9 days away

When you book a return flight to Australia that originates in Oslo

 This creates one minor detail - The need to get to Oslo to meet the departure. 

It's nice to have a problem such as this. Below is what I pieced together for a 9 day jaunt from Cairns to Norway and back using a business class fare on Qatar Airlines traveling on there B787 & A380 and using Avianca's LifeMiles to do the rest outside of Australia.

To start the journey was a last minute purchase 2 days out from departure. A Jetstar flight from Cairns to Narita. The most I have ever paid for this sector. What made it even worse was the price either side of the date I had to purchase was 1/2 the price. I have never ever paid this amount for Cairns Narita return.

Thats my last beef about highway robbery and price gouging by an airline and there were 50 plus seats empty on the plane. 
(I guess they had to get me one day for all the cheap flights I purchased to Japan previously)   

The itinerary and costing

23 Feb 2018  :  JQ25 Cairns - Narita  - Yconomy B787           AUD$719

24 Feb 2018  :  NH231 Narita - Brussels - Business B787      AUD$1489
                       (75,000 LifeMiles used - Value AUD$1425) 

26 Feb 2018   : SN2283 Brussels - Oslo - Business A319       AUD$386 
                        (8,500 LifeMiles used - Value AUD$161)

02 Mar 2018  : QR180 Oslo - Doha - Business B787               AUD$1743
                        R904 Doha - Melbourne - Business A380

04 Mar 2018 : VA1291 Melbourne - Cairns - Yconomy B737   AUD$238

The total cost was AUD$4575 
less the JQ & VA cost the international fare was $3618 
Now that's very very good & the in-flight product on both ANA and Qatar was brilliant.

It's been nearly a year since I have done any travelling.

I've started 2018 with booking a return flight with Qatar. I have mentioned this before, if you can plan two trips you can get a brilliant deal in the reverse order. Most Business class airfares out of Australia cost around AUD$6800. If you book as I have just done the same trip in the reverse order it will cost just over AUD$3486. Thats a saving of AUD$3300 

There are several reasons for picking these routes. firstly I wanted to travel on several aircraft types and this booking covers the A380, B787 & A350. I'm also looking forward to spending time at the bar on the A380...

Now all that is needed is to get to Europe to meet the flight.

So far it's looking like a oneway fare to Asia to meet a LifeMiles award flight to Copenhagen. This will work in nicely to catch a ship to Oslo, allowing me to finish a rail journey that I could not do last time due to a landslide on the Flam railway line.

YES : Again Avianca have an offer 

this one is short but sweet yet again

US$33 will buy you 1,000 LifeMiles costing just under AU$46, with this offer you will get 2,400. Bring this back to dollars per 1,000 LifeMiles in AU and it sits at $19.15 - putting it at the upper end in value. I consider this to be a little expensive if you are not going to use them straight away. The AUD/USD conversion is just crap right now for this sort of thing. I have written to LifeMiles and asked if my credit card can be charged in Colombian Peso and at what value per 1,000 and am waiting for a response. This may make the choice to purchase a little easier. I just don't like purchasing in USD...

Planning a trip to Japan

Way back in June Jetstar had airfares out for about A$500 return which included checked luggage and credit card fee. A short think, I like Japan - People, food, culture & countryside, I took up this offer. Part of the catalyst was I always tell my mother about this country and whats there and she seems to always hear about it and that's as far as it goes. My farther has no interest in going, a quick decision and a ticket was purchased. The stars must have aligned as cheap fares from Adelaide to Cairns also came up so that go mother to Cairns for the little adventure at a good price as well.

I travel independently but in the last few years I also do it well organised - all accommodation and travel is prearranged and booked before I leave. So when we get to our destination there is no time deciding where and when to stay saving a hugh amount of time particularly if your time is limited.

  

We were set to travel in November. All internal accommodation is booked  mostly Ryokans some with Onsens (one of those little pleasures, I look forward to in Japan). some with meal plans (breakfast and dinner). These Ryokans are small and family run so real Japanese home cooking. 

I used this website to plan all train travel :  http://www.hyperdia.com. And it is a brilliant tool. I worked out the cost of all travel we would do including reservations and I found that it was nearly the same as a 7 day ordinary JR Pass. 

  

So I decided to buy the passes as this must be done before you enter Japan and you must have a voucher to exchange for the pass when you enter Japan. So I did my hunt around the web to find the best priced authorized agent to buy the pass from. The price quoted on the official Japan Rail Website was 29,110 YEN which is about A$332.00 per pass. the company I eventually purchased from was : http://www.japan-rail-pass.com

A UK based company, the passes are sent via FedEx International Priority and so far the purchase system and delivery is running seamlessly. The passes have boarded a plane in 

26 OCTOBER : ROISSY CHARLES DE GAULLE CEDEX, FRANCE

and they are on there way..
27 OCTOBER : 5:12 pm - In transit - DUBAI AE
28 OCTOBER : 11;23 pm - Shipment released - ALEXANDRIA AU

Attempted delivery 1 November by Startrack 
which was not really attempted just carded as I was at home all day.!!!
Australia Post are so UN reliable & UN trustworthy

A trip to the local post office on 2 November to collect 
Great service until FEDEX gave it to STARTRACK
The postage was FREE but the service provided was suppose to be premium door to door

Free delivery, JR map, timetable & travel guide

All this for A$330 per pass

When I have them in my hand I will update this blog

  

Email from InsideFlyer This is the email I received recently to clarify the confusion that came from the Lifemiles Website AND The best thing that came with this is the price. I logged into LifeMiles and found that the price per 1,000 miles to purchase was US$33 NOT US$38.94  My lifeMiles membership is based in Australia On todays exchange rate US$33 cost AU$45 per 1,000 miles you purchase but with the bonus miles you get 2,500 so the real cost per 1,000 is AU$18 And I think the 1st trip I will take is with ANA Sydney to Tokyo on there 787 and do it Business Class of course Cheers and happy travelling LifeMiles Update.   * Elimination of the 24-hour purchase rule and an extension of the date to register by. Greetings and thank you for your early support of the relaunch of Milepoint >> InsideFlyer. It seems you like what we are doing for our members so please encourage us to do more. There was some confusing instructions for this program at its beginning and for those of you who clicked to the LifeMiles website, you know that the confusion started there ... we were just the messengers! SO, InsideFlyer worked almost all day on Monday to negotiation some better terms for ours members. Effective immediately LifeMiles has agreed to rescind the 24-hour purchase rule. This means that you will have until October 12 to pay for the miles you are interested in. This is a bonus for members like me that are waiting for the loan papers at the bank to come through to pay for these miles. AND we have more good news. We were able to get an extension of the date for which you have to register with us for this promotion. Initially they wanted us to only make available registration for two days. We argued the point that with all that was going on with the relaunch that we thought it fair to have a total of four days which they finally agreed to and now we have been able to get them to six days. If you know a member (or a fellow traveler >> this is your time to be a best friend to someone) who was on the fence for purchasing these miles, please let them know that through Thursday they can register with us to purchase LifeMiles and still be eligible for the discounted Star Alliance partner awards. For your patience, things got better for you. As for payment, once LifeMiles has you in their system as registered by InsideFlyer (we send files twice a day to LifeMiles), they will contact you with confirmation and payment instructions. InsideFlyer does not get involved in that part of the promotion. We hope this helps clarify and update a few things for you. As always, we stand by to assist you and feel free to contact us at any time about any thing. You can contact us HERE. Sincerely, the founders and the members of InsideFlyer

Life Miles are back

Buy miles and receive up to 135% bonus

Yep - just got my email today and did a quick calculation : If I were to buy 150,000 LifeMiles I would get an additional 202,500 LifeMiles totaling 352,5000. This is at a cost of USD$33 per 1,000 block. Working on todays conversion from USA to AUD that is about AUD$20 per 1,000 block over the entire 352,500.  

Now that would get you 4 return trips on ANA's band new 787 from Brisbane to Tokyo in Business Class.

The only critical criteria is the following:

Applies only to members enrolled in the program prior to September 7th, 2015.

If you miss out this time join up, it's FREE and hope they do it again. This is the most bonus miles I've seen since I have been a member and it certainly helps with the Oz dollar buying US dollars right now. 

Click Me : This takes you to a page that shows how I have used Life Miles so far