Gotta Requalify
Dec 12, 08, 8:59 am
I’m sorry if this is a bit indulgent, but I have my family vacation coming up, and I have spent the past 11 months planning it and I have put so much effort into this that I want to talk about what’s coming up. Most people wouldn’t care, and it would sound pompous or arrogant if I just launched into a description of the holiday, so I am not that concerned how many people read this, but I am bursting at the seams to tell people about what I would describe what I see as a once in a life time family vacation.
Bit of a tough opening I know. To save people reading any further, this does involve spending money on kids – if you don’t like that idea, I can save you time, and stop reading now or you will be upset. But the subject line, of “My Family Vacation” sort of covers that anyway. Also, I rant, if you want a short story – give up. For the people that know me, they say, when they read my e-mails, its like having me next to them, as I write like I would speak if I was sitting right there. If you want details – its below – if you want to know just the facts – give up and stop reading, you will be upset. But is you want to plan the ultimate family vacation – boy are you in for a good time.
About 4-5 years ago, my wife and I said we would love to take the kids to Disneyland. But we wanted to wait until they were old enough to enjoy it – and remember it. So I have been stacking away my FF points until we came to a decision on “Its time”. The rest of this section is about the booking process. Jump to the next entry if you want to see what the Itinerary actually is.
At the start of this year (2008) I was unsure of my future travel plans, the possibility of me loosing Star Alliance Gold status with Air NZ, which would mean all the points I have been saving could expire, we decided that 2009 would be the year we travel to Disneyland from Australia. Looking at both of our jobs, Christmas / January was the best time to take an extended vacation. So it was agreed that we would spend Christmas in the US.
Air New Zealand have a 330 day booking policy, so it wasn’t a case of looking 330 days out for the travel to the US, but being concerned about the return journey, we had to wait until we could get both dates into the plan. In Feb 2008, I started looking at getting to and from the US using my FF points and my status at the time as a Gold Elite (top tier) on Air NZ.
I had enough points for 4 business class tickets to and from the US on Air NZ. For those that don’t know the Air NZ scheme, let me just say that’s a lot of flying. The Air NZ Airpoints system is geared for flying on Air NZ metal, but to help with the calculations – 1 BC redemption ticket from MEL to the US is earned when you have flown 12 return MEL-SIN in business class tickets – or 89,832 miles or 360K miles to earn the 4 tickets.
I started looking on the ANA tool and Expertflyer and couldn’t see seats available. In the end, I rang Air NZ and said starting from Dec, 19, when could I get 4 tickets to the US and 3 weeks later could I get seats back. To make sure this is still interesting and you are still there, I compromised. Air NZ Airpoints has a feature that if you pay full fare for the cabin below, you can get a guaranteed upgrade. So mixing and matching I paid for 3 full fare Premium Economy + upgrades and 1 special FF redemption going over and 4 full fare Premium Economy + upgrades coming back. So the four of us are in business going to and from the US –it cost us more in dollars than I had hoped, but getting in to business class was more important. But it left me with a whole lot of points left over – which I am using for another trip to NZ at Easter 2009.
The dates I ended up with were flying from Melbourne to San Francisco on Dec 31 and returning from Los Angeles on January 20.
Now that we had the dates going into and out the country – how were we going to fill the 3 weeks.
I have been to the US numerous times, but mainly for work and that was only to cities in Texas. Arriving into SFO and leaving from LAX we decided that we wanted to visit (obviously) San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles (Anaheim). We also made the decision to spread the cost throughout the year and book as much as possible ourselves without a travel agent.
As stated above, the next section will hold the actual itinerary. This note is being written numerous days before we travel and everything is booked, so its going to jump around a bit, and not make sense until you read section 2, on what we have planned.
I have to admit, and maybe its not fair but I went to a travel agency and got copies of the pamphlets for the US. This helped us plan on what we wanted to do in each city, but the best resource we had was Trip Advisor. That really changed a few choices we made and accommodation we booked. If any operators read this – don’t underestimate consistent bad service – we will book away from you.
Side Note – I love Trip Advisor . Best of all, I read bad reviews more than good reviews. I look for, one offs – bad people, rather than bad product. Person on duty told me this and it didn’t happen, bah, could happen to anyone, so I ignore those, unless every single person has the same comment, then it isn’t a bad person, but a bad product. If someone gives a one star or zero star, I look for bias, did they expect god like treatment. If comments are consistent, then I will take my dollars somewhere else.
Las Vegas is the best example of this. I was willing to spend $1,500 for one company, but they had so many bad reviews on trip advisor that I spent $2,000 with another company to make sure we had the best experience in the limited time we have.
Where was I? That’s right just booking the international flights.
What can I say about Air NZ? First of all, I have never, ever, got an agent that I have said sorry got to go, and rung back to get someone better. THEY ARE Excellent. I know the rules, I know what is or isn’t possible, but they really try. If what you think isn’t in the rules, they will make it happen. The phone agents ARE A FANTISTIC ASSET OF AIR NZ. (sorry for the shouting.) A couple of times I have rung in and they couldn’t answer straight away, they rung me back. If anything keeps me a loyal customer of Air NZ- its the phone agents, but their FF scheme sucks.
About the only bad thing about booking so far in advance is that schedules change. Every single sector that I booked on Air NZ changed in terms of plane or time. It changed from 777 to 747 back to 777 back to 747. Air NZ also retimed the flight back from LA so that I missed the connection back to Melbourne, and would need to spend longer in transit in Auckland. I rang up and asked to change to the earlier flight – no problem.
In the end for three of the four sectors, we have the 747 and have rows 1 & 2 for ourselves. Will help with the kids sleeping and no one will walk pass and bump the seats.
When we booked the flights, Ted was still around, so when we looked at flying from SFO to LAS, we didn’t have many options for domestic first class as UA wasn’t an option, so ended up booking on Virgin America. That was painless and easy to do on their web site, including selecting seats.
Going from LAS to SAN involved a compromise. US Air has the only first class seats available. If it was up to me, I would have taken the option of going via Phoenix (more points) as it was the same cost, but ended up going direct. The kids are in for a bit of a shock, on this flight. The cost was the same booking on the US web site, but ended up booking on the Australian version of Expedia as it gave me better credit card options.
We will be driving from San Diego to Anaheim, so look out if you are on the road between Jan 12-16 as I will be driving on the wrong side of the road. Have done it before, but on my own and it takes a lot of concentration.
I think it’s time to go through the itinerary and then talk about some of the other booking issues I faced.
Bit of a tough opening I know. To save people reading any further, this does involve spending money on kids – if you don’t like that idea, I can save you time, and stop reading now or you will be upset. But the subject line, of “My Family Vacation” sort of covers that anyway. Also, I rant, if you want a short story – give up. For the people that know me, they say, when they read my e-mails, its like having me next to them, as I write like I would speak if I was sitting right there. If you want details – its below – if you want to know just the facts – give up and stop reading, you will be upset. But is you want to plan the ultimate family vacation – boy are you in for a good time.
About 4-5 years ago, my wife and I said we would love to take the kids to Disneyland. But we wanted to wait until they were old enough to enjoy it – and remember it. So I have been stacking away my FF points until we came to a decision on “Its time”. The rest of this section is about the booking process. Jump to the next entry if you want to see what the Itinerary actually is.
At the start of this year (2008) I was unsure of my future travel plans, the possibility of me loosing Star Alliance Gold status with Air NZ, which would mean all the points I have been saving could expire, we decided that 2009 would be the year we travel to Disneyland from Australia. Looking at both of our jobs, Christmas / January was the best time to take an extended vacation. So it was agreed that we would spend Christmas in the US.
Air New Zealand have a 330 day booking policy, so it wasn’t a case of looking 330 days out for the travel to the US, but being concerned about the return journey, we had to wait until we could get both dates into the plan. In Feb 2008, I started looking at getting to and from the US using my FF points and my status at the time as a Gold Elite (top tier) on Air NZ.
I had enough points for 4 business class tickets to and from the US on Air NZ. For those that don’t know the Air NZ scheme, let me just say that’s a lot of flying. The Air NZ Airpoints system is geared for flying on Air NZ metal, but to help with the calculations – 1 BC redemption ticket from MEL to the US is earned when you have flown 12 return MEL-SIN in business class tickets – or 89,832 miles or 360K miles to earn the 4 tickets.
I started looking on the ANA tool and Expertflyer and couldn’t see seats available. In the end, I rang Air NZ and said starting from Dec, 19, when could I get 4 tickets to the US and 3 weeks later could I get seats back. To make sure this is still interesting and you are still there, I compromised. Air NZ Airpoints has a feature that if you pay full fare for the cabin below, you can get a guaranteed upgrade. So mixing and matching I paid for 3 full fare Premium Economy + upgrades and 1 special FF redemption going over and 4 full fare Premium Economy + upgrades coming back. So the four of us are in business going to and from the US –it cost us more in dollars than I had hoped, but getting in to business class was more important. But it left me with a whole lot of points left over – which I am using for another trip to NZ at Easter 2009.
The dates I ended up with were flying from Melbourne to San Francisco on Dec 31 and returning from Los Angeles on January 20.
Now that we had the dates going into and out the country – how were we going to fill the 3 weeks.
I have been to the US numerous times, but mainly for work and that was only to cities in Texas. Arriving into SFO and leaving from LAX we decided that we wanted to visit (obviously) San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles (Anaheim). We also made the decision to spread the cost throughout the year and book as much as possible ourselves without a travel agent.
As stated above, the next section will hold the actual itinerary. This note is being written numerous days before we travel and everything is booked, so its going to jump around a bit, and not make sense until you read section 2, on what we have planned.
I have to admit, and maybe its not fair but I went to a travel agency and got copies of the pamphlets for the US. This helped us plan on what we wanted to do in each city, but the best resource we had was Trip Advisor. That really changed a few choices we made and accommodation we booked. If any operators read this – don’t underestimate consistent bad service – we will book away from you.
Side Note – I love Trip Advisor . Best of all, I read bad reviews more than good reviews. I look for, one offs – bad people, rather than bad product. Person on duty told me this and it didn’t happen, bah, could happen to anyone, so I ignore those, unless every single person has the same comment, then it isn’t a bad person, but a bad product. If someone gives a one star or zero star, I look for bias, did they expect god like treatment. If comments are consistent, then I will take my dollars somewhere else.
Las Vegas is the best example of this. I was willing to spend $1,500 for one company, but they had so many bad reviews on trip advisor that I spent $2,000 with another company to make sure we had the best experience in the limited time we have.
Where was I? That’s right just booking the international flights.
What can I say about Air NZ? First of all, I have never, ever, got an agent that I have said sorry got to go, and rung back to get someone better. THEY ARE Excellent. I know the rules, I know what is or isn’t possible, but they really try. If what you think isn’t in the rules, they will make it happen. The phone agents ARE A FANTISTIC ASSET OF AIR NZ. (sorry for the shouting.) A couple of times I have rung in and they couldn’t answer straight away, they rung me back. If anything keeps me a loyal customer of Air NZ- its the phone agents, but their FF scheme sucks.
About the only bad thing about booking so far in advance is that schedules change. Every single sector that I booked on Air NZ changed in terms of plane or time. It changed from 777 to 747 back to 777 back to 747. Air NZ also retimed the flight back from LA so that I missed the connection back to Melbourne, and would need to spend longer in transit in Auckland. I rang up and asked to change to the earlier flight – no problem.
In the end for three of the four sectors, we have the 747 and have rows 1 & 2 for ourselves. Will help with the kids sleeping and no one will walk pass and bump the seats.
When we booked the flights, Ted was still around, so when we looked at flying from SFO to LAS, we didn’t have many options for domestic first class as UA wasn’t an option, so ended up booking on Virgin America. That was painless and easy to do on their web site, including selecting seats.
Going from LAS to SAN involved a compromise. US Air has the only first class seats available. If it was up to me, I would have taken the option of going via Phoenix (more points) as it was the same cost, but ended up going direct. The kids are in for a bit of a shock, on this flight. The cost was the same booking on the US web site, but ended up booking on the Australian version of Expedia as it gave me better credit card options.
We will be driving from San Diego to Anaheim, so look out if you are on the road between Jan 12-16 as I will be driving on the wrong side of the road. Have done it before, but on my own and it takes a lot of concentration.
I think it’s time to go through the itinerary and then talk about some of the other booking issues I faced.