FlyerTalker

One other questions is: What kind of refund are you looking for? Fares can come with refundability in the form of airline credit or credit back to your form of payment. Just what kind of "refund" are you desiring? Recognize that the latter is often far more costly than the former. Like Zach, I rarely buy a fully refundable to payment type of fare. I've found that refunds to flight credit often work out just fine, and I can't think of when I wasn't able to use those credits at some point for other travel. Interestingly, I just bought some tickets on ANA for business travel from Asia. They offered two types of tickets - those that were refundable to airline credit and refundable to cash. The fare difference was only $75, so in this case I bought the one refundable to cash. Now the point to note is that you only got this option after digging into the buying process -- the option and pricing wasn't offered at the very start of the flight search. So remember: Effective air travel purchasing requires more than just simple point and click -- you can get search results quickly and you can get them economically, but rarely in the same time.

Be aware that Zipair is a very ala carte product. Though you can buy a "business class seat", you have everything else as an add-on charge. You want a meal...that's extra. You want to check a bag....extra. You want lounge access....extra. How about a blanket? Yep, extra. So by the time you add up everything, it's not that much of a bargain. Plus, you would now need to buy a completely separate ticket from Tokyo to China/Hong Kong (still not sure what you are trying to accomplish).

You really need to ask yourself about your choice of Hong Kong vs Beijing. Significant differences in both carrier options and pricing. Plus over 1200 miles apart. One other thing you need to be looking at is how pricing varies between the four coastal gateways - LAX, SFO, SEA and YVR. There is the most competition into LAX, but that doesn't always translate into the best pricing. For example, for a recent flight from Asia, it was significantly less expensive to fly into SEA rather than either SFO or LAX. In addition, you should look at connection routings through Seoul, Tokyo and Taipei. One other item of note: IMO, there is a significant service differential between the mainland Chinese carriers and other Asian airlines. By mainland, I mean Air China (NOT China Airlines, which is much different), China Southern, China Eastern, Hainan, and Shenzhen. OTOH, both China Airlines and EVA, from Taipei, are quite good. Same with JAL, ANA, Korean, Cathay and Singapore. So don't just be focused on price.

FWIW, there are lots of refundable fares out there to ATH and back from BOM or AUH. Might take a bit more looking than just a simple point and click, but air tickets should not be putting people off this trip. Anyone that wants advice, just ask.

Well, you could go to the LAX website and see. Or google maps. Or google earth. One man's "far walk" is another man's "short hop".

And I forgot to mention business class service on USA airlines. You might get your meal, you might get your drink. Heaven forbid that you would want a refill or something else during your flight, other than the minimum service requirement. And if you push the call button, either a) the crew develops instantaneous deafness or b) the glaring scorn will remind you to never do it again. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy Asian and Middle East carriers?

Yes, that's part of an interesting dynamic for business class service. There are airlines where the FAs are almost constantly roaming the cabin, and others where they await the call button and jump into action between scheduled services for meals and drinks. The move towards doors in business is, IMO, moving more service to "call button" dynamic. Guess the feeling is that if you have the door closed, you want to be left alone. The double bed config is probably my favorite business class seating when with Mrs FT. Enough so that I will take a positioning flight just to get them.

You were likely on a code-share flight. And you ALWAYS check in with the operating carrier. Who's airplane was it? Just because it has an LH flight number doesn't make it a Lufthansa flight. You don't specify the routing, so it's conjecture on my part. And it is only confusing if you don't follow the airline instructions which tell you where to check in.

Any pair in the center will be the best for couples. That is, if you want seating where the couple can interact and talk during the flight. But even there, you will have separation. Biggest question would be, do you want your side-table to be on your right or on your left? Personally, Mrs FT and I rarely take the two seats together. Much prefer the privacy of the single window seats, especially those closest to the window. Plus, you will be wanting to sleep on the way to LHR, so how much do you really need to be together? Now, put us in Q-Suites and it's a different story.

Not sure why you say "sister". Lufthansa and Air Canada have completely separate ownerships, unlike Lufthansa's ownership of Austrian, Brussels, Swiss, Edelweiss, Discover and Eurowings. Those are the sister companies of LH. Now, they are together in the same alliance, but that is far from being tied together. There isn't even a joint operating agreement.

Just how does using FlightEase make the "difficulty of getting there from Houston" any easier? In fact, it has the potential of making things even more difficult, as FE may have fewer options to get to DBV than buying directly from the airlines. And why do you think that the cruise will change its itinerary? Do you know something we don't?

Acceptable to whom? And in what ways are you asking "acceptable"?

KLM, BA, Virgin and Lufthansa do not fly non-stop between the USA and CDG. What you are seeing are code-shares on flights actually operated by Air France, American, Delta and United. Or you are seeing connections through AMS, LHR, FRA or MUC.

Don't forget one key word on that website (bolded for emphasis): "For your convenience, here are links to many of our air partners’ websites. " Which means that the list is not all-inclusive.

Bidding For Travel was a great resource for the original PL "name your price" process. Since then, both PL and Hotwire have gone to fixed pricing on opaque hotel listings. However, there is still an excellent resource for sussing out what hotels you are likely to get with a opaque choice. www.betterbidding.com Better was originally along the lines of BFT. However, with the change to PL, they shifted and are still relevant today.

Which is the reverse of coming FROM the TBIT to Delta.

Absolutely. In addition, passengers on the same cruise, flying from A to B, may have different flights from one another. Much depends on the inventory that Viking (or any cruiseline) has available to them for any particular flight and date. And FWIW, the inventory available is usually NOT the same as what you would find from the airline directly. The "low cost" carriers ARE scheduled airlines. Do not confuse them with charter operators.

That is an airside connector. You will be landside after passing through customs in TBIT. As such, you won't have access to that connector. Plus, you will have to take your checked bags landside to DL to have them checked for your next flight.

Then you will need to schlep the bags yourself. Hope you have plenty of cushion in your timing. If you miss your DL flight, you will be considered a no-show, and the fact that you were delayed out of PPT will mean nothing. Caveat emptor.

Replied to in the Oceania thread you posted.

Incorrect. It completely depends on both the airline and the specific fare basis of the ticket. You cannot make a blanket statement about miles, either that you always will or always won't. You discovered this for YOUR tickets.

At LAX, there are free luggage carts in the international customs-area baggage claim. You can easily take the carts out of TBIT, take a left at the street and walk to the DL terminal (T2/3). Interestingly, at SFO there is a charge for the carts inside customs - $6. Now, the important question....are you on two separate tickets from PPT to LAX to ???. If it is one ticket, and the bags are through checked, you can just drop them off after leaving the customs area.

You didn't stay "free". You stayed using an alternative currency. Those IHG points were a rebate, albeit not in dollars. Did you get an effective exchange rate for those points? Hopefully you got at least a half-cent per point value for using your points. 80,000 or less.

FWIW, Crystal used to regularly post that information for all of their cruises on the website. That is not back to full implementation. However, since they have only two ships, and the senior staff stays with the same ship, it's an easy task to find out who's who. Serenity will always one of two captains, of two hotel directors, of two cruise directors. Ditto for Symphony. And FWIW, most all of the staff also stay with the same ship. So you can come back and find much the same personnel (albeit with vacation shuffling) in all public facing functions.

FWIW, I never worry about staying near the cruise port. I first think "where would I just stay if I was in town for a day or two?" If that's anywhere reasonable for overall transport in the Airport to Hotel to Ship continuum, I go for it. Somehow, that overall distance works out about the same unless you go really out of your way. Like cruising out of Manhattan....pretty much everything is on the way from JFK or LGA, so no need to be on the west side by the terminal. Find the neighborhood you like and go from there.