Brisbane: Christmas 2019
Final trip of the year is to Brisbane. First time to that part of Australia, and heck, first time celebrating Christmas outside of the USA!
While a stop at Gold Coast was tempting, the flight timings just didn't work out. Perth actually was even more tempting, but that would have required significantly more time than Gold Coast, and the schedule was tight enough as is. Besides, wanted to squeeze in as many miles as possible this year before United screws all their frequent fliers yet again with next year's devaluation.
Day 1 - not the most fun routing, but booked SFO-SYD instead of LAX-SYD (or LAX-MEL) because upgrades business class in Polaris looked available at the time...
Day 2 - Christmas in Australia.
Day 3 - Finding out everything is closed on Boxing Day, including McDonald's. And yet another bumpy flight across the Pacific, this time in a half-empty airplane.