Learning to use points differently

It took me a while to learn to appreciate the concept of generosity, both in giving and receiving. I’m still working on things. Like, if someone treats me to dinner or gives me a gift, I tend to feel like I owe them, and it’ll sit with me a little until I “pay it back” in some way. Mainly, though, I’ve wanted to get better at giving.

Looking back at my life, I see myself as having been overly generous with my time (read: poor boundaries) and annoyingly stingy with my money and possessions (still not exactly sure why). I’d drop everything I was doing to help a friend, but if you wanted to split the dinner bill 50/50 when you ordered a drink and I didn’t…

Of course, everyone has limits. I just don’t like how much I was bothered by even small imbalances. I finally realized that I wasn’t happy with that part of myself and am pretty proud of the progress that I’ve made on it.

Getting to the points part, I’ve recently been learning how awesome it is to be able to share the type of travel I get to experience. I was able to help my aunt fly to/from the Philippines in ANA business class, and I’m pretty excited to be able to use my stash to make some memories with my dad and stepmom this year.

Let’s go on a trip

My dad and stepmom have been wanting to get back to the Philippines for a while now, and we thought it would be cool to meet in another country on their way out or back. Well, over the past year, they started realizing that it might be possible for them to take a bit of an extended vacation this winter/spring, and the number of countries kept growing until it became a full-blown trip: Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and South Korea.

Is it gonna be awesome? Absolutely. Are we going to overeat? Probably. Am I going to get sick in the Philippines? I hope not.

The main struggle I’m going have is being in school the whole time, so time management is gonna be a little rough. Please send me all your good luck.

Max and my Allbirds on our way to SFO

My trip kinda started Friday. I flew from DC to San Francisco to drop off Max with his favorite cat lady, then went down to LA to hang with chosen family for the weekend. My dad and stepmom met me in LA, and we left for Tokyo Monday afternoon. I’m actually finishing up this article in the air while flying…

Japan Airlines First Class

I’d had a stash of Alaska Airlines miles for a long time and finally found the perfect way to use them. Japan Airlines flights can be booked using Alaska miles, and our original plan was to fly in the three business class seats I found from New York to Tokyo to the Philippines/Singapore (we’re splitting up for a bit). Driving from Maryland to fly out of New York wasn’t ideal, but it was worth it for the experience of getting to fly together in business class. Each ticket was 65,000 miles and ~$50 per person, and Alaska Airlines gives you a free stopover when booking with miles, which meant we’d get to stop in Tokyo for basically as long as we wanted before continuing on.

But as we got closer to our departure date, I found something pretty rare in the points and miles world: three first class seats together on the same flight. Also, the flight was out of LAX, which was better all around. I could just stay in LA, plus I was able to add on a free connecting flight for them in Alaska first class from DC to LA, so no more having to drive to New York for any of us. And the extra cost for us to move up from business to first class? Only 10,000 miles per person. No brainer.

Pre-pajamas

Getting to treat them to something like this was pretty cool, and hopefully it won’t be the last time. I’m also really excited to get to take them to a bunch of my favorite places in Tokyo and Yokohama. I actually realized just now that I might know Tokyo better than I know LA, which is a little sad considering I lived in southern California for 13 years. Anyways, first up – land of sushi, convenience stores, and customer service.

Post-pajamas