{"id":3895,"date":"2013-10-21T16:08:41","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T23:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jett.in\/?p=3895"},"modified":"2013-11-05T04:31:23","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T04:31:23","slug":"thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights"},"content":{"rendered":"

disclaimer: no, i don’t work for ExpertFlyer<\/a> but i highly recommend that site, especially if you are of the earn-and-burn type like me. while the paid version of EF gets you a lot of features, the most useful for me is setting email alerts for when there’s new availability, in my case, an award seat on an otherwise award-seat-less flight. these alerts have helped me improve my award itineraries more times than i can count — yep, i’m totally taking advantage of the free award changes i get as a higher-level United elite member.<\/em><\/p>\n

i’m a Hello Kitty Jet<\/a> virgin and have been looking forward to flying on one ever since i first heard about them a couple years ago, only to be even more pumped now that they are part of Star Alliance and i can redeem miles for Hello Kitty flights! once they joined i jumped on the chance and booked a flight — SFO-TPE-ICN with the last flight (Taipei to Seoul) being a Hello Kitty flight (on their apple-themed plane). <\/p>\n

for those of you who are not familiar with EVA Air’s Hello Kitty offering, this shall be mine! (hint: use the fullscreen button on the bottom toolbar)<\/p>\n

recently, EVA Airways announced LAX-TPE would be Hello Kitty several times a week (their first long-haul), and i had mostly written it off since there was no business class availability*. i set an ExpertFlyer alert, though, and guess what i got today?<\/p>\n

\"Untitled\"<\/a><\/p>\n

*sidebar: on flying business<\/strong> yeah, i think my Coach 4 Lyfe mantra may be getting a bit old as i get older :P. my plan has been to get out and see a bit of Taipei before my connection so i wanted a good night’s sleep the night before — the original SFO-TPE would have me land in Taipei in time to get into town and into a hotel, but the LAX-TPE gets in in the wee hours of the morning. so, no hotel + MOAR HELLO KITTY AMENITIES = gotta spring for business class.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

i should have just tried to make the change online but figured if i called it in, it’d be quicker. nope. it took me 25 minutes but even though i fed her which EVA Airways flights i wanted (the new LAX-TPE Hello Kitty, keeping the same TPE-ICN one, but upgrading to business), it took a while for her to understand, and then she said it would cost me something crazy because the only SFO-LAX flights available in business\/first were not at the saver award level. (also, she didn’t know BR was the airline code for EVA Airways, but this seems to be common among agents.)<\/p>\n

i guess she didn’t understand how desperately i wanted this flight.<\/em><\/p>\n

“oh,” i told her, “i think i saw a flight that left at noon or something at the saver level?” she put me on hold again (well, no, she was a big fan of dead air; i had to ask “hello?” at least once to make sure i wasn’t disconnected) and voila! that 7h42 min connection in LAX is fine with me — i can get work done in the new lounge<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"Untitled2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ahh, i’m so excited! while this will basically be a repeat of my Royal Laurel experience<\/a> (complete with connecting to to the same type of plane, also in business), this time it’ll be with a double dose of Hello Kitty, and since i’m leaving the airport to go into Taipei, i’ll be sure to check out the Hello Kitty check-in area<\/a> as well on my way to Seoul!<\/p>\n

and you know i’ll have these on:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonk\/statuses\/25642284081387929<\/p>\n

(and of course i set ExpertFlyer alerts for later SFO-LAX flights — *cross fingers* — while i don’t mind spending time at the airport, it is a workday and hopefully i won’t have to leave for the airport in the middle.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

disclaimer: no, i don’t work for ExpertFlyer but i highly recommend that site, especially if you are of the earn-and-burn type like me. while the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights #travel #travelblog","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[289,294,356],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights - Wanderlusty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights - Wanderlusty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"disclaimer: no, i don’t work for ExpertFlyer but i highly recommend that site, especially if you are of the earn-and-burn type like me. while the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wanderlusty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-21T23:08:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-05T04:31:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/jett.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Untitled.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/\",\"name\":\"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights - Wanderlusty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-21T23:08:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-05T04:31:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/\",\"name\":\"Wanderlusty\",\"description\":\"A First2Board Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights - Wanderlusty","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights - Wanderlusty","og_description":"disclaimer: no, i don’t work for ExpertFlyer but i highly recommend that site, especially if you are of the earn-and-burn type like me. while the...","og_url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/","og_site_name":"Wanderlusty","article_published_time":"2013-10-21T23:08:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-11-05T04:31:23+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/jett.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Untitled.png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/","url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/","name":"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights - Wanderlusty","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-10-21T23:08:41+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-05T04:31:23+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/10\/thanks-expertflyer-enabling-double-hello-kitty-flights\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thanks ExpertFlyer For Enabling My Double Hello Kitty Flights"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/#website","url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/","name":"Wanderlusty","description":"A First2Board Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/author\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p436sZ-10P","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3895"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4006,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895\/revisions\/4006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}