No such thing as a free lunch?

No takers for a free trip!

In the year 2000, I gave up my job traveling on business and took on an ‘earth bound’ job. Over the past years I had travel almost everywhere, including making round-the-world trips. One of the perks was frequent flyer points.
I had milege points from almost every airline program including Star Alliance, One World and independents like EVA, ANA, MAS etc.

In Nov 2001, I was informed by Star Alliance that 125,000 points were to expire by 31st Dec that I had to utilize or forfeit.

I offered all my colleagues a free trip to almost anyway. You think they would jump on this chance? No! None of them actually believed I was genuine. There's no such thing as a free lunch! they said.

With the deadline almost due, I finally decided that I would take a trip by myself then to London and by First Class on SIA. In all my years, I had not flown first class and this was the opportunity of a lifetime, and it took exactly 120,000 points for a 1st class ticket.

The day before I was due to make the booking, I bumped into Joyce, a colleague whom I remembered had just got married to Fred, who used to work with me at another branch.
“Hey, how would you and Fred like a free honeymoon anywhere in Asia?” I asked.
“No catch, just that I had to go along and you have to pay for your own hotel and meals”

And so it was that Joyce and Fred made their first overseas trip to Japan with me in February 2002. We flew Business class on ANA. Stayed 5 days and toured Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Nara.

The following year when again I had to utilize my frequent flyer points, you can bet there was no shortage of eager friends!

Changi Airport ANA Business Class Lounge___________ Fred & Joyce

Joyce & me______________________________ Tokyo Japan