Welcome to 2016 folks. I hope everyone had a crazy happy New Year with family and friends.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the holidays thinking about .. more holidays.
After a few trips in 2015 my annual leave is down to nothing so it’s going to take me a little while to get up some leave at work to take more time away.
So just a few weeks ago my wife announced to me that she’d going to Hong Kong for 5 days to celebrate Chinese New Year. Bummer that I can’t go along (I wasn’t invited). After this she’s heading into Mainland China to visit her family for a few more weeks (also not invited).
I thought this might be a good opportunity to start working on bolstering my Velocity Status Credits to move up to Silver.
After a lot of flying “mistakes” in 2015 I have neglected to book enough flights with Virgin Australia or partner carriers to take advantage of some of the status credits I have earned to move up to silver so now it’s time to try and collect in and earn the last 100 points needed for the upgrade before the end of March.
I found a super cheap flight from Sydney to Port Macquarie at the end of January. It’s a day trip so I will arrive, have lunch with my sister and fly back. It will be my first flight in an ATR72-600 and i’ll be back in Sydney 20 status points richer.
But what next?
So far my travel plans are up to budget, and at the moment the budget is tight.
I’m thinking of a small 3-4 day get away to New Zealand while Crystal is in China over February but so far I haven’t booked anything and don’t know yet.
I was looking at stopover flights thinking about extra status credits but for whatever reason airlines charge more to inconvenience you. Sydney to Singapore for example is ~$450 each way. If I go via Perth and Darwin with 5-10 hour layovers you’d think it’d be cheaper, it jumps hundreds of dollars. Sad otherwise this might have been on the cards.
Either way, once I go, you’ll all know once I start to post my adventures.
Thanks for following my blog. I look forward to some great trips away in 2016. They might not be too far from home but every new adventure is worth sharing.
If anyone has suggestions on how to earn maximum velocity status points for the cheapest possible flights please please post in comments. I need 105 before March and it’s hard earning them without a return business class to some far off destination and I just don’t want to spend thousands on a bump up to silver.
Happy 2016 Everyone
Ken