BDU: Flying to Sydney

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'd lucked out and found an award seat in First Class on the Qantas flight from Dallas to Sydney.  For now, that's the world's longest flight at over 7400 nautical miles (or 8578 miles as we think of it) and blocked at 16h 50m.  (Emirates is planning a longer flight, Dubai to Panama City, starting in March 2016.)  If I have to be anywhere for 17 hours, I want to be comfortable so I was thrilled when I found this seat was available.

Since my flight to Dallas was on a separate ticket, I could arrive as far in advance as I wanted.  I chose to take the early afternoon flight which would put me in Dallas around 5 PM.  There was another, late afternoon flight that would have arrived in time for me to catch the flight to Sydney which left at 9:15 PM but I wanted to arrive in plenty of time in case there was a delay or worse, the MEM-DFW flight got canceled.  That way I had a backup plan already in place.

Fortunately I have a friend in Dallas who works not too far from the airport.  We met up for a light dinner and had a great time catching up.  I didn't want to eat too much as I was looking forward to the food I'd be served on board.  I sure don't say that about domestic flights!

My friend dropped me off at the airport a little after 7 PM and I took the opportunity to visit the Qantas lounge.  Most of the foreign carriers at DFW only have one or two flights per day.  As a result they have relatively small lounges.  Qantas is no exception.

I found the entrance on the concourse.  As you can see from the photo a number of carriers are serviced from this location.  I walked through the doors and took the elevator up to the second floor.  There I found a desk where my boarding pass was checked and I was directed down the hall to the Qantas lounge, which was the first one on the right.

Ground-level entrance in Terminal D

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

(And you thought BDU = Battle Dress Uniform!)

Back in early 2013 I was listening to a travel podcast that mentioned a blogger who specialized in helping people earn and burn airline miles and hotel points.  I went to this blogger's website which lead me to a few other bloggers who did the same thing.  I learned that through strategically applying for credit cards and using the right credit card for specific purchases, it's possible to generate tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of points and miles each year.  After a few months of digging into what these bloggers were saying, I came to realize I could apply a great many of their methods and earn myself not only some free airfare but entire trips that were memorable both for their locations and the level of comfort in which I'd be able to both fly and stay.  With a "round" birthday looming in a couple of years (you know, a birthday that ends with a zero), I set a goal of going back Down Under with my travel buddies C & D and to do as much as possible using points and miles to reduce the costs.

C & D had some miles of their own. C is a bit more receptive to opening new credit cards on a strategic basis and thus has a bigger pile of miles and points.  D thinks it's a lot of trouble but was willing to open one new card to go along with her existing stash of miles.  I had a fairly large balance of points and miles but as a birthday present my dad was willing to fund my flights from his mileage balance (Thanks, Dad!).  As it turned out I did use some of my own for one flight but the the rest came from him.

If you're interested in the details of how we used points and miles and how you might be able to do something similar, let me know and I'll be happy to work with you to reduce the cost of your flights.  Nothing's ever totally free but it sure cost a lot less than it could have!