I finished booking the flights for a RTW trip this past week for Feb/Mar 2023 (honeymoon trip):
- ATL > EWR (UA in Y, only leg I couldn't find J availability on, and even Y was limited to a single early morning flight)
- EWR > LIS > RAK (TP A321, overnight flight followed by 7 nights split between Marrakech and a trek into the desert)
- RAK > IST (TK 73M8, 20 hr layover in Istanbul. ldeally grab an overnight room at the TK lounge but may not be eligible. Will likely take the free tour the next day)
- IST > JRO (TK 73M8, 7 night safari)
- JRO > DOH > DPS (QR 320 & 788, booked separately at 70k AA + $90 pp. 8 nights in Bali, split between south and Ubud)
- DPS > SIN (SQ 73M8, 4 nights)
- SIN > NRT > SFO (NH 789 for both legs)
General Notes- ANA RTW total: 115k MR + $608 pp
- Transatlantic, QR & NH flights are lie flight. TK & short haul flights (LIS>RAK, DPS>SIN) are recliner. Not ideal, but priority was destinations, not aviation product.
- Original plan was to include JRO-DPS flights on the ANA RTW (back tracking through IST). But TK connections times weren't great (including 3AM(!) JRO-IST in recliner seats), would've incurred additional $400+ in fees and bumped the RTW to the 170k band (possibly even 200k depending on accuracy of GCmap distance calc)
- Decided to pivot to QR once I realized they flew lie-flat from JRO and had convenient lay-over (I'd rather get to my destination sooner than kill time in a lounge). Plan was to use MR-> CX/Avios but switched mind at the last minute...
- I had locked in a 5th night free booking at St Regis Bali right before switch to dynamic (at off-peak prices too, 4 x 70k). But, a pool villa was pretty important to us and their upgrades are not cheap. After doing the math, the overall cost for JRO-DPS + St Regis was very similar by booking St Regis using cash and transfering Bonvoy to AA (to take advantage of lower YQ than CX/Avios).
- First tried calling late night (12AM ET) but hold time was long. Tried again the next morning when the call center opened (9AM ET) and connected in ~40 min. Rep was very easy to work with; feeding flight details and getting reservation locked took a total of ~30 min. Got a call-back 3 hours later from ticketing team with exact fees/charges and payment.
- Flying eastwards is not ideal for circadian rhythm (worse jet lag) but much easier to find find availability. Starting from the US, the first leg (TATL / TPAC) will be the one that is most difficult to find availability.
- Most NH flights to/from east coast get snatched up almost immediately (west coast slightly better). Whereas TP often releases 6-9 seats in J (with minimal YQ). But I saw consistent OZ & BR availability to US.
- I briefly considered ET for JRO-DPS, but their short booking window (~320 days) makes it tricky as you have to wait potentially multiple weeks your the last leg is released. The dummy booking + moving legs as they become available can work, but tricky depending on number of days you have. It wasn't worth the hassle (or risk of availability disappearing) for me.