08. Getting There is Half the Fun

The following blog entry is from my travel journal http://www.bertnlou.blogspot.com/

August 2009



Not only do I believe this to be true. But for Bert and I, the 'getting there' and 'getting home' part of our big adventure seems to occupy nearly half the trip in terms of time!

We have been focused on accumulating those pesky aeroplan airmiles for about 5 years now, with the thought of using them for a trip to Europe. If you collect them, you know the routine, they seem to take forever to accumulate and rarely can you use them for a flight where you really want to go. Though admittedly, if I wanted to book that mid-january escape to Alaska for one person, I could have just clicked the online trip booker and made that happen, in a minute, no problem! But other than that locale, it's like winning the lottery if you can actually get the destination you seek and combine that with the dates you would want to travel.

So, after about a month of addictive non-stop logging onto the aeroplan website and looking for flight possibilities to get to Europe, we hit the jackpot! We managed to book our flights out of Kelowna to Paris and return from Rome for around the dates we need. We even managed to book mostly business and first class for some of the legs in our journey! I feel like my dog-with-a-bone determination and incessant hours trolling on that damn aeroplan website was worth it. Or at least, I hope so.

PS: I swear I have gone cold turkey on my aeroplan travel website usage following our booking. I promise I haven't been back to the aeroplan site looking for a fix in over two months now. The twitch has subsided and the whites of my eyes are slowly returning to normal, teehee).

Neither Burt or I have ever flown business or first class before, and we are both excited to experience it. Experience is the key word here because one look at our 2 page flight itinerary and you notice there isn't a direct non-stop flight in sight.

The nitty-gritty....

We will be flying on no less than 4 different airlines and connecting through 10 seperate airports in 5 different countries before we return home!

If you were ever in doubt that I am an eternal optomist, let me assure you I am looking at all of this as a chance to do some serious airline and travel research rather than admit it is a rather silly flying itinerary! Bert and I will definitely have a good overview of airports, airlines, seats and service by the time we are done. In fact, I plan on reporting my findings right here on our travel blog as a sort of informational service for other would be travellers.

Hmmm, air travel service researchers, that sounds like plausible titles for Bert and I, and may help to better excuse our bizare flight itinerary.

I'm reminded of that old saying..."If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck - then it is probably a duck."

So, what can I say...but...Quack!