This is where we are honeymooning

Yes, I realize that I am way behind on my last trip recap, but I just wanted to bring up a few tips for booking international flights on Delta Skymiles (or any program for that matter).

Amanda and I have decided to go to Mauritius on our honeymoon.  You probably haven’t heard of Mauritius, and that’s OK – I hadn’t heard about it until Amanda told me that she wanted to go there.  From the pictures it looks gorgeous, so I had no problem saying yes!

What I wasn’t sure about was how to get there and if we could afford it.  That actually became much easier when the points guy wrote about his trip to Mauritius this past summer and how he got there on Delta Skymiles.

Last weekend I spent a good 2-3 hours researching the trip and today I spent another 3 hours finalizing the plans and booking it with Delta over the phone.  I thought it would be fun to share the process.  If you want to book an aspirational award trip to an exotic location, follow these steps:

1. Amass some miles with a travel provider. This can be done by earning miles on flights, promotions or credit cards.  Credit cards are the easiest way to earn a lot of miles quickly, because you can only travel so many miles, but if you have reimbursable expenses with your employer, you can get a lot miles in a short period of time.
2. Make sure your credit card has a big signup bonus of 50k to 100k miles/points. I highly recommend getting a branded credit card for your airline of choice and/or getting the Chase Sapphire preferred credit card.
3. Understand the rules of getting “award” tickets on your airline and how much things cost.  Some airlines are very transparent with pricing – they have a single price that is easy to understand.  Delta has 3 levels of award tickets, ranging from low (25k miles domestic in coach) to high (380k miles international in business class).  They are also always trying to screw you out of miles. However, Delta partner airline award redemptions are always at the lowest level – SCORE.
4. Learn the partner airlines that share awards with your airline of choice.  Delta is in the Skyteam alliance – which means I can fly on airlines like Air France, KLM, Korean Air, Kenya Air and many, many more.  American is part of the OneWorld Alliance.  United and Continental are in the Star Alliance.  Each alliance has benefits and drawbacks.
5. Decide on your destination.  This may be the easy part, but there is a lot to consider.  For example, did you know that you can stop over on your way to your destination for as long as you like?  You can literally stay in Paris for nearly a full year before going to your final destination – all on one ticket!
6. Find out if there is space available in coach or business class on each flight.  This is more difficult than you may think, and I had to use expertflyer.com in order to find availability on Air France and Air Mauritius flights.
7. Figure out each segment that you want to fly for your trip and write them down on paper.  Traveling internationally, you can almost never book your entire flight on an airline’s website, because they are all on different inventory systems. With Delta, you can only book these awards on the phone, so it is important to write down each segment on paper.
8. Call your airline to book the flight.  Yes, you have to call them in order to get through to someone.  Tell them exactly what you want: “I need 2 tickets in business class and I am going to read you the flight numbers for you to enter into your system.”  It pays to be explicit, or else you will not get what you want. It took me 2 hours on the phone to book my flight, but it saved me a boatload of money this way (more on this below).
9. Check in on your flight status periodically to make sure nothing has changed. While flight schedules in the US usually don’t change much (until the day of, when everything is delayed), this may not be the case internationally.  Be careful that you don’t get screwed in the process.

I followed these rules and have been able to manufacture the honeymoon of our dreams that involves 6 nights in Mauritius, Oktoberfest in Munich, the Swiss Alps, Italian Alps, Mediterranean coastline and Paris.  2 tickets for 240,000 Delta Skymiles and $500 in taxes.

This may sound like a lot of money/miles to people, and by all means it is – you could get 10 round trip domestic tickets for this price.  But to put things in perspective, this ticket would cost $8,698 EACH if we paid full price.  The street value on 240k skymiles is only $2,400.  By my math, we saved $15,000 by following these rules – (not that we would have actually spent that on a trip).

The only way we could afford to go to Mauritius in first class is through award travel, and the only way I would have known to do this is by reading every travel blog I can get my hands on over the past year.

Reading really pays off.  Maybe it will for you too?  To get started, I recommend these blogs:

• View From The Wing
• One Mile at a Time
• The Points Guy

More to come as the time approaches.

How to Book a Dream Trip to Mauritius on Delta Skymiles is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Delta Business Class from JFK to PRG
Prague Day 1
Prague Day 2
Vienna Christmas Markets
Amsterdam
Delta Business Class from AMS to MSP

In October my brother told me he wanted to go on a “mileage run” to secure Platinum status.  Needing around 8,000 miles to make the next level, he had the option of flying a few times around the US or making up the miles in a single trip overseas.  Europe was the natural choice, and after some deliberation between locations in Europe, checking schedules and prices, we decided to fly into Prague for 3 nights, with a layover night in Amsterdam.

Since I already secured Platinum status for 2012 back in September, and I have amassed far too many Delta Skymiles than I can possibly spend in the short term, I decided to use my frequent flyer miles to book an award ticket in Business class.  This was my frist time in international business class, but after reading flight reviews from several aspirational travel bloggers, I had a good idea of what to expect.  I also knew the best way to spend my Delta Skypesos and receive a strong value.  I ended up getting my business class ticket for 100k skymiles on a ticket that had a $5,000 face value.  That’s 5 cents per mile, which is a very good value (you’ll have to trust me on that one).

Taking the cue from these travel bloggers, I have decided to document this trip in a format similar to what they use: break up the flights, hotels and cities into multiple posts to showcase each part.  This post focuses just on the flight, and ensuing posts will cover the cities visited.

After a 9 hour layover at New York’s JFK airport, we boarded the flight to Prague for an overnight flight that took off at 7 PM in the US and landed at 9 AM in Prague.  The first thing I noticed when I took my seat was the legroom.  There was significantly more legroom than any domestic flight you’ll see.  This is so that you can lay in your seat overnight (this particular seat was an older version that simply lets you recline at a 45 angle or so, but not lay down fully.  The seat also wasn’t long enough for my 6’2″ frame.

The seats on this plane were also fairly old by modern standards (not complaining, just pointing it out), but had a nice adjustable headrest that could be used to prop your head up before sleepy time.

The seats were definitely better than what you’d get in coach class, but from what I have read, they are not the best that Delta has to offer.  Again, I’m not complaining – just educating.

They also give a nice pillow, sturdy blanket and an amenity kit, which came in handy later in the flight.

After boarding we were given a pre flight drink option of champagne or orange juice.  I chose the Champagne of course.

We were also given a menu of the food options for the flight, and asked to give our order for dinner.

There were a lot of good looking options, but I decided on the beef tenderloin, because I love risotto.

Here is a look at the full menu

The Chilean Cabernet was quite tasty!

And here is what I ordered:

Started off with warm mixed nuts that hit the spot (I was getting hungry at this point)

The Crab and avocado appetizer was OK

The soup was very good

The salad was decent, but the sour cream and dill dressing was not my favorite

The beef tenderloin with risotto and broccoli stems was fantastic!  The risotto had an amazing flavor that was lightly sweet and savory. I have no idea what Gremolata is, but I am on a mission to find out.  The tenderloin was cooked perfectly, and the Bearnaise sauce was great on top of the beef and the broccoli.

I did not need dessert, but how can you turn down a handmade sundae?  I can’t think of a better way to end a sedentary day of travel than with a sundae.  It was as good as it looks.

About 45 minutes before the flight landed (and only 4 hours after dinner), I woke up and was asked if I wanted breakfast.  I wasn’t really hungry, but the description for the Omelet sounded good enough to try.

Good it was NOT.  It was probably one of the worst omelettes I have eaten and was just all around gross.  Fortunately, I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t really miss it.

Landing in Prague was easy, with Customs going very smoothly and baggage claim easy to navigate.

We found out that the best way to get to our hotel was to take a shuttle into the city center for around $6 total (that’s cheap)

Within an hour of landing, we were on our shuttle into the heart of Old Town Prague for the next chapter of our adventure!

4 Nights in Europe – Delta Business Class from JFK to PRG is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Have you donated yet?  http://mobro.co/jeffsauer

So far I have raised $466 to support Mens Health awareness.  I think I could do better, so please donate!

The Three Deep Brostaches have received $1,091 in donations, which is a good showing overall, but many individuals hardly raised any money.  So they grew out their mustaches in vain.  Not literally of course.

You learn a lot about yourself with a mustache.  I learned that mine grows in on each side of the lip, but there is a big gap in the middle.  How does yours come in?

http://mobro.co/jeffsauer

Mustache Update is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

It has since escalated to links of Tom Selleck, Ron Swanson, a mustache shaped wine opener, and a coffee mug tribute to the mustaches of the world.

All of this mustache attention is particularly funny to me, because I have always been convinced I can’t grow facial hair of any sort, let alone a third eyebrow.

This year I went all in to find the answer this question.  I committed to growing out a mustache in the name of charity by joining Movember.

The premise of Movember is simple: you grow out a mustache in the month of November and accept donations for your trouble.  The donations all go to mens health awareness, particularly cancers affecting men.

Even better, Three Deep is officially on board with employees participating in Movember, and many of the guys are growing out their mustaches as well. So I am learning about myself and raising money for a good cause without violating any presentability code at the office.

Who knows, maybe the mustache is a good look for me?  If you want to donate to the cause and help raise money and awareness for mens health issues, I encourage you to visit my Movember page at:

http://mobro.co/jeffsauer/d

I have fully committed to the cause, and even wore the 6 day beginnings of a stache to my engagement party this weekend. It takes a special woman to put up with the beginnings of a mustache, and if my future bride can put up with my attempt to grow one, she’s definitely a keeper!

You can visit that page to see updates on how my mustache is doing.  It’s already coming in better than I would have thought.

It’s not too late to join – you probably only need a few days to outpace my stache!

Once again, you can donate here: http://mobro.co/jeffsauer/d

The N in November is for Mustaches is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

It wasn’t until my first visit to DC in 2010 that I got a chance to visit Alexandria, and I soon realized that it was a beautiful town situated just outside of our nations capital.  Even better, a large section of the city known as Old Town is preserved from the original city settlement in the 1700′s.

During my weeklong stay in DC, Amanda and I spent the weekend in Old Town Alexandria at the gorgeous Hotel Monaco.  We booked this hotel using Jetsetter on a whim and we were not disappointed.  It was beautiful and in a perfect location.  Plus, we got a pretty good deal and nice room through the Jetsetter service.

The main reason for choosing Alexandria that weekend was a party that Amanda was invited to attend with her friends Paul and Amy.  It was a surprise party for Amy and she was very surprised!

In addition to the party, we had excellent meals at a Thai restaurant and the best nachos we’ve ever had at a restaurant called Jackson 20.  They were waffle cut fries with BBQ beef, cheese and horseradish sauce.  While it may sound weird, they were fantastic.

We also got to eat at my favorite hole in the wall restaurant, Bilbo Baggins.  Being a LOTR nerd, I had to go there when I visited in 2010.  It was so good that it warranted a return visit in 2011.  With their excellent beer choices and wood fired pizzas, I will probably go back every time I am in Alexandria from this point forward.

Most of the pictures below were taken along the harbor of the Potomac River.  I didn’t bring my camera along for much of the weekend due to laziness and 95 degree temperatures forcing me to pack as lightly as possible.  Still snapped some good photos, though, so enjoy!

A Weekend in Alexandria, VA is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Today I used it to log my run through Washington, DC as I meandered onto the national mall, ran around the Washington Monument over to the Capitol building and back.  The run was very refreshing in spite of the 80 degrees of humid air at 8:45 AM.  My only complaint was having to wait 45-60 seconds at intersections for cars to pass.

One of the cool new features on the app is that I can take photos along the way and they are automatically placed on my run map where they were taken.  Great way to remember the route.  Now I can share some of my more exotic runs with anyone who wants to see them (and even those of you who don’t care!)

Other than waiting for the stoplights (which added 5-10 minutes to the run), I made great time and enjoyed my route.  During my week in DC I am going to try and document a few more routes if they are interesting.

For you photo lovers, here are the rest of my sights along the way. There was an international themed food fare taking place on the mall as I ran by. Not a bad way to start off the day!

Morning Run Along the National Mall in Washington, DC is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

There is more to my affinity to the city than our nations history (although the history and monuments are appreciated).  My favorite part of the city is how accessible everything is and the great food.  Unlike New York and other metropolises, Washington DC has a rule where no buildings can be higher than 110 feet.  This means that there are no skyscrapers in town, which makes it easy to view monuments and history from great distances.

This building restriction makes the city accessible visually, while a great subway system makes it easy to get to just about anywhere in the city without much effort.  Anywhere you would want to visit (including Reagan Airport) is accessible from the metro system.

My favorite use of the metro system is to use it to get to many of the fantastic restaurants in DC.  For lack of a better term, I am a foodie, and DC is the ultimate town for foodies.  It is hard to find a bad place to eat in DC.

I plan on sharing some of my experiences this week on the blog, so stay tuned.  To whet the appetite, here are some photos from my previous travels.

Washington, DC for a Week is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Travel woes aside, it was a great time.   What were the travel woes?

• On Thursday I took a train from the Newark airport to Boston.  All was well until some thunderstorms and lightning started hitting the train and a train fell on the tracks knocking out power.  I got stuck on the train for 3 hours with no power and no timeline for recover.  Here’s what I tweeted at the time:
  
• Even worse, on my return Sunday I had a 11:30 AM flight that didn’t depart Boston until 10 PM.  I didn’t get home until after Midnight!  I am still so annoyed with this that I don’t even want to talk about it.

Highlights of the trip include walking to Google Cambridge for a meeting then drinks at the Meadhall, a cool gastro pub with over 100 beers on tap.  It was cool how they had the proper glasses for each beer and would only pour beers in glasses with the brewery name on it.

I got a lot of good photos of the Charles river on a sunny afternoon.  The light was just right to take some excellent harbor photos.

On Saturday Amber and I made an impromptu trip to Newport, RI in order to dodge the rainy weather in Boston and further north.  Newport is both beautiful and wealthy with some of the biggest houses I have ever seen, and a LOT of them .

That night we met up with Amanda and LaShara for dinner and enjoyed each others company.  We had a great brunch on Sunday before having to leave for the airport (wish I could have avoided that fiasco).

Overall, I wish the weather was better, but it was great to see good friends and finally make good on my promise to visit!  Managed to take some good photos too…

Boston and Newport, RI – New England Summer 2011 is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Writing has been difficult for me at times given my commitments as an agency owner, bodyguard, pool supply mogul, board member and myriad other things that fill my time.

See, two paragraphs in and I can already feel this post is turning into one of those types of posts.  I’m starting to annoy even myself.  This post wasn’t about that.

This post was about the thought of living abroad, which is actually tied to one of the goals I wrote down for myself in 2005.  I have always wanted to live abroad and learn another language, but once again I never thought it possible.

I’m still not sure how possible it is, but the notion has consumed my thoughts lately.  As my engagement approaches wedding, Amanda and I will need to make some decisions about where to live, work/life balance and more.  We both are very interested in the idea of living abroad at some point, and may take steps to make this happen.

Not that I have many readers left, but I was wondering if anyone has ever had this type of experience?  I asked my Facebook friends this question and got a resounding response that living abroad is a fantastic experience and everyone would gladly do it again.

That’s the type of experience I am looking for.  Going back to my roots in a sense.  Working remotely with clients, growing our business internationally, taking awesome vacations, writing more often, becoming a professional quality photographer and creating a photo blog.

I have no timeline for when we will do this (if at all) and no plans at this point.  It could be in 3 years, it could be in 10.  Heck, it could be in 20.

So what are your thoughts on packing up and moving abroad?   Would you choose the location and then move, or move wherever the wind takes you?  Would you keep your worldly possessions at home or sell everything and start over?

Living Abroad is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Jeff's Life to Date Travel Map

At some point in 2005 I wrote down a list of goals for myself.  Some were short term goals, and others were longer term.  Some were realistic, while others are a stretch.   One of the items I wrote down was to travel to all 6 continents (excluding Antarctica, which I still plan to travel to some day). As time went on, I started to champion this goal to my friends and family that I will travel to all 6 continents before turning 30 years old.  Not sure what the significance was for this 30 years old caveat at the time, but once I committed to it there was no turning back.

Even as recently as 2010 this goal looked to be unachievable.  I still needed to visit South America and Australia, and there didn’t seem to be enough time to do both with the clock ticking down on my 30th year of existence.

There is no way I would let that happen.  I would hit all 6 continents even if it meant quitting my job and joining the Peace Corps.

This March I made it to Australia and touched foot on my 6th continent.  After 6 years of reciting my continental goal to anyone to listen, it took me about 36 hours after setting foot on the soil of Sydney to even remember that I had achieved my goal.

I don’t find that all too hard to believe.  After years of planning all of the scenarios and destinations, reaching the end didn’t spark much more than checkmark on a list of achievements.  By the time I booked my flight I had already moved on to the next mission.

In fact, my Australia trip also planted the seeds for another item to be crossed off my list.  I proposed to my girlfriend Amanda shortly after arriving in Sydney, and we are now in the process of planning the wedding.  I am so excited to share the rest of our lives together.

Here is a small reflection of each of the continents.

North America in 1985

Africa in 2003

Asia in 2005

Europe in 2006 & 2007

South America in 2010

Australia 2011

Now I must go off to set and achieve the next goal!

Achieving a Goal: Traveling to 6 Continents before 30 is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0