It’s official. I’m leaving the country on June 1st. Air Canada will take me from D.C. to Toronto to Tokyo. A lot happened today: My plan for the last 6 months or so was to make use of the United Airline miles that I’ve accumulated over the years slaving away at IBM. 200k miles provided a Round-the-World ticket (RTW) which translates to 6 flights or 35,000 miles. My grand scheme was D.C. –> Tokyo –> Bangkok –> Istanbul –> Cape Town –> Buenos Aires –> D.C. I quite happily spent an hour on the phone with an agent working through the details, and as I was literally about to give her my credit card information to ticket the itinerary, she casually mentioned that once I depart from D.C., I will be unable to modify the reservation at all – not even a date change! This was completely contrary to everything I had heard in the past while spending countless hours on the phone with United ticket agents….
To do a little math:
Unchangeable ticket + Pilgrimage to Nowhere == NO GOOD.
The good news is that airfares are at there lowest levels in years. PLUS I get to be completely free from any constraints or schedules. I booked a one-way ticket to Tokyo for $490. In the end I’m guessing my RTW trip will cost an additional $3000 for the transcontinental flights I’ll need. But the freedom of not being tied to cities, dates, etc, is worth every penny.
Let the real blogging begin. Peace.
It’s official that I am so jealous, please send pictures!!! I will be checking your blog frequently for updates!!!
Sorry to hear that all that jetsetting as an IBM-er is worth bupkus for your wanderings. But I think you made the right decision not locking in. Now you’ll have the freedom to make a quick stopover in Amsterdam around XMas 😉
Keep on keepin’ on…