CategoryVacation Ideas

New Orleans in 2021

Do you wonder what its like to stroll the streets of the iconic French Quarter in New Orleans? Well I did just that for a trip last month. It was the weirdest mix of emotions. I like many others was excited to get back to my monthly trips.  Maybe discover something new in this wonderful world. Like many others the amount of travel that I did last year in 2020 was a drop in the bucket compared to 2019. I was in London and Paris TWICE, I fell in love with Paris that year.

The food options!

There still are many of the things that make New Orleans a special place to visit. Don’t be surprised to find your favorite places closed forever or some still not open yet. Coop’s Place off Decatur was one of those places for me. I sure do miss them! My friend said she ordered a cookbook from them recently and I thought that was a great way to support a local business.

buiscuts and gravy envie cafe new orleansI did eat at my favorite breakfast place twice while I was there. Envie Cafe is amazing! I have been visiting their location off Decatur for years and was excited so see that they have expanded with a 2nd location! Also something that was shocking was the lack of line a Cafe Du Monde, in less than 5 mins we ordered our powdered sugar covered creations and had a table to enjoy them! In all my trips to New Orleans this was my FIRST time eating a beignets from Cafe Du Monde. The line has always been so long and I never wanted to wait for hours.

The music in the air is what can truly relax you. new orleans city water meterIts one of my favorite things about New Orleans, at almost anytime of day you can hear the boys beating on the bucket drums, a mish-mash of a marching band or just a single man playing sweet tunes on a saxophone. I spent some time sitting on the steps in front of the St. Louis Cathedral listening to the wonderful musicians. When talking to some of the local shop owners you could see they too were happy to have people visiting the French Quarter again. My goal is to go back there again in October with my friends for Halloween. We have our hotel already booked, this time were going back to one of our historic favorites Place dArmes Hotel.

bourbon street day time

How do the points add up?

This trip I stayed at the Hyatt Centric right off Bourbon and Canal St. I used my Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book 4 nights in a King room with a Bourbon St Balcony. Usually I would transfer them to Hyatt and book directly with the hotel but for some reason it was less points to book it with the balcony via the Chase portal. My tip …. always compare and make sure you are getting the better deal. I also flew out there on points with Delta. I booked a round trip ticket for 16,000 Skymiles and a $11.20 fee that was credited back to me by using the travel credit with my American Express Platinum.

At the airport in Seattle I sipped beverages and snacked on gourmet food in the American Express Centurion Lounge at SEA. I purposely booked a longer layover at LAX so I could leave security and go to In N Out for lunch! Yes I timed it! With TSA Pre-Check from the park in front of In N Out to inside security it was 30 mins on the nose. I got some sun and one of my favorite burgers too!

Overall

If you are thinking about booking a trip to New Orleans I would highly recommend it. The biggest drawback we saw were the high prices for a taxi for Uber/Lyft to and from the airport. The taxi driver over charged us and it was my fault for not checking. But $45 for 2 people when the city is obviously not packed was a bit of a shock. I guess it was supposed to be a flat fee of $35 for 2 people. He gave himself a nice little tip, one problem, my husband tipped him in cash. So he got $20 out of us total. We took an Uber back to the airport with a much better rate of $31 for 2 people.

Traveling in 2020

As someone who started this year out on a trip in a foreign country I couldn’t have imagined that while I was enjoying New Years Eve in Quebec, Canada less than 3 months later a pandemic would take over the world. This pandemic also known as the Corona Virus, COVID – 19 or to some just the Rona now is still full steam ahead. In the past few days they have released a vaccine but most have yet to receive it. Above is me making a quick stop at the Crowne Plaza in Seattle to park my car before flying to Chicago in December 2020.

New Year’s Eve’s Eve in downtown Quebec, Canada.

Last year I went to London and Paris in January and then back again with my Mom in October. I had so many plans like others to see new parts of the world. Thailand was very high on my list. Now I don’t know when I will be able to visit a country like that again. There are quite a few options on my list but all will have to wait until 2021 and beyond. I have spent all of 2020 in the United States. January, February and March were spent flying to Seattle from Chicago and then back in quick trips. April was a 14 day quarantine with my husband Scott who finally came home from deployment. May I packed all my stuff into a Uhual UBOX and headed out West to live on Whidbey Island. June, July and leading into August was my longest stretch without a flight. I flew back to Chicago in August to have surgery and 5 days later came back to Whidbey Island. At some point I needed my car that was still at my parents house so I hopped on another flight to Chicago, drove south to St. Louis where I picked up my friend Melissa. We then took a wonderful road trip across parts of the United States I had never seen or heard of. Badlands National Park is hands down my favorite stop on the trip. When you Google where that’s located you will see it’s very close to a Corona Virus hotspot known as Stergis.

Badlands National Park

After being home for a few weeks I felt like I wanted to travel somewhere else. With my options limiting me to the United States I decided to visit a friend in Dallas, Texas for the weekend. And finally my last trip of 2020 was back to Chicago to help my parents decorate for Christmas since I won’t be traveling there for Christmas. With all that traveling most would assume that I contracted the Corona Virus at some point along the road. I’m happy to report that I have been lucky enough to stay healthy this whole time. That could only happen

How to make Delta work for you;

So here is the big question …. How to make Delta work for you; In less than a year I was able to earn Medallion Status with Delta Airlines. That is part of the reason why I am writing this. I want others to know how simple it is to achieve Medallion Status. This is not an ad. This is not a commercial. It’s my real life. My messed up crazy – are you kidding me life! Within Delta there are multiple ways to make Delta work for you. By using the Delta Skymiles American Express in conjunction with your planned trips for 2019, 2020 and beyond you can rack up a slew of miles and use them for free flights, upgrades and even Dom Perignon! < – – – YES! That happened at the Sky Club in LAX. I was able to have my first sip of Dom thanks to a few miles that I had in my account!

This was over a 6 month period.

My medallion status has been amazing since I earned it last December. So far I have had so many complimentary upgrades on flights for 2019 I have lost count. I would LOVE to keep that ratio going, yet another reason why the American Express pays for itself. I will say a lot of it had to do with the Delta American Express card in the beginning but depending on how much flying you are doing you might qualify faster. So what is Medallion status and why do you want it? There are quite a few perks for Medallion members but my favorite is the automatic and complementary upgrades issued 24 hours before the flight. Once you check in for your flight if there are any open Delta Comfort or First Class seats available you will be automatically upgraded to that section. This is all of course based on status and a Diamond member will out weigh and Silver member everyday but thats just another level to strive for! Another perk of the Medallion program is you can choose the Sky Club as one of your perks! I LOVE the Sky Club. I have actually been a member for over a year now. That’s a whole different article that I guess I need to write next!

One of the biggest questions is how much money do you spend per year that could be paid for using an American Express? If that number is $25,000 or more than you need to get one of these cards ASAP. Why not get a ton of perks just for what you normally spend. A little back story on me, I am a 31 year old photographer trying to make a living here on planet earth. I LOVE to travel and I convinced Scott to get the Gold American Express. It wasn’t until later that I discovered it all needed to be in my name with my skymiles account to have all the benefits work together. Hence, another reason why I am writing this. I want to help by allowing them to learn from my mistakes instead of having to make them also. You want to start off by figuring out how many flights you will or plan to take in the next 12 to 24 months. Are they International? Domestic? Some of both? I say this because you don’t want to use a card for say Southwest Airlines if you always plan to travel to France or Alaska. There are better cards and programs for you. But back to Delta … my one true love! I have been flying with Delta almost exclusively for the past 7 years. I had to decide between American and Delta when I was living in Key West. Delta’s route was better hands down, you hop on a 737 and fly from Key West to Atlanta and then Atlanta to anywhere! Whereas, with American I would have to get on a little puddle jumper to Miami then fly from Miami to my destination. Why not get where you are going on the first try?

If you travel domestically for the most part and then add a few international trips in there then Delta is for you! That is what my next 12 to 24 months looks like. Before you go and invest all of your time and money into a program, really look at what will work best for you. With Delta they have 3 different cards, the gold, platinum or reserve American Express. I started with the gold and now have the platinum. The annual fee on mine is $198 but it includes a roundtrip companion ticket to anywhere in the world I want to go. The reserve has the companion ticket as well for business class. The annual fee on that card is upwards of $500 last time I checked. Maybe someday…. but for now I am happy to have the 1 ticket for $200! That’s a steal!

Ok so now what? You know Delta will work for you but you don’t know where to begin. Once you have your American Express card you will want to see what things you do in daily life that can get you more miles. I personally use the card as my debit card. Anything and everything that can be charged to that card will be. Another way to pick up a few extra miles is when you’re out with friends and everyone is throwing in cash, pick up the bill and pocket the cash. You will get yourself anywhere from 20 to 200 miles just for doing something simple like making sure to use your card. There are also partner programs that allow you to earn double and triple miles. If you connect them they will automatically deposit miles into your account. I have that set up with the Delta hotel bookings, Airbnb and Lyft. Delta even has an entire section of their website just to show you different ways to earn more miles here. I am not going to lie. I will be putting a link in this article for you to sign up for your own Delta American Express card. I will be 100% upfront and honest that yes it gets me some bonus miles but for me personally I just want to help other people travel the world and see what a wonderful place we live in and what magical things are out there waiting for you! Apply for an American Express Card with this link. We can both get rewarded if you’re approved!