All my flight details & trip reflections (Stephen’s Million Mile Madness trip journal)

Although Nick’s still traveling, it’s been a few days since I finished my trip and so I thought I’d share details about each of the flights I took, along with some reflections on my trip overall.

Wednesday November 20

I got back to Vegas on Sunday evening after taking 23 flights over the course of 10 days during the Million Mile Madness challenge. A couple of people had asked for details about the specific flights I took, so here’s what I booked and how much those flights cost (bolded flights are the SkyTeam qualifying airlines):

• American Airlines – LAS-LAX-JFK – Business/First – 21,500 American Airlines AAdvantage miles + $5.60 (positioning flight)
• Virgin Atlantic – JFK-LHR – Economy – $243.30
• SAS – LHR-CPH – Economy – $151.50
• Iberia Express – CPH-MAD – Economy Comfort – $89.20 (positioning flight)
• Air Europa – MAD-ORY – Economy – $116.90
• Air France – CDG-AMS – Economy – $214.25
• KLM – AMS-OTP – Economy (this flight was booked as part of one itinerary with the Air France flight above)
• TAROM – OTP-ATH – Economy – $63.80
• Aegean – ATH-JED – Economy – 12,500 Aeroplan points + 87.90 CAD (positioning flight)
• Saudia – JED-MED-CGK – Economy – $408.33 + $18.40 for seat selection on the second flight (n.b. I ended up skipping the second flight for the next entry)
• Garuda – MED-CGK – Business – 56,000 Flying Blue miles + $27.55 (positioning flight)
• Garuda – CGK-SIN – Economy – $119.10
• Vietnam Airlines – SIN-SGN-ICN – Economy – $183.84
• Korean Airlines – ICN-CAN – Economy – $110.40
• Kenya Airways – CAN-BKK – Economy – $163.00
• Xiamen Airlines – BKK-XMN – Business – $366.30
• China Eastern – XMN-KMG-SGN – Economy – $113.50
• China Airlines – SGN-TPE-LAX – Economy – $527.71
• Delta – LAX-LAS – Economy – $85.48

Here’s how I booked my accommodation along the way:

• Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4 – ~$70
• Marriott Madrid Auditorium – ~$137
• Hilton Charles de Gaulle – $178.85
• InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest – 40k free night certificate (award cost was exactly 40k points)
• The Airport Hotel in Ho Chi Minh – $32.80

Trip Reflections

My Million Mile Madness trip went more smoothly than expected, plus it was more enjoyable – and stylish – than I’d anticipated.

My biggest concern leading up to my trip was that although I had some much longer than ideal layovers (due to focusing on affordability rather than optimal flight timings), I also had some tight flight connection times that didn’t provide much leeway for flight delays or other issues such as long lines at immigration. For the most part, this didn’t prove to be much of an issue. I hustled through the airports in Seoul and Bangkok, but still got to my gates in plenty of time.

The only properly worrisome moment was when I was flying China Eastern from Xiamen to Ho Chi Minh via Kunming. Our flight out of Xiamen was delayed which put me at very real risk of missing my flight on to Ho Chi Minh. In the event that I did miss that flight, the situation was recoverable because I could’ve booked another flight at the last minute. That would’ve been far from optimal though because it would’ve required a connection elsewhere and would also mean I wouldn’t get in until late, missing out on my first proper night’s sleep in five days. In the end, it didn’t prove to be an issue because a China Eastern agent met several of us at the gate at Kunming airport and got us fast-tracked through the airport.

Everything else went pretty much smoothly. There was some other issues along the way such as when trying to get a visa in Indonesia, but those more frustrations rather than actual problems that caused any stress.

My other big concern had been potential exhaustion. My pace in Europe at the start of the trip was slower, but then became more fast paced in Asia. With five days not in a hotel bed, I thought I might end up becoming somewhat delirious through lack of sleep and end up making silly mistakes that impacted on my trip. That didn’t end up being an issue whatsoever as I managed to get a decent amount of sleeping while flying in economy, as well as on the business class flight from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia that I booked at the last minute. My sleep was so deep that a couple of times I got woken up by the plane touching down in my next destination. Another time I was confused by how long we were sitting on the tarmac after pushing back from the gate, only to realize that we were in the air and that I’d managed to sleep through take-off without noticing it.

I was also pleased with how much more stylish my trip ended up feeling:

• My flights in First and Flagship Business class on American Airlines was a great way to start my trip, especially seeing as it provided access to the Flagship lounge at LAX
• I was able to redeem a Nightly Upgrade Award at the Marriott Madrid Auditorium to get a one bedroom suite with lounge access
• I was upgraded to a junior suite at the Hilton Charles de Gaulle courtesy of my Diamond status
• I had lounge access at the InterContinental in Bucharest as I have a lounge membership from a Milestone Award choice at the start of 2023, plus I received an upgrade to a suite thanks to my Diamond status (I don’t have Ambassador status)
• Booking the Garuda flight in Business class at the last minute from Madinah to Jakarta was an excellent choice as I was significantly more comfortable than I would’ve been for 10 hours in economy on Saudia which is what I’d originally booked
• Getting a 75 minute massage for less than $20 in Vietnam was excellent value and much needed
• I managed to hit up three different Centurion lounges within 24 hours at the start of my trip, visited the American Airlines Flagship lounge at LAX and also 15 different Priority Pass lounges (matching the 15 different SkyTeam airlines) along the way
• Despite not having a hotel booked for five nights, I’d arranged layovers at airports which meant that I was able to shower every 24 hours

All those factors ensured that my trip was much more comfortable than might be expected seeing as 19 of my 23 flights were in economy. Another helpful factor was the fact that other than my Virgin Atlantic JFK-LHR flight and my second China Eastern flight from TPE-LAX, I don’t think that any of my economy flights were more than four hours long.

One thing that wasn’t as ideal was that I didn’t have a chance to spend any proper time in any of the locations. Having said that, that was my plan going into the challenge as I’d anticipated having to spend pretty much any non-flying time either sleeping or working.

As it turned out, I wasn’t quite as busy work-wise as I’d originally thought. However, my wife and I are now in the process of planning a move back to the UK early in the new year, so looking into getting her a visa to live there, researching how to transport our pup so that she doesn’t have to be quarantined or have to travel in the hold of a plane, etc. took precedence over getting out of airports for a couple of hours to explore what was nearby. My overnight stays in Bucharest and Ho Chi Minh did intrigue me enough though to want to return to Romania and Vietnam to spend some proper time experiencing those cities/countries.

Let me know if you have any questions about my trip in the comments below.

Previous Journal Entries

Sunday November 17

My previous journal update finished with me about to check out of my hotel in Ho Chi Minh to head to the airport. A reader had mentioned that it’s worth getting to SGN airport 2.5 hours before your flight due to long security lines. That was a good tip because the lines were indeed lengthy.

Despite the line being so long, it moved at a reasonable pace and so I got through security with plenty of time to spare. That gave me time to swing back by the Rose Business Lounge (part of Priority Pass) that I’d visited during a layover a couple of days beforehand. The hotel I’d stayed at offered breakfast, but I wanted to get to the airport and so hoped to have time for breakfast in the lounge instead – the plan worked.

From Ho Chi Minh it was time to start the long journey home. The first leg was on China Airlines – my 14th SkyTeam carrier of the challenge – to Taipei. This flight was only a few hours and was perfectly comfortable. I got to enjoy another empty middle seat next to me and a meal was served.

In Taipei I hunted around for the Plaza Premium lounge in order to visit a Priority Pass lounge for the 15th time on my trip (in keeping with the 15 SkyTeam airlines we needed to fly). The Priority Pass website’s directions weren’t very helpful as they only listed its location as ‘Airside – International Departures, Level 4, Departure Hall.’ I eventually found it near the A gates which wasn’t too far from my D gate.

Although this was my 15th Priority Pass visit, it was only my 14th unique lounge as I’d visited the Rose Business Lounge at Ho Chi Minh airport on two separate occasions.

My next flight was the one I was looking forward to the least. I was flying from Taipei to Los Angeles in China Airlines economy class. This was an 11 hour, 15 minute flight which – after more than a week of mostly economy flying – wasn’t overly appealing.

I knew I could handle it though. My wife and I have flown to and from the US to Bali and Australia in economy in the past, both of which were longer flights. As economy flights go, the China Airlines experience was great. The flight attendants were friendly, the food was decent, the entertainment selection was excellent (including the games) and the seat had a good amount of leg room.

Despite that, I ended up getting sausage feet halfway through the flight which isn’t something I think I’ve ever encountered when flying before, at least not to this extent. My ankles in particular started getting sore, so I spent a significant portion of the second half of the flight standing up and walking around.

Thankfully I’d dodged a bullet when checking in. I’d procrastinated with checking in online which was a huge mistake because by the time I did that a few hours before my first flight, the only seats remaining on the long TPE-LAX leg were middle seats – argh!

I was incredibly fortunate though. For some reason China Airlines wasn’t able to provide me with a digital boarding pass for the shorter SGN-TPE leg, so I had to visit the check-in counter to get a paper boarding pass. When obtaining that, the desk agent looked at me confused and asked if I really wanted a middle seat for the TPE-LAX leg when an aisle seat was available. My eyes lit up and I gratefully took her up on that opportunity. I’ve no idea why the aisle seat didn’t show up for me when checking in, so perhaps China Airlines (and maybe other airlines?) blocks those for agents when people check in at the airport.

Either way, I went from having a middle seat at the back of the plane to an aisle seat about halfway up. Being able to get up and down whenever I wanted was a lifesaver for both my ankles and my sanity.

At LAX, I had to make the relatively short walk over to Terminal 3 for my Delta flight. While I waited, I visited one of the Delta Sky Clubs there, gaining access courtesy of the Amex Platinum card. My wife and I rarely fly Delta and so I think this might’ve been my first time in a Sky Club. It seemed very nice with good food and drink options, but its best feature for this visit was a row of cubicles with a small desk and chair. We had our live check-in on YouTube during my layover there, so it was awesome being able to do that in a seemingly soundproofed cubicle so that it didn’t disturb other Sky Club guests.

From there it was only a one hour flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas – my end destination. My wife and I are still traveling full-time through the end of this year and Las Vegas is where we’re spending much of the month of November.

This final leg was on Delta for my 15th SkyTeam carrier – woohoo! Timing-wise, this was the end of the challenge. However, I had one more thing I needed to do.

I mentioned earlier that I’d visited Priority Pass lounges 15 times on the trip, but had only hit up 14 individual lounges due to visiting one of those lounges twice. I’d wanted to visit a Priority Pass lounge during my layover at LAX, but there wasn’t one I was eligible for. That meant my only option was to stop by The Club at Las Vegas airport upon my return.

There was a 10-15 minute wait, but I was finally admitted for my 15th unique Priority Pass lounge. This wasn’t in any way a requirement for the challenge, but I figured it added a fun bit of flair as I’d gone into the challenge knowing that I wouldn’t have the time to get out and about to enjoy locations as much as Greg and Nick were able to.

I’d managed to meet a cat in Vietnam for the ‘pet fido’ task to earn bonus points during the challenge, but there was only one pupper I’d been looking forward to petting – our dog Truffles! Shae and her picked me up from the airport, then when we got back to our Airbnb she leapt on me while I put my feet up to try reducing some of the swelling.

I’ve a feeling I’m going to get a good night’s sleep tonight!

Saturday November 16

The last 24-36 hours have been action packed. The last update ended with me at Guangzhou airport in China, about to fly Kenya Airways from there to Bangkok on its fifth freedom flight.

That flight went off without a hitch and we arrived in Bangkok a few hours later. I was a little nervous about this next stage because my layover was only a couple of hours. At first I thought I’d be able to transit to my Xiamen Airlines flight without needing to go through immigration, but Xiamen Airlines seems to be pretty much the only airline without a transfer desk airside at BKK and they don’t offer the ability to check in online right now. That meant having to go through immigration and then out to the departures hall to check in at their desk, before going back through security.

I thought that only having two hours to do this might cut things too fine, but everything moved quickly and I was back through security with my boarding pass with plenty of time to spare. So much time in fact that I managed to sit down in a restaurant to have my favorite dish from when we lived in Thailand – som tum (see the video here). This spicy papaya salad dish was like crack to me and I used to have it for dinner several times a week because not only was it tasty, it was only $1.

My Xiamen Airlines flight went smoothly too. I’d gotten a ticket in business class because it seemed like most economy fares weren’t qualifying. The cabin had two rows in the business class cabin with them in a 2-2 formation. There were seven people in business class on this flight and I was the lucky one not to have someone next to me, so it was like being in Pepper first class.

Getting a 144 hour transit visa on arrival in Xiamen proved painless despite having gotten a similar visa the day before in Guangzhou. After getting my visa, I had a hard time working out where the China Eastern check-in desk was. I’d forgotten to consult my spreadsheet with all my flight details as I’d noted on there that my flight on Xiamen landed at Terminal 3 and that my next flight was out of Terminal 4. I asked a different check-in desk agent and they said I’d need to take a taxi to Terminal 4, so I withdraw a little money from the ATM to get there.

At Terminal 4, I spent a little time in the First Class lounge (part of Priority Pass) before boarding my flight on China Eastern to Ho Chi Minh via Kunming. This is where the real adventures began.

Our flight out of Xiamen was delayed by air traffic control, with my heart continuing to sink ever deeper as time ticked by. You see, my connection time in Kunming was only 1.5 hours and our flight ended up leaving an hour late. We made up a little time in the air, but that still only gave me an hour to make my next flight and I knew I might have some kind of delay at immigration.

I was therefore ridiculously relieve when, on the jetway after disembarking, there was someone holding a sign saying ‘Ho Chi Minh’. There were five of us on the delayed flight connecting to Ho Chi Minh, so rather than walking through the airport, we got to take a shortcut on a VIP bus.

We still had to rush through the airport though which isn’t as fun when you’re carrying a heavy backpack rather than pushing a carry-on with wheels. There were a couple of other shortcuts in the airport we were able to take seeing as we were with an employee, then it was time for immigration.

Uh-oh.

First, although the line wasn’t super long when I arrived (tons of people showed up seconds after I got in line though, so that was lucky), there was only one agent and he was processing people slowly. When it was eventually my turn, he seemed concerned about the fact that I’d had a transit visa for Guangzhou the day before and Xiamen for that day seeing as Kunming isn’t – as far as I know – in either of those regions. The 144 hour transit visa has strict rules about which port(s) you can exit out of based on where you entered. From my research, I thought that provided I left Xiamen on a flight booked on the same carrier to another country, that was allowed – even if it connected in a different Chinese city. He called someone over to discuss the situation. Meanwhile, the other four people flying on to Ho Chi Minh were all presumably Chinese as they’d breezed through a different line at immigration. They’d continued on to board, with the fast track employee waiting for me as seconds and minutes ticked by.

Eventually I got the stamp needed to exit and I was on my way. I got fast tracked through the priority security line, then it was just a quick run to my gate before hopping aboard a different bus to get to the plane. There must’ve been several other delayed flights in, because the bus waited around for half a dozen more people connecting to Ho Chi Minh.

A few days before the trip started, I applied for a visa to enter Vietnam for the night as my flight out of Ho Chi Minh wasn’t until late morning the following day. It was approved, so I downloaded a copy to my phone and thought I was sorted.

I think there must be something goofy with Vietnamese visas applied for online, perhaps when doing that from overseas in a different time zone. Greg had a problem when arriving in Vietnam as his visa had been valid for the day before he arrived through the day he actually arrived. When in line, I happened to look at my visa a little more closely and, sure enough, the exact same thing had happened to me. I was certain I’d entered November 16 as the date I was due to arrive and that I’d be spending one day, but for some reason it seemed to take that as me arriving on November 15 and leaving on the 16th.

The immigration agent picked up on this and wouldn’t let me through. He did call someone over to look at it and he came up with a solution that couldn’t be better. I have a British passport and so I’m able to enter Vietnam – visa-free – for up to 45 days. The original immigration agent was therefore able to effectively wave me through after giving me a passport stamp.

I’d booked a hotel only a 15 minute walk from the airport. Google Maps suggested I could walk it, so I decided to try for research purposes. Perhaps there is a safer route there, but Google Maps wanted me to walk along the road with no sidewalk which wasn’t going to happen, so I went back to the rideshare area and took a Grab (similar to Uber and Lyft in Asia) to my hotel.

I’d been particularly looking forward to this hotel stay for a couple of reasons. The first was that it would be my first proper bed (other than a lie flat bed in Garuda business class) for five days. The other reason was that it was a fantastic deal – a one bedroom apartment a short distance from the airport with a kitchen, living room and a washing machine. Chain hotels in Ho Chi Minh were going for $100-$250 per night, but this apartment/hotel was going for only $31 through Hotels.com. I had about $35 of OneKey Cash, so was able to cover the entire cost with that. Affordability and style? Sweet!

It wasn’t meant to be though. When trying to check in, I was advised that there was some kind of issue with the apartment (I didn’t catch what the exact problem was) and so they’d booked me a stay at a different hotel around the corner instead. She walked me down there and I could see that it was going to be the White Diamond hotel. I’d seen that one on Hotels.com and it didn’t have great reviews online, so I told her that I’d prefer a refund instead. At first I thought this might’ve been some kind of scam as I’d heard of a similar thing happening with Airbnbs in some places. However, she gave me a refund in cash and was extremely apologetic, following up with another apology via WhatsApp later on, so it might well have been a genuine issue.

That meant I didn’t have somewhere to stay for the night. I wasn’t overly concerned though as another budget hotel I’d looked at originally was The Airport Hotel. This was right next door to the Sabay Airport Apartment hotel and so stood outside that hotel, hopped on to Hotels.com quickly to book that and went inside. A minute later I had my key and I was on my way to my room.

I was a little confused finding it though. I was given room 109, so I went up to the first floor and looked around, only finding rooms 101-104. I went back down to the front desk and he said I was on the sixth floor in room 601 – I’d glanced at the room number on the key upside down. D’oh!

For $32.80, the hotel room was perfect. It was clean, comfortable, had a safe, air conditioning, a couple of bottles of water, a mini fridge and my own bathroom. The hotel was extremely quiet with no street noise from outside and is only a few minutes from the airport by taxi. Not having to hop in a Grab or taxi to head to a chain hotel for at least triple the cost was worth it, especially as there had been a couple of places in the neighborhood I wanted to check out.

At the start of the Million Mile Madness challenge, Greg flew through New York and got a massage at the Equinox Spa there. Nick had a spa day at Therme in Bucharest, so with my trip winding down and after a week of flying almost exclusively in economy, I went for a massage.

There was a place around the corner that offered a 75 minute stone massage for 420,000 VND (~$16.50) + tip, so how could I pass up that opportunity?! After that, I went to a noodle bar because being in Vietnam for the first time meant I wanted to try local pho. It was very good and that, along with a beer, came to only 72,000 VND (~$3). Delicious and a bargain.

From there it was back to the hotel to get some work done. I needed to work on this update, plus get Last Chance Deals published. I was exhausted though, so I set my alarm for an hour later to take a little snooze. That went off and I snoozed it. It went off again and I reset it.

I ended up sleeping until about 6am at which point I forced myself to get up. I’ve mentioned in the past that my superpower is that I can sleep easily sitting upright in economy. That’s been extremely handy on this trip, but I have another superpower – I can sleep easily with the light on. That’s exactly what happened here – I slept soundly through the night despite it not being dark in the room.

So that’s where I’m at – sitting upright in bed, typing this all out. I have to work on Last Chance Deals now, then it’s a quick shower before heading to the airport to start my long flight back to the US. I’m currently at 13 SkyTeam airlines for the challenge and, coincidentally, at 13 Priority Pass lounges for the trip. In the next 24 hours I’ll hopefully have hit 15 of both.

Friday November 15

After leaving the Ambassador Transit lounge at Singapore airport, I went to a different Priority Pass lounge – the Marhaba lounge – that was closer to my gate until my Vietnam Airlines flight was due to depart.

I was glad I’d spent more of my time at the Ambassador Transit lounge though as the Marhaba lounge was right next to a play area for kids. It’s awesome that there’s so many fun activities for families to do at Changi airport, but it did mean the experience in the lounge was far less relaxing due to the endless screaming of excited kids.

It was soon time for me to fly from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City. I had a short layover there before continuing on to Incheon airport in Seoul, South Korea. Both these (relatively) short economy flights served a meal, so I didn’t manage to finish the second meal as I’d already eaten in the Singapore lounges, not knowing if meals would be served.

My layover at Ho Chi Minh City was due to be short, but I had enough time to pop into my 10th Priority Pass lounge of the trip – the Rose Business Lounge. I wasn’t interested in any food, but did want a little hydration. I normally drink a lot of water each day, but it’s been harder to do that during this challenge due to repeatedly having to get rid of fluids before going through security.

I said my layover was due to be short, but it didn’t quite end up that way as my flight on to Seoul was delayed by just over an hour. Even after we finally boarded and pushed back from the gate, we had to hang out on the tarmac for what felt like forever, but was probably only another 5-10 minutes.

This started to worry me a little as my connection time in Seoul had been due to be less than 2.5 hours. This delay reduced that to more like 1.5 hours or less. Thankfully we made up a little bit of time in the air – perhaps all the turbulence was caused by the wind at our back. There was still no time to waste though, so I started to hustle through ICN.

Thankfully Incheon was the most pleasant airport I’ve had to transit through so far on the challenge. It was an absolute breeze despite having an additional concern. I’d been able to check in online, but hadn’t been able to get a copy of my boarding pass – it advised I had to get that at the airport. After disembarking from the Vietnam Airlines flight, I followed the signs for international transfers. If you ever find yourself needing to do the same, pay close attention to where you need to go. A couple of times there were sections that looked like they were blocked off, but there was a small entryway through. I seemed to be the only person on my flight needing to transfer, so I wandered off alone while everyone else went in a different direction.

Despite feeling like I was going the wrong way, it was the correct route. After passing through what was, effectively, a personal security area, I got on the train connecting Terminal 1 with Terminal 2. From there I went straight to the gate where I was able to get my boarding pass printed. Even though my flight into Incheon had been delayed, I still arrived at my gate more than 45 minutes before departure. It was a trek though; it feels like the airport gates at Incheon couldn’t be spread further apart, so be prepared to do a lot of walking.

From Seoul I flew Korean Air to Guangzhou, China which was another perfectly fine economy flight that also served a meal. It was another longer-than-ideal layover here in Guangzhou, but I don’t have a 10 year Chinese visa like Nick does, so I wanted to ensure I had extra time in case there were any issues with obtaining a 144 hour transit visa.

As it goes, that went relatively smoothly. I did have to leave airside afterwards though before having to go back through security which is where I had an issue. Security wouldn’t accept a digital boarding pass – it had to be paper. However, my next flight is on Kenya Airways (their 5th freedom route from Guangzhou to Bangkok) and their check-in counter wouldn’t be open for many hours.

I managed to find a solution though. There was a business center in the departures area, so I went in there to print off a letter-sized boarding pass that Kenya Airways had provided in addition to the digital boarding pass.

This involved having to download WeChat and sending the business center the document through that app for them to print. The cost was 2 RMB (about $0.25), but I didn’t have any cash. You can pay using WeChat, but I’d only just downloaded it that moment and so didn’t have any cards added to the app’s wallet feature. The person working in there thankfully accepted a credit card for the transaction despite them possibly having to pay more in processing fees than the 2 RMB they’d earn.

I feared that wasn’t the solution I thought it was going to be though. When reaching security, they were incredibly confused by the boarding pass not being like a long, narrow rectangle like most boarding passes. The security agent had to discuss it with several other agents before they realized that there was a barcode on my boarding pass that they could scan and which worked for their system. The stamped my boarding pass to confirm that it was accepted, but the agent came back a couple of times to look and marvel at its uniqueness!

She wasn’t the only one. There was another security checkpoint in order to officially leave the country where they collect your departure form. Similar to the previous security area, this seemed to be the first time he’d ever seen a letter-sized boarding pass and didn’t know what to do with it, so he called over a colleague for assistance. Just as I was about to point out the barcode, they spotted it themselves and they too marveled at it. Hopefully it made their day a little less monotonous!

With a fairly long layover, I was grateful that the Premium Lounge at Guangzhou airport let me in. It says on the Priority Pass website that there’s a limit of two hours; sometimes when lounges say that it means you can come in at any time before your flight for a limit of two hours, but other times they mean that you can’t enter until two hours before your flight. The Premium lounge let me straight in and didn’t mention any kind of time limit, so I’ve just been hanging out here ever since.

The food and drink selection isn’t as good as some lounges, but there’s still enough to keep you satiated on a long layover. They have showers available which I took advantage of as I’d last had one in Singapore. That had only been just over 24 hours ago, but in the meantime I’d taken three flights and rushed through Incheon airport, so freshening up was ideal. There’s also a ‘Relaxing Zone’ which has at least half a dozen cubicles with a recliner to make it easier to take a snooze during a layover.

By the time this update publishes, I should be in the air on my way to Bangkok on Kenya Airways. I have a fairly short connection there, so I’m hoping everything goes as smoothly in Bangkok as it did at Incheon. The airline I’m flying on next doesn’t let you check in online, so I’m hoping the lack of a boarding pass doesn’t cause any delays in getting to the gate in order to obtain one.

It’s now been about 4.5 days since I last slept in a hotel bed. This was the stage of my itinerary that I was most apprehensive about – that I’d be suffering from exhaustion and would make dumb mistakes along the way that would cause me to miss a flight for one reason or another.

For not having a full night’s sleep in so long, I feel remarkably good. I’ve not had a problem falling asleep while sitting upright in economy (yay for my superpower!) since that last hotel night in Bucharest. I haven’t counted how many hours of sleep I’ve gotten, but it’s been sufficient to still be a functioning human being, plus I’ve been caffeine-loading with tea and Coke Zero while in airport lounges.

In fact, it’s been ridiculously easy falling asleep on flights at times. On the Korean Air flight from Incheon to Guangzhou, I crashed out before we’d even pulled back from the gate. I woke up later on a little concerned as to why we hadn’t taken off yet. Except we were in the air – I’d just slept through takeoff and only woke up about an hour into the flight when they were serving a meal! It’ll be another 24 hours or so before I’m next in a hotel, so even if it’s a rock hard bed like you sometimes get in Asia, I imagine it’ll feel like the most pillowy goodness imaginable.

Thursday November 14

My last journal entry left off with me in a Priority Pass lounge at Madinah airport in Saudi Arabia. I was about to fly from Madinah to Jakarta on Saudia Airlines having already flown Saudia from Jeddah to Madinah earlier that day.

What I hadn’t really paid attention to when booking those Saudia flights was that the Madinah to Jakarta leg was almost 10 hours long. At the time of booking that, I was scrambling to find an alternate Saudia routing as my previous one went kaput when the price jumped $2,000 during the booking stage.

Sitting there in the lounge, fighting off a cold, with not much sleep in the preceding 24 hours and not much to come in the coming 96 hours, a 10 hour journey in economy sounded appalling. I’ve done longer economy flights before (e.g. Washington D.C. to Hong Kong, the US to Australia, etc.) and so I know I can handle it, but I just wasn’t feeling the effort of handling it.

Out of curiosity, I did a quick award search from Madinah to Jakarta in business class and saw that I could book Garuda business class for only 56,000 Flying Blue miles + ~$28 in taxes and fees. For a 10 hour flight that seemed like a bargain, but there was a wrinkle with that plan challenge-wise. We’re accounting for the value of miles we redeem during the challenge and, with affordability being the metric I have the best chance of coming first in, I was concerned that adding ~$750 of spend could be the difference between coming first and second in the affordability category.

Throwing caution to the wind though, I booked it. But it wasn’t as easy as that.

This was only a few hours before my flight and it wouldn’t let me check in online. That meant I needed to find a Garuda desk; there was still 2-3 hours before the flight, so I figured I’d head back landside to check in at a desk there. This ended up not being possible; when passing through security earlier, they’d given me an exit stamp which meant I’d officially left Saudi Arabia. I therefore wasn’t allowed back landside to check in to get my boarding pass – argh!

Instead, I headed to the gate where the flight was due to depart to speak to a Garuda agent. I found someone to chat to, but he was an EgyptAir agent who said I was at the wrong gate as the next flight from there was an EgyptAir one (despite the Garuda plane I was due to be flying on already being parked at the gate). He ended up leaving and time ticked down with no Garuda agents showing up.

I still had the Saudia flight in economy available as a backup, but I’d have to leg it down the other end of the terminal to catch that if a Garuda agent didn’t show up in the next 30-40 minutes. Thankfully someone showed up and he made every effort to check me in, but seemed unable to. Minutes ticked on, with me stress levels slowly rising, more because the business class bed was calling to me. After 10-15 minutes, I finally got my boarding pass – whew!

That wasn’t the end of it though. Five minutes later the agent came over wanting to see my passport. Checking it, he seemed concerned that I only had one stamp and took several photos of my passport info and stamp page. I half expected him to come back and say I wouldn’t be allowed to board, but I was able to, so whew! See this video I recorded for more.

But no whew! After getting settled in to my seat, a completely different Garuda employee boarded the plane, came over to me and said “Mr Pepper?” My heart sunk as I said yes, but then he handed me a duplicate paper boarding pass. After I’d already boarded the plane. I’ve no idea why that was necessary, but I was relieved that was all he wanted and even more relieved once the doors closed and we pushed back.

The Garuda flight in business class was great and I don’t regret it. The entertainment selection was poor, but I’m not much of a movie watcher on planes anyway. It was a couple of other areas that made it such an enjoyable experience.

One was the food. For both meals I selected a beef with rice option and both meals were extremely tasty – flavorful and spicy with just the right amount of heat.

Even better was my ability to get some sleep. One complaint I have with some Asian airlines is that they keep the cabin far too warm and have no air nozzles. Although this flight had no air nozzles, the cabin was kept at a very reasonable temperature, so much so that I was able to snuggles under their comfortable blanket and not be too hot. That meant I was able to get several hours of sleep and felt much more refreshed than I probably would have in Saudia economy.

I had a 6 hour layover in Jakarta, so I wasn’t worried about making my next flight in time, but I’m grateful I didn’t have a tighter connection. I was due to depart from the same terminal that I arrived in and should’ve been able to get a transit visa. There wasn’t anyone at the transfer desk though, so I got in line for the Visa on Arrival; I was able to apply online while in line, but couldn’t pay online.

An agent showed up at the transfer desk, so I went over to get his assistance. I was with him for 15-20 minutes and it didn’t seem like he knew anything about transiting procedure – problematic when that’s the desk you’re working at. He eventually said I didn’t need a visa and to go to the immigration desk and they’d let me through.

They didn’t. They said I needed to transfer, so I explained that I’d explained that to the transfer desk guy, but there wasn’t anything I could do but return to the transfer desk. When I got there, he decided that I needed to get a Visa on Arrival, so I got back in that long, slow-moving line. Once I was seen, they refused to give me a Visa on Arrival as I was transferring, so I was told once again to see an immigration agent and explain the situation.

Once again, I followed those instructions and once again was advised that they couldn’t let me through and that I needed a visa. I therefore returned to the Visa on Arrival desk and finally managed to get someone to let me pay the ~$30 for the visa to be allowed through. That whole process took about 1.5 hours, hence why I was glad I didn’t have a tight connection.

By that point it was time for our livestream check-in, so I found a quiet area in baggage claim to do that before heading back through security for my next flight. Given the visa issues I’d encountered at Jakarta airport, I was half expecting issues getting through security, but I breezed through there and was soon in another Priority Pass lounge there.

My next flight was a paid flight on Garuda from Jakarta to Singapore. This was in economy, but it was a great little flight. It was only 1.5 hours and, despite its short length, they provided a full meal. They offered chicken with fried rice or noodles with fish and shrimp; after having two rice meals on the way to Jakarta, I went with the noodles. As economy meals go it was decent, especially on such a short flight.

After landing in Singapore, it was time to decide what to do. My wife and I flew through Singapore a few months ago and found Thomas Dambo’s trolls in Sentosa, so I didn’t feel the need to go back there so soon after.

During the 3 Cards, 3 Continents challenge I visited Singapore, so I’ve already seen some of the key parts of the country, as well as enjoyed many of the fun activities at Changi airport.

There were two activities I hadn’t done though. The first was the outdoor butterfly garden, so I headed out there to check it out.

Just steps from the butterfly garden is a free movie theater that plays movies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. Except the one specific afternoon that I thought I’d go watch a movie in there.

All was not lost though. Right between the butterfly garden and movie theater is the Ambassador Transit Lounge which is part of Priority Pass. It’s not an enormous lounge, but there’s plenty of seating due to the way they have it set up. It also has one of the most impressive food offerings of all the Priority Pass lounges I’ve been to. In addition to having a live cooking and bar station, there’s about a dozen other hot options, salad, chips, ice cream and more.

They have a three hour time limit, but that’s based on when you enter the lounge – they give you a sticker with the time you have to leave by. That’s fantastic because it means that if you have a long layover, you can lounge hop rather than having no lounge access until three hours before your flight.

The lounge also has showers available, so I freshened up before it was time to leave.

I still have another hour or two before I head off on a couple of Vietnam Airlines flights, so it’s time to find a different lounge to hang out in as my three hours in the Ambassador Transit Lounge is up.

Wednesday November 13

Where we last left off, I was leaving the club lounge at the InterContinental in Bucharest to head to the airport. From there I caught a TAROM flight to Athens which only cost $63.80. Even better, the flight was so empty that I had an entire row all to myself.

The flight was perfectly comfortable and once at Athens I went and chilled in the Goldair Handling Lounge. I picked this lounge as it had a shower available subject to payment, so I figured I’d freshen up before continuing my journey. That was until I discovered that the lounge wanted to get fresh with my wallet. That ‘subject to payment’ wording referred to a €50 (~$53) fee and so, having showered that morning, I declined that special opportunity, returning to the main part of the lounge to have some dinner.

My flight out in the evening was on a non-SkyTeam carrier – Aegean. I needed to position to Jeddah and Aeroplan had award availability on Aegean for 12,500 points + CA$87.90 (~$63) in economy. While it wasn’t exactly a stellar value, it was still better than the cash prices being charged on that route.

It was at Jeddah where all the weirdness started. Actually, the weirdness started a day or two beforehand when I kept getting an error message when trying to check in for my Saudia flights. Error message on desktop, error message on mobile and error message in their app. After landing in Jeddah on Aegean, I therefore needed to find a Saudia desk to get checked in and get a boarding pass. After getting my visa on arrival (more about that in a mo), I went through the transiting route and got through security without having a boarding pass. There were Saudia desks along the way, but no one attending to them. I asked various airport workers where I could find a desk with someone there and they sent me every which way except to a desk. In the end, I had to leave airside and go back to the main departures area to check in at a regular check in desk.

The desk agent had a hard time getting me checked in and had to get assistance from her supervisor a couple of times. I’ve no idea what the issue was, but I eventually got a boarding pass, albeit one that said ‘Requested Seat Unavailable’ which seemed sub-optimal. She was also only able to give me the boarding pass on this first flight and not for my connecting flight – I’d need to get that in Madinah.

At the gate, I checked with the agent to make sure I did actually have a seat on the plane and he confirmed I did which put my mind at ease, at least for now. When boarding a few minutes later though, that ease drifted away when some kind of message flashed up on the screen in red to the effect of ‘Do Not Board’.

Uh-oh.

However, the agent scrolled through a couple of things, hit a few buttons and told me it was fine – very weird.

On board I discovered my requested seat that was supposedly unavailable was indeed available and was in fact an exit row seat – sweet!

Once we landed in Madinah, I tried getting the boarding pass for my next flight. Seeing as I’d already been checked in, I figured it might be possible to get a copy of it online. Sure enough, when going on the Saudia website I was able to have a copy of the boarding pass both emailed and texted to me.

However, it wasn’t that straightforward. I noticed that the seat number they’d given me would be a window seat (it ended in A) and I’d paid a little extra to sit a little further forward in the cabin in an aisle seat. I went to a check-in agent with my boarding pass on my phone and the seat I’d selected on my laptop. While he was looking into that, he asked if I was traveling alone or with someone else. That seemed like a weird question as surely my booking would only show me, but I confirmed that I was traveling solo.

Based on that question though, it occurred to me what might’ve happened and so I looked closer at the boarding pass that had been texted and emailed to me. Yep – Saudia had somehow sent me the boarding pass for an entirely different passenger as his name was on the boarding pass. The check-in agent gave me a correct paper boarding pass, but it’s a little concerning that I was sent some random dude’s boarding pass after clicking through to their website from my own booking confirmation email.

Now that I had my boarding pass, I was able to head to security. Scanning my boarding pass wouldn’t let me through though because my flight was still more than four hours away. There was a kind security agent though who checked the reason it wasn’t letting me through and opened the gate for me anyway.

With it being so many hours until my flight was due to depart, I thought that the Primeclass lounge (available through Priority Pass) might not let me in as they have a three hour time limit. The lounge wasn’t particularly busy though, so they were happy to let me in where I was able to have some lunch and a refreshing shower. Unlike the lounge in Athens that wanted to charge €50 for the privilege, the Primeclass lounge at Madinah airport offers complimentary showers. There’s only one shower in the men’s bathroom (I presume it’s the same in the women’s bathroom), so if you have a short connection you might want to try taking a shower before having any food.

While the lounge doesn’t have the most comprehensive food selection, there have been several hot options. I arrived in the morning and had a late breakfast, before having some lunch after they updated the lineup.

There’s plenty of seating, especially for how non-busy the lounge has been for the few hours I’ve been here. Lots of the seats have power outlets as well as USB ports for easy charging. If you’d like it even quieter, there’s a peaceful library room that you can rest in.

Going back to the Saudi Arabia visa process, this had been one of the most confusing parts of all my planning. Based on my research and some helpful reader comments below, it seemed like because I have a UK passport, I could get a transit visa which is cheaper than a regular visitor visa. There was very little information about this online though and then when I reached what seemed to be the correct website, the application process was confusing and laborious. The website was in Arabic and so I had Google Chrome translate the page. That worked for the most part, but some sections seemed to be translated confusingly. For example, the section asking about how I’d arrive didn’t have an option for ‘by air’ but did have some other strangely worded option.

Each time I clicked through to the next screen, it would revert back to Arabic and so I’d have to translate the page again. I eventually came to a screen where it wanted me to list every single country I’d visited in the last five years, along with the dates. Everything was so busy in the lead up to the trip that I never ended up finishing that application, figuring I could get a transit visa on arrival.

That wasn’t the case though. There were no transit visa options to be found at the self-service visa kiosks; I checked with an agent too, mentioning that I had a UK passport and she stated that I had to get a regular tourist visa which costs ~$105. That didn’t really put me at a disadvantage budget-wise and Greg and Nick had to do the same, but it’s a shame that the cheaper transit visa wasn’t an option.

Getting the tourist visa was simple though. It was a five minute process and didn’t require me having to list out all the countries I’ve visited since 2019 and when (whew!).

Back to right now, at the time this publishes I should’ve just boarded my flight out of Madinah on to Asia. Which city will I end up in first? Stay tuned here and on Frequent Miler’s Instagram account.

Tuesday November 12

Yesterday resulted in a fairly early start as I was up and out of the Hilton Charles de Gaulle by about 8:30am. Although the hotel’s location was very convenient and it seemed to be in better condition than when Tim visited a couple of years ago, the breakfast wasn’t great as all the hot options were, in fact, cold options.

At CDG I hopped on a short Air France flight to Amsterdam and was impressed. Despite it being such a short flight, they served a sandwich and a drink to everyone in economy. Unfortunately, I once again struck out with the sandwich choice. I don’t like cheese and on the Virgin Atlantic flight to the UK at the start of the trip that meant I couldn’t eat the cheese sandwich for lunch or the salad covered in cheese or the cheese and crackers. Sure enough, the Air France snack was a cheese sandwich.

I was very impressed by the cabin crew though as the AF flight attendants were friendly AF. All of them were extremely warm, smiling, hard working and personable. The economy seat was also wider and more comfortable than the Air Europa flight I’d been on the previous day.

My layover at Amsterdam airport was only due to be just over an hour and the flight out of Paris was a little delayed setting off, so I was initially concerned about making it to my next flight in time as I wasn’t sure how far across the airport I’d have to traipse. Thankfully it wasn’t far and our flight still managed to land a little earlier than the scheduled arrival time despite the late take off, so along the way I had time to stop in at the Aspire lounge that’s part of Priority Pass. 30 minutes there gave me plenty of time to have some lunch before heading on to my gate which proved to be a life hunger saver.

That next flight was to Bucharest on KLM. Similar to Air France, the seat was slightly wider than expected, plus it seemed to be automatically reclined a little further than most airplane seats. That was fantastic as it made it easier to snooze on the flight without needing to actually recline the seat back towards the person behind me.

The staff on this flight were friendly too, but I once again managed to get the sandwich bad luck. Based on what was written on the sandwich wrapper, KLM serves either cheese or egg sandwiches on their flights in economy; guess which one they were serving that day 😉 In addition to the cheese sandwich, they also provided some kind of chocolate cake snack. I went to take a photo of it but dropped it on the floor and it rolled back under my chair, so I’ve no idea if it was tasty or not.

After landing in Bucharest, I took a Bolt ride (thanks for the tip Jules) to my hotel downtown. There was pretty bad rush hour traffic, but my driver kindly decided to drive down the bus lane for some stretches of it to shave a decent amount of time off the trip.

My hotel was the InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest for my most luxurious stay of the trip. I booked it using an IHG free night certificate which was redeemable up to 40,000 points. As luck would have it, the award price for the night was exactly 40,000 points, so I managed to both maximize the cert while not having to top it up with points. The cash rate was ~$300, so it was a pretty good redemption as the cert came from my IHG Premier card that has a $99 annual fee.

I don’t have an Ambassador membership, but do have Diamond status with IHG. That status meant they proactively upgraded me to a junior suite before I’d arrived. While the term ‘junior’ suite is probably correct as it wasn’t an enormous suite, I was expecting a bedroom with a couch acting as a living area. That wasn’t the case though – it was a one bedroom suite, albeit without a door separating the bedroom and living room – here’s a walkthrough video.

In addition to having Diamond status, at the start of 2023 I picked a lounge membership as one of my IHG Milestone Rewards. Seeing as I selected that at the start of 2023, it was valid for all of 2023 as well as all of 2024. Unfortunately we’ve not stayed in any IHG properties with a lounge during that entire time, so I loved finally having a chance to make use of it before the end of the year.

The evening lounge offering wasn’t quite as good as the lunch provided at the Madrid Marriott Auditorium I’d stayed at a couple of nights before, but it was significantly better than the Hilton CDG’s lounge offering the night before. There were several hot options (teriyaki salmon, samosas and chicken skewers), as well as other small bites, chips, nuts, desserts, fruit, etc, plus soda, wine, spirits, etc.

I didn’t make it out into Bucharest at 2am like Greg did as I’d booked a 2.5 hour free walking tour to explore the city this morning before heading to the airport. That was a great idea except for one thing – this morning it was raining/snowing in Romania’s capital. I was due to head straight to the airport once the tour ended, so being in soaking clothing – or carrying wet clothing around with me for the next few days – wasn’t an appealing option. Instead, I decided to stay warm and dry at the InterContinental, resting up for fast-paced travel in the coming days. My wife and I are moving back to the UK in the new year, so Bucharest will definitely be on our list of quick breaks to take.

I’m now about to leave the InterContinental’s lounge to head back to Bucharest airport. I’m flying TAROM to a different European city, then I’ll catch a non-SkyTeam positioning flight in order to then take a Saudia Airlines flight later this evening. This is the start of a five day stretch with – in theory – no hotel nights as I’ll be hopping from one flight to another, hopefully getting a little downtime in some airport lounges along the way. Having said that, I do have a backup option if I need a hotel room for a few hours at one particular airport halfway through.

Monday November 11

Yesterday was another somewhat slow-paced travel day, but the way things worked out it was hard to do anything stylish.

After checking out of the lovely Madrid Marriott Auditorium, I headed to the airport on the hotel’s free shuttle bus to take an Air Europa flight to Paris.

Air Europa doesn’t fly to Paris Charles de Gaulle; instead, they fly to Paris-Orly which is on the opposite side of the city. My flight out this morning leaves from Charles de Gaulle and I didn’t want to have to traipse across the city early in the morning, so instead I took the 1.5 hour train journey from Orly to CDG yesterday afternoon/early evening and booked a stay at the Hilton Charles de Gaulle at the airport.

Tim stayed there a couple of years ago and wasn’t impressed, so I’d been a little apprehensive about booking a stay there if I wanted to earn any kind of style points. However, comments on FlyerTalk suggested at least some rooms had been renovated since then, plus the executive lounge had reopened, so I figured it would be worth it if for no other reason than for research purposes.

I have Hilton Diamond status and got upgraded to an executive room with lounge access. Despite only having myself listed on the reservation, it seemed like they anticipated me having a lot of company based on the two beds made up in addition to the king bed.

The room itself is perfectly nice and for plane spotters there’s a nice view of the airport (albeit not of the runway).

Last night we did a livestream from our various locations and, just before that, I caught up on the guys’ Instagram Stories, only to discover that Greg was at exactly the same hotel as me! By the time we’d finished that video it was 1am local; he has an early morning flight out and so it appears that we’re going to be two ships contestants that pass in the night.

My first flight today has me up somewhat early, but probably not quite early enough to have breakfast with Greg (I scheduled this post last night, so perhaps we’ll get lucky). That’s the first of two SkyTeam carriers I’ll be flying today which will help me catch up with Greg’s tally, although I’ll still be behind seeing as he’s already completed all the European airlines needed as part of this challenge.

I’m looking forward to my destination today for several reasons. One is that I’ve never visited this city. Another is that I’m getting in at a somewhat reasonable time late afternoon/early evening and will get to enjoy my most stylish hotel stay of the entire trip. That should also give me a decent opportunity to explore the city a little in the evening and/or morning before continuing my journey. From there things are going to get super-busy, so fingers crossed that this stylish stay gets me some much needed rest in advance of that.

Sunday November 10

If you’ve read Greg’s and/or Nick’s last journal entries, you’ll know that the three of us somehow all ended up on exactly the same flight yesterday from London Heathrow to Copenhagen.

Our layovers were varying lengths – Greg had the shortest, Nick had the longest and mine was Goldilocks (just right). When I first started researching my trip, I realized that quite a few countries I’d likely be visiting had trolls built by Thomas Dambo. I soon came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be possible to see many – if any – of those, so I was glad that all of us had a layover long enough to head to Christiana to meet Green George – the 50th troll built by Thomas Dambo. This was, coincidentally, about the 50th of Thomas Dambo’s trolls that I’ve seen, but it was the first time Greg and Nick had ever seen one in person, so it was fun getting to share that with them.

We then stopped at a cafe for several pastries to share between us before Greg and I headed back to the airport.

Copenhagen airport is a surprisingly quiet airport. Not in terms of the number of people traveling through the airport; just that it’s audibly very quiet even when there’s people around. I noticed a similar thing in one of the lounges too; Greg and I went to the Aspire lounge (available through Priority Pass) while we waited for our flights and I managed to have a good nap there as it was so quiet.

My flight out of Copenhagen yesterday evening was a positioning flight on a non-SkyTeam carrier. I booked a nonstop flight on Iberia Express to Madrid for only $89.20 as that would position me for my flight later today on a carrier that I do need to fly as part of the challenge. If you know where airlines for this challenge are based, you’ll probably have a pretty good idea about which airline I’m flying this afternoon.

I stayed overnight at the Madrid Marriott Auditorium for a very reasonable €130 (~$140). I booked directly with Marriott after clicking through from Capital One Shopping. That portal was offering me a higher targeted cashback rate of 8%, so I’ll be earning $10.13. I was also able to apply a Nightly Upgrade Award to get upgraded to a one bedroom suite with executive lounge access (I already have lounge access with Titanium status, so that part was moot). The rate for the suite was ~$325, so it was awesome being able to add a little bit of style for no additional cost. Here’s a walkthrough video of my suite.

I arrived too late last night to enjoy the executive lounge and decided to have breakfast at the buffet downstairs, but I’m finishing off this journal update from the lounge and am impressed with the spread available at midday on a Sunday considering how sparse many hotel lounges are in the US.

Anyway, it’s time for me to pack up my stuff and head to the airport. Any guesses which city I’ll be heading to next?

Saturday November 9

We left off the last journal entry in the early hours of the morning at JFK. After spending a few hours working in Terminal 4 (the 24 hour Primeclass lounge wouldn’t let me in more than three hours before my flight), I stopped in at JFK’s Centurion Lounge. That was my third one in less than 24 hours as I’d also visited the Centurion Lounges at Las Vegas and Los Angeles airports.

After having a filling breakfast in the lounge, I made my way over to the gate to take a flight across the Atlantic. As you might expect, I flew on Virgin Atlantic seeing as that’s one of the SkyTeam carriers I’ll need to pick up as part of the challenge and the JFK-LHR route is one of the cheapest – if not the cheapest – options.

There had been some days in the coming week where the fare dropped as low as $198, but my flight was $243.30 as yesterday’s flight lined up much better with the rest of the flights I found for my overall itinerary. It’s also a bit of a rarity – a daytime flight from the US to London. Most transatlantic flights heading east leave in the evening and arrive in London in the morning, but this Virgin Atlantic flight departs JFK at 8:20am and arrives in London at 8:10pm. That can be a fantastic option if you tend to suffer from jetlag when travelling east as it means you can arrive, make your way to the hotel and head to bed.

The flight on Virgin Atlantic was perfectly fine, but not exactly the most style. I’d bought the cheapest fare available which meant I didn’t get to pick my own seat unless I wanted to pay a fee. With the flight being full, that meant I got to enjoy the 6-7 hours in a middle seat.

They served a small meal about an after takeoff and I was a little unfortunate with this. It was a (somewhat dry) ciabatta roll, but it contained cheese and tomato and it was the only option. I don’t like cheese, so I just ate the packet of potato chips and chocolate bar – thankfully I’d had a decent breakfast in the Centurion lounge beforehand.

A quick tip – if you’re traveling on Virgin Atlantic and want to watch TV shows or movies, bring along your own headphones that can connect via 3.5mm jack. The headphones on the flight were poor – not much better than you’d have gotten with a Walkman back in the 80s – so it was hard following movies without the subtitles on. That said, it probably didn’t help that I was watching A Quiet Place: Day One!

Despite flying in economy, I used my superpower to get several hours of deep sleep while sitting ever-so-slightly reclined, aided by the fact that I’d stayed up overnight at JFK.

Before landing we were served another meal that was more substantial. There was the option between chicken and rice or vegetarian pasta, so I picked the chicken and rice option. This was flavorful enough and didn’t contain cheese which was appreciated seeing as the side salad was covered in shredded cheese and another part of the meal was cheese and crackers.

My flight out of Heathrow leaves this morning, so I got a hotel by the airport for overnight. There were numerous good options, but I settled on the Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4. My flight landed at Terminal 3, but there’s a free train you can take to Terminal 4. There’s then a covered walkway connecting the terminal to the hotel, so I walked over there rather than taking the Hotel Hoppa bus.

I picked this hotel because Premier Inn is a solid hotel chain in the UK that tends to provide excellent value – it was only £54 for the night which is ~$70. That’s a bargain considering its location that’s walkable from the airport and the fact that its rooms are clean, comfortable and stay nice and dark. There’s a restaurant on site, as well as a Costa Coffee, so I had a filling meal before heading back to my room.

I got another four hours of heavy sleep and woke up refreshed before my alarm went off. I’m writing this just before heading downstairs to have breakfast which isn’t automatically included in your room rate. After 15 years of living in the US, whenever I head back to the UK I always take whatever opportunity I can get to have proper bacon (i.e. back bacon), not to mention proper sausages and proper baked beans (although I will say that the US has converted me to your version of baked beans rather than the UK’s Heinz variety that’s much more tomatoey).

After breakfast it’ll be time for a quick shower before walking back to the airport to hop on my next flight to somewhere in Europe. Where will I be flying to? A quick hint – it’ll be somewhere I’ve visited briefly on a past challenge, but I’ll be seeing something different during the layover.

Friday November 8

I’m currently writing this at 1:30am ET from Terminal 4 at JFK. I left Las Vegas this morning, flying to JFK via Los Angeles for the start of my trip.

Despite this being a domestic flight and needing to get Delta at some point on my travels, I didn’t book those flights on Delta as there was a significantly better option using miles. For only 21,500 American Airlines AAdvantage miles + $5.60, I was able to fly first class from LAS to LAX, then Flagship business class from LAX to JFK. That meant the transcontinental leg was in a lie-flat business seat; despite it being a daytime flight, I was able to get at least a couple of hours sleep on the flight which was useful as I was planning on staying awake at JFK to work on stuff after getting in at midnight.

As a reminder, one of the three areas we’re competing on for this challenge is Affordability. Any time that we use miles for positioning flights during the challenge we’re accounting for them by applying the Reasonable Redemption Value (RRV) and adding it to our total cash spend. Seeing as the RRV for American Airlines is 1.3cpp (cents per point), my LAS-LAX-JFK flight is adding $285.10 to my spend ($279.50 for the miles and $5.60 for the taxes and fees). Flying from Las Vegas to New York in economy on Delta would’ve cost ~$280 in order for it to be an eligible fare for the purposes of the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire challenge. Although that means I still need to fly Delta, spending effectively the same amount of money to fly very comfortably across the country in first and business class made far more sense than flying in economy and should get me some kind of credit in the Style scoring too.

Flying in Flagship business class from LAX to JFK is one of the handful of domestic business class flights that gets you access to the American Airlines Flagship Lounge at LAX, so I took advantage of that quickly before my flight too.

My routing also gave an opportunity to do something that might earn me additional Style points, but I won’t be able to reveal that until my next journal entry as I won’t be able to complete that part for another few hours.

Seeing as I’ve flown to JFK, I’m sure many of you will be able to guess which flight I’ll be taking next based on the airlines we all need to fly on as part of this challenge. Stay tuned for more about that in my next update.

Tuesday November 5

A few days ago I was still looking at my accommodation options. I now have four of my five hotels booked, but still have other stuff to sort out too and would love your input if you have any wisdom.

Visas

I’m flying in to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on one airline and out on another. I need to get a transit visa and would love to get that sorted out before I leave to minimize issues on arrival.

However, when trying to research this I haven’t been able to find a way to apply for a transit visa in advance. I can apply for a visa to enter the country, but I’m not planning on leaving the airport and a visa to enter the country is quite pricey.

I’m guessing we have at least some readers who’ve been in this situation before (i.e. arriving in Saudi Arabia on one airline and departing on another). Were you able to apply for a transit visa in advance, or is a transit visa on arrival the only option?

Ground Transportation

One of the other things I’m looking into is ground transportation in Europe. Jules helpfully suggested using Bolt while I’m in Bucharest, so I’ve redownloaded that to my phone. Funnily enough, a day or two ago I received a targeted email from Bolt offering me 10% off my next five rides, so that’ll come in handy.

My biggest issue at the moment regarding ground transportation is working out the best way to get from Paris-Orly airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. I’ll be there on Sunday which not only means reduced service, but some train services will be replaced by buses. I’d rather minimize confusion because even though I got a B for my French GCSE at school in the UK, it’s been almost 30 years and so my French is now rustier than our 2004 Toyota Corolla.

It looks like I can take the Magical Shuttle for €25 which goes from Paris-Orly to Disneyland Paris Hotel Santa Fe, then from there to Charles de Gaulle. That feels like the most straightforward option, but do you know of a better transportation choice that’s not likely to be significantly more expensive? I know I could use something like Uber, but I’m guessing that’ll cost substantially more than €25.

I’d also love recommendations for getting to airport hotels in Madrid. Some hotels offer a shuttle service, but others – like a couple of IHG properties – don’t have a shuttle after 11pm which is when I’ll be arriving. Is Uber the most ubiquitous rideshare service in Madrid, or are there other options like Bolt that are better/cheaper?

If you have any tips for these ground transportation questions or the Saudi visa situation, I’d love to hear them!

Saturday November 2

Greg, Nick and I are keeping our itineraries secret from each other, so we have no clue how we compare to each other when it comes to Speed, Affordability and Style. What I can disclose though is that I set off in less than a week – Thursday November 7.

Although I got all my flights booked a few days ago, I still have much that I need to sort out. I think there’s at least one transit visa I can apply for in advance, so I want to do that now rather than relying on getting a visa on arrival.

I have several potentially – and definitely! – tight connection times, particularly in Asia. I’m therefore considering booking a few positioning flights with miles that I can cancel in the hopeful eventuality that they’re unneeded. My biggest risk right now – and probably each of our biggest risks – is that we miss one flight which has a knock-on effect with making our other flights. Missing a flight also carries the risk that we end up flying on fewer than 15 SkyTeam airlines for the Scandinavian Airlines promotion, but I have an ace up my sleeve. If I do happen to miss one of those flights and need to use a backup flight on a completely different airline, I can fairly easily fly another eligible airline once my trip is over to still hit the 15 airlines needed. I’d rather not have to do that as it’ll detract from my Speed and Affordability, but I’m glad that I was able to put together an itinerary where I have that backup option if necessary.

Something else I need to do is book some accommodation along the way. My week in Europe is slightly slower paced, so I have several nights to book there. My week in Asia is much more hectic and so I only have one hotel night I need to book there.

I’d therefore love to get some suggestions for where to stay. Being realistic, I’m going to have to work the entire time that I’m traveling, so I’m probably not going to have time – or energy – to do any sightseeing. Thankfully 60% of the cities I need to book hotels for are ones I’ve visited in the past, so I won’t feel like I’m missing out as much. Accommodation tips will therefore be particularly appreciated, especially if they’re easy to get to from the airports I’ll be flying in to and out of.

FWIW, the status levels I have are Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium and IHG Diamond. I have an IHG free night certificate plus a lounge membership from a Milestone Reward, so I’d love an opportunity to make use of that lounge access somewhere along the way as I’ve had that reward for almost two years and haven’t used it a single time.

I also have five Marriott Nightly Upgrade Awards about to expire; I don’t currently have any free night certificates and would prefer not to burn the limited points I have, but a cheap Marriott property in cash (or a low points redemption) could be of interest. I also have a couple of Hyatt category 1-4 certificates I could redeem.

Here’s where I need to book stays:

• London Heathrow – I’m from the UK and my parents live in the southeast. I was therefore originally going to ask them if they could pick me up from Heathrow, I’d stay with them, then they could take me back to Heathrow the next day. Figures that they’d already planned their own vacation for the start of November, so I’m just going to stick to a Heathrow airport hotel as I arrive in the evening and leave the next morning. The Hyatt Place Heathrow Airport was looking like a likely contender when I checked a few days ago as it was only £89 (~$115), but do you have a different Heathrow airport hotel that’s good value with cash and/or points that’s easy to get to on the Hotel Hoppa or another bus?
• Madrid – I’m due to arrive in Madrid late at night, but won’t need to check out of the hotel until about midday the following day. Seeing as I’d mainly be sleeping there, it doesn’t seem worth spending too much (whether points or cash) on something lavish unless it’s super convenient (e.g. right next to the airport).
• Paris – I arrive in Paris at a much more reasonable time in the afternoon. I’m flying in to Paris-Orly and flying out of Charles de Gaulle, so I’m not as fussed about staying in a hotel right by one of those airports. I’d love it if the hotel has easy transportation links to both airports though and particularly CDG as I’ll have to head there early (for me) in the morning.
• Bucharest – I’ve never been to Romania, so I have zero clue about the hotel market there. I have an almost 24 hour layover as I arrive late afternoon and don’t leave until late afternoon the next day. Staying at a Marriott or Hyatt where I can get a guaranteed late checkout would therefore be ideal, but not a deal breaker as I could always work in the lobby of whichever hotel if needed.
• Ho Chi Minh City – From Bucharest it’s going to be a savage ride. I hadn’t paid attention to it when putting together my itinerary, but I have a five day stretch where I have zero overnight stays anywhere and relatively short layovers. I therefore won’t get to sleep in a bed until I reach Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Thankfully I arrive at a reasonable time in the afternoon and don’t leave until late morning the next day. At that point I’m likely going to be exhausted, despite my superpower. A hotel near the airport where I can rely on the club lounge for meals and crash in a comfortable bed is therefore primarily what I’m looking for.

Ho Chi Minh City is the final hotel night I need on my trip. Do you have any good ideas about places I should stay in the above five cities? Please let me know in the comments below.

Tuesday October 29

I’ve got a lot to update you all on, but the biggest is that I’ve booked all of my flights for this challenge.

Since we announced this challenge a couple of weeks ago, life has been madness. I’ve been visiting Reno, NV since October 20 but have seen pretty much none of the city or surrounding area because every spare minute has been spent looking at possible routings for the challenge. My wife’s been overseas for the last couple of weeks and gets back tonight, so I’d been hoping to get everything booked before she returned so we could enjoy spending time together before I end up jetting off for a couple of weeks myself.

I’d set up a spreadsheet with potential itineraries and ended up making it to 18 different options, each with varying degrees of completeness. Version 17 ended up being the winner and I started booking those flights on Sunday night (October 27).

I came unstuck about halfway through though. I’d found a decent Saudia fare getting me from Europe to Asia, but when I tried booking it the site that I was trying to book through said the fare was no longer available and repriced it about $2,000 higher – ouch!

I was able to find a different Saudia option that was bookable through Expedia, but that had a warning that the route had “Approval Pending”. That made me extremely nervous because that flight was only about two weeks away. I wasn’t concerned about getting a refund if it didn’t get approval, but that choosing this option might risk having to book an expensive last minute fare in the event that Saudia didn’t gain approval.

That was about 4am, so I decided to sleep on it. When waking up, I realized that there was no point in taking foreseeable risks like that, so I looked at other options. I received some helpful suggestions in the comments below, but ended up finding a pretty good alternative routing. That included reduced costs on a different flight for one of the European airlines I need to fly versus what I’d originally booked, so despite my alternative Saudia routing being a little more expensive, overall my spending only increased by something like $25-$30. That was a huge relief, because before going to bed the previous night I was concerned that it might balloon by an extra ~$200.

It took several hours of painstaking attention to detail to make sure I didn’t make any stupid mistakes, but yesterday (Monday October 28) I was able to get the rest of my flights booked, so now I’m all set.

Or am I?

Despite having my flights sorted, there’s still a lot of planning needed. I’m considering booking some backup award flights for Asia in case there’s some kind of issue with one or more of my flights. I currently have 15 of the 16 eligible airlines booked (you only need 15 for the 1 million miles), with the 16th being somewhat easily bookable after my trip has ended. Taking an award flight for one of the legs wouldn’t be ideal as I’d miss out on whichever airline that was due to be, but the situation would still be recoverable.

Another factor will be accommodation. With a former itinerary I wasn’t convinced I’d have an opportunity to stay in many hotels during the challenge. The first week of my challenge will have several nights I need accommodation for, but the second week will be pretty fast-paced, with very few – if any – opportunities to sleep in a bed. I might not win any Style points for that, but hopefully it’ll help me win on Speed.

Another significant element now will be visas. I’m flying into Saudia Arabia on one airline and out on another, so from the brief research I did last night it looks like I’ll need a transit visa even if I’m not leaving the airport itself. My connection times there aren’t horribly tight, but a flight delay of a couple of hours and a persnickety airport agent could make it squeaky bum time. I have tighter connection times in a few other locations, so I need to see what my visa requirements are for those places and if I can apply for those ahead of time rather than waiting precious minutes getting a visa on arrival.

Abandoned hope & dream

In my original post below, I mentioned that I hoped I’d be able to find some of Thomas Dambo’s trolls around the world along the way. I quickly came to the conclusion that wasn’t going to be feasible, so that’s gone out the window.

My overall focus hasn’t changed though – I’m still aiming to be most competitive when it comes to both Speed and Affordability.

On the Speed front, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about that. The itinerary I’ve pieced together is almost as fast as I could make it. I could’ve conceivably shaved about 18 hours off at the very start of my journey which would’ve put me below a nice overall timing threshold. However, that would’ve left very little margin of error for a couple of important flights, so I decided to give myself a little more leeway to reduce both my risk and stress levels, while still retaining a – hopefully – competitive Speed portion of the challenge.

As for Affordability, I’m mildly confident about this, but I’ve a feeling Nick might beat me on this (Greg’s going for Style points, so I suspect I’ll be spending much less than him). As a reminder, the costs of our cash flights are being included, but we’re also taking into account the Reasonable Redemption Value of the miles used for any additional positioning flights, as well as hotel costs. I’m therefore hoping that even if Nick manages to find cheaper flights than I did for the 15 SkyTeam carriers (or 16 if he goes for them all), I might still spend a teeny bit less than him overall when accounting for those other factors.

Despite my itinerary being booked, that doesn’t mean I won’t need your help anymore. In fact, I imagine that once my trip’s underway I might be in need of greater help as there’s a lot of potential for things to go wrong along the way! More information about the start date of my trip in a future update.

My Focus

As mentioned earlier, our Million Mile Madness journeys will be judged based on SAS – Speed, Affordability, and Style. While it would be nice to travel in style, my main focus will be on the first two factors – Speed and Affordability.

Don’t get me wrong, if there’s some kind of cheap business class fare that can be booked using the Amex Business Platinum’s Pay With Points rebate, I certainly wouldn’t object. However, I’m guessing that I’ll be flying most – or all – of the paid legs in economy and so I’d love to be the one to complete this challenge for the least amount of money.

The speed of the overall journey is also important to me. I had some major reservations about taking part in this challenge because November is my busiest month on GC Galore (one of my own websites) due to all the gift card deals that are around leading up to the holidays. As a result, my wife and I tend to spend a month in the same place in November on our 50 state road trip seeing as much of each day is spent working, hence why we’d booked a month in Vegas. Jetting off around the world and getting little sleep probably isn’t my smartest move, but the EuroBonus Millionaire promotion – and this challenge by extension – was too fun to pass up.

It does mean though that I’d love to not be spending 2+ weeks on this trip, so the shorter the overall travel time, the better.

My Superpower

I’m extremely fortunate because I find it pretty easy to sleep anywhere, even when flying in economy. In fact, when flying economy I’m usually snoozing before the plane has even taken off. Some of the best sleep I’ve ever gotten on a plane was 10 years ago when flying to Australia in economy. I’m therefore hoping that’ll help me get enough rest seeing as my itinerary could be fast-paced with fewer hotel nights than Greg and Nick allow themselves to have.

Hopes & Dreams

Speed and affordability are the primary objectives, but if it’s possible to fit these in with my itinerary, that would be superb.

• Trolls – If you’ve been following Frequent Miler challenges from our first ever challenge – 40K To Far Away – you might remember that I found some of Thomas Dambo’s trolls in both Belgium and Denmark. I’d love to be able to fit in more of them during this trip, but the easiest ones to get to will still likely be a big hassle visiting due to their distances from airports. It therefore won’t make sense if this impacts on the speed of my journey, but if I have a long layover or an overnight in one of these places, it might be doable.
  • Seoul, South Korea – There’s a collection of five trolls at Pyeonggang Land, a two hour drive northeast of Incheon. Google Maps doesn’t give driving directions in South Korea, so I’d have to use either Naver Map or Kakao Map and I’m not sure how good those are when it comes to driving directions in English.
  • France – There’s a troll in Elfy Land, about 1.5 hours outside of Lyon. There’s also a new one in La Forêt Monumentale in Rouen, about two hours northwest of Paris.
  • Copenhagen – Although I found several trolls in Copenhagen during 40K To Far Away, there are many more that I haven’t found there (Copenhagen is where Thomas Dambo is from, hence why there are so many there).
• Lounges – If I want to get this journey done ASAP, it’ll likely require as few nights in hotels as possible. Seeing as I’ll likely be flying in economy for the most part, having access to Priority Pass lounges in each airport I’m flying through would be ideal, especially if they have showers.
• As few flights as possible – While we can take as many additional flights as we need to piece together an itinerary that incorporates 15 SkyTeam airlines, I’d love it if those additional flights were minimal. Even better if there’s somehow a way to only fly 15 legs.
• Visas – For anywhere that I’d be staying overnight, being able to get a visa on arrival would be preferred. Unlike Nick, I don’t already have a Chinese visa and so that means in order to fly any of the China-based airlines, I’d need to transit the airport rather than actually enter the country.
• Getting back to Vegas – If there was some way to have the itinerary land me back in Vegas, all the bettor better. However, that’s not essential as I can find some other way to get back there (hopefully in comfort) using my own miles.

Constraints

• Departure airport: My wife and I are due to be spending most of November in Las Vegas, so that’s the airport that I’ll be flying out of. Seeing as Delta is one of the eligible airlines, taking a cheap flight from Vegas to somewhere like Los Angeles, Seattle or San Francisco to then head to Asia might make sense. However, perhaps there’ll be a cheap flight from Las Vegas to New York and from there I can get a cheap flight to Europe on Virgin Atlantic, KLM or Air France. Or maybe fly from Vegas to Mexico City on Delta or Aeromexico and then back up from there to a different US city and onwards.
• Departure date:
  • Earliest departure date – November 4 (Monday) after midday
  • Ideal departure date – November 5-7 (Tuesday-Thursday), but can leave later than November 7 with the right itinerary
• Return date: I need to be back in Vegas by November 20.
• Passport: Unlike Greg and Nick, I don’t have a US passport – I have a UK passport as I’m a Permanent Resident here in the US. I don’t think there are many differences in terms of where they’re accepted around the world, but it’s something to be aware of, especially with countries where I won’t just be transiting through the airport.

Potentially Useful Stuff (Or Lack Thereof)

Unlike Greg, I don’t have any flight credits, upgrade certificates, etc. that will be applicable to this challenge. However, that could potentially be a blessing in disguise because it means I won’t have the temptation to book sub-optimal flights in order to take advantage of those other types of benefits.

Qualifying Airlines

Here are the 16 airlines available for the promotion. Since I need to fly 15 of them, I can only leave 1 off the list:

• Qualifying airlines based in North America
  • Aeromexico
  • Delta
• Qualifying airlines based in Europe (primary hubs shown in parentheses)
  • Air Europa (Madrid MAD)
  • Air France (Paris CDG)
  • KLM (Amsterdam AMS): KLM also has several 5th Freedom Flights entirely in Asia: KUL to Jakarta (CGK); SIN to Denpasar DPS; Taipei (TPE) to Manila (MNL)
  • SAS (Copenhagen CPH, Stockholm ARN, Oslo OSL)
  • TAROM (Bucharest OTP)
  • Virgin Atlantic (London LHR, Manchester MAN)
• Qualifying airlines based in Asia (primary hubs shown in parentheses)
  • China Airlines (Taipei TPE)
  • China Eastern (Shanghai PVG)
  • Garuda Indonesia (Jakarta CGK)
  • Korean Air (Seoul ICN, GMP)
  • Vietnam Airlines (Ho Chi Min City SGN, Hanoi HAN)
  • Xiamen Airlines (Xiamen XMN, Fuzhou FOC)
• Qualifying airlines based elsewhere (primary hubs shown in parentheses)
  • Kenya Airways Nairobi (NBO): Note that Kenya Airways has a 5th freedom flight in Asia: Bangkok BKK to Guangzhou CAN
  • Saudia Airlines (Riyad RUH, Jeddah JED)

I Need Your Help!

All three of us are seeking reader input on our itineraries, but I could probably do with getting the most assistance of all! I signed up for this challenge against my better judgment as I’m super-busy for the next couple of weeks. That means I have little time to do a lot of research into routings, pricing, etc., so all input will be gratefully received. And remember – the person who’s most helpful will win a prize and if I win the challenge overall, that reader will win the grand prize.

Please therefore share your ideas, tips and tricks in the comments below – thank you 🙂

Let the madness begin!

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