Trunkabella

Thanks to everyone for the great advice. I’ll start opening accounts so that they are ready to receive the transfers if/when I find flights.

Thanks, GC. I will read the FT thread.

Buggins, I am planning early for a trip to Australia/NZ in 2020. It will be a land trip. I am asking questions on Cruise Critic because I respect the knowledge of many of the frequent posters on this board. I’ve learned a lot “lurking” on this site.

I am hoping that some of you can help with advice for obtaining flights with award points.

My first question relates to companies that offer to find flights using award points for a fee.

1. Have you used them and were they able to find flights that were satisfactory in terms of flight times, points required and the fees charged?

2. Are there companies that you would recommend, or conversely, those that should be avoided?

3. If you use their services, will they work with you over a period of time? For example, if you contact them as soon as the flight booking window opens, are you obligated to take whatever they come up with? Or, can you decide that you would like to wait a few months to see if saver seats become available?

My second question relates to Chase Sapphire. Both my husband and I have accumulated a number of Ultimate Rewards points. I only have a frequent flyer account with United. Should I open an account with all of the transfer partner airlines so as to be able to jump on award seats, or is that not necessary?

Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge and advice.

My husband and I had the middle seats in the business cabin last year. We both found the seats/beds to be very comfortable. We also found the entertainment options to be better than most airlines. We would definitely fly the Air Canada 787 again, even if it meant going a little out of our way to do so.

You are mistaken. The 787 has lieflat seats in business class on the both the -8 and -9 variants with Air Canada.

I was responding to the posters question as to whether the seats were lie flat. I said “If it wasn’t completely flat, I would be very surprised”. How am I mistaken?

Hello again.

 

Have you taken your trip on the AC 787-900 "business class" yet?

 

If so, how was it?

 

We are now planning to take it long-haul (~11 hours) next year.

 

We've since been on our trip to Japan, and we know that we were *totally* spoiled, with F in JL and CX. What an experience!

But that was to be our "Trip Of A Lifetime", and it definitely fit that title. We spent a fortune, and it was so very worth it. It's been a few months now, but we still comment several times a week about "... remember when we were at...?"

But we are trying very hard not to have that affect our expectations (yeah, good luck with that, eh? ;) )

 

So on the "900", were the beds horizontal? And more importantly (for us, anyway), were they truly *flat*?

 

Any other comments so we can have reasonable expectations?

There aren't many other good choices for routing without inconvenient connections or such.

 

Many thanks.

 

GC

DH and I did two segments on this plane in May/June. If it wasn’t completely flat, I would be very surprised. Both legs were extremely comfortable. I would go out if my way to fly in this plane again.

I abandoned that before I did much traveling and switched over to a Gateway Healthsmart rollator which is fairly light and folds side-to-side (rather than front to back). I've been able to travel on Amtrak with it and on cruises as well.

 

Cooncat_mom, not to derail this thread, but are you able to bring this rollator on the plane with you, or do you have to check it?

In Spain mobility aids are normally sold in specialist shops, but are not as common as in the US or U.K.

 

I would definitely take one with you and also order Special Assistance for your mother with the airline. In Barcelona it can be a long walk from the plane.

 

Barcelona is one of the most disabled friendly city in Europe. I have limited mobility and use a mobility scooter and hardly ever have a problem in Spain.

 

 

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Thanks, LondonTowner. You have confirmed my suspicion that this will be more difficult than it is in the US. Looks like we'll be bringing the rollator with us.

Thanks to all for your suggestions. We planned to leave the rollator at our hotel at the end of our trip, hopefully to be donated to someone who might be able to use it.

I had considered Amazon, but I am not that confident about navigating the Amazon Spain site. I may pursue this route anyway.

My mother and I are embarking on a cruise in Barcelona in September. We are arriving the day before embarkation and would like to purchase a light-weight rollator (walker with 4 wheels and a seat) in Barcelona to avoid having to deal with it on our flight from the US. I have asked our hotel concierge for a medical supply store referral, but the information they sent to me was not helpful. Does anyone have experience or suggestions that might help?

We were on the NYC to Montreal cruise in October of last year. We enjoyed all of the US ports. Of the Canadian ports, we thoroughly enjoyed Halifax (the Maritime Museum is excellent) and Quebec City. The included excursions in the rest of the Canadian ports (Charlottetown, Gaspe and Saguenay) were not that interesting to us. Our excursions in these ports were mostly long bus rides. If you are physically fit, I believe that there may have been better excursions offered, but we were not able to take advantage of the active excursions. All said, though, we did like this cruise and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Thanks for the information, swansong. I appreciate the follow up. I think that we may try to get a day room at an airport hotel.

Thank you for your review of the cruise, also. We are very much looking forward to our departure. Safe onward travels!

Thank you, nic. We are on Regent. They generally do not list excursions for disembarkation day, but sometimes add one if there is enough demand. I've posed the question on the Regent board. There is currently a cruise in progress with the same itinerary.

Thanks, nic. We have sent an email to our cruise line but have yet to receive a response. We don't want to have to drag our luggage to Old Montreal to get on a larger group tour. We'll keep working on options.

Swansong, we will be on the October 11 departure for this cruise. Do you know if Regent is offering a Montreal city tour with airport drop off to departing passengers with later flights?

We are disembarking on October 21 and our flight does not leave until 4:25 pm. Can anyone suggest a company that would pick us up at the port, provide a half day tour and drop us at the airport?

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm going to try to do carry on only!

If anything we definitely learned (and are still learning) to avoid Air Berlin at all costs! (will be posting separately about the nightmare we are enduring with them and why to avoid).

We leave on an Airberlin flight in two weeks. I am very interested in the problems you experienced.

We were on this extension (post-cruise) a few years ago. There is a lot of walking. There are a few sites with many stairs, but you can always elect to stay outside and wait for those participating. We also had the opportunity for a hot air balloon, which would be difficult for those with mobility issues.

My pet peeve is people wearing backpacks, turning in the aisle and smacking me in the head with said backpack. Rarely if ever an apology.

Hi, all. My husband and I will be boarding our first Oceania cruise on the Nautica this week. We are in a PH3 and our documents state that we may embark at 11 am. Will our suite be available at this time, or will we likely have to wait to access it? We are trying to decide whether it would be better to leave our luggage at pur hotel, tour Lisbon and arrive at the ship later in the day. Thanks in advance for any advice.