Nathan's Insights

I am now one year out from the commencement of my world trip with my nephew, Harry, which starts with a flight from Melbourne to Doha on Saturday 21 November 2026. For the world component we will be visiting Qatar, Jordan, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Morocco over 45 days.

I’ll be starting my trip on Wednesday 11 November 2026, with Harry’s sister, Darby, for a nine-day Australian adventure. We’ll travel from Sydney to Perth on the Indian Pacific, a 4-day train trip across the great continent of Australia.

This will be followed by 5 days of exploring Perth and the surrounding area.

The combined Australian and World trip will be approximately 54 days. All tours have now been booked and we are in the process of paying for them.

The next big event is booking flights. The first option is to book flights using award points and hopefully score one or more flights in premium seating.

I’ve been monitoring award business class seats released by Qatar and Virgin Australia to get a feel for the options and likelihood of achieving this bonus outcome. I give us a reasonable chance, maybe 60% of managing at least 1 business seat class seat for this 14+ hour flight to Qatar.

The booking window for 21 November 2026 should open on Christmas Day i.e. 25 December 2025. You need to book immediately on flights opening up 330-355 days out to have a chance of a premium seat. Leaving Australia late November makes it harder to get a premium seat as we enter the peak travel period which is why we are looking to leave immediately after Harry’s exam window closes.

If we get to book 1, or preferably 2, business class seats on Christmas Day this would be a nice present to ourselves. Flying above economy is a bonus so missing out isn’t a big deal.

What is a big deal is the trip which once we have flights booked will feel very real 🙂