don_drapper

I have a few question that came to my mind in regards to planning and was curious to see what you might all have to say from experience:

First leg of my mRTW is to HND, leaving from YOW. I have two main options it seems that would offer different paths.
- YOW-YYZ-HND on AC J, essentially "direct" to HND. It would be AC1.
- YOW-IAD-LAX on AC-UA J, then LAX-TPE-HND on BR J.


If I do the second option, I am actually planning to spend the day at LAX (maybe see Universal Studios) and the same goes for TPE. Wondering if it is worth the time to spend at the maximum a day in each place, or whether the BR J product is superior enough to justify doing so no matter what. Getting mixed feelings about the AC J product (deflategate and stuff).


2. Luggage wise, can I expect to be able to check in and out my luggage at every stop for the most part? Ideally I'd like to travel light and avoid checked luggage, but I'd like to know how most of you have been packing for such trips. Luggage suggestions are also welcome!


3. A key segment to my mRTW, HO1607 (Juneyao Airlines) is quite recent, but have any of you flown it in J? For 16$ in taxes and gets me to Europe mostly "direct", it seems like a time and price bargain. Saw one or two videos about it, but I'd be more interested in opinions from "regular" people.


Routing options are the following, destination is SYD, stopovers are HND and TXL. (Changing a booking made in August)
AC J: YOW-YYZ-HND-SYD-ICN-PVG-HEL-ARN-TXL-VIE-VCE-ZRH-YUL-YOW
BR J: YOW-IAD-LAX-TPE-HND-SYD-ICN-PVG-HEL-ARN-TXL-VIE-VCE-ZRH-YUL-YOW (Might add HKG if "political climate" stabilizes)

As far as I can tell, they are both under MPM (15790), segment limits and all connections are possible without the layover exceeding the 24-hour limit.

drvannostren

Old IST was a bit of a mess, but perfectly safe and not hard to transit with the English language. I would have to think new IST would be better if for no other reason than having more square footage. The only issue with it before was the sheer amount of people in there and the lack of space.

aznfreak007

new IST is wonderful especially when flying business for which you can visit the business lounge. however, the new ist is quite big and some areas lack of mechanical walkway this could be quite a run if one has a short connection.

it's pretty easy to plan a self organize day tour, take the bus at the basement level and visit the blue mosque and grand bazaar on its own. however, since it is a bus ride and one has to go different layers before reaching airside, extra padding is needed to avoid miss connection.

Smiley90

Is there a decent non-cab way to get into the city from IST?

aznfreak007

take ist-20 bus to sultanahmet. this is the stop at the end of the line. it's near blue mosque and it is closed to the grand bazaar. there are also some museum near by too, or you can get off early at eminonu to take on a cheap local boat ride.

you can buy ticket from the bus driver. you can pay by credit card. you can look at the wall poster to see where the bus is aligned. (bus level)

Sehir Hatlar? | Ferry Time Table | Ferry Timetable | Bosphorus Tour | Adalar Ferry Timetable | Kadiköy | Besiktas | Kabatas

note you should get back to the airport by getting on at the sultanahmet stop since the bus can be fulled at this first departing stop. Thus, no stopping at the intermediate stop since there would be no empty seat.

drvannostren

You say flying business, I'm star gold, is the lounge the same? Or is there a specific J/F lounge like ANA has? How would you rate the new lounge vs the old? I loved the old one except it could get a little crowded because it was the only one. Because of that crowding it could get a little dirty too but I found the army of employees always did pretty well keeping it reasonable. Arrivals lounge was nice but very small. Showers were good at arrivals, never tried the showers at the IST main lounge. Also never got a chance to use the sleeping rooms.

See, based on what I learned about Istanbul traffic and then where they built the new airport, I thought this would be kinda impossible. So it's good to know that it's not. I hope they have plans to create a rail link though. I got into town on the IST rail link quite comfortably, getting to SAW was OK, but having to locate the bus in the centre of town and stuff kinda sucked.

erik19283

I visited both a few months ago. I was flying in business class, so I could access both, but as *A Gold I think you can access only one, but it won't make much of a difference because they were relatively the same. As to say which is better, the new ones or the old one, is quite a personal matter, and the new ones are not build the same way at all as the old one. I probably preferred the new ones because they were that, new! The old one was quite nice but was showing some wear and tear. However, I very much preferred the selection of alcohol in the old one.

drvannostren

Well, I'm looking forward to checking the new lounges out at IST. I purposely booked myself a 12 hour layover (crazy to some) at IST to be able to wander the grounds.

Now I'll let this thread get back to it's original purpose.

banffflyr

Looking for some advice from the group prior to talking with Aeroplan. I have a trip booked under two PNRs for 2 + 2 pax in March / April. Its a miniRTW in J under the old rules which looks like this:

YYC-EWR
EWR-GVA
GVA-LCY (Stop for 4 nights)
LCY-FRA-IST (Stop for 4 nights)
IST-HKT (Destination - 10 nights)
HKT- IST
IST - ATH
ATH - ZRH
ZRH - GVA
GVA - JFK
EWR - YYC

Turkish has recently made a schedule change to IST-HKT and unilaterally re-booked 1 PNR to have a 10 hour stop in IST instead of a 4 day stop. The other PNR hasn't been changed, but is now booked on a flight which doesn't exist. Additionaly, no space is showing up on Aeroplan for J this week on the revised flight time.

On the return leg, There are a number of sub-24 hour stops on the way home so we can explore Athens, Geneva, NYC. However our HKT-IST segment has been cancelled for that day of the week (Wednesdays) but Aeroplan hasn't been made aware of the change so they see an itinerary that looks intact for the return, even though its not. FWIW I received 26 emails from Turkish notifying me of the outbound change and rescheduling me and 2 emails regarding the return leg rescheduling.

I'm ready to walk away from the complex return leg and ask for something simple like HKT-BKK-HKG-YVR-YYC but Aeroplan says they can't open up space on AC8 between HKG and YVR, and that they don't have any responsibility beyond fixing the specific broken segments. I'm reluctant to leave the solution up to the Aeroplan agent and want to present them with options when we chat later today. I've been escalated to the supervisor level after 8+ hours on hold over the past 2 calls. Any advice is appreciated.

Smiley90

From what I can tell you have 2 separate issues:

1) The outbound now has 2 PNR's on 2 different itineraries, one with a shortened stop and one with a cancelled segment that hasn't been replaced, due to TK.

- This is an issue that you MIGHT have to figure out with TK itself, because AP will be powerless to solve it unless availability for 2 opens up on the same flights. If you can get TK to reschedule your 2nd PNR on the same flight as the 1st that might be your only/best option.

2) The return contains a cancelled leg for both PNR's and you want to reroute in ANY way possible.
- AP/AC should DEFINITELY be able to help you with this and is definitely able to open up inventory for you on the HKG-YVR direct if you chose so. How are they proposing to fix the specific broken segments if nothing on partners is available?

don_drapper

Currently calling Aeroplan and finalizing my booking. Over the last two days, three of the core flights I needed became unavailable so hopefully I don't get any ghost availability there... So I am sitting in a Starbucks, using the free refills and "enjoying" my time waiting.

Decided to call in french and hopefully shorten the time waiting, though I am not really confident it will make a difference.

I'll add my DP when I have succeeded or failed to get it booked. I'll also edit to add the milestones in the call.

Timeline:
30 minutes, still not a soul in sight. While they went through the trouble of having custom music, I'd almost rather listen to the default Cisco one as it doesn't jump like theirs.

1 hour, no soul and my sanity is starting to be questionable. This 2 minutes or so 1 minute and 10 seconds loop of music is dreadful. On the bright side, I am using an AirPods for the call so at least I can alternate ears and do other things. Currently reading about the Lockheed L-1011, an interesting beast.

1 hour and 30 minutes. You know it. Nada.

2 hours. I am running out of tea. Send help. I probably have time to go to East Asia, collect some tea leaves, dry them and maybe then get someone on the line.

2 hours and 15 minutes. I just got hung up. Trying to take deep breaths.

Attempt 2. Got the VP and hang up.

Attempt 6. Same as attempt 2. Looking if I can throw something onto a wall.

Attempt 14. Did not get the VP message. Back in the holding pattern! Now at 5 minutes.

30 minutes. Still on hold. Everytime the music loop cuts, I always do a quick motion towards the phone thinking "FINALLY", but my hopes are always crushed by this awful loop. Interstingly enough, I spent more time on the phone than the runtime of Scarface. How do I know? I JUST FINISHED IT.

1 hour and 30 minutes. Still on hold. I am almost sure I'll get disconnected again as service center time ends at midnight.

2 hour and 15 minutes. Disconnected once again. Will try again tomorrow. I'd say I am quiteeeee pissed.

rankourabu

Looks like they increased the time the system hangs up on you by 15 minutes! 😀

don_drapper

Going for another attempt at getting a reach of Aeroplan. It is currently 7:01AM EST, I am on hold already. Let's see how it goes.

erik19283

Good luck!

banffflyr

Thanks for this. Regarding point #1 , I tried TK's central call centre re: moving the one PNR and they told me to talk to Aeroplan. I tried calling the Toronto sales centre instead of the central call centre but no luck getting through.

On point #2 , and further to Don Drapper's posts, I've been on hold a total of 8 hours over 2 calls so far. 1st call was 4 hours (1st 1.5 hours on steady hold) and ended with the promise of a next day call back from a supervisor. Call back never happened. Call #2 was 4 hours 15 minutes, with 1st 1.5 hours on hold, then initial agent contact who put me on hold for a supervisor (another 1.5 hours). Supervisor indicated she couldn't open up AC space and promised a call back yesterday. It never came.