2022 travel plans

After our mid-trip cancellation in March 2020 and rush to make it home before the borders closed, we have made various bookings (and cancelled them) over the last two years. But finally, the trip we booked last September is about to happen, two weeks in Hawaii!!! We have both been so careful the last couple of weeks, and this week I am working from home, my better half took the week off, so no shoping, no visitors, no leaving the house (thankfully we live on an acre).

We booked back when most weren't willing to, and used 130K AAdvantage miles + $167 for SYD-HNL-SYD in J on HA. 3 nights in Honolulu (we've missed the outlets), 5 nights in Kauai, and 5 nights in Maui. Everything we booked has gone up in price (rooms from $700 - $1000 more per night, vehicles $100-$200 more per day), so we are really glad we booked so far in advance. We have booked cabanas, private snorekeling charters, etc to keep as distanced and safe as we can. This trip is about celebrating our anniversary, relaxing, and recharging as I haven't taken any time off work in over 2 years.

We are beyond excited to be travelling again.
 
From what I can find it looks like we are quarantined in our own section Auckland Airport Transit

"Due to COVID 19 restrictions, we have a dedicated, separated area for our transit guests which has limited facilities and services"
 
So I may have some 2022 travel plans after all!!

New job, back in Education in an organisation with campuses in SYD, MEL and BNE with some looooong term possibility for ADL and/or PER in the future. Looks like I'll be able to swing a couple of SYD-MEL and SYD-BNE trips this year, which won't bring me anywhere near to even close to retaining VA Gold but at least should get me flying again at least a couple of times. Thankfully Gold is extended till Feb 2023 and I have a tactical parental pause to apply for as well before August.

Plus with Baby Lenny coping so well with our whirlwind squeezed between lockdowns Tasmania trip we are thinking we might try and take her to Queensland to visit some friends later this year.

There is a slimmer than slim possibility that some SE Asia travel may be on the cards if we start planning some offshore delivery but that's so remote it's not even worth keeping in mind. Still, this is a much improved outlook than it was 12-18mths ago!!
 
Solidifying plans for next month - less than two weeks to go! Every rapid test I do at work makes me more and more anxious all the planning is going to be for nothing and I'll end up isolating at home instead of being overseas...

Istanbul, Geneva, Lucerne, Zurich so far. Have 2 weeks left to fill. Thinking a few days in Oslo, then to north of England and hire a car to see the Lake District etc. Might exchange that for southern France, never been down there. Or back to Spain is really tempting.

Started making more hotel and flight bookings, I guess there comes a time when you just have to throw caution to the wind and say stuff it. Making refundable hotel bookings where possible (which is most) but flights obviously a different story.
 
Solidifying plans for next month - less than two weeks to go! Every rapid test I do at work makes me more and more anxious all the planning is going to be for nothing and I'll end up isolating at home instead of being overseas...

Istanbul, Geneva, Lucerne, Zurich so far. Have 2 weeks left to fill. Thinking a few days in Oslo, then to north of England and hire a car to see the Lake District etc. Might exchange that for southern France, never been down there. Or back to Spain is really tempting.

Started making more hotel and flight bookings, I guess there comes a time when you just have to throw caution to the wind and say stuff it. Making refundable hotel bookings where possible (which is most) but flights obviously a different story.
Sounds great. Enjoy getting back to travelling!

Seems there is a little anxiety amongst the group around getting back into (pleasure) international travel. Maybe I’ll try to do a trip report day by day this time (and keeping up with it), starting with our at home supervised pre-flight RAT.
 
Solidifying plans for next month - less than two weeks to go! Every rapid test I do at work makes me more and more anxious all the planning is going to be for nothing and I'll end up isolating at home instead of being overseas...

Istanbul, Geneva, Lucerne, Zurich so far. Have 2 weeks left to fill. Thinking a few days in Oslo, then to north of England and hire a car to see the Lake District etc. Might exchange that for southern France, never been down there. Or back to Spain is really tempting.

Started making more hotel and flight bookings, I guess there comes a time when you just have to throw caution to the wind and say stuff it. Making refundable hotel bookings where possible (which is most) but flights obviously a different story.
Sounds like a good plan. I would go for Southern France myself. Fly into Toulouse and use that as a base, and then swing across to Avignon
 
Sounds like a good plan. I would go for Southern France myself. Fly into Toulouse and use that as a base, and then swing across to Avignon
Thanks for the tip. Just looking at flights now, SAS has an unbelievable sale to both Spain and the UK, difficult to choose!

But Toulouse etc would be nice. Whichever one doesn't get visited will just have to wait for later in the year!
 
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The family reunion for my wife's distant German ancestry is now scheduled for August in Berlin. They are hoping for a third time lucky situation. We had all our flights and hotel bookings set up for the original date in August 2020 which of course didn't happen. Then they rescheduled it to 2021 and it was cancelled again. At the moment all we can say to the organiser is a definite maybe.

Mr Putin may well have a say as well as a certain virus.
 
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Firming up on our May/June UK trip, I just did something I've not done before and that is used Qantas points to pay for 7 nights at Conrad in St James in an Exec room. Hopefully it is back in full swing by May. There was a 30% points off deal. Not as good as getting free air fares but right now I'm preferring Qatar and those awards seem so hard to get. Three months to go.
 
Baby steps for the Seat family. I just booked a long weekend in Melbourne using classic award business flights and a nice apartment in the CBD via Accor Plus/ALL using my stay free night and paying for the other 2 nights.

I have a sense of anticipation and actually feel very excited about doing this trip - which in the past would barely have raised a thought in my mind. How things have changed!
 
Just booked flights to the UK in September for the family, for a family meet up. It'll be 4.5 years at that point. Flying KF and a stopover in SIN on the way back. The nice thing is that our flight credits with United (that had been held) have just been refunded, so being able to use that is a huge win on the wallet.

In short, we basically said to United, great we want to use the credit, we want to fly to Europe, and they said, we don't do that from Australia, so here's your refund.
 
Baltic cruise booked for first two weeks in August, just have to work out how we will get there! :D:D
Ok, well Putin has put paid to the Baltic cruise, cancelled by us, after advice from NCL that St Petersburg is a no go and they were looking around for other places to go. Not cancelling just because StP a no go, more because of the uncertainty around cruising anywhere in the baltic/Gulf of Finland area.

So now started booking SYD-MAN, returning from LHR. No flights booked but some accomodation in Manchester and Norfolk has been sorted.
 

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