Well, I think that I'm done with the seemingly endless saga of buying airline tickets for our next trip...It was a major pain in the butt, however necessary, since it's much too far and wet to walk where we're going.

It took some creativity, and a bunch of Googling, but it was worth it.

In December, we head off to Tahiti and French Polynesia for a cruise to celebrate our first anniversary, and Christmas, and to spend some quality time together.

When I initially booked the cruise, I figured that getting to Tahiti would be relatively simple from Japan. Hell, it's in the same ocean, right? It didn't work out to be so simple.

First, I checked with Deepak, our travel guy here who has great access to deals going all over the world. He regularly books round the world trips, and I figured that he'd be able to find us something. His first try was $3200 per person. After getting up off the floor, and putting some ice on the lump on my head, I declined, figuring that as we got closer to the date, prices would drop. Also, since I was soon going to visit Mrs. F. in Japan, I decided that I'd just check there. Surely, since we were leaving from Tokyo, we could find better prices.

After another trip to the floor of a travel agency, and a matching lump on the other side of my head, I graciously declined the opportunity to buy $8400 worth of tickets to fly from Japan thru New Zealand to Tahiti...

Then, I called Princess, the cruise line to see what they had. Since the package they offered us didn't initially include air, adding it on now would have tacked on another $300 each in addition to the $850 or so for airfare. And, they only flew out of LA. That seemed like a long way to go...11 hours or so from Japan to LA, then back across the ocean another 8+ to Tahiti. So, better, but not good enough for this cheapskate...Aren't there any direct flights from Japan, or don't Japanese go to Tahiti?

Then I figured, what the heck, and called Delta (we have FFM with them). They wanted $2400 each for fares from Tokyo to LA to PPT round trip. Better than $4200 each we were quoted in Japan, but still way too high.

I'd been searching online, and had found a few good prices, but wasn't convinced. However, after weeks of searching, and now moving rapidly into danger close range of the trip, I decided to bite the bullet, risk the restrictions and stuff, and get them from Travelocity. We'll be flying Korean Air from Tokyo ($600 each) and Air France from LA (about $900 each). We'll have to go get our bags, and then recheck them, and then find something to do for about 15 hours in LA; but I think it was about as good a deal as we would find. Added bennies are the miles we'll get since KAL and AF are partners with Delta. Probably enough for a coach ticket in the States.

The time zone changes will be brutal, I'm afraid...I live 6 hours behind the Mrs. I fly from Riyadh, to Abu Dhabi, to Bangkok, to Tokyo (this time...have gone thru Hong Kong the past 2 trips...time to mix it up so I don't show a pattern), and spend the night there. Mrs. F. will join me there, and we leave for LA the next day at about 3 PM. We get to LA at 7 AM the same day. Then, we leave at midnight for Papeete, Tahiti, and arrive at about 7 AM the second day. Total "time" of travel (from Japan) will be about 15 hours, but actual time will be more like 35-40, with 20 hours in the air.

I sat down and added it all up...For me to go from Riyadh to Tokyo to LA to Tahiti and back is going to be about 31,000 miles. Basically, around the world and plus a few!

We get to PPT early the day before the cruise starts, so we'll have a little time to recooperate before the cruise. I'm sure we'll need it. Since we work with doctors, we'll probably see if they can give us some sort of sleep aid that we can use to force ourselves onto a normal schedule so we don't sleep through the whole cruise.

**UPDATE** The Royal Thai Air didn't work out because the flights just didn't mesh without several days of idle time. So, it'll be going thru Hong Kong again with an overnight layover...No problem with me. I love Hong Kong.