GREETINGS FROM SYDNEY,(Airport), Australia
Almost 12 months to the day from our last trip and we are heading off on our next USA adventure !
As we did on our last trip, we decided to spend “the night before” at the Airport Rydges Hotel. It avoids battling with the traffic on the M5 on the morning of our trip and gives us a chance to sit with a quiet drink and soak in the excitement of the culmination of many, many months (or years !) of planning. And our chauffeur, Liam, doesn’t have to be up early !
AND, probably more importantly this time, Adrienne was going to eek out every possible minute of our Qantas First Class “experience”. For those not aware, and there wouldn’t be many Adrienne hasn’t told / reminded at some stage, for this trip we decided to blow all our accumulated Qantas Frequent Flyer (QFF) points on the best seats possible for our long, direct flight to Dallas, TX.
But it was quite an exercise to snag a couple of the limited number of these seats released per flight ….
First, Adrienne spent around 6 months keeping a spreadsheet of the type of seats issued by QFF when they made their “initial” release of seats for a flight – 353 days in advance of the actual flight date ! She had various possible flight options marked out – SYD/LAX, SYD/DFW, SYD/BRI/LAX, SYD/MEL/LAX etc (and return) – then marked down whether First, Business or Premium QFF seats were available on that flight, as the flights were released. Then, after a while she was able to see from her spreadsheet that a pattern emerged – in our case that “Frequent Flyer” First Class seats were generally available on flights to Dallas on a Wednesday flight, when they were first released.
Having worked out what was likely to be made available, it was then a matter of being ready at the computer on the day of release – at 10.00am Brisbane time, 353 days before the day we actually wanted to travel – to snap up the seats the moment they were released and book them online. But we had one slight complication – back in 2015 – 353 days before the day we wanted to travel in 2016 – we were actually in a car travelling between Bozeman and Red Lodge in Montana USA on our last holiday ! Luckily 10.00am Brisbane time is 6.00pm Montana time and we had reached our destination in Red Lodge and made sure the wifi connection was working well. And all the planning paid off as we were able to book 2 First Class tickets for this trip with our QFF points for the flight from Sydney to Dallas !
For the return trip booking 4 weeks later, we were back at home in Sydney. So at 10.00am Brisbane time Adrienne was again at her computer ready to grab seats for the return flight. We didn’t have quite enough Frequent Flyer points for First Class again so we are “slumming it” in Business Class on the way home !
And so after all that effort, we are getting our money’s worth (well, points worth anyway !) and taking in all that it has to offer – being greeted at the “private” dedicated First Class check-in counter, Adrienne is currently having a treatment at the Day Spa – we had our Neil Perry “Signature” breakfast and I am now watching the aircraft comings and goings from recliner chairs ! If it hasn’t started already, you will probably get a “blow by blow” account on Adrienne’s Facebook page !
The
theory, according to Adrienne, is that we will arrive in the USA rested and refreshed having had all the comforts of First Class travel instead of listening to crying babies all the way to the USA in Economy.
Well…. we will see. On our only other “First Class fling” – when I won a trip to Hong Kong many years ago – the night trip home was the bumpiest flight we have ever had. We might just as well have been in the cargo hold as First Class and we didn’t arrive home “rested and refreshed” from that experience. Fingers crossed I can give a glowing report in my next post !
Well, time to go ….. champagne, sorry, boarding calling ! And we have a tour to get started !