Planning the trip

Not many people plan trips the way this trip was planned. On December 31, 2008 my mother's 48,000 Delta SkyMiles were going to expire and if you know me that was totally unacceptable! We talked about going to Hawaii for lunch, New York City, Louisville for a Christian Ladies Convention, or Texas for my sister's birthday. None of these really excited me as the flights to and from NYC, Dallas and Louisville are usually reasonably priced. I suggested Alaska and checked to see how many SkyMiles we needed to take to take this trip - much to my surprise it was 45,000 miles to travel from Ft. Myers, Florida to Anchorage, Alaska FIRST CLASS!

With the minutes ticking away we decided to book the flight! I used 45,000 of my SkyMiles as well - we each paid $10.00 to book our tickets and we both opted for the travel insurance at a cost of $15.00. Going first class to Alaska for $25.00 is a "real deal" in my book!