I now wonder if I reverse my routing and start in Europe, end up in PER with a stop in JNB on the way to PER if my POT will be PER?

What's wrong with doubling up on SIN? Considering PER is the POT, that should be allowed. that said, it depends if you REALLY want to transit through JNB - if you give that up, there are probably a few new routes that'll open up for you.

Good point, I was under the impression I couldn't double back to SIN, but I obviously have misunderstood.

Actually, there is a "special promotional mileage offering for South Africa". It is only 100k in J; normally, 150k.

Yep, you should be able to as long as each is on out/inbound. Otherwise, think of it this way - you wouldn't be able to fly YUL-YYZ-NRT, NRT-YYZ-YUL!

Ooh.... that isn't half bad!

Trying to assist a friend with booking a mini rtw and he would like to have a stop in TLV. Given that there are no *A carriers that fly east from TLV is this possible given that it would require backtracking through Europe via LH, TK, LX or LO?

Yup, although MPM will be an issue. I saw someone book xxx-Germany-DME-FRA-eastwards and that was allowed (I can't remember if it was FRA-DME-FRA, ie backtracking into FRA or if it was another city). But TLV is pretty far out, so problems might come up.

The agent quoted 150K per person, and told me to stick with PER to get the 80K special! Perhaps I will call back.

Just wondering what's better on your body (jetlag) a RTW trip going eastward or the opposite? Anyone has any preference? Does it make any difference?

That's a really good question. I find anything *away* from home is easier, and *coming back* is always harder, but I think that might be psychological

I have always found going West is easier for me. More flights are during the day with departure and arrival times that work for my body...depart in the afternoon and arrive in the afternoon or early evening on a different continent.

Long-haul Eastward flights are almost always overnight...often with early AM arrivals when my body clock, which is 6-8 time zones behind, says time for bed.

I think my experience has always been that when travelling west, there's no choice BUT to fly, so I end up in my destination a day and a half later, with all the time in between hopelessly lost.

Whereas if I travel east, I can take redeyes and arrive in the morning, then bum around the city, then transfer and do another redeye. *body clock* wise it may not be the smartest/lightest thing to do, but if I cared about the body clock I wouldn't route my trip back to arrive at 7am so that I can get to work at 9am - just to maximise my time away from where I live/work.

But essentially, you hit the nail on the head: go west / arrive in the late afternoon / probably go for dinner, clock out, sleep, wake up at 5am awake like a rooster, and go about your business, and clock out around 3pm.

Go east, spend the night on the flight, arrive at 7-8am, have no choice but to stay up, go to sleep in the evening again (in the new timezone), arrive at 7-8am again, you're so confused by this point that you just soldier through the day and sleep. To be fair, don't forget that going east usually means easier breaks in the flight - so it might actually be LESS tiring as you'd never get a 14-15 hour flight going east (even FRA-KIX is like 10 hours long).

Whatever works, in the end

[edit] note that I subscribe to the above philosophy so religiously that now that I started travelling with my infant son, I drag him along exactly like that - instead of doing what most normal people with babies do, i.e. fly as direct as possible, I still do the above. Hehe.

But I called today and they said it was 15M, so isn't that MPM based?
Apparently
HKG-PVG-IST-ZRH-YUL-YYZ is valid.
and HKG-IST-ZRH-ORD-YYZ is valid.
BUt HKG-PVG-IST-ZRH-ORD-YYZ is not. O.o

try calling again, should be a published routing

It is within mileage. Call again.

[KVS Availability Tool 6.8.1/Diamond - Reference: Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]: HKG-PVG-IST-ZRH-ORD-YYZ]