I’m Running Melbourne Marathon This Year!

Most of the planning for this trip happened over the course of a few weeks. Originally, my wife had her two week vacation later in October, so there wasn’t any international marathons I wanted to do then. I only have a week of vacation and I figured we could start in Hong Kong and go to Seoul and/or Taipei then fly home on the second week of her vacation. I was looking to use this trip to get some EQMs for AA EXP by flying into Hong Kong, AA newest and longest international flight. I love Hong Kong and have been really keen on trying their new service into Hong Kong.

My father in-law had told my wife that he wanted to go to China around that time and my wife thought she would accompany him to China (not that my wife would be too helpful in that regard). In this whole planning process with her dad, she ended up changing her vacation to two weeks prior. When I saw her dates, I quickly noticed that Melbourne Marathon was one of the last days of her new vacation dates. Her dad would be in China about two weeks before so she would spend a week in China with her dad, then fly down to Australia with me via HKG and join me for the marathon.

This would be one of the marathons on my second time around for seven continents marathon quest!

After some last minute date changes and other things, I managed to get her in Cathay Pacific business from BOS-JFK-HKG. Originally she would be flying in coach. I also managed to snag Singapore Airlines First Class from Melbourne to SFO via SIN and ICN. Here is her itinerary:

• BOS-JFK AA Domestic First
• JFK-HKG CX Business (1-2-1 lie flat)
• HKG-CAN Dragonair coach
• CAN-HKG CX Regional Business
• HKG-MEL ML Business (angled lie flat)
• MEL-SIN-ICN-SFO SQ F on 777 (not suites class)
• SFO-BOS UA paid Coach

My flight would be as follows:

• BOS-DFW-HKG paid RT coach (on request to upgrade with SWU)
• HKG-MEL ML Business (angled lie flat)
• MEL-BNE-HKG CX Busines (angled lie flat)