I just read that my beloved Frontier Airlines is going to start charging for the second piece of checked luggage, just as United has already done. Personally, I think it’s a dumb move as the free luggage could be viewed by some as a reason to fly Frontier over United. It won’t matter to either Kim or me as we are both ascent level members, which will retain the second piece for free, but overall I don’t really agree with this decision.

At least we don’t have to use American, which is now charging for any checked luggage. And I guess we better get used to these additional charges, as this is likely just the beginning. If gas continues to rise the airlines are forced into finding new ways to make additional money. There will be no more free food, though a bag of peanuts hardly counts as food. I heard one analyst say that it could go so far as to start charging people for their seat based on their weight!

As you may already know, I love flying on Frontier Airlines. Kim loves it as well, and we both flew with them so much last year that we both are Ascent Level members. Well, nearly two weeks ago Frontier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At first this was a huge concern as a few airlines that also recently filed for Chapter 11 have completely shut down, including ATA, Aloha, and Skybus. And I am still very concerned, but it seems that things are still going as planned for Frontier. Though it appears that they have canceled at least one of the flights between Denver and Indianapolis, and prices seem to be incredibly steep.

Coincidently or not, Southwest just announced that they will now be operating a couple of daily nonstop flights between Denver and Indy. On top of that they’ve started introductory pricing for these flights at $140+ round trip. Given their wonderful rescheduling policies (no fees ever), we’ve already booked a couple of flights for this summer. I don’t think we are going to beat the prices we got, but if we do there is always the option to reschedule the flights for a later time. I haven’t flown with Southwest in a long time, so I’m actually curious to see how their newish boarding procedures are. So if any of you in the Cincinnati/Indianapolis area are planning a summer trip to visit us in lovely Denver, be sure to check out Southwest for your flights.

I’m in Cincinnati and the weather officially sucks! While Denver is a nice sixty degrees outside, I’m sitting near a window watching the mix of snow, rain, ice, etc. falling from the sky. We arrived in Dayton last night and immediately traded in the Ford mustang the rental car company gave to us for an Equinox which is nearly identical to the one Kim has in Denver. No way were we going to drive in a rear wheel drive car with the weather forecast for the next few days being as dreary as it is. If it is going to snow a ton, at least we could get some accumulation on the ground, but that isn’t the case so far. It’s just a wet sloppy mix.

Anyone up for a last minute trip? Next weekend, Jan 17th-20th, we are going to Steamboat for a few days of snowboarding and/or skiing. Currently it’s me, Kim, our friend Tracey, and her brother going. We have room in our rented condo for another one or two people. The cost is $150 per person for three nights in the condo (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). Plus we have some free lift tickets included along with some buy one get one free coupons, so lift tickets shouldn’t cost much. Let me know if you are interested, it will be a great time!

Happy New Year! Here is a list of all of the places I visited last year, with at least one night spent in each place.

• Denver, CO *
• Breckenridge, CO *
• Bethel, ME
• Silverthorne, CO
• Cincinnati, OH *
• Kansas City, MO *
• Boulder, CO
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Midway, UT
• Monticello, UT
• Ann Arbor, MI
• Sunset Beach, NC
• Noblesville, IN
• Honolulu, HI
• Geneva, NY
• Madison, IN
• Playa del Carmen, Mexico

* Visited more than once on nonconsecutive days.

See also: the list from 2006.

It’s official, Kim and I both have reached the Ascent Level on Frontier! We earned this by flying over 15,000 miles in one calendar year. And our miles keep on coming with another flight scheduled before the end of the year for Christmas. One great thing is that we now earn a 25% bonus on frequent flier miles. Other benefits include:

• Free DIRECTV® service
• Priority check-in and boarding
• Preferred seating assignments
• Priority lines at most airport security checkpoints

There are other things too, but these are what I’m most excited about. Free TV being at the top of my list. Flights have never seemed so quick with 24 channels of TV on my own personal screen. And we get all of these benefits at least through the next calendar year. I’m pumped!

You would think with all of our traveling that I would be better at the Travler IQ Challenge, but I’ve only made it to level eight so far, out of twelve. Give it a shot and see if you can get any further. When they start throwing out African countries, I just start guessing.

My apologies for the late update. I have a good excuse though, I’ve already sorted through all of the pictures from out trip and posted those online. Check them out in the gallery.

Now for an recap of the events. We flew into Cancun on Thursday morning. After avoiding the masses of people who wanted to “help” us, we eventually found the ticket booth for ADO, which provides $8 bus trips to Playa del Carmen. Once we finally made it to the resort we met up with everyone else and soon after went out for dinner and then for a stroll along Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue). We ended up in a bar to celebrate Doni’s 40th birthday.

The rest of the weekend, we didn’t leave the resort all that much. Our days consisted of laying on the beach, soaking up the sun, and occasionally some beach activities. I wanted to see some Mayan ruins while we were there, and fortunately they offered a bike tour to some, so we took this trip on one of the days. Another one of our afternoons was spent playing a bocce ball tournament and then with a little boogie boarding.

The trip definitely flew by and before we knew it, we were on a ferry to Cozumel for our flight back to Denver. When we left Mexico it was in the mid 80s and when we landed in Denver it was 14 complete with snow and ice. Talk about a dramatic change. For more details on the trip check out Phil’s site and his recap.

This time tomorrow I’ll be on my way to Mexico. We are heading down to Playa del Carmen to help celebrate Doni’s 40th birthday with her, Phil, and some other friends of ours. I don’t know if we’ll leave the all inclusive resort much, but feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments if you’ve been down that way before. I’m excited to finally use my passport for the first time and especially to have a long weekend to relax. From what I’m told, we won’t have cell phone service, so don’t expect to hear from me until early next week.

Hopefully everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Kim and I spent some time in Cincinnati visiting with our families and friends. It was a great time and I cannot wait to spend even more time there around Christmas. We flew back to Denver on Friday and went out snowboarding for the first time on Saturday morning. Even with the snow from last week, the conditions were still pretty bad. We went to Keystone, our go to place from last season, and they only had 4 lifts running with just as few runs open. After two runs I started to feel a little ill so we drove back home to spend the rest of the day on the couch. I must have had one of those 24 hour flus that seem to be going around. I never got sick, but I had a killer stomach ache for most of the day and massive body pain. It appears to all be gone now. Has anyone else been affected?

As I mentioned last week, we headed to the Finger Lakes region of New York for my buddy Jay’s wedding. This region is the second largest producer of wine in the US, next to Napa Valley. We stayed in Geneva, on Seneca Lake, and explored the wineries around this lake. The wedding itself took place at the Belhurst Castle, and was a wonderful ceremony and an excellent reception. We all had such a great time and wish the newlyweds the best!

Before heading back to Denver, Kim and I made a quick detour to Niagara Falls. It was just over an hour from Rochester, where we were flying out, and Kim doesn’t think she had ever been there before. It was pretty cold for our visit, so we only stayed for a half hour, but we were able to see quite a bit of the area. More pictures from Niagara Falls can be found here, and wedding pictures are located here.