Last Trip for 2013

Objectives & Goals

• Attend EuroQuest in Baltimore
• Attend BGG Con in Dallas
• Visit a state/place I havent been to before - Louisiana & Maui
• Fly more than 28,000 miles to maintain my Premier Gold status with United

Maintaining my Premier Gold status allows me to

• pick my seat with I book my ticket :-)
• Free access to Economy Plus seating
• Automatic free upgrades when available
• Priority boarding
• Priority baggage claim
• More and heavier bags for free
• Free access to Red Carpet Lounge on international flight days

A few years back I lost my status by a few thousand miles and it was awful. Decided to not let that happen again when it was achievable with some planning. You need to fly 50k miles in a calendar year to retain privileges for the following year. Melb - LAX is approx 15K round trip

My flights are quite complicated as I chose the longest path to achieve 28K miles within the dates I had. This is more complicated due to the timing of Thanksgiving. Its very busy and more expensive to fly on those dates so I will avoid them by doing a road trip during Thanksgiving.

I hit some locations more than once, so the lower letters are covered up. (click image to enlarge)

Segment 1 A(O) ,B(N),C, D 
Nov 10 - 18 Mel - Baltimore, MD. EuroQuest gaming convention

Segment 2 D,E,F
Nov 18 - 24 Dallas, TX, BGG Con gaming convention

Segment 3 F, G
Nov 24 - Dec 2  Road Trip - Dallas, TX - Tampa, FL via New Orleans

Segment 4 G, H, I(M), J
Dec 2 - Dec 6 Maui, HI

Segment 5 J, K (M), L
Dec 7 - 9 Houston, TX

Segment 6 L, M, N, O
Dec 9 - 11 Fly to Melbourne

Travel 2013

Funds are tight this year until Oct 1, 2013 when I will have access to some travel money that "matures" on that date. Visiting friends and attending my 3rd World Boardgame Championships Convention.
Quick trip to San Francisco and Lancaster, PA. Got a great deal on the flight and accom in Lancaster was prepaid last year!

November Trip 2012

Segment 1 Oct 27- Nov 4
Oct 27 MEL - BWI (Baltimore) to attend EuroQuest board game convention.
Got in just before Hurricane Sandy, lived through the blackouts and drama. Lucky I went early otherwise I would have been grounded and missed the first few days of the convention

Segment 2 Honolulu Nov 4-8
Because it was so cold from "Sandy"  decided to do an impromptu trip to Honolulu. Got a great deal and upgrade. It also ticked off another state.

Segment 3 Dallas Nov 9-12
Attended the Dallas Gamers Marathon. like a precon to BGG con and got to learn the fabulous game Terra Mystica.

Segment 4 Houston Nov 12 - 13
Drove down to Houston to meet Joe who lives in a plane!

Segment 5 Dallas Nov 14 - 18 BGG con
Another great time at the con

Segment 6 Nov 19-20 Melbourne
"Home" again

86% states visited

Out of the 50 US states, I have visited 43 of them. That leaves 7. Whew! Must start planning my next trip.

Trip Jul 23- Sep 5, 2012

Segment 1 - San Francisco, CA
Several local board game groups

Segment 2 - Lancaster, PA
Attend World Boardgame Championships

Segment 3 - New England
Road trip, Visit Frank Lloyd Wright Zimmerman house in Manchester NH

Segment 4 - Indianapolis, IN
Attend Gen Con

Segment 5 - Detroit, Chicago
Road Trip

Segment 6 - San Francisco, CA
Local Board game groups

Segment 7 - Santa Clara, CA
Attend Pacificon

Big Trip 2011

Oct 16 - Depart Melbourne

Oct 16 - Land SFO

Oct 17 - Depart San Francisco - Frankfurt, Germany

Oct 18 - Train Frankfurt to Essen, Germany

Oct 18 - 24 - Essen Germany at the largest game fair with 150,000 others mostly families

Oct 24 - Fly to Chicago

Oct 25- Nov 2 - Road trip Route 66, Frank Lloyd Wright stuff Chicago - Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Racine, Chicago

Nov 2 - Nov 6 Fly to Baltimore to attend EuroQuest Board game stuff

Nov 7 - Nov 12 Fly to San Francisco - Bay Area hang out

Nov 13 - 15 North of San Francisco, tourist stuff

Nov 15 - Fly to Dallas Texas to attend BGG.con (Board game stuff)

Nov 20 - Fly to San Francisco

Nov 21 - Fly to Melbourne, Australia

Nov 23 - Land in Melbourne

Whew!

Must fill this in

Hmmmm....
One day I will come back and fill in Nov 7, 2009 until Oct 2011
Here is a summary

Nov 2009, Road trip in USA until Dec 2009
Dec 2009 - mini Roadtrip in California
Jan 2010, Return to Australia
Adjust and find my feet
2 trips to USA,
April 2010 - housekeeping trip, tax, return car
August 2010 attend the World Board Game Championships in PA
Nov 2010 - have surgery to finally get that hernia attended to - all good :-)
Recover from Surgery
Jan 2011, Start working hard and saving money
Jul - Aug, 2011 - USA World Board Game championships for 2 weeks, and Queensland for 2 weeks
Start planning Oct Nov Trip