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.

Could you do it?

If you came across a Business Class Fare between Australia and Europe for a little over AUD$3,000 with a recognised carrier

AH.. the catch.. 

: The fare is :

Milan - Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane - Milan

Try to buy it the other way Australia to Milan and it cost over AUD$6,000

The fare is available now with Thai Airways

Airlines are known to change aircraft type but if they are as they are now I would choose to fly in and out of Melbourne. They are using the A350 and the B777-300ER Melbourne to Bangkok : seats have direct access (no trying to get past the seat next to you if its occupied) The B787 & B747 are not on my list as there Seating is as mentioned!!

So ? Plan to take 2 trips 

Use some of your frequent flyer miles to get you over there spend a couple of weeks fly back Thai Airways Business Class and that gets you setup to fly out of Australia next time and all you need to do is do the same and redeem an award flight back to Australia.

The only limitation is the flights can only be booked 11 months out from the booking date. 

I'm thinking if these fares are still available in 1 months time take 2 weeks in late May and then another 2 weeks which will include Christmas and New Years. Late May = Portugal / Late December = Christmas and New Years in the North, Maybe a Baltic country

Cheers to a Super Fare when you find them 

A planned yet secret trip to Vancouver

33,750 Km's

Reasons?

There were several ... 

Surprise my parents at the end of there tour

Make use of Avianca LifeMiles

Fly ANA's 777 in 1st class Haneda to LA

Fly ANA's 787 business class


Achieved

The surprise was a winner

LifeMiles always allows me to travel in comfort!!!

ANA's 777 1st class - Sensational 

ANA's 787 : fantastic service and style

To see how I made this trip affordable 



As you will see if you push the button I had flights from Tokyo through to Vancouver and back to Sydney. To complete the journey I needed to get from Cairns to Japan and Sydney to Cairns. Jetstar had a special on - buy one way and get the return free - So I did, A$319 up to Narita in June and back in November. You know what that means, I now have to go to Japan late October to use the return flight Narita to Cairns. 

Already in the planning - Hong Kong Airlines have great fares Cairns to Hong Kong. I have a Ramen eating plan for 3 days in Hong Kong and then onto Kogashima. Ready to try the satsuma cuisine..!! and then make my way up to Tokyo for that Free flight home.

The flight from Sydney to Cairns was the 2nd half of a Free return flight I received as part of a deal with the American Express Velocity Platinum Card. 

Now onto ANA's 1st class experience. I had high expectations and they did not disappoint. From the moment I checked in my ever so small piece of checked luggage (5 days in Vancouver I didn't need much) it just got better. Up the escalators and you then enter the Suite Lounge, passed the mighty large Stainless Steel Doors.

 

    

As it was a late departure I headed for the Restaurant, ordered dinner, a glass of Champagne Collet was offered while I waited.

On Board and all the pre-departure preparation was in play. The funky / Sexy Samsonite amenities pack was handed to me and a glass of Krug... AH ... I am lovin this ....  

Moving right along - in flight - I'll let the pictures tell the story.. This can be a never ending story - All food was on request, so I happily managed to use my time wisely.   

A little over 10 hrs later 

A transit in LA for 2.5 hrs and then Air Canada flight to Vancouver business class on a A320, a 3 hour flight. As you have to collect your luggage and clear customs it's oh so nice to find that someone has collected your luggage off the carousel and has it waiting for you in LAX. 

Air Canada's flight from LAX to YVR  was a very average cramped 3 hours on what I call a short domestic Business class product. We arrived on time, exited the Airport and in a Taxi to my accommodation. The whole process was swift 

  

Two point Five days in Melbourne

part 2

How I found the airfare to get me to Melbourne for a feeding frenzy

This is the usual starting point for me - search the airlines direct to see whats on offer then of to Orbitz to see what they come up with and then Skyscanner is next inline. Skyscanner seems to find fares sometimes that Orbitz cannot. 

Well it worked skyscanner found the same fares as the airlines were offering but at a cheaper price. You cannot book on skyscanner they are a travel search engine. The deal they found was through BYOJET. I had not used them before but the who process worked and the E-Ticket arrived promptly with booking references for both airlines. So you can then go to the airlines website to select seat etc. The Virgin fare type was not upgradable but the Qantas fare was.

It's easy to check by going to these pages and entering your details

Virgin : http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/specials-offers/upgrademe/premium-bid/

Qantas : http://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/upgrade/global/en

You can go onto Qantas website and request an upgrade using points only well in advance but I find the amount of point required is a little high and not the best use of the points. My sector was CNS-MEL and it would have cost 20,000 points. I decided to wait and see if I got the invitation email to bid for an upgrade, which is a $ value + amount of points.

Indeed I got the email and I put a bid in. The minimum points was 4,000 so I left it as that, the starting $ value was $210. I put a bid in at $215 and the bid was accepted. 

I value my points/miles at A$15 per 1,000 and that's how I work the numbers for my cost value analysis.

This made the whole Two point Five days end rather nicely...

Cost evaluation for my most recent Avianca LifeMiles spend.

Tokyo - Los Angeles : ANA in first

Los Angeles - Vancouver : Air Canada in business 

Vancouver - Tokyo : ANA in business 

Tokyo - Sydney : ANA in Business 

The Miles I am using were purchased in December 2014
They cost A$17.45 / 1,000 to purchase (OZ dollar was much better then)
The cost to purchase miles as part of this transaction was approximately A$21.20 / 1,000 

Ticket 1: 

Tokyo - Los Angeles : ANA in first 
Los Angeles - Vancouver : Air Canada in business 

The cost to purchase in LifeMiles solely is 90,000 + taxes + booking fee

I did a part purchase using 56,000 LifeMiles and paying A$818.40 (US$579.76)
US$44.76 Taxes, US$25.00 booking fee, US$510.00 to purchase 34,000 LifeMiles 

Total ticket cost : A$1795.60

Ticket 2: 

Vancouver - Tokyo : ANA in business 

Tokyo - Sydney : ANA in business 

The cost to purchase in LifeMiles solely is 80,000 + taxes + booking fee

I did a part purchase using 49,000 LifeMiles and paying A$787.59 (US$556.43)
US$66.43 Taxes, US$25.00 booking fee, US$465.00 to purchase 31,000 LifeMiles

Total ticket cost : A$1642.64

All up so far is A$3438.24

The only thing left to do is purchase a economy seat from Cairns to Tokyo and Sydney to Cairns. I never use miles/points to purchase any type of Jetstar flight or domestic flights in Australia, I can't see the value in this as Qantas requires so many miles/points and also an overly high fee on top to buy a seat on JQ.   

This seems to be one of my favorite miles collecting programs as they always are throwing deals around that add up......!!

More importantly I needed to top up the account after a little bit of miles usage.

Just booked the award components of a trip to Vancouver BC with 4 days on the ground

Tokyo - Los Angeles : ANA in first class on a  B777

Los Angeles - Vancouver : Air Canada in business on a A320 

Vancouver - Tokyo : ANA in business on a B787

Tokyo - Sydney : ANA in business on a B787

There most recent deal being transferring miles from one account to another at a rate of US$15 per 1,000 transferred, the receiver gets 2,000 - a bonus of 100%. Not to shabby given the USD - AUD exchange is crap at the moment. This is putting it at just above AUD$20 per 1,000, this takes into account what I purchased the original 1,000 for.

I also did a test of 3 different credit cards to see the value of the conversion + fees.

Transferring 10,000 miles per card  @ US$150.

The cards:

NAB (National Australia Bank) American Express - A$214.32

28 Degrees MasterCard - A$208.33

American Express - A$218.67

Once all cards have loaded the transaction and fees (if charged) I will update this page. As you may be aware when a transaction hits your account some institutions show a variation from the charge date to the settlement date. So far this has happened with 28 Degrees (to my benefit) this time. 

This is how the 3 cards converted US$150 including all fees. They all settled by 26 February 2016

  

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...

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

Insideflyer have done a deal with LifeMiles

BUY LIFEMILES AND RECEIVE A 150% BONUS

How will it work out with the Australian Dollar the way it is?

LifeMiles are bought in US dollars so it does hurt with the conversion right now.

From lifemiles & Insideflyer sites the buy price is US$38.94 per 1000 netting you 2500 miles (there is a minimum purchase amount of 100,000 miles or US$3894.00 approx AU$5525.00) 

A few things to take note of if you are interested:

#1 - Only registered InsideFlyer members are eligible. So signup now

#2 - You must purchase between 100,000 & 150,000 LifeMiles.

#3 - You have from now until Tues Oct 6, 2015 to register for this launch promotion on InsideFlyer

#4 - You must be a registered member of LifeMiles by Tues Oct 6 to be eligible.

#5 - You will be able to buy LifeMiles thru Mon Oct 12  (there are restrictions)

There are other terms and conditions on Lifemiles (*I have included the link below) which make it a little confusing as to the time limitations on purchasing. 

I will update when I have access to the deal:

YES IT WORKS AND THEY HAVE EXTENDED THE DEAL 

https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/tra/pro/proinsideflyer.aspx

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 

American Express 

&

Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer Program

Click on the card >> << To apply today

This is my referral link

.....

Updated 21 September 2015

Firstly - The 4 things that makes it a great deal for me 

- 110,000 Velocity points :  Apply by and be approved by 30 September 2015, spend $1000 on the card in the first 3 months of card membership. (applying directly to american express gets you 100K, apply by a referral link gets you the 110K and the referrer gets a referral bonus) 

- 1 free return domestic flight with Virgin each year
list of routes here: AMXACQ1994_FlightMap_v4

- 2 single entry passes to Virgin Domestic lounges per year
lounges listed are Brisbane,Sydney,Melbourne,Perth, Adelaide and Canberra

- Ability to convert your points to (SQ) Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer Miles

(converts at 1.35 VA to 1 SQ mile)

110K will get you 81,481 SQ Kris Flyer Miles once converted – VA points don’t expire, SQ do expire after 3 years so transfer when you are going to travel. 

To fly from Brisbane to either London or Barcelona one way with SQ in Business Class will cost 80,750 miles (booking online discount applies) + $502 in taxes

So effectively if you absorb the application fee ($349) into this flight it will cost $851
** not bad at all I say **

There is the usual other benefits you get with the card like spend and earn Velocity points, complimentary insurances for overseas travel and purchase protection.

.....

I have been following the application of a college as well as my application to verify that all that is offered is received and in a timely manner.

The Timeline to date 

- Colleges application in 28 July 2015 and approved. 

- Card received 06 August 2015, activated, 1st item charged to the card.

- Complimentary domestic flight loaded into Velocity account on American Express system   06 August 2015.

- 2 lounge passes loaded and backdated to 28 July 2015 into Velocity account on American Express system and verified on Velocity program.

- My application in 08 August 2015 and confirmed 10 August 2015.

- Referral bonus loaded into colleges Velocity account on american Express system.
- Received referral bonus in Velocity account 18 August 2015
- 110,000 loaded onto Amex system 16 August 2015
- I have now received my card 28 August 2015, with a letter arriving 4 days earlier saying that there was a delay with sending out cards and 10 days have been added to the 3 month minimum spend period.
-110,000 loaded  onto my account in Amex system 02 September 2015
-My 1st referral activated there card 09 September 20

-Amex system seems to us a 4 day period to load passes, flights & points. This has been the case until the most recent applicant which I referred. neither of us have received points allocation at 4 days but have received passes and flights.
-I contacted Amex at 5 days to ask what was there system of allocation and all they said is they would check it out and manually force the points allocation. At 7 days and neither account has been adjusted.
-Colleges Velocity account credited with 110,000 19 September 2015
-My 1st referral account loaded with 110,000 18 September 2015 

As the process moves I will edit the page . 

If you use my referral link please let me know as deals like this get both you and me closer to our next redemption flight. I'd also like to say thanks for the help.

The start of the referral link looks like this www316.americanexpress.com The www316 looks weird but this is how American Express generates the link. I was unsure of it's validity at the time and I checked it out to be 100% safe and correct, then I proceeded.

As part of the application process you are asked if you have a American Express card. This is a card that originated from American Express direct