Panama Update #40
August 29, 2008
I received an email from NW Airlines today about a special they are having. Normally I just delete those ads, but I decided to open it. They said that you can use your miles to get good deals to many cities, the usual thing. Just for the fun of it, I put in the trip to Houston to see what kind of a deal it would spit out. Nikki is going there for a conference from Oct. 2-10 and I had been trying to find a ticket, but the lowest I could find was for something like $900. Last week I ended up buying a ticket to Miami for a weekend (Oct. 2-5) for a pretty good price. I bought that ticket because for my tourist visa I have to leave the country every 90 days.
The NW website said that by cashing in 35,000 miles, I could go to Houston for free. I couldn't believe it, after all that. The airlines are a mess to try to work with. My Miami ticket couldn't be refunded so I thought that I may as well keep that. So I plugged in Oct. 6-10 in Houston and it gave it to me again for free. I decided to buy it on the spot because with the airlines, who knows. The next time I put it in it may not give it to me. So now I will be flying to Miami (3 hour flight) for 3 days, coming back to Panama for a day, then flying to Houston (4 hour flight) for four days. Nikki and I will be able to spend Yom Kippur together and I can tour some Museums and other things in downtown Houston while she is at the conference. It may sound crazy, but it will also be a change of pace for a week and a break from Panama.
So it looks like I have decided not to go to Minneapolis next week after all (at least that is my decision for today). If I travel anywhere while Nikki is gone for the next two weeks I will do a shorter local trip, probably more at the last minute.
