Growing up me and dad would do a ski trip every couple of years or so. Well our tradition took a hiatus for 6 years but we decided to head to Banff to ski and snowboard Lake Louise Ski Resort and Sunshine Village for our father son trip. In the past we went to the Salt Lake area doing a different ski resort each day and on another trip we went out east to Killington and got a taste of east coast skiing and snowboarding. Banff was by far the most scenic place I have ever snowboarded at and both the ski resorts had some great terrain!

The flights were actually booked many months ago to Calgary. Part of the reason for our decision to go to Banff for skiing was we had nearly perfect flights and were able to book the flights for 25,000 Delta miles round trip each (hey no money for the tickets!). That is cheap in miles too. The flights typically range in the $500 range so this was a great value and the best part was we met up in Minneapolis for our final connecting flight into Calgary and back home.

While we’re still in the midst of summer I have just booked my yearly ski trip and this time I am heading to Banff and Lake Louise up in Canada! The best part is that I was able get my myself and my dad to Calgary (YYC) for nearly free thanks to Delta award miles. While Delta runs a great airline I am not too keen on their frequent flyer program which means I limit my flying on them. For example, Delta has been trimming away their value of their miles for years and now they don’t even publish an award chart anymore… with more devaluation on the way for 2016 it was time to burn the miles I had left with them. In general it is really hard to find saver award space on Delta flights but we lucked out and both roundtrips were only 25k miles for MLK weekend with nearly perfect times (I only had 27k so it worked!). We also ended up on the same flights for both of the legs between Minneapolis (MSP) and Calgary (YYC). Flights to Calgary are usually in the $500 range so this ends being a great redemption of 1.74 cpm after backing out the $65 in taxes, so there can be some value to Delta miles!

Growing up in the Midwest and being an avid snowboarding I know not to expect too much at the local ski resorts but I have been pleasantly surprised every time I have been to Perfect North. First off, Perfect North is an Indiana ski resort which right there doesn’t make much sense with Indiana being as flat as a pancake. Last year I went to Perfect North for the first time after record snowfall in Indiana and hit all the most difficult runs on my snowboard but this year I wanted to learn how to ski there and thought it would be the perfect place to try.

To start off with I went there on a day trip with a group of 9 friends and most had not skied or snowboarded ever. While heading to the line to get a lift ticket a lady stopped us and offered for us to join their group to get discount lift tickets. This was awesome as the price came out to $48 total for an 8 hour lift ticket and rental compared to the standard $47 for a lift ticket and $25 for rental. For future reference groups must register online before coming but can add any amount of people as long as their is a minimum of 15 people. After getting the tickets situated we headed to down to the basement of the lodge to pickup rentals and it was packed like any typical Midwest ski resort. I found a decent pair of ski boots and struggled to put them on as I am used to snowboard boots which are not only easy but relatively comfy.

For my first trip of 2015 I booked a Colorado snowboarding trip over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend with some old buddies. I managed to book the flights nearly four months ago thanks to Southwest’s generous cancellation policies. They allow you to cancel and rebook flights up to 24 hours prior to flight, granted you don’t get your money back directly, the difference does become a travel voucher which is good for use within one year. With this is in mind, I was able to rebook the flights later on and ended up saving an additional $25 which I will use when I head back to Colorado later this summer. The actual flights themselves went without a hitch and got window seats both ways. I bought the early bird add-on for the return flight because I knew I would be stuck in the middle of the mountains with limited coverage in order to check-in within 24 hours to secure a decent boarding position.