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Traveling can be stressful. The thought of international travel with an expired green card and extension letter is nerve-racking. However, that anxiety is unnecessary. It’s a shockingly smooth process despite our natural fears or previous experiences with US Customs and Border Protection

USCIS Green Card Process

When you adjust your status to permanent residency in the United States through marriage to a US citizen you are issued one of two types of green cards:

1. If your marriage is longer than two years at time of application then you receive a green card valid for 10 years.
2. If your marriage is less than two-years-old then you receive “conditional residency” and a green card valid for two years. After 2 years of residency you must file an I-751 to remove the conditions

When my husband adjusted his status from a F-1 student visa to permanent residency, he was issued the two-year green card. So within 90 days prior to his green card’s expiration date he filed an application to remove the conditions. After mailing the 2 inch stack of supporting documents earlier this year, USCIS quickly issued a I-797 NOA. This is commonly known as the extension letter. It documents his pending removal of conditions application and confirms his legal status.

How to Travel with an Expired Green Card and Extension Letter

This makes travel a little tricky because you can no longer use the Global Entry or US citizen/resident kiosks to clear immigration when re-entering the United States. Although it’s not nearly as painful as using an EAD/AP combo card like we did when returning to Boston from Dubai.

In fact, using the expired green card and extension letter allowed us use the US citizens and resident immigration line. Our return home from our Mediterranean cruise routed us Bari to Munich to Newark to Dallas on three different airlines. If you have an itinerary with multiple connections, then it’s a smart idea to use luggage locks like these. Just in case you’re separated from your bags.

Air Dolomiti first checked his documents at the check-in counter. The agent immediately recognized the document, but needed further clarification from a colleague. She needed to confirm whether to use one year from his green card expiration date or one year from the extension letter issue date as his validity date. She ended up using one year from the green card expiration date.

Next a Lufthansa agent in Munich checked his documents again before allowing him to board our flight to Newark. No issues here.

Lufthansa Senator Lounge Munich

Finally we arrived in Newark with only 2 hours until our next flight. We definitely should have selected an itinerary with a longer connection. Especially considering we flew economy and Sean could not use his Global Entry membership. We found the closest immigration official, informed her of Sean’s situation, and asked her which line we should join. She directed us to the appropriate line said instructed us to tell the next agent, “I have an extension letter and need to speak with an officer.”

When the officer motioned us to the counter, Sean handed his expired green card, extension letter, and New Zealand passport. After minimal questioning he successfully entered the US. Speaking to an officer proved to be the most fortunate thing in terms of moving through that long line. By skipping the kiosks (and a second line) it saved us valuable time. It allowed us to just barely make our connecting flight after collecting our checked luggage and re-checking them at the United counter.

Moving Forward

Considering the fact that the California Service Center is experiencing a processing backlog, we expect Sean to become a US citizen prior to ever receiving his new green card. So, unfortunately, he’ll need to repeat this process every time he leaves the country for the next year. Hopefully the future experiences go just as smoothly and we plan for longer connection times.

Featured image courtesy of Stocksnap.io 

The post Expired Green Card and Travel: How to Get Home Safely appeared first on Seize the Globe.

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After landing at our final destination in Italy we quickly discovered that our checked bags did not make the journey. Before leaving the airport we made sure to open a file with Lufthansa documenting our delayed baggage. Normally this would not be a big problem, but we are scheduled to spend only two nights in Bari before departing on our Mediterranean cruise.

Delayed Baggage Insurance Coverage

As stressed as we initially were, we quickly remembered that I paid for our airline tickets with the Chase Sapphire Reserve which provides a considerable amount of travel insurance coverage. One of these benefits includes delayed baggage coverage. This means that if your baggage is delayed at least six hours or longer then you are entitled to $100 per day (up to five days) in reimbursement. Essential items like clothes, toiletries, and one cell phone charger are covered. The cardholder, spouse/domestic partner, and cardholder’s immediate family members are eligible to take advantage of this benefit. It even covers you up to $3,000 for completely lost luggage. So this coverage together with our separate travel insurance policy and worldwide home/property policy would take care of us.

Naturally, we took the opportunity to walk to H&M to begin preparing for the worst (i.e. we now had an excuse for a shopping spree). We made sure to save the receipts and scan them into our devices for safe keeping and eventual claim filing.

Unexpected events like delayed baggage happen during travel. We knew there was some risk when we booked our itinerary which contained two very short connections in Germany. This is why we included a “buffer day” into our schedule in case of any delays or interruptions before the cruise ship left the port. It’s also a smart idea to use luggage locks like these in case you’re separated from your bags.

6 documents you need to file a claim

1. Your completed and signed claim form
2. Your Account receipt showing that the travel fare was charged to
your eligible card. If more than one method of payment was used,
include documentation that shows a portion of the purchase was
made with your Account.
3. A copy of the Common Carrier ticket
4. A statement from the Common Carrier indicating the reasons that
the Covered Trip was delayed
5. Copies of receipts for the claimed expenses
6. Any other documentation deemed necessary, in the Benefit
Administrator’s sole discretion, to substantiate the claim

Lufthansa frustration

Despite all the insurance reprieve, Lufthansa induced unnecessary stress because literally no Lufthansa employee could tell me the continent the bags were located, let alone which airport. I learned they do not electronically track checked bags. Unlike the big three legacy US airlines that offer an electronic bag tracking feature on their mobile apps and websites. In sheer disbelief I asked while filing the claim, calling, tweeting, and Facebook messaging with Lufthsana. Every time Lufthansa insisted they could not identify which airport the delayed baggage were misplaced.

This part was extremely unnerving and the process appeared to be a very manual search by process of airport elimination. Although we thought it was safe to assume our bags made the trip from Newark to Düsseldorf because we checked-in at the First Class counter courtesy of our Star Alliance Gold status 3.5 hours before departure. The gate agent labeled the bags with giant neon priority tags and processed them with several hours of time to load them.

Reunited

Luckily, after 24 hours passed, we learned the delayed baggage did not make our flight from Düsseldorf to Munich. After filing the claim Lufthansa diverted the bags to Frankfurt in order to catch the earliest non-stop flight to Bari.

Our Bari Airbnb

Thankfully our gracious Airbnb hostess offered to coordinate the delivery since we do not speak Italian. She is an absolute gem and her Airbnb listing is just as spectacular. If you plan to visit Bari, her home has plenty of space and is in the perfect location. In the end, our delayed baggage quickly returned to us and we scored a fresh wardrobe update thanks to the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Featured image courtesy of StockSnap.io. 

The post How to Take Advantage of your Delayed Baggage Benefit appeared first on Seize the Globe.

This post will cover two of the main premium travel loyalty rewards currencies: Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards. I’ll walk you through how I booked my award flights to Italy by leveraging these currencies and the Star Alliance network.

This isn’t my sexiest award travel redemption by any means, but when award bookings align perfectly for convenience it’s always a win. My husband travels on a weekly basis and internationally for extended periods of time. His current business trip is in Italy for 2 weeks. To be honest, I’ve been missing him quite a lot recently. Luckily, I managed to join him for only $96.55 cash out of pocket and I am writing this from Bologna. 

Instead of flying business class on a completely separate oneworld itinerary using American Airlines miles (like my previous Qatar flights), I decided to redeem for cheap economy tickets on my husband’s exact same flights. His company booked him on a paid business class fare, so the plan was for us to possibly switch seats half way through the flights anyway.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to seven different airlines—which includes United that transfers at a 1:1 ratio. I found award availability on United website for a one way ticket to Milan (DFW-FRA-MXP) on Lufthansa for 30K miles. Luckily this matched my husband’s itinerary! If you’re completely unfamiliar with airline alliances, the way I could book a Lufthansa flight using United miles is because they are both members of the Star Alliance network.

Here I transferred 30,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to my United Mileage Plus account—and they posted immediately. Below is my receipt for the one way ticket from Dallas to Milan which only cost $41.50 in taxes/fees.

American Express Membership Rewards

Now, the reason why I didn’t book a round trip is because there happens to be a current targeted promotion for a 20% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan which is the loyalty program for Air Canada (another Star Alliance member).

Using Aeroplan’s website, I found award availability for the return leg home on United for 30K miles and $55.05 USD in taxes/fees. Thanks to the 20% transfer bonus, this saved me 5K American Express Membership Rewards points. Unfortunately, the Lufthansa flight was not available via Aeroplan. Otherwise, I would have preferred to book the entire round trip using this promotion.

This is an example of why it’s a great strategy to earn diverse types of points and miles because it allows flexibility to take advantage of different award redemptions.  Our unwritten “rule” is that we, personally, only redeem points/miles for premium, international cabins TOGETHER. This was our first trip booking different fares and asking flight attendants to allow us to spend time together and switch seats. The Lufthansa staff on board our flight from Dallas to Frankfurt were incredibly accommodating. We’ll see how United handles it when we try the same thing on our return flight from Milan to Newark.

Lufthansa business class lie flat seat and breakfast arriving into Frankfurt thanks to Chase!

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