209-365: Mileage Plan
Originally uploaded by mikehillwig
I haven’t been blogging much. It’s been a busy summer at work. And life in general has been a bit insane. I still post a daily photo on Flickr.
I mentioned in my last blog post that I had switched banks. On top of that, I signed up for Bank of America’s Alaska Airlines debit card. I use my debit card for everything, so I’m earning miles. For example, when I pay my $120 cable bill every month, that earns me 60 miles on Alaska Airlines.
Some people have asked me why Alaska Airlines. First, I love the airline, even though I don’t get to fly them often. They’re based on the west coast and I live on the east coast. However, they serve Boston from both Seattle and Portland. That means if I have a need to fly to the west coast, I’ll have some miles built up.
It was a bit odd to book a flight on Southwest Airlines paying with my Alaska Airlines debit card. It’s a bit humorous to earn miles on Alaska by flying Southwest. But that’s the nature of a rewards card. Now if I use that card to book a flight on Alaska, I’ll earn double miles!
Flights on Southwest, you might ask. I actually have two trips booked with a third coming soon. I’ll be flying to Pittsburgh on Labor Day weekend to help my friend Josh move into his new house. Reggie won’t be making that trip with me. Thanksgiving is already booked, too. Southwest makes it much cheaper to fly with Reggie than JetBlue does. The trip that hasn’t been booked yet is my dad’s retirement party.
Travel plans for Christmas are still up in the air My tentative plans are to join the chorus in singing at Boston’s Arlington Street Church for Christmas Eve services and then head home on Christmas day. I’ve pretty publicly stated how much I loathe US Airways these days. If I fly home for Christmas, they have the best flight times for me. With a flight leaving Boston at 7:00 AM, it can have me at my parents’ house by 10.
Oh, I’m in a wedding in a few weeks and need to buy a new suit.