I’m about to step into some new territory, in which I am a simultaneous rookie and neophyte. I’m about to give a little ring-a-ling to my friends at Air Canada’s frequent flyer plan, Aeroplan, and try to book an international first-class award ticket for, oh, the end of next week.

Essentially, I am looking to booking an award for my ladyfriend and myself to Tokyo and Bangkok for spring break. It’ll be the first time I’ve A) ever booked an award ticket with a frequent flyer program other than United, which, ostensibly, means I should avoid United’s insidious Starnet Blocking, and B) ever booked an award for more than one person. I’ve heard varying reports of success for booking two first class seats on one airplane. First class seats, however, often display more award availability in the system than biz or economy seats, because, uh, not too many folks pay outright for first class seats. I’m guessing (well, more feeling optimistic) that I should be able to find a couple of seats on each leg o’ the journey.

I’ll give a report back later on my successes, or failures. I have a few ideal routes in mind – but, I’m sure, as award booking luck always seems to go, that I’ll end up with some other different routing. We’ll see!

Hey – some of the best awards are booked days before departure. It’ll be a helluva spring break.