Saturday 3 October 2020

Awakening after blog hibernation + £800 business class flights to USA

It’s been rather derelict on my blog over the last two years, tumble weeds have been blowing through the site whilst my enthusiasm to write has evaporated into thin air. Sometimes it can be a little time consuming to create blog posts and over the last couple of years I had opted to leave the camera behind and just chill when on holiday. Then I checked my blog stats recently and to my astonishment there has been over 26,000 page views this year alone this gave me the encouragement that maybe people do still read blogs..... (or just like tropical travel pictures) but anyways it planted the idea of a comeback!


I remember starting this blog to share not only my own travels but also some great deals I would find along the way, I've helped friends book holidays, shared my helpful tips on air-mile collecting and more recently our camping and whisky trips. It was that feeling of helping people book holidays, sharing cool places to visit and itinerary’s you can copy that I want to get back to.

At the beginning of 2020 I had 2 great trips lined up and I had researched them to death, first up was a trip to Phuket flying business with Finland Air (which I managed to get for a steal during one of their sales) and then I had a 18 day trip to Singapore and Bali flying first class with BA (using 270K air miles and a companion voucher). But 2020 had different plans and Coronavirus hit, we did manage to get to Thailand (which I will share with you on another blog post) but that dream trip to Bali and Singapore using years of saved up air miles was cancelled.


Now I’m looking for any sympathy here, not only did we get our air-miles back and a full refund for the hotels but we also managed to get an amazing holiday to Thailand before lockdown happened, so I know were pretty lucky.

With the damage to the hospitality sector being unprecedented I do worry what travel is going to be like post Covid. I can only hope that businesses can keep open to a level that they can sustain themselves, keep their employees and return stronger and better on the other side.

As for the airline industry, I do fear that things may take a long time to return to normality and even then I think it is almost certain that we can expect air fares to rise and there to be a devaluation of air miles. On a bright note there are actually some great business class fares flying about right now (£800 return) with BA flying to the USA from Luxemburgh (however given the limited service and travel restrictions visiting the USA it’s not really a great deal flying in the very near future & the fact positioning yourself over to Luxembourg could be very difficult at the moment means I would hold off unless you book something mid-late 2021). If you are interested there is great deals to Miami, Boston, NYC and various other east coast USA cities for under £1000 return with avalibility wide open all next year so might be worth it if you can book something for later in 2021 and grab a deal, you will also receive around 25K Avios and gain Bronze status with BA  (Click here for google flights & play around with the dates). 

Calmctravels business class deal

So, for a travel blogger I guess the burning question is when do we start booking our holidays again, well the answer to that is down to your own circumstances (however if you do book anything make sure it has free cancelation). For Jess and I, we will be sticking to holidays in the UK until at least mid 2021 then who knows.

In the meantime, I’m going to be writing about some of the stuff we have been getting up to in the 2 years we have been AWOL, from a review of Sandals newest resort in Barbados to that trip to the tourist trap of Phuket this year (which we loved). I also want to cover some trips we have had in the UK during this summer and will try to put together some winter UK ideas to give you that holiday fix so keep tuned and of course any business class flights deals that I find.

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CalMcTravels
(Jess enjoying a sunset beer in Phuket)
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2 comments

  1. From USA: I'm afraid it will take some time to get back to normal. Meanwhile, I enjoy traveling within the borders. I have 5 national parks in my state of Utah. Keep looking over that next hill.

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    Replies
    1. Yea unfortunately I think you are right and as much as I would love to travel the reality is normality is a long way away. It does give a good excuse to explore your own country though and with 5 national parks in your state alone it sounds like you will have plenty to explore.

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