The title says it all. I am coming home to Australia for a little trip next year. Better yet, Heidi is coming with me. Getting it all booked was an absolute mission, but it is all done and dusted now. The most exciting thing is going to be introducing Heidi to my friends and family in Australia. My parents have spoken to Heidi (never seen since they can’t work out Skype properly, and if someone wants to go give them a lesson, be my guest) and they know how much I love and care about her, but not having had them meet yet sucks a little bit. But that is going to change.

We have always planned to go to Australia and I wanted to go this year, but time has always been the problem. All of the points we have used to head down on this trip I have had for quite some time, so it has just been finding the time for both of us to go. Sadly it won’t be this year in 2015, it will be 2016 that I head down, shortly after the anniversary of my 4th year in the USA.

So what are we doing in Australia? Well pretty much just spending time in Brisbane with my family and friends. I get to show Heidi where I grew up, where I went to School or where I went to have fun. I want to introduce her to my family, my friends, the town I love. Best of all, I want her to experience my home country in a way that really immerses her into the experience. Of course we get to do all the touristy things like cuddle a koala etc (they just smell like a giant bottle of Eucalyptus Oil but hey it is what she wants), feed some Kangaroos, check out the sites of Brisbane, Eat a meat pie etc.

Getting down to Australia is not going to be fun, unfortunately what space there was in Business went way to quick so unfortunately we are flying down in Y. Why am I doing it, well because we didn’t have a choice. So to get down to Australia we have to fly to Melbourne and then connect back up to Brisbane (the fun of flying on points means you go where you can, not where you want). From Brisbane though is the fun part. We leave Brisbane to take Heidi up to Asia for the first time, and of course the easiest way to do that for a couple of days is to Singapore (known as “Asia Light”). We get to fly up there on Emirates Business so Heidi will get her first taste of a premium class. For me it also means I will finish off all 3 classes on Emirates having flown First and Economy in the past.

From Singapore we will head on further north on Singapore Airlines in Suites. This was something that had to be included. We had to cancel our Japan holiday with confirmed seats in Suites and it gutted both of us. So this means we get the best of both worlds. We were booked to have a 9 hour layover in Tokyo as well, before heading home to the USA on ANA First to San Francisco. But then…. it happened.

I was chatting with a coworker yesterday showing him what I had booked when I saw the schedule. It told me that I had booked a 777-300ER from Singapore to Narita. I was like “Did i read something wrong? Did I screw up?” The only reason we were flying Singapore Airlines was for Suites and If I couldn’t do that I would change things around. I checked my original itineraries and it showed as A380 (the 777 doesn’t have Suites). So I called Singapore (SQ) and let them know about the situation. I had already checked to see if there was space on the earlier in the day SIN-NRT flight (the one that continues to LAX) and they were happy to allow us to change to that flight. They even waived the Reissue fee for us due to the schedule change. Thankfully that earlier flight arrived into LAX later than what our flight to SFO departed, so rather than having a Red Eye with a 9 hour stop, we now have 2 day flights with a 23 hour layover in between. Hello free stopover in Tokyo!!

So for those who want dates (and i know there are a lot of you back home in Brissie who want to know) this is how this should all plan out:

18th July 2016 – Seattle to Los Angeles – Alaska Airlines – Economy
18th July 2016 – Los Angeles to Melbourne – Qantas Airways (arrives 2 Days later) – Economy
20th July 2016 – Melbourne to Brisbane – Qantas Airways – Economy
26th July 2016 – Brisbane to Singapore – Emirates – Business (This is a 2:30am departure)
28th July 2016 – Singapore to Tokyo Narita – Singapore Airlines – Suites
29th July 2016 – Tokyo Narita to San Francisco – All Nippon Airways – First
29th July 2016 – San Francisco to Seattle – Not yet booked, probably United

So there you have it folks, I am coming home to Australia and bringing the wife with me. I am sure that there will be plenty of Schedule changes along the way (hopefully QF do some changes so that I can swap onto the Brisbane flight that runs direct from LAX if I am lucky). Now to try and figure out a way to get some Oneworld Status between now and the departure date so that Heidi and I can use the lounges to at least freshen up after our epic flight in Y.