Intro
Another year another devaluation. With AA devaluation looming and actual devaluations from Club Carlson and IHG, time to spend those points & miles. And visit another racetrack! [I also discover the panoramic mode on my phone
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Miles & Points:
130,000 AA miles + $5.60 + 87.20 = $92.80
50,000 BA miles + $65.13
100,000 IHG points
50,000 Club Carlson points
2 free nights from Hyatt cc sign-up
Not quite free = $157.93
Planning & Booking
Last year was
Europe, so time to try
transpacific again. I was thinking either Hong Kong or Tokyo to add a new city to my list. Couldn't get the Japan Cup or HK Championship dates to work with a return flight. Around the time I was searching, there was the announcement of the Club Carlson devaluation. That got me thinking of an open jaw to Sydney as the Radisson was pretty good there. I was able to find the red-eye CX J SFO-HKG for Thanksgiving week and QF/HA J SYD-HNL-SFO returning a week after. The last of my BA miles tied it all together with another red-eye CX J HKG-SYD.
My sister had mentioned I should let her know if my next vacation included cheap fares. $500 rt to HKG in coach is pretty cheap. A few days later, she booked UA landing a few hours after me and returning the same day as I leave for SYD. Our birthdays are a few days apart so this trip would be a birthday trip!
She didn't want to change hotels during our 5-night stay, so I booked the Holiday Inn Express - Hong Kong Soho for 100k (just before that went up in price). Finished up Sydney with Hyatt by phone and online with Carlson for the final 1+1.
As usual AA partner tickets don't ticket well, had to give AA a nudge on the CX flight to get it ticketed after waiting a few days. The QF/HA was better, but went back to "on request" months later due to schedule change of 30 minutes and had an AS HNL-OAK tix listed on request. A phone call got my original ticket back in line to ticket. What a PITA. BA ticketed my CX flight from HKG to SYD nearly immediately and I didn't have to call or watch it in case it un-ticketed.
I checked CX sporadically using BA not really expecting any F but 2 days before my flight I see one for my red-eye. Called, waited for close to an hour and it's still available! Later learned I made it difficult as I had checked in earlier in the day.
[Tip #1 - un-check-in before you upgrade a flight.] What the hell, my birthday was in a few days.
Go ahead, put me on hold for another 20 minutes. The AA agent did her thing and got it cancelled and redid the ticket as a F. Early b-day present to me! The next morning it ticketed - thank goodness. So much trouble but for the price I shouldn't complain (too much)!
The itinerary was not in stone. I really could have been better with the notes I made from info in these forums but I was pretty lazy in organizing all I copied. Didn't help most of it was on the laptop at home.
So played it mostly by ear but still hit most of the things on the list.
Hong Kong
Sydney