Around the world, part two: here's my new itinerary to tour the planet in 5 days
Today, January 2, 2021, I was supposed to leave for my first round-the-world trip. It was meant to be the madness of beginning [...]
United Airlines
Lufthansa
All Nippon Airways (ANA)
Air New Zealand
Star Alliance
SYD
Today, January 2, 2021, I should have setting off on my first world tour.
In this article:
It was going to be the madness of early 2021, I was going to leave from London, bound for Japan. From Tokyo I was going to fly to Australia, from Sydney I was going to jump back in time before landing in Hawaii, and from there I was going to go to San Francisco before returning to Britain.
The best bonuses
Unfortunately, however, the world is not back to what it used to be, and because of this, towards the end of August, my itinerary was cancelled. Of the 6 scheduled flights, only the Tokyo/Sydney was operational.
The experience with the Lufthansa call center.
I waited until the end of December to call Lufthansa. And change my ticket. The first motivation was that I wanted to see what the Covid-19 situation would be like at the end of the year, and the second was that doing so would give me time to reschedule the itinerary until December 2021.
Talking to airline switchboards is not easy these days, certainly nothing compared to last spring when the world was trying to get in touch with carriers to cancel, move, ask for refunds, etc.
I must admit that I did not know what to expect as it was not a normal itinerary and a ticket involving 5 different airlines, one of which practically went out of business because of the pandemic.
The first phone call strangely dropped after a few minutes, just enough time to realize the complexity of what I was asking for, and then ... nothing. I called back shortly thereafter and this time I was assisted by an attendant who, after my amazement at the itinerary, literally went crazy to re-route me to my requested dates.
Again, the line went dead but I was immediately contacted again and after about 40 minutes I had my new ticket in my email.
The new itinerary
Because of the failure of Virgin Australia, which was supposed to take me from Sydney to Honolulu, my itinerary changed and became even more beautiful.
The inability to find a flight that could replace the same route between Australia and Hawaii "forced" the call center worker to find an alternative solution, add a flight from Australia to New Zealand and from here I would reach Honolulu as per the previous itinerary.
"I've been working here for three years and I have to tell you that this is the best itinerary I've ever worked on, I wish you well this time," so greeted me at the end of our phone call by the Lufthansa employee.
The insanity, because I remember that it is insanity, has been rescheduled to Ferragosto 2021. I chose this period for 2 reasons: it will be right after the Tokyo Olympics and far enough ahead in 2021 to see if the world will be in the process of returning to normalcy.
I will then have the opportunity to fly with Lufthansa London to Frankfurt, with the 787/900 from ANA Germany to Japan. After a full day in Tokyo, I will depart again with All Nippon Airlines to Sydney. This is the one big possible problem with this itinerary, in Australia I will be staying 26 hours and I have no idea if it will be possible to leave the sterile area of the airport since it is not clear if and when you will be able to enter the country.
From here I will continue aboard Air New Zeland, first to Auckland and then, after a couple of hours, to Hawaii aboard, probably, a 777/200. Once I arrive on U.S. soil I will continue with two flights. United which will take me first to California and then to London five days after I left.
I will upload the whole itinerary to my card. TAP Portugal and taking advantage of the Gold status I will be able to enjoy all the privileges accorded to Star Alliance Gold status, because it's fine to travel in economy, but at least on the ground it's nice to be an Elite passenger.