Friends,

This is a bit of a real-life moment in the world of points and miles that felt relevant to our discussions here.

As mentioned in a previous post, I made plans for a virtually zero dollar “European-summer-family-vacation-palooza”. Flights plus hotels were set for August and all in (general) order.

Then, my wife and I attended a new parent orientation for our daughter’s school and it quickly became clear that back-to-school activities would conflict with our planned travel dates. Full stop: this is one of the things I love about booking trips with points — you generally do not sacrifice flexibility.

Equipped with this information and an new awareness that being jet lagged in August is not choice, we called an audible. And I went back to the travel planning drawing board.

European options (with broader calendar considerations) were not tenable in June or July. Alas. Hawaii and the near-Pacific was out, too. Domestic options were largely bad or boring. I began to feel semi-desperate, in the “this is not a real problem” sort of way.

But then I remembered Air Canada flies to Montreal and Toronto from DFW multiple times every day. And they recently upgraded their trans-border inflight service.

A quick check of award space confirmed wide-open availability to catch a non-stop to Canada (via MileagePlus, Aeroplan, or LifeMiles). Great Hyatts in both Toronto and Montreal sealed the deal: a new trip was taking form.

Airline-wise, this itinerary gets me excited as it would provide an opportunity to try Air Canada (a first for me) on their new A220s. We’d also get to try Toronto’s Billy Bishop city airport for the mid-trip turboprop segment to YUL, which is sure to be fun.

As of writing, we have it all on ice while waiting to firm up a few final details, but we may be in Ontario and Québec instead of crossing the Atlantic this summer. I will let you know.

Moral of this story: (1) school calendars are real and (2) points and miles can make travel planning even more fun.

Fly well.

Links

Emirates beats out Delta to be the most profitable airline in the world.

American removes pre-order burger from first class because it was too popular.

The new PHL Flagship lounge opens in a few weeks: it will be awesome.

At long last, though Gary Leff does not think this will be enough.

We have an American Pope: great commentary on this news by Peggy Noonan.

Remember, this life you are living has meaning. Thank you for reading. I am grateful you are here and would love to hear from you. If you'd like to write me a note, simply reply to this email. Otherwise I'll see you in the next one.

P.S. If I can ever help you plan your next travel adventure (slash help make your points go farther), I’d be delighted. You can schedule time together here.