Around the World in 80 Dinners - Bill Jamison [2]
As much as people complain about the difficulties of collecting awards from frequent-flier programs, neither of us has encountered many problems in more than twenty different experiences on various airlines. This time we anticipated more trouble than usual because of all the destinations involved, the need to construct routes between them on several ONEworld carriers, and the tangle of rules that govern the travel. Bill spent many hours on the Alliance Web site figuring out which partners flew where, when, and, most important, how often, knowing that the chances of scoring a ticket increase in direct proportion to the frequency of flights. He built a preferred itinerary on this basis and then developed backup alternatives to ensure our flexibility, often one of the keys required to unlock the treasure chest.
The other critical key is making reservations as soon as possible after they become available, generally about eleven months before the last flight. Airlines allocate a limited number of seats for reward travel—the main constraint in obtaining free flights rather than frequently blamed blackout dates—and the early birds claim the spoils. Bill called the international AAdvantage desk several times to get an exact availability date for us from different agents. Opinions varied on whether it was 330 or 331 days from the end of the trip, but the agent who got his attention advised starting a little earlier than either of those dates because you have two weeks to complete the booking process. Bill selects January 12, 2005, for a launch date, a week ahead of 330 days from a mid-December return, and phones that morning.
On the initial call, he tries to get Qantas seats from Los Angeles to anywhere in Australia, the most logical first stop geographically. No seating availability at all for the whole month of September. Then Bill claims a need to rethink plans, hangs up, and verifies this information with another agent. Rebuffed again, on his third call he goes to backup plan number one, flying Cathay Pacific to Bali (originally our second stop) and hopping from there to Australia next. This time the agent is the genial Rebecca, who tells him there is wide-open availability on Cathay Pacific almost every day of the month. Bill books our departure for September 18 and proceeds through the rest of the reservations, accepting several changes as necessary in ideal flight days and routes but otherwise raking in a bonanza more fully and easily than expected—at least before Sam springs his surprise forty-eight hours later.
On the evening after concluding the final arrangements with Sam, Cheryl tests a few recipes from our cookbook in progress, The Big Book of Outdoor Cooking and Entertaining, submitted to the publisher shortly before our departure and released in the spring of 2006, after our return. When we sit down for dinner to enjoy the dishes—including a spectacular grilled shrimp with romesco sauce—with a bottle of Cô te du Rhô ne wine, the conversation naturally drifts to our big trip ahead. Cheryl says, “Sam played a major role in making this happen, didn’t he?”
Bill raises his wineglass and proposes a toast. “To Sam, our favorite amputator.”
Cheryl clicks her glass to his and adds, “A leg man any woman can love.”
Our planning for the journey began four years earlier, in the winter of 2001. Both of us had accumulated about fifty thousand frequent-flier miles on two airlines, American and Delta. It wasn’t enough yet for a