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Published: August 16th 2012
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For about 1-1/2 years, I have been following various travel blogs discussing not only destinations but also earning and using travel rewards, miles, points, etc. In this time, we have been saving up miles in various frequent flyer programs for a future family trip. At times, it feels like saving for retirement - 24 miles here, 100 miles there - where the end goal is somewhere around 300,000 miles (enough for a family of 5 to travel anywhere off of this continent). I had resigned myself to thinking about a trip in about 5 years, just hoping that we can keep all of our accounts active enough to avoid expiring miles.
Well, one good thing about traveling with 3 kids to Europe is that you can rack up about 50,000 miles in a week. After this trip, I added up all of our Star Alliance balances in June and determined that we were only 40,000 miles away from an Asia round trip. It was a stretch, using miles/points from 3 different frequent flyer programs, but we could conceivably be at our goal by the end of the year!
We began some long term planning with our kids - talking
Airbus A380
IAH-FRA and FRA-PEK with them about where they would like to go (Grace wanted to go to India, South America, Jerusalem, and Japan) and where we
could go on a reasonable budget. On the side, I began researching routes and possible destinations given the awards we could use. After some research, I became very interested in an option where you could actually fly round trip to Asia
via Europe. In addition, for most Star Alliance carriers, you can add a stopover (a layover of over 24 hours) for free if the routing allows. The wheels began turning, and we started planning for some sort of European+Asian round the world tour.
Wouldn't you know it--a couple of bonus promotions and opportunities popped up allowing us to close the 40k mile gap much sooner than expected, and we needed to move fast if we wanted to book something for next spring! I started putting together an itinerary (picking flights is honestly my favorite part of planning) that involves a stopover in Frankfurt, ending in Beijing, China, then returning home via the Pacific. As an added bonus, I aimed for some flights on two of the more 'distinguished' aircraft, if there is such a title
747 Seat Map
Picking our seats on the 747. for a plane: The relatively new Airbus A380 and the Boeing 747. Both are currently the largest passenger planes available, and each has its own charm. The A380, being the new kid, is decked out with creature comforts and general awe. We'll be flying most of our trip on two A380s including the newest Houston-Frankfurt route. The 747, which has been around for about 20+ years, may be extinct in the near future, and I wanted to give our kids (and myself) the chance to say we flew on one of the greatest birds made. We'll be crossing the Pacific
in this one edit: aaah! schedule change--just got bumped to a 777 😞 landing in San Francisco. Of course, this kind of itinerary is not bookable online, so some phone calls were required.
After consolidating points to the necessary accounts, I started making the calls at about 8:30pm. First up was Aeroplan (Air Canada), where I was able to book Jessica's ticket successfully. Well, mostly. One of the flights I had picked from San Francisco to Houston was suddenly unavailable (even confirmed myself) so I actually had to push the return forward a day on the phone. Turns out we are returning on Spring Break weekend, so it doesn't surprise me. Then, the challenge of booking the rest of us through United (where the rest of our miles lived, in 4 seperate accounts) on the same flights, or Jessica would be flying solo :/. Luckily, the flights were all available and I was able to snag 4 of the remaining 6 award seats on several flights. I hung up the phone and was literally in shock. 1 hour on the phone and 335,000 miles spent netted us a round the world flight. I did actually have to make a call to Lufthansa in order to pick our seats on their legs to/from Frankfurt, but that wasn't a big deal.
Now we are in the process of planning out the trip, the days, the cities. As details come together, I'll try to share them.
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