Saturday, October 27, 2007

ARRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!

So my chase of frequent flyer membership has come back and bit me on the arse. I delayed booking the flight from San Jose to Vegas for the Jacky Cheung concerts for about 2 days so I could get my Thai Airlines membership and now US Airways has sold out of all tickets...ARRRGH, instead I'm paying about 50 bucks more for southwest airlines.

oh the irony of life. I should have realised something when Orbitz was telling me there was only 1 ticket left for the flight I wanted. I didn't know that many people wanted to go to Vegas from San Jose. But anyhoo, it's booked. Oh shit I realised now it's hella cheaper and probably easier from Oakland Airport - CURSE my STUPIDITY. *fingers crossed I can cancel the booking and rebook*

ARRGh and now their system is down...*WOE*

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PHEW!!! all done now, US$175 - wooohoo, hopefully i get the refund back.

Date Flight Routing Details
Sat Dec 22 500 Depart Oakland(OAK) at 12:45 PM
Arrive in Las Vegas(LAS) at 02:10 PM
Mon Dec 24 936 Depart Las Vegas(LAS) at 11:05 AM
Arrive in Oakland(OAK) at 12:35 PM

Friday, October 26, 2007

Frequent Flyers

I just enrolled with Thai Airlines Royal Orchid Plus frequent flyers. The card I'm meant to print out with my membership number looks very very dodgy, I'd be quite embarrassed to actually present it at flight check in or something.

But looking at points awards etc, Royal Orchid seems to be the best one in the region. And the real good thing is I don't have to pay a membership fee like Air New Zealand or Qantas. Whether it'll actually help me obtain flights at another date is another thing altogether. I think the most I'll get out of it is probably a return flight from Bangkok to Shanghai.

I was looking at discount Asian flights today and bloody hell some legs are really really cheap. Like Singapore to Shenzhen for 32 singapore dollars, which is like $25 bucks. And Darwin to Singapore is only around $40. But then you look up prices from Sydney to Darwin or Melbourne to Singapore, the prices jump way into the hundreds. If the government would just deregulate the airline industry in Australia and open it up completely to the Asian airlines, travel in this country would be great. (Okay I take most of this back since I just checked the airfares WITH TAXES, and $40 jumps to $200...FER CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!)

But so far Qantas is allowed to hold it's monopoly on the big cities and really the Macquarie Bank takeover of Sydney airport has really pushed up costs, I mean Sydney has one of the highest airport taxes in the world, but it's still a shit airport with the only good thing going for it is that it's really close to the city compared to most other international airports.

Supposedly Singapore Airlines was knocked back by the government on the trans-pacific route as to preserve the duopoly between Qantas and United. Sheesh, can you imagine having the comfort of Singapore Airlines on the 14hr flight to LA? HEAVEN. Instead I'll have to endure crappy ancient United with projection screens.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Panto in Birmingham

On a whim today I decided to check out the seats for the Aladdin Pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome starring our favourite Captain Jack. I'm glad I did because it was pretty much sold out bar the cheapest tickets. So I acted quick and bought the 2 closest tickets to the stage which were left. The coloured boxes are the only tix left for the stalls and the situation in the Circle is not much better. Phew thank heavens I was procrastinating again.

They're not to bad but not the greatest either. Now all I have to do is book the trains to get there.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Things which still need to be booked...

Hotels/hostels
Las Vegas
Stratford-upon-Avon
Munich
Fuessen
Salzburg
Vienna
Berlin


Flights
Oakland<-> Las Vegas
Vienna -> Berlin
Berlin -> Munich


Trains
Megan and I have given up trying to make the UK train booking system work. Therefore we shall wing all once we land at Gatwick *fingers crossed* the prices don't go up by that much.

London -> Cardiff
Cardiff -> Birmingham
Birmingham -> Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford -> Heathrow

Things To Do...

List of important things to be done before I leave (I'll keep adding):

  • Finish all assignments including practice file, copyright essay and script
  • Study for and pass (try to anyway) evidence and remedies exams
  • Get my green Ps
  • Fill out my tax return
  • Get a 1 entry visa to China
  • Buy a suitcase
  • Buy accessories for trip, winter jacket etc (i'll buy in the US)
  • Get atm/keycards/cash situation sorted out (Would be helpful eh?)
  • Save as much money as possible (HA, very unlikely)
  • Have a sister Act marathon
  • Go karaokeing
  • Finalise thesis topic and start researching under the pretence that I will actually do reading on copyright whilst in a plane or train...AHAHAHAHA as if!
  • Buy presents for Aunt + cousins in the US

TRIP ITINERARY

So far the trip goes like this:
1st December 2007 - Fly from Sydney to LA with Megan + her family
14th Dec - Fly from LA to San Jose
16th Dec - Somehow get to Fremont (Aunt's place) from San Jose
22nd Dec - Fly to Las Vegas for 2 Jacky Cheung Concerts (I still can't believe I'm doing this leg, not even 3 days and it's going to cost me around 1K, oh well he's worth it)
24th Dec - Fly back to San Jose/Fremont - spend Christmas with Aunt + family
26th Dec - Fly to New York
28th Dec - Meet up with Megan + Family in New York

6th January 2008 - Fly with Megan to London.
7th Jan - Arrive in London
11th Jan - Take train to Cardiff
12th Jan - Take train to Birmingham - See John Barrowman in Panto...in Birmingham of all places, possibly almost as whack as me flying solo to Vegas. Oh the life of a fan.
13th Jan - Megan leaves for France (bye Megan, won't see you for an entire year *sniff*). I take the train to Stratford-upon-Avon.
14th Jan - Henry V at the RSC - O, for a muse of fire!
15th Jan - Take the longest journey ever from Stratford-Upon-Avon to London Heathrow, then fly off to Munich
20st Jan- Train to Fuessen
21nd Jan - Fairytale Castles
22rd Jan - Train back to Munich then on to Salzburg
25th Jan - Train to Vienna
30st Jan - Fly to Berlin

5th February 2008 - Fly from Berlin back to Munich then fly to Shanghai for Chinese New Year with family
15th Feb - Fly from Shanghai via Seoul Incheon back to Sydney.

A solid 2.5 months away. I don't know how homesick I'll get. The longest I've ever been away was for 3 weeks. It's going to be very very interesting. More planning on specific legs to come.