It's kind of hard to believe that I booked my camps for Zambia 8 months ago now and here I am now just about 8 months out from departure. It's gone by pretty fast but I've been busy and it's been the beautiful, enjoyable spring, summer and fall months here. Now I have the winter slog to get through. The January-April months feel like a year some years. Ugh.
In mid-October my travel dates were finally available on Emirates for the Zambia safari. I'd spent some time on SeatGuru taking a look at where I might be most comfortable in Economy class for 12 hours from Boston to Dubai and then 8 more hours from Dubai to Lusaka, and back again. One interesting twist and benefit to this route is that because the layover in Dubai is over 8 hours (it's 14) Emirates will put me up in a hotel at no cost for the overnight, so that does break the flight up some and give me a chance to sleep in a bed, have a shower and spend time on solid ground before the second leg. But the return flight is not so lucky, it's only 2 hour layover, so a 22 hour continuous trip in essence.
Traveling solo, I can take advantage of sitting anywhere I want without considering a traveling companion. I did find a seat that didn't have a seat in front of it for the longer flights and I wanted to buy the fare early in order to get that seat. Then I really started to think about it and thought maybe this might be an opportunity to take advantage of Emirates' Business Class experience, which is widely known to be best in the business and will let me take two bags on as carry-on (which is a must since I'm a carry-on only flier now). I read that they have a Business Class lite fare which didn't have concierge, seat assignment, lounge or chauffeur as part of the fare. Wait, what? Chauffeur you say? Yes, they will pick me up at my home, deliver me to the airport at the appointed hour and return me to my home, included in the fare. That could save me upwards of $200 for airport long-term parking for that trip. So then I started looking at the full Business fare. Picking a seat was a plus too, so I know I'll be on a window by myself. At that point, the Business class check-in, champagne bar and dining in the lounge won me over. How could I not do this? After all, I only have this milestone birthday once. And one feature unique to this fare which I don't get with my usual Economy fare is that I can cancel for a very small fee, so no need to add the fare to my trip insurance. So while the various extraneous savings didn't add up anywhere close to the increase in fare, I think it'll be an exciting splurge. I so enjoyed the lie flat beds going to Kenya last year, but that Business Class wasn't nearly the caliber of this. Now the deed is done and the waiting continues.
Turning 49 again should be fairly painless with all this on the horizon!!
No comments:
Post a Comment