the mice

OK.  And any comment on when to order the Uber?  Before getting on the shuttle to LAX-it, on the shuttle or when?  (remember this is all new to me).  TIA.

9 minutes ago, scottca075 said:

 

Very easy to find your ride and I'd ask the driver to drive through In-N-Out Burger at LAX.

You mean ask the Uber driver to stop there?  I thought no food in the car is the usual thing in rideshares.

OK, thanks to both of you.

Now, since I have never used Uber, do I go to the LAX-it lot and then order or before that?

I've seen photos - is it easy to find your ride?  This would be around 8:30 or 9pm (DH may want to stop to eat first) on a Tuesday (Halloween) night.

Thank you.

Our flight will come into Terminal 6.   Looks like it is a good walk to LAX-it from there.   Not sure DH will be able to pull luggage.  He also has cranky knees so would be wearing his off-loader braces.  We haven't schlepped luggage a half mile on sidewalks in a long time.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this?   I heard one can get a taxi near Terminal 7.  Is this so?  Any idea of the price to SM?    BTW, for cost comparison, my standard sedan car rental from Tues night to Fri drop off in San Pedro is $ only153 + fuel with unlimited mileage.

1 minute ago, princeton123211 said:

You still might come out ahead cost wise overall. The other thing to consider is that Santa Monica is so walkable (as opposed to other places) so you certainly don't need a car to do anything within Santa Monica. 

Thanks.  I was looking at Google street view yesterday and realized that.  

DH is a car fanatic (beyond enthusiast, at least in my book 😁),  How much time would you recommend at the Peterson?

Do you think we could Uber to the Peterson and from there to the Getty Center and then back to SM hotel?  Or not the best idea?

5 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

just don't rent a car at all and Uber to Santa Monica on arrival and then Uber back and forth to the Petersen the day you want to visit. You'll save money that way vs paying for parking nightly at your hotel, paying for parking at the Petersen, gas, and rental costs. No sense renting a car just to do a quick trip to the Petersen and no stress having to drive. 

Thanks for this suggestion.  I haven't yet asked DH is there's anything else he'd like to do.  I was thinking possibly Getty Center, which was recommended to me.  

7 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

one way rentals like this can come with significant fees that might not be immediately apparent since you wouldnt be picking up and dropping off at LAX.

That's not an issue with my corporate retiree rate, apparently.  (one of the few benefits of being retired from this company - they've significantly changed a lot of the others 🤨)

Thanks for answering so quickly.

Seeking some advice here since I've never used Uber or Lyft.  Have both apps set up on my phone ready to go and have read how to use them. 

I have several options, so trying to figure which might be best.

Trip details:

We arrive in LAX on Alaska Air around 8:15 on Tuesday October 31 (Halloween),    We depart on our Oceania cruise out of San Pedro on Friday, November 3.

Have a hotel booked in Santa Monica for 3 nights (Tues-Thur) and another booking for just 1 night Thur at Crowne Plaza San Pedro.

Hotel in Santa Monica charges something like $65 a night for parking and another "resort" fee (using points for booking so these are add-ons)     

Husband wants to see the Peterson Automotive Museum.  Everything else is flexible.  Even though we haven't been in the LA area since 1987 (yikes!), it's basically just some chill time as he's recovering from a severe hand injury.  He's better, but still has some limited use of 2 fingers on his dominant hand  so not lugging stuff around is a moderate concern.  We plan to travel light (hopefully just 2 carry on size bags and 2 personal size totes - ship has 5 self-service laundry rooms and we've got 5 sea days).  

Should we rent the car (will use Hertz with my corporate discount - vg rates) in LAX and drive to Santa Monica on Tuesday night?  Or just take an Uber and rent the car in Santa Monica on Wednesday?   (rental would be about $80 less and we'd save the $65 parking fee)

Or should we Uber to SM,  chill out on Wednesday, and rent the car Thursday and go to the Peterson?  (save even more on car rental, and parking) 

Should we stay in Santa Monica all 3 nights and drive down on Friday morning?  Or stay Tues-Wed in Santa Monica and Thur in San Pedro?  (thinking the latter is better for less stress and more convenience?)

For rental return -  Hertz is across the street from the Crowne Plaza. 

If we stay in SM all 3 nights we would have to drive down from SM on Friday.

If we drive down to San Pedro on Thursday and stay there, we can return the car if we get there before closing at 5PM. Is that smart based on traffic driving down from SM on Thursday afternoon?  Or we could park at the Crowne Plaza overnight which is $15 (much cheaper than SM hotel) and do the return Friday morning.

If we drive down Thursday, what might be the best (better?) time to do the drive? 

So, a bunch of questions. Hope I've been clear enough.   Thoughts/opinions/advice - it's all welcome.  TIA.

Based on # of points, I suppose you are flying economy.  I believe the higher $$ is due to departing from LHR as I've read about this in the past.  Even so, I think you would be better off going thru LHR - more time for a connection - you'd probably even be able to get to a lounge for a short visit.   Based on flying in August, you might want to nail down your seats earlier than a week out.

Flying into Philly, there's always the chance of those late afternoon thunderstorms in August. 

 I just saw this today:

Philadelphia International Airport ranks last in its size category for airport satisfaction for the third year in a row, according to J.D. Power's 2023 North America Airport Satisfaction Study.

Although, if you take the AA flight, you'll probably be too busy connecting between terminals to notice......😁   Unless you are delayed by a storm.   

3 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

Also, remember that once you take a transferable currency, such as Amex MR points, or Chase or Citi, and convert them to a specific airline, you can't later turn them back into your Amex/Chase/Citi points.

 

And if you are transferring to a foreign carrier, you need to consider their route network and expiration terms, in case you need to cancel.   I had booked a cruise in Asia back in 2019 for 2020 and was looking to book award seats.  I found business class seats on Singapore, but was reluctant to transfer miles there in case we had cancel - Krisflyer miles expire in 3 years, and their route network might not suit our future travels.  So I booked tickets using my AA miles.  Then Covid.....so we had to cancel and the miles were redeposited into my AA account/  After a couple of years of rescheduling this trip 3x, we had those AA miles to use for flights in February 2024.   

That works if the option is available, as it was in your case.  Don't fly DL so unfamiliar.  UA doesn't have holds AFAIK.  I had UA business class awards EWR-AMS price much higher than usual this past May and the flight sold out with all the pent up demand, so no deals last minute and I checked often.  Agree that nowadays, with dynamic pricing, it's more challenging.

It can work, more easily on the major US carriers.  But it's not without risks.  You hope that the miles credit back instantly and the award seats are there when you go to rebook.

Was on last October-November for a B2B and was somewhat disappointed.  The cabin refurb left the old wood desk and other woodwork.  Looked like a half done reno.  Our only other Azamara cruises were on the Journey, first in 2009 and second in 2018, so nothing recent to compare to, and haven;t been on Quest and Pursuit.   We were very disappointed with the food, to the point that we never ate in the MDR on the 2nd leg, and didn't find the specialties that special.  Hopefully, that's changed by now.  

Of course, this is all subjective, so you have to make your own determination as to what matters to you, and you will form your own opinions of whatever ship you cruise on.

7 hours ago, Croooser said:

This is a good example of how it is important to carefully consider that others points of view may be strikingly different when having similar experiences. 

 

We too, enjoyed Belfast very much. However, when in Liverpool we took a private cab Beatles tour and had a terrific time. If you don't care at all for the Beatles, then it would not be a great time. As is often remarked, YMMV

As you said, YMMV.   We did not take a Beatles tour, but did visit the Beatles museum for about 1 hour.  We did many other things during our long port day in Liverpool and absolutely loved it.

Second the recommendation for Stefano's Rome Cabs.  Used them several times - always prompt and reliable.

10 hours ago, pinotlover said:

As far as the Nov 19th cruise, I wouldn’t touch it. We missed three ports, purportedly because of weather, last October between Bilboa and Lisbon and that was almost a month before this cruise. Second, my recommendation to avoid AMSTERDAM airport at all costs. This is late in the season, but still AMS!

 

 

Not relevant to the OP's decision, but the Nov. 19th cruise is in the Caribbean (very end of hurricane season).  The cruise from AMS is in September.  We did AMS-LIS in Sept. 2017 and missed St Jean-de-Luz because of weather, but otherwise we had mostly fine weather.  

And we just flew into AMS Schiphol on May 31 this year and it was fine.    As always, YMMV. 

21 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

 

 

 

I'll ask you both the same question, if we miss our flight are they responsible for getting us on another?

Can't speak from experience since we've been fortunate to not had that happen.  I would think yes. But that depends on seats being available.  I assume you have read about the disastrous situation with US domestic flights this past June.  I don't know how things have gone at LHR.

51 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

What would be the minimum amount of time for a layover at LHR?

Depends on which terminals you arrive and depart from.  And good luck if your arrival flight is delayed - better know your options for that situation.  

As mentioned previously you will pay a lot to fly on AA/BA into LHR.

We have had a smooth time with 2 hrs and nightmares with more time than that.  Just saying...

Others with more experience can comment better

I saw this online for a class I booked and paid for back in February.  It showed our names and next to it both Booked and Waitlisted (this word in red).  I called and was told that we were booked and confirmed but the class was waitlisted.  

But, I agree, best to call and confirm your situation.  

Our experience was exactly the same as @cruisinsusin.   Prices same under Olife as SM. The SM 25% off kicked in once we booked the number of excursions required for the discount, same as Olife's YWC discount booked 

When are you flying and from where?

Look at all the recent flight cancelations and disruptions. If that happens on your flight what will your rebooking options be?  What kind of buffer are you building into your schedule so you don't miss the cruise?  These are some key considerations.

9 minutes ago, CurlerRob said:

The area that caught my interest was the usage of port-based adjuncts to the shipboard service -

For us that is T-Mobile.  We have the Magenta Max plan and get 5Gb of high speed data when traveling.  

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/07/the-battle-for-bandwidth/

Good news for Vista, other info is rather lacking.  

A couple of things.  No one knows what travel next June will be like.  But we just flew to Amsterdam from Newark on May 30 and every seat (about 38 or 40) in business class was full. And the United Polaris lounge, which is just for business class passengers, was absolutely jammed, so I assume all the other flights had full biz class as well.  Also, the weather in the NYC area has been crazy - lots of weather related delays and flight cancellations in June and July, so no way would I ever due a 56 minute connection, much less in JFK.  

Just for the heck of it, since you are interested in using AA miles for a one way flight on a specific date as your outbound flight, sign up for free at Roame.travel.   It's got its limitations for general award searches, but works somewhat well for specific date searches. You can input your search requirements and select only AA from the programs to be searched.  It will show you award pricing, and if it's a mixed cabin award (not all segments in same class of service). You can see the flights, connections, times. You would still have snag those awards by booking on AA, but it can be helpful to watch for awards.  Is it perfect? No.  But I had great success finding one way award tickets using this site. 

And BTW, we usually fly business on overnight flights, but fly home from Europe in economy during the daytime.  Not the best, but we are short, average size, so it can work for us (although DH has gotten very spoiled by flying business so often, but I ignore his comments 🤣). And we are only going to the NYC area, not connecting onward.  Just did it on a flight from Hamburg-Munich-Newark.  If the plane is configured with 2 seats on one side of the aisle, we choose that.  Otherwise we book aisle seats across from each other.  Everyone has to figure out what works for them in terms of spending $$ and/or using miles.

In future, AA isn't the best for business class awards to Europe.  You might want to look into collecting other points currencies if European travel is in your future plans.  Lots of info out there if you search for it.  

Good luck with your search and decision-making.  

21 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Yes. I need to update my signature. We are moving that cruise. After hitting search more, I found one in business class for 57.5k and $757 so I jumped on them. It says pending or something like that because after Clt to JFK, it is a partner airline. Hopefully there’s no issues with them going through. I was able to book mine with my card and his with his. Hope dh is good with this. He’s sleeping and I didn’t want to lose them. I hope it was a good deal. I loved the price so  I’m happy!  

Your partner airline is BA, right?  From JFK are you flying through LHR (Heathrow) to Barcelona?  Did you check the connection times in JFK and LHR?  Hopefully you have a sufficient amount of time.   Sometimes the airlines list very short connection times and still let you book.   Please look over your itinerary and post here. While I've booked my own awards over the years, Flyer Talker is way more knowledgeable than me and will give you much better advice once we see your itinerary.

One thing I do, even after booking awards, is keep checking.  The best awards are not always available when the schedule opens.  The good thing is that you can always cancel AA awards without penalty if you find something better. 

BTW, if you are going JFK to LHR, it's a fairly short flight, so with dinner service and breakfast service, don't expect to get a lot of sleep.  The main advantage is the lie-flat seat. 

1 hour ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

We priced the multi-Citi and it was more expensive than doing it this way. We’re getting two tickets from Venice to Charlotte for 1k with NCL. We couldn’t touch the multi-city tickets for an additional 500 each. 
 

Charlotte to Barcelona on June 10. Flight home is Venice to Charlotte on July 13. (Not open yet but based it on June prices)

Uh, in your signature you list 3 cruises, one dated July 15.   Are yo sure you are flying home from Venice on July 13?