My First Airline Trip with the "Frugal Travel Dude"

February 13, 2012 - Rick

Today is the big day for Carter’s first flight. We have four award tickets and an “infant in arms” from Columbia, South Carolina, through Atlanta to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.

Shannon, hubby Chris, and my grandson were originally planning on joining us in Hawaii this past December, but Carter’s mom, Shannon, voted for a shorter first flying experience and a few more months under his belt before taking wings. Carter will be five months old this week and I can’t wait to hang out in our goofy beach hats and shades at the Westin Resort on St. Johns. Grammy Katybug and “PapaDada” have babysitting duties on the island while Chris and Shannon get in some snorkeling and diving. We can’t wait.

Its been 25 years since I’ve done the baby thing and have found myself more and more intolerant of babies on airplanes. If I know my grandson, he will not disappoint and will probably pitch a fit for all to hear just to put me back in a more tolerant frame of mind. Way to go, buddy. My last poopy diaper was almost 30 years ago when our soon-to-be-lawyer Andrew took out the last six rows of a Northwest Airlines flight. I had to just walk away and have his mom handle the problem. so to speak. This time, I will be invoking the Grandpa Rule, which clearly states that I am exempt from diaper duty unless in a dire emergency and no other capable adult is present. I was granted the Grandpa Rule prior to birth and will hold all the other family members accountable for following the established guidelines.

With shorter flights, only a one-hour time zone change, and flight times that kind of fit Carter’s schedule, I expect we’ll make it OK and have five great family days on the beach. I am just like a little kid when I’m hanging with Carter. We jibber, talk baseball, politics, and financial planning matters. It is still a little early for college choices and continuing my earlier talk about “girls,” but we”ll have plenty of fun.

UPDATE: Carter slept all the way to Atlanta and has been a joy. Katybug got a little fuzzy so we hope she’ll sleep on the way to St Thomas. Shannon is a great Mom amd Chris and I. are just chillin’ We’re on vacation

Earn the miles, use the miles. This one is all miles and points. Four award tickets and five nights in two rooms at the resort on Starwood Preferred Guest points.

Mommy Points, if it doesn’t go well, can Shannon, Katybug, and I email for tips on the return trip? Thanks for all you do for family travelers. I’m back in your kiddie ballpark now and loving every minute.

And in the diversity of this blog, Andrew is reporting in from Madagascar and South Africa on Wednesday. I’ve seen some of the photos and read the posts. He is definitely in a different league than I am when it comes to going the route of the locals. I hope we can get all his photos in the next couple weeks. And he hasn’t even made it to his safari yet.

Diane

Sarah C. I loved your trip information. May of 2010 we took out 3 grown children and 1 sil to Maui. We stayed at Khana Village. We needed 3 bedrooms. Our cost wast 370.00 night. I just looked at their website and their 2 bedrooms run 260-390 if that helps you.
Anonymous

I don't mean to be a downer, and I hope you have a great vacation, but I just wonder what segment of the population pays the $350 rates.

I know the hotels want you to believe there rooms are worth $350 to $400 a night, but my valuation comes in closer to the Priceline average of $170. Would you actually pay that $350 or would you follow Rick's examples and go for the Priceline route?

For that matter what I would do is bid on any resort on Kauai, it should be possible to get the Marriott for around $120. Perfectly nice.

The Marriott on Maui is generally available on Priceline for similar rates, I have seen wins as low as $95. It's the only resort property in Wailea, so easy to target.

In my opinion the best use of Marriott points is on stays of 5 days where they give you the 5th night free. If you can do this in a major European capital you're really saving some dough.

-Nick
Anonymous

Sarah – great success story – thanks for sharing; Hawaii is a great destination and never seems to get old!

Now, for a favor to all reading – do you have any idea how many people reading do not have ALL the 3 letter airline city codes memorized?

I would guess most do not. I have no idea where OGG or TVC is. I do not know if a 22,000 mi redemption for that route is good or not. Please, can we be more open, less esoteric, and just spell out the cities? This is coming for a military guy who sees acronyms every day that most still do not know.

Thanks, Jason F.
Anonymous

Hi Diane, thanks for the info! I just looked up Kahana Village and realized that I stayed there on my first trip to Maui when I was 19. It was very nice, and would definitely be a great option to consider again. We've been staying at a small complex in Kihei that we really love these last couple of years. It's really reasonable ($165/nt + $10 extra per person for more than 2 adults) with a wonderful, direct ocean view. They do have 2-bedroom units there also for nearly the same price, but we've never booked our trip far enough in advance to get one of those!

Hi Nick, I do realize that the rooms are not necessarily worth $350 and if I were paying all cash for this vacation I would never book flights and stay in hotels where I would spend $5,800 – I would use Priceline along with a bunch of other sites and research to get a better deal. However, I do believe that a lot of people – probably people that wouldn't take the time to read a site such as this, which I'd imagine is a large segment of the population – would just pay the rack rate, so that's what I used to compare (I'm pretty sure that's what most people have used for these success stories). I feel like one of the points of these stories is to illustrate the cost savings of a vacation booked by doing a little hard work versus a vacation booked with no effort so that those of us who make the effort can clearly see that what we are doing has value and is worth the extra effort. I think you might be surprised by the amount of people that do go on vacation without taking the time to shop around and get a good deal.

I'm sorry about that, Jason – I don't have them all memorized either and I know it can be annoying. I certainly didn't do it to be secretive or anything. TVC = Traverse City, MI; OGG= Kahului, HI (Maui), LIH = Lihue, HI (Kauai).

Sarah C.
Travis

Nice break-down of the trip! After hearing about the Grand Hyatt Kauai, I'm hoping to make a trip there sometime as well. Hope you have a great stay again!
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My First Airline Trip with the "Frugal Travel Dude"

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