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Mar 24, 2007 | 9:12 pm

#3

Kiwi Flyer

Moderator, Hilton Honors

Join Date: Nov 2003

Location: on a short leash

Programs: some

Posts: 71,441

Index to this trip report

Latest summary to date

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INTRO

Regular readers of my reports will be aware that Easter time means travel for me. It is a convenient time of year for me to take a trip, and I like that it is in between seasons at most places. So if visiting northern parts of North America, Europe or Asia it isn't too cold (although likely still colder than I am used to), and hopefully isn't yet blistering hot in subtropical regions.

It is also a good time of year for me to earn significant mileage towards requalifying. Yes, not all frequent flyer programs have calendar year qualification periods. My main programs have qualification dates spread throughout the year. Since I credit different bits of an itinerary to different programs to maximise the benefits, it is a bit of a juggling act to make it all work out.

One day I'll learn not to try to visit both extremes in the same trip (makes for tricky packing to meet the new strict carry on requirements). But for now, I've repeated the mistake.

PLANNING

I try to visit some new places each trip like this. So that was my major consideration. Also schedule was important for I only have a couple of weeks to spare. My earning is for star alliance frequent flyer programs, so that limits some options.

I decided on another CRWSTAR3 (39,000 miles round the world in business class). After various playing around with schedules and spreadsheets I came up with an okay itinerary that I thought met all the fare rules. I then tested it against the RTWMC (online star alliance round the world mileage calculator tool). There are plenty of known bugs with this tool, so I waited until I heard back from agent that the itinerary was okay. Not only was it okay but I had managed to get the official mileage at 38,999. This is harder to achieve than it sounds since each airline has it's own figure of mileage for each route, and these may differ from that given by RTWMC or other sources (eg great circle mapper).

I held off ticketing for a while, and it was good that I had. After making the reservation my plans changed and I needed to get back earlier. So I changed several flights and downgraded to CRWSTAR2 (34,000 mile limit). If I had ticketed at the time of reservation then I would have either not been compensated, or would have needed to cancel (costing US$150) and rebook (with the associated risk of not getting the same flights back if the booking class is not released back).

Last edited by Kiwi Flyer; Apr 1, 2016 at 4:03 pm

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