2020 Travel Plans

[Major]

Our youngest son's in- laws have invited us to spend Christmas with them in Washington DC. Not sure I have enough clothes for a QLD to DC trip in December.

The Smithsonian Air and Space museum is high on my list of things to do.

 

[Major]

I expect the van will get another 2 month run. Up through central NSW and QLD, and then back down the middle via the Flinders sounds like a good plan.

I was thinking about an aviation museum trip to the USA. The boss isn’t interested (no surprises there), but looks like my planned partner in crime might not be able to do it either. So, might be a solo ‘old aeroplane’ trip.

If you are anywhere near Amberley they have a museum but it's a PITA as far as opening times and base access is concerned

RAAF Amberley Aviation Heritage Centre

Home of the F-111! The RAAF Amberley Aviation Heritage Centre is a must-see attraction for those visiting south-east Queensland, especially if interested in military aviation history.

www.raafamberleyheritage.gov.au

 

[OATEK]

We have booked an Easter break for 2020.

Booked some flights: SYD-HKG (QF 127 award) in Y, HKG-LHR-KRK and LHR-HKG (BA 32/872/31) in J, HKG-SYD (CX101 Award) in Y+.

Still have to book KRK. or WAW to ATH.

Booked cruise from Athens to Cairo, Jerusalem, Limassol, Rhodes, Kusadasi (Ephesus) and back to Athens.

Still have to book ATH-LHR.

So two weeks in Poland and the Aegean, 2.5 weeks in UK.

Have now firmed up our plans for 2020, with only one major OS trip, as we have a bit more on in OZ next year.

We have booked:
SYD-HKG in Y (X) on QF, with a layover of 36 hours to do some shopping before moving on to Europe.

HKG-LHR-KRK in J on BA to get things rolling in Europe.

KRK-MUC-ATH-MUC-LHR on LH in J to move us around Europe, with at least 2 nights in each city. While in ATH have a crusie that takes in Cairo, Jerusalem, Limassol and various Aegean locations.

LHR-HKG iis the return leg of a BA booking in J, with another layover of 36 hours on the way back (I should have said that involves a night in a hotel and not at the airport both ways, chewing up some more points).

HKG-SYD in PE on Cathay to brings us home.

 

[mrsterryn]

Ok plans changed again lol
May - to London , first Qantas got excellent sale price . Then 14 day cruise around including St Petersburg
Sept - husband has throughly enjoyed his trip to Denmark so I will gate crash next sept and go to Denmark/London
Nov - Paris/ London again Should be on points again
Dec - trip to Tokyo for 4 or 5 days
Still contemplating a trip to New Zealand in July
Made a passing comment to my 9 month old grandson about hoping to take him to London one day , lol my Dil promptly said "hopefully sooner than later" ....so another London trip might be on the cards

 

[cgichard]

I had booked a music festival on the Loire and a medieval Burgundy tour, followed by my usual Wales vist, in July -August, but now have taken up the chance to go with a small group around the painted monasteries in Moldavia in early-mid September. Then the Wales visit to family and then a music festival in Oxord. First time I have been back there for 60 years.

Can't afford to do two overseas trips, so I'm now waiting on return flight in early October to become available, and then will have to wear the cost of changing my main MEL-Europe flights and adding on a return flight to Iasi.

 

[Noah Count]

One of the fun things about this thread and you can see how your plans morph

This is so true in our case. On page 1 of this thread I had posted what was planned and within 2 weeks it was already changing. 6 months down the track this is currently in the pipeline for 2020. For full disclosure although MrsM and I think we are disciplined when it come to travel, we fail. So 2020 looks like this for us:

Mar - Long weekend in NZ and will tie in with the AFF dinner. Also it is MrsM B’day - so why not EK F.
Apr - Easter what started as a 3-4 day trip to NYC to visit the MET and Sleepy Hollow. Has now become RTW F trip including JP, UK, NYC (7 days) then back to AU via JP just in case she missed a shop.
Jun - SIN and KuL in a combination of SQ, MH and QF J
Sep-Oct - AU-Maine-Nova Scotia-PEI-back through CA (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Melbourne) and LAX back to AU via SIN. Combination of OW and *A points in F and J.

All flights medium and long haul travel next year are on points, internal US CA travel will most likely be revenue we are yet to work that out. My mission to use all of my QF points before I fall down the status ladder is falling into place. We still need to sort out accomodation and places to eat.

 

[mrsterryn]

This is so true in our case. On page 1 of this thread I had posted what was planned and within 2 weeks it was already changing. 6 months down the track this is currently in the pipeline for 2020. For full disclosure although MrsM and I think we are disciplined when it come to travel, we fail.

Yep ours has well and truly changed
So only ones in concrete are
F Qantas to London return May (we then go on a cruise to Russia ) only us as son and his family are buying a new place

Sept husband so much enjoyed Denmark he is booked with Cathay in Business to return
Probable a Europe one Nov/Dec
Thinking of Tokyo for five days in Oct
Maybe new Zealand in July for husband's birthday

Mar - Long weekend in NZ and will tie in with the AFF dinner. Also it is MrsM B’day - why not EK F.
Apr - Easter what started as a 3-4 day trip to NYC to visit the MET and Sleepy Hollow. Has now become RTW F trip including JP, UK, NYC (7 days) then back to AU via JP just in case she missed a shop

Have to make sure there is no missing out on a shop
On the thread "ladies who shop " I am getting some great new shoes and bags ideas

 

[Meggsy]

After having such a great time on our trip last year we have decided to do a similar type of trip. 2 week escorted coach tour through Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Czech republic and back to Germany.
Then heading to Copenhagen to board a 9 night Baltic sea cruise visiting Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Warnermunde, before heading back to Copenhagen.
Flying to Amsterdam to then do a self drive around Belgium, northern France and Netherlands before flying home from AMS.

 

[Katie]

Next year is Mr Katie's 50th and our 20th wedding anniversary, so we are planning a week in NYC for just the two of us. Fancy lunches and shows every night! Or something like that - food and theatre will be the them. Maybe around Sept/Oct, but avoiding the Aussie School hols.

I'll have a trip to Seattle/Bellevue in May for a conference. Depending on a few things, may have a trip later in the year to the DC area.
We might also head back to Winton in June, assuming the Vision Splendid Film Festival will be on next year.

A change to what I thought - not likely to go to Winton for the Vision Splendid Film Festival in June, as we've just paid deposits for a mummu cycling tour covering the last 8 or so days of the Tour de France. Mr Katie's BFF is going for his 50th, and we're joining him.
My BFF wants to spend a week in Ubud, but I can't figure out how we'll fit that in.

Need to get cracking in our anniversary trip if I want to use my stash of QF points for it ...
Will need some kind of family holiday at some point.

 

[bPeteb]

Our youngest son's in- laws have invited us to spend Christmas with them in Washington DC. Not sure I have enough clothes for a QLD to DC trip in December.

The Smithsonian Air and Space museum is high on my list of things to do.

The Mall museum is undergoing a huge reno with lots of it closed when we visited earlier this year. We'd been before. We'd recommend going out to Udvar-Hazy beside Dulles. Just fantastic!

 

[Inlander]

Our youngest son's in- laws have invited us to spend Christmas with them in Washington DC. Not sure I have enough clothes for a QLD to DC trip in December.

The Smithsonian Air and Space museum is high on my list of things to do.

Did that Smithsonian in June(Its free entry) its good but i wouldnt rate it great. Has some really good Amelia Earhart stuff. The Nasa Museum in Florida is much bigger and better - but not free!

 

[turtlemichael]

2020 is largely firmed. It starts with a couple of weeks in Sydney and Bowral for cricket and family and friends visits. In February (aka cyclone season !) we are doing a 14 day Silversea South Pacific cruise Sydney-Sydney visiting Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia followed immediately by a week at the Adelaide Festival. In late March/early April we go to New Zealand for a 10 day South Island winery tour with friends.

To escape Melbourne's winter we have three weeks in June in Cairns and environs followed by a week in Sydney for a course for the OH. In August we head to Hanoi, via Hong Kong, for a couple of weeks in northern Vietnam. Beyond that I expect there will be a cricket Test match tour in November/December. Finally, we are still investigating economical ways to get to the US in J (Philippine Airlines maybe?) around Christmas time to get ready for a world cruise on Silversea out of Fort Lauderdale beginning at the very start of 2021.

It's all go.

 

[drron]

Well our 2020 plans are firming up as originally posted.F awards on SQ SIN-LHR-SIN for May.
Just locked in F award HND-LHR on JAL for October.Only needing award for travel USA-Tokyo towards end of November.

 

[JohnM]

Plans for 2020 have firmed up nicely.

The usual DONEx starting in late April and going through to late July.

The first part of the mission is a two-week tour of Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, followed by a two-week tour of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.




Then it’s over to LOTFAP to visit Memphis and friends in S Carolina, followed by two weeks poking around E Canada, over to Seattle followed by Kona, to visit friends, then make my way through to Seoul for a tour of almost three weeks mainly on the Kamchatka Peninsula, including helo flights into the Valley of Geysers, then home.



The routing: [PER-MEL-CBR positioning]-DOH (tech stop in SYD)-OTP-(land sector, but separate flight KBP-GYD)-EVN-DOH-LAX-CLT-YYC-DFW-SEA-KOA-NRT-HKG-ICN-HKG-PER.

This is my 16th annual DONEx and for the first time there is not a QF-metal sector. Now being able to book DONExs ex. Australia without using QF has certain advantages – like QSuites out of Australia . Positioning to CBR via MEL, using my Amex Ultimate travel credit will enable visits to friends in MEL and CBR – and hopefully a catch-up with CBR AFFers.



Come September, I’ve already secured an award flight in QR F PER-DOH and on to CDG in J. The main purpose of the September-October trip is to visit Chad for the annual week-long Gerewol Festival (Guérewol - Wikipedia) and then two weeks 4WDing in the Ennedi Mts.



Because the dates of the festival are not fixed and can potentially vary by a few days, attempting to book QR or EK awards more directly to NDJ is impractical. So, I’ve booked outbound to CDG with a couple of weeks slack. I’ll spend that time poking about some more in France, but particularly NW Spain.

Once the date of the festival is fixed, I’ll book a return AF flight CDG-NDJ. It will be interesting to see if I can snare a QF points redemption on that route.

I’ll also allow a bit of time back in France/Spain after the tour, again because of the date uncertainty. I have high flexibility on the return date, so I’ll be starting to rummage around at QF for Award flights back to PER from CDG this week to see what I can snare.

Now for 2021…

 

[Franky]

Did that Smithsonian in June(Its free entry) its good but i wouldnt rate it great. Has some really good Amelia Earhart stuff. The Nasa Museum in Florida is much bigger and better - but not free!

I would have to suggest your'e hard to please if you can only rate the Smithsonian as less than great. All the museums on the Mall are collectively known as The Smithsonian - did you get to them all or just the one that has that name which was the first one from memory?

 

[Inlander]

I would have to suggest your'e hard to please if you can only rate the Smithsonian as less than great. All the museums on the Mall are collectively known as The Smithsonian - did you get to them all or just the one that has that name which was the first one from memory?

Just that one .I've heard that the others are great. I only had a few hrs between Amtrak trains

 

[JessicaTam]

It looks like I am off to Europe a couple of times next year.

In May I have a ticket to the Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany, and in September I hope to take my mother to the Champagne region of France.

Good thing I like flying!

 

[Cossie]

Citroen has pulled the plug on their WRC campaign meaning Ogier is a free agent. Their car this year was a dog, he should have been closer to beating Tanak than he was. A search of #coughroen throws up some interesting links!

I'm hoping he goes to MSport where he won the drivers championship in 2017 and 29018, but it's more likely Toyota will get his services.

So, back on topic, I'm going to go to Sweden in February, the boss is staying home because she doesn't like the cold! I'll have to find something else to fit in at that time.

NZ in April, Germany (and others) in May, Africa in July, NZ in September, hopefully Myanmar/Laos in late year, but as usual all subject to change! Especially if L.E. has some good 5 star packages.

 

[LadyC]

Another 2020 pivot for us. Ticking off a bucket list item for the Gentleman so we are going skiing in Switzerland as well as visiting Copenhagen and Rome in January. We have New Caledonia in April and Bali in June. Now I am eyeing off FF flights for Christmas 2020!

 

[Toula92122]

How quickly one can go from having nothing planned to the dance card getting filled. It's been a points redeeming frenzy, so should end up 2019 redeeming 1.3 million but somehow still have 2.5 million left which is what we started the year with.

I'm thinking about a health spa in Germany for 3 weeks in January. Can get flights on points waiting to hear back if they can accommodate my dates. Have also been invited to New Orleans in February but as it's so last minute fares are horrendous so non committal on that one.

July is going to be Malaysia, Borneo and Brunei with a friend. Flights are booked and was pleased to get redemptions using Kris Flyer miles and United.