arcticbull

Very well said.

moeykang

I'm looking at the aeroplan mini-rtw rules and was wondering how much it would cost to do c mini-rtw from hawaii to asia (TATL)

Assuming that this trip is in 2014, it would be a trip with a stopover in NA on the outbound, destination in Asia, and a final stopover in Europe, would this be

1. 90k as a standard Hawaii to Asia 1
2. 130k as a standard Hawaii to Europe, since from Hawaii, that would be the most expensive from the chart
3. 150k as a standard from NA to Asia 1 since the two would continents would be covered in the above itinerary

Also on expert flyer, a search of the mpm from hawaii to asia is given both in tatl and tpac. Does that mean that if we choose to go through europe, our mpm would be the tatl one and vice versa? That is more than double the difference that is allowed. Interesting...

echino

Definitely not (1). Not sure (2) or (3), but you will have to return to Hawaii, and it may be difficult with 10 segments total.

tryinginvain

I've never been concerned enough to look into this before so I don't know much about it. I need to change my return flights on my mini-rtw this winter and I found something I like:

bkk-hkg
hkg-zrh
zrh-vie (layover)
vie-waw
waw-ord
ord-yow

I know I could go into ITA and figure all the mileages for the segments, but how do I determine the MPM + 5 for this route? It's the out of the way hkg flight that concerns me so I don't know if this route will work.

worldtraveller73

Amazingly, this is pricing out at 90,000 in J HNL-SIN on the aeroplan website.

Be interesting to hear if you can book this with Europe stopovers.

sp4294

Well if BKK was your POT then it should be MPM5 TATL to YOW = 12213
Your itinerary is 12146 based on GCM

sp4294

Not sure how you are getting this? Westbound?

I assumed eastward travel on the outbound, where it is not bookable with a basic HON-FRA-SIN-HON itinerary on the website. Also not with BKK.

It did work for me before the website went wobbly and couldn't process multi-city searches at 11pm PST with searches for NRT, PEK, HKG, KUL, SGN, MNL, TPE, PVG as POT but for 130K - which would make sense. If you use BOM it was 200K of course.

Trying to use a C1 stop on the outbound didn't work, but that may just be the crappy website limitation.

flyertalker00156

Could someone help me on this one, Thanks

sp4294

Did similar with SO this August (Croatia was hot!), but with Germany/Austria/Slovenia(Lake Bled - awesome place)/Italy instead. A great trip!

Lot's of options. For low YQ and a direct flight, shoot for LX 87 in J from YUL to ZRH and go from there...intra-Europe is easy. Alternatively, go with OS YYZ-VIE or ORD-VIE or JFK-VIE; or SN JFK-VIE for basically the same hard and similar soft-product, but with YQ (but all good IMO)

Another choice is LH of course from YUL-MUC (new J still I think) or YYZ-FRA or USA-FRA if YQ isn't much concern and you are interested in trying for F during the T-14 day window if it opens. A lesser no YQ option is US J from PHL or CLT (good seats, so-so soft product), and last and least is UA from anywhere.

You will have to call in with anything, but a basic rt. which can be done on the website.
BTW also consider heading to IST with TK if you can find any seats from YYZ etc!

flyertalker00156

Thanks for the info! How easy is it to obtain J on OS? In terms of quality which is better LX or OS? If i head to IST does that not count as 105K and not 90k?

erik19283

There is a specific flight (TK1760) I was trying to find between LIS and IST. It would never come up in the results with AE search engine... until I selected business class instead of economy, then it always showed up. Is it possible that flight is restricted to business class reward tickets only?

tryinginvain

Argghh! I missed a connection in my post (fixed now). It's actually bkk-hkg-zrh-vie-waw-ord-yow and when I plug that into the GCM I get 12882.

How do you determine MPM5? Since I'd be going TATL both ways is there anyway they'd consider HKG as the POT even though I don't have a layover there simply because it's the farthest point?

sp4294

Ah, that is not a simple question to answer and certainly varies if you search previous posts here, but yes, in general, POT should be the furthest city in the furthest zone from your starting point(so they can charge you the max miles of course). However, sometimes only the gods know how they arrive at POT IME, and usually it is a stop - not just a connection. So, I suspect that would not work for you - although IIRC some others here have somehow managed to get around this in the past.

You just have to call in and try it and find out how they would price it. If you don't like their answer HUACA (IME they usually go with BKK or SIN on these types of itins). See if someone else chimes in, as others here are much more knowledgable about pricing, zones and fare rules.

You can find out MPM on EF and KVS etc.

sp4294

Well, since all OS B777 and B767s now have been retrofitted, J (actually their C) availability has dried up significantly as the word is out now. It was much easier in the spring. Hopefully some consistent pattern of loading awards will re-emerge.

I couldn't find much OS space on quick look last night, but found LX YUL-ZRH on first try in mid-April for example (prob a fluke but 7 to 10 months out often yields results). This is certainly the most convenient flight for you, but it leaves at an awkward time for getting a good amount of sleep.

Both are equally nice airlines and share the same style of seat (with minor variance for foot space on the bulkheads and maybe table space. The seats are all basically the same (also in SN's planes) and are like those in the two new despised B777HDs of Air Canada. Some people don't like these when compared to the herringbone pods of AC.

Food is great on LX and OS (maybe less so on SN but I haven't flown with them) and certainly better IMO than LH or AC.

And yes, IST is more miles (but I think Dubrovnik is also, no?)

Hope that helps some...others here are much more knowledgable.

tryinginvain

I made my changes, but it's a bit different than what I was looking at yesterday. I tried to book that but they wouldn't let me go through ZRH twice. I know that's a rule, but it seems like I read a lot of itineraries where people do it so I don't really get it.

Anyway, I re-booked my return flights:

bkk-pek (CA-J)
pek-waw (LO-J)
waw-prg (LO-J)
prg-zrh (LX-J)
zrh-yul (LX-J)
yul-yow (AC-Y)

The yow connection just showed up today. I've been looking for about a week and while LX86 has been there the whole time all the yul-yow flights weren't available. The pek-waw is on a 787 and I'm doing 3 nights in Prague.

He couldn't tell me the taxes but I expect to get a refund as I was on the THAI flight from bkk-cdg before and that alone is about $250 (I think).

I'll update the mini-rtw thread when I know the amounts.

Thanks for the help! Oh yeah, but the way this one is 12123 miles so about 90 miles under MPM5!!