Bikeguy

This first part of this Trip Report covers the thought process of why this vacation was chosen and how the award was booked, as it's rather complex. Feel free to skip to the next installment if you want to start at the beginning of the trip.

I not only enjoy accumulating points and miles for the least amount of time and effort, I also enjoy getting great value using those points and miles. Don’t get me wrong, you need to travel where you want to travel, but when the above two criteria overlap, it really puts a smile on my face.

My “use up the remaining vacation left in 2012” trip this year was going to be to Florida, to stay at the Westin Diplomat, the SPG property with the highest suite to room ratio. I would be turning Plat just before that trip and thought a nice suite would make for a fun vacation.

Then I attended Chicago Seminars. I find nothing inspires me to elevate my travel game more than spending a weekend with people with a passion for travel, combined with a desire to travel well.

After Chicago Seminars, I was inspired to think a little bigger and look for something fun. Delta miles to Australia had intrigued me in the past, but the $800 in fuel surcharges per person took some of the “smoking deal” aspect away. And then this fall, Delta removed the award fuel surcharges. The new price was 150,000 and $150 per person. I don’t know of a better value using Delta for an award now. Time to look for tickets!
The other thing I liked about this award was you could do the search on delta.com. I love when Gary Leff tells you to sign up for some obscure Asiana promo because you need miles in your account to search Air Ethiopia awards or some such other carrier, but I like simple.

The only way you will find this award is with using one way searches on Delta for each segment. It’s actually the same technique you need to use to find Delta domestic availability, which is sad. If you want to fly anywhere after you get to Australia (for example, we wanted to go to New Zealand), you start by looking at the cities you want to go to and find out what days of the week they are serviced. You then would start by targeting the dates the overwater sections need to be flow to use the feeders, which need to be on VA metal, which will be LAX to MEL, BNE or SYD. The most I ever looked for is 2 seats, but I’ve seen 2 more show up when you put the first ticket on hold. Once you find your overwater there and back, you start looking for one ways connecting to LA and returning from LA.

I was able to put a ticket booked online on hold for 72 hours after I used multicity to put all my known low award one ways together. I could book to MEL outbound and from SYD on the return. I needed to add the New Zealand legs on the phone after asking for an “international reissue agent”. If you do this, just ask for the “international reissue agent” and save the explanation. You will be instantly transferred without any questioning. An international reissue agent is just a senior employee with the skills to ticket on other carriers. Also, be aware if the agent changes the ticket, the hold time changes from the original 72 hours to 12 hours from the change. They can edit this out to another full 72 hours. Ask for them to do this at the end of the call. My agent forget, and my ticket cancelled, but was able to be rebuilt, as the expired hold segments weren’t added back into the system yet, as the hold had expired less than 10 hours before. In the end, I booked DTW-SLC-LAX-MEL-CHC, then 3 days later ZQN-SYD(stop for 3 days)-LAX-MSP-DTW. Quite the Rubiks cube to align, but an incredible experience when you get it sorted out properly. And the entire itinerary was to be done in F (first) and C (business)! If there is no low F available when trying to get to LAX from your start city, you can also book online the C legs and call to add low Y (economy) award to the ticket.