I’ve been in a job where I’ve traveled basically weekly – at least 45 weeks a year – for work. Rarely get work from home weeks so when I get them, they’re a blessing. I get my alone time during the travel week and then spend time with my Boo when I am at home. Well ever since I hit my Million Miler on Alaska Airlines, things have…changed.
My client ran out of money, but not out of project. So they decided to keep me on, but in order to save money, decided that I needed to work from home 100% of the time.
Yeah, excited, I wasn’t.
So I’ve been home since the week of Christmas, working in my jammies, going to the kitchen whenever I wanted to and not needed to, and trying not to get on my husband’s nerves. Luckily he travels from time to time, too. And the thing is, I kinda like it. Not that I want to stop traveling. Hells no. Hopefully, once the client re-funds the project I’m on, travel will start up again. But for now, I’m enjoying the time at home.
Which brings me to my issue. See, we’ve gone on vacation for the last three decades using either mine or my husband’s points – never having to pay for airfare or hotel. Just drinks and food, thank you. We were scheduled to go back to Puerto Rico for vacation this August, because we’ve been away too long, and Puerto Rico deserves the tourism. It’s such a wonderful, warm, beautiful spot. Only thing is, in order to get the tickets in first class (the ONLY way to fly), I had to book several one-way flights. So PDX-DFW-PDX was fine. But between DFW, MIA, and SJU, those were all one-way flights. And on Saturday, American decided to change their schedule and screwed EVERYTHING up. None of the flights would work anymore.
So hotel and flights get canceled, and we decided since the husband is changing jobs soon ::knock wood:: that we’d just use some pre-paid points at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. Yes, it was kind of a timeshare. Shut up. The guy who sold it to us looked like a Latino George Clooney. So sue me. Anyway, our vacation changed on a dime, because of one little schedule change.
Airlines are making it SO much harder to use their points these days. The whole reason for the one-way tickets was to fly first class. It works most of the time. But that is until the airline drops a deuce in the middle of your best-laid plans.
So keep being creative out there with your points and get out and see the world. Just be mindful, and have a backup plan if the need arises!
Bummer to hear that you’ve been grounded for so long! That’s gotta be quite the lifestyle change after doing it 45 weeks a year (year after year). Maybe it’s time for a new job? lol
And I hear you about the dangers of stringing together multiple one-way itineraries into one trip. That’s the only way I travel now (can save a lot of money / points that way), but…it does backfire every now and then and things get messy.
That’s why I always try to build in a lot of wiggle room between flights – at least 3 hours of layover time (if possible). Sometimes it works. sometimes it doesn’t…