First thing I want to talk about is the stuff I have booked. I did say that I wanted to use a travel agent of some kind but as it turns out I'm not doing that. I have spent the last 6 months reading everything that is written on the web about travel and travel hacking and decided I want to try and put that to good use. Maybe it blows up in my face and Maybe I'll Learn Something (MILS).
1) San Francisco to Auckland (11/28/16) on Air New Zealand courtesy of a young adult deal on StudentUniverse (371$)
2) Christchurch to Melbourne (12/21/16) on Qantas (233 NZ$ = 167.70$)
3) Sydney to Bangkok in FIRST CLASS (1/27/17) on Thai Airways
+Bangkok to Seoul in business class (3/18/17) on Thai Airways
+Okinawa to Manila in economy (4/28/17) on Asiana Airlines
(72,500 United miles and 106$)
I don't know if you can tell but that last flight is what is really exciting to me. For perspective in economy alone those flights are worth 469+113+310 = 892 (this uses any airline and nonstop for the 2 legs which are also nonstop in my itinerary) which to be fair is only about a penny of value per mile. However I got a much better booking than that set of flights. Using the same airlines and the same routes the numbers are 469+328+487=1284 (1.6 cents per mile). Using my actual booking is 2549+813+487=3849 (5.2 cents per mile). Interestingly when I initially booked the 2 premium legs cost even more (the first leg was over 4 thousand dollars) and I had a valuation at time of booking in the range of 8-10 cents per mile. Thing is I'm not complaining because I still get to fly first class and I never would have paid for that ticket out of pocket.
1) San Francisco to Auckland (11/28/16) on Air New Zealand courtesy of a young adult deal on StudentUniverse (371$)
2) Christchurch to Melbourne (12/21/16) on Qantas (233 NZ$ = 167.70$)
3) Sydney to Bangkok in FIRST CLASS (1/27/17) on Thai Airways
+Bangkok to Seoul in business class (3/18/17) on Thai Airways
+Okinawa to Manila in economy (4/28/17) on Asiana Airlines
(72,500 United miles and 106$)
I don't know if you can tell but that last flight is what is really exciting to me. For perspective in economy alone those flights are worth 469+113+310 = 892 (this uses any airline and nonstop for the 2 legs which are also nonstop in my itinerary) which to be fair is only about a penny of value per mile. However I got a much better booking than that set of flights. Using the same airlines and the same routes the numbers are 469+328+487=1284 (1.6 cents per mile). Using my actual booking is 2549+813+487=3849 (5.2 cents per mile). Interestingly when I initially booked the 2 premium legs cost even more (the first leg was over 4 thousand dollars) and I had a valuation at time of booking in the range of 8-10 cents per mile. Thing is I'm not complaining because I still get to fly first class and I never would have paid for that ticket out of pocket.
Are you in Auckland yet?
ReplyDeleteyup, landed a few hours ago. Taking it slow at my friends house now.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really enjoyed my last trip and the flight was easy and comfortable. I was in Thailand, there I settled in one of the hotels in Chiang Mai. For my convenience, I decided to rent a scooter, and Cat Motors company offered me to go in tour for a few days on a scooter http://catmotors.net/our-motorbikes/. I graciously accepted, because it has long dreamed of visiting such a tour. I really liked it and I will recommend to my friends a similar rest!)
ReplyDelete