Russ & I did the Santorini cooking class on Sea2Sea and loved it. The food was delicious!

I'm on the morning Ephesus tour with an expert too. Hopefully it will open up so Cindy & Dave can join.

Andrea, the reason we booked the cooking class was because of your post about it. I made up my mind right then and there that we would do that.

Glad someone else is on that morning tour, its more fun that way. I think it fills up quickly as they take only 15 per tour, and the expert is a specific person that has been part of the dig.

Are you a Jerel coming early? Are you interested in the Saturday night dinner and/or the Sunday ship transfer?

You will love the cooking class JoAnn! We had a really great guide too.

We are coming in early but are going to stay at the Westin Astir Palace using points - didn't have enough for the GB. I think we are further away from the city so we won't be able to make it for dinner. Thank you though!

OK sorry you can't join us, but we will see you onboard.

Bert and I will be dropping out and unable to join all of you on this adventure-our daughter, Jessica is pregnant and we will be expecting our first grandchild right at the time of this trip. We are so excited! I already asked, but Jessica doesn't think TUT would be a good name. Bert and I will be consoling ourselves by taking a Med cruise on the Mariner August 7, but we will miss you all--

We will really miss you and Bert, Mitch! But congrats to Jessica, and I hope all goes smoothly! Nothing like it, joing that world of being a grandparent, believe me!

Bert and Mitch,

What wonderful news. We will miss you, the ladies chorus line in the lounge will not be the same.

Enjoy your trip in August.

Susan & Russ

We will miss you all, too. Thanks for your good wishes. Now if anyone wants to join us August 7 on the Mariner...that would be great.

Bert and Mitch, sorry to hear that you won't be with us. :(

We booked all our tours; all free. :)

We still don't have air. :( I tried Delta but they wanted 440,000 for the two of us. I am going to try again soon. Might end up just paying for coach. We had 8:50 flight back from ATL to BRU yesterday in coach and it wasn't too bad. ;)

We'll miss you Bert & Mitch!! We were looking forward to seeing you both. Congratulations on your #1 Grandchild...it's WONDERFUL.

Bert and Mitch, we'll miss you. Have fun with the grandchild--we sure do with ours.

Bert and Mitch, we'll miss you on TUT. However, if you have to rearrange your travel schedule, you've got the best of reasons!

Sorry to hear we'll miss you both but a new grandbaby is so special! And a Med Mariner cruise way to go!!!!! Joanna

I haven't been reading this thread, since we can't go, but noticed the good news....Congrats Bert and Mitch!

Arlene, have you tried a combo of miles and money on Delta? For Egypt, we got a good deal doing that for business class. It was something like 50K miles per ticket plus $2K per ticket additional. It was like buying coach and getting an upgrade with miles. Not too bad.

I called Delta last night to see about changing my return flight - of course my luck to get a difficult rep ugh! Made me feel as if I should be EXTREMELY grateful for only using 100 thou PP for my Tut tixs - and to change???? HA HA HA HA HA - outrageous number needed - don't like to get too snippy afraid they'll flag me "don't help her she has attitude" ;) ;)

Congratulations Mitch & Bert - we will all miss you!

Joanna - when you get a difficult rep, just say you've got to get off the phone and then call back. I don't think any of these reps have any decision making authority anymore but some are more creative than others in actually looking for alternatives.

Yes we will miss you Bert and Mitch, but cancelling for the birth of your first Grandbaby is the best reason ever. Congratulations and be sure to send us pictures!

Ok - Starwood just announced a promotion if you stay 3x (separate stays not 3 nights) at any property, you'll get 1 free weekend night that can be used at any property (up to category 6 - so the GB qualifies). If you're planning on staying at the GB and are near a Starwood that has low(er) rates, you should be able to get the GB for a nightly cost of less than $300 and would cost you no points. http://www.spgpromos.com/freeweekends/checkbacksoon.cfm is the announcement.

still trying with American on these tix.....Joanna I feel your pain, i'm glad atleast you have tickets for SOME time! We may end up with Regent Air, and worried we will be late and miss the sailing!
fun....fun....

Cindy you can pay the deviation and come in day early yes? I call, often, I am an "optimist" but "realistically" doubt I will be able to change -

yes, J we are thinking we will pay the deviation if i can't put this together in the next week or so...... now to worry about tix to Roar!

well if you make in in a day early, please think about joining us for dinner on Sat night. Know you will then have the Regent transfers - we've done that before and Regent is very efficient in that regard, but would love to have you join us for dinner. Just let me know so I can increse the reservation, when you have a chance and get all this together. Looking forward to meeting you Cindy.

Cindy hope we can see you Sat at dinner - nice way to kick off a cruise - Tony just told me to give it up about trying to change my Delta flights - NEVER!!!!!!

LOL Joanna, I know you will never give it up@

Cindy we are in same shape as you; no air. :(

Delta wants 440,000 miles for the two of us in business. I am holding out until I can get a better deal. Regent will be too expensive as they want $199 plus $100 deviation fee since Huntsville is not one of their gateway cities. Still, it is Plan D. I figure that there will be a sale around 2-3 months in advance so I will hold off purchasing air until I give miles a try again.

BTW, it looks like there is plenty of availability as the penalty period is about to start. If anyone wants to join TUT, now is a good time. :)

:lct:

Cindy and Marc, have either of you contacted Gary Leff?

Great suggestion!!!

No charge without results!

Olivia, the problem is all that I have is DL miles. I can fly a half dozen different airlines to a dozen different hubs in Europe; but I can research them all with Delta. Now that I don't have to pay to call Delta to book frequent flyer tickets, it doesn't hurt to spend time on the phone with them.

i forgot about Gary Leff!

He might be great for you as you aren't stuck with only Delta pts - just sent you his #'s

Doesn't Delta have any partners? My problem was that Usair wasn't giving me that info until I emailed Gary. Worth an email just to inquire.

Delta ff put me on Air France last November. Biz class was great. Having to deal with CDG terminal was a nightmare.

Marc, I sympathize as I, too, only have Delta miles. I’ve been trying for months to get a later date on our return trip from the Prague-Budapest River cruise without success. At this point, I’m hoping something will open up much closer to the cruise itself. I know that you’re more of an expert at this than I, though I haven’t ever tried Leff. Almost every time I’ve been successful getting Business Class seats from Washington to Europe or beyond, it’s been with AF in part because of the two or three flights a day from IAD to CDG. We’ve never had problems at CDG.

For our Sydney-Beijing cruise, I don’t think I’m seriously going to even try to get FF seats on DL even though they now have service to SYD. If I were successful, I think they’d also want a minimum of 240,000 miles pp because “Low” awards would are almost never available to SYD. And with Regent’s Business Class promotion, I don’t think it’s worth using up all my miles. I keep wondering if I should switch my allegiance away from DL.

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Eugene

Eugene, being based in Atlanta up to a year and a half ago, we only used Delta FF, but since I now follow Gary Leff's view from the wing, and The Frugal Travel Guy, along with Flyer talk, our
FF program of choice is AA. Each of these FF boards are unanimous that Delta if the FF program of last resort (award availability is awful, and very high) With AA now, I get availablity with two weeks out on most destinations (biz class). I have earned no butt in seat flying AA miles but have earned over 200K miles (in las six months+) with credit card churning and Bank Direct AA mileage checking account.

I have been happy with Delta. I have never had a problem getting a seat. Now, however, that they have gone to three tier system, it is even easier to get a seat; just not at a price I am willing to spend.

I may have to go to AA's bank direct program. It is an easy way to get miles. However, I hate to give up my status with DL. On our trip to US this month we were "op upped" to business on a U fare; really surprised me. Even the return in coach was nicer than previous overseas coach experiences. We have travelled overseas now many times in coach including 14.5 hours on Korean. We have found that although we much prefer business, coach works. So, worse thing that happens on TUT is that we buy DL/AF coach seats.

I Have never had any status on any airline before. Delta being my first. Currently I am Platinum Medallion, and I have seem some perks.. there FF awards are a complete Rip off in my opinion. 270k per ticket they wanted for Nile, ended up paying 750 per ticket. on way back from Cairo to Jfk they offered me an upgrade to biz class but Carla would have to stay in coach.. the point is I was on a non upgradeable fare.. I am truly thinking of switching to AA because could be lifetime
gold within two years with spending and bonuses.. Domestic
delta is horrible, direct no where and a ton of connections... again some perks a good but at the current rate I would need to get 100k miles a year for the next 20 years to be lifetime gold on Delta.. AA just seems so much easier..

I agree with all that has been said. I have never had any status except for Delta, and I'm only a lowly Silver. Even that status does have its advantages. However, as Marc mentioned, although one can obtain FF seats more often, they are almost always at outrageous mileage requirements under the new 3-tiered system unless you are very lucky or have a lot of flexibility.

We signed up for the BA Visa card as many others on LCT have done, so I'll have to see if an ultimate switch to one world will be in our future. If UA and CO merge, maybe I'll be able to combine my balances in those two Star Alliance FF programs--still won't be close to my current DL balance.

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Eugene

BTW, if anyone is interested in spending the next two weeks in London, you can get business seats on DL for 100K miles. I searched the calendar for next year and there were times where you could get seats at the "low" redemption value.

And some DL flights to LON have the new BE seats. Not sure which ones Marc was seeing.

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Eugene