Arrived LAX

To get a phone call from Catherine saying our Saturday 9am flight to Austin was cancelled. We dodged a bullet.

Sent from my iPhone

Premature departure

As I mentioned earlier, we made these reservations 340 days ago. There are few seats available for those who are using miles, so savvy travelers make reservations as soon as the flight appears on the computer- 341 days before departure. When we called, we were able to get seats to Sydney and then Auckland on our way out departing LA on Feb. 1. But we could not get a flight from Chicago to LA.;they were not loaded on to the system. I should have waited, but I kept calling and one guy said he could get us to LA thru Oklahoma City. I said sure, since he said I could try to change later. Well I fretted about flying thru Oklahoma City in February. But American changed us to go thru Austin. Much better, I thought. All we had to do was get out of Chicago.
Well we all know about Chicago's weather this winter. I have been following weather.com like a hawk. It looked ok all week, but I woke up early this morning in a panic. Now 5-8 inches of snow beginning at 2 am Saturday morning. So I called American and they put us on a non- stop to LA, leaving on January 31, not Feb. 1. We got our LA flight the day of the flight, tho we couldn't get it 341 days in advance.

TSA precheck

It's like winning the lottery.

Iris

I had to practice sending postings from my iPad to the blog.  So what better subject than Iris at day care.

New Zealand bound

We are headed to New Zealand.  We made our reservations 341 days in advance, so we could use our American Airlines miles.  Therefore we aren't exactly flying a direct route.  We fly to Austin, Texas, Los Angeles,Sydney, and finally to Auckland.  We get a day in Sydney, our first.  We are not going to see Sara' s park, but we should see the Opera House.