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Gardyloo

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  1. Subscribe to a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) service like Skype and your calls to a landline or mobile in the US can run around 2p per minute. How Much Does Skype International Calls Cost? (softkeys.uk)
  2. I'd definitely have a plan B in your pocket regarding the Skyline Loop. While across the Cascades this has been a below-average year for snowpack (in some areas dangerously so - fire problems later) there's currently still 10 feet of snow on the ground at Paradise and typically there's still 5 - 6 feet of snow on the ground on July 1. Parts of the Skyline Loop might be bare, others muddy or slushy, or others still covered by rotten snow and ice. Feel lucky? It's also a time of year that has as many cloudy/rainy days in the mountains as clear ones. I'd probably be inclined to look at lower elevation hikes just to be safe. One easy and rewarding hike is at Snoqualmie Falls, 40 min. east of the city off I-90. In June the falls are quite spectacular with all the melting snow runoff from the mountains, and the hike from the top of the falls to the bottom is easy and rewarding. Discovery Park is certainly possible, and sure, you can get to Bainbridge Island easily from anywhere in town. You might want to think about a couple of loop drives - either day drives or overnight, to two of the other major islands in the Puget Sound region, Whidbey Island to the north and Vashon Island to the south and west of Seattle. There are excellent hikes to be had at places like Deception Pass State Park or Fort Casey State Park on Whidbey, or at the cool Port Robinson State Park on Vashon, complete with its picturesque lighthouse and views of Mount Rainier, and also a very cool giant troll made from scrap wood in the forest behind the beach. Google the places on these maps. Widbey loop - https://maps.app.goo.gl/GJP3pNo5bJtVkgLAA Vashon loop - https://maps.app.goo.gl/GAF2pqRt2MYpTuZ97 The other thought I had, which would require investing at least 3 days (if you have the time) would be a loop over the Cascades and south to the Columbia River Gorge, just east of Portland. The many waterfalls along the Gorge walls are at their best in late June, you can ride the "Magic Mile" chairlift on the side of Mount Hood from iconic Timberline Lodge up to the permanent ice fields, enjoy the "fruit loop" through the beautiful Hood River Valley, or visit the eclectic Maryhill Museum on the clifftops overlooking the great river. This is one of the best short road trips in the west, really worth your time if you have enough. Map - https://maps.app.goo.gl/7L4N6Gk4ecEuDfs78
  3. The Oneworld online tool is and always has been, a piece of you-know-what. I'd strongly recommend a subscription to Expert Flyer which will let you see seat availability by booking class (L for economy, D for business) for the chosen flights. https://www.expertflyer.com/
  4. Flight date changes after ticketing are free, so what you do is book the unlisted flights with "dummy" dates that fall within the booking window, then change them to the actual dates when those become available.
  5. What kind of budget and what month will this be? Places to look at: Salish Lodge, overlooking Snoqualmie Falls, 40 min. east of Seattle. Featured in the Twin Peaks TV series. - https://www.salishlodge.com/ Clearwater Casino Lodge, a Tribal casino resort located on the Kitsap Peninsula next to the bridge to Bainbridge Island, reached by 40 min. ferry from downtown Seattle. https://www.clearwatercasino.com/hotel/ Silver Cloud Mukilteo, located on pilings over the beach in Mukilteo,30 min. north of Seattle. It offers easy access to beautiful Whidbey Island as well as having Mukilteo's cute lighthouse and pleasant driftwood-covered beach within steps. https://www.silvercloud.com/mukilteo/ There are many more possibilities.
  6. In my mind it comes down to the same suggestion I made in bringing up the RTW idea in the Singapore thread. Make a plan, maybe call it a "master plan," although I don't much like that term, covering your travel aspirations for a couple of years, maybe three. (Longer than that is fine but the chances of it going off the rails are correspondingly higher.) Not only would the plan include where you'd like to go and when, but also how you'd get there and how you would pay for it. Frequent flyer miles and points, whether gained through actual flying or through purchases with credit cards, etc., are simply a form of currency like dollars or Euros. Use miles to pay for travel, maybe in conjunction with cash, or maybe not. With almost all the airline frequent flyer (FF) programs, miles or points earned through flying also can contribute to "elite" status within that airline's FF program. With this status can come various perks - bigger baggage allowances, lounge access, fast track connections - and also bonus miles that can be redeemed on flights. A business class RTW can provide a rich harvest of points toward these things - free flights and status - so thinking about the miles or points and the "currency" they represent could and should go into your "master plan" thinking. When my late wife and I were doing a lot of travel utilizing RTW tickets, we set up a cycle where we'd use an RTW business class ticket in year one, then use the accumulated miles in year two, then a new RTW in year 3. Of course it wasn't always that clean; sometimes in year 2 we'd have to spend cash for some unplanned travel, but nevertheless the system worked pretty well. Our investment in the RTW not only gave us the flights included in the ticket, it also leveraged a number of "award" flights with the miles earned in the RTW. Over the course of two years it reduced the per-flight cost (in business or first class) to very low levels, when you averaged the cost out. $200 per flight seemed okay value for a one-way business class flight from Seattle to LA; it was downright golden for one way from London to Cape Town or New York to Hong Kong. Now this all requires some work on your part. Even though you may buy the RTW ticket through American Airlines doesn't mean you need to sign up for AA's AAdvantage mileage program. You can earn miles and possibly status with any Oneworld airline's program with the RTW. For example, if you sign up for British Airways' FF program, the BA Executive Club, you can typically easily achieve "Silver" status with one RTW ticket. With that status, you'll have access to business class lounges across the Oneworld system, even Admiral's Club lounges in the US that you wouldn't be able to access as an AAdvantage member. Or if you signed up for Alaska Airlines' Visa card, you'd get a big signup bonus but also receive an annual "companion certificate" which allows one person to fly on any Alaska Airlines itinerary for $99 if the other pays the going price. That can make for big savings, well in excess of the annual fee charged by Visa. But it all requires you to have a plan and do your homework. Might as well start now.
  7. With a business class RTW ticket you will get lounge access for all flights EXCEPT AA flights within North America. So I suppose it would depend on your detailed itinerary; if you plan to bounce around North America on AA during that portion of the trip, then the card that includes an Admiral's Club membership might be the best option. If your internal flights in North America connect to an overseas flight, e.g. DFW-LAX-HKG, then you'd get access to the lounges at both DFW and LAX. If it's DFW-SEA with no onward overseas destination, then no access. Hope that's clear.
  8. I can't speak authoritatively on the insurance question. Generally with my RTWs I started overseas and returned home for part of the ticket's validity, similar to the imaginary plan I laid out in my prior post. Thus there were two, sometimes 3 trips included within the ticket's validity. I'd imagine you could insure each portion separately. But I don't know the exact answer. Maybe talking to a human at the insurer of your choice is the right move. Regarding changes, the tickets are issued by one of the member airlines of the alliance. The alliance itself has no role to play in the actual travel; they just set the rules that the members agree to follow. So whichever airline issues the ticket is the one you go to for changes. With Oneworld, some airlines are easier do deal with then others when changes are necessary. In almost every scenario, American Airlines, which has a dedicated RTW desk, is by far the easiest and most knowledgeable airline to deal with for changes or issues. They also tend to be cheaper than other airlines in the alliance when it comes to adding fees and surcharges to the base price of the ticket. The quid pro quo of using AA is they usually want one of the transoceanic segments to be on AA flights - either on AA "metal" or a partner flight carrying an AA codeshare flight number. That's usually a small price to pay for the savings and convenience of using AA for ticket management services. Hope this helps.
  9. If it's all on one ticket, the airline will need to meet the minimum connection time (MCT) requirements at YVR or else they won't sell you the ticket. The published MCT for YVR, Air Canada to Air Canada, domestic to USA, is 1h 10m. I wouldn't worry.
  10. The tracks are behind the Marriott, not in front. Check your source on downtown crime statistics in Seattle. I think your information is way out of date.
  11. Why not try for SEA-xLAX-xLHR-VCE all on one ticket? Frequently those kinds of routings using AS miles turn up, depending on "U" booking class (Oneworld business award bucket) availability on the BA longhaul flights. (Often SEA-xPHX-LHR shows up owing to low load factors on the Phoenix-London flights.) A phone call to AS might work as opposed to using their rather clunky website. A note that you could probably save a LOT of money if you used American's ORD-VCE nonstop rather than paying BA's usurious surcharges. Skipping both LAX and LHR as well as saving probably something like $1000 in fees sounds okay to me.
  12. If this is to save money, do look over my post no. 8 in this thread. Timing is crucial, or else any savings on airfare you achieve by flying into Seattle can go away with additional hotel nights, cab rides, and the train fare.
  13. While we don't know your exact nights, a quick look on Expedia for the nights of 5/28 - 5/31 shows that there are several hotels in the "real" downtown area (as opposed to a fringe one like the La Quinta) that are priced pretty comparably to the La Quinta, and in a couple of cases, cheaper. First on the list is the Warwick Hotel, which offers good value in a significantly better location than the La Quinta, in terms of walkability, distance to restaurants, etc. Likewise the Crown Plaza and the Hotel Max are a few bucks cheaper than the La Quinta but IMO way better value given location. There are also a number of hotels that are around $40 - $50 per night more expensive than the La Quinta but which would be very comfortable and way more convenient. The Mayflower Park is in this group, along with a couple of the Hyatt properties (including the Grand.) I'd definitely keep shopping. This whole thing about the city "closing" at night is baloney.
  14. What is your itinerary for returning to Oz? The participating airlines in the Port Valet program are Alaska, American, Delta, Horizon, JetBlue, Southwest, and United, but I'm not certain at all that you can check bags all the way to Australia. Airlines are required to do a passport and visa check (called a "Timatic" check) for international departures from the US, even if the first flight is a connecting one to some US airport where the long flight would begin. I'm not certain you could use Port Valet in that circumstance. Here's a tour that's similar to what you're looking for. Post Cruise City Tour | Seattle Express
  15. The "original" Starbucks on Pike Place actually isn't; the first Starbucks was located closer to the corner of Pike Street and Pike Place but was closed a long time ago. Obviously the Starbucks people are happy with the myth, as in ka-ching. There's a Russian bakery a door or two south of the Pike Place Starbucks, Piroshky Piroshky. It's very good, but I'm betting that the bakery you've heard of is Le Panier, a very good French bakery. Note they sell excellent coffee drinks there, too. You can see the line outside Starbucks (just past the Market Optical glasses sign) in this picture. https://maps.app.goo.gl/4nNVYy47NoYTfgpQ8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/4nNVYy47NoYTfgpQ8
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