2026 travel plans

[Warks]

Trip report please!

I'll just jump in the time machine. Back in a sec!

 

[ShelleyB]

Late to this party I know but have two trips planned and booked for 2026.

1. Jan 2026 (actually commencing NYE 2025, so I suppose technically doesn't belong here). QF points on JAL in PE to Japan for ShelleyB-son and I (PE both ways in/out of Tokyo). ShelleyB-son and I will be there for 24 days. Mr. ShelleyB joining late (revenue flight in Y on JAL) and staying a few days longer. We'll be heading first to Tohoku (Morioka, Hirosaki, Hachinohe), then Yokohama before returning to Tohoku (Sendai) when Mr. ShelleyB joins us and followed by Nagano. Mr. ShelleyB will then head to Hiroshima and Fukuoka for a few days solo travel before flying home from Fukuoka on CI (revenue flight in PE).

2. April 2026. South Island of NZ with ShelleyB-son and ShelleyB-mum. This is driven by the interests of ShelleyB-mum who wants to go to NZ but hates to travel alone. We'll be splitting our time between Queenstown, Dunedin and Te-Anau. Also a short trip as ShelleyB-mum not into long trips (10 days only).

That is very likely to be it for 2026 beyond a few short domestic trips yet to be planned.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Late to this party I know but have two trips planned and booked for 2026.

We'll be splitting our time between Queenstown, Dunedin and Te-Anau. Also a short trip as ShelleyB-mum not into long trips (10 days only).

@Human went to South Island with his Mum recently and did a beaut TR.
If you haven't read his TR yet, you might pick up a few tips @ShelleyB
Enjoy!

 

[jgm]

Convoluted trip to Canada (Panorama) for skiing in January. MEL-DEL with 25hr layover then DEL-YVR both in J and AI with LifeMiles points on separate tickets. The original layover in DEL was 2 hours which would have been cutting it fine, but AI moved the DEL-YVR departure up an hour, and as they won't book luggage through on separate tickets, I had to move the MEL-DEL leg to a day earlier. I then have an AC award in J YVR-YYC. Coming home it's YYC-FRA with 4Y then FRA-SIN-BRI with SQ then BRI-MEL with VA all in J with Aeroplan points.

In January this year I had initially booked AI flights via India to Canada with Aeroplan points, but a couple of weeks out, UA flights via SFO opened up so I was able to transfer to them. I won't be able to do something similar next year with the LifeMiles flights unless there are schedule changes on both flights as the change costs are significant and I also have no desire to risk transits in Trumpland. Coming back, I don't really mind the transits in FRA and SIN so I probably won't even look for last minute changes unless they're forced.

 

[ShelleyB]

@Human went to South Island with his Mum recently and did a beaut TR.
If you haven't read his TR yet, you might pick up a few tips @ShelleyB
Enjoy!

Yes I read that TR and it was indeed excellent and I am sure I will find it useful. ShelleyB-mum is a little younger than @Human mum is but I think will enjoy similar things.

 

[StayGoldPonyboy]

Only 2 trips booked next year so far, both tennis related.

Few days at the AO in Jan

To LHR in May and return from CDG, to Roland Garros for the first time. Was lucky to get QR J 90k savers, hooray.

Thinking about Vietnam at some point but need to co-ordinate dates with friends first.

 

[Warks]

So August 2026 is looking like SYD-DOH-ARN-LIS-FNC-LIS-PRA-PRG and then I am a bit up in the air. Want to look at Vienna, Bratislava and maybe Budapest but have to work out where to fly home from. Maybe Istanbul. Have only booked SYD-DOH on points (J) so far. No return.
Sweden is a visit to friends. Portugal is a first time for me and I have long wanted to go to Madeira so that's my priority. The central Europe stuff is a work in progress. I really wanted to go to Bulgaria but that might be another trip. I had an Iron Curtain trip in mind, Tallinn to Istanbul via all the old Warsaw Pact countries but not next year I think.

 

[RooFlyer]

Maybe Istanbul.

If you haven't been to Istanbul, I suggest you do it, and give it a few days at least. Something for everyone there, except maybe the skiers.

My favourite transit city to Europe.

 

[Human]

If you haven't been to Istanbul, I suggest you do it, and give it a few days at least. Something for everyone there, except maybe the skiers.

My favourite transit city to Europe.

And the food! Do yourself a favour and do a food tour.

(... although in my no doubt unsophisticated opinion, raki is highly overrated...)

 

[blackcat20]

Booked in the WLG dinner weekend, and a status run to AKL in April. Looking like a busy year for once, though nothing planned for the second half of the year yet.

 

[Katie]

Contemplating a trip to Vegas in May as No Doubt will be doing 6 shows at the Sphere.

 

[Warks]

If you haven't been to Istanbul, I suggest you do it, and give it a few days at least. Something for everyone there, except maybe the skiers.

My favourite transit city to Europe.

I have a couple of times but the last time was 1992!

 

[JohnM]

I have in the last week locked away the main trip for 2026 - six weeks in Africa plus a few days in HKG, DXB and DOH on the way in/out, so it's time to spill the beans on all 2026 travel (so far organised - but I think this will pretty much be it.)

January: about a week in Victoria, taking a spin to Beechworth and looping back through Healesville. PER-MEL J rewards on B738; MEL-PER Amex Ultimate flight credit whY on A322 - but since downgauged to B738.

March: A week on a liveaboard snorkelling/dive boat at Raja Ampat, Indonesia (Raja Ampat Islands - Wikipedia). The boat accommodates 18 pax and a group of us in Perth (including @Daver6 and Mrs @Daver6) have taken exclusive use, which meant a substantial saving.

The boat sails out of Sorong, West Papua. Getting there involves unavoidable stupid o'clock flights and can be done via CGK or DPS. I opted xCGK for PJM and me.



Can't wait for that one.

June: A few days in Karratha. That may seem like an odd one but I have my reasons.

Award redemptions (whY-only birds) are plentiful and and at a low coast in points relative to lowest cost fares in two alternate windows each week. Obviously something related to FIFO swings. PJM spent a couple of years there back in the 1980s and hasn't been back since she scampered out of there. That was back in the early days of construction of Karratha and Wickham and it was rough.

Anyone who knows Karratha might agree that it's now probably the best town (officially now a city) in the Pilbara, plus there are places of interest in the vicinity that have been greatly 'tidied up', making it quite a reasonable tourist destination.

It's going to be a surprise for PJM that might elicit a shocked response initially, but I think that she will enjoy it.



July-September: The biggy! Coinciding with PJM retiring - ort at least moving to a non-fixed less formal mode.

Over a year ago, I lined up a string of several organised safari tours extending across Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana/Namibia for us, my brother and SIL and another couple, followed by a few days free bird in South Africa around Cape Town.

Earlier this year I had been hopeful of getting 2 EK F seats to NBO xDXB by positioning to SYD or MEL because, as we all know, availability was good back then, especially on the morning flights. That became history back in early August and I resigned myself to coughing up J revenue fares. All the dates within Africa were locked in.

Last week I had a stroke of luck and snared 2 J seats PER-xHKG-xDXB-NBO on exactly the dates I wanted in late July 2026. I had very little leeway as I needed to be in NBO by 25 July to begin about fives weeks of safariing around E Africa.

The web booking errored out at payment, so I had to call. Quick answer and a very helpful agent (location unknown) had it sorted easily.

The first sector is on CX, the latter sectors on EK. Nicely timed; PER-HKG 0915-1700; KHG-DXB 1900(next day)-2310; DXB-NBO (two days later) 1555-2000.

A night and full day in Hong Kong and two nights and a full day in Dubai on the way will be nice as PJM has not been to either before.

So all's well that ends well on getting to NBO.

(The others in the group are doing the round trip revenue PE EK PER-xDXB-NBO; CPT-xDXB-PER.)

Earlier this week I stumped up for revenue QR J CPT-xDOH-PER. The CPT-DOH sector is well-timed 1300-2335 (A359, non-QSuite); however QR DOH-PER is 0235-1840 - not great for enjoying the QSuite experience. But the advent of the VA wet-lease changes the game significantly. So we'll give the direct connection a miss to overnight and have most of the next day in DOH (again new for PJM) before jumping on the bird at 1950 for a 1155+1 arrival. Sweet timing for the QSuite experience.

OK, that explains the into/out of Africa.

Here's the guts of the plan in Africa:





First Safari: Northern Circuit from Nairobi, followed by flying to KGL for a trek to the gorillas in Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda, then back to NBO to fly to JRO (Kilimanjaro) for a Tanzania Highlights - Superior safari, then return to NBO before flying to MBA, the the Out of Africa Scenic Air Safari (which I have done before, but the others haven't - Aerial safari in Kenya and gorilla trek in Rwanda), finishing back in Nairobi. Then what should be a special highlight: a night at Giraffe Manor (basically the whole trip, timed to be in migration season, had to be organised around getting three rooms at Giraffe Manor two years ahead). Following that we fly to VFA and transfer to Kasane for two nights on Chobe Princess houseboat in Chobe NP (post#19 on: JohnM's E Africa aerial safari). From there it is back to Victoria Falls fro two nights at Old Drift Lodge and two nights at The Elephant Camp.

We then peel off from all the tours (as previously, organised through Bench Africa in Sydney) to fly VFA-CPT for a night at CPT before renting a car and heading to Stellenbosch for two nights, then back to Cape Town for a night before heading home.

Some might question why I'm repeating some things I did in the past. The answer to that primarily revolves around PJM never having been to Africa and I know that they were great experiences that I want to share. I also think that my advance knowledge will be fun as we advance through the things that I have previously done.

Counting down...

 

[markis10]

Contemplating a trip to Vegas in May as No Doubt will be doing 6 shows at the Sphere.

My ex wife loved no doubt, on our honeymoon we were taking the QF 767 from SIN to HKG, guess who we shared the J cabin with….Gwen and the crew were very cool!

As for my plans, will be in Foshan for the new year (assuming the mossie issue is solved but given its winter will be low exposure anyway), headed to Switzerland/Germany June and Japan August with a couple of china trios to firm up as well.

 

[leesionn]

Going to China, HK and Taiwan from Dec 29 to Feb 8. Was going to go with the missus but she broke it off which is why I now have the free reign to post about it here. It'll be good fun - looking forward to it and splurged a bit to try out Aria on the way home.

Then in April - May doing Europe solo at some points and with uni mates at others. Taking it slower by myself, fairly fast paced with the friends. Solo I'm covering Madrid, Lisbon, Lugano, Trieste and Doha on a stopover.

Big travel year for me.