A Manic Fall (AA/WN/UA/CX/FD Y; CX F; AA F)
A Manic Fall(AA/WN/UA/CX/FD Y; CX F; AA F)
Introduction
I’ve said it before, fall is the most wonderful time of the year. Pleasant weather, the festivals and fairs, and of course football make fall one of more enjoyable times of the year. Because of this, it is definitely one of the best times of the year to travel within the United States. Thanks to a combination of work, friends, and family commitments, I would be doing just that during the fall of 2015.
Before I embarked on my travels within the US, I kicked off my fall 2015 travels with a decidedly more international flair. For one reason or another, my presence was needed in Hong Kong. In a stroke of luck, my airline of choice, American Airlines, just happened to offer $616 fares, from Houston to Hong Kong, over the dates I needed to be there. While I could have redeemed miles for the trip, between the elite qualifying and the redeemable miles I would earn from the trip, this deal was too good pass to up.
After getting back from Hong Kong, I would kick off the domestic part of my fall travels by heading to Colorado. There, I would meet up with a friend and fellow beer nerd for the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and to tour the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins with a friend and fellow beer nerd. From Denver, I would head down to Dallas, Texas, where I would be working for a few weeks. The long Columbus Day weekend happened to fall in the middle of my Dallas assignment, during which I would head to Portland, Maine to meet up with some friends. Finishing up that Dallas assignment, it was westward ho to Phoenix, Arizona for a conference, but not before a quick jaunt to “geek out” at the airplane graveyard at Davis Monthan Air Force Base. I would return to Lone Star State for a week of work near Austin, before heading to my hometown of New Orleans for a friends’ wedding. Sounds manic enough, right? But there’s more.
I had planned to take my parents on a trip to Jakarta and Hong Kong in November. A couple of weeks before we were supposed to go, we decided to push it back to December. Which is all fine and dandy, but I had promised a couple of my friends I would be Hong Kong then and show them around. And they of course booked non-refundable tickets from the U.S. to Hong Kong. I’m not one to leave my friends hanging like that, so I began looking for ways to get to Hong Kong. My mileage balance was needed for the December trip with my family; though, I did leave the Cathay Pacific First Class award I had originally booked for my return to U.S. untouched. I just needed to get to Hong Kong. While one-way tickets were ridiculously priced, I did stumble on a $672 round trip fare from Houston to Hong Kong on United while playing around on ITA matrix, with mid November departure and a return in late December. That was perfect for my logistical needs, and solved my dilemma on how to rack up a few extra Premier Qualifying Miles to requalify for Premier Gold status.
For those of y’all keeping the count at home, that’s a total of 48,884 butt in seat miles flown over 60 days. Even for my extreme standards, that’s a flipping maniacal schedule.
Trip Report Index
An American Story (AA Y+ DFW-HKG-DFW)
Beernerdness (Grand Hyatt Denver; Great American Beer Festival; New Belgium Brewery tour)
Back Again (Hyatt Regency Dallas)
Maine: Don’t Worry About It
The Boneyard (Pima Air and Space Museum; Hyatt Regency Scottsdale; AA F PHX-IAH)
27 Tuxes (WN Y; Exploring New Orleans)
Here I Go Again (UA 787 Domestic F IAH-DEN; UA Y+ DEN-SFO-HKG)
Bangkok Bound (CX Y HKG-BKK)
The Anti Hangover II (Exploring Bangkok)
A Comedy of Errors Part I (FD Y DMK-HKG; JW Marriott Macau)
Eating Our Way Through Macau
A Comedy of Errors Part II (Exploring Hong Kong)
Thanksgiving (CX The Pier Lounge; CX F HKG-YVR-JFK; AA Flagship Lounge JFK; AA F JFK-CLT-IAH)
Previous Trip Reports:
2015: An Apartment in the Sky (Etihad Apartment First Class, AA Y, BA J/Y, QR Y)
2014: The End of An Era (JL/CX/TG/QF A380 F, OZ J, KA Y, and a Chinese Bullet Train!)
2014: A Tale of Two Cities (AA 77W J BA Y IB Y AF J)
2013: It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year (AA/MQ F AS Y)
2013: Geeking Out Across America (AA F)
2012: Around The World and From Sea to Shining Sea (AA F/Y, CX F, SQ F, UA F, DL F, WN Y)
2011: Everybody look at me because I'm sailing on a boat (KL J and DL Y)
Last edited by dat4life; Jun 7, 2016 at 9:46 pm
Reason: Index Links