In exciting developments, I’ve now managed to book my flight home from Singapore to Melbourne (via Kuala Lumpur) using Qantas points. And I’ll be flying on Malaysia Airlines in business class 🙂

This means I now have locked in my departure date from Australia and the return date allowing me to come up with a detailed plan (see above link). While I still have a few things to do to work out like my 5 free days in Istanbul the trip is basically set.

It was a relief to lock in the award point long haul flights on Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. Airfares have risen significantly post COVID lockdowns and airlines are mostly looking for people to pay instead of using points these flights. But managing to find business class seats on flights up to 11 hours makes travelling significantly easier.

I still need to book and pay for my Istanbul, Turkey to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (5 hour flight) and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan back to Istanbul, Turkey (4 hour flight) both likely to be on Turkish Airlines. However there isn’t a rush on paying for these economy flights until a few months in advance.