Tag Archives: USD

Showdown at Qantas Office – Beijing

Posted on by

So part of the attraction of our Round the World ticket is it’s flexibility. Once you’ve identified you’re destinations and flight dates you can change your dates at will. So if you get some where and love it you can stay longer, or if you get somewhere and hate it you can jet out, and for a fee you can change your destinations entirely. This flexibility is one of the reasons we went with the OneWorld Alliance ticket.

Of course, when you’re planning things you plan them in a perfect world. Reality sometimes sets in when you try to actually use this flexibility. First off, it’s free to change your dates using the OneWorld Explorer ticket. This is true, unless you bought your ticket from Qantas. Qantas charges a 25 dollar fee each time you change your dates. This applies to us even though we bought our tickets through American Airlines. What to know why? We bought our tickets at the American Airlines desk in Auckland. And the American Airlines desk in Auckland is just that, a desk in a Qantas office, therefore everything gets printed on Qantas stock and we get to pay extra for services that should be free. Kind of annoying, but what are you going to do?

We’ve made date changes to our tickets twice already, and each time they went swimmingly. So when we decided we wanted to make both date and destination changes in Beijing we weren’t expecting any problems. There were problems.

First off, we wanted to make destination changes in part because two new airlines have joined the alliance: Royal Jordanian and MALÉV, the national carrier of Hungary. Adding these two add a lot of options for flights to the Mid-East and Central/Eastern Europe. We were pretty excited about the possibilities, so we headed down to the Qantas office in Beijing.

Note to any Qantas ticket holders thinking about going into the Beijing office – they have no idea what they’re doing. Stay away! Stay away! Stay away!

After two minutes in the office I knew the wisest thing was to get our tickets out of the hands of the Qantas rep who had them and get as far away as possible. When she told us she didn’t know that Namibia was in Africa we were concerned. When she thought Victoria Falls was in Europe we were very concerned. When she told us that a British Airways flight wasn’t part of the alliance, I just wanted to run away. We agreed on a “Face-Saving” maneuver – she would read up on the OneWorld alliance rules, and we would give her a list of changes we would like to make. We left relieved that nothing at all had been done.

Fast forward a couple of days. After “educating” herself she started to make the changes we had requested. We where notified by email. But instead of making all the changes she made just two. I immediately called the office and she told me that the changes she made would cost $150 each and for the rest of them I should “Probably go to Hong Kong office. Much bigger, more use to this.”

This really wasn’t the response we were looking for. So we headed back down to the Qantas office as soon as we could, and luckily got hold of someone who mostly knew what she was doing – even though she had to be “convinced” that Royal Jordanian was now a OneWorld partner and that “Yes, you can” book us on that airline. We got mostly all the changes we were looking for, and it only took the better part of three days. Three trips to the Qantas Beijing office and a couple of “double check” calls to the American Airlines Round the World ticket desk in the states (All of whom are extremely competent).

So the winners in our ticket change are Victoria Falls and Istanbul. The losers: Mauritius and Nairobi. Why: All the cheap accommodation in Mauritius (there is very little to begin with) was booked up and we didn’t feel like sleeping in the airport for a week. Nairobi lost out because we decided we didn’t want to trek overland in Africa for a month. So instead we’re flying into and out of Vic Falls and spending the better part of a week in Istanbul.

Some people have said to us that Qantas is really an acronym for Queer and Nasty Try Another Service. We do not believe this. The reps we’ve used in other Qantas offices have been terrific, and we’d love it if they worked in Beijing, but they don’t and the folks in that office aren’t really up to speed with OneWorld tickets. Too bad they’re having the Olympics here next year. If you absolutely have to use this office, my advice would be to have all of your details figured out before you go in (flight numbers, carrier codes, the works). You may have to dig in your heals on some points, but you’ll (probably) get the changes you need.

Mongolia Notes for Budget Travelers

Posted on by
Mongolian Kid and Friend

Mongolian Kid and Friend

Mongolia is a bit different than the other countries we have visited thus far. There is only one real city, UB, and there is very little infrastructure to support public transport around the country. As we mentioned in Off We Ger if you want to get out into the countryside, which is really THE reason to come to Mongolia, then you need to a) join a tour; b) hire a jeep; or c) be completely raving madand take the local long distance buses. You could also fly, but since that wasn’t remotely within our budget (boohoo), I’ve left it out.

Tours run the gamut from budget backpackers piled into Russian vans that look like VW buses to the Golden Circle gang who get flown into luxury ger camps and driven around in shiny Landcruisers. (Yes, I’m a little envious.) Many travelers join together a group of 3-4 people and hire a jeep and driver. This can work out to be a pretty good deal since you choose your route and have freedom to stop whenever and wherever you choose. Since there were only two of us and we were not organized enough to find other people to share the costs of a jeep, we skipped option b. Our disorganization and adversity to tour groups ruled out option a as well.

So as you may have read, we went with Ger to Ger, an organization that supports sustainable tourism among nomadic herders. Good organization, good philosophy, a little loose on some details, but still a very good, authentic and low cost experience. That said, taking the bus to and fro was pure, sheer, total hell like no other. And yes, I had the bruises to prove it.

In terms of lodging, outside of UB, the main choices are basic hotels, ger camps (both luxury and budget) and camping. Mongolia is excellent for camping and it’s free. Just pitch your tent and snooze. Many ger camps seem to cater to foreigners offering less authentic experiences at tourist prices. And from what I’ve heard hotels range from grotty to decent. Not a lot of luxury in this category. Lucky for us, we stayed at what may be one of the nicest guesthouses outside of UB. This was mighty welcome after a week of no showers. AND they had a cafe with a vegetarian menu. Sadly we missed the veggie burger, but did have some tasty bakery treats for the bus ride.

Within UB, pretty much the same lodging choices exist except that there are loads of guesthouses and some nicer hotels. Our guesthouse was bare bones at best, but to be honest we didn’t mind since we were the only ones there most of the time. Plus the owner was a really great guy. As always, dorms are cheaper and most places have shared baths. We paid a pretty average $16 per night for a room with a double bed (and literally nothing else!).

Food is relatively inexpensive in UB and even cheaper in the countryside, though choices are more limited there. UB has a surprising plethora of western restaurants thanks to the number of NGOs and foreign aid agencies. Though the food was inexpensive by western standards, it was a little bit more than we had been paying in China and India. Still a bargain. If you visit UB, don’t miss the weird mix of flavors at Los Bandidos – Mongolia’s only Indian-Mexican restaurant. We went three times for the nachos.

Overall, Mongolia is pretty good for budget travel. The lack of infrastructure outside of the city prohibits it from being super cheap, but we managed pretty well on an average of about $50 a day including the trek, transport, food, lodging, etc.

China Notes for Budget Travelers

Posted on by

Our original budget for China was based on the costs of the big cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Our goal was to stay at or below $70 a day for both of us. We were able to get by on about that in Hong Kong, but were able to easily stay below $50 a day for most of China.

This was a welcome change and was in large part thanks to the vast network of YHA hostels that have come online in the last couple of years. Our lodging rarely exceeded $20 for a double room with the exception of Hong Kong where you pay $30-35 for a tidy little matchbox. The lowest we paid was about $2.50 for a basic twin room in Tiger Leaping Gorge and the average was likely somewhere between $10-$15.

When we did have to opt for a Chinese hotel, the rule of thumb was bargain. Never pay the quoted rate for anything in China, especially hotel rooms. They were a little more money and a little more worn that the hostels, but still served the purpose. Trying to communicate with them at what time and for how long the hot water works was a whole different issue.

Food was always an interesting endeavor. If you go for western restaurants, where they are available, you more or less pay western prices. Food in general is not very expensive, but finding a place with an English menu or an English speaker was the challenge. The best way to go was the little stalls in the side alleys where the food is fresh and you can point to what you’d like. We took our chances with our botched Chinese and Mandarin phrasebook on more than one occasion. Typically we ended up with some rice and sauteed bok choy – for which I admit I began to develop a slight fondness.

Aside from a few fast and fancy train rides, we didn’t really have any budget breakers in China. Some of the sites have ridiculously high entrance fees, but that was usually offset by cheap lodging and food. Overall, China offered a lot of bang for the buck.