Travel Thread

Moorabbin used to be the best place to go if you wanted to be showered in spittle, win, lose or draw.

A good guide has almost supernatural abilities. Ours stopped one evening 'cos he thought the Impala were looking a bit nervous & it might be a Leopard. Other vehicles drove on by. Within a minute a male Leopard stepped out from the bushes, crossed the road in front of us, circled our vehicle & lay down on the verge beside us licking itself like the big cat it was. Other times, he would pull up with a screech and point to something we could barely see through binoculars that he had spied out the corner of his eye while driving. He knew the behaviour of a particular pride of Lions to the extent that he positioned our vehicle facing into their regular path so they walked directly past us within touching distance. You could feel their breath & tickle their whiskersā€¦

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Spent three weeks in Cali over Xmas, very safe. Mrs and 13 year old daughter walked 2kms from shops at 7pm by themselves, our friends live there and said theyā€™d be fine. Locals are fantastic, they love tourists and go out of their way to look after you.

I think the below as called Cocora Valley, tallest palm trees in the world. Weird!

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So no one been to Central America then?

Sailed through the Panama Canal once; does that count ?

Almost

Mrs AT didnā€™t feel that at all. She went out and about in Mumbai with our daughter while I was working and had no problems. Similarly in Delhi. Kanpur was different though and I also felt a bit intimidating - but most tourists donā€™t go there ; - )

:laughing:

Hmmm, I think we have different opinions about what would be Victoriaā€™s best animals.

Next March.

Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Cartagena, Mexico

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I think one of our regular posters has a son who moved thereā€¦ but that was a few years agoā€¦ was it @miss_ellie???

Yep, @Albert_Thurgood, my son has been living in Guatemala for the last 3 years.

@Gnik my son is currently home (always comes home for a few months this time of year for work) however he is away with work at the moment.

If you have specific questions re Guatemala, post them and will run them by him and get back to you.

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Thanks - Iā€™ll give it some thought

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mmmmā€¦ letā€™s see

Qantas set to announce Frequent Flyer changes

Patrick HatchJune 19, 2019 ā€” 10.26am

Qantas is set to unveil major changes to its Frequent Flyer scheme, in what it has described as ā€œthe biggest overhaul to the airlineā€™s loyalty program in its 32 year historyā€.

Qantas Loyalty chief executive Olivia Wirth and Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce will announce the changes at a press conference in Sydney on Thursday morning.

The airline is being tight-lipped on the announcement, which is expected to involve how members earn and use points.

As well as from booking flights, Qantasā€™ 12 million loyalty members can earn points shopping at retailers including Woolworths, David Jones and Caltex service stations, and for any spending on co-branded credit cards.

The business has recently launched its own Qantas Money credit cards, and health and life insurance products.

Qantasā€™ loyalty division made a $372 million profit last year, which is close to half what it made from its entire domestic airline business.

The airline has been tinkering with ways to make it easier for members to use their points, with a common complaint being that there are not enough seats available to be booked just with points.

For example, Qantas will operate a flight from Melbourne to Tokyo in October where an entire A380s will be available to book with frequent flyer points. That will be the first of a series of dedicated ā€œpoints planeā€ flights.

Yeah, Iā€™m finding it hard to get a gauge on what QF will do here. Most changes they make benefits them not the customer but I donā€™t think they would want to kill the golden goose which is their FF program. Has been talk of family pooling similar to VA or dynamic award pricing. Hopefully not much of a devaluation

Virgins program is fantastic, easy to follow, easy to accumulate points, easy to use points.

I agree for domestic flights but unfortunately award availability for international flights has really dried up and not being part of a bigger alliance hurts. For domestic flying I would choose them 90% of the time over QF

Yeh thatā€™s the only downside. Over xmas Me, Mrs and 3 kids went to LA on our points and it is really cheap. But Bali, Pacific Islands, HK and LA are pretty much the only options to use them on.

If you try for London or Europe, itā€™s on a partner airline and ridiculous amount of points per ticket.

Any bomber feedback on the best Pacific islands for a visit?

Ive been thinking Fiji or the Cook Islands with Tahiti looking a tad exxy.

A good warm winter escape for a week is the plan.

Iā€™ve only been to French Polynesia (ā€œTahitiā€). It doesnā€™t have to be absurdly exxy. There are some hostels/guest houses.

At least I can say Iā€™ve thrown boomerangs in shallow water at Bora Bora. Screw those honeymooners on their thousand-dollar extensions into the bay with their overpriced cocktails.