I have over 160,000 Airmiles.  I LOVE Airmiles.  I collect Airmiles through Tesco and studiously ignore the temptation of free money to spend in store, or free trips to Legoland Windsor.  No, I shun the Lego people and I squirrel the miles away, ignoring the next onslaught of emails that come from Airmiles themselves trying to tempt me to frivolously fritter away my miles on pointless weekend breaks to Disneyland Paris or return trips on Eurostar.  I say no to these run-of-the mill options, preferring instead to save save save until we can do something a little more… well… amazing. 

The last time we spent some Airmiles, we had free flights to Indianapolis in 2005 to watch the US Grand Prix.  Since then, we have been patiently collecting and waiting for an opportunity to spend them on flights we wouldn’t usually consider taking otherwise.  Fast forward then to 2012 and the value of our Airmiles balance can send us as far as Sydney. 

So, we have an 11 day window for travel over Christmas and New Year before visitors arrive on the 2^nd January.  This seems like an ideal time to check out where our Airmiles could take us.  My options were slim this close to traveling and the holiday dates of travel.  I would rather have gone to Hong Kong (not least because it would be a few degrees warmer), but have happily settled on an adventure in Beijing. 

In no way do I feel 9 days is enough to ‘do’ China, but it is enough time (maybe) to spend exploring one city with (perhaps) a side trip to Xi’an to check out the pottery work.  THIS is why I love my Airmiles.  I would not spend £800+ each on flights somewhere for a brief week when I have much more to do in that country than just one city.  But almost free flights?  Yes please, I’ll take it!