Scott and I are headed on a two week vacation to Japan and Hong Kong.  This is a trip that we have been talking about doing for about 18 years since we got together.

Over the past two years, I have been saving up my Aeroplan and hotel points to minimise the amount paid out of pocket.

Let’s just say that I did not realize the value of airline points until I booked this trip, and really not until after I had booked the trip completely.

The original plan was to spend as much time in Japan as possible.  Using Aeroplan points, I did not think I could make stops along the way.  I knew I was going to fly via Incheon, South Korea and Hong Kong to get back to Toronto and on a whim I decided to see what we could do staying over with the number of points we had.  It turned out I could add one or two stops on the trip.

In addition to Hong Kong, we also considered Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.  Given we only had two weeks and we want to get as much as Japan in, we figured we’ll do one stop for three days.  We had both wanted to visit Hong Kong for many years, so this was the prefect opportunity.

The other requirements we had for this trip were;

• Flying on a 787 – While, by the time this trip happens, it might not be my first time on a 787 (Air Canada is starting to fly them Trans Continental), I really want to experience the difference with the cabin pressure brought down to a lower level, and flying at 40,999
• Flying direct to Japan from Toronto – The 787 offers this, although I believe Air Canada’s 777ERs do as well.
• Flying in Business Class – There is no way Scott and I are flying in economy, 11 to 13 hours. I’ve done it to Chile and it’s not comfortable.  Not only are we flying to and from Asia back to Canada in business class, the whole trip is business class.
• Shinkansen – There is no way I’m going to Japan and not getting on a Shinkansen train!
• Flying on an A380 – Within North America, you don’t have a lot of opportunity to fly on an A380, and the only A380 that flies to Toronto is Emirates service to Dubai.  It wasn’t an initial requirement but there was an opportunity to fly on an Asiana A380 from ICN to HKG.  Perfect!  I’ll take it.

Here is what we ended up with: