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Old Oct 13, 2018, 10:28 am
  #565  
skunker
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SAN
Programs: Lots of faux metal
Posts: 6,420
Originally Posted by beyounged
After 4 months... I finally finished all my TR's. It covers my entire trip from March to June, with 4 of this ticket back to back.
Routing: ICN-MAD-LIM-GYE-SCL-LIM-MAD-HEL-RVN-HEL-BKK-ICN-KIX-ICN-MAD-LIM-IQT-LIM-GYE-SCL-BOG-LIM-BCN-HEL-ICN-HEL-MAD-LIM-GRU-SCL-LIM-MAD-HEL-PRG-HEL-MLA-HEL-FUK-ICN-HKG-HEL-MAD-LIM-EZE//AEP-SCL-LIM-BCN-HEL-CHQ//HER-HEL-WAW-HEL-PVG-PUS-KIX.
For those interested, the introduction is on my personal blog here. From there, links lead to all detailed parts.

Couple things about the blog:
1. I do not earn money or push cards for the blog, this is a casual personal place for my journals, so feel free to check it out. I tried writing it on FT but it will just be way too long.
2. be prepared. what I linked is only the introduction, the entire trip spans 7 parts, over 50000 words and 500 photos, so if you are not on wifi, proceed with caution beyond the linked introduction page.(besides the intro, the 7 parts are: Lapland, Osaka, Amazons, Czechia, Malta, Crete, Poland)
3. It is more about the destinations than actually flying, because it gets pretty boring after my 6th time flying the crappy LA767 in Y LIM-BCN/MAD. So if you are only interested in aviation then this is not the TR for you. I go into details of history and background, but not in aircraft and flights, since the journals are more tailored for casual readers.
4. It can get quite personal, as it is my writing style. So if you get goosebumps when you see cheesy reminiscence then it is better to just look at the pictures.

I earned about 250k AS miles for 3.8k USD, so I say that is a very good return on investment. And that pushed me for 75K requalification easily.
I want to thank everyone on this thread for assistance and encouragement, especially for ChocolateFactory, and hope those who still have legs to come enjoy this fantastic fare. In fact, I am planning for winter vacation on this ticket as well!

However, it has been nearly impossible to price up any tix using my old tricks, as I could easily price up sub-1k USD itins RTW in Y, but now it is barely available. I checked EF and found out that a completely new set of fares were filed specifically for SEL-SCL on Sep 26, which coincided with my newer problems. All of them now specify routing via the pacific, and most devastatingly, every fare had their prices increased dramatically. The cheapest, an O fare, is now over 700USD for the outbound when trick is applied, which basically ruins this deal from SEL. However, AKL is not changed, but it has a specific table of (limited) routings so I guess they were not that concerned, as the only benefit of using it now is for IPC and PPT. Coupled with the death of AS earning table, the deal has gotten significantly less ideal. Again, thanks for everyone here, maybe it is time for me to finally put this ticket to rest personally. It had been a great ride.
Congrats, looks like an epic adventure. But, I will bring your attention to the bolded section and my previous quote.

Originally Posted by skunker
As more people fly these crazy routings they start to get more exposure inside the airlines. When they are only getting a couple hundred dollars to fly someone around the world, it triggers a deeper look.
I'm honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did and is still somewhat available.
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