A close friend and fellow points and miles enthusiast, David, reached out to me asking me for ideas to help him bring his unique birthday travel goal to life. David is already extremely well-traveled for a young adult, having already explored 5 of the world’s continents, and he is looking to visit the final 2 (Antarctica and Australia) by his 27th birthday in April.
His ideal itinerary would be visiting Antartica in January-February, then head on to Australia. The admirable part of the trip is that for David’s birthday (April 9), he plans on visiting Afghanistan and donating $12,000 of his personal income to Room to Read to help build a school right there in Afghanistan. When I first met David, it was impossible to ignore his kind, selfless, and philanthropic nature as it radiated through when he shared his past travel adventures with me. I’m beyond excited and eager to help make his best birthday ever come to life.
…Now the tough part is: I have not yet visited any of the places he wants to travel to. Sure, I can do the all of the technical routing research associated with booking the flights, but what would be much better and more helpful is hearing first-hand accounts from those who have traveled to these places themselves. If any readers have any personal travel insight or award flight routing suggestions to offer David, he will be more than grateful for your help.
Like any other points and miles enthusiast, David prefers to book as many segments of his as possible with points and miles, to minimize out-of-pocket expense on his end.
Here’s what he is working with at the moment:
Home Airport: NYC (JFK, LGA, EWR)
Credit score: 768
Credit cards he has: Chase Sapphire Preferred, US Airways Mastercard, United MileagePlus Visa
Current Mileage Balances:
106,000 British Airways Avios
16,000 JetBlue Miles
33,000 United Miles
56,000 US Airways Miles
As an incentive for helping David, I will also pay it forward and randomly choose a winner from the comments to receive a Collectible 8×10 Autographed Julie Hagerty Airplane Movie Poster.
Let’s collectively help David have memorable and rewarding birthday! It’ll be an incredible experience for him, and he looks forward to fully documenting his journey along the way.
Antartica:
http://everything-everywhere.com/2012/07/14/photo-essay-paradise-bay-antarctica/
http://j.mp/Mg9J0h
Afghanistan:
I’ve not been to Afghanistan, but I’ve been to Iraq. The MO for getting there relatively inexpensively is flying to Dubai/Sharjah/Abu Dhabi and then taking a small charter or discount airline into Afghanistan. Safi Airways has some flights you may want to check out. Wikipedia is a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabul_International_Airport
A friend of a friend was just killed in Afghanistan as he did philanthropic work: http://www.mennoworld.org/2012/8/6/businessman-killed-rural-afghanistan/ Tell your friend to be careful.
Australia: DL miles for Virgin Australia biz is, of course, a great option.
Argh! Misspelled Antarctica.
Sounds like a great plan for David, and a very nice gesture on your part. Since he has the Chase Sapphire Preferred he must have some UR but you didn’t list that as an option for his miles/points. Some UR would help boost the United or Avios #s or could help with hotels. I’d also recommend the SPG Amex for the new 30k bonus.
If he is targeted for the US 100% bonus on buy miles, he could also top up his account that way. I agree with the Starwood Amex suggestion.
Also, while he’s in the neighborhood of Antarctica, he should check out Patagonia: http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/keyword/patagonia#!i=742620650&k=vyheG
Get the United Mileageplus Credit Card and there are openings for 55,000 Miles for nonstops from NYC to Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE). From there, you need to get to Ushuaia on a local flight and then a ship to Antarctica. Here is a guide I found about trying to find a cheap cruise to Antarctica.
http://wanderingtrader.com/antarctica-travel-tips/a-guide-to-find-cheap-antarctica-cruises/
but then I have had no luck finding travel from south america to Australia.
It would seem to me that a cruise from Australia to Antarctica might be easiest, but they aren’t cheap http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/10-04/how-to-choose-an-antarctic-cruise.html
I hope he finds his way. It may be something best done in two separate trips.
Not sure if this will help much, but get the delta personal and biz card, along with the SPG personal and biz cards, throw in maybe an ink bold/plus card while ur at it :)
I lived in Australia for 5 months so feel free to email me for suggestions!