What do you do with two hundred thousand Lufthansa miles that have a very hard expiry date? Book whatever you can in First Class on a 747-8. With 1A and 1K secured on LH418 from Frankfurt to Washington on 5th December, it was time to decide how to get to Frankfurt and how to get home from Washington.

Getting to Frankfurt was an easy decision. BA business class from Edinburgh to Frankfurt via London, as one of us needs the tier points. We'd position the day before and have a night at a hotel near Frankfurt airport.

Getting home was a bit more complicated as there was a plethora of options from the east coast of the USA. I have a young daughter and wife at home and wanted to be away from home for as little time as possible, so we decided to stay just one night which limited us somewhat. Cash prices in anything comfortable for a one-way fare from the east coast to the UK were ridiculous but we eventually noticed that Norse Atlantic had some very attractive fares from JFK back to London Gatwick. We were a wee bit indecisive, and of course the fares went away. So one helpful Google Travel price alert and a month later, we managed to get them booked for the original price. £250ish for JFK-LGW in premium economy, and 1A/1C.

Between Washington and New York was another easy decision, as one of us needed tier points we went with American on a very early flight between National Airport and LaGuardia.

Last flight was another easy decision, business class on BA between Gatwick and Glasgow for the tier points. Edinburgh is a far more convenient airport for us, but for some reason BA don't fly between Edinburgh and Gatwick, and the slightly longer drive home was preferable to a bus journey between Gatwick and Heathrow.

So final routing was EDI-LHR-FRA-IAD/DCA-LGA/JFK-LGW-GLA.An overnight in Frankfurt, an overnight in Washington, and around 10 hours on the ground in New York City. My first long haul trip in 9 years.

Big thanks to my Dad, pmcg , for organising everything and providing the much needed Lufthansa miles for the main event of the trip. Stay tuned to find out if we could handle such a whirlwind trip.