The Plan
We go to Japan - Kyoto next wednesday, for 4 days. We then fly to Korea - Seoul for a few days, then on to Vietnam - Hannoi. Then its overland to Thailand - Bangkok, either via Laos or Cambodia (we thought Cambodia for the beaches, but everyone's raved about Laos). On the 26th Oct we fly to Nepal - Kathmandu, we have a month there, then head overmountain to India for another month. We'll be getting back halfway through December.
A couple of people have asked how the ticket works, so here goes. Its a Star Alliance 29,000 mile ticket, which costs about 1400 pounds and can be bought from most travel agents. As the name suggests, you have 29,000 miles on any of the Star Alliance airlines - United, Lufthansa, Varig (Brazil's), ANA (Japan's), Austrian, Thai, SAS, Singapore etc. There are some restrictions like no backtracking in the same continent, you can do round the world or big loops e.g. down to Australia and back. There are also 34,000 and 39,000 mile tickets for I think 1600 and 1800 pounds. 29,000 miles is basically round the equator with one dip into e.g. Buenos Aires, its quite tricky to get a route under 29,000 (it took us days of pruning). You can also go with the One World alliance (British Airways and friends), or there's a couple of 800 pound tickets for the Thailand - Australia - L.A. - London routes. With the Star alliance, you tend to end up flying through Singapore, Vienna, Japan, Korea (Asiana air), Bangkok, Sao Paulo and Los Angeles- all the hub cities for the national airlines. Some places e.g. New Zealand can be tricky because one airline will fly in but no one else will fly out to a different destination, or they'll route you via Los Angeles which adds 15,000 miles.
You have to book all the dates of all the flights when you buy the ticket. You are technically allowed to change the dates for free at any star alliance member's ticket office (anywhere that can print a ticket) - some are more helpful than others. Changing destinations is a 50 pound fee, which is cheaper than buying a separate ticket although can add to the mileage. Business class tickets start at about 3000 pounds I think.
We seriously considered just a return to Buenos Aires, and a return to Bangkok - would have been cheaper, but we'd have missed out on all the "free" travel inbetween e.g. Japan, Nepal, America etc.
A couple of people have asked how the ticket works, so here goes. Its a Star Alliance 29,000 mile ticket, which costs about 1400 pounds and can be bought from most travel agents. As the name suggests, you have 29,000 miles on any of the Star Alliance airlines - United, Lufthansa, Varig (Brazil's), ANA (Japan's), Austrian, Thai, SAS, Singapore etc. There are some restrictions like no backtracking in the same continent, you can do round the world or big loops e.g. down to Australia and back. There are also 34,000 and 39,000 mile tickets for I think 1600 and 1800 pounds. 29,000 miles is basically round the equator with one dip into e.g. Buenos Aires, its quite tricky to get a route under 29,000 (it took us days of pruning). You can also go with the One World alliance (British Airways and friends), or there's a couple of 800 pound tickets for the Thailand - Australia - L.A. - London routes. With the Star alliance, you tend to end up flying through Singapore, Vienna, Japan, Korea (Asiana air), Bangkok, Sao Paulo and Los Angeles- all the hub cities for the national airlines. Some places e.g. New Zealand can be tricky because one airline will fly in but no one else will fly out to a different destination, or they'll route you via Los Angeles which adds 15,000 miles.
You have to book all the dates of all the flights when you buy the ticket. You are technically allowed to change the dates for free at any star alliance member's ticket office (anywhere that can print a ticket) - some are more helpful than others. Changing destinations is a 50 pound fee, which is cheaper than buying a separate ticket although can add to the mileage. Business class tickets start at about 3000 pounds I think.
We seriously considered just a return to Buenos Aires, and a return to Bangkok - would have been cheaper, but we'd have missed out on all the "free" travel inbetween e.g. Japan, Nepal, America etc.
posted by Matt and Lizzie at
12:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home