My Next Travel Adventure New Zealand South Island and Southwest Airlines Contest and Partner Promo

The South Island of New Zealand is our next big adventure scheduled for December 28, 2009 to January 17, 2010.

We were last in New Zealand on the $1400 Business Class mistake fare two years ago and have waited for the opportunity to go back. This time it will be all on the south end of the South Island with our base of operations being Queenstown.

The tickets are paid for with some of our remaining Thank You points earnings prior to the big devaluation last year. The routing is through Sydney to see our son Andrew again, and the beautiful city of Sydney which we can't seem to get enough of.

We have confirmed upgrades on United on both transpacific segments using the system wide upgrades I earn for the 100,000 mile 1K status. The ticket costs, if we had to buy them, was $2400 each, but thank you again Citibank and the Thank You program. Our out of pocket was my favorite price...... Free again.

Hotels are a bit more of a challenge as there are very few chain hotels in the area that offer award nights. The cities we will visit are Queeenstown, Te Anau and Lake Wanaka so far on the itinerary. We may add Invercargill as a long day trip through the country side. The sites of primary interest to us are Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound on the southwest corner of the island.

For hotels we are using the Expedia Refer a Friend vouchers we receive for referring you to the program. You too may partake in the vouchers but as I mentioned yesterday Expedia UK is screwed up, and their computer program is not accepting multiple vouchers from the same account, although the promotions allows ten vouchers to be used per person. The workaround is a PITA but can be accomplished with patience. This is an example of:

DO NOT CALL the TRAVEL PROVIDER

I, and several others have tried to get them to correct their programming error and all has fallen on deaf ears. If you decide to participate, PLEASE, do not call them again as they may shut the whole thing down. And before you get involved, read the thread on Flyertalk in the Hotel Forums section on the Expedia Refer a Friend promotion. The beauty of this deal is it lasts all year and we save about $60 per room. So far Katy and I have booked 9 nights at a $60 savings per night. Remember, these are all prepaid rooms. No cancellations or refunds.

So those of you that have gotten the vouchers from us, read the thread, start your referral network, reap the savings and keep your mouths shut if you know what I mean :) Happy savings.

Southwest Airlines Contest

Win a Companion Pass for free Rapid Rewards tickets by registering. Earn other entries by using Southwest partners.

And take a daily spin of the wheel for instant prizes.


Win free travel and a Rapid Rewards Companion Pass for one year!1

Start celebrating! Because with Southwest Airlines® Rapid Rewards Partnerpalooza, you can win all sorts of amazing prizes, including:

Grand Prize: 12 Rapid Rewards Award Tickets and a Rapid Rewards Companion Pass for one year!

First Place: Six Rapid Rewards Award Tickets and a Rapid Rewards Companion Pass for one year!

Second Place: Two Rapid Rewards Award Tickets and A-List status for one year!

Instant-win prizes: Play daily for a chance to win!

Simply make a purchase with any of our Preferred Partners and provide your Rapid Rewards number to receive entries into the Sweepstakes.2 Even applying for the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Card from Chase® or signing up for Rapid Rewards DiningTM will get you closer to a prize.

Visit southwest.com/partnerpalooza to register and get all the details. But hurry; promotion ends September 15, 2009.


$30 Off Your Next Hotel Stay with Expedia

Send me your first and last name along with your email address and I'll forward you a $30 off Expedia Hotel coupon. ingy104@gmail.com