I realized that although I'd promised to give my final itinerary, I never did so - so here goes:
Fly from SFO to Hong Kong, change planes to BKK/Bangkok
Side trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with Beth (who's coming over just for those 2 1/2 weeks, then back to San Francisco)
Fly from BKK to SIN/Singapore via NRT/Tokyo to experience the brilliant new Airbus 380 HUGE aircraft - I 'only' got Business Class on this leg because there is no First Class on the A380 on Singapore Airlines - instead they have Suites, which is really a room to yourself complete with a bowling alley (OK no bowling alley but almost big enough).
Side trip from SIN to Penang using sleeper trains via Kuala Lumpur, and then Air Asia back to SIN.
SIN to DXB/Dubai
DXB to IST/Istanbul
IST to BCN/Barcelona
BCN to PMI/Palma de Mallorca
PMI to LHR/London Heathrow
LCY/London City Airport to FRA/Frankfurt airport with a runway in the City of London - kinda as if there were an airport at the Ferry Building in SF - (small) planes have to take off like a rocket - fun!
FRA to GRU/Sao Paulo doing this in order to experience the fabulous FIRST CLASS TERMINAL at FRA - from the moment you enter, you have a personal assistant, one of whose duties is to make sure you make your flight and don't get too lost in the bath (with rubber ducky), or cigar room, or restaurant, or bar.... - and then you have a choice of a Mercedes or a Porsche to take you to the PLANE - isn't it crazy the pampering airlines give their up-front pax so they can endure the great stress of flying in First Class??
GRU to EWR/Newark via YYZ/Toronto - this was kind of a tough choice - no direct flights on Star Alliance so the choice was United Airlines in First Class via DC, or Air Canada in BusinessElite - it seemed from the reviews and advice on frequent flyer sites that AC was the better way to go
JFK to SFO - last (sob) leg of the journey - will be in mid-April
