Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

I discussed airline travel to Nippon 2007 with Lisa. Although she agrees that the "roundabout" trip really sucks, it saves $3,000. She said, "let's do it." I then had to wait until my flight from Oregon on Monday credited to my account (that happened today), which meant I only had to buy 9,000 more miles, not 10,000. (They really are "instant miles" and credited to my account immediately.) Then I could call Alaska Airlines and finalize the transaction, spending 180,000 frequent-flyer miles for two business-class seats (except for the short jump up to Seattle on Horizon, but that hardly matters, even for Lisa). Besides the miles, the total cost for the air travel nets to $350, most of which ($242) was the cost of buying the 9K miles to top off my account. I now have 32 miles left in my Alaska account -- the first miles I've ever spent from it after many years of flying on them.

( Just look at this itinerary )

I've written to Alaska's customer-service about the convoluted routing, asking if they have any way they could coax a trade of seats out of their partner carrier, but I'm not very hopeful about it. Still, saving $3,000 airfare is a big load off my mind on what promises to be a very expensive trip anyway.