ANA | Jason Around the World

Tokyo to LA in ANA First Class

2019 Birthday RTW, Japan 2 Responses »

Oct 282019

Fortunately the walk from the lounge to the gate was a short one, and there were already tons of people lined up for boarding in the gate area. Turns out the flight was booked completely full in business and economy…but I was the only person in first!

This would be my third first class flight on ANA, and as usual they were super organized, even having a special signed boarding line for first despite me being the only passenger.

Awkward moment when the agent came to get me before boarding was even announced, and did a special pre-board. Yup, it was a flight to the US, as some guy loudly said “hey, we’re in business class, what happened to priority boarding?!” The agent just smiled and ignored him…

ANA All Nippon Airlines flight 106
Tokyo, Haneda (HND) to Los Angeles, California (LAX)
Depart 23:30, Arrive: 17:30 same day, flight time: 10:00
Boeing 777-300ER, Registration JA733A, Manufactured 2005, Seat 2K
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 138,205
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,830,793

Upon boarding, the seat was just as I remembered. I never understand why they have this cube design that blocks the windows…do I really need/want privacy from the outside? It’s pretty poor design, but quite a nice seat.

Overview of my private jet…I mean the first cabin..

Looking across through the other seats in my row. The lead flight attendant came to introduce herself, and offered that maybe since I was alone tonight she could make up the seat next to mine as my bed after takeoff? Then she joked: “or the other seven seats if you would prefer.” I liked her already.

Before departure, the safety video was screened. I have to say, this is one of the best safety videos ever. From the strange woman in the blue beekeper outfit to the instructions that seem to say “in case of emergency evacuation, please make sure to apply full geisha makeup,” to “never wear heels down the exit slide” this video had it all for high entertainment value!

So what’s to eat and drink tonight? Being a midnight departure it wasn’t a full meal service, but looked like there were plenty of light dishes I could put something together from!

Before eating, I was brought a WiFi card which if I remember right was good for 100 MB of data. Quite little compared to US airlines, but when I asked later for a second one I had absolutely no problem getting one. Not sure if this is policy, or just because the cabin wasn’t full….

A glass of Krug and some canapés to start? Don’t mind if I do! Interesting mixture of flavours and textures. I don’t think any cuisine pays as much attention to texture as Japanese does. Black sesame and nut bread stick, foie gras with teff, duck ham and mushroom thyme, and a smoked trout roll.

I asked what would be good for a small starter along with more champagne after takeoff, and the crew recommended the scallops as they were nice and light. They were also absolutely delicious.

For something “a little bigger” she recommended the pork tsumari sandwich with black truffle flavour. When it arrived, I honestly wasn’t sure how I was supposed to approach this. Take it out of the cardboard hot pocket like wrapper first?

After the cardboard was off, it was apparent the red stuff was also a wrapper that was meant to be removed. I assume this is some traditional japanese way of steaming things? The sandwich was, however, delicious!

I was still a bit hungry since both the scallops and sandwich were quite small, and the flight attendant insisted on bringing me the chicken and mushroom curry. It was outstanding…very unique flavour, but I loved it!

Of course, when there’s a cheese plate on offer, I have to take advantage of it! As expected with asian airlines, it was fair, but certainly nothing to write home about. I wouldn’t expect a US airline to do a fantastic Japanese dish, so no reason to expect ANA would do phenomenal with the cheese…tho it was probably still better than what most US airlines offer.

Ice cream for dessert sounded wonderful with some Hibiki (only the 17 on this flight….21 only goes to “premium” routes…which for some reason LA is not) and it’s amazing how something so simple can be so good. Quality over quantity!

I still wasn’t tired at this point, and asked for some more Hibiki, and some savoury crackers came with it. I love these little Japanese nibbles!

Finally tired, I retired to the seat across the aisle, clamped my USB fan to the side of the cubicle, and dozed off to 5+ hours of wonderful deep sleep. My body had no idea what time it was (if I was actually on DC time it would have been around 5pm) but was exhausted, so I was out like a light.

The flight attendant woke me 45 minutes before landing, and insisted on bringing me something small to eat. Fruit sounded refreshing, but the table had to be set…linens and all. The small details on this flight were outstanding.

Of course, she wouldn’t let me stop there, insisting I end my flight with something sweet.

Every little detail of this flight was perfect, and honestly the fact it wasn’t a meal flight was no big deal at all. If you want to eat, there’s more than enough different items on the menu to make a meal of, and if you’re on Tokyo time and just want to sleep…well, that’s an option too.

With that, the longhauls were done, and I was almost home…just about 12 hours left to go…because flying LA to DC via Toronto is totally a normal thing to do which I’m sure will cause absolutely no problems at all…

Shanghai to Tokyo in Japan Airlines business class and ANA First Lounge

2019 Birthday RTW, China, Japan 4 Responses »

Oct 262019

After arriving at the airport, it took a few minutes to figure out which terminal JAL was in, but the maglev station sits between the two terminals so at least you can’t screw up until that point.

I already had a mobile boarding pass, so I headed straight for immigration and security, which took a total of about 20 minutes between them – half of which I felt was used by the security folks with a flashlight trying to see the wattage on my battery pack to make sure it was ok to fly. China is the only (I think) country who regularly checks the capacity of battery packs, so you think the manufacturers would make it easier, but who knows…

Through security, and I was greeted with a little bit of Switzerland. Of course I stopped since it had been a whole five weeks since I had been there! I can’t wait until I’m back again in a few days to get more. Mövenpick is outrageously expensive in Switzerland (two scoops will set you back like $8) but it’s so delicious…especially if you go to the shop and get tiramisu and rum raisin. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Next up was to figure out which lounge I had access to. The signs made it quite easy…and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Air Koryo on a lounge sign before these days. I was pretty exhausted and not feeling like lounge-hopping to get the maximum experience, so I just went to the JAL Lounge.

Yup, this must be the right place…little cardboard guy was there to welcome me!

Plenty of seating in the lounge, although it was slightly warm. I saw several people eating dim sum, but couldn’t figure out for the life of me where they got them. They weren’t on the buffet, and there was a little window so I tried asking the lady through the window and…zero english.

Hmmmm, well, I guess I’ll inspect every corner of the lounge…and lo and behold there was another room that looked like a kitchen/bar area back near the bathrooms, and that’s where the dim sum was coming from. Success!

Off to the gate, which was fortunately very close to the lounge, and boarding was by some convoluted process I couldn’t figure out where they seemed to individually inspect passengers before allowing you to line up, and then they moved you around in lines. Not sure…

JAL Japan Airlines flight 86
Shanghai, China (PVG) to Tokyo, Haneda (HND)
Depart 16:05, Arrive: 20:00, flight time: 2:55
Boeing 787-8, Registration JA823J, Manufactured 2013, Seat 7D
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 132,718
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,825,306

It took a little bit of work online to figure out what kind of seats would be on this 787, but my research paid off and it was exactly as expected. Good seats for a short regional flight, but I definitely wouldn’t want these on a long-haul route…plus it’s a 2-2-2 config aka “climbover class.” Sure beats what we get for short flights in the US and Europe though!

Despite it being a relatively short flight, I was expecting a full meal and wasn’t let down. Japanese or Western options, and the crew (as I often find is the case in Japan) seemed to smile a bit when I chose the Japanese option.

Takeoff was quite bumpy, and I can’t describe it, but the plane didn’t feel very “stable” and shook a lot…even an hour into the flight. I don’t think I’ve ever sat this far back on a Dreamliner and maybe it’s typical when you get near the wings, but it just felt incredibly bumpy to me…and not in the turbulence way. Can’t quite explain it.

I think I’ll have some wine before dinner to sooth the nerves. I always love it when you get the little mini bottles…although I feel a bit guilty when I asked for a second. It doesn’t feel as bad when it comes out of one big bottle to me *grin*

Wow…the presentation of the Japanese meal was incredible. I honestly don’t know what 75% of the items were, but there wasn’t anything I ate that wasn’t super tasty. Lots of different flavours and textures, and definitely enjoyable – even if some of them were flavours that weren’t exactly aligned with my palate.

Mmmmm ice cream. Yes, it’s simple and packaged, but it seems higher quality than the ice cream in United’s sundaes. Maybe I’m just imagining things?

The plane continued to do what I was describing as “shuddering” most of the flight, and it was pretty disconcerting…but nobody else seemed concerned, so maybe it was just me. As far as temperature, true to form for Japanese airlines the cabin hovered nearly 25C for most of the flight. Not exactly pleasant, but I had my fan…which I totally clipped to the seat to blow cool air on me *grin*

I’ve seen this before in Tokyo, ATC there seems to love strange loops, I’ve never seen this so regularly in other parts of the world.

Arrived at the gate, and first stop was transit security. No line at all. efficient and helpful as always in Tokyo, and soon I was in the Haneda terminal for the first time trying to figure things out. I had flown into Haneda once before, but just as an arrival, so had no idea how the departures area worked. It seemed to be one long terminal, and I followed the signs to the ANA “Suites” aka first lounge.

Got in side, surprisingly little English spoken by the agents given this is a first class lounge, and first thing I did was ask for a shower since the JAL flight had been so warm. “You are number 18 on the list – it will probably be 2-3 hours.” Um, WTF?

Other than my flight to LAX, I could only see one other ANA flight that had a first class cabin in the next six hours…and my flight appeared to have only two people in first class! Where do all these people come from? ANA Diamond members have to fly 100,000 miles, of which 50,000 on ANA metal, so I guess that’s only like a 1K on United – and those would swamp a lounge at Dulles too.

I know Lufthansa allowed HON Circle members into their first lounges, but that doesn’t seem to add many people (given the rather high requirements for this status), but this lounge was absolutely packed, with probably 75% of the seats taken.

Oh well, super helpful and pleasant staff, and I soon had a plum wine and my choice of hot or cold towels. Obviously I went with cold….

After about 90 minutes, when it became very obvious I wasn’t getting a shower (I’m sorry – but when your elite members take preference over your first class customers…you need to rethink things) I decided to have a snack. Tasty little rice-based morsels and a bit more plum wine.

With 30 minutes before I head to the gate, I decided to ask one more time if there was any chance I might get a shower. Nope, still number eight on the list. Ridiculous after more than two hours. You’d think they might have found a way to take care of a first class customer…but nope.

Off to the gate, nice and sweaty, which probably was for the best anyways since the cabin was likely to be on the tropical side anyways!

64 hours down, only 22 hours to go…next stop: Los Angeles!

Ducking Awesome: First Class Birthday Around the World…in 86 Hours!

2019 Birthday RTW 10 Responses »

Oct 192019

So, a bit of background is necessary to understand this trip. No, I’m not talking about the fact that I have a few screws loose when it comes to traveling; that part is a given.

I’m talking more about Lufthansa’s gimmick of the “first class duck.” I’m not quite sure where this tradition started, but as I understand it Lufthansa many years ago started offering souvenir ducks to passengers taking a bath in their first class lounges and first class terminals.

Then, one day, someone had the novel idea to make a “special” thematic duck for spring, or summer, or some such reason. This caught on, and more and more Lufthansa started to offer other special ducks.

By this point, people had started to collect them, and they were no longer just for people taking baths. People came up with all kinds of reasons to stop by a get one. Seriously. One of the first phrases I ever learned in German was “Kann ich zwei Enten für meine Kinder haben?”

Yeah, there was a bit of embarrassment and shame and made up children involved in getting the ducks. I know I’m not the only one. (In all fairness, I’m much less shameful now and just ask for one….unless it’s a special one…and then the made-up children may come on board to justify needing two.)

Right, so over the years, I may have amassed quite a few of them. I know this is less than half of the ones that are out there, but thankfully my “problem” isn’t so bad that I’ve taken to eBay or such, but I may have engaged in a few trades. So, yes, my problem:

Yup. We have “Euro Duck” and then there’s “Dirndl Duck” and don’t forget “Corporate Wanker in the First Class Lounge with his Bluetooth Headset Duck.” Ok, maybe it’s not called that, but you get the drift.

So, you’re asking yourself, what does this have to do with anything?

See, a week or so before my birthday (yes, if you’re keeping track this is about a week after being home from so much back to back travel this summer and looking forward to a solid month at home) I learned there was a special duck out there…one you could only get on your birthday…the elusive “Birthday Duck.

Of course, this led to planning out trips…maybe even going to Frankfurt just for a few hours as an excuse to get it. But see, unfortunately, my birthday was on a Thursday this year, and that makes things a bit difficult for work. It also turned out I had a big “can’t miss” meeting I had wisely scheduled on my birthday at 9am in DC, (3pm in Germany – pay attention – this is important) so given flights arrive from the US in the morning it meant it just wouldn’t work out this year. There would be no Lufthansa love for me.

Fast forward to Wednesday, the day before my birthday. I woke up with an inspiration: what if I could find a way to fly to fly to Frankfurt today, spend the day in the lounge, and fly out after 5pm? Surely there would be a way to chair my meeting from the lounge, right?

All I needed was a flight after 5pm. The meeting would last 90 minutes putting me done at 4:30pm German time, and Lufthansa generally drives you from the First Class Terminal to the plane around 30 minutes before departure, so I just needed to find a flight from Frankfurt that left after 5pm – there has to be something back to North America, right? (Oh, and I should probably check to make sure DC to Frankfurt isn’t sold out in First tonight, right? Though I suppose I could fly business into Frankfurt if needed.

After spending my entire commute into the office searching, there was nothing. I was crushed.

But wait, why turn right back around and go home? Johannesburg leaves from Frankfurt around 10pm, that would work! Ugh, completely sold out…search, search, search. Whoah, Shanghai! Leaves Germany at 5:10pm which would be perfect. Without a second thought I pulled the trigger. Sent a note I would be taking a half day and working remotely on Thursday, and two hours after getting to the office headed back home to throw things in a bag.

Ok, great, no time to plan…gotta get to airport. Packing is both harder and easier when you don’t how how long you’ll be gone. I would leave DC on Wednesday (birthday eve) and arrive in Shanghai on Friday night, so I figured I should be home on Sunday hopefully? Ok, that’s enough to plan to pack for roughly four days away.

Off to Dulles mid-afternoon (remember, this whole plan was only hatched about five hours prior) and all the way I was searching for ways to get home. Try as I might, I wasn’t finding anything interesting. If I was going to be in China, I figured I should go all out and make it a true round-the-world and come back over the Pacific, right?

After a couple hours of searching, I found it: Tokyo Haneda to Los Angeles on ANA All Nippon Airlines in first class! Score!

Now….there was the matter of getting from Shanghai to Tokyo, but I wasn’t worried about that. There are plenty of flights and not too expensive, so that was the least important piece.

A bit more searching, and I found an Air Canada 777 with proper business class from LA to Toronto (because why fly LA to DC direct when you can connect in Toronto and get a proper product?) and with a little more searching I found a perfectly-timed Shanghai to Tokyo Haneda flight with Japan Airlines.

Now, all I needed was a ticket from Toronto to DC. That would be easy…all sorted and purchased right as I was arriving at Dulles.

Amazing what I’d pulled off in under eight hours of planning, and just in time to relax and enjoy the experience a bit. The final route would be DC – Frankfurt (9 hours) – Shanghai (30 hours) – Tokyo (3.5 hours) – LA (4.5 hours) – Toronto (2 hours) – DC.

Whew. I’m tired just typing that. I couldn’t imagine how tired I’d be in 86 hours when it was all over. Oh well, I can sleep when I’m dead. Time to enjoy the adventure!!!

All this, just for a duck….

DC to Tokyo in ANA First

2017 First Class RTW, Uncategorized 1 Response »

Feb 112017

Well, yes, but before we start, I have to acknowledge some things. Work was crazy the last week, and I was putting in 16 hour days to have any chance of pulling this trip off. At the last minute, thanks to supportive management and coworkers, I was in a place to actually consider this trip as long as I could put in a few hours each day remotely. But then, I started thinking…a trip like this isn’t easy. It’s a lot of time on planes (even in first) and it’s stressful on the body. Plus, didn’t I say I would travel less after I hit every country?

This is when I was reminded I have amazing friends. I leaned on a handful of friends pretty hard to talk through it, and ironically they all ended with the same advice: whichever decision you make, to stay or go, you won’t regret it. Just do what feels right. So, when a decision is 50-50, there’s only one way to decide… Sacajawea I stay, Tails I fly I away…

With that, I flipped it across the room at 3:30 am… (yes, I’d been torn on this decision up until the very last moment)

Tails. I go. Better hurry up and pack and get to the airport. No sleep for me tonight!

Got to DCA about 45 minutes before the flight, no wait for security, so time for a quick “breakfast” in the United Club. Check out the napkin, guess they know where I’m going:

Time to board!

United Express flight 3637, operated by Republic
Washington DC National (DCA) to Chicago, O’Hare (ORD)
Depart 6:00, Arrive 7:20, Flight Time: 2:20
Embraer ERJ-175, Registration N731YX, Manufactured 2015, Seat 2A
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 612
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,365,013

Pre-departure beverage. Anything was on offer, water was all I wanted. Gotta pace myself.

In flight snack basket. Diet Coke and Caramello Latte biscotti – not complainign, I’m addicted to these things.

Landed O’Hare a few minutes early, and having been up all night needed more caffeine. Of course, they got my name wrong again.

Made it to the United Polaris Lounge, and they now have a cooked to order menu. Veuve Cliquot and eggs benny. Life is good.

Because once you start you can’t stop, the Latin American Paper Plane cocktail. Talked to the lounge manager, and the mini paper planes that usually get clipped to the rim he orders from some lady on pinterest, and apparently she can’t make them as fast as he needs them.

Veuve and ambiance.

Hallway to the showers and washrooms – I like the “stars” on the ceiling.

Then, it was time for today’s main show. First of many, many flights in first this trip.

ANA All Nippon flight 11
Chicago, O’Hare (ORD) to Tokyo, Narita (NRT)
Depart 10:45, Arrive 15:10 next day, Flight Time: 13:25
Boeing 777-300ER, Registration JA731A, Manufactured 2004, Seat 2K
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 6,886
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,371,287

My suite for the 12+ hours to Tokyo. The only downside is that it blocks the windows, making it a little hard to look out if you’re not super tall:

Long trip, trying to minimize luggage and washing clothes, so looking excited in my ANA PJs. Super comfy!

The post-takeoff Krug has arrived

Amuse bouche of smoked salmon and scallop tartar in bouchée pie, pumpkin gnocchi with cheese sauce, risotto wrapped in roast beer, and cheese pepper bar. The roast beef was especially tasty.

Mushroom bavarois with caviar and cauliflower soup. Sad to see they cut back on on the caviar.

Beautiful presentation, however.

Salad with bacon and more Krug? Don’t mind if I do!

Fillet of beef with shallot cream, escargot sauce. Yup, I risked the beef.

A perfect medium to medium-rare. Best cooked steak I’ve ever had on a plane.

Cheese! Gorgonzola, camebert, piave vecchio with a glass of Petaluma Shiraz.

Warm hazelnut bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. It was delicious.

Post-dinner chocolates and a glass of Hibiki 21 Japanese whiskey. It was amazing….

Eventually, staying up all night the night before caught up with me, and I passed out. For eight solid hours. It was glorious.

Not five minutes later, there was hot tea waiting for me.

Snack time! But first…more Krug!

Japanese set snack. Kobachi (deep-friend scallop with grated daikon radish sauce), Shusai (Saikyo miso-grilled Spanish mackerel), steamed rice, miso soup, and Japanese pickles. She offered me Natto (fermented soybeans) and I wasn’t going to play the weak westerner so I went for it. Taste was just ok, but they were sticky and gluey, and really hard to eat!

“This is special shellfish for help digest the alcohol.” What are you saying here…

More cheese was found to finish it off….along with a glass of shiraz.

The perfect ending – vanilla and caramel ice cream and a few glasses of the Hibiki whiskey. It was amazing.

Facebook filters show just how enjoyable the Hibiki was…

Landed 10 minutes early after a suburb flight. Our gate was right next to transfer security, and right next to the ANA Suites lounges. Can’t get much better than that, after my 1000 meter dash across the same airport in December. View from the lounge:

After a shower I felt amazing, and it was time to continue the trip. ANA hit a home run in all areas pretty much, and can’t wait for the chance to fly them again. At the end of the trip, I’ll post a side-by-side comparison of all the first products.

The craziest trip I’ve ever done.

2017 First Class RTW 1 Response »

Feb 022017

First, before I start, I need to thank the best friends a guy could have. I was super torn when I started booking this trip, because as I’ve posted before I was really excited to have a few months at home with no travel to work on some things I’ve neglected these past few years of traveling. But the more I worked on the trip, the more awesome award flights I found, to the point that today it turned into the perfect trip. If I had more time (instead of 17 days) I could probably make it more epic, but as it stands I can’t think of a more amazing 17 day trip.

Thanks to all my friends who hammered it out with me, including my waffling if it was worth putting my fitness/etc goals on hold another 17 days. Conclusion reached tonight: IT IS!

So why is this trip so epic? By the numbers:

13 hours in All Nippon first class
10 hours in Thai first class, including 6+ in the A380
7 hours in Singapore Suites class, plus another 3 in Singapore first
13+ hours in Qatar first class on the A380, plus another 3 in regional first
15 hours in Emirates first class on the A380, plus another 6 in regional first
9 hours in Lufthansa first class

All told, that’s 80 hours in international first…and probably 10+ bottles of Dom/Krug/other super fancy champagne consumed.

That doesn’t even count the lounges:

ANA Suites lounge at Tokyo (nothing too fancy)
Thai First lounge at Bangkok (details on booking the spa? I’ve never had time before)
Singapore First lounge in Hong Kong (details? from what I remember it’s nothing special)
Singapore Private Room in Singapore (12 hour connection – I’ll probably go into the city for 6 of it)
Qantas First lounge in Sydney (first time – advice?)
Qatar First lounge in Doha (recommendations? what are the current bubbles on offer?)
Emirates First lounge in Dubai (first time – advice?)
Lufthansa First lounge in Munich (brand new – looking forward to checking it out)

Oh, and if that’s not enough, time in my favourite cities:

Bangkok: 24 hours overnight – was just there 7 weeks ago, so that’s enough
Hong Kong: 48 hours – tempted to go to Macao for a night, hear it’s changed a ton in the last 12 yrs
Sydney: 72 hours – one of my favourite cities in the world. I plan to just relax, drink lots of coffee, and chill
Johannesburg: 2×24 hrs – just lots of hanging out – try and meet up with some friends
Cape Town: 48 hrs – coffee, hike Table Mountain, lots of walking
Dubai: 24 hrs, hoping to see friends
Paris: 24 hrs: if I don’t walk 20+ miles it’ll be surprising.

So yeah, it’s insane, it’s epic, and I absolutely cannot wait! Over 44,000 miles, with nearly 40,000 of them in “real” international First. None of this United or American, or Saudia stuff. Please…I’ve been to all these places before, but definitely not all the lounges. I’d love to hear your recommendations!

Buckle your seatbelts, it’s hardly a week away!

Washington Dulles to Tokyo in ANA First, and ANA First Lounge, Tokyo

Airports, Japan, South Pacific Tour 2014 1 Response »

Oct 242014

So, finally the big day was here. Rainy day in Washington, and grabbed the new-ish Silver Line metro out to Dulles. Check-in was smooth, with 14 agents (I counted) and no lines yet. Agents had a bit of trouble figuring out how to tag my bag all the way to Bali (since it was different tickets) but soon had it sorted and I was on my way to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge.

I decided to do a few laps of the A and B terminal first to get a little bit of walking in, but was soon seated with a glass of bubbly and a little breakfast:

booking the South Pacific

Flights, South Pacific Tour 2014 4 Responses »

Aug 052014

This is, without a doubt, the most complicated trip I’ve ever planned.

First, I thought Iran was bad…because it took me two tries to get to Kish Island, and showing up at a local office in Dubai with a wad of cash to buy tickets for the next day. There was no info on Kish Air anywhere on the internet, and it wasn’t even all that clear if they really operate the flight that often…but once we’d bought the tickets the plane showed up more or less on time, got us there and back, and was relatively drama free.

Then, there was Somalia. Of course, I made this one harder, entering from Kenya and going out to Djibouti. Daallo Airlines from Somalia to Djibouti actually took my reservation at a call centre in the US, and made the booking, and after faxing back and forth about 20 times with copies of credit cards, etc, it was all taken care of. Now, getting there on African Airways Express from Nairobi was more interesting…they assured me via e-mail that they had an office at the airport, and I could just show up with a few hundred US$ in new notes, and they would take me. Eventually, right after landing in Nairobi, found the office where I sat and had tea with a guy as he hand-wrote the tickets in carbon copy.

This was all a piece of cake compared to the south pacific…and I haven’t even started this trip yet, where I’m sure a million things will go wrong. Why is it complicated? Tuvalu, for example, has two flights a week…and they often are canceled, or don’t show up, or have twice as many people booked as they can carry. So, fitting all the flights between these countries was a giant complex jigsaw puzzle on its own that took months to plan. Just when I had it planned, one of them would change their flights. For example, Nauru has one airline, appropriately called “Our Airline.” Well, it was until yesterday, it’s now called Nauru Airlines. I’ve been in touch with a very friendly lady in Brisbane, Australia who is their “reservations supervisor” and she’s been answering a million questions.

You see, Nauru has all of 6,000 people. In the entire country. The airline has one plane. So it’s unclear if I’ll really get there when I expect to or not, but at least I finally have tickets.

Last reason this trip has been crazy difficult – it’s expensive. Extremely expensive. See, when you only have two flights a week you can get away with charging $1,000 as a discount fare for a 2 hour flight months in advance. Ugh. I’m also trying to do nine new countries this trip, to finish up those I have left in the Pacific. I’ll be using Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji as hubs, since that’s pretty much the only way to get to many of these countries.

If all goes well, I will be visiting the following new countries:

Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, and Tuvalu

I’ll also be visiting one new territory: American Samoa, with the cool city name of Pago Pago.

Speaking of fun names, I’m kind of excited for Tuvalu, because not only does its capital have a cool name of Funafuti (almost as cool as Ouagadougu, Burkina Faso), but it has the great airport code of FUN!

I’ll also be spending nights in Singapore, Bali, Darwin, Brisbane, Auckland, Tokyo, Seoul, and Frankfurt.

Tired yet? This will all take place in the span of 32 days. I’m sure things will get moved around. I’m sure I’ll end up likely paying several hundred dollars in change fees, but this promises to be a grand adventure.

What’s there to do in most of these island countries? From what I understand, not much. If all goes well, I plan to Scuba in Timor Leste, Solomon Islands (home of amazing World War II wreck dives), Tonga, and Samoa. Maybe Brisbane as well, but I’m thinking it might be a bit cold in late October. We will see. Other than that, at least off the islands, I’ll have plenty of time to have fun and relax in Brisbane and Auckland, and who really can complain about a forced overnight in Bali? Not me.

So, other than the new countries, this trip was prompted by the desire to use and maximize United miles before they were devalued. On the outbound, I managed to get Washington to Tokyo on ANA in first class, followed by Tokyo to Singapore on United in First. Not bad, and super excited to try ANA first!

Returning, I fly Auckland to Tokyo on Air New Zealand in business class on the 787, overnight in Tokyo, continue to Seoul on an Asiana 747 in business class, overnight, Seoul to Frankfurt on Asiana in first class, overnight in Frankfurt, and finally Frankfurt to DC in United first, which if I’m lucky I might get to change to Lufthansa first closer in. Quite a great value for the miles, and excited for the overnights in Tokyo, Seoul, and Frankfurt!

All total, this should take 29 flights and over 46,000 miles:

It’s finally all booked, about 11 weeks before I leave, so let’s pray there’s not too many schedule changes! One of the most amazing parts is that I only need one visa for this trip – for Nauru – and it’s visa upon arrival so I’m set there as well!

Oh, and for a final bit of insanity…I return on the Sunday before Thanksgiving to Washington and Wednesday night three days later? I’m off to Israel and Palestine for five days…assuming the stop firing rockets and such at each other before then. So in reality, the map should be:

Yes, over 58,000 miles in just over 5 weeks. I might be insane. But by the time this is over, I will have hit country #159 (Andorra) in late August, 9 countries of the South Pacific (#160-#168) in early November, and Israel and Palestine late-November bringing me to 170 countries with 26 to go!