so this route home that we're taking today from Helsinki to Adelaide should have cost
us over two thousand dollars per person we are getting there for $237 dollars
Tday we are flying all of the way from Helsinki Finland to Adelaide
Australia but between us stands about 38 hours 10
000 miles three flights two massive layovers maybe even an airport lounge or two
as if that wasn't enough we are flying through three separate continents with three different
airlines on three separate tickets we have to pick up and recheck our bags every time we
land there is a very good reason for that we are saving a bunch of money but more on that later
wow that was the coolest security I've ever been through the machine's gonna scan your bags look
like alien technology or MRI machines and because I have some liquids in my bag they pulled them out
and she was like is it okay if I analyze this yeah glass bottles we got from Italy that had balsamic
vinegar in them and that analyzed through them was like yep no worries balsamic all good now we've
got a few hours to kill looking outside at the darkness and the last few moments of seeing snow
we didn't check in until the very last minute so the only seats that were together that they
could give us are two aisles I'm super excited for in-flight movies and maybe a glass of wine
all right
That was potentially the nicest border control I've ever been through in my
life the hospitality here is just on another level I don't want to leave
this is home for the next 12 hours
They've got top gun
and Elvis might not get any sleep on this flight
good morning kind of we're Landing into Singapore and it's about 7pm we've got
a break there and then we're on another plane 13 hours later we have arrived in
Singapore now we have to collect our bags clear customs and check back in
before we go to a bar and have a beer I wanted to take the time to explain exactly why we chose this
long route that we're doing today this is going to be a little bit long so if you're not into
saving money on travel Airline points or knowing how we got these flights for $237 all the way
from Helsinki to Australia you can skip to this time card here pretty much we've been collecting
Qantas points and Airline points back at home for the last three years through a bunch of different
ways it's mostly Qantas points with us which means we have access to rewards fares on Qantas you can
book any Qantas partner flights with their points but where you really get bang for your buck is the
Qantas rewards flights we pretty much use them exclusively and they're designated by a little
red badge on the flights they're not every flight and they can be quite hard to find when we were
looking for flights returning home from northern Europe down to Australia there was nothing and
we looked every day for about a week until we deconstructed the flight path a little bit and
found one of our award flights that would take us from Helsinki to Singapore which is where we are
now and one major benefit of that meant that I could then use our Singapore Air Airlines points
to fly the rest of the way back to Australia this gets a little bit more complex when I'm talking
about the Singapore Airlines points but bottom line anytime we spent any money in Australia
filling up our cars shopping just for groceries we were earning points most of those were Flybys
points which you can convert and use with a few different airlines we chose KrisFlyer which is
Singapore's Rewards program and that allowed us to book this flight home for next enough
there is a lot to unpack with travel hacking and figuring out how to use points and earn points
the best way I'm not going to go into it now because I'm hot and sweaty it's time for a beer
the original plan was to go to a lounge here in the Singapore airport that we went to way back
when this whole journey started because there's a good deal for it on get your guide and you
can spend three hours there drink everything you want eat everything you want but we were delayed
leaving Helsinki so we only have two hours to go now after checking in and everything so at
least one last beer to celebrate the end of 10 months we're flying home we're about to board
a flight to Australia so we left Helsinki it was negative eight degrees we're about
to board a flight that will eventually get us to Adelaide where guess what the temperature is
30. 32. what's that difference 40 degree difference
okay it feels like this last 10 months has just been a magical Whirlwind dream Adventure
even though multiple things have gone wrong like falling off the first scooter thriving
some clothes it's been the best I do it all to get in a heartbeat yeah I do it
all again I'd miss the hospitalization though you don't need that I just have
loved it this trip back home if you can't tell has got a very nostalgic foreign
we did try and check in on the aisle and the window seats yeah hopefully that this one's
free and we get an extra seat but time will tell already so excited Singapore Airlines is Just A
Step Above I'm so excited for a glass of red wine and something to eat and to watch more movies
I love long-haul flights I know people would hate this but I love it it blows my mind that we left
Helsinki in the dark we arrived to Singapore in the dark we're leaving Singapore in the dark
I don't know where the Perth will be where the sunrise will have hit yet
it might be dark there as well this is such a long travel day foreign
we have officially been traveling for over 30 hours
so I think it's time for a strong Australian coffee
we are both truly so tired from those flights and the waiting in the airport so glad that this
waiting in the airport for seven hours gets to be done in a lounge with food drinks views honestly
don't know how much more I can film I'm getting pretty tired with some of the travel hacking and
cards that we have we also get access to these lounges which is amazing because it means for the
next five hours we get to be comfortable looking out the window to all of the planes drink as much
coffee as we want without spending any money do you want a toasty toasty yeah okay how was it that
was a bit of a mad house if I'm honest I was there by myself which was nice and then another guy came
but luckily there was two presses so that was fine he had one then the third guy came luckily the
other one had space but still and then a fourth guy just came but he hadn't made a toaster toast
he was just standing with us and I was like okay I'm just gonna go so I would personally like it a
bit more toasted than this but the pressure of the social anxiety got to me so I left
we've both been awake for about 40 hours straight now and we're about to board our last flight
four hours finally home get to see up