Planning a surprise holiday for your other half - have you done it?

[Anastascia]

Hello AFF. I am planning a holiday for my boyfriend and me but trying to keep the arrangements and destination a surprise for him. Has anyone else done this and how did it work out? Any tips? He knows we are going on holidays but doesn't know where.

I am in the early stages of planning but so far I have booked us business class on SQ to Lombok with an overnight stop in Singapore. We will then stay in Lombok for six nights before flying to Bali for 6 nights in Ubud. He loves Ubud so I have lots of things in mind to book in for him which I know he will really enjoy.

I was going to try and hold out on telling him the plans until we head back to Changi airport for our flight to Lombok so wondering if we will be able to clear customs in Sydney without him knowing the end destination? He will know by then that we are obviously flying to Singapore but I was hoping to have him sign the form and then I will fill in the destination question. Workable? Also, with check in, I will see if the SQ agent can just hand him the Syd-Sin boarding pass and I will take the Sin-Lop boarding pass.

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to hear other stories about secret holiday plans and how it worked out.

 

[eric2011]

Deception...verging on dishonest....I love the way you work. Good luck

 

[Anastascia]

But I have a willing participant Eric! My BF is intrigued and loves the idea of the surprise.

 

[medhead]

You should be able to get them to give you all BPs, with him standing nearby.

 

[mooingchicken]

I wouldnt see an issue, just tell him to go away after he does the passport thing. and departure card, just fill his out like you suggested.

Pretty good plan!

 

[eric2011]

But I have a willing participant Eric! My BF is intrigued and loves the idea of the surprise.

Like I said, I love what you are doing

 

[harvyk]

I tried, but the Mrs cottoned on pretty quickly.

 

[eric2011]

I tried, but the Mrs cottoned on pretty quickly.

They seem to have a 6th sense whenever we try to do something sneaky.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'd suggest conspicuously going through your winter wardrobe; maybe taking items out and frowning. When he asks "What are you doing?" put the stuff back quickly and say "Oh, nothing!"

 

[sjd]

Once when we were in London, I began plotting a surprise trip to Paris. Within five minutes SWMBO turned to me and said, "Why don't we go to Paris this weekend?". Since then I have given up on surprises, she knows me too well and does not really like them, but best of luck with yours.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I tried, but the Mrs cottoned on pretty quickly.

They seem to have a 6th sense whenever we try to do something sneaky.

Ahh got to love womens' intuition - you know, when a woman knows for sure without knowing for certain.

Somebody's spouse found out when they were checking their frequent flyer account & the "surprise" showed up as an upcoming trip.

 

[LadyC]

The gentleman tried this recently for my birthday. I worked out what he was doing when he tried to casually ask me if Silk Air were any good (note i am the FF fiend and plan all our holidays).

Seeing as your boyfriend enjoys the game and knows it is a surprise, you can probably keep it a secret but still be open with the check in agent eg "the final destination is a surprise so can you not mention it".

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Seeing as your boyfriend enjoys the game and knows it is a surprise, you can probably keep it a secret but still be open with the check in agent eg "the final destination is a surprise so can you not mention it".

Right at the beginning of the conversation is the best time so as to avoid the CSA saying "you're off to SYD and then on to HNL" only to be told then it's a surprise after you've dropped the pineapple so to speak.

 

[Alanslegal]

Good luck trying to keep it underwraps though, it is a mission in itself and requires lots of good timing and good luck because there are so many stops along the way that could identify where you are going (like check in, leaving immigration, on board the plane, at SIN immigration exiting, at SIN immigration inbound).

I have tried to plan something secret but as OBB have suggested, my +1 have received an email (or showing on her FF account) showing her of flights that I have booked for us that was suppose to be secret

 

[deejo77]

Tried this twice

First time checking was great but the lounge lady blew it before I could prewarn.

Second time they didn't care where they were going so I just made them stand to the side - I did all the paperwork.

Good luck - I wish someone would do this to me but I am a little bit of a control freak

 

[Denali]

Closest Ive come is a surprise long haul upgrade to J.

Otherwise, other than actual destination, every trip is a surprise for my husband because hes clueless to the actual itinerary and logistics.

 

[Mattg]

I hope there's no chance your boyfriend reads AFF?

This could work in theory, and indeed it would be a very nice surprise. But there are so many ways to spoil the surprise! Make sure you don't put his FF number on the ticket until check-in, otherwise he'll see the flights listed as an upcoming booking.

I once knew a guy who took his girlfriend to Europe and tried to keep every destination a secret. At some point, he inadvertently gave away just about every destination.

Not quite the same, but I once booked my brother a surprise trip to AKL. I specially chose the Emirates A380 flight from SYD-AKL for him. I gave him the tickets about a week beforehand, and his first response was that he wasn't happy about being on such an early flight! Then again, my brother does complain about a lot of things...

Good luck and I'm sure you'll have a blast!

 

[doctau]

I've never booked a major trip (International flights) without telling mrsdoctau, however about 6 months after we started going out when she was 22 her parents booked a "last family trip" to Malaysia and neglected to tell her they had invited me too.

I do have one surprise for her though, she knows we're going on a trip next year booked on SQ with points from the credit card. I've "accidentally" forgotten to tell her it is in F rather than Y - I'll see if she realises when we line up for checking not in the economy queue

 

[Shelf]

I planned my honeymoon without SWMBO finding out, ADL-KUL-LGK. I told her when we reached the airport.

 

[JohnK]

My fiancee is always surprised by the things I do but doesn't always like the surprise.

You win some you lose some....