I. IntroductionIt all started with a text.
But, really, in order to provide the full picture, I have to begin a bit earlier. Historically, TAM never, ever, released first class awards--which, when you take into account the fact that the entire first class cabin is only four seats on their 777, set up in a 1-2-1 configuration, makes quite a bit of sense. Each award seat released would diminish capacity by a whopping 25%. So it was with quite a bit of surprise when earlier this year TAM opened the proverbial floodgates and not only began releasing first class award seats, but actually released the entire first class cabin as awards. The blogosphere was baffled by the Brazilian about face, wondering whether it was some sort of inventory glitch.
Well, the answer was soon revealed: As has seemingly become more and more common in the airline industry, TAM announced it had decided to reduce the size of their first class cabins; In fact, it had decided to completely scrap the first class cabin from their entire fleet, and to instead retrofit their planes with a new business class. As a consequence, it seems, TAM flipped the switch on first class award inventory.
Anticipated time of first class death? October 31, 2014.
Now, last Thursday, October 23, 2014, I would have told anyone who inquired that, disappointing though it may be, I had resigned myself to the notion that I would never have the opportunity to fly the hallowed, historically uber-exclusive first class product.
Then my phone buzzed.
It was Dan. On Friday, October 24, 2014, he whatsapp’d me from Brazil raving about his experience in TAM F. “Incredible hard product,” he began. “If you ever wanted to fly private, then jump on a plane next week, you’ll never get the feeling like that cabin anywhere,” he continued. “Totally closed off, but not closed off like a suite; wide open but all yours. Pics do no justice.”
At that moment, I knew I was dead meat. The wheels started turning… the award searches started churning… and the heart began yearning. To those who know me, those are all very, very bad signs.
On Sunday morning, after a weekend of telling myself that I have enough self-control to let this go, that I can overcome the urge that was welling up inside of me, that I wouldn’t even do one award search that morning.
Yeah, I knew I was going to fail, too.
I did one, and then a few more, and then a dozen. And there it materialized… what would be the perfect routing given the products I wanted to try, the time constraints in which I needed to operate, and the companion with whom I would fly.
We put it on hold on Sunday afternoon, and got to work on logistics, our bosses, and most importantly, our wives. This is what we held (outbound is red, inbound is yellow):
For 115,000 AA (including a 10,000 mile rebate) + $75 in taxes + $75 expedite fee, I’d be able to sample American’s brand-new A321T from JFK to LAX, American’s brand-new A321 (non-transcon) from LAX to DFW, and American’s brand-new 777-330ER from DFW to GRU… not to mention being able to return back to the motherland in the famed TAM F, stop for dinner in Florida at
Soho Rare Grill House and return back to NYC late Wednesday night in time for work on Thursday.
And I thought I was done tinkering… but I’m never done tinkering.
Hmm… I thought… the way I’m routed means I could add on another segment to the tail end of this already pretty award, provided it departs within 24 hours of my touchdown in NYC on Wednesday at midnight. What fits that bill and could make it even prettier?
Yep, adding Cathay’s fifth freedom route JFK-YVR at 10:00 PM on Thursday in first class would definitely make it prettier. And so I did.
But I didn’t tell my wife… yet
She’s due for another surprise, eh?
So we now had this on hold (new leg in green):
Because the ticket was on hold until Monday at 11:59 PM, I worked on the “visa issue.”
Brazil requires US passport holders to have a visa prior to entry. A visa which would be impossible to get in 18 hours. However, there is an exception: A passenger flying to Brazil can transit without a visa (TWOV). Now it wasn't entirely clear to me at that point whether “transit” meant only that you weren't allowed to leave the airport, or whether it meant one must transit to a third-country, and not just back to your originating country. At about 6 PM, I conferred with my companion, and, notwithstanding that we hoped it was the former, but expected it was the latter, we agreed to ticket later that night. Worst comes to worst, we’d be denied boarding and we’d pay the fee to redeposit our miles, and that would end be both the beginning and the end of our grandiose adventure.
So, at 11:00 PM, after not hearing from my companion, and with the clock winding down, I called him at about 11:00 PM to confirm we’ve gotten the green light to ticket, and no answer… I called again at 11:10 PM… no answer. I knew right then he had fallen asleep. All that work was about to go right out the window.
Over my dead body.
So I put him on speed auto-redial until, finally, at about 11:35 PM he picks up groggily and said, “oops.”
Anyway, we ticketed just in the nick of time, and with that we were set. I left the office at about 12:30 AM, went home and packed. By the time I was done, it was about 2:30 AM, and decided that it just wasn’t worth going to sleep for a couple of hours, so I stayed awake.
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