drron
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2002
- Posts
- 35,953
Yes indeed there is such a place where nearly everyone loves Ron.Cuba!
But of course Ron is just their name for rum.
So Sunday and we are off on our next adventure.Once again a circle Asia fare with tacked on award and paid flights.Our route-
BNE-NRT-ORD-MCO-MIA-NAS.
Then cruising for a month ending up in GYE after nearly circumnavigating Cuba and transiting the Panama Canal.To follow
GYE-MIA-DFW-LAX-NRT-HKG-BKK-SYD-BNE.
This trip started off in Greenland in August 2013 when cruising on the Silverseas Explorer.The fellow in charge of their Expedition ships told me of their acquisition of their next ship-the Discoverer-and about this cruise to Cuba.I duly posted this on my TR and the next day taken aside by the 2IC and asked where I got that information from!Now the cruise has never been advertised.We kept in touch and found out that this cruise had been sold off to 3 tour companies one being Captain's Choice.There were a few suites kept for regulars and we snapped one up.
The next part was deciding what we wanted to do before and after.Pretty easy.The quickest way to Nassau and back from GYE is via the US so a few days there before and after with a few days in Japan and Bangkok on the way home.I then had to wait a year to be able to book our airfares.
The plan was for F awards to and from the US and hopefully a J award from GYE-DFW.Unfortunately a fellow called Doug Parker spiked our plans.We have been very happy with our F awards on AA usually NRT-DFW-NRT.Always a DFW based crew and 5 times we have had the same purser.We were nearly part of the family and had exceptional service.But in April 2014 AA milesAAver awards in international premium cabins basically disappeared and now only appear very occasionally.No matter with all the info available on AFF I joined JAL's mileagebank and kept an eye on JL F award availability.For 2 awards on the same flight there was usually good availability on their ORD and LAX flights.Minor hiccup when AA couldn't see all the availability and both to and from the US had to change my dates by a day each way.Partner airline awards are at the sAAver rate-62500 miles and ~ $US5 in"taxes".
The real problem was flying back from GYE.No sAAver awards ever appeared in J.The Anytime awards were ~ 200000 miles so basically more expensive than purchasing the flights.I hung on untill the flights 1-2 weeks before our required date started to rise in price then purchased the tickets.I also purchased ORD-MCO-MIA-NAS as they were really cheap in F and mrsdrron needs a few SCs to once again remain WP.
Next I will flesh out a few of the details of those necessary breaks between flights.
But of course Ron is just their name for rum.
So Sunday and we are off on our next adventure.Once again a circle Asia fare with tacked on award and paid flights.Our route-
BNE-NRT-ORD-MCO-MIA-NAS.
Then cruising for a month ending up in GYE after nearly circumnavigating Cuba and transiting the Panama Canal.To follow
GYE-MIA-DFW-LAX-NRT-HKG-BKK-SYD-BNE.
This trip started off in Greenland in August 2013 when cruising on the Silverseas Explorer.The fellow in charge of their Expedition ships told me of their acquisition of their next ship-the Discoverer-and about this cruise to Cuba.I duly posted this on my TR and the next day taken aside by the 2IC and asked where I got that information from!Now the cruise has never been advertised.We kept in touch and found out that this cruise had been sold off to 3 tour companies one being Captain's Choice.There were a few suites kept for regulars and we snapped one up.
The next part was deciding what we wanted to do before and after.Pretty easy.The quickest way to Nassau and back from GYE is via the US so a few days there before and after with a few days in Japan and Bangkok on the way home.I then had to wait a year to be able to book our airfares.
The plan was for F awards to and from the US and hopefully a J award from GYE-DFW.Unfortunately a fellow called Doug Parker spiked our plans.We have been very happy with our F awards on AA usually NRT-DFW-NRT.Always a DFW based crew and 5 times we have had the same purser.We were nearly part of the family and had exceptional service.But in April 2014 AA milesAAver awards in international premium cabins basically disappeared and now only appear very occasionally.No matter with all the info available on AFF I joined JAL's mileagebank and kept an eye on JL F award availability.For 2 awards on the same flight there was usually good availability on their ORD and LAX flights.Minor hiccup when AA couldn't see all the availability and both to and from the US had to change my dates by a day each way.Partner airline awards are at the sAAver rate-62500 miles and ~ $US5 in"taxes".
The real problem was flying back from GYE.No sAAver awards ever appeared in J.The Anytime awards were ~ 200000 miles so basically more expensive than purchasing the flights.I hung on untill the flights 1-2 weeks before our required date started to rise in price then purchased the tickets.I also purchased ORD-MCO-MIA-NAS as they were really cheap in F and mrsdrron needs a few SCs to once again remain WP.
Next I will flesh out a few of the details of those necessary breaks between flights.
