Hi all, me again. I'm a very happy little vegemite as I have been able to secure us a full itinerary for our honeymoon next year! With a few hiccups and one not-so-ideal layover, I'd say we've got a pretty good plan.
I would like to say that I found it interesting that the first time I called to make a change to my booking I had to speak to 7 people before I was able to get my change actioned (with some of them hanging up on me and/or transferring me around - I was finally able to get onto the 'premium' line who were able to help me). The second attempt (where I wanted to add 6 flights...) I only had to speak to 2 people, the second of whom was a lovely lady in Fiji who was incredibly helpful and stayed on the line with me for an hour and a half to get me booked in. Finally I had one last flight I needed to add to get us home and was reticent to call today even though the flights were available as it's my birthday (and who wants to wrestle with Qantas on their birthday?!). But a birthday miracle occurred and I got it in 1 call!
Also when I added the 6 flights in the second change, I wasn't ticketed for ~3 days which worried me. I sent an email to the new rewards escalation team after 24 hours, from whom I received an auto reply straight away. When I still hadn't heard anything after 48 hours I called Qantas again (and somehow managed to get the same very helpful lady who assisted with my booking 2 days before) who told me she had included some special booking reference number in my booking? So that it didn't get auto-cancelled? Not sure about that one, but by midday the next day I'd had a response from the rewards escalation email to say they were ticketing my booking and I received the tickets within the hour.
Now just to wait on the final tickets from the change I made today - but from my last experience I'm very hopeful it all goes smoothly!
Anyway, here is our itinerary in case anyone is interested (also I just want to tell someone as I'm so excited!!!):
MEL-NRT/HND-JFK (U - JAL) <--- Stop. this is the most annoying flight as we have a coughpy layover in Tokyo where we fly into NRT and then 12 hours later fly out of HND. But I'm just happy to have the flights
JFK-MIA (AA) <--- Stop. the only flight we got that's in economy. Surface segment from MIA to MCO.
MCO-AUS (U - AA) <---- Transit. We are transiting AUS for just under 24 hours which is perfect!
AUS-DFW-LAS (U - AA) <--- Stop. Plan is to get ourselves from LAS to SFO and then to LAX. Not sure how yet, maybe drive or maybe fly.
LAX-KIX (U - JAL) <--- Stop. Explore Japan! Surface segment to HND.
HND-SIN (U - JAL) <---- Stop. Final stop in Singapore before coming home.
SIN-SYD (U - BA) <--- Home. Get ourselves from SYD back to MEL.
Thanks everyone!