Custom Tour/ Itinerary planners

[riotrara]

Hi, first time poster long time lingerer i have a couple of questions i was hoping you might be able to help me with

Firstly, i was a winner of third prize in the boystown lottery of a $5000 qantas travel voucher, i was wondering if using the voucher to book flights, accom etc do you still qaulify for FF points? I am not a member of FF yet but was wondering if it would be worthwhile joining up before making my purchases?

Secondly who would you guys recommend to someone looking to come up with a detailed custom tour/itinerary for a 30 day tour across the US?

 

[straitman]

Hi, first time poster long time lingerer i have a couple of questions i was hoping you might be able to help me with

Firstly, i was a winner of third prize in the boystown lottery of a $5000 qantas travel voucher, i was wondering if using the voucher to book flights, accom etc do you still qaulify for FF points? I am not a member of FF yet but was wondering if it would be worthwhile joining up before making my purchases?

Secondly who would you guys recommend to someone looking to come up with a detailed custom tour/itinerary for a 30 day tour across the US?

riotrara,

Welcome to AFF and congratulations on your win.

Whether the voucher entitles you to FF points and status will depend upon the T&C of the voucher. You would need to look there or ask boystown. I would think that it points would be available with the voucher.

To join QFF you can do that via Qantas at $82.50 or get a Woolworths Everyday rewards card and you can join as part of that process for free. It can take a few weeks so I would do that sooner rather than later.

If you can tell us what you are aiming at in the USA then the 'experts' here can probably give you a lot of pointers and from personal experience rather than just from a brochure.

 

[codash1099]

Hi, first time poster long time lingerer i have a couple of questions i was hoping you might be able to help me with

Firstly, i was a winner of third prize in the boystown lottery of a $5000 qantas travel voucher, i was wondering if using the voucher to book flights, accom etc do you still qaulify for FF points? I am not a member of FF yet but was wondering if it would be worthwhile joining up before making my purchases?

Secondly who would you guys recommend to someone looking to come up with a detailed custom tour/itinerary for a 30 day tour across the US?

Welcome to AFF.

You can join Qantas FF at no cost by taking up the Woolworths Everyday Awards offer, so yes, it's worthwhile.

Not sure whether you would earn FF with a voucher but I suspect you would. Others here will have more information on that. Likewise, others with more travel experience in the US will help with the planning. If you want to maximise points you will have to fly mostly with AA.

And finally, it's good to learn that someone actually wins something in those lotteries!

Edit: All written concurrently with Bill!!)

 

[riotrara]

Hi Again and thanks for the advice guys, YES i was just as surprised as you all that someone let alone ME actually won lol

What times of the year are considered off peak when flying from oz to the US?

my aim in the US is to stay in low cost motels/hotels while i travel to as many cities i have on my list of places i want to go, so i also need to work out what means of transport i will need/use/can afford to get me from here to there, ideally the places i want to visit the most are LA, hollywood, Vegas, Grand Canyon, New York, san fransisco, roswell, alcatraz, disneyland, universal studios, legoland, ground zero, that big toy store that tom hanks plays the huge piano on in the movie big (lol) nashville and along the way see as many roadside attractions as possible. I know my list is scattered and all over the place thats why i am looking for help in turning it from chaos into organised chaos better known as an itinerary, working out where to start and finish, where car hire would be the best bet or a coach, subway or flight would work out cheapest.

so you see im very lost, my qantas voucher can be used for flights, accom and car hire and im not sure what else yet, i just sent the prize selection back to boystown on friday and then qantas sends me the voucher with all the details and T&C within two days

So if anyone can help/guide me with any of this mayhem, i will even pay someone to work on the itinaray with me.

Also as a ball park figure what is the absolute bare minimum of spending money would you need for 30 days?

 

[riotrara]

Any other advice?

 

[drmikki]

Welcome.

Do you intend to do this alone or with someone? In other words, does the voucher need to cover 2 or more peoples' costs? And do you plan to spend any of your own money on costs other than food or non-Qantas-bookable accomodation? Planning makes a big difference depending on your budget overall - 2.5 K vs 5K vs 10K. Finally, if travelling alone is that ok with you, or would you prefer company? If you are happy alone then driving/short flight stops makes sense, but if you don't enjoy that there are plenty of small group tours, or coach/train travel might be a better way to meet fellow travellers. Sounds like you will have a great time!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Hi Again and thanks for the advice guys, YES i was just as surprised as you all that someone let alone ME actually won lol

What times of the year are considered off peak when flying from oz to the US?

my aim in the US is to stay in low cost motels/hotels while i travel to as many cities i have on my list of places i want to go, so i also need to work out what means of transport i will need/use/can afford to get me from here to there, ideally the places i want to visit the most are LA, hollywood, Vegas, Grand Canyon, New York, san fransisco, roswell, alcatraz, disneyland, universal studios, legoland, ground zero, that big toy store that tom hanks plays the huge piano on in the movie big (lol) nashville and along the way see as many roadside attractions as possible. I know my list is scattered and all over the place thats why i am looking for help in turning it from chaos into organised chaos better known as an itinerary, working out where to start and finish, where car hire would be the best bet or a coach, subway or flight would work out cheapest.

so you see im very lost, my qantas voucher can be used for flights, accom and car hire and im not sure what else yet, i just sent the prize selection back to boystown on friday and then qantas sends me the voucher with all the details and T&C within two days

So if anyone can help/guide me with any of this mayhem, i will even pay someone to work on the itinaray with me.

Also as a ball park figure what is the absolute bare minimum of spending money would you need for 30 days?

I would have a look at tour brochures for Globus Gateway or Cosmos to get an idea of cities & places of interest to visit. They have some really good regional tours & I think you might find that more relaxing than driving yourself & not really having an idea of what you'll spend.

You get to meet other people & having a tour guide is good to get the lowdown on a place otherwise you may miss out on something good if you're going it alone.

You could stay a few days in the LAX area such as Anaheim & be able to do day tours that cover sightseeing for LA, Hollywood, Universal Studions & Disneyland. Maybe fly LAX/SFO & spend a few days there but book early for Alcatraz which you can do on their official site www.alcatraz.com then drive down the coast back to LAX stopping for a night somewhere enroute.

You could maybe do a short tour around California/Nevada/Arizona or just fly to Vegas & do a Grand Canyon tour from there. If you don't want to backtrack to LAX to fly to NYC on QF just book a fare on Virgin America (VX) LAS/JFK direct on their website www.virginamerica.com.

Even if you don't do tours the whole time you can always copy one of their itineraries under your own steam as you know roughly what's achieveable in a day. Maybe end up in Dallas then you can take the QF flight back to SYD without having to set foot in the West Coast again.

I would first ask Boystown first if you must redeem you travel voucher through a particular travel agent and if so, ask what land arrangements are bookable/payable this end eg car rental, tours, prepaid hotel accommodation through a tour wholesaler & don't forget travel insurance - do not dream of going overseas, particularly the USA without it.

I don't think it would be possible to pay for your hotels direct by the sounds of it unless you purchase some kind of hotel voucher pass you could use as payment.

Generally Feb/Mar & Oct/Nov are the low seasons to the USA but bear in mind you could get a snowstorm & weather can be extremely treacherous. Your departure date ex Aust will determine if your flights are considered low, shoulder or high season. Try to avoid both school holidays in Australia & the US if it's possible.

 

[casanovawa]

Really depends what your interested in i guess... i have done a couple of tours of the US as part of round the world trip itineraries which entitled me to a few flights within the US...

2003 - LA for about 3 days - San Fran for a couple of days - down to Las Vegas for a couple of days (toured the grand canyon etc) hired a car and drove down across Hoover Dam through Phoenix (saw an American Footbal game) down to Tucson (great aircraft museum down there and the US Air Force AMARC centre where they mothball their retired planes) - flew up to Chicago for a couple of days - flew down to Wash DC for about 3 days (great city, lots of museums, monuments, toured Arlington Cemetary, watched US Congress in session) - hired car and drove through Baltimore and Philli up to NYC for about 3 days...

2004 Flew into LA and immediately hired a car and drove down to San Diego for 3 days or so (went on the USS Midway, saw a baseball game, San Diego Zoo and Sea World) - flew to Dallas for a transit of 6 hours and hired a car and went in and saw where JFK was assasinated and toured the School Book Depository building where JFK was supposed to have been shot from) - flew on to Orlando and did Disney World, hired a car and drove out to Cape Canaveral to see the Kennedy Space Centre (unfortunately no space shuttle launch) before flying up to NYC (ground zero, wall street, USS Hancock, Central Park, UN, Empire State, Time Square etc, etc)....

in 2011 i am planning to do some of the same cities - Wash DC - NYC - Boston - Montreal - Toronto - Niagara Falls - Chicago... probably do a road trip by car or something as am planning to do it with a friend over there...

The less you spend on accommodation the more you have for car hire and sight seeing or bus travel etc... i usually like to research places myself before i go rather than paying for expensive tour companies, but that is just me.. these days i also tend to stay in cheap accommodation or with people who offer to share thir house for free.... you can also look up in many places around the world and find people who are willing to share a place in their car on rideshares etc, but these are more ad hoc/last minute...

an itinerary isn't too hard to do, can knock one up in a few hours in a word doc... then you just need to fill in the blanks...

 

[Cynicor]

There are plenty of cheap motels and inns in the US, so a driving holiay is possible, but most of them are tiny and not sure if you'd be able to book in advance through an agent. This means you may be limited to a nicer class of hotel and it will be a bit more expensive than if you just drove through town and found a place.