Stephen’s Million Mile Madness planning journal

Million Mile Madness really will be madness. And I’m probably mad for wanting to take part in this new Frequent Miler challenge.

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out already, be sure to read this challenge launch post which explains in greater detail what we’re up to. As a quick recap, Greg, Nick, and I are jetting off around the world on a quest to each earn 1 million miles courtesy of the EuroBonus Millionaire promo being run by SAS. To earn those 1 million miles, we have to fly 15 different SkyTeam airlines before the end of the year, but the self-imposed time constraints are even more severe than that (more about that shortly).

Seeing as this million mile promotion is being run by SAS (Scandinavian Airlines), we contestants will be judged on SAS – Speed, Affordability, and Style.

This challenge isn’t just about us though. In fact, you – the readers – will have a massive role in our journeys, with the opportunity to win prizes. The three of us will each pick a reader who helped us the most and they’ll win a prize, with the reader who helped the eventual winner winning a Grand Prize (stay tuned for more about what those prizes will be).

I’ll gratefully accept all the help I can get, so here’s how you can help me – and you! – win.

Constraints

• Departure airport: My wife and I are due to be spending most of November in Las Vegas, so that’s the airport that I’ll be flying out of. Seeing as Delta is one of the eligible airlines, taking a cheap flight from Vegas to somewhere like Los Angeles, Seattle or San Francisco to then head to Asia might make sense. However, perhaps there’ll be a cheap flight from Las Vegas to New York and from there I can get a cheap flight to Europe on Virgin Atlantic, KLM or Air France. Or maybe fly from Vegas to Mexico City on Delta or Aeromexico and then back up from there to a different US city and onwards.
• Departure date:
  • Earliest departure date – November 4 (Monday) after midday
  • Ideal departure date – November 5-7 (Tuesday-Thursday), but can leave later than November 7 with the right itinerary
• Return date: I need to be back in Vegas by November 20.
• Passport: Unlike Greg and Nick, I don’t have a US passport – I have a UK passport as I’m a Permanent Resident here in the US. I don’t think there are many differences in terms of where they’re accepted around the world, but it’s something to be aware of, especially with countries where I won’t just be transiting through the airport.

Potentially Useful Stuff (Or Lack Thereof)

Unlike Greg, I don’t have any flight credits, upgrade certificates, etc. that will be applicable to this challenge. However, that could potentially be a blessing in disguise because it means I won’t have the temptation to book sub-optimal flights in order to take advantage of those other types of benefits.

Qualifying Airlines

Here are the 16 airlines available for the promotion. Since I need to fly 15 of them, I can only leave 1 off the list:

• Qualifying airlines based in North America
  • Aeromexico
  • Delta
• Qualifying airlines based in Europe (primary hubs shown in parentheses)
  • Air Europa (Madrid MAD)
  • Air France (Paris CDG)
  • KLM (Amsterdam AMS): KLM also has several 5th Freedom Flights entirely in Asia: KUL to Jakarta (CGK); SIN to Denpasar DPS; Taipei (TPE) to Manilla (MNL)
  • SAS (Copenhagen CPH, Stockholm ARN, Oslo OSL)
  • TAROM (Bucharest OTP)
  • Virgin Atlantic (London LHR, Manchester MAN)
• Qualifying airlines based in Asia (primary hubs shown in parentheses)
  • China Airlines (Taipei TPE)
  • China Eastern (Shanghai PVG)
  • Garuda Indonesia (Jakarta CGK)
  • Korean Air (Seoul ICN, GMP)
  • Vietnam Airlines (Ho Chi Min City SGN, Hanoi HAN)
  • Xiamen Airlines (Xiamen XMN, Fuzhou FOC)
• Qualifying airlines based elsewhere (primary hubs shown in parentheses)
  • Kenya Airways Nairobi (NBO): Note that Kenya Airways has a 5th freedom flight in Asia: Bangkok BKK to Guangzhou CAN
  • Saudia Airlines (Riyad RUH, Jeddah JED)

My Focus

As mentioned earlier, our Million Mile Madness journeys will be judged based on SAS – Speed, Affordability, and Style. While it would be nice to travel in style, my main focus will be on the first two factors – Speed and Affordability.

Don’t get me wrong, if there’s some kind of cheap business class fare that can be booked using the Amex Business Platinum’s Pay With Points rebate, I certainly wouldn’t object. However, I’m guessing that I’ll be flying most – or all – of the paid legs in economy and so I’d love to be the one to complete this challenge for the least amount of money.

The speed of the overall journey is also important to me. I had some major reservations about taking part in this challenge because November is my busiest month on GC Galore (one of my own websites) due to all the gift card deals that are around leading up to the holidays. As a result, my wife and I tend to spend a month in the same place in November on our 50 state road trip seeing as much of each day is spent working, hence why we’d booked a month in Vegas. Jetting off around the world and getting little sleep probably isn’t my smartest move, but the EuroBonus Millionaire promotion – and this challenge by extension – was too fun to pass up.

It does mean though that I’d love to not be spending 2+ weeks on this trip, so the shorter the overall travel time, the better.

My Superpower

I’m extremely fortunate because I find it pretty easy to sleep anywhere, even when flying in economy. In fact, when flying economy I’m usually snoozing before the plane has even taken off. Some of the best sleep I’ve ever gotten on a plane was 10 years ago when flying to Australia in economy. I’m therefore hoping that’ll help me get enough rest seeing as my itinerary could be fast-paced with fewer hotel nights than Greg and Nick allow themselves to have.

Hopes & Dreams

Speed and affordability are the primary objectives, but if it’s possible to fit these in with my itinerary, that would be superb.

• Trolls – If you’ve been following Frequent Miler challenges from our first ever challenge – 40K To Far Away – you might remember that I found some of Thomas Dambo’s trolls in both Belgium and Denmark. I’d love to be able to fit in more of them during this trip, but the easiest ones to get to will still likely be a big hassle visiting due to their distances from airports. It therefore won’t make sense if this impacts on the speed of my journey, but if I have a long layover or an overnight in one of these places, it might be doable.
  • Seoul, South Korea – There’s a collection of five trolls at Pyeonggang Land, a two hour drive northeast of Incheon. Google Maps doesn’t give driving directions in South Korea, so I’d have to use either Naver Map or Kakao Map and I’m not sure how good those are when it comes to driving directions in English.
  • France – There’s a troll in Elfy Land, about 1.5 hours outside of Lyon. There’s also a new one in La Forêt Monumentale in Rouen, about two hours northwest of Paris.
  • Copenhagen – Although I found several trolls in Copenhagen during 40K To Far Away, there are many more that I haven’t found there (Copenhagen is where Thomas Dambo is from, hence why there are so many there).
• Lounges – If I want to get this journey done ASAP, it’ll likely require as few nights in hotels as possible. Seeing as I’ll likely be flying in economy for the most part, having access to Priority Pass lounges in each airport I’m flying through would be ideal, especially if they have showers.
• As few flights as possible – While we can take as many additional flights as we need to piece together an itinerary that incorporates 15 SkyTeam airlines, I’d love it if those additional flights were minimal. Even better if there’s somehow a way to only fly 15 legs.
• Visas – For anywhere that I’d be staying overnight, being able to get a visa on arrival would be preferred. Unlike Nick, I don’t already have a Chinese visa and so that means in order to fly any of the China-based airlines, I’d need to transit the airport rather than actually enter the country.
• Getting back to Vegas – If there was some way to have the itinerary land me back in Vegas, all the bettor better. However, that’s not essential as I can find some other way to get back there (hopefully in comfort) using my own miles.

I Need Your Help!

All three of us are seeking reader input on our itineraries, but I could probably do with getting the most assistance of all! I signed up for this challenge against my better judgment as I’m super-busy for the next couple of weeks. That means I have little time to do a lot of research into routings, pricing, etc., so all input will be gratefully received. And remember – the person who’s most helpful will win a prize and if I win the challenge overall, that reader will win the grand prize.

Please therefore share your ideas, tips and tricks in the comments below – thank you

Let the madness begin!

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