peanut head Posted November 20, 2023 #101 Share Posted November 20, 2023 How exciting to travel (virtually😃) along with the 2 of you! You are such a great writer and picture taker. Safe travels and enjoy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #102 Share Posted November 20, 2023 18 hours ago, Laurab23 said: So excited to follow along with you and Iain on your adventures. Love your reviews. Laura Thank. Will start updating soon already at airport 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #103 Share Posted November 20, 2023 18 hours ago, janabelle61 said: Following along! I love your photography and you inspire my future travels. Can't wait to follow this new adventure 🙂 Great. I also love photography. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #104 Share Posted November 20, 2023 17 hours ago, dreamer321 said: About thirty seconds after the dignitaries are gone. On a more positive note have a wonderful cruise. Looking forward to following your adventures. Thanks. 🙏 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #105 Share Posted November 20, 2023 14 hours ago, abbydancer said: Why would you lose the Book on Board credit? I move bookings and keep it. They have to manually add it, but they do. It was a different promotion. My agent advised me in advance. I wasn’t concerned as the upgrade was so cheap and I have a huge OBC from agent. . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarCat88 Posted November 20, 2023 #106 Share Posted November 20, 2023 I really love your vacations! Enjoy every single moment. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREG781 Posted November 20, 2023 #107 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Have a a great trip! The last we chatted on here, I mentioned Mar. Have you heard from her? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buncosquad Posted November 20, 2023 #108 Share Posted November 20, 2023 5 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said: It was a different promotion. My agent advised me in advance. I wasn’t concerned as the upgrade was so cheap and I have a huge OBC from agent. . When you say huge OBC, how much is that? What is typical OBC amount from a TA? What is considered a large amount of OBC from a typical TA? Curious, as I have no guage and I hear many state they get a great deal of OBC. TY, and safe travels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeaannie55 Posted November 20, 2023 #109 Share Posted November 20, 2023 How great that you are travelling again, I love reading your reviews, although normally I just lurk in the background. I was on The Eclipse sailing from Auckland to Sydney in Jan/Feb this year and loved New Zealand. Looking forward to hearing all about your travels. Safe travels to both you and Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani negreanu Posted November 20, 2023 #110 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Following another Jim & Iain live review? A semblance of normalcy. For me it's an escape from the harsh reality around here... T H A N K S and enjoy every minute of it 👍 25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfkcruiser Posted November 20, 2023 #111 Share Posted November 20, 2023 This is a trip I would like to do. Long flight time has kept us from doing this. Look forward to your wonderful blogs and to crossing paths again. Gail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travelexpert35 Posted November 20, 2023 #112 Share Posted November 20, 2023 I love your reviews Jim and am looking forward to your partial World cruise. Have a fabulous trip with Iain and your friends. Safe travels… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare terrydtx Posted November 20, 2023 #113 Share Posted November 20, 2023 (edited) Following, I always follow your cruises, and this is special as we will be getting on the Edge on January 13th for an Aus/NZ B2B. Edited November 20, 2023 by terrydtx 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #114 Share Posted November 20, 2023 16 hours ago, MisterMet said: Jim an Iain Looking forward to your next adventure. Your pictures are always beautiful and your commentary is quite fun and very informative. Cruising down under is definitely on our bucket list. Got to retire first. Not soon enough though. We’ll chime in every once and a while. Enjoy. Trip and Pam Thanks.. I never retirement to be such fun. I always thought I would be bored and have to find something to keep me busy but....Not gotten boredd yet. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #115 Share Posted November 20, 2023 16 hours ago, MisterMet said: Sounds like a pretty good upgrade/trade off. OBC is always nice, but a RS experience has got to be better, right? Agree -- With unlimited Specialty, Free Laundry and 2 Bottle of Grey Goose it's difficult to burn off the OBC anyway. I think at the same time as my upgrade the minnimum bid for a MoveUp bid was $1,600 pp. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Georgia_Peaches Posted November 20, 2023 #116 Share Posted November 20, 2023 4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said: Thanks.. I never retirement to be such fun. I always thought I would be bored and have to find something to keep me busy but....Not gotten boredd yet. Lol. Since I retired in 2019 I find myself so busy that I often wonder how I ever managed a full time job! Have a great flight! One more sleep and We are right behind you! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #117 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Airline Booking – As most of you have noticed, Covid really drove up the cost of air worldwide. Business Class to Singapore was absolutely obscene so began shopping - I finally found a really good deal booking with Chase Sapphire Mileage. If you have a Chase Sapphire you can find some pretty good deals. This time Singapore Air non-stop was running about $5,000 (and is now running $9,300). Time to do some shopping. I normally first go to Flights.Google.com and set up alerts and track the rates - Many believe that Air Rates don’t vary much, but I can tell you they often change on a daily or weekly basis. Here’s an example of one I was tracking - We are doing a Sydney – Honolulu – Vancouver cruise in April so decided to buy a Round Trip from Sydney home on December 21 (Xmas High season) and returning on April 3. While the graph shows the cheapest flight, I also track specific airline flights. As we can see there is a huge swing in prices. It is important when looking at the Cheapest Business Class to look at the details. The cheapest fare shown was on ANA because you had a 9 hour connection in Haneda. Some others looked cheap until you find one of the legs is in Economy - ugh. 8 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike981 Posted November 20, 2023 #118 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Excited for you two, have a great trip and thank you in advance for all of your wonderful posts. Looking forward to seeing you two on your travels. This will help fill the wait for our January trip on the Silhouette. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #119 Share Posted November 20, 2023 (edited) This is an example of how dynamic air rates can be. I started tracking the first day the airlines opened for booking about 11 months out. Edited November 20, 2023 by Jim_Iain 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
expattraveler Posted November 20, 2023 #120 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Jim/Iain, As alway following along. As you’re aware, a wonderful part of the world to travel. Wishing you safe and happy travels, and looking forward to your review! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted November 20, 2023 Author #121 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Long story short - I checked out Singapore Airline web site and found they had a nice price of 150,000 miles each. Went back to Chase Sapphire and moved the 300,000 miles Singapore Airline and was able to book using miles about 5 minutes later. I had to wait to book the return from Sydney until May of this year (11 months before our March Cruise from Sydney. For some reason when I checked Chase for United Non-Stop I was able to purchase cheaper on Chase than on United Airline Site for the same flight. It made sense since you also get 5X miles for Travel Booked directly via Chase Travel than the 3X miles you get for travel booked direct on another site. I was able to book RT at $5,000 each on a United Non-Stop. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poconolady Posted November 20, 2023 #122 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Yay, a Jim_lain Live review!! I jumped in here to comment before this thread goes onto anymore pages! I was in Singapore about four years ago, riding on the top of a hoho bus, a big burst of wind blew my sun hat off and it landed on the sidewalk, next to a policeman who was patrolling. He picked it up, smashed it and threw it into a trash can and then turned to look up at the bus. I was afraid he was going to arrest me for littering! It would not have been a good start to a cruise! Still miss that hat, it was packable, UPF treated and looked cute. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Texed Posted November 20, 2023 #123 Share Posted November 20, 2023 Looking forward to your pictures and posts. 😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike981 Posted November 20, 2023 #124 Share Posted November 20, 2023 1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said: Long story short - I checked out Singapore Airline web site and found they had a nice price of 150,000 miles each. Went back to Chase Sapphire and moved the 300,000 miles Singapore Airline and was able to book using miles about 5 minutes later. I had to wait to book the return from Sydney until May of this year (11 months before our March Cruise from Sydney. For some reason when I checked Chase for United Non-Stop I was able to purchase cheaper on Chase than on United Airline Site for the same flight. It made sense since you also get 5X miles for Travel Booked directly via Chase Travel than the 3X miles you get for travel booked direct on another site. I was able to book RT at $5,000 each on a United Non-Stop. Man if only I was as smart as you. 1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said: This is an example of how dynamic air rates can be. I started tracking the first day the airlines opened for booking about 11 months out. We tend to fly in the winter from MN to FL when we travel to get away from the cold and snow. Prices normally are rather rigid because A LOT of folks in the upper Midwest are trying to get away, so planes are almost always full. I had day this spring where the stars lined up. There was a discount for the cruise we wanted and first class air had gone down significantly. So we are booked in our first Aqua room and flying first class, were not excited at all. Interesting before I booked, the price I was getting for Delta's Comfort Plus was consistently high, but that is the world we live in now. Then one day the prices came down, I went and checked first class and it was only a $100 pp more, so I booked. Since then I have seen it several hundred more pp from what I paid. Such is the game. Oh and our room category (Aqua) has been sold out for a while, so I can't price check that anymore, but it also went up quite a bit. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUTRAVEL Posted November 20, 2023 #125 Share Posted November 20, 2023 (edited) Just returned home from the APEX Transatlantic and have already missed the first five pages! I had several lemon tarts in your honor. Sorry to report that Eden lunch no longer had the brownies and chocolate chip cookies (at least on the APEX). Henrietta as usual will be reading your adventures on this sailing to me. Say hi to Iain for us. Dianne Edited November 20, 2023 by DUTRAVEL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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