<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Alan in CBR:
I'm sure a real expert will be along in a minute, but 5698 points for an extra $350 doesn't sound like a good deal to me. It takes 20000 points for the cheapest domestic award, so your $350 is getting you just over a quarter of an award.
Having said that, if the course starts on 3rd January I would be worried about leaving on 1st January. You will arrive on the 2nd and (presumably) have to start studying and/or exerting yourself (at altitude) the next day. If you can afford the extra accommodation costs it may be worth having a day or two to recover from the flight. Of course you may well be built of stronger stuff than I am!
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Accommodation is not a problem as I've got friends who live at Grafing, around 40km south east of Munich (on the way to Saalbach, where the course starts). Altitude adjustment shouldn't be too much of a problem either, as the Austrian resorts are only 200-300m higher than Thredbo. From what I understand talking to Thredbo ski school (who run the course in partnership with the Austrian Bundessportheim), the first two days are acclimatisation anyway, as most of the Aussies fly in with Lauda on the morning of the first day of the course.
Thanks for the advice Alan.