mpc7488

Sucks about the PC shutting down! I'm glad you returned to finish this off; having heard the ending in person, I know people here are going to find it pretty interesting. Oh, the suspense...

Seat 2A

Thanks for coming back to finish this report. What a marvelous trip! You do realize though that you've now set a standard - one that may very well drive you to meet or exceed it on future trips. That will be the fun part! Happy future travels to you both!

DXBFlyer

Sat reading this with a cupa' tea and some bourbon biscuits...where's the rest So far so good! Excellent on the points, wish we could have more info from people using points so we know what we get.

movrom

Great writing and pics. I am in the midst of planning one of these trips and may need your feedback.

Can't wait to read the ending.

margauxleah

Great report thus far....I have been wondering about TA so this is great!

CMK10

Excellent report, especially for a first timer! I love that you went to a baseball game in South Korea, that's awesome!

SKYEG

Wow, it's been over 3 years since I wrote this trip report. I was 21 when I booked it, and now I am 25. Time flies so quickly. It is so true that you should seize every opportunity to travel when you can as life/reality gets in the way so easily.

I haven't travelled too much at all the past two years and cancelled another Star Alliance Around the World I was supposed to go for no reason. It makes me sad that I completely lost my passion of travel and FT... I look back and wonder... what happened?! It's crazy how much I took travelling for granted. Short trips out to the US and Mexico seem to be the extent of my "travel" nowadays. Looking back at how I travelled at 21/22 without breaking any bank, saving tens of thousands of dollars... Unreal.

I still lurk the Trip Report forum here and there but now I'm determined to make that come back!!! A HUGE thank you to everyone on FT that keep this secret going. I'm feeling motivated to start looking into things and getting back on track. Hopefully I'll see one of you on an F product somewhere out in Asia or Europe soon

TPJ

Don't worry. At 25 I didn't travel much, either. 20 years layer I do at least 15 long hauls a year (mostly for work, though)

SKYEG

My dream is to work until I don't have to and travel exclusively for pleasure!!! Still a long time away from that but staying on FT will hopefully keep me motivated~

IluvSQ

Just found this TR, and enjoyed it, but where is the ending?
I see you boarding a UA flight in ICN, and getting a meal - what happened to
the Japan diversion and bad experience with UA that you have mentioned?

SKYEG

I said I would finish this report off... 3.5 years later I am back to do it. I'm so sorry for the delay. I updated the report and put up some more pictures as well. I'll write as much as I can remember:

So the flight was going pretty well and I turned my seat into a bed to get some sleep. I woke up around 2 hours later, when we were about 1/3 across the Pacific Ocean, to a lot of panic around me. I saw the man sitting across from me using a puffer and my girlfriend was freaking out. None of us had any idea what was going on while the flight attendants were running around looking worried.

We got notification over the PA that they were having "electrical" issues and needed to divert back and make an emergency landing at Tokyo. They also said they needed to cut all the lights and power, so the whole upper deck was dark. To make things worse, my seat was still in the lay flat mode and it wouldn't move back to the upright position. Girlfriend and I were super anxious at this point and seeing the panic in the other passengers did not help at all. Probably was the longest 3 hours of our life, flying back to Tokyo in the dark with everyone having mild panic attacks, not knowing what was going on...

When we landed in Tokyo(2 or 3am in the morning), the immigration was a gong show. We were told that they would have another plane or fix this plane for sometime the next day. We collected our hotel voucher and checked in(which took at least 2 hours as there was so many people waiting to check in).

I immediately hopped on Flyertalk in the room and made a post to see if anyone had any idea what was going on. It seemed that there was an "electrical" issue but apparently in the main cabin, there was visible smoke coming out and life jackets were being worn. Glad I wasn't downstairs as I would have had a full out panic attack seeing that.

I started looking for alternative routings and planned to head to the airport early(originally we were scheduled ICN-SFO-YEG but got rerouted to NRT-SFO-DEN-YEG, all on UA metal). The new routing meant a 8 hour layover in SFO, a short 55 min connection in DEN and we didn't want to deal with that after this experience, nor wanted to fly UA on the "fixed" plane. There were AC alternatives that showed availability in Y NRT-YVR, so I screenshotted those and we got a few hours sleep before heading back to the airport early to try and get our flights changed.

I don't remember the transit hotel we stayed in but here is a picture of the outside:



When we got to the airport, UA could not help us at all. They said we had to take the rescheduled flight(fixed plane) and could not get us on AC. They also mentioned there were zero alternatives to get to YEG when we landed in SFO, so our awful SFO-DEN-YEG remained. Counter agent was extremely unfriendly(male) and didn't make an effort at all. It was pretty disheartening, as we got there even before counters were open to try and get on a different flight. There were others that were trying to do the same. Even though we didn't want to get on the "fixed" plane, I had already taken 3 weeks off work and needed to get home as soon as possible so didn't take a next day alternative on the next UA flight.

Saw an EVA Air Hello Kitty plane, which my girlfriend insisted we must take at some point in our lives (and ended up booking this to Taipei in J with their new configuration at the time, but more on this later)



At the UA Club in NRT, I gave it one last shot to see if we can maybe change the SFO-DEN-YEG flight to SFO-YVR-YEG(on AC Metal) to get home 7 hours sooner and not have the awful layover in SFO. There was just full price Y space available, and the UA club agent let us know that she will try her best. After about an hour, she was still on the phone so we said thank you for trying and went to go board.



After we boarded, something crazy happened. Everyone was fully boarded and they were making the pre flight announcement and the lady working the UA club had run up into the upperdeck with a huge smile on her face!! She was able to get us onto the AC flight full Y fare, even though it was sold out and oversold. This was huge for us as we just wanted to get home at this point, and thanked her profusely for her efforts. I'm sure even flyertalkers agree they'd switch from UA domestic "F" to AC Y to get home as soon as they can, after this debacle

The flight back was uneventful. We had no appetite for dinner and it was quiet(most passengers came back on the fixed flight and clearly was shaken up and wanted to get home safely). Before landing, I did grab some breakfast:



We ended up taking the AC Y flights SFO-YVR-YEG(which were all oversold). The agent at NRT somehow got us exit row seats for all, which was appreciated. Plus full Y fares on AC = free pickings from their on board menu(which isn't too bad, it actually changes from year to year unlike their breakfast), which was nice. Ended up getting home super late, exhausted, and having to work the next morning.

In summary, the trip was one of the best experiences of my life and triggered a newfound love for the travel experience itself, rather than just dreading the flying and waiting to get to the destination.

A lot of things have changed in my life. I cancelled my other *A Mini RTW in J, which had an UNREAL itinerary(Maldives, Copenhagen, Bali, Taipei to name a few), amazing new airlines we never flown (EVA, Lufthansa, Asiana), plus my dream hotel that I imagined taking a honeymoon in (Park Hyatt Maldives). This was scheduled LESS than a year after this one. I regret cancelling that trip to this day. It was for absolutely no reason. Better hotels were covered by more points I had earned, and I had gotten a few promotions which would have meant a higher budget for that trip. I lost my passion for traveling/flying and ended up spending my money/time on partying for the next few years. I was also obsessed with working and basically spent all my time with work and the people I worked with. I left my girlfriend after 9 years of dating for "fake" relationships. It was fun for the first 2 years or so, than I realized that I was more miserable than happy. It was just all temporary, fake happiness. I went from spending my weekends flying to Honduras in Paid J on 3 transcon flights just for the heck of it, to spending thousands of dollars partying(which I don't even really remember). I don't know what happened with me but I guess I wanted to experience that part of life.

I'm 25 now, and just recently(about 6 months ago), started to get my life together and chase after the passion that I once had. I'm seeing everything that had happened the last three years as an a life experience. I'm trying to see it as a blessing that I went through all that while I was young, and it's not too late to turn it back around.

I'm happy to say after a quick 6 months, I have collected enough points to book a *A Mini-RTW but in First!!! This time, my best mate will be joining me(he has collected over 1.7 mil points on AMEX as he turned into a high spending business exec since University. He's a non FTer and has only flown INTL J, so we will both be first timers in INTL F). Will be completing that this summer and will post my second trip report with a more mature and new perspective(with a much better phone for better pictures, which I'll be taking tons of lol)!!!

I'm so happy that I'm back on Flyertalk and can look at all the new routes, configs, trip reports and seeing all the familiar FTers that helped me achieve my flying dreams in the first place! Thank you all for this wonderful community It's so nice to be home!!!

SKYEG

Finally up!!! Hope you're doing well! it was fate that we ran into each other at a hotel bar, like true FTers

Thank you very much!!! I've spent many of nights staying up and reading your reports! Experiencing international F in a RTW this summer and extremely excited to have an opportunity to experience your reports myself

Thank you!! Years of delay but finished!

Thank you!

Thank you very much!!

Thanks!! The baseball game was awesome. So much energy in the crowd!!!

Up! I'm sorry for the delay.

Exactly my thoughts!! I've stayed at most the SPG properties in Seoul, but Park Hyatt takes the cake(unless you love to gamble, stay SPG )

Next RTW will include the Hyatt in Jeju, which I'm extremely excited to report on(both destination and hotel)

GetSetJetSet

Are Aeroplan awards like this still in play? Looks like Asia 1 is 150k and Asia 2 155k roundtrip, but I'm ok with that. Viable?

SKYEG

They are still viable! Thank you canadiancow for catching me up on everything.

The only thing that has changed is the point redemption amount(which you already noted) and the routing rules are a bit more restrictive.

It used to be MPM + 5%(your routing mileage can't go over the mileage between your starting point and turnaround point + 5%), but now it's an Aeroplan specific ruling system. Most sensical routings still work, but if you tried going back and forth, it may not.

teriyaki

Glad you came back to finish this report. And especially so for giving some insight into the background of your life. Flyers come all different walks of life, so its very intriguing to see and hear everyones elses version. Looking forward to more from you!!