we booked and already went on another RTW first class trip:

booked with USairways miles in 2014 when they were still with star alliance, for 140000 points per person (equivalent to $2380 usd per person to go to australia in first class, at 0.017$ per miles bought, Economy class fares are normally $2200 pp that time of the year)

trip planner with links, pictures, videos, and post later:

NA- cdg flight with AC dream liner lie flat business class

CDG-BKK flight thai tg a380 first, (private flight, the whole section of airbus a380 first was only for us, no one else was booked on that flight. 12 first class seats to play with, 2 private bathroom, 1 private lounge, 5 private FAs)

BKK fist lounge with free 1hour massage for first class passengers

BKK-SIN flight SQ business recliner non lie flat, bought with miles for 25000 points, at 0.015$ per points

stay at fairmont singapore, free stay and free plaza suite upgrades

singapore : eat at jumbo, food court

flight SIN- MNL SQ first 77w, for 37000 points, at 0.015$ per points

Stay at raffles makati manila (1 bedroom executive suite upgrades)

flight MNL to ENI (el nido palawan) $500 pp

stay el nido palawan Pangulasian resort

Private palawan diving ( no one else was diving there, we dived when we want, where we want, how much we want)

4k video diving palawan

3d photo underwater palawan

night diving fluo diving palawan

flight MNL-BKK tg business recliner, 25000 points

stay W bnagkok, 1 bedroom wow suite upgrades, 4 hand massages

flight BKK-SYD that tg 747 first class

flight SYD-MEL quantas business, avios points

stay westin melbourne, free on spg points, (10k per night instead of paying $700 usd per night)

australian open tennis in 3d photos ! (novak, rafa, berdych, wawrinka, serena, shaparova, murray etc in glorious 3d action photos)

stay park hyatt melbourne  suite upgrades with amex FHR resorts program

flight MEL-SYD quantas business, avios points booking

stay westin sydney, 1 bedroom executive suite upgrades, cash and points

stay sheraton syd, one bedroom suite upgrades

EAT at tetsuya sydney

flight SYD-BKK TG first, syd SQ singapore first class hidden lounge, australia tourist tax refund

flight BKK-CDG tg a380 first class

flight CDG- NA AC dreamliner 787 business class

 

 

 

 

We booked another (!) rtw trip in f class with aeroplan for 175k, before the devaluation increased to 225k per person. It is so tempting to go around the world in first class for same price as an economy cash ticket… Hence we fly around 200k-300k miles per year in first and biz class.

Trip planner with links, pictures, and post later:

Na- cdg with air canada lie flat b767
Cdg-bkk thai tg a380 first
Stay st regis bangkok, 2 bedroom suites upgrades
Eat at nara bangkok
Fly bkk-sin- mle sq biz
Male maldive traders hotel transit one night
Conrad maldives on hhonors points
Diving conrad maldives : underwater pictures and videos: from super wide angle panoramic, to 3d pictures, to fluo night dive pictures,  to 4k video, to super macro !!

• 3d underwater photography,
• 4k video underwater diving video
• 4k video aerial maldives
• fluo diving, PANORAMIC UNDERWATER pictures,
• super macro underwater diving pictures

Fly mle-sin sq biz
Sin fairmont plaza suite upgrades.
Eat Singapore restaurants : nara, paradise dynasty, jumbo, waku ghin, food court desserts

• 4k video ultra hd singapore water lightshow

Fly sin-bkk-cdg thai a380 first
Stay westin paris
Stay park hyatt paris
Eat: le hide, pur park hyatt paris, bistro volnay
Fly cdg-muc-yul lufthansa first

Cost of flight pp: 175k aeroplan, + 30k usairways (sin-mle sq biz return)
Compared to cash cost : $15k-20k, + $1500 sin-mle flight

Advantage of flying first class: you can bring per person: 3 luggage each weight 70lbs each, great for divers and underwater photographers. (Camera brought: nikon 1, 3 d camera, 3 d camcorder, go pro 4k)

To avoid paying fees for sin-mle luggage (inside asia, sq weight is very limited, even in biz class), we had star alliance gold from tk air, obtained with status match last year, ( and maintained valid for 3 year until 2016, with only 25000 miles flown, instead of the usual 50000 miles flown requirement per year). It is hard for us to get 25000 miles flown, paid, as we usually travel in first class with points.

To avoid paying luggage fees for the seaplane, i negociated a package with the conrad resort before arrival (past frequent customer), so i avoided paying $1000 in luggage fees. (It is a little embarassing to see our 6 luggage taking half of the cargo space of the seaplane)

Why all this info? Like the movie cartoon ratatouille, where the chef said: anyone can cook? Well luxemiles say: anyone can fly first class.

last year we heard about diving in raja ampat  misool eco resort . we wanted to see it for ourselves

trip planner: as with wakatobi resort, you cannot arrive and depart any day, you have to arrive and depart at specific dates. raja ampat is at the west side of the island of papua new guinea, 4 hours flying direct from Jakarta with express air: raja ampat airport is SORONG (SOQ)

all express air (code: XN) from Jakarta airport (CGK) to Sorong (SOQ) depart at domestic terminal in Jakarta early in the night (1am).

The boat from sorong – misool is 4-5 hours. (so you usually need to stay 1 night in sorong before flying home)

CASH LOGISTICS:

• extra luggage fees for domestic flights: as we are divers with a lot of luggage, bring lots of Indonesian cash, as the luggage limits are strictly enforced. excess luggage is at 40000 idr per kg (about 4usd). ONE WAY.The extra luggage fees can be reduced if you do not ask for official receipt.
• domestic airport taxes: remember to keep around 40000 IDR per person for airport taxes at CGK domestic. Airport taxes in ALL of Indonesia are cash payment only.
• foreign currency exchanges are a lot cheaper than paying with credit cards or atms, as long as you exchange it in crisp USD in Jakarta downtown. (inside keraton plaza shopping complex). do not exchange in hotels, airports.
• international VOA visa on arrival at CGK aiport: 25usd per person. cash only. you line up to pay and get the visa first, at the FIRST line: payment, even if other lines says VOA (it is actually border control for voa)
• taxi in CGK: when we landed in CGK international airport, we previously asked the Keraton plaza hotel to pick us with their BMW limousine service. cost 60 usd.
• is the hotel pick up service worth it? yes. a long ride in comfort, especially considering Jakarta famous traffic, heat, and with pick up meet and greet service, and the fact you can charge it to your room without spending cash (get some spg points) or having to get foreign exchanges at airport is effortless.

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS LOGISTICS:

our flight was all business class: canada-SFO-TPE-CGK with review eva air (BR)  business class

return:  CGK-HND / (stop) NRT-SEA-canada with review of ANA 787 Dreamliner business class

cost: 120 000 us airways miles per person, or around $ 1200 (+5%gst) usd pp (with their bi annual transfer miles bonus promos)

HOTELS logistics:

Jakarta: review of KERATON plaza hotel, a luxury collection starwood

Sorong: JE meridian hotel (not THE meridien hotel, not part of starwood). normally required stay in sorong  one night before flying home, as the boat from misool resort takes 4-5 hours.

raja ampat: misool eco resort

Tokyo: Westin tokyo