FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - ANA RTW Award Booking Reports/Discussion

Feb 21, 2020 | 12:54 pm

#245

john c wisconsin

Join Date: Apr 2017

Location: Central Wisconsin, USA

Posts: 212

Quote:

Originally Posted by beefninja

Yeah. Bullet train from KIX to NRT is what we are planning (definitely not flying that part, as there a few things we want to do in between those locations). I'm mostly just concerned about the # of miles, and whether my count is accurate. You present a bunch of good backup options:

1. I have a bunch of backup Asia-NA flights in mind if I do happen to be over 22k, and the bonus is those are easier to find availability for than the NRT-JFK flight. NRT-LAX is one (and I'm guessing/hoping that it might have the new ANA business class by March 2021), NRT/HND to ORD is another (and I have a Southwest companion pass to make getting back dirt-cheap). Ditto for NRT-HNL, (and we can arbitrarily tack on a few days in Hawaii). I can also change from "JFK-IST" to "BOS-IST".

2. You mentioned YYZ, but my research indicates that ANA RTW trips need to end in the same country they start (and our trip would then start in the US but end in Canada, making it an invalid itinerary). I have a couple of alternate Canadian itineraries that shave off slight amounts of miles. If I get myself to Montreal, I can replace the "JFK-ist-ADD" start of the trip with "yul-fco-ADD" or "yul-vie-ADD", and this allows returning to Canada and also saves us about ~$200 in fees which essentially pays for the extra flights to Canada.

3. I can also shave off ~100 miles with a "ewr-yul-fco-ADD" start to the trip such that I don't need to start or end in Canada, and still saves the ~$200. The main issue with that is that the flights are too short to get a full nights's sleep, and things could get hectic. The flight arriving in FCO would be in the morning and then we'd depart that same evening (on another ~6h flight). We are also doing a paid flight outside of the itinerary (~$200 to go roundtrip from ADD-NBO and do a safari). That would make the first few days very crazy (EWR-YUL-FCO-ADD-NBO without sleeping in proper hotel bed), and take up an extra day to get there, even if it would save some $.

4. Awesome idea on the paid economy leg, and effectively adding another ground segment. I had some previous itineraries with more non-stopover flights within Africa/India, and had considered booking a paid flight in-between cities... but it was going to effectively turn 1 or more connections into stopovers using ANA's rules (both ends of a ground segment count as a stopover) which would put us at 9 stops, so I ruled those out. Now that the itinerary is simpler and with almost all flights already counting as a stop, a short Asia flight is a good candidate to fill in with a paid economy flight. The BKK-SGN leg is a good candidate.

5. Or... I could also do the ICN-KIX leg as paid. Unlike paying for the BKK-SGN segment, doing ICN-KIX as paid actually takes out a stop from the RTW trip (KIX will no longer be considered a stop). This would allow us to actually contemplate some more exotic itineraries we had previously tossed out (ewr-yul-CMN-cai-ADD-DEL-BKK-SGN-TPE-ICN,HND-jfk, which comes in at 21,800, ~$800 and 8 stops).

Thanks for the advice. Definitely some good options here. I think I'm going to research some possibilities with #5 . Assuming nothing jumps out at me, will probably attempt our original itinerary and if we're over on miles flown then will look to utilize backup options in this order: #4 , #1 , #3 , #2 .

Sounds like you Got this! Great options. You are correct on the same country. Forgot about that. Terms listed below.

For Round the World itineraries, the required mileage is calculated according to the total basic sector mileage for the entire itinerary. (Calculations exclude ground transportation sectors.) Flights must be used to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans once. The flight direction of the itinerary must be east-to-west or west-to-east. Backtracking is not permitted. Up to 8 stopovers are permitted between the departure point and the final return point. (Up to 3 stopovers are permitted within Europe and up to 4 stopovers are permitted within Japan.) The departure date of the final international flight to return to the country of departure must be at least 10 days after the departure of the first international flight on the itinerary.
You can book maximum of 12 flight segments and 4 ground transfer segments on one ticket. Transfers between airports in the same city also count as ground transfer segments.

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