Today it is only 30,000 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles to book each leg of a round trip ticket to many major European cities - from mid June to mid-July!
That's 60,000 round trip.
I just checked London, Paris, and Rome.
I used my United miles in December to book my flight to Rome and have been waiting for weeks for the miles cost on American to drop so I could book my return from London. I just did it this morning.
(In a future post, I'll discuss mileage programs in more detail.)
If you've been saving up those miles for a trip to Europe this looks like a great opportunity.
Be aware that the taxes and fees on each ticket will run you almost $375 - a round trip around $700. That is still a deal on a flight to Europe, but know just because you are using miles, the flights aren't free.
American Airlines website
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
A Day Out: Santa Monica Pier
Singers, snakes, and shakes! These are just a few of the interesting things one can do at the Santa Monica pier.
Saturday afternoon I took the family to the Santa Monica pier. It had been over five years since I had made the trek to the pier and while many things had changed and many more were still the same.
Parking and traffic were just as bad as I remembered. However, the city of Santa Monica now has an interactive parking map with real time updates on how much space each lot has at any given time. It showed us that all the public lots on 4th St. were at 93%, but a lot on 2nd St. was at 33%. Here's link to the site: Santa Monica Parking Map
Parking was free for the first 90 minutes and $1 for each half hour thereafter.
From here we walked ten minutes to the bluffs overlooking Santa Monica beach.
Near the cannon pointing towards the pier, yes a WWII canon sits on the bluff, five men had a number of boa constrictors and exotic birds they allowed bystanders take pictures with in exchange for tips.
From here we followed the throngs down to the pier.
There were more food places than I remembered: a Bubba Gump Shrimp, Pier Burger, Mariasol and a number of others.
There were multiple performers and singers on the pier as well. One woman sang about San Diego and at the very end of the pier with the sun setting behind him, a young man sang "Here Comes The Sun," by George Harrison.
People were still fishing off the pier like when I was a child and one teenager caught a baby mackerel using fishing line wrapped around his hand and kernels of corn from a can of Del Monte sweet corn on a hook.
The arcade and rock shop were also still here, as was the guy with a megaphones reciting bible versus. Probably a different guy, but same depressing message.
Then we headed over to Pacific Park on the pier and rode the Ferris wheel where we saw the last glow of the sun disappearing on the western horizon. This entire area was much filled in since my last visit. I believe the Ferris wheel was the only attraction.
A great way to spend a day.
Saturday afternoon I took the family to the Santa Monica pier. It had been over five years since I had made the trek to the pier and while many things had changed and many more were still the same.
Parking and traffic were just as bad as I remembered. However, the city of Santa Monica now has an interactive parking map with real time updates on how much space each lot has at any given time. It showed us that all the public lots on 4th St. were at 93%, but a lot on 2nd St. was at 33%. Here's link to the site: Santa Monica Parking Map
Parking was free for the first 90 minutes and $1 for each half hour thereafter.
From here we walked ten minutes to the bluffs overlooking Santa Monica beach.
Near the cannon pointing towards the pier, yes a WWII canon sits on the bluff, five men had a number of boa constrictors and exotic birds they allowed bystanders take pictures with in exchange for tips.
From here we followed the throngs down to the pier.
There were more food places than I remembered: a Bubba Gump Shrimp, Pier Burger, Mariasol and a number of others.There were multiple performers and singers on the pier as well. One woman sang about San Diego and at the very end of the pier with the sun setting behind him, a young man sang "Here Comes The Sun," by George Harrison.
People were still fishing off the pier like when I was a child and one teenager caught a baby mackerel using fishing line wrapped around his hand and kernels of corn from a can of Del Monte sweet corn on a hook.
The arcade and rock shop were also still here, as was the guy with a megaphones reciting bible versus. Probably a different guy, but same depressing message.
Then we headed over to Pacific Park on the pier and rode the Ferris wheel where we saw the last glow of the sun disappearing on the western horizon. This entire area was much filled in since my last visit. I believe the Ferris wheel was the only attraction.
For dinner we ate at Pier Burger which had very good french fries and shakes and then headed back home.
A great way to spend a day.
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