Gettin’ Carried Away

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a little traveling hiatus since my trip to Pittsburgh in August. FEAR NOT! I will be making my yearly trip to NYC next month. Anyway, when I don’t have the time (or the money) to travel, I’m naturally envious of those who are planning trips. So when a friend of mine says, “I’m dreading my upcoming weekend in Disney,” I’m thinking… are you nuts?

~* Over nine hours to Germany? Let me gear up! *~

What is it about traveling that people don’t like? I find that most people are annoyed with the travel process rather than the trip itself. I’m sure we all wish we could be like Samantha from Bewitched, twitch our noses and be whisked away to a far off place in a matter of seconds. However, we must endure long lines at the airport, frequent stops on a road trip or some 50+ steps up and down subway platforms to get to our vacation destination. But seriously… what’s so bad about that?

Let’s take flying, for example. Usually, even if you factor in the packing, the transportation to the airport, the check-in/security lines and the wait for the departure, you’re going to get to most places a lot faster by plane. If you decide to take a road trip, your vacation should be about the drive and the places you see along the way. Finally, if you arrive in a city and decide to take public transportation to your hotel, keep in mind that you might be saving tons of money on cab fare.

Heck, I’ve been through a lot of crappy times for the sake of a trip. In Italy, we made the mistake of not buying return tickets to Rome when we took a day trip to Florence, so we ended up on a five-hour local train instead of the hour (and some change) express. In London, my 110-minute Tube ride from Heathrow Airport to Canary Wharf cost under £5, when a cab ride could have been about £70-80!

~* THRILLED about our five-hour journey back to Rome! *~

I think that a lot of our struggles with traveling have to do with the fact that most of us live in a fast-paced world that is in a constant state of rush hour. We’re all in a hurry, even if we left the house a full hour-and-a-half before we have to be somewhere. And because we’re in a hurry, we then become impatient. We want it, and we want it now!

Instead of complaining about all the time you spend standing in lines or sitting in a waiting area, you could be doing a lot of other things with your time. Those are the key words here… your time. It is your personal time that you choose to spend any way you want. Listen to your favorite album, read a new book, buy a Sudoku puzzle book, catch up on emails, call an old friend, etc. And yes, I know that traveling can be exhausting at times. But I’m going to leave you with this thought… Out of the 300+ billion residents in America, only about four million will visit the UK in a given year (says Forbes Traveler).

Stats vary around the world, but the point is that only a fraction of the country will see a given historic landmark, unfamiliar country town, famous river, well-known piece of art, etc. You could be one of the few people in your town who has walked atop the Great Wall of China, taken a ride up the Mississippi River in Louisiana or strolled about the Irish countryside. When it comes to that, waiting in a security line for an extra 25 minutes really doesn’t bother me.

Yesterday, I started my day as I always do, checking my email, Facebook, Twitter and Bloglines accounts. Every porthole was blowing up with news of the seemingly fantastic $599 All-You-Can-Jet pass being offered by JetBlue. Essentially, you purchase this pass, and you’ll receive unlimited travel rights anywhere JetBlue flies in the U.S. from September 8 to October 8. There are terms and conditions, of course, and one of them is that you must sign up to be part of their TrueBlue Rewards Program

The idea behind frequent flyer programs (FFPs) is simple: reward customers for using an airline and promote future customer loyalty. However, it’s actually quite complicated once you read the fine print. Although you do receive benefits as a frequent flyer, every airline has some restrictions, including blackout dates, limited seating availability and possible assessment fees/taxes. Many airlines even state that a reward may not be available at any given time. Especially during these tough times, airlines are not going to give away something for nothing.

Here is how airlines benefit from FFPs:

You may not be using your miles to their full potential.

The actual monetary value is typically $.02 [two cents] per frequent flyer mile, according to the reported airline industry average. So, if you want to redeem the generally required 25,000 miles for a free ticket, the number of miles multiplied by $.02 [two cents] per mile is $500. So before you get all excited about getting a free flight, if you want to fly somewhere for only $300, you might just want to save your miles and purchase the lower cost ticket.

You may end up paying some fees.

When airlines corroborate with hotels and car rental companies, they are essentially selling them the miles that you earn. Say you want to earn AAdvantage miles for American Airlines by staying at the Hyatt. The hotel first needs to purchase the miles from the airline (paying an additional 7.5% tax) before giving them to you. This means that part of the cost, usually the tax, is passed onto you in the form of miscellaneous fees.

A fee may be also charged for mileage redemption. For example, some airlines release seats for frequent flyers closer to the travel date, especially on flights that they don’t think will sell out to regular paying customers. However, you then might be slapped with a late booking fee.

You can actually buy miles.

Delta Airlines sells Gift Miles. They are sold in increments of 2,000 miles at $0.028 per mile, plus a 7.5% tax, costing less than $65. A given rewards member is allowed to receive 60,000 Gift Miles per calendar year. I guess if you’re a few thousand miles shy of earning a free flight, this could be a good birthday gift. You can also just buy the miles yourself. However, it’s really just a marketing tool that earns the airline money.

They capitalize on people belonging to more than one FFP.

People sometimes become member of several FFPs for the sign-up benefits. However, what they don’t realize is that miles do expire. Let’s say you signed up for the FFPs for Southwest, Delta and American. You’ve been flying mostly on Southwest and Delta after awhile, neglecting American. If you don’t fly American at least once in an 18-month period, your miles will expire, and you will need to pay a fee to get them back. You automatically have to pay a $30 fee, plus $50 for every 5,000 miles.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

So are Frequent Flyers Programs really worth it? I think it depends on the airline. I personally think the TrueBlue program offered by JetBlue is a joke. When you sign up for their TrueBlue Rewards Program, which is required to buy the $599 All-You-Can-Jet pass, you will automatically receive 35 points free. However, the points you rack up while you enjoy unlimited travel during that month don’t count towards the program. The program operates on a point system, not a mile tracker:

• You can earn two, four or six points per trip, with two points being a short flight (i.e. JFK to Buffalo), four points being a medium flight (i.e. JFK to New Orleans) and six points being a long flight (i.e. JFK to Oakland).
• You need to earn 100 points for a free flight.
• You only have 12 months to earn the free flight, or the points you acquire will expire. JetBlue does not give any indication that you can get these points back either.

So if you don’t fly a good amount of short, medium and long trips using JetBlue, chances are you’re not going to see the benefits of the rewards program. Have any of you joined a Frequent Flyers Program? What do you recommend?

One of my travel goals is to visit all 30 Major League Baseball parks before I turn 30. I’ve been to Comiskey/U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox), Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs), Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees), Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), Angel Stadium (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) and Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers). Last week, I went to my seventh baseball stadium: PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Getting to PNC Park

We stayed a few miles from the city, so our hotel shuttle bus dropped us off right in front of the (6th Street) Roberto Clemente Bridge, which is shut down for a short time on game days to only allow for pedestrian traffic. Walking across the bridge almost seems like a right of passage… to see a great ballpark. If you’re not a baseball fan, you should know that the Pirates team is pretty much the saddest franchise in the MLB. Just watch the first half hour of the movie Major League (about a terrible Cleveland Indians team) to get an idea of just how bad the Pirates can play sometimes.

If you do drive to the game, you’ll have to cross one of the other two bridges on either side of 6th Street in order to get across the Allegheny River. However, I recommend walking (if you are close enough) or taking a taxi/hotel shuttle to the park.

Once we crossed the bridge, we decided to walk around the park before picking up our tickets from the Will Call window. Side note: since the team isn’t all that great, you could probably get tickets the day of the game. However, if the Pirates are playing the Cardinals, the Cubs, the Red Sox or the Yankees, the game might sell out, as fans of those teams travel to Pittsburgh to see the game. One of the first unique things I noticed about PNC Park was the ticket machines scattered around the perimeter. I’ve seen machines like this at movie theaters, but I’ve never seen one outside a baseball park. This seems pretty handy if the lines for the ticket windows are pretty long; however, you really don’t have to wait in much of a line these days.

Pre-game Inside PNC Park

After we picked up our $26 tickets, we shuffled into the ballpark (1.5 hours before game time), we made our way up to the 100-level and walked right in. I was surprised no one was there to check our tickets, so I can only assume that anyone can walk around on the 100-level concourse, regardless of where your seat is located. You can’t do that in other stadiums. When we found our section, however, there was an attendant there to check and make sure we were headed to the right seats.

After walking down what seemed like 50 stairs, we finally arrived to the lower box seats along the first baseline. Another attendant escorted us to our seats, and he even had a towel with him to wipe down both of them. I really didn’t expect that. I was caught a little off guard, so I didn’t get a chance to the tip the guy. I felt I like I should have after that kind of service. It’s amazing what $26 will get you when a team is playing so poorly. We were 10 rows up from the field and about 150 feet from home plate! We started taking pictures and people-watching when one of the mascots, the Parrot, came out and started riling up the crowd. He even played with some of the Arizona Diamonbacks players a little bit while they did their pregame warmups.

One thing I must give to the Pirates: for being the worst team in the MLB, they sure have the best opening. When you’re at PNC Park, you’ll see several opening videos with really cool graphics. This includes stereotypical, “arrgghh-me-matey” pirate talking about the battle ahead and a pirate ship battle to the tune of Carl Orff’s “O Fortuna” score from the Carmina Burana opera. Finally, a Superman opening announces that starting lineup.

Food and Drink at PNC Park

After about five innings, we decided to head back up to the concourse to look for a bite to eat. PNC has everything from hot dogs and pizzas to pierogi and kielbasa. I came across a Pop-A-Dukes stand in Pop’s Plaza (behind the third base side) that sold gyros, and since I’d never had a gyro at a sporting event before, that’s what I decided to eat. I opted for a Pepsi (I prefer Pepsi parks to Coca-Cola parks). My boyfriend chose a good ol’ fashion hot dog and a Yeungling, a locally brewed beer. As far as beer goes, you can really get anything: Miller, Bud, Coors, Iron City, Lebatt, etc. If you don’t want to spend money on food, PNC is one of the few parks that allows you to bring in outside food and unopened, non-alcoholic bottles of water or pop.

All in all, PNC Park is a great ball field. I think it’s worth it to make a trip out to Pittsburgh just for a game. And hey, Heinz Field is just up the street, so maybe you can catch a concert or a Steelers game while you’re there, too. 7 down, 23 to go!