jukebox333
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2011
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- 697
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I'm Dreaming of a White (-20C) Christmas: PER-SIN-HELx-RVN-HELx-PEKx-HKG-PER
Around 18 months ago there was talk that QF would sell up it's FF program. Having been burned to the tune of 350,000 points when Ansett collapsed, I was determined not to lose out a second time. Through the wisdom of the senior members here on AFF, I had accumulated over 600,000 points through smart spending and bonus programs, and had my eye on a pair of OneWorld RTW J seats for Mrs Jukebox and myself. (living in Perth, I have not had the opportunity to gain status - 90% of my points are spend based.
Now trotting off around the world for four weeks is fine in theory - but what do you do with the rugrats? Living with 12,9 and 5 year olds, you forget what a handful they are. Mrs Jukebox pointed out that even her youthful parents could not cope with our three kids for four weeks - there would be blood spilt. So the 2x J tix idea was shelved. Instead, "...I want the kids to have a White Christmas.." was presented. Well, yes, I agreed that was a nice idea - but if we have a White Christmas, I want it to be somewhere we might see the Northern Lights was my counter. So, it was literally off to the OneWorld route map to see where we could go.
Norway (Tromso) is apparently one of the best places for Aurora spotting. Finland is up there, as is Alaska. But as I researched, I found that I'd have to pay extra for the flights Oslo to Tromso (x5), and availability of FF seats to Alaska was almost zero. So Finland it would be. A little work on Tripadvisor turned up Levi, a ski resort in Lapland with lots of kid friendly things to do, and an airport 15km away at Kittila. KTT wasn't on the QF web based planning tool, but when I called the QFF service desk, I was told that yes, I could book seats through to KTT by calling them.
So in November 2011, I was watching the availability like a hawk. My first hurdle was that QF stopped making FF seats available PER-SIN from the 10th Dec 2012. I could dummy book BNE-SIN, SYD-SIN, but PER-SIN was blacked out. The obvious answer: start the FF flight from SIN, and buy one way tix PER-SIN. WRONG! Here, my first AFF lesson came into play: It was cheaper for me to buy a return SIN-PER-SIN QF ticket with a 19 December return date than a one way PER-SIN ticket!!! "..Honey, how would you like a weekend in Singapore in June?" So, when it came time to book my FF flights, my outbound leg started on 1st June PER-SIN, but the next leg was not till 21 Dec SIN-HELx-onwards.
I could not book any flights till the final leg HKG-PER opened early in 2012. I watched the calendar, and it turns out that CX opens up their flights about a week earlier than QF (360 days, I think). The morning the CX flights were released, I got onto the QFF call centre, and disaster struck: the Finnair flights HEL-KTT that had seven FF seats free on the Friday, had just two on the Monday, and none on the day out that I needed. The girl at the call centre was great - she worked away trying to find 5 seats in a combination I could use, at the same time I was online checking the flights to Rovaneimi, 200km south of Kittila. I could see 5 seats at the time I needed, so I thanked the girl on the phone and explained I'd book online.
I was able to snare 5 FF Y seats PER-SIN (QF)-HELx-RVN-HELx-PEKx (AY)-HKG-PER (CX) for 650,000 points plus taxes, in high season. The routing from HEL to HKG could have been done a number of ways, but I was trying to break the legs up a bit, as the 5 year old is a good traveller, but she still gets bored, and a change of planes helps keep their minds turning over.
So in late January 2012, I had the air portion sorted. Next up, the accommodation, ground transport, and activities.
Around 18 months ago there was talk that QF would sell up it's FF program. Having been burned to the tune of 350,000 points when Ansett collapsed, I was determined not to lose out a second time. Through the wisdom of the senior members here on AFF, I had accumulated over 600,000 points through smart spending and bonus programs, and had my eye on a pair of OneWorld RTW J seats for Mrs Jukebox and myself. (living in Perth, I have not had the opportunity to gain status - 90% of my points are spend based.
Now trotting off around the world for four weeks is fine in theory - but what do you do with the rugrats? Living with 12,9 and 5 year olds, you forget what a handful they are. Mrs Jukebox pointed out that even her youthful parents could not cope with our three kids for four weeks - there would be blood spilt. So the 2x J tix idea was shelved. Instead, "...I want the kids to have a White Christmas.." was presented. Well, yes, I agreed that was a nice idea - but if we have a White Christmas, I want it to be somewhere we might see the Northern Lights was my counter. So, it was literally off to the OneWorld route map to see where we could go.
Norway (Tromso) is apparently one of the best places for Aurora spotting. Finland is up there, as is Alaska. But as I researched, I found that I'd have to pay extra for the flights Oslo to Tromso (x5), and availability of FF seats to Alaska was almost zero. So Finland it would be. A little work on Tripadvisor turned up Levi, a ski resort in Lapland with lots of kid friendly things to do, and an airport 15km away at Kittila. KTT wasn't on the QF web based planning tool, but when I called the QFF service desk, I was told that yes, I could book seats through to KTT by calling them.
So in November 2011, I was watching the availability like a hawk. My first hurdle was that QF stopped making FF seats available PER-SIN from the 10th Dec 2012. I could dummy book BNE-SIN, SYD-SIN, but PER-SIN was blacked out. The obvious answer: start the FF flight from SIN, and buy one way tix PER-SIN. WRONG! Here, my first AFF lesson came into play: It was cheaper for me to buy a return SIN-PER-SIN QF ticket with a 19 December return date than a one way PER-SIN ticket!!! "..Honey, how would you like a weekend in Singapore in June?" So, when it came time to book my FF flights, my outbound leg started on 1st June PER-SIN, but the next leg was not till 21 Dec SIN-HELx-onwards.
I could not book any flights till the final leg HKG-PER opened early in 2012. I watched the calendar, and it turns out that CX opens up their flights about a week earlier than QF (360 days, I think). The morning the CX flights were released, I got onto the QFF call centre, and disaster struck: the Finnair flights HEL-KTT that had seven FF seats free on the Friday, had just two on the Monday, and none on the day out that I needed. The girl at the call centre was great - she worked away trying to find 5 seats in a combination I could use, at the same time I was online checking the flights to Rovaneimi, 200km south of Kittila. I could see 5 seats at the time I needed, so I thanked the girl on the phone and explained I'd book online.
I was able to snare 5 FF Y seats PER-SIN (QF)-HELx-RVN-HELx-PEKx (AY)-HKG-PER (CX) for 650,000 points plus taxes, in high season. The routing from HEL to HKG could have been done a number of ways, but I was trying to break the legs up a bit, as the 5 year old is a good traveller, but she still gets bored, and a change of planes helps keep their minds turning over.
So in late January 2012, I had the air portion sorted. Next up, the accommodation, ground transport, and activities.
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