The Best-Laid Plans: An Introduction

In retrospect, I misnamed my trip to Thailand and Japan via Europe this past March.  Business class to Asia via Europe is a cakewalk compared to flying coach to Asia via the Pacific.  Back in November, I convinced myself to book a trip to the Philippines, in coach, via the middle of the Pacific (to take advantage of United’s generous routing rules).

While I was originally planning on writing a brief post on only my hotel stay in Manila, I picked up a lucky bump in SFO on my outbound, giving me a reroute via Tokyo in United’s First Class (and then a less luxurious coach experience on ANA).  With the bump and a same-day confirmed flight change, my trip came out to be:

While I had tried to convince myself on my return from Frankfurt to Dulles in January to “not cross oceans in coach,” I finished the weekend having flown 9689 miles in coach and 10255 miles in first class.