It doesn't all start here. That was back on the 1st June 2009 when British Airways first emptied our piggy bank to enable us to travel "free", on "BA Miles", to New Zealand and Australia. The initiative had actually started earlier when we learned that Clodagh MacMillan, Sue's god-daughter was to be married in Melbourne at Easter 2010.
I had been warned that if I wanted to use up BA Miles to go downunder I needed to be about 9 months ahead in looking for available seats, because they disappear like hot-cakes as soon as they get released into the system. It appeared to be true. Choice proved to be very limiting and desires to stop off halfway went quickly out of the window, with the options coming down to "take-it-or-leave-it" - that's all there is! And so tomorrow we set off to Auckland via Hong Kong and Sydney, moving on to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, before finding our way home via Bangkok. Hopefully the transition from BA to Qantas is as seamless as the oneworld alliance would want us to believe. The cases are all but packed; the answerphone messages are all changed to tell the world that we are not going to talk to anyone for the next 5 1/2 weeks; the cat has been warned that he is going to have to tear open his own food pouches (he is retaliating by trying to hide in a suitcase); and all that is left is a Grade A panic when we realise what it is that we have forgotten to do! Just hope that the taxi firm really don't send a Smart Car for the airport run. Standby for the northern hemisphere to have the warmest, sunniest March ever, and the Antipodes to sink under mother of all monsoons.
I had been warned that if I wanted to use up BA Miles to go downunder I needed to be about 9 months ahead in looking for available seats, because they disappear like hot-cakes as soon as they get released into the system. It appeared to be true. Choice proved to be very limiting and desires to stop off halfway went quickly out of the window, with the options coming down to "take-it-or-leave-it" - that's all there is! And so tomorrow we set off to Auckland via Hong Kong and Sydney, moving on to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, before finding our way home via Bangkok. Hopefully the transition from BA to Qantas is as seamless as the oneworld alliance would want us to believe. The cases are all but packed; the answerphone messages are all changed to tell the world that we are not going to talk to anyone for the next 5 1/2 weeks; the cat has been warned that he is going to have to tear open his own food pouches (he is retaliating by trying to hide in a suitcase); and all that is left is a Grade A panic when we realise what it is that we have forgotten to do! Just hope that the taxi firm really don't send a Smart Car for the airport run. Standby for the northern hemisphere to have the warmest, sunniest March ever, and the Antipodes to sink under mother of all monsoons.
