martinlu

Booked a new RTW award trip after the original was canceled due to COVID in 2020 and because the 230k refunded ANA miles were set to expire in October. Three weeks in February/March 2024 with the following itinerary (2 seats in J with one exception):

IAD-LIS (TP)
LIS-RAK (TP)CMN-CAI (MS)LXR-CAI (MS)
CAI-IST (MS)
IST-KUL (TK, on 787)
KUL-SIN (SQ, on A350, lol)
SIN-HKT (SQ)HKT-SIN (SQ)SIN-HAN (SQ)HAN-TPE (BR, in Y)
TPE-ORD (BR)

12 segments, 5 stopovers, 2 ground segments, and 23,937 mi (GCmap). 145,000 ANA miles per person and ... (gulp) ~1,700 USD in taxes and fees (~2300 CAD) per person.

FSC were actually shocking on this one (esp. compared to what I was charged on the original pre-COVID) and enough to briefly consider rethinking the whole thing. Considered rerouting to IAD-IST outbound or something similar to cut $500+ in FSC by dropping TP, but that would have required more ANA points due to extra distance or using other points (plus FSC) to fill in the Morocco leg instead, which ultimately wouldn't save much. Maxing out the full 12 allowed segments adds up to some meaningful taxes and fees in any case, even with reasonable per-flight fees, but TAP really puts it over the top. Unfortunately, didn't get a more detailed receipt like the poster above, so can't be completely sure where taxes and fees came from. Any pointers on how I could have cut down on taxes/fees?

Estimates per person from ITA Matrix for taxes and fees (in Canadian $): 1,109.53 (TP) + 390.75 (MS) + 51.5 (MS) + 249.31 (MS) + 315.18 (TK) + 46.54 (SQ) + 86.43 (SQ) + 50.57 (SQ) + 84.02 (SQ) + 122.33 (BR) + 182.37 (BR) = 2,772 CAD (~2,013 USD). As you can see, TAP seems to be charging just obscene YQ and MS isn't much better. Unfortunate given their old "low FSC" reputation.

Interesting:

• SQ longhaul J IST-SIN showed up in Aeroplan search but not ANA so had to substitute for TK via KUL. Had no problems booking short and medium-haul regional flights (HKT, KUL, HAN) in SQ J, however!
• Initially had started the trip with YYZ-LIS-RAK. Agent had no problem putting itinerary together but later was told that origin and destination needed to be in the same country and that Canada and the US were not considered the same country for the purposes of the RTW booking. This was news to me but came from two different agents. I read aloud from the ANA Partner Award terms and conditions but the agent insisted the clause there about Canada/US being the same country didn't apply here. Didn't want to escalate and luckily found same day availability from IAD and at least get to use the Polaris Lounge for my troubles.
• Booking a whole year out is a new experience for me and hard to plan life around, but availability was generally good. Decided to do the trip eastbound so that I could snatch up TPE-ORD on BR as soon as the availability window opened, which worked nicely, but having to do it 12 mo ahead is still sort of absurd.

Thanks to all for the useful resource here! All in all, I think 145,000 points RTW in J (transfered from Amex in this case) is a great deal for this much flying (e.g., Aeroplan charges 140k roundtrip just to go to Europe...). Taxes and fees on this itinerary are definitely spoiling some of the fun and I'll think twice before using ANA again for this kind of thing.