kNOwMAD

Not only will the recent alteration to my itinerary prevent me from flying with American Airlines for an additional eight hours (something I was dreading!), the removal of the LAX-DFW-MEX-DFW-LAX legs of my earlier itinerary will also provide me with the ability to extend my Latin American trip should the opportunity present itself. I have booked my trip using my Qantas Frequent Flyer points (yes, almost a decade of points accumulation has now given me an opportunity to fly for free!) and travelling on a frequent flyer booked ticket has severe restrictions attached to it.

After making the original booking using one's frequent flyer points one is permitted to make changes to the dates of travel at a cost of 5,000 points (MEL-LAX-MEL has cost me 96,000 points) - depending, of course, on the availability of seats earmarked for frequent flyer points bookings. Prior to commencing travel it is possible to change the route of travel, although this is a little more difficult (and costs 5,000 points) due to the limited availability of seats earmarked for frequent flyer travel.

However, after travel on a frequent flyer issued ticket has commenced it becomes even more difficult to alter the date/s of travel and impossible (i.e. not permitted at all) to alter the route/s. Initially I was flying MEL-LAX-DFW-MEX-DFW-LAX-MEL: a route that was always going to prove to be impossible to request a date change. However, by removing the LAX-DFW-MEX-DFW-LAX leg of the journey if I want/need to change the date/s of my return to Australia this will prove to be much easier - as I will only need to change the date for one flight leg, as opposed to three.

The current plan is that I will overland it either by bus from LAX to Tijuana or from LAX to El Paso via Amtrak where I can hop over the border to Ciudad Juárez and hot foot it out of there to Chihuauhua.

Places of interest currently on my draft travel agenda are:

Cañón del Cobre, San Blas, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Guadalajara (home of Maná), Taxco, Cuernavaca, Oaxaca, San Cristobal de las Casas, Palenque, Campeche, Mérida, Uxmal, Chichén Itza, Tulum, Calakmul, Agua Azul, Laguna Miramar and of course México City and Teotihuacán.