The Beauty of Using Miles for High-risk Travel Destinations

How do you define “unacceptable risk” when researching your next trip? Some only look at US government travel advisories and plan accordingly. Others go to travel discussion boards (there are many on Reddit) with the hope of finding real-life traveler experiences on the ground.

Naturally, it’s ill-advised to travel to an active war zone, for all kinds of reasons. The same goes for destinations that just suffered a natural disaster, like the recent earthquake in Turkey. If you go, you put yourself at risk, not to mention potentially divert scarce resources away from locals.

I absolutely would never consider going to North Korea or Iran. I also made peace with the fact that I won’t be able to visit my home in Belarus as long as the current regime is in charge. This is a tough pill to swallow because I have elderly parents there. My dad’s failing health is a ticking time bomb, and it hurts to think that someday I may not be able to go to his funeral. But such is life and since I have young kids, it’s a risk I’m not willing to take at this time.

Belarus is a weird one. On the surface, life there looks totally normal, aka safe. In fact, my mom can’t understand why I feel the way I do. Sure, there is a war going on next door, and military planes are occasionally visible in the sky. And yes, there are Russian soldiers everywhere. Sure, the border can close any day. But otherwise everything is normal.

At times I see so-called experts compare Belarus to fascist Italy under Mussolini. In my opinion, it’s actually closer to Vichy WW2 regime in France, with a puppet government controlled by Russia.

Recently I saw a video of everyday life in Paris during the war. You would never know anything was off. Cafes were open, and life seemed totally normal, mundane even. At the same time, villages in Belarus were burned by the Nazis, and my grandmother was hiding in a hole in the forest, watching her friends get gunned down. Of course, appearances can be deceiving, as there was nothing normal about life in France or Belarus at that time. Surely, one would be totally foolish to consider a trip to Paris.

But most travel dilemmas are not so clear cut. Before I went with my husband to Costa Rica, I did extensive research on the internet and was horrified by some of the warnings on visiting the country. But when I looked deeper, I saw that majority of mentioned issues had to do with the capital, where I wasn’t planning to go. And besides, we ended up staying in gated resorts, with most of the risk having to to do with the drive to Arenal area. And even that wasn’t as bad as I expected. It certainly helped that we hired a local transfer company to take care of the logistics. In fact, I feel so comfortable going back to Costa Rica that I booked a trip there with my kids. Though we are again sticking with a gated Hyatt resort, one I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. It’s not as authentic as booking a local AirBnB, but I don’t really care.

I also felt relatively comfortable visiting Jamaica with my kids (twice), despite multiple safety warnings. Of course, we didn’t walk outside of our gated all-inclusive resort during evening hours. When we left the hotel, we did so in the daytime and via taxi from a reputable company. Despite this relatively sheltered way of travel, we still managed to enjoy some authentic local experiences. That said, I’m not going to tell others that travel to Jamaica is 100% safe. My personal experience is statistically insignificant. Everyone should make that decision for themselves.

But the truth is, “safety” is a relative term in the volatile world we live in. A few years ago, we visited Barcelona, which most Americans consider a safe city. Only a few weeks after our trip, there was a terrorist attack in the area where I recently walked with my kids. Will it stop me from visiting Spain again? Not really. Life is full of risks, and travel is no exception.

Thinking about going to Peru next year

Lately, I’ve started making a real effort to finally visit places that have been on my “bucket list” for many years. I think Covid-19 pandemic was a real kick in the pants in this regard. Travel is a privilege, and ability to fly to another country is not something I will ever take for granted. Plus, I’m not getting any younger, and my husband’s health is getting progressively worse each year, with more and more pills being added to his daily routine.

I’m not sure how much longer he will be able to tolerate brutal overnight flights in economy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to redeeming miles on business class and do so occasionally. But many destinations I’m interested in don’t offer the option to fly upfront on the days I need, or the price is astronomical. So, I’ve never considered economy class to be a dealbreaker.

Heck, my husband and I survived a 14-hour flight from Sydney to San Francisco while sick with a cold. But it sure wasn’t fun! I realize that the older we get, the less appealing this option will be, especially on overnight flights. So, I need to do it before we get too decrepit.

One of the places I’ve always wanted to visit is Peru, specifically Sacred Valley area and Machu Picchu. We almost went once before we had kids, but my plan fell apart. I always assumed we would go when the kids got older, but I’m now thinking about doing it as a couple next year. Here is why.

If you’ve been following the news, you probably saw that Peru is currently going through a serious political crisis. The protests actually turned deadly, and at one point scores of tourists were even stranded in the town near Machu Picchu. If you dig further, you’ll see that Peru has changed six presidents in the last ten years. But this crisis appears to be worse than previous ones.

Speaking of Reddit advice, I looked at this thread when the situation started to escalate in December of last year. Many prospective visitors went there for advice asking fellow Redditors whether to go or cancel. The overwhelming majority of responses told people to go and not worry, saying that protests are a normal state of affairs in Peru. Here is just one quote: “It is a perfectly fine time to visit. Peru has been politically unstable for a long time, but it doesn’t really affect tourism. Source: I’m an American who has lived in Peru for 7 years.”

Needless to say, that thread aged poorly as the crisis deepened within a week, Machu Picchu was closed and scores of tourists (some elderly) were stranded for many days. Of course it wasn’t a good idea to fly there, but it would be easy to feel reassured by so-called experts who are supposedly familiar with the situation on the ground.

It looks like things are finally stabilizing, and Machu Picchu is once again open to visitors. I’m not really planning to go until next year, so it’s hard to say what it will be like by then. But personally, I don’t think I’ll feel comfortable taking my kids regardless. One spark can escalate the situation, with my family potentially being caught in the middle. It’s one thing if it’s just me and my husband, but another when it’s my kids’ safety on the line. To be clear, I don’t equate Peru with a place like Syria. I wouldn’t be planning on going otherwise. From what I can tell, most of the danger has to do with big cities, and I hope to stay in this “glamping” resort near small town of Ollantaytambo (Sacred Valley).

Either way, if we decide to go, I will definitely be using miles in order to have maximum flexibility. I don’t have any long-term plans for my Alaska stash, so it seems like the best option. It helps that LATAM flights can now be booked online. 

I’m actually surprised that this partnership is still alive, since Alaska Airlines has recently joined OneWorld. I guess that’s another reason to burn my stash sooner rather than later. Redeeming Alaska miles is totally risk-free, so if it looks like protests are once again gaining steam, we could easily pull the plug with zero financial loss. A much better option than fighting travel insurance company or getting stuck with an expiring LATAM voucher.

I’m not looking forward to flying to Peru at night, but it certainly will be easier to do it before my husband’s health gets any worse. Plus, I’m not seeing any business class availability on this route anyway. Faced between going in economy and not going at all, I’m choosing the former… for now. I just need to convince my homebody husband how cool this idea really is.