Welcome to my latest TR, featuring a short RTW trip (a real one, not
my pseudo-RTW that I did previously). This trip was a trip that I had been envisioning in my head over the last few years to celebrate completing my PhD. (Be warned, though, that we're doctors that don't help anyone
) Since I eventually graduated this trip finally came to life, resulting me basically draining my entire mileage balance to make the trip happen. Unfortunately due to the timing of my subsequent relocation and starting my new job the length of this trip was only 18 days. I was traveling with another friend of mine who was also in the funemployment stage between graduation and work. My friend and I settled on 5 destinations during the trip: Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, and Berlin. Most of the tickets were booked within 2 weeks of the trip, with the return from Europe being booked while I was in Singapore.
Despite the EVA strike, there was good J award availability through YVR. I would have preferred the SEA-TPE nonstop, but BR25 (the daily frequency) was completely full and BR3 (3x/week) was cancelled throughout the strike, only for the strike to end and the flight reinstated with great J award availability appearing the day of departure. At that point I was basically already on the way to SEA and too cheap to pay the flight change fee. TPE-NRT and NRT-ICN were paid tickets on low-cost carriers. ICN-SIN was booked in SQ J using another spontaneous escapes promotions. SIN-TXL was booked as a cheap cash ticket on Scoot (TR), especially since my trip from TXL back to the US had drained the remainder of my mileage balance. So follow along as I do a relatively whirlwind RTW during this major break in my life!