More detailed planning

 

As I explained in yesterday's post, the planning for this holiday began in 2017, so has taken quite a while. But even the more imminent planning began almost a year ago.

Last year on our return from our Europe Trip at the end of August, I began to look at some of the detailed options for this year's holiday and realised that flights and flight routing was going to be central to the holiday planning.

Trailfinders

Back in 2019, when I planned my last holiday with a lot of flights (London to San Francisco, San Francisco to Kauai, Kauaʻi to Oʻahu, Oʻahu to Alaska, then back to San Francisco and on to London). I found the staff at Trailfinders, Cardiff really helpful. In fact before I'd met with them I'd not even thought of doing more than one of the Hawai'i islands. Informed by this I decided to start by meeting them with my /our draft ideas and seeing how they panned out, I went to Trailfinders on the 28th of September (yes 342 days ago, it has been a long wait) and met with one of the representatives, Hannah Jones. 

Hannah was the height of helpfulness and provided great ideas to improve and challenge my suggestions. While I like doing most of my holiday planning myself, when things get complicated it is great to have a competent advisor supporting you.

One of the first things to be discounted was the idea of travelling on from Australia to the USA - which I'd done on my previous visit to Sydney. The airlines which fly that route have prohibitively high pricing as US airports restrict the number of non-American flights in and out in a day. Hannah, knowing that I quite fancied the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services  (QANTAS to you and me, a big congratulations to those who knew the original name, something I only discovered when a friend told me on Monday, thanks Jordan!) route from London to Perth started looking at options that took that route. 

London to Perth

It was only in 2018 that it became possible to fly non-stop from the UK to Australia. QANTAS launched their non-stop route in March of that year. It is a 14,498km (9009 mile) flight. Taking such an extraordinary long flight appealed to me - it is often the unusual, even challenging, experiences that make a holiday so special. I hope I'm not regretting this decision on Saturday afternoon when we arrive in Perth!

Where to stop on the way back

Having pencilled in the flight out Hannah began to look at alternatives for the way back. Once flying east was discounted - avoiding the USA, I didn't think a stop over in Argentina or Chile was what I was looking for - we looked at westerly routes for returning from Sydney to London. The obvious options: Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong were all places I had visited before. Hannah suggested Tokyo (東京) as an alternative and as I've never visited Japan and had seen some friends (Lloyd and Chrissi) visit there recently (June), it sounded very appealing. So, we pencilled it in until I'd gone home and talked through the possibilities with Drew - he agreed.

Qantas - Emirates 

Hannah went on to explain that Qantas and Emirates do a code share agreement, so that booking the Perth flight, which is only available from Qantas, meant it would be most cost-effective to book the rest of the journeys with one of these two partners.  

A week later, when I'd discussed it all with Drew the arrangements were made and we are flying thus: 

Accommodation

   

As I'd discovered with the 2019 trip, to get Travel Agent rates for flights (cheaper than those you can book yourself), you have to have at least one accommodation booked in each country and one additional service. 

My brother had long convinced me that if we had a chance we should visit K'gari - formally Frasier Island (more about why nearer the time we are there) and we only needed one hotel in Tokyo, so arranged for Trailfinders to book these for us. 

By the 4th of October last year, I'd got back to Trailfinders and confirmed the flights, the two accommodations and the Car Rental for the travelling part of the Australian trip. So, the Trailfinders ViewTrail app was updated then

It has also been sending me lovely reminders on my phone at regular intervals. Today it says:

as it is counting down to the first flight, whereas I of course think the holiday starts when I leave the house tomorrow on my way to Heathrow. 

Lonely Plant - Australia

In these days when most, in fact I think all, the bookings are done and confirmed electronically. The travel agent doesn't have much call to be in contact with us by traditional means. The Trailfinder Viewtrail app and the various airline apps have all I need. Indeed, this year, the apps I need for the holiday are a lot fewer than last year

Apps for the holiday

So instead of the traditional contact a week or so before we came away Trailfinders sent us the beautiful Lonely Planet Australia book 

I'm sure the co-pilot now realises the standard of photos we expect from him this year as the book is full of 149 of the most amazing images of the country.

Ready?

You know what, the suitcases are packed (apart from toothbrushes), hand luggage prepared, passports, tickets (in the apps) and everything else seems to be in place - I'm ready to go. Tomorrow we begin this big adventure.