elanshin
Established Member
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2023
- Posts
- 3,968
- Qantas
- Platinum
- Virgin
- Silver
- SkyTeam
- Elite Plus
Inspired by @HirafuHeartAttack 's trip report, I thought I'd give this another try. With our wedding in January coming up and busy Christmas season we'll be jetting off for a holiday before all of that craziness in just over a week. This trip was booked as part of a OWA J that started on NYE and is the 5th stopover of the ticket.
Previous Sectors in the OWA:
From Prague we'll head via train to Vienna and thanks to ChatGPT I have now realised we'll be in time for their Christmas Markets as they start mid November. I was quite tempted to book a Ryanair flight to Barcelona from Vienna (or Prague) but the Vuelling times and prices were ever so slightly better - so it's time to see how IB's LCC does. Barcelona was the one place my partner requested as she loved the city when she last went a decade ago with her family.
We'll then travel by train to Latour de carol in the pyrenees borders before taking an overnight train to Paris and connecting Eurostar to Amsterdam. I could have chosen to fly, but instead felt like opting for the scenic train route. In hindsight after more research, I realised I should've booked to fly to BCN first then take the overnighter from Vienna to Amsterdam instead on the OBB overnight as it was a much nicer train - but hopefully we get some good views of the Spanish/French pyrenees to make up for it.
Our time in Amsterdam is relatively brief as it was just one of the cities that had award space open to connect into helsinki and I wanted to check out the Van Gough Museum. We'll try and spend a few hours in Helsinki and check out some suggestions by Matt before getting into Hong Kong for an overnight stay and KL. I'm hoping that CX will through check our bags to SIN at KUL even though it's on separate tickets.
Singapore is the last stop before heading home for my grandmother's 90th in Sydney. We'll be attending a convention which also conveniently is work related so I can claim some of the costs. Looking forward also to trying the SQ a380 J seats.
Hopefully I can try to keep this report up to date as we go around Europe.
Previous Sectors in the OWA:
- KUL-SIN-HND (Holiday over the new years to Japan)
- HND-SYD
- SYD-ZQN (Getaway to Queenstown and South Island - got some engagement shots done there)
- CHC-SYD-MEL (Initially Direct, however changed to go via SYD after schedule changes).
- MEL-SYD-HKG (QF) - HEL-LHR (AY)
- LHR - PRG (BA, Y)
- VIE - BCN (VY, Y)
- Train from Barcelona to Paris to Amsterdam (SNSF overnight + Eurostar)
- AMS-HEL-HKG (AY)-KUL (CX)
- KUL - SIN (MH, Y)
- SIN - SYD (SQ J)
From Prague we'll head via train to Vienna and thanks to ChatGPT I have now realised we'll be in time for their Christmas Markets as they start mid November. I was quite tempted to book a Ryanair flight to Barcelona from Vienna (or Prague) but the Vuelling times and prices were ever so slightly better - so it's time to see how IB's LCC does. Barcelona was the one place my partner requested as she loved the city when she last went a decade ago with her family.
We'll then travel by train to Latour de carol in the pyrenees borders before taking an overnight train to Paris and connecting Eurostar to Amsterdam. I could have chosen to fly, but instead felt like opting for the scenic train route. In hindsight after more research, I realised I should've booked to fly to BCN first then take the overnighter from Vienna to Amsterdam instead on the OBB overnight as it was a much nicer train - but hopefully we get some good views of the Spanish/French pyrenees to make up for it.
Our time in Amsterdam is relatively brief as it was just one of the cities that had award space open to connect into helsinki and I wanted to check out the Van Gough Museum. We'll try and spend a few hours in Helsinki and check out some suggestions by Matt before getting into Hong Kong for an overnight stay and KL. I'm hoping that CX will through check our bags to SIN at KUL even though it's on separate tickets.
Singapore is the last stop before heading home for my grandmother's 90th in Sydney. We'll be attending a convention which also conveniently is work related so I can claim some of the costs. Looking forward also to trying the SQ a380 J seats.
Hopefully I can try to keep this report up to date as we go around Europe.
Last edited:
