We have been pretty busy that I gave up time for blogging and gaming on PS4. I will try to publish the StashAway and Expenses backlogs before we travel next month!
CZM Short-Lived"Semi-Retirement" Break
I previously blogged about it here - "Semi-Retirement" For CZM. Long story short, CZM left her previous company and we were planning to do a 1-2 months RTW (Round the World) travel. However, a job opportunity came which would potentially disrupt our plan and her break and we were torn. There are pros and cons to taking up either option:
- RTW: Enjoy life, experience rich, cash poor
- Work: Cashrich ok, probably no chance to do it again
We even did a poll on Seedly FB Group to gather more views/feedbacks. You can read through the comments here if you are interested.
Anyway, the offer came and it was a small increment, so we decided to turn it down. However, her manager was very sincere, knew about our plan and tried to work something out for us. We negotiated for 2 consecutive months of no pay/sabbatical leave to travel and eventually settled for 2 separate months. To be fair, it is indeed difficult for the business/manager to lose a resource for 2 consecutive months. CZM will be back to work next week/month after resting for 1 month.
RTW
I blogged about our Next Goal - Star Alliance Round the World (RTW) in Business Class! With only 1 month to travel, we got to make changes to our plan and decided to focus on the more ulu (less travelled) region - South America.
Technically, this is still around the world as you can see above. The stopovers are Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Switzerland and it will take us 14 flights (5 in Economy and 9 in Business) to do that. The reason why we need so many flights is there are no direct flights even though the countries are side by side -.-"
For example, Bolivia and Brazil are next to each other but the flights require us to first fly up to Columbia and then to Panama before flying down to Brazil. Under normal circumstances, RTW ticket does not allow one to backtrack/fly the other direction but it was a valid routing for this case because there isn't any direct flight. This also eats up/waste the limited air mileages (35k miles). Anyway, I think this deserves a post itself because of all the troubles and scare we went through so I shall stop here first.
Europe Tour + Cheap Business "Return" Tickets to Japan
With another month to travel, we decided to spend it with our families. The first 2 weeks will be spent with my parents in Europe (again). We went down to the NATAS travel fair and signed up with Hong Thai Travel Agency (again) for a 12 Days 9 Nights Scandinavia & Finland tour which cost $3,300 per pax.
The next 2 weeks will be spent with CZM's parents in Japan/Hokkaido and it was an excellent opportunity for them to experience travelling in premium flights. There is a known hack in the miles community group and you can read more about it here - Milelion: Here’s how Alaska’s Mileageplan can get you really cheap JAL business class tickets. It is not really a full return ticket because we will be flying from Singapore to Tokyo and back to Malaysia (KL) only. It is cheap because it is only issued/charged as a one-way fare.
We have 36 flights lined up from now till the end of next year! There might be more because we have yet to plan the itinerary for South America.
Cathay Error Fare
Early this year, Cathay had an error fare which allowed us to book extremely cheap First Class tickets (10% of their usual retail/revenue ticket) to the USA - Thank You Cathay Pacific! Another First Class Flight on American Airlines. A few weeks back, one of our AA flights got rescheduled to a day earlier and it was impossible for us to catch that as we would still be in Canada. So I called Cathay and got them to reschedule me on another more reasonable flights. Turns out AA no longer has flights on that day anymore and I was rescheduled to a Cathay flight! Out of goodwill, they also offered to change my other AA flights to Cathay flights.
With that, we actually get to experience 3 First Class products!
CX882 and CX873 - Cathay Pacific
CX7505 - American Airlines
CX7967 - Alaska
After this trip, we will have an estimated 50k Alaska miles each which mean more premium cheap flights. Having said that, we are hoping that the protest will not cause another airport shut down ~.~"
House Renovation
Almost all the weekends were spent on the house, I have not had a lazy (stay home to blog or game) Sunday for a long long time. We will either be at shopping centres or various warehouses. Some of the places we frequent (been there more than once) are IMM, Heritage Bathroom Gallery, Gain City@Sungei Kadut, Mega Discount Store, etc.
We have been going into JB at least once every week to shop for fans and lights for the whole month of August. The lights are mostly the same price but with a different currency. Samsung/Philips LED downlights for RM20/30+.
The KDK ceiling fans with light are even cheaper. We plan to install the 60" (K15UW-QEY) in the living room and 48" (K12UX) in the rooms. The prices we got in Singapore are $499 and $399 SGD vs in JB RM738 and RM641. If you are wondering, we went to Tampoi Lighting Center.
We went a couple of time due to the size of the car boot + GST optimizing. lol. Regardless, we are good citizens and declared GST accordingly :) The site is quite old and stupid as you can only declare for 1 person per declaration.
I think the renovation progress has been pretty slow and it is around 50% done. A rough estimate put our total spending on the house to be ~$85k ($65k renovation + $20k furniture and appliances)...
Till next time!
Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)
CZM Short-Lived
I previously blogged about it here - "Semi-Retirement" For CZM. Long story short, CZM left her previous company and we were planning to do a 1-2 months RTW (Round the World) travel. However, a job opportunity came which would potentially disrupt our plan and her break and we were torn. There are pros and cons to taking up either option:
- RTW: Enjoy life, experience rich, cash poor
- Work: Cash
We even did a poll on Seedly FB Group to gather more views/feedbacks. You can read through the comments here if you are interested.
 |
| 224 for RTW vs 68 to work |
Anyway, the offer came and it was a small increment, so we decided to turn it down. However, her manager was very sincere, knew about our plan and tried to work something out for us. We negotiated for 2 consecutive months of no pay/sabbatical leave to travel and eventually settled for 2 separate months. To be fair, it is indeed difficult for the business/manager to lose a resource for 2 consecutive months. CZM will be back to work next week/month after resting for 1 month.
RTW
I blogged about our Next Goal - Star Alliance Round the World (RTW) in Business Class! With only 1 month to travel, we got to make changes to our plan and decided to focus on the more ulu (less travelled) region - South America.
 |
| Initial Plan - To see the Wonders of the World |
 |
| Current Plan - South America! |
 |
| Our Actual Flights |
Europe Tour + Cheap Business "Return" Tickets to Japan
With another month to travel, we decided to spend it with our families. The first 2 weeks will be spent with my parents in Europe (again). We went down to the NATAS travel fair and signed up with Hong Thai Travel Agency (again) for a 12 Days 9 Nights Scandinavia & Finland tour which cost $3,300 per pax.
 |
| Cheap Business "Return" Ticket - SGD $776 per pax |
We have 36 flights lined up from now till the end of next year! There might be more because we have yet to plan the itinerary for South America.
Cathay Error Fare
Early this year, Cathay had an error fare which allowed us to book extremely cheap First Class tickets (10% of their usual retail/revenue ticket) to the USA - Thank You Cathay Pacific! Another First Class Flight on American Airlines. A few weeks back, one of our AA flights got rescheduled to a day earlier and it was impossible for us to catch that as we would still be in Canada. So I called Cathay and got them to reschedule me on another more reasonable flights. Turns out AA no longer has flights on that day anymore and I was rescheduled to a Cathay flight! Out of goodwill, they also offered to change my other AA flights to Cathay flights.
With that, we actually get to experience 3 First Class products!
CX882 and CX873 - Cathay Pacific
CX7505 - American Airlines
CX7967 - Alaska
After this trip, we will have an estimated 50k Alaska miles each which mean more premium cheap flights. Having said that, we are hoping that the protest will not cause another airport shut down ~.~"
House Renovation
Almost all the weekends were spent on the house, I have not had a lazy (stay home to blog or game) Sunday for a long long time. We will either be at shopping centres or various warehouses. Some of the places we frequent (been there more than once) are IMM, Heritage Bathroom Gallery, Gain City@Sungei Kadut, Mega Discount Store, etc.
We have been going into JB at least once every week to shop for fans and lights for the whole month of August. The lights are mostly the same price but with a different currency. Samsung/Philips LED downlights for RM20/30+.
The KDK ceiling fans with light are even cheaper. We plan to install the 60" (K15UW-QEY) in the living room and 48" (K12UX) in the rooms. The prices we got in Singapore are $499 and $399 SGD vs in JB RM738 and RM641. If you are wondering, we went to Tampoi Lighting Center.
We went a couple of time due to the size of the car boot + GST optimizing. lol. Regardless, we are good citizens and declared GST accordingly :) The site is quite old and stupid as you can only declare for 1 person per declaration.
I think the renovation progress has been pretty slow and it is around 50% done. A rough estimate put our total spending on the house to be ~$85k ($65k renovation + $20k furniture and appliances)...
Till next time!
Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)
