happy cruzer

Yes, I am about 2 months from getting my AA miles on the Citi AAdvantage card. The option of using them on FinnAir looks pretty good. Love seeing all the options everyone is posting.

Ticket is purchased. AA RTW was great; got flights that did not show in the OneWorld tool. Got the flights that Gardyloo recommended. All in for less than 12,000 business class for 2. I be back bugging everyone for recommendations for dfw to osl in Aug. 🙂

Planning on using the same combination of Chase Sapphire and GeoBlue Trekker, when should we buy the GeoBlue Trekker policy? We already have a deposit on the cruise and will buy airfare soon but the trip starts in Aug of this year. Also if your US medical insurance provider changes during the travel period does it affect the GeoBlue Trekker policy in anyway. One of us may go from a private policy to Medicare during the time. Thanks to Steve and all the other great poster for being a great resource.

Points well taken and will be pursued when I call in to AA. Have been caught up in the credit card stuff. The Citi AAdvantage was approved but needed to see the terms and conditions in writing. Took over a week to arrive in snail mail. No mention of miles bonus. Called and they will now send that seperately via snail mail. FYI (many may know this already) the new cards typically come with a fairly low limit about 13500. So purchasing the RTW tickets may be difficult. Then I pursued the Sapphire Preferred card thinking I would get that bonus on a card with a higher credit limit. We have a sapphire card (very old and nice high limit) which I am the authorized user on per the first call to Chase. Applied for Preferred and was denied. Called the reconsideration line and told I was denied because I am a Secondary card holder not the same as authorized card holder. No way to drop off the sapphire card, would have to cancel that card totally, reapply which would possibly lower our credit limit, take 30 days, etc. Tooooo much hassle. So getting close to resolving cc issues, to start the RTW ticket purchase. So we will stay with our current cards plus the new Citi AAdvantage for the bonus miles. More later.

Yes, we will be allowing a full day for travel time that include the time traveling and the hotel check in/out. Only 2 full days in each city with have to suffice.

Yes, you are correct about Toledo, Segovia and El Escoral. We did all 3 many years ago on a road trip around Europe - 18 castles, 17 churches in 21 days.... It was fantastic and got us hooked. Would visit again if there is time.

Time, Finances, and Resources Time - we have two weeks (one of us is still employed with limited vacation time) to spend on the Europe sections. Either Aug 24 to Sep 8 or the start Aug 31. Note the Aug 24 to Aug 27 part is on our nickel to get to Oslo. Finances - still employed. Fairly low priority to save bucks. The great ideas of using cheaper econ flights will matter in 2 years. HA! Resources - We are slowing down. Like to spend 4 to 6 hours touring then a nice meal. A few days can be longer. So maybe we change the order of our itinarary? Right now we plan to have two day in Oslo, two day in Prague, train to Vienna, 2 days in Vienna, train to Budapest, 2 days in Budapest, fly to Madrid, two days in Madrid. Ideas to improve?

Check out the Cruise Air board. There is some interesting discussions over there. You might want to look at a Round The World ticket. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/77-cruise-air/ And do look at the Celebrity pricing as well. We have found good international rates. But remember that Celebrity will be in the loop if there are changes or refunds after ticketing. That was an issue for us. We booked the air about 1 year out, then when we flew there was an delay that caused a downgrade in the ticket and a refund. The airline refunded the payer of the ticket i.e. Celebrity. It look month to get Celebrity to issue us the refund. Still would use them for significant savings.

OK, I will call AA this coming week. But before maybe I can have a bit more knowledge? How do you get seat assignment in business class (how to easily check seat configuration)? Here is the RTW Segments of note: osl prg 27/aug/2024 BA763/BA860 BUD MAD 05/sept/2024 ID32914 MAD DFW 08/sept/2024 IB6149 (AA only shows econ) three US trips dfw tyo 22/feb/2025 JL 11 TYO SIN 26/feb/205 JL35 HKF OSL 16/Mar/2025 AY100/AY911 Any ideas of options? Thanks.

You may want to look again at Gardyloo's advice. At first the RTW or Circle tickets look complicated, put a little work and practice yielded great options. I spent a few hours seeing how the RTW ticket works and now I am a believer!

So glad to see your post! We are getting ready to book a ticket as well. We have one segment showing in the ONEworld tool for 21 Feb 2025 DFW to TYO which we want a time later than 6pm departure but the tool only shows early in the day departures. Otherwise we could purchase in the one world tool. Any ideas on which is better? Call AA's desk or book in oneworld tool? Thanks.

We are Back! We loved Sky Reef. The taxi fee was posted and was $16 one way. Easy! They did try to get us to get the package rate, just said we wanted a short quiet stay and kept walking. They need tried to get us to buy anything after that. Great! Good chairs. Great view and snorkling from the stairs on the beach! Our new favorite. Thanks for the information from everyone!

The FAQ just says bottle. Does that mean plastic bottles are OK? Thanks.

Thanks for coming back to report. Being one of the nasty people who suggested that insurance could help you out, would like to know how you were satisfied. Did you get an actual refund, more over offer or future credit?? Hope you have many future adventures and continue with your early adopter ways. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the report. We are pretty weak swimmers. Is it possible to stand every once in awhile or is it all coral on the bottom? Did it get crowded? Thanks!

Hope someone can share what they have done in the past or what they think is a good plan. Looking at booking a Oneworld RTW ticket. It will start and end in Oslo. We will pay seperately for transport to and from the US (may self insure this part). So one trip from the US will be in the summer for about 3 weeks in Europe, there will be two US trips in summer, then next spring a trip of about 1 month that will include a two week cruise. Pretty sure that we want to use GeoBlue annual policy for medical part. Any ideas for travel insurance. Typically we are fine with our Credit Cards coverage, not perfect but good enough. What I don't understand is how to cover the RTW ticket, it is a one time charge but there could be travel delays on multipule segments of the ticket. Is there a way to cover these delays? Also the cruise will be paid by a credit card that may not be the one used to buy the RTW ticket. Does that normally cause an issue if somehow the flight delay causes the cruise to be missed? Any experience or ideas? Thank you.

Helpful information. OP's scenario is that the first cruise was cancelled. At that point, if they had the platinum policy with CFAR, they could have cancelled the entire trip. Probably losing prepaid items in their Madrid trip (might those have been covered by the credit card that they paid with?). They also had the option of flying on their ticket (either the first one or the second more expensive one) and doing a land trip at their expense as you noted. If they had flown out on a ticket purchased by Princess then the platinum policy would cover trip interruption costs when a cruise is cancelled?? Those costs would have to be filed for and approved which can take months. I agree Princess will probably never make them whole on the business class airfare or prepaid items in their Madrid trip. I might would try for the move over offer or OBC but getting a cash refund is very rare. Thanks for sharing your view on the insurance. I have an upcoming expensive trip that I trying to determine how to insure (no policy covers everything 🙂 )

Just read the Dec 2022 review of Chankanaab park. We were there about 25 years ago. So newer info is needed. HA! We want to go back in a month. Only two of us. Probably do a taxi. The park. Need two shaded chairs. Will have our own snorkel gear to snorkel from beach. No food or drinks needed. Restroom and shower to get sand off feet. So the questions are - do we need to make any reservations? Approximate costs? Does it ever get so crowded that chairs are hard to come by, if so is there a plan B once you get there? Are the taxis easy to do coming and going. All advice appreciated. Thanks.

Please report how it goes with the corkage fee. Since the wines by the glass are ordinary we usually carry on wine. If they do not charge a corkage fee when you have a package that is a pretty good value.

Good question. We typically do the free upgrade to Princess platinum. Hopefully op has that policy. it is tricky in that sometimes they want you to travel at a certain time and cruisers decide to do a different option. And it only covers things booked through Princess. Credit cards often have some travel insurance.

Just WOW! Thank you for the responses. I've read them many times and each time see a new item of interest. In the past we have always done a credit card for the cash back feature. And been an AAdvantage member (but no status at this time) because of business funded travel out of DFW. So at this time we are most comfortable with AA but starting to explore the options using their partners. The two Citi cards that I mentioned in the original post are offering 70000 mile bonus at this time as well as extra miles for AA purchases. That is why they moved to the top of my list. And I believe that as long as you have the card the miles do not expire and if the card is cancelled the miles do not expire for two years. The drawback for cards that get miles for us has always been the getting to the award levels, limits on award ticket availability, and mile expiration dates. Did the Barclay's AA card for one year to get the AA miles then cancelled it one year ago. Looking at the terms for the Citi cards that does not seem to be a problem. Just trying to make a good plan and avoiding a big mistake. Again thanks for all the very useful advice.

Hello, Thanks to all the excellent info on the USA to Singapore thread (special shoutout to Gardyloo) we are looking at booking a Oneworld RTW ticket (business class). Lots of information out there. So our interest started because we were planning a trip to Madrid in the fall and an cruise March 2025 that starts in Singapore and ends in Hong Kong. Our home airport is DFW. Played with the Oneworld tool to see what the options are. Of course our plans are getting more ambitious :). It looks feasible to start in Oslo for the Europe part of the trip, then do a US part in the middle, then the Asian part and finally end in Oslo. I am sure to need to do much more detailed planning in the next two month. But what seems to be important now (so we have the card to use to purchase the flights) is to apply for a credit card that gets miles (AA seems to be the most usful). So looking at the AA site, they are currently offering Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite and Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite. Anyone care to share an opinion on which credit card to pick? We are leaning toward the Executive because of the Admiral's Club access, credit for Global Entry, and the extra mile awards. But if purchasing the business class RTW get lounge access, then it really comes down to value of the miles. We have not booked with miles very often so have a hard time determining the value. Advice? Sorry, if this question is vague, getting started on the learning curve.

Did you purchase airfare? Did the price on that change? Sometimes if the airfare has gone way up in price and cruise price drops, your bottom line is about the same which may take some of the sting out. Have a great cruise!

Thanks GeezerCouple. I do read the Cruise travel insurance page. It has helped me a lot. That's how I found that my credit card generally has enough for my travel insurance. And I do supplement my medical coverage for trips depending on the trip difference. I was curious about coverage for flight ticket that is paid for as one unit and extends for 365 days. If no one responds here, I definitely will ask on the other page. Also thanks for saying double check. The 60 day limit was for trip cancellation/interruption. The credit card does cover trip delay for 365 days, at a low limit of coverage but probably good enough. Are we having fun yet 🙂 ? All good.

Thank you the post about RTW tickets. I have been looking at the OneWorld option and it seems to meet my needs. Any pointers about travel insurance for the flights? I normally use my credit card for air travel insurance; it's good enough normally. But it excludes travel over 60 days. So I think that means on ticket purchased for travel over 365 day would be excluded. Also when you are traveling and need to make a change, who do you contact? Oneworld or the individual airline? Again thanks and I am doing my research but thought you might could point me the right way based on your experience.