One for All...

We currently have in our proposed itinerary upwards of twenty flight segments throughout the journey. While it is possible to book individual tickets for each segment, we have reached the conclusion that we would really rather not do that. For one thing it would be really cumbersome to haul around all those tickets. Also, in spite of the contention of several outfits claiming to have the lowest possible fares, it will be at least as cost effective and more convenient to utilize one of the ‘round the world’ packages offered by one of the three major worldwide airline alliances. Plus if there are any changes we want to make along the way or more importantly, any problems, it will be much nicer to deal with one of the alliance members’ personnel than to try to get in touch with a third party ticket provider. Using the alliance method, though, is not without its problems. Look at that word ‘alliance.’ Here’s how the dictionary that came with my computer defines it:

alliance |əˈlīəns| |əˌlaɪəns| |əˌlʌɪəns|
noun
a union or association formed for mutual benefit, esp. between countries or organizations

The title of this post is also the beginning of the motto adopted by the title characters in Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. The motto, in its entirety is, “One for all and all for one.” It is indicative of the fact that they had formed an alliance; that they were committed to supporting each other. They allied themselves with one another for their mutual benefit. Notice that the motto doesn’t go on to say anything about the benefit of anyone else.

It is very much the same with the airline alliances… although they will cater to the customer to a certain extent, keep in mind that the primary purpose of the alliance is for the good of its members… NOT the customer. It really isn’t realistic to expect any one of the airline alliances to be able to fully accommodate any individual itinerary, despite this quote from the brochure of the alliance we will be using for this trip:

“With 855 airports in 155 countries and a network of 17 airlines, our unique Round the World Fare opens up a world of itinerary options which fit into your plans rather than the other way around.”

In actuality, it is “the other way around” for us. There are several portions of our itinerary that aren’t covered by the alliance, and for those parts, we will be securing either individual tickets or regional passes. This particular alliance serves us best, though. We checked with the other two and it’s the same story, only in different parts of the world. I’m not trying to complain here… I just want to point out a truism of planning a world trip. Collectively, the three alliances could serve us better, but that’s not the way it is. So… we are going with what we’ve got… and we will make the best of it.

The Itinerary

Our initial ‘hit list’, which the travel agent asked us for, included just about everywhere that we thought we might like to go. We were initially thinking of a 7 week trip, but the places we had listed made it more like 10 weeks… so we cut some stuff out. Here’s a quick rundown of what was eliminated:

Scandinavia, Russia, Belgium, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Japan, Vanuatu, Pago Pago, and Tahiti

We also had thought initially to start in London, but later changed that to Paris. The trip is now down to about eight weeks and it currently includes:

Paris and Disney, Munich, Rome, Athens, Cairo and a Nile Cruise, Botswana and South Africa both including photo safaris, Thailand including Chiang Mai, Beijing and a tour to the Great Wall, Hong Kong and Disney, Sydney, Melbourne, Ayers Rock, the Great Barrier Reef, New Zealand, Fiji and Honolulu.

I expect this all to undergo a few more changes within the next couple of weeks.

Planning ‘The Trip’- Phase II: Finding Some Help

To take up where the Phase I post left off, we will need to flash back to July of 2006. It was at that time that we had decided to seek help and were just getting started on considering who we might want to have as our travel agent. We would need someone that could work up an around-the-world itinerary and who also had some expertise with things that would cater to the kids. We thought that we ought to make a list of agents to contact, starting first with agents we already knew, then ones in the local area (via the phone book and the web), then adding any possibilities based on input from friends and co-workers.

Susan has been a long-time subscriber to Condé Nast Traveler and it was while I was flipping through one of the issues that listed the year’s best travel agents that I came upon an entry for a particular agent that said something along the lines of,

“…(Agent's name) is a specialist in around-the world-itineraries and in travels involving children.” This particular agent was also located in Atlanta.

Well… I guess that’s sorta what we were looking for!

We didn’t think that searching any further would yield anyone who could seemingly better fit the needs we had, so we decided then and there to give her a call to see if she was taking new clients. She was and we have been a client of hers ever since.

Our initial communications were centered on introductions, passports, fee schedules and that sort of thing. Then we started getting down to the nitty gritty… we gave her a ‘hit list’ of everywhere we wanted to go with the design of cutting it down right away to fit into the timeframe we had established. We have been continually modifying that list over the past year taking into account, among many other things, airline schedules, availability of specific tour dates and changes in our preferences.

We are now working on the fifth mutation of the original itinerary and I will cover the basics of it and the changes it has undergone in more detail in a future post. I think I’ll call it something clever… like, “The Itinerary.”

Took a Little Trip...

My niece got married this weekend up in western North Carolina and we all made the trip to be there with her. The wedding was grand, the bride was beautiful, she and the groom make as handsome a couple as you will ever see and the reception was to die for. The best part of it all was the chance to get together with family and friends. I had lived in Asheville for seven years and the place has gone through some highly visible changes in the nearly eighteen years since I moved away. One thing that hasn’t changed much is the magnificent views… and the peaceful, satisfying feeling I get when I see any of them. Susan did a great job of capturing one of them on this trip…

(click to enlarge)

I took advantage of the opportunity of being out of town to check out the new Mac on several aspects of “away” use. By that I mean making sure that all the wireless settings and email authorizations and such were set to work properly away from home. They did fine.

From where we live, we cannot get to Asheville without going through Atlanta. Since we chose not to leave until after school got out on Friday, we knew that we would be tangling with the Atlanta rush hour. (In fairness to Susan, in the preceding sentence, “we” should rightfully be “I”… she has found it is easier to give in to me on the subject of taking the kids out of school early.)

The traffic met our expectations and we probably spent an extra 10 to15 minutes getting through downtown as compared to non-rush hour times. Gwinnett County on the northeast side, however, was nothing less than horrendous. We spent the better part of an hour in stop and crawl traffic, rarely getting above 10 mph. It’s normally a four-or-so hour trip, but it wound up taking us nearly seven hours this time.

Still, I prefer that to making the kids deal with make-up schoolwork. Also, in comparison, the grandness of the rest of the weekend more than made up for the relatively minor hassle of getting there. Being there for the blessed event was worth whatever it took.