclusively may at times cost you more money, however I think it is worth it.

WHY SPEND MORE MONEY TO FLY ONE AIRLINE CONSISTENTLY?

First off, you need to get it out of your head that you will always fly on the cheapest ticket. Ticket prices fluctuate by airline, by day, and by destination. Sometimes Delta will be cheaper, sometimes American Airlines, and sometimes United, but if you are loyal the extra money you spend on some tickets will more than make up for it. Although I have joined various mileage programs, I always try to fly Delta if they have a flight or if one of their partners have a flight to my desired location. Since I fly Delta the majority of the time I have collected quite a bit of miles and am currently a Gold Medallion member (Spencer is also a Gold Medallion member, but sadly Becca is only a Silver Medallion member.) In Delta the elite status goes Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. The greatest benefit of flying one airline is obtaining an elite status. Since I am a Gold Medallion member I get several benefits to include:

1. Sky priority

-Faster Check-in: Access dedicated check-in areas

-Accelerated Security: Walk through expedited security lines

-Expedited Baggage Service: Have your bags delivered first to the carousel

2. Extra bonus miles for flying

3. Complimentary upgrades on domestic flights

4. Waived baggage fees

5. Better chance of scoring an international upgrade (however you have to use your miles to upgrade). If you upgrade you get a seat like this. We are on the wait list for our flight out to Atlanta in a week and hopefully we get the upgrade. 15 hours is a long time in the coach seats. (this seat reclines to a completely horizontal position.)

HOW TO CHOOSE WHICH AIRLINE TO FLY EXCLUSIVELY:

If you want to rack up the airline miles and begin getting the perks of being an elite member, you have to choose which airline you want to fly exclusively. All the airlines have their pros and cons, as do their mileage programs. If you want to get the most bang out of your buck, then choose the airline that uses your home airport the most, or pick the airline that has alot of flights going into your most frequented destination. If you live near an airline hub, that airlines tickets will usually be cheaper and most likely will be a more direct route. For example, I chose Delta because we lived in Utah. As SLC is a Delta hub, Delta usually has some of the cheapest flights flying out of SLC. If you live in or near Chicago, then you may want to pick United. Research your local airport to find who the main carrier is.

Another factor in choosing an airline if your flying long distances is comfort. In Coach seats, the leg room and width of the seats do not change that much from airline to airline. Being tall an extra inch doesn't really make alot of difference during a 15 hour flight. So, instead I look for what airline has the best entertainment package. A 15 hour flight goes by quicker if there is a large selection of movies to choose from. It is also better if the movies are on demand. On Delta long-haul flights you usually have a very large selection of current and popular movies, usually over 20 movies. In addition, you can start the movie when you are ready, fast forward it, pause it, and rewind if you missed a part. Not all airlines do this. I was on a United flight from Brussels to Dulles and they only had 5 or 6 movies on all at the same time on a continuous loop. No choosing when you watch the movie and no pausing it.

When you go to pick the seats of your next flight I encourage you to use the website www.seatguru.com. This website lists every aircraft by every airline and tells you the pros and cons of every flight and every seat. It tells you which seats are more noisy, which ones have extra leg room, which ones have a bad view of the in-flight movie, etc..

Rome, Paris, London...

DISCLAIMER: The following information contains Tyler's opinions and are not fact. People are allowed to disagree, even though they will be wrong.

So Dannon and I began this debate on where in Europe Americans would most want to go on vacation. I think the top three destinations are basically set in stone: Italy, France and the United Kingdom. Although Italy would be my first choice, I think for the most part the top three are interchangeable. Now when it come to the fourth place, my argument was the Greek Isles. My reasons for putting Greek Isles as fourth are:

1. Ancient monuments and ruins;

2. Sailing the Greek isles (mainly to see the the one island were all the houses are blue and white;)

3. Greek food;

4. It is unique from your main European destinations since it is closer to the middle east, but yet developed enough and familiar enough to be considered a western nation.

I put this question up on facebook to get an answer and sadly my side of the argument lost. While it was true that the Italy, France and the United Kingdom (I include Scotland, Wales, and even Ireland as part of the United Kingdom as far as vacation destinations go and my opinion on that will be explained later) were the top three destinations, Greece was far from being the fourth. Germany and Spain were the ones outside the top three most often mentioned. Anyone who did not respond on facebook is more than welcomed to respond here with your four top destinations. Here are two lists that I found during a quick internet check. The first one is where Americans actually go on vacation, where as the second poll was dream vacations. There is a difference between where Americans actually go on vacation and where they would want to go.

According to Forbes the most visited countries by Americans (Greece doesn't even make the list):

1. United Kingdom

2. France

3. Italy

4. Germany

5. Spain

6. Netherlands

7. Switzerland

However, according to a Gallup poll on where Americans top dream vacations are (Greece is in the top three):

1. Italy

2. United Kingdom

3. Greece

4. France

5. Germany

6. Switzerland

7. Spain

Becca and I love to travel and all this talk of traveling made me want to write a few of my ideas about traveling on this blog. So hopefully over the next several months I will put down a few of my ideas to include tips about traveling with children, airport information, pros and cons of different airlines, the best sites for different types of travel, and just my opinions on different destinations. Although I have been lucky to travel to many different countries, I am by no means a world traveler. I have never been to South America, Asia, the Middle-East, Eastern Europe, Central America, Australia, or the Pacific Islands (besides Hawaii). I have never been on a cruise. I also don't go to extravagant resorts or stay in hostels. I think I am a typical middle-class family vacationer who likes to stay in comfortable hotels close to the attractions, likes to eat at the occasional nice restaurant that will allow children, and has a wide taste of what I want to see on vacation. Hopefully you enjoy the posts, feel free to respond with your own opinions and travel trips.

Spencer and Mommy

Spencer and I decided to have some camera fun one day while he was playing outside. Here are the results of such camera fun:

I LOVE this one because of those blue blue eyes!

Not the best picture of me, but I love how much my boy is lovin' on me. :)

Where should we move next?

It is getting close to that time again where Becca and I will have to decide where we will move our family for our next post. We still have awhile here in Zimbabwe, as we will be here until summer/fall 2011. We should be finding out soon what posts are open to us, and will find out our next post sometime late summer/early fall. So here is a chance for our friends and family to let their voices to be heard. The whole world is open to us and we want to know where y'all think we should move? Where are you most likely to visit us? We have had a chance to visit a few places in Europe, and so we have some of our favorites (Becca's being London).

Jeez Louise....BEES!

Cosmas, our gardener, told me the other day that we had bees outside our gate. I told him I would get to it, and then today he said the bees are still there. So I had him go and show me, this is what I found:

The bees didn't have a big enough hole, hence the reason they are all bunched up on each other. CRAZY!

Umm...yep, I'll be calling people today about that Cosmas!!!

Urquhart Castle & Loch Ness

Our final destination for our trip in Inverness and for our vacation was to Urquhart Castle and the Loch Ness. Which the castle is right next to the lake. See if you can find Nessie in any of our pics! :)

Looking out over the Loch Ness on our way to Urquhart.

Urquhart Castle

Tyler and Spencer

Spencer and I trying to go up and down the VERY SMALL staircase.

Looking out one of the windows in the castle.

A rainbow...for good luck?

I saw this kid sitting there looking out over the Loch Ness, and I thought it would be a good picture, hope he didn't mind.

More of the Loch and beautiful Scotland.

Oh look!!!! Nessie!!! She was up on land this whole time! :)

Hope you enjoyed your blogger trip with us to London and Scotland. We had a fabulous time, and know we will be going back to these places. Some of our favorites.

Culloden & Jamie Fraser

On our one whole day of being in Inverness, we had to stop by and see Culloden Battlefield, and to see if I could spot where the Clan Frasers were, or Clan McKenzies. This is all from the historical fiction I've read about. Some of you will know what this all means, most of you won't, but it's for those few that love this book series. :) Enjoy girls!

Spencer all decked out and ready to spend some time outside. It was quite windy and cold. Thinking of Jamie and Claire riding horseback and walking around this weather made it so much colder for me. :)

Battle lines. The blue line is where the clans who were Jacobites lined up, the red line is where the England soldiers were.

No pictures were really allowed in the museum, but I snuck one in. They had this room where a movie was playing on all walls so 360 view of what was happening. So many lives were lost in such a short battle. Some of the name of the dead are on the wall.

Spencer dressing to "the full nines", which this phrase came from. Because the clans would have 9 yards of fabric to make their skirts and piece of fabric to go over their shoulders. Can you believe that NINE YARDS of fabric for one person, no wonder they didn't get chilly at night while sleeping outside.

The battlefield. Red flags are for the English the Blue flags are for the Jacobites.

Scotland landscape....BEAUTIFUL!

Some of the clans names and how many were there from that clan. Most of them had only 200 men.

John Roy Stewarts- 200

Me standing where the Clan Frasers were.

Some info. It was a very reverent place to be.

More battlefield, and the sun coming out too.

The carin, a memorial for this battle.

Overall, a very informative and beautiful day out on a battlefield. We got little audio guides also to help with our story. If you have a chance to go there, you should.