- I'm back in Chicago, getting ready to answer
the age old question: just how high can you get
with Aeroplan miles?
Higher.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah.
(upbeat music)
This is Have Points, Will Travel.
I'm back in Chicago today flying to Istanbul
in Turkish Airlines business class
on my way to Cappadocia.
To book this, we transferred 58,000 American Express points
to Aeroplan and used them to cover the ticket cost
of 57,500 miles.
In order to earn these miles,
you could spend on the American Express Platinum
or American Express Gold and thanks to those points,
the ticket only cost about $7.
Aeroplan charges fewer miles than other programs
for the same redemption and doesn't pass on fuel surcharges
for Turkish Airlines flights
making this a very valuable redemption.
There are other ways to book this exact itinerary.
Capital One points transfer to Aeroplan for example,
but they would charge about 20,000 more points
for the exact same itinerary.
Ooh.
To find availability in Turkish business class,
I recommend you look last minute like we did
or five or more months in advance
and if you don't find anything,
you could set an alert on Expert Flyer.
(upbeat music)
Great, thank you so much.
Cheers.
I don't have anyone next to me, so that is a huge plus.
(upbeat music)
This is my third time flying Turkish Airlines business class
and so far I will say, it's just as good
as every other time.
High five to Turkish Airlines, 'cause they're killing it.
(upbeat music)
The meal was restaurant quality.
So many airlines advertise their food is at that level
but very few actually meet it and this was perfect.
Just got changed for bed but I can already tell
one of the issues I'm gonna have
is it's too freaking hot.
No matter how comfortable the seat is,
if the cabin is too hot, you can't sleep.
There's no personal air vents, so this could be a rough one.
It was a little bit hot last night,
a little bit too hot to sleep.
That's actually why I always wear shorts
because I find you can always get warmer using a blanket
but it's very hard to cool down
and most airlines, they leave the cabin too hot.
You can actually ask them to turn the temperature down
which I recently learned.
We've got about an hour and 47 minutes left.
(upbeat music)
(gentle exotic music)
Well here's how this shoot's going so far:
this morning I was supposed to be on a hot air balloon.
Canceled.
All right, I'll go shoot sunrise, no colors.
Well as I just learned, nothing gets your blood pumping
in the morning like being chased by a herd of wild dogs.
And they chased me up on top of one
of these fairy chimney things.
Go home.
I posted a little video about that two weeks ago
so subscribe so you don't miss things like that.
This has been a lesson in how to handle things
when they don't go according to plan,
but you know what?
I'm super thankful to have the experience
of when these plans fall apart.
For me, that's actually one of the best things about travel
and you just gotta roll with one.
Shooting sunrise right now.
These fricken puppies.
Gonna bump into my stuff.
I still have a couple more days to explore
so, I'm gonna show you a little bit more
of what this place is all about.
Oh, no.
Well for the third time this trip, balloons are canceled.
On the way here, my driver got a call
that they're not flying because of wind.
Ahh, it's a little bit rough, but um,
maybe something will change.
They say 50 50 right now.
(gentle exotic music)
Okay, big time turn of events.
I found someone with one seat left.
- It's good to go.
- Oh my God. - Get ready for flight.
- I bought it last minute so I'm going up.
(fire roaring)
(upbeat music)
- Okay, let's go.
- Look how high we are already.
So close.
(fire roaring)
(upbeat music)
Can you think of a better reason to get up
before sunrise?
- Probably not.
(laughing) - No.
(upbeat music)
It's quiet, I mean it's just so silent.
- Wind, apart from. - Apart from the wind.
And the huge, the burner.
The crazy thing is they're gonna try to land this
on the back of these trucks.
(upbeat music)
Ohh!
(cheering)
Nice work.
Perfect.
It looks like now they're putting together
some sort of a champagne celebration.
I didn't know any of this because I hopped on
at the last minute, but I'm into it.
- Three!
(cheering)
- Cheers. - Cheers.
Thank you.
Well it's only 8:15 in the morning, but,
it's not in my religion to say no to complimentary alcohol
so cheers.
(upbeat music)
I just wanted to wrap things up since I left Cappadocia
so quickly after the hot air balloon.
It's naive to think you won't have cancellations,
plan changes, stuff like that happens all the time
so when you go to a cool place, just enjoy the experience
of being there, don't worry too much about things
getting messed up and at the end of the day,
it leads to get stories which you can bring back
so, you know what, it's not so bad in the end.
Plus, for me, it worked out pretty well so.
(laughing)
Just stay positive and that's really all you can do.
See you soon.
(beeping)
Seat lacks a little bit of privacy.
(baby crying)
I'm laughing because every time I've been trying to do this
for the last two minutes.
(baby crying)
- [Intercom] (speaking in foreign language)
- [Ian] Thanks for watching this episode.
Subscribe to the channel to get all of our best travel tips
and for a sneak peak of where I'm off to next.