beaubo

For 24 RTs CLE-IAD @ $138= $3312, I can earn a J class RTW for the United 'Go Around The World' promotion.

According to MP supervisors I spoke to, the rules on this RTW are:
* moving in a continual east-west or west-east direction
* transit any given city only once
* cross Atlantic and Pacific oceans
* maximum of 15 stopovers
* no Star Alliance carriers unless UA doesn't fly a given route
* inventory comes out of XC
* no changes once itn starts (I've always been able to make changes, albeit on a standby basis)
* no mileage maximum

While I understand that the conditions above are more restrictive than paid Star RTWs, I'm curious if there is a consensus on this board that $3300 for an EX-US RTW is a compelling value proposition, considering that paid Star RTWs in J ex-US are $6600 Star 1, $7500 Star 2, $8900 Star 3.

For a Y RTW leveraging the same promotion, 12 RTs CLE-IAD @ $138= $1650,
versus paid RTWs ex -US Star 1 $3700, Star 2 $4250, Star 3 $4900.

Also, assume that I'd be using this RTW for leisure, so issues of date flexibility and changeability are not major negatives.

Be grateful for your analysis!

PS- Cross-posted in 'Star Alliance' forum because of extensive RTW discussions
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WindFlyer

Thanks for the post, beaubo. There have been some discussions on this forum about the award RTW, and they were based on sketchy information that was invariably more restrictive than that which was given to you.

A couple of the points you made significantly increase the value of this RTW over previous discussions. Those are, specifically:

(Previous discussions were based on 3-5 stops, 26-29k max. miles).

Still, there are some drawbacks:
Put together, these two terms can effectively keep you out of some places you may want to visit

XC inventory is not in great supply, either in UA or in partners. And together, these two terms can be rather problematic. For example, say one of your segments is ORD-FRA and UA has no XC inventory for the dates you want to fly. Even if LH had XC inventory, you'd have to change your dates further away from your ideal ones until you found some when UA had XC inventory. The ripple effect of this on the rest of the itinerary could be significant.

This one is a matter of personal risk tolerance. Some people may be able to live with the possibility that an emergency back home on, say, the second leg of the RTW may render the entire trip (and it acquisition cost in both time and money) useless. Others may not...


I'd say that it is a compelling value proposition for people living in the DC and Cleveland areas that can acquire the RTW at such low cost, particularly if the RTW they have in mind is relatively simple and is thus not seriously compromised by the restrictions noted above.


Would suggest you include a similar disclaimer in that cross-post, perhaps including a link to this thread (as this is a UA promotion, people on this forum can stand to gain from the insight of the RTW experts that frequent the *A forum).

Thanks for ferreting out details on the RTW from MP and posting those here.

cabinpressure

I'm already a frequent leisure traveler to DC, so I'm interested in the "fly 2, get 1 regional domestic free" part of the offer. $138 x 2 = $276 on trips I would have taken anyway, plus 1 ticket within 800 miles (MSP and BOS are both within 800 miles of DTW and notoriously expensive routes -- usually more than even the $276).

Any fine print I'm missing, other than the fact that the "free" tickets come out of frequent flyer award inventory?

tvl4free

But beaubo, if you ferret out vouchers one should be able to decrease the figures you mentioned significantly - Im guessing by half to 60%. Just be sure that they are applied to the fare as payment, rather than subtractions from the $100 per ticket minimum. In addition, in your particular case, one would think that you would want to fly CLE-IAD for the $138 and then operate from IAD on fares closer to the $100 bench mark - further reducing the costs you've mentioned.

I would imagine that booking a 15 segment trip in XC would require serious concentration and perseverance. But with with forethought - and combining this deal with other double miles offers and run for 1K, etc., this promo can be a knockout.

beaubo

The $138 has a fare basis of $104, the rest are taxes. Can't get much lower than that!!

izzik

I think this promo was basically icing on the cake for anyone who commutes in/out of DC on a regular basis. Especially the people who become elite via segments and not miles accrued.. it's a lucrative award chart for segments - where else does that exist?

tvl4free

OK, kewl. I missed the $104 base fare part.

So, $138 minus a say $50 voucher X 24 equals $ 2,112.00.

abramom

Where does one get 24 $50 vouchers?

JY4D

D class (paid RTW) is much easier to come by than XC. Sometimes its hard enough just to get a XC ticket to Europe, let alone RTW.

marcus613

Can you tell me how much a D class RTW (29,000 miles) is?
Thanks

WindFlyer

marcus, "D" is the booking class for the biz class RTW. The price ex-USA is currently $6,600 for STAR1 (29,000 miles).

For an up-to-date *RTW price chart, see this thread started by Patron.

WindFlyer

6 VDBs with a less than 2-hour inconvenience

askias

I'm bumping this thread mainly because I'd like to have someplace where people could collect their experiences with both trying to qualify for this promo and then trying to redeem awards. I'm wondering with the recent change limiting the use of LH transatlantic awards if that will make it even harder to redeem this award.

ua_to_ord

my apologies; this is an accidental reply