tbuff

Also, is it possible to book in Y, but upgrade a few flights to J?

Ideally, I would only want J in

YUL-ZRH
IST-ICN

mapleg

No, but you can book in J and downgrade to Y for free!

tbuff

thought so. was worth a shot

rankourabu

No, unlike most other programs, Aeroplan will charge you J miles for the outbound and return, no matter if the entire one part of the journey is in Y.

Pseudo Nim

As soon as you don't get on any flight, it invalidates the rest of the itinerary.

It's a bit unusual to skip such a long haul, though. If I may ask - are you by any chance a professional swimmer, or are you planning on hitching a ride with the anti-whalers?

tbuff

lovely. that puts the kibosh on the whole plan. what if i check in and receive both boarding passes, but don't board the plane? EDIT: NEvermind you said "don't get on the flight". Ugh.

haha, no - we want to also go to Tahiti, Easter Island, and through south america before coming back up through Miami. Trying to combine our BA miles into this trip as well. Would do revenue, NRT-PPT-IPC, then rewards the rest of the way. Can't figure out a way to do that or get close on *A. And now we'd essentially be throwing the rest of the ticket out if it invalidates ORD-YWG.

Hrrrmp. Advice? Outside of 'well then don't go to Tahiti and south america?'

Pseudo Nim

Well don't........ oh wait.

Ok, but why don't you stop in NRT? Or will you have used up the 2 stopovers+1 destination? ...... oooooooh you're trying to return to ORD and continue the flight from there. Harumph. I wonder if you can open-jaw into completely different sectors, where neither is in a "new" zone that would require additional points?

tbuff

Exactly. I can get MIA-ORD all day long using Avios and ORD-YWG gets me home. Can't get back to YWG any other way. It's taken me a month to fully wrap my brain around what I am trying to do...up until today I had a crazy routing through Dubai and Male but it just wouldn't work AT. ALL.

I might misunderstand this, but are you saying

NRT-ORD (open jaw or STOP)
ORD-YWG?

Could I not "stop" in ORD on the way back ? That way if it's a stop or an open jaw, then I can miss it?

Pseudo Nim

Well - I thought the issue was the NRT-ORD segment - ie you wanted to get out at NRT and start flying a new itin on oneworld metal, but return to MIA instead of NRT - hence I am wondering whether it would be allowed to open-jaw to another continent (ie get out at NRT, get back on in ORD, you find your own way in between). IIRC that is not allowed - intra-zone open jaw is OK, but not elsewhere. Can't your OW itin return you to NRT instead of MIA? or would thy cost too much/take too much time?

OT but I can't believe OW doesn't fly ORD-YWG! I checked and it's a solidly *A route from ORD.

InsaneTravel

Hello Everyone,

I'm planning our next RTW and I'm having a hard time getting out of Canada in First. I understand the flights are not available till 2 weeks or so before departure so for now I will book in Business.

We will be using Aeroplan and our ideal timeframe is NOV 2012. We would love to go to the FCL in FRA and/or MUC. We would probably do a couple of cities in Europe (perhaps Spain/Portugal) and wind up at BKK. From there perhaps we would go to HKT and make our way back via SIN.


We would like to avoid the USA so as far as I know this only leaves us with:

YVR-FRA is stopping First Class early again this year (After Oct 27 2011 it will be a 2 cabin plane)
YYZ-FRA is also stopping first after Oct 27 2011
Since we need NOV 2012, this is not ideal.

As far as I know this leaves us with:

YYZ-DUS (on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays)
YUL-MUC (Everyday)
YUL-ZRH (Everyday)

Here's a few questions perhaps you can help me with.

- Are there other options to fly out of Canada in First Class with Aeroplan?

- Should we perhaps forget about First and try for South America in Business? Perhaps something like
YVR-YYZ then PERU-CHILE-BRAZIL-ARGENTINA or similar?

- I read that we can transfer from Aeroplan to Avios (Via points.com and Petro-Canada) at almost 1 to 1. Would this be a better option for us ? If yes, what cities should we look at?


Any advice and suggestions are welcomed!

Thank you,

I.T.

tbuff

Getting back to NRT is exactly that, too expensive and time-consuming. I am thus wondering the same thing. Otherwise we're using our miles for essentially YWG-NRT and not the trip home, which is something we'll have to debate. but looking at just revenue booking that same ticket it's definitely worth it.

worldtraveller73

YUL - ZRH on LX is the only other F option via Europe (which I see you've correctly identified) if not going via the USA. By waiting till November, you will loose out on all the possibility for LH seasonal F to Canada since there are extremely limited F routes as it is.

There is usually lots of availability on UA for F for Europe via ORD and IAD. I would suggest as many as 15 times the seats than Canada direct.

For South America, If you are desperate to avoid the USA, then your only options are the milk run on AC YYZ-SCL-EZE or AC YYZ-LIM. You'd have to find space on all segments. Unless you can find space on TAM, you will have to take a US carrier to get to Brazil destinations via IAH or EWR. It would be much easier in time and planning for you to consider the USA transit if possible.

The main carriers that fly LIM-SCL are Taca and LAN. There are no Star Partners on this route unless you spring for a TAM ticket via Sao Paolo which is very expensive and long (12 hrs vs 4 hrs)

I would not recommend transferring points through points.com due to bad exchange rates.

Good luck

InsaneTravel

Thank You Very Much WorldTraveller73

YUL-ZRH is a really good flight (I love the suites on Swiss) but for us to get to YUL (from YVR) for a 17h00 flight (Same Day) is not possible. The YUL-MUC at 20h20 would be possible (again same day) but we would be very limited on our Canada flights. The TimeZones are just not in our favour.

I had a discussion with my Wife and she will try to get October off so we try for the YVR-FRA flight. Or maybe wait till next April when First comes back to Vancouver.

YYZ-SCL-EZE sounds like a good flight (AC Pods) but Business class seems very hard to get. There's the odd day in Sept but nothing in Oct or early to mid-Nov.

I have a couple of questions for you:

Is there a reason I can't book TAM with points? LIM-SCL-GRU ... YYZ sounds like a possibility.


I can't find the post but I thought you could get 1 to 1 or slightly better going from Aeroplan to Points.com to Petrocan to RBC Avion to British Airways while the Avion 50% bonus to British Airways was on.

Thanks again !!! Very helpful info !

I.T.

headhunter

Just 2 weeks until I head out on my first mini-rtw. Have been checking my flights and watching their on-time performance. Classic overplanning.

My first leg is all in J
YOW-EWR UA
EWR-STR UA
STR-TXL LH

Yow-ewr has some pretty poor on-time performance. Cancelled today, 2 hours late yesterday...and I've only got 60 mins to connect at EWR.

So, planning for the worst, what should I do if I miss my first connection?

Is UA only obligated to get me to STR? Will they rebook me to TXL via another flight (LHR, CDG)? Or, if the first segment is cancelled, should I call Aeroplan and ask to be re-routed on the next avail flight?

Hoping for the best, but planning for the worst...

rankourabu

UA will have to get you to Berlin - lots of options from EWR - including very late FRA/LHR flights. You will probably get rebooked in revenue buckets = free miles. Missing your connection in EWR on a scale of disaster would be at most a 2/10 (unless you are taking the last FRA flight, than 4/10)