I’m not usually one for planning travel too far in advance, and typically I have at most one international trip planned in advance at a time, since I tend to be a pretty last minute traveler. Much like any addict, I spend my free time looking for my next “high” in the form of some awesome award redemption, though it hasn’t occurred to me until now just how much travel I have planned for this year, including:
- January: A trip to Shanghai on American upgraded to business class, primarily thanks to the double elite qualifying miles promotion.
- February: A few days in Barcelona on American upgraded to business class on a pimped out routing, which is a mileage run/mini-vacation.
- February: Another trip to Spain, though this time Ibiza, once again on American upgraded to business class, with a short hop on Iberia from Madrid to Ibiza. Once again, it’s a mileage run/mini-vacation
- March: My last Aeroplan first class award masterpiece for 120,000 miles to Bangkok and Hong Kong via Europe. This one is going to be bittersweet for me, not just because Aeroplan has massively raised the number of miles required for this award and added fuel surcharges, but also because Lufthansa has more or less stopped releasing first class award space in advance. RIP.
- April: A trip to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, Thailand. The outbound is in Lufthansa first class through Frankfurt (including on the Airbus 380), while the return is in business class on the JAL 787 to Boston.
- May: A trip to Nagoya/Kyoto in American first class thanks to a cheap business class fare that I upgraded to first class.
- September: LAN business class award using British Airways miles before the devaluation to Lima, Santiago, and Buenos Aires.
And unfortunately (fortunately?) I have a few other trips in the pipeline too. Seriously, this is an addiction, and a bad one at that.
Other redemptions I’m eying (though trying to avoid pulling the trigger on) include:
- A trip to Australia/New Zealand in November, December, or January, with my dad, if I can find the A380 award space. I love New Zealand, so would love to return, especially to Queenstown. He’s never been to Australia or New Zealand, and I’d like to take him the only good way to get there. 😉
- A Cathay Pacific one-way award to Colombo, with a fun return.
- A trip to Hong Kong/Bali on Cathay Pacific in first class with my mom, as she has never been to Asia.
On a mildly unrelated note, who’s up for a mileage run/weekend somewhere sometime? I don’t have the energy to host full fledged FlyerTalk/Milepoints “Dos” anymore (I’m getting old!), but if all three of my readers can make it to the same city the same weekend, it could actually be kinda fun. Maybe London, Munich, Berchtesgaden, San Francisco, or Hong Kong?
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