Season 2016-17 Plans

jamesdeluxe

jamesdeluxe

Administrator
Staff member
OK, I’ll start – here’s what I have lined up for the coming season:

South Tirol, Italy: Jan 28 to Feb 4
Road trip through the Vinschgau sub-region. Far from a marquis destination (no superlatives in snow or terrain), but it looks like a fun under-the-radar visit. This was supposed to be my early-March Alps trip last season but I bailed due to the snowless first half of the season there and redirected to the canton of Schwyz. Of course, within days of cancelling Vinschgau got buried for the next month.

Valais, Switzerland: Mar 8 to 16
Road trip through the Val d’Anniviers and Val d’Hérens subregions. This is a highly rated off-the-beaten-path region surrounded by far more well-known Verbier, Crans-Montana, and Zermatt.

Colorado I-70 Usual Suspects: Mar 30 to Apr 4
A ski trip/family visit with a combination of Winter Park, Loveland, Copper, or A-Basin (I have some Southwest flight vouchers I need to use before they expire).
 
I expect to be in Canada from Feb. 17 (day before I go into my 3 days at Mustang) through March 7. The last 5 days will be at Whistler to coincide the annual Epic Gathering. We need to come home March 8 because we drive to Utah March 10 for Iron Blosam week.

We would like to go to the Alps around the earlier time frame James is considering. Are you using Venice as the gateway to South Tirol, as it looks the most convenient? I'd be nervous about snow that early in the season in that region, but James was able to bail last year, so I suppose that's possible.

I'm still somewhat tempted just to book flights to Zurich or Geneva, then decide where to go from there later on.
 
Tony Crocker":xn6t9rzp said:
Are you using Venice as the gateway to South Tirol, as it looks the most convenient? I'd be nervous about snow that early in the season in that region, but James was able to bail last year, so I suppose that's possible.
Click to expand...
There are no nonstops from NYC to Venice; I'm flying in/out of Zürich. Venice is actually a longer drive, oddly enough.

My goal is always to land early in the morning so I get at least four hours of arrival-day turns. Also, I've had my eye on a couple sleeper ski areas along the way to South Tirol (about three hours drive time) and back that I want to hit.

Flying into Zürich is also helpful in case I need to redirect to a different region due to poor conditions.
 
I thought it was a fools game to pre-plan ski trips?

Any special trip(s) for this season are 100% not booked or planned yet for me. I suspect I'll be forced to try to book one or possibly two over the next month or so though... Definitely no Euro trips for me. Probably a US one and slight possibility of a Canadian one, but totally up in the air. For that matter too many variables still for booking anything for next summers eclipse either. Hope to pin that one down (ironically) probably before the ski trips.
 
No plans,but Aspen has been a hole in my ski area resume,maybe this year.
I sure would like to chase the APP around LCC ,I'm not sure I still have the skills anymore.
Still waiting for Jamesdeluxe tour package to be offered.
 
Zurich sure doesn't look like the closest gateway to South Tirol to me. Don't you have to drive to Innsbruck and then south through Brenner Pass? That's 4.5 hours per Google maps. It's 3.5 hours via Munich or Venice. Does Munich has NYC nonstops?

EMSC is correct to be concerned about next summer's eclipse. Central Wyoming is thinly populated, attractive for weather and thus hotels are already scarce with high prices and minimum stay requirements. Perhaps EMSC should consult admin about camping advice. Staying slightly outside the path someplace like Cheyenne and then driving in early in the morning might work too.
 
jamesdeluxe":10a9bqty said:
Road trip through the Vinschgau sub-region.
Click to expand...
Tony Crocker":10a9bqty said:
Zurich sure doesn't look like the closest gateway to South Tirol to me. Don't you have to drive to Innsbruck and then south through Brenner Pass? That's 4.5 hours per Google maps. It's 3.5 hours via Munich or Venice. Does Munich has NYC nonstops?
Click to expand...
Yes, NYC has many Munich nonstops but see above: VINSCHGAU SUB-REGION, which is the westernmost part of South Tirol/closer to Zurich and far less traffic leaving the Zurich metropolitan area on a Saturday than Munich.
 
Now I see the area, near the common border with Austria and Switzerland, with road via either country 3.5 hours to Zurich. We might be close if we choose Zurich for Arlberg, Ischgl, Silvretta region. Though I have been to the Arlberg already, Liz has not. And I haven't been there since the Warth connection was put in.
 
Tony Crocker":ac1hsajs said:
Though I have been to the Arlberg already, Liz has not. And I haven't been there since the Warth connection was put in.
Click to expand...
That would be tempting to check out the entire Ski Arlberg, now the fifth-largest lift-connected region in the world. Coincidentally, Lech's Hotel Sandhof just sent out their annual e-mail with 2017 half-board pricing, still a great deal at €1,207:
http://www.sandhof.at/en/packages/jaenn ... hen-3-4_77
 
I got that e-mail too. If Liz really wants to ski the Arlberg, that's a tempting offer. Lech is definitely the right place to be based with the Warth connection as well as the new tram connection to Rauz. The early morning bus schlep over to St. Anton to be in time for Piste-Powder guides was the only downside. Since I know my around better now, I would probably be doing that fewer than 3 days this time, maybe just once for Liz to ski off the back of the Valluga. I know it's also possible to get more convenient guide service from Lech ski school.
 
As ever I started looking for flights when my return flight in 2017 was within 11 months. On the day the UK voted to leave the EU I scored a cracking deal, £518rtn on the route I like ABZ-AMS-MSP-BZN so I snapped it up. That's as cheap a deal as I've seen in many years but as luck would have it a week later it was down to £436. Anyway I am delighted.

I've also managed to eek out an extra couple days this year to take advantage of the £518 deal. I fly out of Aberdeen on Wednesday March 1st at 6am, arriving 11.30pm in Bozeman. My return flight is on Tuesday 11th April which gets me home on Wednesday 12th April. The extra day at the end is ideal as Discovery closes on the Sunday. Last year we closed the hill, I got drunk and before long I was up hungover and packing gear away so I will have the day to say my goodbyes around town.

I'm on the 2nd year of my season pass at Discovery so will be a cheap year. Far too far away to plan any away trips but last year my buddy Jim and his wife Karen and I went for a couple days at Lookout Pass so will likely do something similar this year if nothing else.

Bring it on!
 
as luck would have it a week later it was down to £436.
Click to expand...
In June, United Airlines had a 48-hour sale to any of its European destinations at almost that exact price, $590 US, which I hopped on. I hadn't paid for a flight across the pond in a decade, but it didn't make sense to cash in frequent-flyer miles at that fare level.

ABZ-AMS-MSP-BZN via Delta/KLM? I checked: 19.5 hours, yikes. Timbuktu is closer! :-(
 
I can raise q on both travel time and price!

Nov. 2 - 29 Liz and I are flying LAX-CTN-BKK (that's Bangkok via Guangzhou [Canton]) in 22 hours for $457pp round trip. We thought the $680 we paid to get to Indonesia was a deal, but this one sets a new standard.

FYI I read somewhere recently of the "47-day rule," as being the supposedly optimal time in advance to shop for airfares. This is almost exactly when we bought the Bangkok airfare last weekend.
 
q":2j45ubgv said:
ABZ-AMS-MSP-BZN via Delta/KLM? I checked: 19.5 hours, yikes. Timbuktu is closer!
Click to expand...

Yeah, KLM to AMS and generally Delta operate the rest. I have other options such as BA to Heathrow or Lufthansa to Frankfurt but KLM have 5 scheduled flights a day so chances are if things go wrong I have 1/2 a chance of getting to Montana within a day or two. It's also a lot more than 19.5 hours in reality, that would be cutting way to fine(which I happily do on way home). I'm up at 3.30am UK time on the Wednesday which is around 9.30pm Tuesday in Montana for my journey to the airport and last year I pulled into Jim's house in Butte at 2am on the Thursday! I needed a beer and whisky at that point and we were on the slopes by 11am after picking up my gear in Pburg. 6am out of Aberdeen gives me a bit of room when things go wrong as well as 7 hours to go out in Minneapolis for a look around. I'm not a sleeper so its like a late night out as far as I'm concerned.

On the way back it is down to 16 1/2 hours total time with only 2 hours in MSP and around 1 hour in AMS.
 
Tony Crocker":39mcbddq said:
FYI I read somewhere recently of the "47-day rule," as being the supposedly optimal time in advance to shop for airfares. This is almost exactly when we bought the Bangkok airfare last weekend.
Click to expand...

I check periodically throughout the year and tend to find that for my route its generally lots of peaks and troughs but never much cheaper than what I've paid for. I try to avoid ever paying £600 as a maximum.

Booking early also allows me to pick my seat of choice to allow me to stretch out my dodgy left knee. Airbus A330, 39C!
 
While I definitely try to optimize airfare pricing, I gladly pay a few more sheckles to fly direct routing. SO many opportunities for screw ups for either you, your luggage or both on multi-hop trips. Of course it helps for those having a 'hometown' airport as one of the end points that is very well connected to the world (eg NYC, LA, Den). Not so easy for ABZ or BZN as end points.

Tony what airline is the carrier for the CTN-BKK portion of the trip? Is it a China local?
 
The entire route is China Southern, which gives quarter mileage credit and half Medallion credit on Delta. Thus the routing through their hub in Guangzhou.

Similar pricing was available on China Eastern through Shanghai, but timing was slightly less favorable. China Eastern is a full partner with Delta but their dirt cheap service class Q was excluded from mileage credit.

As a heads up, the consolidator sites like Kayak offer better pricing, but do not show the letter code of service, even after you have paid for your ticket. If you are in a mileage program you need to look up on that program's website to see what letter codes get what level of mileage credit. Then you have to call the site where you bought the ticket to get the code. I spent well over 2 hours on this process last Saturday.

I'm sure we will be cooling our heels in Canton's airport during 4 and 6 hour layovers. China requires applying through a consulate for a $100 visa in advance as I did for the 2008 and 2009 eclipse trips, and the visa is only good for one year. By contrast, this winter we deliberately scheduled 12+ hour daytime layovers in Seoul and Tokyo where we got out for some sightseeing.
 
Tony Crocker":19alext3 said:
China Eastern is a full partner with Delta but their dirt cheap service class Q was excluded from mileage credit.
Click to expand...
I can confirm that the dreaded Q class is a mileage buzzkill. On an upcoming trip to Kenya and South Africa, mostly on American Airlines partner British Airways, I'll be flying almost 22,000 actual miles, but will only get credited 9,000-ish miles because of cheap fares. The trick is to use the Rocketmiles website to book lodging -- you can rack up impressive amounts of miles with them, even at relatively inexpensive hotels.
 
We couldn't resist the Sandhof deal, though we took it for the week starting Jan. 14 as the next week was sold out. But we will stay in Europe an extra 2 weeks, returning home Feb. 5. I grabbed the $942 airfare last night, as it had clean connections, JFK going and Amsterdam coming back (no CDG this time!) plus it's Delta/KLM for maintaining my status and getting 2 free checked bags per person.

As in 2013, we will leave the rest of the time unscheduled for the moment. Through James' education, I now realize there are a staggering number of options in Austria, eastern Switzerland and northeastern Italy for those 2 weeks. Perhaps our paths may even cross this time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top