Erk's 2014 Pacamerican Circle

[erkpod]

Often I read here about the trips themselves but not always about the preparation & planning into a trip. Here is my story about my upcoming trip to America.


There are two events that I am going to America for, New Media Expo in Vegas at the start of January & 70000 Tons of Metal departing Miami at the end of January.


The original plan was to leave Sydney on Xmas Day 2013 & arrive back at the end of February 2014 flying VA.


I intend to keep the report going during the preparations & during the trip itself.

 

[erkpod]

Stage 1 - Planning & Booking Flights (May/June/July 2013)

I was looking for airfares to fly VA to/from LAX. Because I wanted to travel when I did, the best Y fare I could get was about $2.9k. I didn't want to wait for special fares - I thought the chance of them would be zero.


So I went on the Velocity website & was looking around & found the specials page complete with RTW & Circle Pacific fares Airline Special Offers | Velocity Frequent Flyer. For just under the prices I was quoted SYD - LAX - SYD, I could get a Circle Pacific fare. With the way I wanted to travel, I decided that I wanted to go SYD - LAX - NRT - SIN - SYD.


You can't book the tickets online, the page suggests going to a travel agent. For the first time in years, I walked into a travel agent. Agent 1 had no idea what I was on about, even though I had the relevant pages on my phone. Reluctantly, the agent called VA who couldn't find the fare either. I went across to agent 2. Not much idea either. They said they needed time to check the T & C & that could take them an hour. If it takes a TA an hour to read T & C, routings etc, what hope does an Average Joe/Joanne Public have? Agent 2 said that they'd contact me - I was still waiting 4 weeks later!


A week later, I decided to call SQ. Told the guy what I wanted & his idea of a Circle Pacific was SYD - SIN - LAX - SIN - SYD, all on SQ. That's not a circle! Eventually he told me to call the ticket office. I said "Aren't you the ticket office?" to which he replied "I'm reservations." He then suggested I call VA. I then called VA. I got transferred 4 times around the GCC & the VFF desk. One woman said I couldn't go via Japan as it wasn't on the permitted routing. I read her the relevant section of the website. later, I found I could get a seat when I wanted on the flights I wanted except LAX - NRT. Then I was told that I could get a seat on that plane if I paid with points but not with cash (WTF!!). After an hour, I thought I'd be transferred to Sir Richard Branson himself but no. So I gave up.


I then found a site called Best Flights. I used them in 2011 when I went to Europe. I could find a range of RTW/Circle Pacific fares but not the VA/SQ one I found above. Calling the RTW phone number (on a Sunday!), they had a ballpark figure in 5 minutes & called me with a confirmed price (the same price) the next day - under the price of the SYD - LAX return that I was originally looking at. I booked the ticket & can't want to go. Round World Flights - Cheap Flights - Phone Flights Results I'll be going on VA 1 SYD - LAX & then back via NRT & SIN. Bonus is that I'll get to go on the SQ A380 for the rest of the trip. So my advice was to go to Best Flights. Some members here warned me that it could be bad if I needed to change flights.


I was opening not to need to change flights but my Place of Employment soon changed that. I had leave approved, I booked the flights & then I was told it wasn't approved. Then I had to apply again & was told that I could not have the leave from 23/12 because of a small event in Sydney called New Year's Eve - you might have heard of it. Somehow I was expected to know if I am working on NYE 6 months in advance despite special timetables & a roster change. In the end, I was given leave commencing 1/1. Off to Best Flights to change the opening flight. After being prepared for some sort of fee to change the flight, I was originally quoted about $200 to change flights - not too bad. A later phone call boosted that to $522, mainly consisting of extra taxes. I could not find out off the TA or VA what these extra taxes were.

My original plan had to change. Instead of a Xmas Day flight with VA (Longest. Xmas. Ever), I am now flying out on New Year's Day. Instead of spending a week in California somewhere (probably San Francisco) before New Media Expo in Vegas, I am flying into LAX on NYD & then need to fly the same day to Vegas. New Media Expo starts the following day.


Current flights (all dates local):

1/1 SYD - LAX VA1
12/2 LAX - NRT SQ11
19/2 NRT - SIN SQ11
26/2 SIN - SYD SQ231

 

[erkpod]

Late on Tuesday 09 July, I started to book my domestic American travel. Earlier in 2013, I had flown Delta, Delta Connection, United Express & Alaska within the US. I learnt through experience & reading here that my flights on Alaskan metal with a DL flight number wasn't a valid Velocity earn so I kept that in mind this time.


My first aim was to get from LAX - LAS.


I am arriving into LAX from Australia on VA1 0930 PST on New Year's Day. I need to fly out to Vegas on the same day & leave enough time for delays, US CBP & some lounging time (I'll be VA gold at least by then). I compared DL & VX with price & times and decided to go in first class with DL. After 15 hours in Y, why not!


After my time in Vegas, I had accommodation booked already in San Francisco. Again comparing times & flights with DL/VX, I decided to go VX. I could not justify going F with either carrier for the prices (ex Vegas tax? LOL) so I'm in Y. Nor could I justify the AFF mantra of "Why go direct if you can connect" on this flight, especially going via LAX.


After a week in San Francisco, I decided to go to one of my favourite US cities, Portland OR. It was on this leg earlier this year (but in the reverse direction) that I got done on the AS/DL thing I mentioned earlier. More aware to it & aware there's not as many options between VX & DL on this leg, I went F via VX. In part, I want to compare their F to DL's. It's only a short sector. It will be a good chance to check out the VX lounge at SFO to compare it to my previous experience at LAX.


The next leg would be interesting. I need to be in Miami for the last week in January before my metal cruise. I want to spend a few days in Miami this time around compared to using it as a transit stop last time. There were a range of options for DL flights PDX - MIA via various points. I was surprised to see that VX doesn't serve MIA or even ATL. I wanted to stay with the one carrier on this sector. Going transcon, I knew that it would be a long day of travel & at least one change of plane because I'm not flying from LAX or SFO. There were the obvious routings PDX - JFK (or LGA) - MIA or PDX - ATL - MIA. There were a few other variations including SLC, MPS or LAX. There was a strange one that would be awesome for AFFers PDX - ATL - LGA - MIA which would be good for FF & plane appreciation purposes but a lot of added travel for little good reason. It seems strange to be in ATL & then have to fly a long way north to go south.


An added consideration on this leg is the chance to be flown by a podcasting pilot. I tried it on my last trip but he wasn't flying on the day that I was flying last time. I know the type of plane he is type rated on & DL's site is really good when it comes to the type of aircraft on a certain trip. Booking that sector on that type increases my chances. I won't mention the podcast in question here because the person concerned doesn't mention the airline he flies for because it isn't an official podcast of his airline.



After several attempts (in part due to a declined Virgin Money credit card), I managed to book PDX - ATL - MIA. I later found that VM were trying to call me but I had my phone in flight mode. Because of the amount of flights that I booked with 2 carriers, they thought it was worthy to put a block on the card. Because I was choosing to fly 2 carriers in a mixture of classes on a variety of sectors, a multi city was useless for me. Who would have thought that a credit card associated with a FF program would be used in connection with booking flights?



The first half of booking my American domestic travel is complete. That will get me to Miami to board my cruise. Next time I'll book, I'll book the rest including stops in Atlanta, New York, Chicago & San Luis Obispo before flying out to Japan.


Current flights (all dates local):

1/1 SYD - LAX VA1 Y
1/1 LAX - LAS DL1443 F
8/1 LAS - SFO VX251 Y
15/1 SFO - PDX VX816 F
22/1 PDX - ATL DL1076 Y
22/1 ATL - MIA DL1860 Y
12/2 LAX - NRT SQ11 Y
19/2 NRT - SIN SQ11 Y
26/2 SIN - SYD SQ231 Y

 

[erkpod]

I have now completed my bookings for the trip. The AFF mantra "why go direct when you can connect" really applies here, somewhat not by choice.


After I get back from my cruise, I'm going to spend the weekend in Atlanta. I want to go to New York but my time is limited so for the first time, I will be in the US but not going to New York. Instead, I am going to see friends in Chicago, Walla Walla & San Luis Obispo so that means a bit of regional travel. I'm flying F on DL from ATL - MDW but Y for the rest of the domestic trip.


I knew that to get to Walla Walla WA (ALW), I had to go via SEA. Surprisingly (to me, at least), I could not get a direct flight from either ORD or MDW to SEA on either VX or DL. So I'm going MDW - MSP then MSP - SEA then SEA - ALW. The latter is on AS so I now know that I won't get VFF SC SEA - ALW - SEA.


After a few days in Walla Walla, I'm off from regional WA to regional CA. After some investigations & experimenting routings to fly AS to SEA then DL from SEA, I was very surprised to find that the cost of ALW - SEA - SFO was way more expensive in Y than ALW - SEA - SLC - PHX or ALW - SEA - LAX. When I found that the fare to Phoenix was only $124 compared to $600ish to SFO, no need to guess which option I took.


I knew from my earlier trip this year that only US Airways Express & United Express fly into SBP. I had flights from PHX, LAX (which is what I did this year) or SFO to choose from. With the price on the price flights to SFO being so expensive, I ruled that out. Going via PHX gives me airport appreciation time in SLC & PHX rather than LAX & gets me into SBP (which I think should be SLO but I know SLO is already taken as a code) earlier than via LAX.


My final US domestic flight is a simple sprint SBP - LAX where I have about 4 hours at LAX before my SQ flight to NRT. This mean all my flights are now booked. I'll let the credit card cool down a bit.


The only sectors where I shouldn't collect VFF points/SC are the regional ones to/from ALW & SBP which is what I expected.


1/1 SYD - LAX VA1 Y
1/1 LAX - LAS DL1443 F
8/1 LAS - SFO VX251 Y
15/1 SFO - PDX VX816 F
22/1 PDX - ATL DL1076 Y
22/1 ATL - MIA DL1860 Y
31/1 MIA - ATL DL1802 Y
03/2 ATL - MDW DL1648 F
06/2 MDW - MSP DL5716 Y
06/2 MSP - SEA DL589 Y
06/2 SEA - ALW DL9273 Y
09/2 ALW - SEA DL9272 Y
09/2 SEA - SLC DL1857 Y
09/2 SLC - PHX DL1434 Y
09/2 PHX - SBP US 2823 Y
12/2 SBP - LAX UA5389 Y
12/2 LAX - NRT SQ11 Y
19/2 NRT - SIN SQ11 Y
26/2 SIN - SYD SQ231 Y

 

[erkpod]

So far in the 2 weeks since making the final bookings, Delta have emailed me twice to tell me there have been changes to their schedules. The first email was for the ATL - MDW flight. The email says that the changes are in bold but there's no bold on the email. I'm using TripIt to keep track of the flights & the app updated itself with the change.

The second change was the PDX - ATL flight. Again the email said that the changes were in bold but there was no bold. I updated TripIt manually to find that the flight is 30 minutes earlier out of PDX & 30 minutes earlier (as you'd hope!) into ATL.

 

[erkpod]

100 days to go!

 

[erkpod]

One of my destinations is VA's destination of the week - Singapore.

 

[erkpod]

A month today before I fly out. I've got my accommodation sorted out for Vegas, San Francisco, Portland & Tokyo.


There's been a few differences in the Delta flights since booking. Most of them are minor however the flight between Seattle & Walla Walla has been changed to an evening departure. Looks like I'll have a lot more than the original couple of hours in Seattle for the connection. Presuming my luggage is booked through from Midway to Walla Walla, I'll be able to have an extended airport appreciation session or head down town.


The destination for 70000 Tons of Metal has been determined so I'm off to Costa Maya, Mexico. It's a day stop which marks the halfway point of the cruise. I could imagine that is what shore leave feels like for someone in the Navy.


I've also been trying to learn some Japanese - or at least I've got an app which I could use if needed.

 

[erkpod]

I've been listening to some Japanese podcasts & using the app. A friend of mine at work is Japanese also so she's given me some tips.

I've learnt that learning "What is the procedure for ....?" would be handy to know.

Otto is Japanese for husband.

There's vending machines at the top of Mt Fuji (who refills them???)

 

[erkpod]

Under a week to go. I'm about to start packing. First, my AFF & VFF bag tags go on.

 

[erkpod]

Something different on this trip for me will be my use of the VFF Global Wallet. I've been using it domestically for a few months & it has been working well. All of the currencies of the countries I am going to are supported.





What I didn't need under a week out from Xmas & 2 weeks from the trip is for my main bank issued card to be compromised & a new card to be issued. Having been through this before, I have a Plan B (Virgin Money) & a Plan C (Global Wallet).

Because of the timing of Xmas & the lack of a postal service, I am still waiting for my new bank card. But thanks to the internet & plans B & C, I won't be cardless even if the new card does not arrive.

With the exception of toiletries & electronics, I'm all packed.

I've also been planning another couple of trips in the 2 weeks coming up to this trip - a week in Perth in March & a month in the UK via the UAE & possibly Germany in June. VA had a DSC offer for bookings made 18 - 31/12 for travel up to June 30. I was able to bring my 2014 annual leave forward 6 weeks to take advantage.

But it hasn't been all smooth sailing. Despite this trip's leave being approved in June, it did not appear on the roster! A few phone calls later & it was added to the roster. Crisis averted!

The next (and last) notable pre-trip event will be NYE. It was because of NYE & the all hands on deck approach which meant that I could not be in America as I type this - my original
plan was to fly out Xmas Day. I'll be working on NYE starting at 8.10pm & probably finishing around 4am New Years Day. I should be in bed around 5am but need to leave home for the airport around 9am. Guess who won't be sleeping! I tried to get an earlier shift or the day off but that was almost impossible!

 

[docjames]

What was the forex rate at say, travelex or your bank on the day you did the USD? 85.5 seems a bit "under".


The plus side is you'll sleep on the plane and have been on US time before you even leave!

 

[erkpod]

What was the forex rate at say, travelex or your bank on the day you did the USD? 85.5 seems a bit "under".


The plus side is you'll sleep on the plane and have been on US time before you even leave!

I did the in-app exchange today (29/12). I just checked the online Travelex rate & it is also $0.85 AUD. My xe currency app is 3 cents higher.

It was my first time using the exchange function in the app so I wanted to make sure it all worked. Next step will be to see how the app & the card works in the US.

 

[Atleastonce]

Erk, I just returned from the US and the global wallet worked fine. Used it frequently in USA and Bahamas.

 

[erkpod]

Erk, I just returned from the US and the global wallet worked fine. Used it frequently in USA and Bahamas.

Great to hear that, thanks! I have had some domestic retailers give the card a strange look.

 

[erkpod]

Wednesday 01 January 2014
Day 1
Western Sydney - Sydney - LAX - Vegas

After losing the battle to work NYE, I arrived home from a long shift on the trains at around 0500. Needing to leave home at 0900, there was no way I was going to sleep. I was too excited.

I went from this at midnight...




.... to this





I've done this trip hundreds if not thousands of times but it always seems better with luggage because I'm going on a jet plane.

I'm off to the airport & my first time in the Air NZ Koru lounge before flying out on VA1. Presuming I don't fall asleep in the lounge or on the train, I would have been awake for just short of 24 hrs by the time VA1 goes gear up.

 

[Atleastonce]

Safe travel. If you are traveling in Y, try and get row 26. I flew VA7 the other week and this is an exit row with bulkhead. 26C gets toilet traffic but more leg room. I was in 26D and that was all good.

 

[erkpod]

Day 1, Air New Zealand Koru lounge, SYD T1

I was second in line in the purple lane when check-in opened. It's my first VAi flight since becoming VFF SG so the lounge invitation & the Customs express pass was a welcome novelty.

Next to me, the couple ahead of me in the purple line asked for a free upgrade. Denied. They then asked for a wheelchair & assistance through security. That was ok. Then they asked for an extra legroom seat. Presumably they wanted an exit row. As we all know here, wheelchair assistance means no exit row. Then the comments started going backwards & forwards - it was still going on when my check-in was completed. It's probably still going on...


New avatar?


Not a good start for Air NZ?


Boarding swag

As often is the case when I fly, I got through Customs & then security easily - the express pass was good but it would have been ok without it.

One big difference I did notice was the empathsis in filling in the outbound passenger card before entering the Customs hall.



Next stop, the lounge!

 

[erkpod]

Walking to what seems the furtherest point away from the Customs hall, I arrived after a bit of plane spotting & tomfoolery with signs at the Koru lounge.



I found the site of the upcoming Eithad lounge.







It was nice of Delta to welcome me to the airport but they spelt my name wrong!



Now I am here in the Koru lounge relaxing at the airside window while trying to stay awake!

 

[erkpod]

Inside the Klounge...