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Index to this trip report
Latest summary As at post #227.
==================== LOVER LOVER WHY DO YOU PUSH? It all started so simply. I would do a round the world (RTW), as I often do at this time of year. I'd try to fit in the inaugural A380 passenger flight on Singapore Airlines, which is expected to be on the Singapore to Sydney route, although the dates were unknown at the time. As time progressed and still no word on the inaugural date (no doubt after Singapore Airlines was burnt so badly from the many Airbus delays to date), I realised that making the inaugural is optimistic and a more realistic goal (I thought) would be to fly the A380 as part of the RTW. Surely by late October / November the A380 will have started service? Then Air New Zealand announced a new service to Vancouver, which conveniently for me timed nicely with a planned visit to USA. Great – I can add to my list of inaugural flights. Unfortunately the downside of an inaugural flight soon became apparent – all business class and premium economy class seats were blocked for VIPs :( Eventually, Air New Zealand released a couple of full fare business class seats – which means a hefty surcharge on the RTW fare. As I'd waitlisted for this, and had top status with Air New Zealand, I was able to nab one straight away. So now I had some planning to do to try to make the travel fit my plans – an efficient mileage earning, visit some new countries and places, include the destinations I needed to visit at the right dates, include the Vancouver inaugural flight, include the likely A380 flight to Sydney, and make it to Queenstown in time for the Mainland Do, which I am hosting. Try as I might spending hours poring over my spreadsheets of routing data, the *A RTW mileage calculator tool and various airline websites, the best I could do would mean arriving at Queenstown at about 5pm on the first day of the Mainland Do. With several connecting flights to get there, tight connections and the ever present vagaries of Queenstown weather I would have a reasonable chance of missing the start of the Do. That will not do. So it was back to the drawing board. Note that eventually the date of the inaugural A380 passenger flight was announced as October 25. This is a date I could have made work if only it was announced a few weeks earlier. But it wasn't to be - by then I'd already made too many other plans. Still some FTers have been successful in bidding for the inaugural flights, in both directions SIN-SYD and SYD-SIN, so I eagerly look forward to a report or two and live the experience vicariously. |
WHY DO YOU PUSH? WHY DO YOU PUSH?
Plan B was to separate out the Vancouver inaugural from the RTW. With the never-ending delays for an announcement of the A380 inaugural it seemed that I should not count on being able to fly the A380 in this trip and thus could consider either One World or Star Alliance (for I collect miles and status with both programs). I ended up choosing to do a One World RTW due to (a) the large fare increases for the Star Alliance RTW earlier in the year, (b) I already had my several Star Alliance statuses wrapped up for the year, and (c) the One World RTW (xONEx) being continent based instead of mileage based (xRWSTARx) allows for potentially much greater earning as well as the ability to combine several interesting new places in the same trip. Then as Singapore Airlines removed lifetime status from its program, my plans morphed once more. Perhaps I could lock up lifetime status on Qantas before it, too, is removed by cost-cutting bean counters (apologies to all FT bean counters)? On my then plans I expected to attain Qantas lifetime Gold status (the mid-tier One World Sapphire status) in the next 18 months or so (after this trip as originally envisaged). So it was tantalisingly within reach. But one RTW will not be enough, no matter how well I optimise it. So two RTWs it is then. |
BABY BABY, DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ME?
After a couple of weeks experimentation I came up with an itinerary that was reasonably efficient at earning status on QF. It was not fully optimised since I wanted to visit certain places, fly certain routes and airlines. I developed the itinerary using routing databases, the one world website for schedules, mileage monkey for checking routing rules, and various availability tools to check availability. With that prepared I forwarded the draft DONE4 (business class One World Explorer round the world) times 2 info to AA for ticketing. I chose American Airlines because their “taxes” are but a small fraction of the “taxes” charged by some other airlines – due to greatly reduced fuel surcharges. For more information, check out the one world forum. On my particular itinerary it saved me over a thousand dollars. The ticketing however, proved to be a frustrating experience over a period of more than a month – this for an itinerary which my draft required no changes, and had availability on every flight.
Eventually I got the tickets. As expected they were paper tickets. Not expected was that they were a blast from the past – hand written paper tickets! Wow it has been so long that I cannot recall the last time I got a hand written ticket. |
Nice start to your TR, Kiwi Flyer! ^ :)
Bestest of luck on the QFF LTG! |
Handwritten paper tickets??!! Damn...
I bet half the check-in agents out there have never seen one. I haven't since I can't remember when. |
Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer
(Post 8462245)
[list][*]Calling American Airlines on weekdays required calling during working hours in another country in another timezone, and on weekends calling during working hours in a third country several timezones away. Yes phone calls forward through 2 different countries. Unfortunately 1-800 numbers do not work from my location, as some FTers have experienced recently.
Pretty sure that Vodafone cellphones just allow direct access by dialing +1800; but that may not work if you are inbound roaming. |
Originally Posted by ajnz
(Post 8469024)
On Telecom NZ and TelstraClear PSTN services, you should be able to call 0168-1-800-<whatever>. You get charged at the direct dial NZ-USA rates, but it will put the call through. The service is known as "Access 0168" and was introduced for precisely this reason.
Pretty sure that Vodafone cellphones just allow direct access by dialing +1800; but that may not work if you are inbound roaming. |
Have you tried installing Skype to call 1800 numbers?
I use it to call AC - and it doesn't even cost! |
unfortunately not an option on my laptop
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Just a few days to go. It has been a hectic couple of weeks with a mix of flights in first, business, and economy on LAN, Lufthansa, Qantas, Swiss and Thai. 1 op up ^, 1 Do, and some other meetings with FTers (including an unexpected meeting with a FT lurker!). I was even witness to a family being denied immigration and escorted onto the returning international flight :(
I'm currently working through several schedule changes - both airline induced and changes to my requirements. While I can't wait for the trip to start it seems I have a million things to do in the next few days. |
Thanks for the link, Kiwi Flyer. I'll be travelling in the next month, so whilst we may not meet in BNE, there's always the possibility of another city...
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Lounge voodoo you do do
While I prepare the next instalment (finally underway) I realised I have an odd luck with lounges. I was flying from LAX TBIT terminal the first day the interim lounges were in use instead of the various airline lounges. I was flying from AKL in F one of the first days after the NZ F lounge had been closed :td: I got to sample both MEL and SYD new QF F lounges in the first few days they were open ^ I visited the new BKK QF F lounge not long after it too opened. I visited the new MEL NZ lounge soon after it opened. I visited the refurbished CHC NZ domestic lounge the first day it reopened ^ and missed out on a NZ lounge half a dozen times in the short couple of weeks that the lounge was closed for that refurbishment :td: I visited NH F lounge in NRT not long after it opened - a vast improvement on the small crowded SQ lounge. Perusing FT lately I notice that I missed by a couple of months on trying the new ZRH LX F lounge :td: There are two more lounges en route this trip that I will be visiting in their dying days before closure. Thus I miss a couple of new lounges by a few days each. A fourth lounge I will be visiting soon is currently being redone (in part) as I write this and so I will get to try out the new experience not long after it reopens. Two further lounges are almost brand new, having opened within the past few weeks. There may be other lounge oddities that I haven't yet come across (or fail to recall from past trips), but it seems amazing to me the sheer breadth of circumstances that line up this way. Given my frequent travel it wouldn't be unusual to have one or two cases where visit a lounge in the first few days or the last few days, in the course of a year. But so many in such a short time period seems, well, odd. Observant FTers may get some clues from this about where I am visiting over the next 4 weeks. Back to the tales of travel far and wide. |
Prologue
Auckland to Wellington (AKL-WLG) on QF 737-400 with business seats I head to the airport early for the first domestic flight of the day, feeling somewhat disconnected or is it the tiredness after a busy week and only an hour or two of sleep? On my way to check in I see the departure board for which gate we are using and look on the apron as to the aircraft rego. This is to see my chances of getting a business class seat, which today are good. It isn't a foolproof system as sometimes the a/c get switched or the departure screen has the wrong gate listed. Check in is open earlier than normal today for some unknown reason and there is a queue of mostly connecting passengers from the early morning arrivals from Los Angeles (LAX) and Santiago (SCL). I stand in the elite line and wait my turn. Before I reach the front the agent in the other line recognises me and motions me forward. The passenger in the queue is grumpy so I of course defer to let him through first. I am quickly checked in and head up to security. I notice the building work underway for Pacific Blue's check in - for they start domestic flights in New Zealand in a little over a month and share the Qantas part of the terminal in Auckland and Christchurch. ... to be continued ... |
While one passenger is fluffing around figuring out what they need to take out of their pockets I, in a familiar fluid move, dump my bag for the xray and walk through the WTMD and grab my bag out the other side, already 2 steps from the lounge before the other passenger has even finished emptying their pockets.
After a quick chat with the lounge agent I grab a coffee and check my emails and FT too of course while I wait for the flight. The flight is called and, as is my custom in most parts of the world, I board last secure in the knowledge I don't have to fight to find space for my small carry on. In any event the 737-400 has a small cut-out on the right hand bulkhead which is just big enough for a purse or my carry on. (The 737-300s have a larger cut out on both bulkheads which is big enough for laptop bags and the smallest sized rollaboards, but on 737-400 these have to be placed in the overhead bin or the closet.) We leave on time, helped by a low load. There are even plenty of empty business seats. For those unfamiliar with domestic flights in New Zealand, neither Qantas nor Air NZ (and soon nor Pacific Blue) sells business class on domestic flights, however a small number of aircraft are used on both domestic and international routes and thus have some (old style) business class seats - think USA domestic first and you get the idea. On Qantas there is no self seat select and their allocation puts these preferentially to status passengers, but as some flights have very few elites some people also just get lucky. All 737-400 and 2 of 5 737-300 aircraft have these seats. On Air NZ there is self seat selection so look out for A320 flights (these used to be flights numbered 700-999 but now seem to be numbered 1500-1599) - or look for seat map with 2-2 in the first 2 rows. If you self select and don't have status expect to be booted out for a status pax, who can get allocated by the airline any seat not self selected (by status pax). The flight is the same old routine. A pastry danish, tea, coffee and water for free or pay for soft drink, fruit juices or anything else. A tv show is on the screens - there are about 3 different ones played at various times of day and routes (music videos on the shorter flights) as well as several audio channels. The skies are clear giving fantastic views first of the city then endless countryside out one side and the sea out the other. No sign of any plume above Ruapehu today (there was a recent eruption which closed the skifields for a few days and they have since reopened). Past the volcanic cone of Taranaki and down the length of Cook Strait before turning and approaching Wellington from the South. As is often the case the 2nd Qantas aircraft parked at Wellington for a later departure is parked up at a gate on the Air NZ pier - the renovations to the Qantas pier and the gate stands in front seems to be taking forever. When you get a flight from Air NZ pier they never seem to call the flight early enough in the Qantas Club and often there is a Air NZ flight leaving from the same gate lounge (separate gate) at the same time meaning a long wait in security. |
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