Introduction
Brisbane to Sydney to Melbourne
Park Hyatt Melbourne & Melbourne to Canberra
Canberra to Melbourne to Brisbane
Conclusion
I am going to do this trip report a little bit differently, I am going to try and post it in stages so It doesn’t eat up so much of my time, along with also making it easier to read.
This upcoming trip had a bit of a wierd starting. After finding out in Early March that I could possibly have the Easter Period off, well I thought back to last Easter where I had a great time flying some flights, purely cause I can (Trip Report here) and thought back, well why don’t I do it again. I had two options in my mind.
1. A local bit of #avgeek times doing some spotting in Sydney and perhaps adding some more Virgin Australia status credits to my requalification before heading overseas.
2. A long weekend journey to the Northern Hemisphere, to Japan for some 787 flights with ANA.
After researching the costs vs time away and looking into it, Japan was scrapped. Not purely cause I couldn’t afford it, but the outlay for time spent in Japan just was not worth it. I begrudingly put the Japan plans out of my mind and set about planning a quick 2 day jaunt to the Southern states. After a bit of playing with online schedules I came up with the following which would give me a full day of Spotting fun in Sydney on the Saturday and then some Status running on the Sunday.
07th April 2012 – DJ908 – Brisbane to Sydney – 0600/0735 – Boeing 737-800 – Economy
07th April 2012 – DJ888 – Sydney to Melbourne – 2000/2135 – Airbus A330-200 – Economy
08th April 2012 – DJ271 – Melbourne to Canberra – 1330/1435 – Embraer E190 – Economy
08th April 2012 – DJ278 – Canberra to Melbourne – 1700/1810 – Boeing 737-800 – Business
08th April 2012 – DJ351 – Melbourne to Brisbane – 1900/2110 – Boeing 737-800 – Business
It will look something like this:
So why to Canberra you may be asking? Well the Business fares from Canberra to Brisbane were quite cheap and could give me a good status point bonus, but the funniest thing is, it was CHEAPER to fly in Business from Canberra to Melbourne to Brisbane than it was to fly Melbourne to Brisbane… so why the hell not. In using these flights, I would get almost the entire Virgin Australia fleet on my list of flown Aircraft (Just the 332 and E90 to go).
So the flights were set, but where do I spend Saturday night, I looked around, I thought about things, I looked at offers and agent rates, then I saw a link to a Hyatt Diamond Challenge, you could status match to Diamond status with Hyatt Gold Passport from my Hilton Gold for 2 months and even get the Suite Upgrade Benefits. Now I have always wanted to stay at a Park Hyatt and although I definately can not afford the Park Hyatt Sydney so Melbourne would have to do and the rates were good to use the Suite Upgrade and with free breakfast and other benefits, It would be a good nights stay and since the flight did not go till Mid Arvo I could get a good morning with friends in Melbourne for one final time!
The trip was booked and set, but then something even better happened. Virgin Australia announced a Double Status credit special, but it was only valid on bookings made AFTER 27th March. So although some of my fares I couldn’t do much with (as they would cause fees that would eat up the majority of the fare I paid as there was some good bargains in those fares) the Business Class fare could be cancelled without fees and the prices were still the same as I paid. So dodgily cancel and rebook I did! That will take my Business flights from 40 status credits to 80, giving me well more than enough to requalify now.
The camera lens will get packed, the point and shoot will be primed and ready to go (after a recent warranty return). I can’t wait!!! Lots of photos to be taken!