Top 5 Things To Do As You Start The New Year

“THE WORLD IS A BOOK AND THOSE WHO DO NOT TRAVEL READ ONLY A PAGE.” ~ SAINT AUGUSTINE

As we turn the page into 2020, look at your travel goals for this year and next year. Advance planning is the key to saving money on travel. For our trip to Peru and Machu Pichu, I started saving points and miles two years in advance and I booked our flights 330 days in advance. Look at the ages of your children and their personalities, what type of trip will they enjoy in two years. 

Here are the top 5 things you need to do now to save money on travel:

1. If you are not a planner by nature, sit down with your family and brainstorm places you would like to visit. 
2. Check to see which airlines fly to that country or region
3. See approximately how many miles/points you need for each ticket 
4. See which credit cards will help you get there. Remember to look at cards that earn flexible miles/points like Chase Ultimate Rewards or Marriott points. 
5. Make a plan and act on it! 

If you follow this plan each new year, pretty soon, you will be traveling often, for almost FREE, making lifetime memories for your family and giving your children the gift of experiences, culture, traditions and a global perspective. 

Have a wonderful new year from all of us at almostFREEfamilytravel.com 

Easy Ways To Earn The Extra 15,000 For The 2020 Southwest Companion Pass

One of the best emails you can find in your inbox is the one letting you know you earned the Southwest Companion Pass. The BOGO pass is one of the best travel perks around. Valid for two years, you can take a friend along with you on any flight for FREE. The friend must travel the exact same flight and route as you. Plus you can change your "friend" three times each calendar year. 

Pretty sweet! 

Up until Dec. 31, 2019, you needed 110,000 points to earn the companion pass, but starting Jan. 1, 2020 you will need to earn 125,000 points. So the question is what is the quickest and easiest way to earn those extra 15,000 points?

Here are a couple of ways to do it:

1. Fly and earn miles, duh

2. Open a Southwest credit card (see this post to help you decide which one)

3. Open a Southwest business credit card (see this post to decide which one)

3. Charge everything to the Southwest credit card 

4. Use the Southwest shopping portal 

5. Use Rocketmiles to book hotels 

6. Use Southwesthotels.com to book hotels 

7. Rapid Rewards Dining 

8. Hotel and Car rental partners

9. Refer a friend to open a Southwest Chase credit card 

Unless you are flying or charging to the Southwest credit card, be sure to check the fine print to confirm that the points will count towards the companion pass. From Southwest.com the fine print says you can actually start purchasing from partners now and the points won't post until 2020 so they will be counted in the next calendar year. 

Partner	Points count toward 2020 Companion Pass if…	When do points post to your account?
Laithwaite's Wine®	Purchase date in 2019	6-8 weeks after purchase date
Rapid Rewards Shopping®	Purchase date in 2019	6-8 weeks after purchase date
Rocketmiles	Stay completed in 2019	4-6 weeks after purchase date
Rapid Rewards Dining®	Dining completed in 2019	4-6 weeks after dining
1-800-Flowers.com®	Purchase of flowers completed in 2019	6-8 weeks after delivery completed
Reliant Energy	Points must be posted to account in 2019	Points post within 8-12 weeks
NRG Home	Points must be posted to account in 2019	First month’s points after 8 weeks
MakeItCount™ - Marathon	Points must be posted to account in 2019.	Points will post within 72 hours of the purchase or action that qualified for the earn offer
PlacePass	Experience completed in 2019	6-8 weeks after experience completed
Harry and David	Purchase completed in 2019	6-8 weeks after delivery completed
Rewards for Opinions	Points must be posted to account in 2019	Points will post within 6 weeks of completed activity

Note that miles transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards and Marriott DO NOT count towards the companion pass. Buying points and transfers or gifts of points also DO NOT count. Good luck and happy flying! And if you decide to open a Southwest credit card, please consider using my referral link. Thank you for your support. 

Happy Holidays!

“LIFE IS EITHER A DARING ADVENTURE OR NOTHING AT ALL” ~ HELEN KELLER

From my family to yours, we wish you lots of travel and adventure in 2020. 

Stephanie Antin

AlmostFREEfamilytravel.com

Two Weeks Left To Get 2x Hilton Points On Stays

If you are planning any hotel stays over the holidays, you may want to take advantage of this Hilton Fall promotion. You will earn double points on any stays completed by Jan. 5, 2020. If you have a Hilton Honors American Express card, you can earn triple points. 
You need to register for the Power Up promotion before booking your stay. 

Another promotion from Marriott ends Dec. 22nd. This one offers you 30% off if you buy points which works out to $8.75 per 1,000 points. I don't usually buy points except if I need to top off an account. But if you need some Marriott points, then now may be the time. 

Watch for deals and new promotions starting Jan. 1. 

Chase FREEDOM 5X Q1 Categories Revealed

One of my favorite no annual fee cards is the Chase Freedom. It earns Ultimate Reward points at 2x and every quarter there are 5x bonus categories. Past categories have included warehouse clubs, grocery stores, Paypal, Chase pay, streaming services and more. You can max out these categories up to $1500 so that's pretty sweet. 

Chase just announced the Q1 categories for 2020 and they are, drumroll please:

• Gas Stations 
• Select Streaming Services 
• Internet, Cable and Phone Services

Out here in California, gas is pretty steep so just charging my gas to the Chase FREEDOM card for 3 months will add up to some pretty nice savings. Also if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred along with the FREEDOM, you can combine your points and use them to book travel through the portal making them even more valuable. See my past post for how this works.  That's how we do it at almostFREEfamilytravel.com

5 Great Things To Do With Tweens In London

Tower Of London FREE tour with your ticket

London is a great city to explore with tweens and teens. There is so much to do,  no language barrier, easy public transit and affordable. So with so much to do, where do you start?
Here are some ideas, of course, there are many more things to do, but here are a few ideas:

1. Tower of London and the Crown Jewels - This may seem touristy at first look, but it's a great look back at history plus the FREE 1-hour tour is fantastic. Look online for discount tickets, but you must buy these in advance and bring your email voucher to the window to exchange for tickets. Even so, the Tower is not cheap with prices L24.70 for adults and L11.70 for children. Your ticket includes the Crown Jewels exhibit which has a separate line inside and is a stunning display of crowns, sceptres and jewels. 

Standing inside the hallway leading to the House Of Commons

2. Sit inside Parliament - This is an amazing opportunity to sit inside the House of Parliament and the House of Lords. Both houses have a public viewing area. You can check the website online to see the day's agenda. If you visit on Wednesday, you may even get to see the Prime Minister. This is FREE, but you have to wait in line for security so leave lots of time. 

The Making Of Harry Potter is a must do!

3. Visit The Making Of Harry Potter Studio - So whether you are a Harry Potter fan or not, you will want to visit this studio outside of London. It's an amazing look inside what it takes to create a blockbuster movie. This time, one of the artists who created the masks was there showing us how the masks were made. You have to buy your tickets online and in advance. Then you take a train from the London Euston Station to Watford Junction. Trains leave frequently, but some are direct which takes about 20 minutes and others stop more often and take about an hour. The HP shuttle will pick you up at the train station, but bring cash to pay the fare. 

Variety of bite size sandwiches and hot tea are served first 

Followed by an impressive dessert tray

4. Traditional Afternoon Tea - So this is a must while in London. There are lots of options and I would check groupon.com to see if you can get a deal. My personal favorite is the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory AfternoonTea at the OneAldwych Hotel.  It's a bit pricey, but this meal can cover both lunch and dinner plus it's an experience. 

5. See A Live Theatre Show - London rivals New York City for live theatre. However, London theatres are smaller and more intimate than the NYC counterparts. You can find discounts online for shows and at the 1/2 price ticket booth in Piccadilly Circus. 

Other notable things to do include the Churchill War Museum, The London Eye, Buckingham Palace changing of the guard and more. Let us know what other gems you find in the comments below.

New! Southwest Makes Locating Your Travel Funds Easier

Southwest prides itself on transparency, but using your old travel funds was one place where the airline didn't make it easy. Now that's changed. 

Travel funds are the $5.60 per ticket that you pay when you use points to fly on Southwest, any tickets you paid for, but canceled at least 10 minutes before the flight, LUV vouchers or gift cards. 

You have to use these funds within one year of booking your canceled ticket, but remembering how much you have was difficult.  

I stopped holding the funds for future use because they only way to use them was to refer to the confirmation code and who holds on to that? Plus you could only use the funds for a ticket in your name. 

That hasn't changed. You can still only use the funds for a ticket in your name, but now keeping track of those funds is a whole lot easier. 

How to find your travel funds:

• Sign in to your Southwest Airlines account
• click on my account
• see a tab called My Travel Funds. 
• If you click on that, you will see your funds listed. 

Only funds from tickets canceled since December 3rd will be shown right now. You can still lookup funds with the confirmation code. 
Southwest has the most flexible cancellation and ticket change policy around and again, the airline is making it easier for consumers. You can check out my previous post on how to change your Southwest flight here. 

Book Now Before Hyatt Changes Awards

Following in the footsteps of other hotel brands, Hyatt is changing its award structure starting in March 2020 to off-peak, standard and peak pricing. 

However, if you book now and a hotel drops to off-peak, you will receive the difference back. If you book now and a hotel increases, you will not be charged the difference. 

Before Wyndham changed its award structure from 15,000 points for all rooms to a range of 7,500 - 30,000 points last year, I booked the New Yorker hotel in NYC and the Super 8 in Kalispell, Montana. The New Yorker did increase from 15,000 to 30,000 per night so that was a good move. The Super 8 did not change at all. And in case you are wondering why I was concerned about a Super 8 in Montana, this Super 8 is located just outside the gate of Glacier National Park and we were there in August which is high tourist season. 

My daughter fed the birds each morning at the Hyatt Regency Maui

At this point, we don't know which Hyatts will drop in points and which ones will increase. But the point range will be from 3,500 - 45,000 per night. We also don't know what is considered off peak, standard or high peak. But you can probably make an educated guess and you have nothing to lose if you book early. 
The number of award categories will remain the same. 
Right now, Chase is offering a World of Hyatt credit card that has a $3,000 minimum spend for a bonus of 25,000 points which can net you a lot of category 1 nights if you go that route. 

How To Visit New York City On A Budget

Walking near Seaport across from Brooklyn

The big apple can take a big bite out of your wallet. But if you do some advance planning, you can visit New York City on a budget.
I always start with flights when planning my trips because when you travel as a family, you have to be flexible. For this trip to New York City, I was able to use Southwest points for my ticket and add my daughter as my companion so she flew for FREE.
You can read my previous post on how to earn the Southwest companion pass for two years here.
The hotel comes next. I start with awardmapper.com to see which hotels are in the city and how many points they require to book. For this trip, I tapped the Wyndham New Yorker for 15,000 points per night. Since I booked, Wyndham added three tiers for point redemption and unfortunately, they raised the points for this hotel to 30,000 per night.

Our hotel room at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel

I still think the New Yorker offers great value even at the increased rate. It is well located just 5 blocks from Times Square and next to Penn Station.  Our room at the New Yorker was huge plus the hotel is historic and bursting with charm.
For transportation, there is no better way to get around New York City than with the subway and your feet. On the subway, each ride costs $2.75. When you are ready to go to JFK airport, take the LIRR to the Skytrain. Total cost will be approximately $20 per person. The subway is less, but takes much longer. And of course, taking an Uber is way more expensive and can take just as long depending on traffic,
Now that we have our flights and hotels booked with points, we can move on to food and experiences.

View from our hotel room and our yummy bagel

My favorite bagel store, Liberty Bagels, is located across the street from the New Yorker next to the Starbucks. They told me they are opening a second location too. If you like vegan cream cheese, this is your place. And a huge bagel with smear costs approximately $6. Wow!

The line moves fast and the slices are big! 

Joe's Pizza is also a steal of a deal. Located right off Times Square, you can get a huge piece of delicious authentic NY pizza for just a few bucks per slice.
There is so much to see in New York City, you will just have trouble deciding what to do. Remember to check out Todaystix.com and the half price ticket booth for Broadway shows.
And have fun!

Travel Deal Tuesday - Where To Find The Deals

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, get ready for Travel Deal Tuesday! Yep, December 3rd may be the day for travel deals. According to Skyscanner, Travel Deal Tuesday usually has better deals than Black Friday, but not as good as Cyber Monday. 

However, Tuesdays are traditionally discount days to book travel. 

That said, here are some places to look for deals:

1. Travel Zoo - Great package travel deals, but do your homework. Some deals include $299 for an 8-day tour to China flights included, $599 4-night tour including flights to Iceland to see the Northern Lights. If you figure, just the flights alone could cost more than the whole package, it might be worth it. Wow! 

2. 3rd party sellers like Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Cheaptickets.com and Orbitz.com

3. Watch the shopping portals for increased cash back 

Good luck! and happy traveling! 

Giving Gratitude When You Travel

My daughter handing out stickers to the children in the Zambia village

On this Thanksgiving Day, I feel thankful that I get to travel and help my children experience the world, history, traditions, other cultures, and people. But I also get to show them that no matter where we go we can give back to others. 

When we traveled to South Africa, we brought along stickers, toys and pencils for the children in the township and villages. When we were in Panama, we brought arts and crafts for the children in the Embera village. When we were in Cuba, we brought towels, socks and chocolates for the families there. 

In our own small way, we become not just tourists, but agents of goodwill and we model that for our children. I am also blessed to educate families about how they can afford to travel the world and have the same experiences. 

On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the blessings I experience and the ones I am able to bestow on others. 

Black Friday And Cyber Monday Travel Deals

Get ready for the biggest shopping days of the year, Black Friday or the day after Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving. 

Though these shopping days traditionally focus on retail deals, travel won't be left out of the mix. 

Here are our top 5 places to look for travel deals:

1. Southwest Vacation Packages - already you can check out the site and offers range from $250 off to an extra night FREE. We did a quick search for a San Diego vacation and it came up with 3 nights at Paradise Point Resort with flights for two people for $662. When I checked, rooms at Paradise Point for those dates were going for about $160 per night and flights on Southwest were going for $295.92 for two people. So the vacation package is a savings of about $125. Not too bad. 

2. Cruises - like Celebrity Cruises are promising good deals starting on Nov. 26th. You can check those out here.  

3. Amtrak is promising a super sale going live on Nov. 29th. We don't know what type of deals the company will be offering at this point. 

4. Airline Deals - According to Hopper.com, look for flight deals from Aer Lingus, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and TAP Portugal. 

5. Legoland New York - will be opening July 2020, but on Black Friday, the resort will be offering 50% off an annual pass so the price will be $99. And the best part is that the pass will be good for 30 other Merlin Entertainment parks around the country. 

In addition to these top deals, you might want to check out hotels.com which will be offering scratch off card discounts and Priceline.com which will offer daily deals. 

And if that's not enough, Travel Deal Tuesday is December 3rd. Travel experts say the best deals actually fall on Tuesday as travel operators try to entice procrastinators to book a winter getaway. 

Good luck and happy travels! 

Early Black Friday Deal: Cash Back At Amazon!

If you do most of your shopping on Amazon, it's hard to find cash back deals on that platform. Amazon does not participate in most of the shopping portals. And as you know, I love shopping portals because it's a great way to double or even triple your miles/cash back from a single purchase. You can check out this past post on how to use shopping portals.
Now Rakuten, formerly Ebates, is offering up to 5% cash back on Amazon.

When you click on the Amazon link from Rakuten, there is a quick list of the cash back offers in different categories. Here's a look at that list and you can see it varies greatly, but it's better than zero which is the norm for Amazon.

If you use my referral link to Rakuten, you will get an additional $10 off your first purchase of at least $25. Happy shopping!

How To Upgrade For FREE On Southwest

        One of the perks of the Southwest Priority card is 4 upgrades on flights per year. So is this perk worth it? And how does it work?
        Southwest has a different kind of boarding plan. When you check-in 24 hours before your flight, you are assigned a boarding group and a number. The number is your place in line to board. Then once you are on the flight, it is open seating. When you check-in, if you get boarding group A, then you are styling. But if you get boarding group C, then you might want to think about using your upgrades if you like window or aisle seats or if you are concerned that the overhead luggage bins may fill up.

If you are a family with children under the age of 5, disabled or military, Southwest has special boarding between the A and B groups. However, the upgrade is good for spots A6-A15 which could make a difference.
With the Southwest Priority credit card, you get four upgrades per year. You can use them for yourself, family members or friends. You can use them all at once or one at a time. Upgrade typically costs between $30-$50 and you buy it from the counter at the gate.
On a recent flight from Las Vegas, NV to Buffalo, NY, we noticed the flight was very full.
Even though I had boarding group B23, there were a lot of children waiting to board.
And the upgrades are use it or lose it, they refresh on your anniversary.
So I decided to test it out. The charge to upgrade on this flight was $50 per person and I upgraded both my daughter and I because my anniversary is in November. Use it or lose it!

We upgraded from B23 to A10. So there was plenty of space on the plane to choose from when we got on board. We were able to sit in one of the first few rows and we were able to secure an entire row which was nice so my daughter could sleep on the late-night flight.
You need to pay for the upgrade with your Southwest Priority credit card and because my daughter was flying with me on a companion pass, she had to run it as two transactions.
The Southwest employee told me that the credit wouldn't go through until my anniversary date, but it actually went through immediately.

Here are the details on the  Southwest Priority  credit card

• $149 annual fee for the first year
• $75 Southwest credit 
• 7,500 anniversary points annually
• 2x on Southwest purchases
• 1x on everything else
• 4 FREE upgrades 

If you decide to apply for this card, please consider using my referral link. Same deal for you, but it helps me continue to bring you tips and advice on how to travel for almost FREE. 

How I Flew To London r/t For Just $350

My daughter and I in front of Buckingham Palace

     When my daughter finished the entire series of Harry Potter, six months faster than I anticipated, I started thinking about a quick fall trip across the pond.
     And guess what? Best decision ever.
     October is what they call in the travel biz, low season or off-peak. That means great deals for you if you can adjust your schedule. Usually, I use points to travel, but this trip, I was able to find a flight for $125 from JFK to London Gatwick on Norwegian Airlines. I reviewed what it was like to fly on  Norwegian Airlines in this post. For that price, it's worth it just to pay cash. I purchased the flight with my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card since I was trying to reach the minimum spend on that one plus travel earns 3x points so it's a win-win. This is my new favorite card and you can check out the reasons why here. If you decide that the Reserve is too steep, then check out the Preferred and use my link. 

London offers so many awesome things to do

      On the return, I looked at flying back to JFK, but found that flights all the way to Los Angeles cost the same price about $225. So why waste time and Southwest points to get from New York to the west coast.
      So for $350 per person, we got two round trip tickets to London. Since the Sapphire Reserve includes a $300 travel credit, we actually spent just less than $500 for the flights. Plus made a dent in the minimum spend and got 1,500 Chase Ultimate Reward points. I talk about how to use those points for incredible savings in this post.
      I'll talk about some great things to do with tweens in London in a future post, but the bottom line is if you can swing an off-peak trip to Europe, it will save you a ton of money and miles.
       If you decide to apply for the Sapphire Preferred, please use my referral link. It will help support this blog. 

Why Priority Pass Lounge Access Is Great For Family Travel

       

We added a slice of cheesecake at Bobby Vans

         My new favorite credit card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I have been waiting almost a year to drop under 5/24 so I could be approved for this card. Chase limits you to five credit cards every 24 months. This includes all credit cards not just Chase cards. So you have to be strategic when applying for cards. I reached my 5/24 limit a year ago when I applied for two Southwest credit cards in order to secure the companion pass.
          But recently I dropped below again as some old cards began to fall off. Woohoo!
You can check out my past post comparing the Sapphire Reserve vs the Preferred if you are interested and consider using my referral link if you decide to apply.
One of the perks included in the Sapphire Reserve card is FREE membership to the Priority Pass Lounge network. The network has 1200 lounges in 143 countries.

         You have to activate your membership, but it's a simple online process. Then you will receive your card in the mail. You do need to carry your card with you if you plan to use the lounge network. You can also enroll in the mobile app.
         You can check the website to see what lounges are available in different cities around the world.
Some airports offer a variety of lounge access in different terminals with snacks, wifi, drinks even showers.
         But here's the best part, some airports offer credits at specific restaurants. On the website, you will see the restaurant, menu, credit offered, hours and any other pertinent information. On a recent flight from JFK to London, we saw that Bobby Vans Steakhouse was on the lounge site.

          The restaurant was past security in terminal 8  so you need a valid boarding pass and be sure to leave enough time to go back through security again in your flight terminal. But the restaurant offered $28 per person credit. With the Sapphire Reserve, your membership is good for you and a guest. Most entrees at Bobby Vans run about $15-$30 so it's very generous. You will still need to pay tax and gratuity.


       
       My daughter and I enjoyed Ahi Tuna Burgers, Baked Mac And Cheese and a slice of cheesecake for dessert. The bill came to $63 dollars and then they deducted the $56 credit. Pretty sweet! And sure beat the dinner served onboard our flight to London.

The Grain Cafe in London Gatwick

         On our way home from London Gatwick, we noticed the Grain Cafe was also included in the Priority Pass Lounge network. This cafe is located on the second floor after you pass through the security while you are waiting for your gate to be announced on the board so it's super convenient.
          The cafe has sandwiches, baked goods, salad, coffee, tea and much more. The 15 pound per person credit goes a long way. We actually asked for everything we wanted and the sales person told us we will had 5 pounds left and stuck a few croissants in our bag. YUM!

Grain Cafe Staff Puts Extra Croissants In Our Bag

        Since we took away here, there was no tax or gratuity so they just handed us our food and off we went.  The value of this perk on this trip was approximately $100. Even though the annual fee is $450 on this card, the perks make this card totally worth it.
In a future post, I'll review the Chase Travel Portal and how my daughter flew to New Orleans for $45.
That's how we do it at almost FREE family travel.

What I Thought About My First Time Flying With Norwegian Airlines

I have to be honest with you, I was a little nervous about flying on Norwegian Air on my recent flight from JFK to London. I had never flown on the airline before and since it is a discount airline, I wanted to make sure I followed all of their rules so I didn't end up paying with my wallet. 

I booked a "lowfare plus" ticket online so I could choose my seat because I was flying with my 13-year-old and we wanted to sit together. If you don't upgrade, the airline will assign you a seat at check-in. But even with the upgrade, the ticket cost me $125 per person. You can't beat that!

Be sure to join Norwegian's Loyalty program, you will earn a few miles and you can apply them to any future flight. The upgrade also came with meals onboard and we got to choose if we wanted regular, vegetarian or vegan.  

My small carryon bag got approved! 

          After seat selection, the next item discount airlines try to upcharge you for is luggage. Norwegian allows all passengers one small carry on and one personal item. If you upgrade to lowfare plus, you get a checked bag for FREE. If you typically check a bag, I highly recommend this upgrade when you book your ticket. Don't try to pay at check-in! It gets really expensive. We saw people at check-in paying hundreds of dollars for their suitcases. 

       You get a small carry on for FREE, BUT the airline takes this very seriously. They actually do it by weight and not size at check-in. Your bag has to weigh less than 10 kg. The service rep told me if it's slightly over, she will pass it through anyway. But when my bag weighed 11.2 kg, she said no way and asked me to pay $100, ouch. 

And here's the kicker, it's not just your carryon bag, they put your personal item on the scale too. Needless to say, once she did that I was pretty far over 10kg.

           The rep was helpful and suggested I take things out of my suitcase like my shoes and toiletries to bring the weight down. 

Now I'm standing at the counter with my shoes, laptop and toiletries in my arms, but we did it and she approved my bags without charging me. 

Once we left the counter, of course, I stuffed all of the items back in the suitcase. Not sure what this process proved, but consider yourself warned. 

On the return flight from London Gatwick, they actually checked bags again at the secondary security. This time they had a bin and seemed concerned about the size of the bag. 

Boarding the airplane was another experience. Each boarding pass has a letter on it assigning you to a group. However, there is no signage about where to line up like Southwest Airlines and the reps just call out the groups and a mass of people crowd toward the door. 

Everyone has an assigned seat, but I think people were concerned about overhead bin space. 

It took a long time to get everyone on the plane.

Once we were onboard, the plane was quite nice. It was a Dreamliner so my teen had a great time dimming the windows. I thought there could have been more legroom, but I flew Southwest this past weekend and I think it was about the same. The flight crew was super nice and attentive. I didn't eat the meals because we visited the Priority Pass Lounge. I'll be writing a blog post about this perk that you will need to check out. The entertainment system offered a decent movie selection too. 

One thing that surprised me in the week leading up to the flight, I received several emails like this one offering me a chance to bid on upgrades. Apparently several airlines including Aer Lingus offer auctions for upgrades. Some passengers report scoring an upgrade for the minimum bid, but it seems like many are denied. It all depends on how many empty seats are on the plane. 

Would I fly Norwegian Air again? Definitely. It cost me $350 round trip JFK-London-LAX. Yep, I would say that's worth it. That's how we do it at almost FREE family travel.