brahms77

I will be sure to entertain you with some preview photography (of my own from previous trips) to keep you guys entertained until the commence of the actual trip!

Oh boy! More so the reason to visit the now 7 Apostles!

UA_Flyer

Based on the planned itinerary and the storylines, this could be a 100,000-view Trip Report (matches the 100,000 miles title).

Just wondering if you will meet any FTers during the journey? I see you will be in HKG in October, and I will also transit in HKG a few times in Oct. Hope we will run into each other if dates are aligned.

I hope there will be plenty of photos to share with us.

olybeast

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Pingtung

wow that is a lot of flying - bummer there's no 7th continent visit

Look forward to the journey - good luck getting it all finalized, planning and booking is quite the challenge! How many different tickets are you using for this?

andante81

man this is great!!

please let us know your reports.

brahms77

I think 2-3 of your photo trip reports combined had more than 100,000... I am just simplying combining some of the trips to make it 'look' like a big trip

I am not sure if we will meet any FTers during our trip, but certainly would love such opportunity. I certainly have met several of very friendly FTers during my past trips and got to know them very well. My HKG 'transit' is currently scheduled for October 12 (morning) and October 23 (morning). If you are flying via FRA during our transit there (Oct 2nd, morning-early afternoon), we'd be more happy to guest you into the LH FTL!

Thanks! I enjoyed your trip report where you flew on your birthday, if I remember correctly!

Pingtung, your trip is also a 'mega' by any standards.

This trip consists of 17 individual tickets, both revenue and mileage awards. However, I made sure same day transits are all in one PNR and if there are two tickets in between transits, I made sure to build in some cushion to make sure to account for possible irregular operations.

In terms of distance covered, it's about 4:5 (revenue: mileage award). The revenue tickets will help me secure at least Gold level with Onepass (which will be Prem Exec with UA). Without any more foreseeable trips after October, I think I will 'just' be Gold for next year and this will conclude my 7 years of riding top tier elite status with UA (4) LAN (2) and AA/CO (1). A bit sad, but not the end of the world. I am sure there will be some years I will pick up more work-related travel that will get me back in the game

Certainly, I am planning to update on weekly basis (at least for the planning process, stories and reasons for choosing each destination). Once the travel starts, I am hoping to be more prompt with each segment reported immediately after flown (more of a live report ).

snowymt

How exciting! I am jealous that your significant other loves to travel, I have to beg and plead and barter to get my husband on a plane

As for Melbourne, I've seen the 12 apostles and it's fantastic, however, not as awesome as driving to Phillips island and sitting on the beach and watching the Little Penguins swim ashore and waddle to their burrows. Best experience ever ^

brahms77

Wow, looking back at my history at FT, I decided to do a search of threads that I had started. Obviously, my first post was a thread that I started in the UA forum asking about upgrade chances on my PVD-SIN trip that was booked in H fare and using miles (Do you remember in my preface that said I initially used miles for occasional upgrades and a free trip to home in Y? This trip PVD-SIN was one of the few trips that I thought 'upgrading' outweighed a free Y ticket home - and it turned out beautifully!). I still vividly remember that trip (part of my work trip to Kathmandu) where I scored a double upgrade to UA First on ORD-NRT. Wow, what an experience that was. I was so spoiled already. Of course, nowadays, I criticize pretty much everything about UA F from meals to its seats - LOOK WHAT FT has done to ME!

Enough of that. Now, as I report on the planning process of this 'mega' report, I also wanted to bring back one of my 'old' trip report that I never finished. I was probably so demotivated to write any further because no one seemed to be interested! My reasoning was that if there are no photos, nobody would be interested in TRs anyway... but then again, we see some other FTer's TRs such as Kiwi_Flyer (sorry if I got his handle wrong!)'s which are great, but with no pictures get so many feedbacks and replies! I guess I was a bit jealous of his popularity!

At any rate, looking back at my old trip that took me around the world in 80 days, I still clearly remember how each segment went (probably not to the details of 10-30 minute delays and the names of the flight attendant!!). This trip also included a special memorable trip with my parents and in between DONE4 and the trip with the parents, I also first met my wife-to-be (well, I knew her since middle school, but we hadn't seen each other since then) while coming home to Korea for 2 days to obtain an Indian tourist visa for my trip to Kolkata. So, a lot of interesting things happened during that trip and ironically, the distance covered in that trip comes closer to this trip that I am planning and it was flown in almost exclusively in business class! I promise to have some nice pictures along with the trip report so that you won't be bored until this 'mega' trip takes place.

Here are some sample pictures from the trip (the old trip report will also be updated with pictures as well so please be sure to check it out!).


First ever visit to the Taj Mahal (Jan, 09)


Sydney


Sydney Opera House


My mother sketching the scenery (New Zealand - North Island, near Rotorua)


Four brothers?! waiting overnight at the Mumbai International Airport for an early morning flight


Volunteering at the Mother Teresa's House in Kolkata (Apr, 09)

Lastly (but more coming in the actual report ),

My friend from college visits Korea in April!


A note regards to future updates: until middle of June, my updates will be rather intermittent due to a very important exam for my PhD. So, I apologize in advance for this! Also, wish me a luck with the exam. It's June 17th!

NYBanker

Looks like a really great set of trips. You have a very practical approach to planning on miles, classes of services and paid trips.

Two kids under 8 force me to live vicariously through reports like this...at least for a few years!

I too have subscribed.

brahms77

So, TK has made another 'mistake' and has gifted the FT community with an awesome HKG-LAX in premium economy class ticket that is ONLY 800 USD RT. One-way is possible at half price. Based on the seat map of HKG-IST flight in July, I see that this ticket allows seat assignment in the 'old' business class section with the map showing 1-2-1 configuration. So, having thought about how to organize my trips in July/August to utilize this fare... I did a quick brainstorming and purchased one-way fare from HKG to LAX for late July.

My idea was that:

1) Fly to HKG via my return portion ticket to ICN from YUL (+ award ticket to HKG)

2) Use this TK fare to LAX

3) Buy one-way TK Y fare to CPT ~ 1200 USD

4) Buy one-way Y fare from TK CPT to HKG ~ 1000 USD

Now, as in my itinerary post, I was initially going to travel to CPT using SQ fare that is currently priced at 1500 USD RT from ICN (not yet purchased). I had planned on coming back to Korea and use one-way UA award to get to BKK anyway... So, essentially, to use this fare, I would have to (well, part of my project travel budget so...) spurge out another 700 USD... plus the 400 USD in cost. Isn't it also very interesting to note that this TK fare mistake has prompted me to buy 'more' TK fares?

Now, because of the nature of my visit to Cape Town this time around (I will be working throughout my stay to get my project organized!) and because my wife has already visited Cape Town last year during my business trip (10 days! ), my wife won't be traveling with me to Cape Town. With all these added cost, I am thinking that why 'waste' 1100 USD on a fare that gets me no where? I mean, I'd be closer to an elite status I had pretty much given up (100K with CO), but this 'crazy' flying around the globe to utilize this 'deal' won't get me to the 100K level. I'd have to do more mileage runs to top-off (I'd be about 17K miles short!).

So, considering that it would normally cost another 1500 USD to get to that level and this time around, my wife won't be achieving the same status level, I am seriously thinking is the 100K status with CO/UA worth it for another 2600 + USDs in spending where I don't actually get to see anything new and without my wife? Furthermore, given that UA SWUs are nowadays a bit more expensive to use (W fares are much higher than what I was used to when I was UA 1K in 2008/9 and four years before that). Unusable SWUs + plus small additional benefit as 100K over the Gold status, which both my wife and I will naturally achieve this year + 2600 USD spent that could have been spent elsewhere (i.e. to enhance our vacation or buy that iMAC 27 inch i7 processor that I had been wanting to get ). Of course, I will end up with more award miles, but no more than 40K additional miles since most flights don't involve CO/UA/AC/US/LH metal.

As you may have already noticed, I am leaning towards to canceling this TK Y+ ticket to LAX and just proceed as planed. 7-8 years of top-tier elite membership with UA/LA/AA has made me thinking about requalification every year and it hasn't been so pleasant experience to squeeze my way back to top tier status each year. There were a lot of luck on my side with last minute business travel or creative routings that didn't incur much additional cost, but brainstorming for elite requalification, as I said before, hasn't been an easy and probably brought me more agony than joy. I must realize that some years, I may be without any elite status and it is okay. It's not the end of the world. I have also come to realize that the 'addiction' with elite status and miles can only fuel more and more spending on travel that may not be necessary. In fact, elite status and mileage restricts us in our choice of airlines and hotel chains, which often results in additional spending. Alas, FTers would argue that these additional spending is justified by the 'return' in service and benefits that your receive as a loyal customer. That's absolutely true, but I am thinking that it shouldn't go beyond and 'out of control' and one needs to draw a clear line when to say 'no' to elite status and mileage.

In my case, this would be an interesting challenge, but shouldn't be so difficult as no matter how good of a deal this TK fare is, I am going to end up with a lot more unjustified spending and end up traveling without my wife, whom in part gave up Cape Town in favor of our family (staying at home in Korea) and also saving her airfare cost. To this, I think that 2000 USD could have been better used for my wife's ticket to South Africa to be with me rather than me jetsetting around the globe with only one purpose - earn miles and elite status.

In concluding, I must remind myself that CO Gold level (or UA 1P) ain't so bad. In 2003, when I first qualified for 1P with UA, I was so excited (because I barely made it by 10 miles - 50010 EQM) about my travels to come in 2004 with lounge access, double RDM on all of my UA flights. Next year will be interesting with my 'new' status

BryanIAH

And I thought 40K was impressive.

I'm really looking forward to reading this. More than half of your trip in premium cabins? Awesome. Your wife is a lucky lady.

When you get to the Apostles I would highly recommend the helicopter tour!