The Great Airmiles (bit of a) Con

OK, I'm over my introspective period now, you'll be glad to hear. In fact Mrs C and I have a bit of a spring in our step at the moment: we are going away - properly away, abroad, alone: sans sons - for the first time in nearly nineteen years. We have planned a trip to coincide with a special birthday for Val and because our sons were eighteen in the same period - expensive - we have saved Airmiles thanks to the true rulers of our fine land: Tesco.

The trip we planned was four nights in Rome, direct flights from Manchester in a hotel recommended to us by the well travelled Reverend Richard. The reality is that we are going to the equally interesting - I'm sure - Amsterdam. Here's why: despite the hype, you are very limited to where and how you can travel with your hard earned Airmiles, unless you live in London. Yes, I know that lots of airlines fly direct to Rome from Manchester but with your Airmiles you can only fly via Gatwick because Airmiles only deal with a limited number of companies. So, Amsterdam it is, leaving on Monday on a jet plane; and despite our initial disappointment we are very excited and currently spending evenings poring over our Rough Guide to Amsterdam.So don't plan your world trip based on Airmiles before checking where you can go first.

While we are on the subject of travel I'm quite excited about the new Fuel My Blog competition which involves a blog post about my best weekend. The prize is a trip to Austria which might just compensate for the lack of a trip to Rome so watch out for my next post.