This is the American Airlines Club Lounge Review San Diego as part of the Trip Report: The $77,000 Trip Heard Round the World which covers 5 Continents, 13 Countries, and 17 Cities.
- Tokyo, Japan
- Melbourne, Australia
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Sydney, Australia
- Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Maldives
- Saigon, Vietnam
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Hong Kong
- Cape Town, South Africa
- Knysna, South Africa
- Durban, South Africa
- Mauritius
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- Doha, Qatar
- New York, New York
- Helsinki, Finland
Find the nerdy planning here. Find the picture preview here.
Why is the AA lounge in San Diego inspiring? The reason is in this sign:
SFO-NRT, LAX-NRT sure, but SAN-NRT? And direct? And on the Dreamliner? And on JAL? That’s just crazy. For me it was also lucky because the strict rules of the Explorer Award threatened to derail my whole trip but for the availability of this flight to Tokyo.
This post has little to do with how the AA lounge was basic, providing only one premium drink for passengers and more about the determination and innovation it takes to plan a round the world trip. Weeks of calling AA, changing this segment and changing that, only to have it invalidated over and over paid dividends in the form of this trip. It also has made me more creative in searching for overlooked routes, reading the rules till I could recite them from memory, and remaining persistent in the belief that any ticket, on any product, for any destination in the world is possible.
When I embarked on this trip it wasn’t for the blog. TPOL wasn’t around then. It was out of a sense of adventure. The possibilities of where I could go and what I could do were limitless. It is that freedom I felt during those weeks that motivates me to share my crazy travel tales on a daily basis and more importantly explain how easy it is for anyone to do the same.
With that, as is my duty, here is the review of the lounge:
I drank an Asahi. I used the free Wi-Fi. The rest of the time I sat there clueless as to what would come next.
Off to see the world. Care to join?
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