The big family trip - where to start??

[scratch950]

Hi and firstly thanks for a fantastic site, (so much great advice)

OK - deep breath - we're off to America in April 2011 and have absolutely no idea where to start!

We have approx 880,000 points (WPC Altitude) and don't belong to a FF program yet.

We'd like to fly : Perth W.A. to LA, across the Florida. Hire a car and drive up the East Coast & into Canada. Then fly Toronto to Vancouver, to LA and then home to Perth. All in 4 weeks! :shock: Are we mad?!

Who should we fly with?
How many points are required (approx) for 2 adults & 2 children (will be 8 & 11?)
Is there a better route?
Can you use points to fly internally thru the U.S.?
Can you use points to hire a car & use for accommodation?

Thanks heaps in advance for your help!

 

[thewinchester]

Let's get the ball rolling:

Points for flying within US

Yes, by either transferring the points from your card to a relevant frequent flyer program or by booking flights directly with Altitude Travel.

Altitude to Frequent flyer programs

If you were to convert those 880k in Altitude points to a program, you'd be receiving:

• 5,499 Air New Zealand Airpoints
• 440,000 points/miles from Singapore Airlines/Virgin Blue/Malaysian

I'll leave the answers on which, if any, frequent flyer program might be best for your proposed options to far more knowledgeable people.

How many points needed for the flights?

Doing a quick calculation on the Singapore Air website, you'd be looking at 145k in points per person for a routing of PER-SIN-NRT-LAX, YYZ-YVR, YVR-LAX-NRT-SIN-PER. That's 580k in points, leaving you 140k short. The amount required comes down to 483k if you book the reward flights online which is worth a 15% discount.

It may be worth checking with Altitude Travel to see how much points they'll charge to get you to the US and back for the four of you as a comparison to airline redemption rates.

Car bookings

Altitude offers vehicle hire vouchers, but I don't know if they can be used for bookings with the respective companies for vehicle hire outside of Australia. Can anyone advise on if DJ Velocity Europcar redemptions are valid for rentals outside of Australia?



There's a quick brain dump from me, plus it helps tire me out as I can't sleep. Good luck, as it sounds like you and the family have a wonderful time planned.

 

[Cocitus23]

Welcome to AFF.
Wow, that's quite a list of questions you pose, and interesting, too. Thewinchester has already started on the matter of points and airlines, and I'm sure that others, far more knowledgeable than me on those matters, will join in. So let me just address the matter of your surface itineraries in North America. I have lived in the regions where you propose to travel, and know them well.
First to your question, "Are we mad?" to try to do it all in four weeks. The short answer is "NO, you will have a fabulous trip," but the longer answer is "YES, you need to make some adjustments to what you are proposing."
Everyone's opinions on what is worth seeing will vary, but remember that both USA and Canada are very rich in places of interest so that inevitably you will be forced to make choices.
Four weeks equals 28 days. Cut out a couple for travel and recovery each way, so let's say you have 24 for touring. As a first pass I would suggest splitting that into 19 nights on the East coast and 5 around Vancouver. (But I'll make a 14/10 split further down).
Regarding the East coast, I consider the northern half to be far, far more interesting than the south. In fact, I readily rate Florida among the ten most boring states in USA. So my first suggested amendment is to fly from LAX to IAD (Washington) and forget about FL, GA and SC. There is another reason. Rental cars are relatively cheap in USA, but drop-off fees to remote places can be steep. If you flew into IAD, you could make a fabulous round-trip in the North-East, including Canada, come back to IAD and fly out of there to Vancouver.
Consider something like this as a route: Washington, Philadelphia, New York City, Connecticut coast, Rhode Island, Cape Cod incl Nantucket, Boston, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Gettysburg, Shenandoah National Park, Charlottesville and back to IAD.
Now on the west coast, after seeing Vancouver itself, rent a car and tour to Whistler, Victoria, Seattle and back to YVR to fly out. This will require car ferries onto and off Vancouver Island, going over with BC Ferries from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo, and leaving the island with Coho Ferries from Victoria to Port Angeles.
Can I suggest that you buy yourself a Rand McNally Road Atlas for your planning - invaluable - and you can probably pick one up at a decent bookstore in Perth. If not, get someone going to USA to buy you one - dirt cheap over there.
If your wish to start at Florida was motivated solely by a desire to take the kids to Disney World, I would satisfy that desire simply by spending a day at Disney Land (essentially the same thing) at Los Angeles en route.
Now what about the 14 night/10 night split I suggested? You could make the east coast circuit tighter, but in the west you could add in a circuit from Vancouver out to the Canadian Rockies (Lake Louise, Banff), as well as what I suggested above.
Plenty to think about there, and others will have ideas too. Feel free to ask questions.

 

[markis10]

Firstly I would suggest you join QFF for free ASAP using the everyday rewards site, while Qantas may not be used for your upcoming trip, its mroe than likely you will use them at some time so you may as well sign up for free while you can, a saving of $80 odd dollars per person.

 

[docjames]

Awesome post by Cocitus23 - there's some great advice there. The far north east is very culturally rich, and a driving holiday is the way to see it all.

Noting kids ages: If the aim of visiting florida is to go to disneyworld, skip it and have a day or two in LA on the way home and go to disneyland insead. The kids will get just as much enjoyment from -land than -world.

 

[medhead]

The only thing I'd suggest is you need more than a day for disney land. As a kid we got to go there, when it was the only disney anything. We arranged 1 day. But once getting their and visiting friends, they said more was need and let us use their annual pass. Needless to say we had 3 days and didn't get bored. But then again it was the 70s and times were simpler then.

 

[Cocitus23]

May I respectfully disagree, Medhead, with your advice re Disneyland/world? I have been through both parks, first by myself, then later with my children and most recently with my grand-children. Sure, you can't do it ALL in one day, but you can do enough to have a very good feel for it and have an excellent day. Remember that these folks have limited time, and any extra day spent at Disney means experiences and memories missed elsewhere. As I said above, opinions will vary about what to include and exclude, but I would be strongly of the view that Disney can be experienced sufficiently well in one day.

 

[harvyk]

I don't think your mad...

I'm +1 with disneyland, it is a must especially with kids (8 & 11 will love the place, and it WILL be the highlight of the trip for them). I went there when I was younger and we where there for 2 days, but could have easily stayed longer. I'l also going to throw another spanner into the works and suggest you visit hollywood and at least one of the movie studios. It's always great seeing actual props from movies...

Miami is nice enough, once you've spent some time sitting on the beach and then at a cafe (it's a very relaxed place), there is not a lot else to do there.

As for who you should fly, well Air NZ will give you the option of flying PER - AKL - LAX, QF will give you the option of flying PER - MEL \ SYD \ BNE - LAX. Whilst I don't know how good your kids are at flying, I would suggest going as directly as possible, as at quickest you'll be on planes for at least 18 hours to get from PER to LAX, so you want to make sure that your sitting around at airports is as shorter time as possible. Furthermore a stop off in LA and spend a day or two on the west coast may help break up the trip.

As for who to fly with when your over there well I've only flown AA in the USA, and I can't really recommend them. That said if you do become QFFF then AA would be the way to go.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Firstly on Disneyland and other theme parks.

Yes great for a day.

But with your 8 year old (and maybe 11 year old) check their height as the better rides all have a rigid minimum height restriction.
If one child is tall enough and the other not that will add "complexity" to the day and no doubta lot more fun for the taller one and angst for the shorter one.


On Points: In general the best thing to redeem points on is long haul internationals with most other things normally not deliveing as much value.

However redeeming to the USA is popular and you may find redemptions hard to get when you want to fly..so be flexible.


Conisder a Partner Award booked via Singapore Airlines (SQ) if you are looking for economy as the fuel fines and taxes should be a lot less.

On SQ J Saver Awards offer great value as J is only 50% more. Travel in ecomomy (Y) is not so good though as the fuel fines are hefty. In J the cheap points price if one can get a Saver more than offsets this. In Y not so much.

 

[markis10]

I would probably give Disneyland a miss and go to Orlando for Disney World with its 6 parks as well as Kennedy Space Centre, pity the last shuttle launch is in September this year, its something I have always wanted to watch.

 

[medhead]

May I respectfully disagree, Medhead, with your advice re Disneyland/world? I have been through both parks, first by myself, then later with my children and most recently with my grand-children. Sure, you can't do it ALL in one day, but you can do enough to have a very good feel for it and have an excellent day. Remember that these folks have limited time, and any extra day spent at Disney means experiences and memories missed elsewhere. As I said above, opinions will vary about what to include and exclude, but I would be strongly of the view that Disney can be experienced sufficiently well in one day.

My experience remains valid despite your opinions based on your equally valid experience. In fact what you've written here agrees with my point. So I'm not sure what you're respectfully disagreeing with.

What I was trying to get at was balance. If the point of going to disney is the kids then I'd suggest, as you agree, that more than 1 day would not be wasted at the disneyland. Hence, the OP could plan to give the kids' activity more than 1 day out of the 24 available, without risking waste a day by going back to disneyland. Of course, there are also studio tours that the kids might like as well.

 

[drewbles]

I would probably give Disneyland a miss and go to Orlando for Disney World with its 6 parks as well as Kennedy Space Centre, pity the last shuttle launch is in September this year, its something I have always wanted to watch.

Agreed. Been to all of them as a 'big kid' and back in high school too. Kennedy is great, but there won't be many more launches anymore unfortunately (check out the website for scheduled launches in case you happen to be there when they're on).

Disney World is much larger then Disney Land. You could easily spend 5-7 days going through it all there. It's a very very big property.

 

[NM]

But with your 8 year old (and maybe 11 year old) check their height as the better rides all have a rigid minimum height restriction.

Most of the "exciting" rides have a 4 foot minimum height. Our then 6yo, who has never been considered anything but "under-tall" just scraped in for the 48" measures when wearing her shoes with 1.5" heals and he hair tied up like a whale spout on the top of her head .

So should not have too many issues with 8 and 11yo. I can only recall one ride that had a higher height limit and that was the vertical drop ride at Paradise Pier at California Adventure. Can't recall the exact height limit, but expect it was probably 4'6" and out 10yo was ok for that one.

 

[harvyk]

Before we argue the merits of land vs world (or other Disney parks) maybe we should wait to see if Disneysomething is even on the OP's radar...

 

[Cocitus23]

Rght on, harveyk. There has been far too much emphasis on Disney so far. I think I made my position on it clear. If you are interested in it, spend a day on it and move on. It's fun for all the family, but America and Canada have far more to offer.

 

[Gold Member]

Pursuing the whole Disneyland thing... I recently went to Universal Stuidios and bought the 'Front of the line pass' which worked out extremely well. Does Disneyland offer the same and if so, is it possible to do all the good attractions within 1 day?

 

[munitalP]

I would probably give Disneyland a miss and go to Orlando for Disney World with its 6 parks as well as Kennedy Space Centre, pity the last shuttle launch is in September this year, its something I have always wanted to watch.

Been there, done that (see previous post) - would go back and spend another 2-3 days at the KSC and then tour the cape as well

Mr!

 

[straitman]

Pursuing the whole Disneyland thing... I recently went to Universal Stuidios and bought the 'Front of the line pass' which worked out extremely well. Does Disneyland offer the same and if so, is it possible to do all the good attractions within 1 day?

The short answer is Disney World does not so I suspect Disneyland would not either. They use a FastPass system which IMHO is not as good. (But it is free)

 

[scratch950]

Whew! Thank you all so much for the info (my head is still reeling), but it has made so many of our decisions easier.

Firstly, we will give Florida a miss - it was initially for the Orlando Disney but with the time constraints we could use LAX as a finishing point/highlight for the tinlids - 2 days??

Can I pls get confirmation on :

How do I go about redeeming the points?
Who would it be best to join up with?
At what point do you start looking at seat requests (and do we split into 2 + 2) for better seating?
Is this an issue with J?

I still don't understand the airpoints etc and after reading "lovetravellingoz" post, we may even look at travelling J with SQ. Anymore advice there would be greatly appreciated as well.



Thanks again and looking forward to more sage & wonderful advice - you guys rock!

 

[harvyk]

I'd give LA a bit more time... Disneyland itself can take up 2 days. I'd suggest at least a third so you have time to tour a movie studio or two.

BTW having as a highlight at the end is a good idea, it gives the kids something to look forwards to. (I was 9 when I went to Disneyland, it was the highlight of the trip)