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Well, at least that’s the hope and the dream…

We had so much fun at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 that we’ve decided to try to attend another comedy festival in 2026: Melbourne. Taskmaster NZ has introduced us to comedians from Oceania (mostly from NZ), so there’ll definitely be some familiar acts for us there.

I’m trying to do this purely on points, since we’re blowing our cash budget this coming winter in Chile. (I’ll probably post on that eventually.) But since Australia’s a LONG, LONG way away, I’d really prefer to do this as comfortably as possible.

At the same time, the UK Taskmaster, Greg Davies, is going on tour for the first time in ages next year. So we’ve planned a Commonwealth Comedy trip: seeing Greg in England, then going to Melbourne. At least that way, I only need to book 3 legs instead of 4!

Advance planning is working out for me so far: after lots of tinkering and booking and rebooking and rescheduling, our flights look like this (so far):

• ORD-JFK-LHR on AA in business, booked for 55K Alaska points + $18.10 per person. I’d prefer a direct flight, and I’ve got a search going for one at PointsYeah, but if we end up on these flights, it’s not the end of the world.
  • Current cash value of this leg is about $2800 (although my personal value for this leg is probably closer to $1000), so that’s a decent redemption!
• LHR-SIN-MEL on Singapore Airlines in business class, booked for 130.5K Singapore points + GBP 329.52 ($444.69) per person. I hate how much points inflation there’s been in recent years, and I thought hard about using an airline that doesn’t fly to the US (e.g., Thai or Vietnam), but this is pretty darn nifty. The only way I could plus this is if I manage to get us into first class.
  • Current cash value of this leg is about $5400, but I’d never pay that!
• MEL-HKG-ORD on Cathay in business class, booked for 115K Cathay points + HKD 2582 ($329.25). Again, the points inflation problem is real (in 2019 Chris flew to ORD-HKG for 50K Alaska points for business class and I flew for 70K Alaska points for first class), but getting a one-stop flight between Melbourne and Chicago is pretty good so I’ll take it! I’m going to keep searching to see if first class opens up (at least one seat — I owe Chris that experience!), but I won’t hold my breath.
  • Current cash value of this leg is about $4400 (again, wouldn’t actually pay that).

Now, since these flight are 10-11 months out, who knows if there will be changes. Since I was trying to be thrifty, I had originally booked us in economy to London on AA for 19K AA points + $5.60 each, but couldn’t resist the business class option. I had us booked in economy from Melbourne to Chicago (via NAN and LAX) for 40K AA points + ~$100 each, but I couldn’t resist the business class option (with one fewer stop!) again. I had wanted to use my Alaska points for more of this trip, but getting partner business class seats to or from Australia is getting harder and harder. I’m unlikely to tinker with this itinerary again, since now I’ve got points parked at Singapore and Cathay… unless something amazing pops open that I can book using those points.

I’m glad we have the points to do this, but the points cost are no joke! Our first RTW trip in 2019 cost less than 200K points per person. When we went to Seoul, London, and Portugal in September 2023, we spent even less, 170K points each: 90K at ANA and 80K at Qatar. This time, just a few years later, we’re spending 300.5K points each. But the reality of this points-and-miles game is that sweet spots are fleeting. I’m just glad we got to take advantage of ANA’s RTW ticket before that deal vanishes (which it is now set to do in about a month from today).

I am mindful, however, that the last time I booked a points-trip to Australia in 2017, I was foiled by schedule changes. I had booked us on Asiana from Sydney to Seoul to Chicago, only for Asiana to cancel their Chicago route entirely and leave me scrambling for an alternate way home. Since I had used Lifemiles for that booking, and since they’re not the most customer-friendly frequent flyer program, they couldn’t/wouldn’t force anyone to open up award space nor would they let me change the destination to another US city. So we ended up getting our Lifemiles points refunded and flying home from Sydney on American in economy. Not ideal. Fingers crossed that this itinerary works out!