It's done. The final airline reservations on 9 airlines were all confirmed and booked yesterday, so March 12th the globe-trotting begins and finishes April 29th.
Most of my ticket was earned by years of corporate travel, but several legs were tricky. Of particular trouble was the Mumbai - Istanbul journey on the Award ticket, we just couldn't find availability on a Star Alliance flight. So, a purchased ticket was the only option on this short of notice. EgyptAir had the best price, so I will be having lunch in Cairo, an unexpected bonus and perhaps even see pyramids from the plane.
Purchasing online a Bangkok RT flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia was pretty easy on Cambodia Angkor Airlines website. My financial institution issuing a Master Card gave a quick call moments after the transaction went through to confirm I was in fact making a purchase in another country. That's a far cry from the day back in 1990 that I used a Greek ATM to pull out 30,000 drachma (oops, wasn't that 30 USD not 300?) using my fancy charge card connected to a nearly empty bank account at the time. Thanks American Express!! I was a good investment risk after all . . .
