When travelling, particularly long distances, part of the fun is the planning and booking process. We were planning to travel to New Zealand in the Spring of 2024. This got bought forward to October 2023.
As New Zealand is half way around the World, it made sense to make it a round the World trip. When planning to go round the World the first question is in which direction, East or West?
Consider a long haul flight going West from London to Los Angeles. The flight time is 10 hours and the time difference is -8 hours. A flight departing at 10h00 will arrive at 12h00 having gained 8 hours. You probably won’t sleep on the flight. If you can manage to stay awake until the evening then it is like having a late night and the jet lag is manageable.
Now consider a long haul flight going East from London to Singapore. The flight time is 13 hours and the time difference is 8 hours. A flight departing at 21h00 will arrive at 18h00 the next day. You will probably sleep on the flight. You have the choice of having a very short day or a very long day.
To minimise jet lag it is better to travel West. If you cross more than two time zones on a flight, it is advisable to stay for several days at the destination before moving on. It typically takes a day to recover from each time zone crossed.
When travelling around the World, you will at some stage cross the International Date Line (IDL). When travelling West, you gain an hour every time you cross a time zone and lose a full day when you cross the IDL. When travelling East, you lose an hour every time you cross a time zone and gain a full day when you cross the IDL.
When planning at trip, the first thing to do is decide on the must do destinations and have some idea as to how long to stay in each. We had three must do destinations.
The trip is not usually booked end to end. There are often constraints that have to be worked around.
Prior to 2016, Phill had made numerous business trips to New York and to Delhi. He had a lot of air miles with Virgin Atlantic. We found that there were Premium Economy seats available on air miles in October.
On 21 May, we booked the Virgin Atlantic VS7 departing LHR at 10h40 UTC+01 arriving LAX at 13h50 UTC-08 for Sunday 22 October.
We decided to start the trip from our home in Marseillan by staying a night in Montpellier which is 30 minites away by train.
On 21 May, we booked the Crowne Plaza, Corum hotel in Montpellier for Thursday 19 October.
We were planning to stay overnight in Paris on Friday 20 October. However, because of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, all of the Paris hotels were either fully booked or ridiculously overpriced. We decided to just pass through Paris.
On 21 May, we booked the Eurostar from Paris Gare du Nord 16h01 UTC+02 to London St Pancras 17h30 UTC+01 for Friday 20 October.
Having being unable to stay overnight in Paris, we had a two night stay in London. We decided to avoid staying in the city and opted to stay at the Crowne Plaza Heathrow Terminal 4 for two nights.
The Air France don’t fly from LAX to PPT on Mondays. On 21 May, we booked Premium Economy on AF76 from Los Angeles (LAX) UTC-08 to Papeete Tahiti (PPT) UTC-10 leaving at 22h50 on Tuesday 24 October and arriving at Faa’a airport Papeete, Tahiti at 05h30 on Wednesday 25 October.
On 21 May, we booked the Holiday Inn Los Angeles - LAX Airport for two nights. We later extended the booking for a third night as the latest checkout was 14h00 and our flight wasn’t until 22h50.
On 21 May, we booked the InterContinental Resort Tahiti for four nights Wednesday 25 October to Sunday 29 October. We later had to book a fifth night on 5 June for Sunday 29 October as there were no flights to Auckland on Sundays.
On 29 May, we booked Qantas QF3816 (operated by Air Tahiti Nui) from Tahiti (PPT) UTC-10 departing 09h10 on Monday 30 October arriving Auckland (AKL) UTC+13 at 13h40 on Tuesday 31 October. Note that the flight duration is 5h35 but as we cross the International Date Line during the flight we lose a day.
On 2 June, we booked a suite at Phinda Mountain Lodge, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa for three nights Sunday 12 November to Wednesday 15 November. This included flights from Johannesburg to Kruger Mpumalanga and from Kruger Mpumalanga to Phinda on Sunday 12 November and flights from Phinda to Kruger Mpumalanga and from Kruger Mpumalanga to Johannesburg on Wednesday 15 November.
On 2 June, we booked Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic VS450 departing Johannesburg (JNB) UTC+02 at 19h40 on Thursday 16 November arriving at London Heathrow (LHR) UTC+00 at 04h55 on Friday 17 November.
On 5 June we booked Premium Economy on Qantas QF63 departing Sydney (SYD) UTC+11 at 09h35 on Thursday 2 November arriving Johannesburg (JNB) UTC+02 at 14h35 on Thursday 2 November.
On 5 June, we booked the Pablo House Boutique Hotel, Melville, Johannesburg for three nights Thursday 9 to Sunday 12 November. This included transfers to and from Johannesburg O.R. Tambo Airport.
On 5 June, we booked the InterContinental Johannesbury O.R. Tambo Airport for one night 15 to 16 November.
On 11 June, we booked the Crowne Plaza Hotel Auckland for two nights 31 October to 2 November.
On 11 June, we booked the Rydges Sydney Airport Hotel for one night 8 to 9 November. On 26 October we cancelled this booking and booked the InterContinental Sydney Hotel to get IHG Rewards points.
On 11 June, we booked the DoubleTree by Hilton Wellington Hotel for one night 2 to 3 November. On 26 October we cancelled this booking and booked the InterContinental Wellington Hotel to get IHG Rewards points.
On 11 June, we booked New Zealand Rail from Auckland 07h45 to Wellington 18h45 Thursday 2 November.
On 11 June, we booked the Interislander Ferry from Wellington 13h00 to Picton 16h30 Friday 3 November.
On 11 June, we booked Air New Zealand NZ5060 from Nelson (NSN) at 08h30 arriving Auckland (AKL) at 10h00 on Wednesday 8 November.
On 12 June, we booked Qantas QF144 from Auckland (AKL) UTC+13 at 13h35 to Sydney (SYD) UTC+11 at 15h10 on Wednesday 8 November.
On 12 June, we booked the Queen Street Studios, Richmond, New Zealand for five nights Friday 3 to Wednesday 8 November.
Many overseas travel trips are typically less than two weeks. Some trips, including business trips, and holidays with mutliple destinations, can be many weeks or even month in duration. Longer trips require some extra planning to avoid problems and high spending.
Here are some tips to make longer trips more enjoyable and cost effective.
Check what your mobile service provider plan provides in terms of mobile data roaming and what the charges are. Modern mobile phones support eSIMs. Providers like Airalo provide eSIMS for over 130 countries at a reasonable price. Once an eSIM is installed, you can switch between your regular SIM and the eSIM at any time. If you run out of data it can be topped up.
Some train and ferry journeys will not provide USB chargers for phones and tablets. Take a 30,000mAh battery charger.
Have several different means of payment available. Banks have ludicrous Artificial Intelligence (AI really Artificial Idiocy) systems that look for fraudulent transactions and often get them wrong. If a suspected fraud is detected, then the transaction is declined and the card is blocked. Unblocking the card requires a long and tedious telephone call. Phill purchased lunch for $3 in the canteen in the Goldman Sachs building in New York. It triggered a fraud alert!
Be sure to have several methods of payment in case one is declined!
Airlines, hotels, trains, and stores often have loyalty programs. It is well worth signing up for these. It is surprising how quickly rewards can build up. When booking travel or making purchases be loyal to your chosen brands to reap the benefits of loyalty programs.
The programs give points that can be redeemed for free flights or stays. They also have status tiers that give additional benefits.
Most airlines have some form of loyalty program. Some airlines share a loyalty program with other airlines. Not all programs are equal. Some require a lot of travel to get enought points for a free flight. It may also be difficult to redeam points, particularly on some routes. Do beware that when booking flights on loyalty points, you still have to pay the taxes.
I found Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club program particulalry rewarding. I once had an interesting conversation with a Virgin Atantic representative. She said that it was surprising how many frequent flyers don’t sign up for Flying Club. They are missing out big time!
Hotel loyalty programs, particularly IHG Rewards and Hilton Honors, can be very rewarding. They often have promotions that offer bonus point. You can quickly get sufficient points for a free night stay.
The programs have status tiers such as: Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. These give addition benefits such as: late checkout, free drink on arrival, room upgrades, and free breakfast. The higher tiers can give free lounge access that includes free drinks and food in the evening.
The most important thing is to travel as light as possible. It is so easy to pack clothing in particular that you will never wear. Also remember that flights have weight restrictions. Smaller aircraft such as island hoppers and flights to safari resorts are even more restrictive. It maybe necessary to leave bags at an airport left luggage.
We all need power adaptors for charging mobile devices and powering other electric items. It is worth getting a power splitter with multiple power sockets and several USB ports. Also, get a power adaptor for each country that you visit. The multiple power adaptors are a waste of time and can be dangerous. Hotels often have US and sometimes UK power sockets in the rooms.
Hotels have bars and restaurants. These are usually ridiculously expensive! It is wise to minimise eating and drinking in hotels unless you have sufficiently high loyalty status to get free food and drink.
By far the worst flight was the 14 hour flight from Sydney (UTC+11) to Johannesburg (UTC+02). It departed at 13h35 and arrived at 15h10 the same day with a time difference of -9 hours. Although it appears to be a daytime flight, it was night time for part of the journey over the Indian Ocean. During this time most people slept.
It would have been better to have avoided Australia and gone via Singapore, staying a few days in Singapore. The flight from Auckland (UTC+13) to Singapore (UTC+08) takes 10h45. The flight from Singpore to Johannesburg takes 10h40. This would have lengthened the trip by a few days, but broken the long flight and reduced the jet lag.