About a week ago I received an email update from Qantas.com reminding me that my 9,000 frequent flyer miles expire on November 11, 2009 (A year and one month from the time they were generated).  Yikes!  I have been thinking about making a trip home for the holidays; i want to spend a few weeks in Georgia with the fam, and then spend as much time in Cal as I can get away with.  I’m hoping to do some ’stuff’ in Cal that’s relevant to my project, but the real and true purpose of the trip is to avoid the summer here.  I certainly can’t afford a full-fare ticket; my parents say they’re going to donate their miles from their visit (which should bring the tally up to ~45,000 miles – I don’t know what that covers but must cut a good chunk out of it).  But I can’t leave until after December 6th, as I’ve spent very good money on A Day on The Green concert (a traveling performance held at large wineries around Australia), starring the B-52s and The Proclaimers (don’t knock it, it’s the only thing I’ve got to look forward to) (plus the Proclaimers are awesome Celtic Soul awesomeness).   I will need to fly to Brisbane in September for a student symposium, but I don’t want to use frequent flyer points on that, when I’ve got funds allocated for that travel.  So now, I have to come up with a little vacation to use my points.  Dang.

But then I get another email from Qantas saying “oops, sorry, we gave you the wrong date.”  They tell me my points actually expire:

Which, curiously enough, is the same expiry date as my student visa.  Huh.