2025 travel plans

[AIRwin]

MEL-SYD - B737 J (CR) because I still want to use the MEL J Lounge

Too bad no more JQi flights then for access to MEL F Lounge

 

[MARTINE]

It sure was - staff were lovely and so was the foodView attachment 426341View attachment 426342View attachment 426343View attachment 426344View attachment 426345

This one is for you @VPS
Thanks for the tip

Lovely coffee and cake today. Loved the Picasso Museum with a private guide and learnt even more about him. Did nor realise the Parisian Museum was established so that his family paid their death duties in paintings.

 

[VPS]

This one is for you @VPS
Thanks for the tip

Lovely coffee and cake today. Loved the Picasso Museum with a private guide and learnt even more about him. Did nor realise the Parisian Museum was established so that his family paid their death duties in paintings.

Glad you enjoyed it

 

[Flashback]

A last minute trip to Spain (a slow, remote coastal town). A road trip in the UK (Bradford/Liverpool/Snowdonia). Senegal, can't remember if I mentioned that one. That's it for the year, although pondering a trip to ALG.

 

[jase05]

So a slight alteration to our Vietnam plans. First part is staying the same but we had a bit over a week at the end where we hadn’t booked anything. We had decided to spend it in Cambodia after a little side trip to Hong Kong but when speaking to my father last night he informed me that they had just booked 4 weeks in China again (we introduced them to China years ago and have been with them a few times and all up for leisure Mrs Jase and I have been 11 times for leisure and my parents have us beat on that) so we are going to go and catch up for a few days. Once I go over their itinerary I’ll try and work something out but we will finish with 2-3 nights in Shanghai and I’ve booked Cathay PVG-HKG-SGN to get us back to HCMC the day before we fly home

 

[Flyfrequently]

So a slight alteration to our Vietnam plans.... and I’ve booked Cathay PVG-HKG-SGN to get us back to HCMC the day before we fly home

Depending what time.e you arrive SGN, no doubt you are aware how chaotic the formalities are - might be worth a fast track service - wish we had in July 9pm arrival @jase05
Enjoy your time with the folks

 

[jase05]

Depending what time.e you arrive SGN, no doubt you are aware how chaotic the formalities are - might be worth a fast track service - wish we had in July 9pm arrival @jase05
Enjoy your time with the folks

Yeah, we are at about 50/50 success rate at SGN but when it’s bad, it’s bad. I’m yet to work out a pattern for it either. We have allowed ourselves a full night before coming back into SGN but on the way over we only have 195 minutes between arriving in SGN and transferring to our domestic flight to PQC so I reckon I’ll go the Fastrack option there just in case

 

[Flyfrequently]

Yeah, we are at about 50/50 success rate at SGN but when it’s bad, it’s bad....
we only have 195 minutes between arriving in SGN and transferring to our domestic flight to PQC so I reckon I’ll go the Fastrack option there just in case

Especially now that the domestic terminal is a bus ride away @jase05


New domestic terminal departures mid-morning July. Fortunately we breezed through Sky Priority

 

[tassie6]

Well 2025 wasn’t going to be much of a travel year with adding a +1 to the family but we have gotten going as the year has progressed:

Jan: weekend escape to WLG ahead of +1 arrival
June: weekend in southern highlands to see family
July: weekend in Melbourne to catch the wallabies/lions
Oct/Nov: 3 weeks in South Africa, Cape Town and Durban, doing the usual but also catching up with brother in laws family in Durban. All of ours first visit to SA
Dec: trip to Queenstown with extended family

 

[GarrettM]

The plans for this getaway have been tinkered with a bit since last update, but I can now confirm my leave is officially approved as of this morning.

T - 2 months to departure.

There have been some complications to our planning for this trip,. The most significant of which being MrsGM has recently lost her primary source of income.

Coming almost concurrently with the expensive and time consuming confirmation of our second child's autism diagnosis, and the ongoing cost of OT without NDIS support, we have been put quite significantly on the financial backfoot.

Nevertheless we've put to much time and too many dollars into this idea and we're not going to recoup it by backing out.

Today we've ticked off another couple important tasks. Booked a hotel in Singapore via Luxury Escapes to cover our O/N between flights, and locked in TI through Qantas for the entire trip.

By my calculations that leaves us with visas only to arrange and pay, which we have plenty of time to sort out now.

 

[Flashback]

T - 2 months to departure.

There have been some complications to our planning for this trip,. The most significant of which being MrsGM has recently lost her primary source of income.

Coming almost concurrently with the expensive and time consuming confirmation of our second child's autism diagnosis, and the ongoing cost of OT without NDIS support, we have been put quite significantly on the financial backfoot.

Nevertheless we've put to much time and too many dollars into this idea and we're not going to recoup it by backing out.

Today we've ticked off another couple important tasks. Booked a hotel in Singapore via Luxury Escapes to cover our O/N between flights, and locked in TI through Qantas for the entire trip.

By my calculations that leaves us with visas only to arrange and pay, which we have plenty of time to sort out now.

Don't leave it too late, Vietnamese visas can be a bit of a PITA.

 

[jase05]

Don't leave it too late, Vietnamese visas can be a bit of a PITA.

Never had one take more than 3-4 days but always do them about 2 weeks out just in case

 

[Flyfrequently]

Never had one take more than 3-4 days but always do them about 2 weeks out just in case

And add a few days either side to allow for last minute flight changes/delays or woe betide something crops up @GarrettM ( catastrophiser hat off now)

 

[chitown_boy]

Pretty full on 2025 planned, but very much looking forward to it all…

March/April work trip: london, madrid, barcelona, new york, toronto
May/June work trip: washington dc, hamburg, munich, new york, chicago
June-August 40th birthday trip (2 x SQ F, 2 x SQ J, 1 x AF J - all redemptions): paris, málaga, torremolinos, sevilla, granada, córdoba, madrid, bilbao, san sebastián, barcelona, sitges, valencia, berlin, zurich
September work trip: baltimore
October/November work trip: prague, amsterdam, berlin, chicago
Xmas family trip: sydney

As the near draws to a close, just finalising my last additions to this year's plans and I've got to say, very proud that in my 40th year I have the privilege (and skills thanks to AFF!) to be able to travel so much (and work from overseas where needed). Added a RTW plus eurotrip to the above (and changed a few things given train cancellations and changed plans, to settle on this for my 2025:

March/April: london, madrid, barcelona, new york, toronto
May: hong kong
May/June: washington dc, hamburg, new york, washington dc
June: sydney
June-August 40th birthday trip: málaga, torremolinos, sevilla, córdoba, madrid, bilbao, san sebastián, valencia, berlin, munich, zurich
September: brisbane
October: madrid, prague, amsterdam, malaga, torremolinos, granada, frigiliana, nerja, barcelona, chicago, new york, barcelona
December: tokyo, madrid, barcelona, granada, sevilla, madrid, sydney

The December Europe trip was the only long-haul revenue ticket I paid for personally (the rest is either work or points). I was checking prices to Japan on JAL for early Dec and stumbled upon their cheap JAL/Iberia euro flights (also avail. in Nov) - where it's cheaper to go to Madrid with an NRT overnight stopover in Tokyo (AUD$1400 RT) than to terminate in TYO! I jumped at the opportunity given Spain (as you can probably tell) is my all time favourite country and I've been learning Spanish. Still had a few more things to tick off my Spanish bucket list so this trip will serve that purpose (and accomodation was much cheaper in early Dec for the places I wanted to visit - win win!) Plus I'll qualify for QF Platinum for the first time while doing it, so that's a bonus ! This will take me to a total of 155 nights overseas for 2025

My Marriott bonvoy account also looking quite respectable now (still got some to go so not final, but won't reach ambassador as won't hit 23k):



If anyone needs any advice on travelling via train around Spain - happy to help! Been on about 20 Renfe's now, as well as Iryo and will try Ouigo Spain for the first time in December.