After having read hundreds of trip reports over the space of the last 7 or so years, I've decided to give one a go myself. Not sure how good my writing is, but hopefully someone finds this useful or entertaining!
PROLOGUE
The story behind this journey began on a surprisingly hangoverless New Years Day, whilst on the Skyliner train to Tokyo Narita. Using the spotty free WiFi, I loaded One Mile at a Time and saw a very appealing headline:
OMG: $1,000 Cathay Pacific Transpacific First Class Tickets
Well, how about that.
Frantically, I tried loading Cathay’s website – which the spotty Skyliner WiFi wouldn’t permit me to do. Thinking the deal would for sure be gone by the time I got to Narita, I submitted myself to defeat after 10 intense minutes of
punchingtapping the refresh button. Although frustrating, I consoled myself with the fact these tickets
would never be honored.
Fast forward 40min, sitting in the Admirals Club lounge (which was surprisingly nice?), I finally got through to Cathay’s site, and to my surprise found plenty of availability from HAN to JFK in Business for 1324USD - fully flex with no cancellation fees. Sweet!
After debating for a minute or two, I punched in my credit card details and locked in a roundtrip. My first ever mistake airfare booking.
I must admit, I didn’t even look at First Class availability. Those tickets
would never be honored, and just maybe business might be. On top of this, I had a few free upgrades to spare, and figured I could sneak myself into First anyway if the deal didn’t fall through.
With one risk-free ticket in the bag, I set out to find something cheaper. Took around 15min, but I found two of what I believe may have been the last available dates with Business for 730USD return. DAD-JFK roundtrip: booked.
With tickets confirmed and mini cabin seats reserved, I jumped on a Finnair A350 back to Scandinavia and proceeded to spend 48 hours constantly checking Flyertalk threads until I was elated to find out that
tickets would neverbe honored.
Great! Now how the hell to get to Vietnam on the cheap...and how the hell do I explain to my boss I need another week off?
Turns out both were easier than expected. Leave approved, and positioning flights booked:
- ARN-DOH-DAD (Qatar Economy: 393USD)
- DAD-HKG-JFK (Cathay J/F: 730USD – upgrades confirmed with a return flight later in the year)
- JFK-LIS-ARN (TAP Economy: 119USD)
I cancelled my more expensive fully refundable Biz ticket, and was soon on my merry way...