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...

Two point Five days in Melbourne 

A getaway from FNQ to indulge in a Food & Booze fix of the southern kind.

Found the airfare through Skyscanner which redirected to byojet
I'll revisit the deal on the next page

I forgot how fat the wallet has to be if you intend to eat out, possible every meal you are on the ground in a big city!! But hey it was worth it, I don't do it very often - so a little splurge is rather a pleasant experience

Arrived 4pm and towards the city we shall go. got into the CBD at about 6pm and people were hanging out of restaurant doors in every direction. No reservation, 40 min wait!! this says keep looking, so we did. 

Night 1 

Fantastic food, all we had was tapas size eats and for me the drink of the night was sherry.. Ah the desire to return to Spain has been reinforced 
Loved the buzz - great way to start a visit to Melvegas. The vibe of walking several block to get there because the wait at other places was to long just made the evening great....

Day 1

The 1st full day in the big city and I wanted to firstly try  Lune Croissanterie as a day starter and I heard the product was brilliant. Time for a coffee and croissant to start the day. The coffee was goodish and the croissant was underwhelming. They looked great!! I chose a filled croissant - it looked good on the outside so I purchased with my eyes. It was over filled and stodgy and you just could not taste the croissant. The venue was brilliant and I definitely would go back to try a plain croissant as they also looked fantastic, personally I just made a bad choice for me. Feeling fat and lardy it was back to our accommodation to then walk several Km's along the Maribynong River until ones belly felt better.   

Time for a coffee, next stop was The Boat House on The Maribynong, great view, great venue, great location :-: bad coffee..!! 

Now it's time to jump on a tram, Myki Card at the ready, No. 57 towards the city, a walk around a few streets then onto No. 1 to Port Melbourne weaving through the burbs to the waters edge and then a walk to St Kilda. A massive walk, longer than anticipated but a great way to get ready for the rest of the day. From here it was time to jump on a tram towards the city. Wrong tram it turned left but that put us near a pub called the Fifth Province. So what to do? walk in and have a glass of vino, seated street-side watching the people go by. 

I have an app on my phone called FourSquare and it popped up with Milk The Cow as 2nd best wine bar in Melbourne. It was about 4pm, great time to sit and eat light, which we did. a flight of 5 sparkling wines and 5 cheeses to match. Just Brilliant, they do all the work and select the combo and we get to taste some food and wine that we would normally not pick out. Highly recommend this place, the staff are great and have fantastic knowledge and the cheese selection is Ginormous... love it Love it 

Back on the tram heading towards the city, more walking once there and we head towards AC/DC Lane. We were smack on 6pm as we walked towards our chosen restaurant Pastuso. without a reservation ... yes they had a table only condition is we had to be gone by 8pm, easy. Peruvian food - guess what ?? Peru is now on my bucket list. More love.!!! food was really really good, great flavours and part of the menu is a Ceviche Bar. Overall we ate small, 5 plates to share and wine and walked out feeling very happy.

Its time to call it done for the day, jump on a tram and homeward bound.

Day 2

Last full day - so lets eat and drink some more..!!!

Breakfast at Mama Bear was fantastic. I said that I would only have coffee this morning to save ones belly for the rest of the day BUT the menu was to good looking!! I weakened and had a massive breakfast. Great coffee, great food and a must go to in Ascot Vale. Oh hale to the hipsters love this place.

More walking for more Km's to prepare for the rest of the day and lesson the impact of breakfast.!!!

Next: Mkyi Card at the ready - tram to the city and then outward bound to Richmond for lunch at Bouzy Rouge (mmm 3pm so just a bite) - 2 glasses of wine and a couple of Tapas. YUM Croqueta's were SO tasty..!!! This place is so groovy and I want to come back. The fit-out of the interior is so good - love it....  

More walking the on a tram back to the city 

Embla was the place for a drink once we got to the city. Talk a load off the feet!!! the wine list was really interesting. 1 glass and onwards

Bomba was were we could not get into on the 1st night - but we did get a seat at the bar as we were so early.  The food and wine was GREAT, the aged Jamón was so good and I again had a sherry or two to have with the tapas.

Out the door in a hour and a bit and on a walk to Hardware Lane. We were told about a new Bar called the French Salon which is located above Kirk's wine bar. Closed on Saturday nights Booo Hooo. Until next time..!!! So we had a glass of Champagne at Kirk's wine bar which is a really nice place to sit and people watch.

Tram time - burbs bound towards Union Road, Ascot Vale to get off and try another Spanish restaurant : Arcadia 

Really nice and lucky we got a table. It's a family run restaurant serving traditional home style food. Nothing tricky on the plate just good Spanish tapas. Busy busy and loads of families enjoying the place. As I said really good food and just a nice place to go close to home.

Last Morning

Time for one more outing before heading to the airport. Back to Union Street in Ascot Vale for coffee at Little Byrd. Ye Ha - This coffee was really good - had to have a 2nd and then 3rd before heading out the door very happy.

40 Hours in Auckland 

All because I had China Southern (CZ) frequent flyer miles due to expire in January 2016 

All flights and accommodation were booked 3 weeks prior to travel

The prices shown are all in AUD

Traveled solo 

Virgin Australia (VA) Cairns to Brisbane 
- Economy Class 

$164

2 hr flight time

Booked though Orbitz and paid for with a 28 Degrees MC which attracts no international transaction fees. The ticket was purchased in $USD and was cheaper than buying direct on the VA website. Jump on the free bus from domestic to international airports and got me there about 2 hours before the flight departed. Ready to check-in for my business class flight. A seamless check-in with China airlines, with access to the Qantas Club Lounge. Salinger was the drink of the day before I boarded the flight. 

China Airlines (CI) Brisbane to Auckland
- Business Class

$100

2:35 hr flight time

A little bit of Chaos getting this ticket sorted. China Southern (CZ) website does not allow you to redeem other skyteam alliance airlines, you have to ring there customer service in China (Thanks to Skype the cost is minuscule). Then being advised that I must pay the taxes with a Chinese credit or cash in China. A little difficult when you live in Queensland. Eventually I was directed to ring CZ Sydney office, they were fantastic and made all the arrangements from there on. They took payment is $AUD and emailed an E-Ticket. This charge went onto St George Amplify Card as they provided the best frequent flyer points return at 0.75 per $ spent. 

Auckland Accommodation - Auckland city hotel Hobson 

$188

2 nights

Booked through HotelClub. Used NAB Amex. This was one of 2 charges that went towards the $500 spend required on the trip for the complimentary travel insurance to kick in. NAB charged $3.28 int transaction fee. I did a quick web search to see what promotional codes were around and found a valid one for HotelClub that gave a further 15% off which brought it in at just under $95 per night, I thought this was great for a nice inner city hotel with walking distance to everything. 

Now the Tweener:

Booked the airbus online $25.30 return 

To absorb my time in Auckland I : Walked, ate, consumed loads of NZ wine and beer and caught a ferry.

Food: (sequenced in order from arrival to departure)

Dinner -The Federal :  Casual, sit at the bar, good honest simple food &  great wine - loved the fried cauliflower.
Breakfast - Best Ugly Bagels : Great spot, wood fire burning and the bagels were fab
Lunch - Botswana Butchery : Bit flash!!, could die of thirst waiting for the 1st drink to arrive, food was great.
Dinner - Depot Eatery : Sat wedged into a corner at the bar, busy as, great staff and loads of fun. Most importantly the food was fantastic. Over indulged in there wines by the glass though..! My big spend for the trip.
Breakfast - Fond(ou) Cafe : Just coffee today inside the hotel and good
Lunch - Food Alley : NZ has a great array of food halls and mini shops selling fantastic food : picked a winner here too.

Take home treat: took the ferry to Devonport to explore and spend up on Devonport chocolates  great chocolate fish & chips for fathers day.

Pubs: That I visited once or twice
The Shakespeare Hotel
The Occidental
Vultures Lane

China Airlines (CI) Auckland to Brisbane 
- Business Class 

$392

3:50 hr flight time

Ticket purchased on China Airlines (CI) website and charges in NZD. For me this was WOW 392 bucks business class. This also went on the NAB Amex which made the insurance effective.  NAB charged $7.84 int transaction fee. Stupid error on my part, I didn't have the credit card I charged with when checking in as it was a requirement to site this as part of the check-in process, I was then required to fill out indemnity forms which added 10 minutes to the check-in process. Handled very well by the check-in staff and then I was on my way to the lounge. In this instance China Airlines (CI) used the Priority Pass Emperor Lounge. 

CI is a great way to go if you want to take a quick trip to NZ. The flight I took was a continuation service from Taipei going over and the return service via Brisbane to Taipei. While on the CI website I did play around a little, looking at buying both directions and found it was much cheaper to buy one-way tickets instead of a return flight if you were flying out of Australia. At check-in in Brisbane I also saw that you could upgrade from economy to business at the counter for $149. 

Brisbane Accommodation - Clayfield Motel 

$161

1 night

Booked direct with the motel. I stayed overnight in Brisbane because the scheduled arrival of CI0054 arrived to late to connect with flights to Cairns and a good reason to rekindle my affection for Brisbane city river and the River Cats. I chose this motel because it was only 10 minutes away from the airport and they had done a deal with Alpha cars - $10 each way airport - motel - airport. Train station was very close so next day it was easy access to the city for lunch. checked out in the morning and left my bags at reception. I found Great coffee and Italian sweets nearby which I had to have before I left for the city and after I returned but before catching the shuttle back to the airport. 

Food: 
For anyone who is interested lunch was at Harajuku Gyoza - Southbank. 3 items, 1 beer $32 loved it

Jetstar (JQ) Brisbane to Cairns 
- Economy Class 

$110

2 hr flight time

Booked on the Jetstar (JQ) website using the the direct deposit method to avoid all fees. This booking took several attempts because I initially saw and missed a cheaper price with VA as I would prefer to travel with them and accrue Velocity points. So I booked a JQ service with the direct deposit method as it allows 2 days to pay, I then looked for the same flight the next day and the price had dropped so I booked it again, I watched for a day and then payed. 

Theory: the Qantas / Jetstar sites must monitor your interaction with there website and track your IP address, they seem to know what you searched for previously and the system price manipulates and then moves on after a certain amount of time.

NAB insurance cost $11.12 effectively due to the international transaction fees incurred using these cards 

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

If you wanted to do a quick trip to 
New Zealand from Australia 

Which airline would you think to travel with?

I didn't know this until recently ....

China airlines ( CI ) fly between Australia and New Zealand several times a week.

Having flown with China Southern ( CZ ) several times over the past few years and being a member of there frequent flyer program Sky Pearl I accumulated enough KM's to redeem a flight one way between Oz and NZ in Business Class with CI paying the taxes which were just on AUD$100. Getting back : a one-way business class seat Auckland - Brisbane with CI for AUD$382 purchased through the CI website. Love that price!! Cant wait to see what the CI A330 is like to travel on.

  I have just joined CI's frequent flyer program Dynasty Flyer to see were they might take me next. Being a member of SkyTeam it gives you a great list of airlines you could accumulate and then redeem you miles on.