I am currently in Rome (for the 5th time this year) for business and I am a bit stressed. I fly home to Detroit on September 7 and then we (myself and my son) leave on September 9 for our Asia trip. First stop Tokyo. I am just feeling a bit stressed and wondering exactly what I will forget with the quick change over between trips.

My son is ready to kill me as is, when he saw the itinarary which is almost by the half hour. I just want to make sure we do not miss anything.

Well that's all, I just needed to vent.

Hope you feel better now!!!!!!

I would make sure your wife and son do all the last minute preparations and packing, tell them 8th is 'your day'! Forget travel, go and play Golf for the day, take a drive to some relaxing leisure area, make it 'your day', have lunch at the restaurant your family doesn't like but 'you love', wear those clothes your wife hates beeing seen with you in, have a haircut, or sit at home in the den with a good novel, but cut yourself off totaly from travel and have a day for yourself. If you have a hobby then spend the day doing that.

go see the pope, he may have some words of wisdon for you...

anything you need is probably available in asia and probably cheaper....stand in front of your closet as i do and move your eyes up your body and re-think the items you have packed...you will then remember everything...

Now why would you assume lbrown is a man & has a wife who will do all the last minute preparations & packing? Because of the reference to five trips to Rome for business travel. Actually no spuse was even mentioned, so maybe lbrown is a single parent. I usually love your posts JamesA, but thought this was a little too 1950's. Wouldn't we all (male & female) love to have a "wife" at home who would take care of everything for us?

I would bet that lbrown is a woman based on her posts.

i think you are right, glorialf.

Ahh !!! Don't shoot me !!

I 'thought' I had read that his wife and son were joining !

Ahh....too late to change the 'his'

Let's call it having an 'Ibrown7' day then, relax, do the things you want to do, have your own day.

I hope you're feeling a bit better. I do have a thought for you on your Asia itinerary...if you really have things booked that tightly you may very well make yourself (and you son) nuts and that would not be an enjoyable trip.

I realize that you want to see as much as possible, but if your Asia trip is starting to feel like a business trip (i.e scheduled to the max non-stop) I would rethink the schedule to allow for a little down time and relaxation.

Yes, that would mean seeing and doing less, but it may make the things you see and do and the time you have to spend with our son much more enjoyable.

Just my two cents, I realize that YMMV.

BTW, not sure where you are going beyond Tokyo, but one of my favorite aspects of Asian travel is working a few Japanese style massages into the schedule....

Well I am now feeling much better thanks to the laugh I just had at the above posts. Yes I am a woman and a single parent. So no ME day. But I will say even with all the things I have jammed into our itinerary, I have included massages almost daily when we get to Thailand and Cambodia.

I also forgot to mention all my flights back home and to Asia are on NW. I was really concerned a few weeks ago before the strike started. But now it looks like they are operating as normal. My flight to Rome was actually early, I should probably knock on wood.

for the two of you on N/W make sure you gets seats in rows 63-66...they are the only 2 seaters on the plane and they are in the very back which is not great but are the best seats on the plane...assume you are flying economy, but maybe not...we prefer 63...you have at least 18 inches from the window seat to the wall...great...child can lay down there even...call 90 days in advance to get them

We like row 23 on NWA...we can't sit exit row because we have a child. This row has extra leg room and a tv screen for the movie built into the wall in front of you so you really can see the movies even with the lack of personal monitors in coach. The arm rests do not go up, but we rest our feet on the wall in front of us, stretch them out, or put a back pack under our feet to act as a footrest. I love not having a seat in front of me. You also get served and cleared first at meal time, and you are first off the plane behind business. For 2, book aisle and window. The center seats are last to fill and will maybe remain empty. I've seen this center seat go empty often, as well as exit row center seats.

Generally, flights to Tokyo are to capacity...with a few economy seats empty on occasion. The last 3 rows of the aircraft are blocked priority seats, but since there is nothing priority about them, they generally remain empty untill the end. A strategy I've used on not full flights before is seating my daughter and I on each aisle of the very back row of the plane and requesting that the two middle seats be blocked (have to do this at the gate). I've been successful every time I've done this (5 times actually) in getting all 4 seats for the two of us...a nice nap over the Pacific. What I do is reserve the seats a few days out when I'm fairly sure there isn't an oversell. Then, I do online check in 24 hours out, and check and make sure the seats between us are empty. If they aren't empty, I change seats. Then, at the gate, I check again to see if the seats are still empty. If not, I ask for a creative reassign (only once). If so, I ask if it's possible to put a block on them now that it's close to departure time...answer has been yes and we're happy in 4 seats.

In Business, I prefer rows 1 and 73. They seem to make the most of the space and almost feel private. The upper deck is quieter. If you are in Business, you can pre order a really nice Japanese meal for the flight to Tokyo.

My error...we like row 21 in economy.

i should have said that row 63, etc is only on the 747 trans pacific flight...the new airbus from tokyo is 2-4-2...ok but not as nice as the 747

All working women could do with a wife! Sorry James I couldn't resist!

Well luckily we are flying Business class the whole way. thanks to miles from all my business trips. I was also able to pick the exit row seats on the upper deck of the 747 for the flight to Tokyo, so I think we will have an excellent flight. Also, my child is really my adult son, 23, and about 6 feet tall so they might have frowned upon him laying on the floor. I am now starting to get very excited and I cannot wait to get home so I can get my packing finished.