turtlemichael
Established Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2006
- Posts
- 1,912
Turtlemichael and TMSO do the world
After more than a little consideration I’ve decided I’ll do it. I’m going to inflict on family, friends and fellow travel and flight addicts, the nitty gritty of our ramblings around the world over the next 12 months. I take my inspiration from the reports done by others, most notably for me Simongr and Kiwi Flyer. I look forward eagerly to their updates and envy their writing skills. I also devour the many other trip reports here and elsewhere. All up, I think we have a very interesting year of travel ahead.
While this forum is primarily about travel and planning travel, particularly in planes, it of necessity covers other things. – where people sleep, where they eat and what they do when they travel. I’ll try to follow that framework and emphasise the bits to do with flying. However, I do fail the membership test here because I can’t get out of my mind the ridiculous notion that travel is about where you go, the pleasure it gives you and not the process of getting there. No matter how good the meal in J is and how comfortable the almost fully flat bed, it palls for me in comparison with sharing a vaparetto ride with friends on the Grand Canal, eating lunch on the terrace of a 2 star Michelin restaurant overlooking the Dordogne or clambering over Angkor Wat. So if I drift too far from planes I’m sure someone will remind me! If I do it’s always open to the reader to become an ex-reader. “Move along sir, there’s nothing to interest you here”
First, the plan.
Over a period the plan for the year of travel ahead evolved. The SO (hereinafter to be known as TMSO) and I had a number of things we wanted to do. First and foremost we wanted to fulfil a long held desire to tour the Civil War sites in America’s south east. Added in were plans to visit friends, do a Black Sea cruise and complete a couple of business things. Certain ideas were left by the wayside including a desire to see the Australians play the West Indies in the Caribbean in April-May. It was just too much.
So, with the expert advice and assistance of a few from this forum, we decided to do a DONE4 out of Tokyo booked through AA. This will be our second DONE4 and we’ve also had a OW Circle Pacific fare in the last couple of years. Our timing was fortunate. We booked in late June with the basic plan and with the intention of reissuing at some later point. But, with rumours circulating of pending changes to the terms and conditions of the OW fares at the end of June, we got in just in time and paid and ticketed. We thus managed by about 36 hours to avoid the restriction introduced at the end of June redefining the 20 segments to include ground segments. I’ll remain nervous until our tickets are reissued at the end of November when the total plan will include 20 flights and 6 ground segments.
But the DONE4 is now the smaller part of the plan. All up it now includes 20 DONE4 segments, a number of paid flights, “relocating” flights utilising QF and VS points, several award flights, several long distance train trips and car rentals and a cruise. At this point we have 42 flights. I hope the bank manager is not a subscriber! As for the DONE4 we’ll start with a e-ticket but will convert that to a paper ticket when we complete the first few sectors. That will be the test of whether we have met the rules.
Next issue was what to do with the points. Qantas recently came good with early renewal of my WP status even though I will not quite reach the required 1200 SCs by my anniversary. TMSO is independently WP and will be well over the current threshold at renewal time. We both are sitting in the mid-9000 lifetime SCs and this year of travel will see us near 12000. Some early thoughts of more tripping in 2009 would push us past 14000 SC and into the rarefied air of lifetime Gold. That is of course if the rules don’t change and there are very strong rumours that they will soon.
So, with that in mind, the thought is to stick with QF scheme for the time being. If the rules are going to change to make lifetime status a remote possibility then we shall head for the dark side and learn all about the lingo of AA . There are a couple of flights booked as part of the DONE4 including QF107 to JFK which would just about satisfy a platinum challenge if flown on an AA flight number so we shall keep our ears and eyes open.
Even with 9000+ SCs it still might be more sensible to abandon QF now and do the switch? I guess we don’t always make sensible decisions and, for the time being at least, I do feel loyal to them. Pathetic hey!
Our broad itinerary
The milk is cancelled, the plants watered and the socks are darned. We leave Cairns at the end of the week for NRT using QF points. It’s overnight at the HI Narita and then on to Shanghai for 5 days . After that we head to Bangkok for a week or so then a couple of nights in Hong Kong. Finally a few days in Sydney and back to Cairns. All up, we’ll be away 3 weeks.
In January and February we’ll do some domestic travel then in April we head to the US for a few days in NYC and 3-4 weeks touring from Atlanta to Charleston then Richmond up to Philadelphia. The jaunt is completed with a visit to Palm Springs to see friends and then home in mid May via San Francisco, Auckland and Sydney using VS points on NZ.
In late July we head back to SFO using QF points to resume the DONE4. A week in Mexico City for a conference is followed by a few days in Vancouver, two weeks in the UK visiting friends in London and Leeds and a couple of days at the Edinburgh Festival. Two nights in Athens precede a 10 day cruise of the Black Sea ending in Istanbul. Then it is a week in Turkey including a visit to Gallipoli, a few days in Amsterdam and a week in Japan including visiting Hiroshima.
I’m not sure yet how we’ll get home in October from the end of the DONE4 in NRT. It could be using QF points, using VS points from HKG or it may even be the start of a new DONE4 (sadly with land segments included!)
I hope this is of interest and that I can keep up the postings from next week. Any comments and feedback as we go along will be appreciated.
After more than a little consideration I’ve decided I’ll do it. I’m going to inflict on family, friends and fellow travel and flight addicts, the nitty gritty of our ramblings around the world over the next 12 months. I take my inspiration from the reports done by others, most notably for me Simongr and Kiwi Flyer. I look forward eagerly to their updates and envy their writing skills. I also devour the many other trip reports here and elsewhere. All up, I think we have a very interesting year of travel ahead.
While this forum is primarily about travel and planning travel, particularly in planes, it of necessity covers other things. – where people sleep, where they eat and what they do when they travel. I’ll try to follow that framework and emphasise the bits to do with flying. However, I do fail the membership test here because I can’t get out of my mind the ridiculous notion that travel is about where you go, the pleasure it gives you and not the process of getting there. No matter how good the meal in J is and how comfortable the almost fully flat bed, it palls for me in comparison with sharing a vaparetto ride with friends on the Grand Canal, eating lunch on the terrace of a 2 star Michelin restaurant overlooking the Dordogne or clambering over Angkor Wat. So if I drift too far from planes I’m sure someone will remind me! If I do it’s always open to the reader to become an ex-reader. “Move along sir, there’s nothing to interest you here”
First, the plan.
Over a period the plan for the year of travel ahead evolved. The SO (hereinafter to be known as TMSO) and I had a number of things we wanted to do. First and foremost we wanted to fulfil a long held desire to tour the Civil War sites in America’s south east. Added in were plans to visit friends, do a Black Sea cruise and complete a couple of business things. Certain ideas were left by the wayside including a desire to see the Australians play the West Indies in the Caribbean in April-May. It was just too much.
So, with the expert advice and assistance of a few from this forum, we decided to do a DONE4 out of Tokyo booked through AA. This will be our second DONE4 and we’ve also had a OW Circle Pacific fare in the last couple of years. Our timing was fortunate. We booked in late June with the basic plan and with the intention of reissuing at some later point. But, with rumours circulating of pending changes to the terms and conditions of the OW fares at the end of June, we got in just in time and paid and ticketed. We thus managed by about 36 hours to avoid the restriction introduced at the end of June redefining the 20 segments to include ground segments. I’ll remain nervous until our tickets are reissued at the end of November when the total plan will include 20 flights and 6 ground segments.
But the DONE4 is now the smaller part of the plan. All up it now includes 20 DONE4 segments, a number of paid flights, “relocating” flights utilising QF and VS points, several award flights, several long distance train trips and car rentals and a cruise. At this point we have 42 flights. I hope the bank manager is not a subscriber! As for the DONE4 we’ll start with a e-ticket but will convert that to a paper ticket when we complete the first few sectors. That will be the test of whether we have met the rules.
Next issue was what to do with the points. Qantas recently came good with early renewal of my WP status even though I will not quite reach the required 1200 SCs by my anniversary. TMSO is independently WP and will be well over the current threshold at renewal time. We both are sitting in the mid-9000 lifetime SCs and this year of travel will see us near 12000. Some early thoughts of more tripping in 2009 would push us past 14000 SC and into the rarefied air of lifetime Gold. That is of course if the rules don’t change and there are very strong rumours that they will soon.
So, with that in mind, the thought is to stick with QF scheme for the time being. If the rules are going to change to make lifetime status a remote possibility then we shall head for the dark side and learn all about the lingo of AA . There are a couple of flights booked as part of the DONE4 including QF107 to JFK which would just about satisfy a platinum challenge if flown on an AA flight number so we shall keep our ears and eyes open.
Even with 9000+ SCs it still might be more sensible to abandon QF now and do the switch? I guess we don’t always make sensible decisions and, for the time being at least, I do feel loyal to them. Pathetic hey!
Our broad itinerary
The milk is cancelled, the plants watered and the socks are darned. We leave Cairns at the end of the week for NRT using QF points. It’s overnight at the HI Narita and then on to Shanghai for 5 days . After that we head to Bangkok for a week or so then a couple of nights in Hong Kong. Finally a few days in Sydney and back to Cairns. All up, we’ll be away 3 weeks.
In January and February we’ll do some domestic travel then in April we head to the US for a few days in NYC and 3-4 weeks touring from Atlanta to Charleston then Richmond up to Philadelphia. The jaunt is completed with a visit to Palm Springs to see friends and then home in mid May via San Francisco, Auckland and Sydney using VS points on NZ.
In late July we head back to SFO using QF points to resume the DONE4. A week in Mexico City for a conference is followed by a few days in Vancouver, two weeks in the UK visiting friends in London and Leeds and a couple of days at the Edinburgh Festival. Two nights in Athens precede a 10 day cruise of the Black Sea ending in Istanbul. Then it is a week in Turkey including a visit to Gallipoli, a few days in Amsterdam and a week in Japan including visiting Hiroshima.
I’m not sure yet how we’ll get home in October from the end of the DONE4 in NRT. It could be using QF points, using VS points from HKG or it may even be the start of a new DONE4 (sadly with land segments included!)
I hope this is of interest and that I can keep up the postings from next week. Any comments and feedback as we go along will be appreciated.
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