Zacharius

I guess it depends on how much you plan to travel. I practically live out of a suitcase, and loyalty is very rewarding to me (airlines, hotels, and car rentals). But even if you travel just a few times a year, you're unlikely to reach a level of meaningful loyalty unless you're spending a lot of money.

To be fair, it's really a private peninsula, not an island...they just don't want you tell you it's actually attached to Haiti. So you should be good.

I try to get to a couple each decade. I've been obsessed with the Olympics my entire life even though my country has never won a gold (and have never competed in Winter Olympics, which is actually my preferred Olympics). I do think I'll try to get to Paris.

Interestingly enough, most American walkie talkies are illegal in many parts of the world. I believe that includes Haiti (without Haitian government approval...and good luck getting their approval on pretty much anything haha) but am not 100% sure.

I had a cell signal because I remember getting a call while I was there. This was back in 2018ish so things may have changed. You would be calling on the Haitian cell network so do be aware of what fees your provider charges for being on said Haitian network. Pretty sure that area has a stronger Digicell and NATCOM are both pretty strong in Cap-Haitien (at least, they were last time I was in Cap-Haitien in 2022), one of Haiti's largest cities which is just a few miles away, so it should be pretty strong in Labadee too.

I didn't do any kind of advanced search for mine...just searched IAH-YVR on 4 July and it popped right up

I definitely se UA6621 IAH-YVR on 4 July 2024. Departs 1630, Arrives 1925. Thing is, it's a codeshare and is operated by Air Canada as AC1301. So it's an Air Canada flight that happens to carry a codeshare UA flight number.

I'm not an expert on Air2Sea or United, so I'll leave those questions for others, but...it's a little worrisome they're selling flights that United says may not exist. Willing to share the dates/flights? I'd be curious to look.

Still not completely true. In fact, it's often the case that prices are higher on the day they get released. The reason is that airlines are trying to judge demand and often throw out high prices to see if people bite. If they don't, it's common for them to come down as airlines try to find that sweet spot. It really is a crap shoot...I fly about 130,000 BIS miles each year and book flights for others that total another 500,000 BIS miles each year, if not more, and we see everything. A few weeks ago we were booking a couple of tickets between Kansas City and Accra, and the prices changed five times in seven days while we waited on the contract to be signed...up, down, up, down, and down some more (yay) before we booked.

Give them a call. Also look at options booking directly with the airline and keep your options open. Pros and cons to both.

We always get off. Walk around a bit, grab a few beers at Pirate Republic, and get out of the touristy area for some conch. Tulum is the definition of someplace that should be its own destination, not something tacked on to a cruise Labadee is actually home of our favorite ever cruise excursion...take a boat 30ish minutes away to a small little island and float in the water for hours with endless rum punch and Prestige beer. My wife and I still talk about it 10ish years later.

It can depend on your fare, too. There are some discounted fare codes (including some that cruise lines use) that don't allow for a re-route, even including connection cities. That means, for example, even if you are routed JFK-PHX-LGB, and the JFK-PHX flight cancels, they will only re-route you JFK-PHX-LGB (not, say, JFK-DEN-LGB).

As far as I know, the "Port of Los Angeles" is the one in San Pedro (right next to Long Beach). San Pedro is actually a neighborhood of Los Angeles, despite being quite a bit south of the rest of Los Angeles. It's an odd setup where Los Angeles city limits extend south to San Pedro via a narrow corridor only a few blocks wide (not sure the history, but I assume it's to include the port within the city limits...kind of like Chicago's weird panhandle to include O'Hare)

Plenty of good hotels in San Pedro and Long Beach. I tend to just find that area on Google Maps, search "hotels", and it'll show you the ones around and their ratings. They also give some pricing, though I've found that to be frequently incorrect. I recommend booking directly with the hotel on refundable/cancellable rates, as those can be cancelled and re-booked if the rate comes down.

Even if you want to go as "far" as St. John from St. Thomas, I always vote for going on your own.

How does it compare to a train?

You might be waiting a while. Tourism between North America and Europe, especially in the summer, shows no signs of slowing down. Additionally, business ties are continuing to ramp back up. Demand is there, and prices are matching.

Don't forget Southampton itself. KLM does fly there via Amsterdam, and KLM is a Delta partner, so it's very possible to get routed (say) USA - AMS - Southampton. KLM offers flights in to British cities that a lot of other major airlines don't...places like Southampton, Cardiff, Leeds, Teeside, Bristol, and more. I only say that for people who may be looking to fly to the UK (for cruises or not) and don't always want to go straight in to London. A rather simple connection via AMS can dump you in to smaller, easier British airports that could be a great place to start (or end) a vacation. Or business for that matter...my colleague and I split some work in Bristol, and she (as a Delta frequent flier) pretty much always goes via AMS straight in to Bristol. Myself, as an AA frequent flier, just goes in to Heathrow and takes ground transit from there. Often times, it ends up being a wash time wise.

You missed out on a really enjoyable downtown because of that person (or people). Bummer. I've never had a problem in downtown Seattle. Granted, it's been a solid seven weeks since I've stayed in downtown Seattle...

One thing to consider when booking groups - it can sometimes be cheaper to break the group up in to smaller groups, and it's worth checking that out for future trips. An example of why (with hypothetical numbers and such): There are 3 tickets available in Fare Bucket A, and 10 seats tickets in the more expensive Fare Bucket B. If you're pricing six together, it's going to bypass the Fare Bucket A (because there are only three tickets available) and book all six in to the higher Fare Bucket B. If you split is up three and three, it would book three of you in to Fare Bucket A, and the other three in Fare Bucket B, resulting in a lower grand total. This isn't going to happen every time, but it's worth pricing out. The risk is that something happens during travel and three get re-booked on one route, and three on another route, because you're technically separate groups...but most flights do make it, and the risk still may be worth it depending on the savings.

Maybe I've had unusually good experiences on my five or so visits to Chops...but I have always found my steaks fairly good. I get the opportunity to visit a LOT of really high end steakhouses around the world for business dinners/meetings, which are of course much, much better than Chops, but that's my way of say that I am no stranger to phenomenal steaks but have always enjoyed by Chops steaks. Of course, being on vacation tends to skew tastes a bit (most things seem to taste a bit better on vacation).

I guess it kind of depends where in California. Even in So Cal (where it appears OP is from), there's a big difference between LA, San Diego, and...Calexico

Just a caveat to be careful with something like this. Very careful. If you're booking separate tickets, you are not protected. Example - you want to fly Denver to London, but it's cheaper to fly Chicago to London. No problem, let me just book a separate, cheaper ticket on, say, Southwest or Frontier from Denver to Chicago, and then United/BA/AA from Chicago to London. Well, you're now on two separate origin/destination tickets - Denver to Chicago, and Chicago to London. Southwest/Frontier is only responsible to get you from Denver to Chicago; United/BA/AA is only responsible to get you from Chicago to London. If your DEN-CHI (be it MDW or ORD) is delayed, and you miss the ORD-LHR flight, you're in trouble and will probably have to buy a new, last-minute ticket to get yourself to London...and and subsequent flights on that registration are likely to be cancelled as you're now a no-show. So, if you do decide to book positioning flights, be smart and book BIG layovers (preferably overnight), and make sure it's really worth it (factoring in things like hotels, meals, ground transportation if needed (such as between Midway and O'Hare in my example), cost of your time, etc. etc.)

Another vote for downtown. Although I am a Hilton loyalist, I absolutely love the Hyatt Regency Seattle Downtown (on Howell St.) and usually stay there if I am staying downtown (versus suburbs).