Nathan's Insights

The last few weeks of 2025 have been major weeks for my world trip in 2026 with my nephew as I’ve managed to book the first four flights of this trip.

So far I’ve booked:

• Melbourne to Doha (Business Class 14 hour 15 minute flight)
• Doha to Amman (Regional First Class 3 Hour 10 minute flight)
• Amman to Athens (Regional Business Class 3 Hour 25 minute flight)
• Athens to Madrid (Economy 3 Hour 55 minute flight)

This leaves the return flights from Casablanca to Melbourne via Doha which I’m hoping might be booked in business class using points.

The major flight I wanted was Melbourne to Doha which I booked business class award (119,500 velocity points and $417.85 x 2). This flight uses a Qatar Airliness Boeing 777-300ER and is staff by Qatar staff but is technically a Virgin Australia flight. This arrangement allowed me to book using velocity points (Virgin Australia’s frequent flyer points) within 10 minutes of the flight being bookable.

Getting just one business class award seat from Australia is rare, two is very difficult but these new Virgin Australia flights using Qatar openned up great opportinuties. I’m spoiling Harry with this long haul flight.

The next flight is on Qatar Airlines Boeing 787-8 on what they call First Class but is a regional product, basically business class flying from Doha (Qatar) to Amman (Jordan). The bonus here is this allows us to access the exclusive Qatar Airways Al Safwa First Class Lounge in Hamad International Airport. Access to this lounge is only by flying first class, not frequent flyer status. I used 42,000 velocity points and $451.20 x 2 to book this flight.

The third flight is on Royal Jordanian flying regional business class from Amman (Jordan) to Athens (Greece). This cost me 31,500 Qantas points (Royal Jordanian is a Oneworld partner) and $242,41 x 2 to book.

The last booked flight is on Iberia from Athens (Greece) to Madrid (Spain) which I used cash, not points, for $200.59 which is in economy and includes checked bags. It wasn’t worth using points for very business intra Europe business class, which just ses economy seats but blocked the seat next to you.

Once you book flights the trip starts to feel more real.