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OK - I didn't understand that you sent in a direct message. I am a total neophyte when it comes to social media outside of places like CruiseCritic.

That's why our household policy is to have people without SENTRI or Global Entry passes cross by foot at Otay Mesa. Waiting in the normal or Ready Lanes is just crazy. My wife actually knows someone who wears a diaper when crossing by car at peak times. BTW - how long do you think it will take to fix the landslide on the road into Playas? At least the first toll into Rosarito is being waved for the time being...

I think you could hire a taxi for the day in the port. If you are willing to do a bit of research, you can tell them where you would like to go rather than being dragged around to their selections where they might get tips. Here is a good start: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g499403-Activities-c36-t132-Valle_de_Guadalupe_Ensenada_Municipality_Baja_California.html Some good suggestions for a first visit from the trip advisor list from my mind would include: 1 - good wine but a bit pricey 2 - I like the little lake for snacks and tasting, 9 - beautiful grounds and organic garden 10- downstairs tasting room 12 - one of the best views in Valle - much better than Decantos in my mind. I think LA Cetto is way overrated on the list and not worth a visit. Not on the first page, but I like this winery too: http://www.vinostresvalles.com/ You'll have fun regardless. Now all you have to do is figure out where to eat lunch!

What a shock! As you know, the Mexicans rarely inspect anyone crossing the border into Mexico by car. I wonder if the Mexican cameras are good enough to perform IDs when going through the gate. I am sure they can read the license plates at least. Crossing south into Mexico is like no other land border I have ever experienced. I guess the same holds true for coming north.

Those pesos are becoming increasing valuable these days. What the heck is that? If some vendor tried to charge me in US$ in Mexico, I would politely remind them that we are in Mexico and not the US. Sounds like a tourist scam to me.

The other Ensenada establishment that makes this claim is Hussong's Cantina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussong's I tend to support the Bar Andaluz claim just based on the feel of both. Hussong's can be good and loud to here Marachi although somewhat more at night. Interesting, I have never heard anyone referring to wine country as the "Calafia Valley." To me, Calafia is the name of an old resort complex south of Rosarito Beach. It was super fun way back when I was young including a pirate ship dance floor and cheap margaritas. I totally agree with this. I am a big fan of the whole corridor from Tijuana to Ensenada. It is such an escape from the norm of Southern California with lots to do and see. Just two weeks ago, we went to "Vinedos en Flor" (Vineyards in Bloom) and it was an amazing festival of local wine and food. The best think was that it was so laid back compared to something similar in the US - and a quite a bit cheaper as well.

This is true, but it can work out at times depending on what you are trying to do. I did exactly this earlier in the year to flying separately SAN to PHX to get a cheap business class ticket roundtrip to BER on BA. I ended up waiting 6+ hours in PHX for on my outbound journey to make sure I built in enough schedule padding with at least 3 backup flights available.

My brother and sister-in-law did exactly that as part of a scheduled trip to Mexico that coincided with their conditional approval. They did the interview at LAX and said the whole process was super quick.

My gut suggests that is because a phone call is in private and Twitter is in public. I will consider this as a future tactic to resolve an issue.

I can understand NEXUS taking longer as it is a joint program with Canada. My gut suggest the processing times for anything USCIS-related is being blown out longer and longer due to the craziness on the southern border and the workload that is creating. BTW - SENTRI became a less worthwhile program as it does not automatically include Global Entry benefits and Global Entry users can now register cars for crossing into Mexico. The only time SENTRI works out is if you are applying as a family with kids and then it can be cheaper. Once you get SENTRI, you need to get another appointment to get Global Entry benefits added to your SENTRI card for air travel. Next time I will simply reapply under Global Entry and save money (SENTRI is more expensive) and hassle.

Sometimes it is better to call and have an agent assist you with the booking as was suggested earlier. Tell them what you are trying to accomplish and then see what they can do. They will see things not available on the web at times when it comes to partner awards. If it doesn't work out, call back and speak to another agent. Use the callback option as the hold times can be really, really long on American these days unless you have super high status.

While I am not 100% sure what you are saying, I might buy one round trip ticket with miles and the other with cash. For some reason, most airlines price tickets for international travel much cheaper on a round trip basis than one way from what I have seen. This is not the case for domestic US flights nor is it the same for reward travel which seems to be booked by the leg. I would try and secure the reward ticket and then get the same flights paying cash - just an idea. The "best seats" in coach are either paid for extra or reserved for an airline's frequent flyers who have some elite status. In terms of being "too long" in economy, I flew JFK to EZE (Buenos Aires) both way this past March which is about an 11 hour flight and I am 6'3". I had a "more room" seat, but it still isn't too much different in comfort if you are under 6'. The difference between PE and regular economy is more about seat pitch, width and recline. You also get somewhat - although not much - better service. They are also fewer seats per row and this makes it easier to get in and out of your seat to stretch your legs. I can't really say how much better PE is than economy, but it's probably a better value if one is either big and/or tall. I agree with exit row comment and depending on the particular row, the leg room can be really good at the expense of a narrower seat. I also agree with the aisle seat comment. I like the inside isle in economy class on most wide body aircraft as you won't have to get up as much to let other people out as you would when sitting on the side of the isle where a window exists. The exception here is for some of the bulkhead seats which are better on the window side. Look at seatmaps.com for more information regarding AA aircraft cabin layouts. Just some ideas for you to consider...

Not really, the real QF said the ticket was invalid after the scammer took it over. The ticket doesn't even exist anymore and no service can be delivered. This is true. There charge on my bill says Qantas - probably not the real legal name in the US - and the detailed listing for the transaction on my account includes a website link that takes you to the QF website. The dispute is supposed to be finalized by August 11th and if it does not go in my favor I will definitely shut down my account with Citi.

I think you'll be able to accomplish this. Just book the tickets at the same time and you should be able to work it out. If the website doesn't work, I will bet someone in their call center will help you out if you explain the situation.

To me the time difference between locations is probably the most significant factor - at least for me - in terms of experiencing jet lag. However the # of hours difference between Sydney and Atlanta changes throughout the year because of daylight savings time and the fact that the cities are on different sides of the equator. The time difference can be as much as 10 hours and as few as 8 hours. The shorter time change is during the US winter which coincides with many cruises from Australia to New Zealand. Here is a webpage that helps you determine the time change for your specific travel dates: http://en.timeofdate.com/time/diff/Australia/Sydney/with/United States/Atlanta

AA permits booking up to 331 days in advance. While it is still too early for you to book, flights at the limit of the booking time window are 40k and $109.00 in premium economy right to Barcelona. The return from FCO is 49k and $56.00 per ticket. Personally I think you can find yourself a deal if you are a bit flexible on routing and dates. Since AA also permits you to cancel reward reservation at anytime without penalty, I might consider locking something in early and then see if you can beat your deal over time. As an example, below is a screen print of the "search by calendar" function for reward ticket availability for your proposed outbound leg by for schedulable dates in May. Good luck booking your tickets!

Well, I am a long time AA flyer too and my head just wasn't in the right place talking to the people. They were good including fake transfers between QF and AA agents. I have filed a dispute. I cannot receive service as the ticket doesn't exist. I actually had reward tickets issued by AA and then the scammers actually destroyed it trying to convert a reward ticket into a paid ticket as part of their seat assignment ploy. Yes, it would have been incredible showing up at the airport without a real ticket and needing to buy something at the last minute. Yes, that is basically correct. However the dispute has not been adjudicated as far as I know. If it goes against me, I will appeal the decision as I only had 500 characters to write the explanation of what happened. It is impossible for the scammers to deliver service as AA rescinded the original ticket, reinstated my miles and then reissued a completely new ticket.

I also liked Kuranda on a previous visit. We did the gondola up and the train coming back down. It was a very enjoyable excursion.

On the return you will go through immigration at LAX and then pickup your bags to go through customs. After customs you will find a bag recheck area to put your bags onto your flight to Charlotte. After that you'll need to reenter the departure area and go through airport security once again. The time really depends on how crowded the airport is when you arrive. I would think a couple of hours should be sufficient. It also may be airline dependent. My gut suggests you are on American and/or QANTAS and American. Is this correct? Moderators - this should probably be on the "cruise air" board.

Sadly it is one of the few numbers that I remember and it has been with me for a long time. I guess only my SSN and Drivers License numbers are older. True - I'll make that change as well as nothing lasts forever.

I called AA and the only way to protect my miles is to change my FF number to something else. I am deciding whether or not to do that as well.

Thanks to all that have responded with both advice and words of support! I think without this group's support the outcome and financial loss could have been worse. It was really @BOB999's comment about the phone that caused me to go back and look again. I have opened the dispute with my credit card company. I am not optimistic, but you never know. The original reservation certainly doesn't exist now so it is impossible for any service to be delivered. I will consider the suggestion of putting a PIN on my AA account. I am also thinking about changing my credit card number. I looked up the number associated with my credit card charge and here is what I found: https://www.scampulse.com/fly-vault-deals-reviews https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/houston/profile/travel-agency/fly-vault-travels-0915-90065162/customer-reviews The good news is that I now have everything confirmed for my trip. I also decided to change my credit card # just to be sure.

So I just got off the phone first with QF, my credit card company and then finally AA. QF told me that the ticket I had was now invalid and/or awaiting payment as my original reservation was taken over by the scammers. The net effect of this is that I had no flight home from my cruise. That would have been a real shocker to show up at the airport or discover at check-in time that my reservation was garbage. Next in talking with the credit card company I discovered that I didn't have any way of getting my money back as I had provided consent via an email. This was my key error in terms of responding to the fake email and not seeing that the underlying email domain wasn't right. So dumb... Finally I called American and was able to cancel my first reservation that got hijacked and get the miles reinstated along with booking a very similar award ticket. This included getting my seats reserved via the agent at no additional cost. The American representative really went out of their way for me in getting the whole process of cancelling and rebooking handled. In hindsight, I should have recognized that the process was unlike any other airline call center experience I have ever had and that my award tickets are never result in a standby ticket. What was I thinking? Not much obviously... Finally, I want to thank everyone this board for questioning what was going on with my ticket. This led me to finally discovering the fact that I had been duped by scammers. I must confess as to feeling embarrassed by the whole episode but I suppose it could have been worse - like showing up at the airport and not being able to check in. Hopefully at least one person here can learn something from my very hard lesson.

OMG - you are right. I got scammed by looking up the # on the web. I am glad I will have time to fix this. I may be out the money and maybe the miles. Now it is time to start trying to recover... First time something like this has ever happened to me...

This is an interesting question and I have seen it discussed by people sailing their own boats in the Med. Another place you might consider for an extended stay is Turkey which probably checks off at least some of your boxes. You can get a Turkish visa on arrival or online. Another alternative is to simply to stay under the 90 day limit if you can find some cruises that you like. Another idea would be to go at least one way on the Queen Mary 2 which does transatlantic crossings frequently - even though this results in leaving the Schengen zone too.