Advice was sought, and advice did come...
Starting to get things done. Not a moment too soon.
S-- came up with a brilliant idea at the eleventh hour. Why not book travel insurance through the union I've paid £90 a month to for the last ten years? So I checked Endsleigh's site, and two years' insurance will cost me £14 more than two years single trip nonsense from Trailfinders. That fourteen pounds will allow me to go wherever I like with whomever I like, whereas the 'single trip' euphemism really solidly limits the ways I can get around N and S America next year. The coverage is pretty similar, but Endsleigh has the edge, with massive medical insurance thrashing Trailfinder's already pretty strong £5million, and valid worldwide all the way through. (£900 for two years, if Jen wants to know.)
Sal suggested joining Star Alliance's frequent flyer program - brilliant advice. Star Alliance runs all the airlines behind the RTW scheme I'm using for the first six months, and you only need join one airline's programme to be able to credit airmiles from any of the star alliance companies.
The mileage threshold to get real benefits seems to be around 10-15,000 miles, and as I'm doing 34,000 by next January, I should be able to winkle in a free flight to Australia to lighten the burden of an ill advised two week stopover in midwinter Auckland, slap bang in the middle of a largely equatorial journey.
Thus, I'm a proud member of the Thai Airlines Royal Orchid Plus frequent flyers' programme. I was going to go for Air New Zealand, but they're dickheads - they want me to snail mail my airline tickets to Christchurch for validation before I go, and to add on NZ$50 surcharge.
I've no idea how much that is, but I'm fairly bloody certain I'm not paying it.
Singapore Airlines wanted my passport number, which defied my foggy memory. So Thai it is.
Proper budget stuff, too - print out an image of your membership card and write your name on it? Classy.
Of course, I did. And I'm going to get the damn thing laminated. Tacky? Moi?
While sparing a few hours in his hectic expat schedule, A-- reminded me that S-- M-- M--, old pal, lives in Singapore now, and promised to send me his details. He would be brilliant fun, if that works out. I can once more laugh at his nostrils flaring in restaurants while he tries to con me into eating chicken feet.
And, I've been begging bloggers to let me have lunch with them, to stave off feelings of complete invisibility. So far, several foolish types have agreed. Result! Wiffle in Singapore, Jan in EASTCanada, Jen in WEST Canada, and Jenalso will drive down to meet me in Charleston or Savannah.
[Edit: and another fool agrees: Frogstar, in NZ!]
I'm going to be facelessly wandering transport hubs amongst total strangers for months at a time, so any degree of familiarity of face / writing will be richly richly needed.
Things are moving, finafuckingly, and only in one case too fast: hugely painful freak-tooth moving inside my jaw, causing the roots of another tooth to move and gradually splay then shatter, I presume, which hurts about as much as you'd imagine it would. Need a decent dentist, and fast*. I have one good recommendation, but they seem to have moved. Beginning to wonder, with this massive medical cover, what's the best country to have a dodgy jaw operation in? I'd be surprised if it were the UK.
* Done. Thanks, D--.
S-- came up with a brilliant idea at the eleventh hour. Why not book travel insurance through the union I've paid £90 a month to for the last ten years? So I checked Endsleigh's site, and two years' insurance will cost me £14 more than two years single trip nonsense from Trailfinders. That fourteen pounds will allow me to go wherever I like with whomever I like, whereas the 'single trip' euphemism really solidly limits the ways I can get around N and S America next year. The coverage is pretty similar, but Endsleigh has the edge, with massive medical insurance thrashing Trailfinder's already pretty strong £5million, and valid worldwide all the way through. (£900 for two years, if Jen wants to know.)
Sal suggested joining Star Alliance's frequent flyer program - brilliant advice. Star Alliance runs all the airlines behind the RTW scheme I'm using for the first six months, and you only need join one airline's programme to be able to credit airmiles from any of the star alliance companies.
The mileage threshold to get real benefits seems to be around 10-15,000 miles, and as I'm doing 34,000 by next January, I should be able to winkle in a free flight to Australia to lighten the burden of an ill advised two week stopover in midwinter Auckland, slap bang in the middle of a largely equatorial journey.
Thus, I'm a proud member of the Thai Airlines Royal Orchid Plus frequent flyers' programme. I was going to go for Air New Zealand, but they're dickheads - they want me to snail mail my airline tickets to Christchurch for validation before I go, and to add on NZ$50 surcharge.
I've no idea how much that is, but I'm fairly bloody certain I'm not paying it.
Singapore Airlines wanted my passport number, which defied my foggy memory. So Thai it is.
Proper budget stuff, too - print out an image of your membership card and write your name on it? Classy.
Of course, I did. And I'm going to get the damn thing laminated. Tacky? Moi?
While sparing a few hours in his hectic expat schedule, A-- reminded me that S-- M-- M--, old pal, lives in Singapore now, and promised to send me his details. He would be brilliant fun, if that works out. I can once more laugh at his nostrils flaring in restaurants while he tries to con me into eating chicken feet.
And, I've been begging bloggers to let me have lunch with them, to stave off feelings of complete invisibility. So far, several foolish types have agreed. Result! Wiffle in Singapore, Jan in EASTCanada, Jen in WEST Canada, and Jenalso will drive down to meet me in Charleston or Savannah.
[Edit: and another fool agrees: Frogstar, in NZ!]
I'm going to be facelessly wandering transport hubs amongst total strangers for months at a time, so any degree of familiarity of face / writing will be richly richly needed.
Things are moving, finafuckingly, and only in one case too fast: hugely painful freak-tooth moving inside my jaw, causing the roots of another tooth to move and gradually splay then shatter, I presume, which hurts about as much as you'd imagine it would. Need a decent dentist, and fast*. I have one good recommendation, but they seem to have moved. Beginning to wonder, with this massive medical cover, what's the best country to have a dodgy jaw operation in? I'd be surprised if it were the UK.
* Done. Thanks, D--.
posted by Lectrice at lunes, mayo 23, 2005
8 Advice:
You did look at a map at some point right? I'm at the far far edge of Western Canada. On an island. Can't get any farther west.
All the best people are named Jen, I see.
Or some variation of Jen. Ha!
It looks like Jan's in Ontario so you must have just gotten us ass-backwards.
If you need/want some Singapore Airlines miles, I have 80 or 90,000 (I think) that I may well not be able to use before they expire (since I'm not allowed to take any vacation until November). Let me know...
PS Bizarre - I had an emergency visit to the dentist on Friday evening. Thought my teeth were starting to disintegrate. Turned out to be a false alarm. Amazing thing though - really made my weekend. Sometimes having a fright and then finding out nothing's wrong gives you more of a bost than a simple good experience.
Actually, that makes me sound a bit sad, doesn't it ?
Boost. A boost.
I've been reading your comments for too long.
Jen: Oopsy. Jan's Toronto. See main blog for confirmation that I did actually fail geography outright at school... correct, west / east / doh...
Waterhot: Can you transfer airmiles, then? Yes please.
Re: tooth - I know what the problem is from previous dental adventures - freakish internal jaw stuff, rather than a bad tooth, requires surgery, not extraction. Hence quietly terrified whine.
I'll find out whether I can and let you know.
Very much appreciated. But no panic if not.
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