Originally Posted by
ibby
Hi all,
I am planning my honeymoon with the to-be wife in Feb 2020. We have both been saving our miles to be able to do an mini RTW business class from YYZ. While our destination is still up for debate, we are thinking of Bali. However we are looking to maximize our mini RTW with stops in Portugal, Greece, Singapore, Egypt, Switzerland, Vietnam, etc etc. The wife has about 140,000 miles (should have the 160k needed shortly) saved while I have about 160,000.
I reached out to this awesome community to book my Toronto-Sydney RTW a few years back and was able to book a fantastic business routing avoiding AC metal and paying minimal taxes. I am hoping to do the same for the honeymoon.
Our dates are flexible in Feb, and we are looking to go for about 12 days including transit time. If anyone can make recommendations for segments and layovers in business (on an airline worth flying) to Bali with minimal fuel surcharges, I would be forever grateful.
Furthermore, if anyone has suggestions for alternate cultural-yet-honeymooning destinations in that area, I’m all ears.
One little tidbit of info - I am 6’8”. So even having flown business on a few airlines, some seats are just not comfortable because of my height. As an example, AC business seats have this little foot cubby that my feet don’t fit in, and my height means my feet are squished in and pressed hard against the back of that little hole. Whereas Eva’s business was gloriously spacious.
This may be a lot to ask but your suggestions on destinations, airlines, and specific routings are very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
My wife and I went on a mini-RTW for our honeymoon, as well as another for our babymoon. We took 2.5 and 3 weeks off for these trips. Trust me, you don't want the 24 hour connections. You'll want to spend your time in Bali, or at most, one other destination.
If you are travelling in Feb, stopping in Switzerland will mean you'll need to pack cold weather clothes (in addition to your beach wear).
Throwing in Egypt will be a pain because you are eating up a lot of your MPM allowance for a country that may or may not have a travel advisory in place when you fly.
My suggestions would be to pick either Portugal/Greece or Vietnam as your stopover and focus on those 2 locations. If you are only using 12 days as your length, you are losing 1.5 days on each end for the travel. Plus if you include a stopover, that's another day between travel to the airport, clearing security, collecting your bags, going to the hotel etc. All of a sudden your 12 day honeymoon is down to 8 days of actual vacation. If you have an IRROPS situation, do you really want to be spending your honeymoon in some random airport halfway around the world instead of on a beach?
Simply put:
- Go for the simplest itinerary; avoid needless connections
- Focus on airlines with exemplary service - YQ is secondary - you'll want to remember the experience, not that you saved $280 in taxes
- Have fun!
Here's a link to the honeymoon blog:
https://halasirtw.blogspot.com/2011/ (note that most of the details are quite dated)
Our actual itinerary