I made a last-minute trip to Australia to surprise my mom on her 60th birthday where she was visiting my sister. And I planned this trip literally 3 days before I left.
We had a lovely stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney, ate incredible food, toured the Sydney Opera House, and enjoyed the friendly Aussie hospitality!
A Quick Trip Down Under Index:
Part 1 – United Airlines International Business Class to Australia (and, Food!)
Part 2 – Park Hyatt Sydney Views and Diamond Breakfast
Part 3 – Park Hyatt Sydney – Opera Deluxe Room
Part 4 – Park Hyatt Sydney – City Harbor King Room
Part 5 – Sydney Opera House Tour
Part 6 – United Airlines Global First Review
I love time traveling!
My United Airlines flight departed Sydney at 9:25 am local time. And arrived in Los Angeles at 6:25 am Pacific Time the same day!
How’s that for a neat trick? 😉
On my way home, I booked a flight for 80,000 United Airlines miles and ~$85 in taxes and fees in United Airlines Global First Class. It was easy to find an award seat.
The seats were certainly much larger and more comfortable than the seats in Business Class.
Which I was very thankful for on this ~14 hour flight!
Each seat was quite private and had lots of storage.
I was eager to go to sleep, but I couldn’t pass up the food!
I didn’t take pictures of every course, but here’s my entree. I had the salmon with couscous and vegetables, and it was delicious.
In general, the food on United Airlines wasn’t my favorite. But maybe I’ve been spoiled by my other Big Travel experiences! 🙂
Shortly after the meal service ended, I settled in to sleep. And was out cold for several hours!
It’s worth splurging on a First Class ticket for flights this long. I arrived in Los Angeles refreshed (and full!).
My trip to Sydney went way too fast! But I’m glad I got to spend my mom’s 60th birthday with her and treat her to an amazing stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney!
I feel sad that I’m so far away from my mom and can’t meet her as often as I’d like. So I was lucky to be able to take the extra mile to go visit her.
@DCJoe Thank you for the information. So I can buy the ticket at the higher mileage points and then do a change fee if the points go down? I didn’t know that I could do that. Going to Europe, I can’t wait until the last minute to book the flight. That’s to risky for me but I will hold off a little longer. Thanks.
Melanie,
Two reasons he was able to get the ticket for such a reasonable number of miles:
1. It’s still not quite busy season in Australia yet, which doesn’t really kick in until December. So flight demand isn’t as high as it will be in a month, when Americans want to go Down Under for Christmas time where it’s warm.
2. He booked the ticket just a few days beforehand, which is often the best time to find available seats at the lower mileage level. Of course that makes it tough to plan sometimes. One solution to this is to buy a higher mileage ticket to lock in the date, and if a lower mileage option opens up a few days before, eat the change fee and make the switch and save the miles.
So glad you had a nice trip with your mom. I was wondering how did you find a ticket for 80K points? I am looking on United for a flight to Europe next April or May and they are all 150k and 170K. Is it that I am looking to far ahead and I need to wait till the flight is closer? Thanks.