Smiley90

You can, but you still need PER as the destination. The closest routing I can think of would be YYZ-ZRH-NBO-ADD-SIN-MEL/SYD, which both are above MPM allowed.

However, if you make your outbound e.g.

YYZ-(YUL to save YQ via LX)-ZRH-NBO-ADD-SIN-PER
or YYZ-YUL-ZRH-NBO-JNB-PER

and then make the inbound

PER-AKL-SYD/MEL-SFO/LAX-YVR
or PER-SIN-SYD/MEL-SFO/LAX-YVR

with a stopover in SYD/MEL, that should be allowed.

So no, you don't get around PER.... but you CAN do east africa and syd/mel.

Happy

To the experts here, could you tell me if the itinerary below a valid routing?

MIA-CPH (SK) - VIE (OS - Australian) stopover
VIE-TPE-HKG (BR) stopover
HKG-SIN-BNE (SQ) destination
BNE-TPE-ORD (BR) - MIA (UA)

GC Mapper gives me 29757 miles. That is way too much above the MIA-BNE MPM. Does not seem it would work.

Could it be done with 160K Aeroplan miles or slightly more?

How would OS on the short segment would affect the YQ?

Primary goal is to route thru Europe and have a stopover there, then use BR to Asia with another stopover (avoid LHR and CDG due to high taxes and probably more difficult to find seats).
Destination in Australia.

Very flexible to modify how ever would work best, (like using TK or LX if needed though I am not a fan of LX seats) but desire to use BR on long haul to / from Asia.

Ooops, just realize TPE is there twice so this would not work?

Your helps are much much appreciated.

colinmack

Smiley90 - thank you again for all the help, it's really appreciated and made an enormous difference. The itinerary is all booked for both of us - as you mentioned they had to shift one of the flights to avoid a second stopover (PTY-UIO), but otherwise everything worked and was valid.

Again, thank you - we'll raise a toast to you while we're in transit!

JJonahJ

Your total outbound MIA-BNE, as well as total inbound BNE-MIA (not the sum of them) must be below MPM

MIA-BNE has MPM ~ 14680 miles

GCMAP shows your outbound is way over at 16,916 miles

Going through TPE twice is fine, since it is once on the outbound and once on the inbound. Cannot go through TPE (or any other airport) if it's TWICE on the SAME SIDE of the branch.

You'll need to use a different POT other than BNE, to get bigger MPM.
Examples:
MIA-SYD has MPM 14948 miles
MIA-MEL has MPM 15537 miles
MIA-PER has MPM 18240 miles
(intra-Australia flights are relatively cheap on Qantas...you might consider using BA Avios points to book if you have any)

NA > Australia requires 160K for a Business Class award redemption

Whenever I've added in short OS segments on intra-Europe I've found that the YQ with OS is minimal.

Smiley90

a) TPE in there being twice isn't an issue, as long as it's not both on inbound or both on outbound (which in your routing it isn't)
b) much bigger issue: the maximum mileage allowed for MIA-BNE is 14680, so both MIA-BNE and BNE-MIA need to fit within that.

MIA-CPH-VIE-TPE-HKG-SIN-BNE is 16916, WAY above mileage allowed, so your routing isn't valid. In fact, I don't think there's any routing through both VIE and TPE that would work, since even IF it existed, MIA-VIE-TPE-BNE is 14989 and above MPM. And those flights don't even exist (I think).

In fact, even MIA-VIE-BNE breaks the MPM, so that combination just isn't possible.


The best solution is probably making PER your destination, MPM for MIA-PER becomes 18240 which you can fit a loooot of european routings into, including MIA-CPH-VIE-TPE-HKG-SIN-PER, which is 15521, as well as, e.g., PER-SIN-TPE-ORD-MIA at 13071. You'd then have to organize your own PER-BNE flights, but at least it's doable.

If you feel like skipping either VIE or HKG in favour of PER, you can also route PER-AKL-BNE-TPE-ORD-MIA on the way back and do a stopover in BNE without paying extra for flights, as this is still within MPM at 17951.

Awesome! Congrats! Mind sharing what your final routing ended up looking like? Good luck, you're gonna need it!

WKnight

Also, how much in taxes/fees, thanks!

colinmack

Of course! Here was the final routing (taxes/fees were $505):

Sun. Oct 21: AC8986 YOW 14:20 YUL 15:02; AC1902 YUL 18:55 ATH 11:05 +1; MS748 ATH 13:30 +1 CAI 14:20 +1
Mon. Oct 22: MS910 CAI 22:30 DXB 04:00 +1
Tue. Oct 23: TG518 DXB 20:55 BKK 06:30 +1; TG600 BKK 08:00 +1 HKG 11:45 +1
Thu. Oct 25: SQ861 HKG 15:40 SIN 19:35; SQ227 SIN 22:00 MEL 08:15 +1
Sat. Oct 27: UA842 SYD 10:30 LAX 06:10
Sat. Oct 27: CM473 LAX 11:20 PTY 20:00
Sun. Oct 28: CM829 PTY 09:36 UIO 11:39
Mon. Oct 29: AV456 UIO 05:05 SAL 07:00; AV444 SAL 08:00 BOS 14:50; AC8049 BOS 18:10 YOW 19:33

And thank you, we'll need it!

TJ1010F

Thank you that is amazingly helpful!

chawk12

Hey guys I'm trying to book via Aeroplan right now and they claim they don't allow the 5% buffer for exceeding MPM anymore?

Smiley90

I believe that buffer was eliminated quite a while ago.

TJ1010F

Couple more questions:
1) I was seeing a lot of YYZ-NBO availability just yesterday through LX through YYZ-YUL-ZRH-NBO but today I can't seem to find any. Is this a reflection of the whimsy of the search engine or actual change in availability? How reliable is this route for reward booking?
2) Also, if I search YYZ-TNR (madagascar) I get some nice routes through YYZ-ADD-TNR. However, I envisioned something like YYZ-YUL-ZRH (stop)-NBO (stop)-ADD-TNR (turnaround)-ADD-YYZ, and when I try to search from NBO to TNR, it doesn't show me any availability at all. Yet if I can find the individual components of NBO-ADD and ADD-TNR would I be able to connect them or is there something about YYZ-ADD-TNR that is a sort of married segments that allows it to work but not NBO-ADD-TNR. Is there something inherently incompatible with this route? Thanks!

Smiley90

What's the connection time between NBO-ADD and ADD-TNR? If it's too short or too long it wouldn't work, that's the only thing I can think of. Or did you search NBO-ADD-TNR by itself? It's possible that NBO-ADD-TNR breaks the MPM of NBO-TNR, in which case just that three-segment trip wouldn't be valid, but WOULD be valid as part of a YYZ-TNR trip.

TJ1010F

Great thought, I was searching NBO-TNR by itself which probably would not allow through ADD on that individual trips MPM. So I should be good on the overall YYZ-TNR. The timing of the individual flights from NBO-ADD-TNR lend themselves to being linked (<24 hours) as there are at least 1-2 flights for each of these routes available each day.

Thanks a lot!

nli007

anyone having trouble booking EVA J online lately?

I keep running into situations where availability is present on both EF and aeroplan.com, but when I try to book, I get the following error

THE ITINERARY YOU REQUESTED IS NOT AVAILABLE
We're sorry, but due to real-time availability, the itinerary you requested is no longer available.

Happy

Thanks for the checking. Now I see why many itineraries have PER in it. Sure we can use Avios to fly intra Australia. Just need to return to PER for the outbound I suppose.

Yes, can skip VIE but dont want to skip HKG. How should I route the outbound so a stopover in Europe and then to HKG via TPE on BR? Would prefer BR over TK over LX.

Thanks a lot for the inbound suggestion. The caveat is, how easy to find business class seats on NZ for the PER-AKL and AKL-BNE segments?
I thought it is near impossible to get NZ business class seats?

Essentially I see 2 scenarios here - Correct me if my thinking is wrong.
1) A stopover in any possible spot in Europe, a stopover in HKG, Turnaround at PER. We do the intra-Australia or Australia-New Zealand on Avios.
2) No stopover in Europe, a stopover in HKG, Turnaround at PER, then a stopover at BNE, provided NZ J seats are available for those segments. I am not optimistic on the NZ availability although those are regional flights.

On another note - I would also like to explore the probability of using A3 or OU, for the European stopover, either some island A3 serves or if going to Croatia, either ZAG or SPU. We had a very enjoyable 2 weeks driving trip in Croatia in 2016. Always want to return for more exploration on the less-visited islands such as Vis, as well as spending more time at the Istria Peninsula.

The primary reason to put Australia in the mix is because it only costs 160K only 5K extra than just going to Asia would be already 155K. So become a little greedy on that if using PER is doable. Been in Australia and New Zealand quite a few times and in fact would be in Australia this November. So not getting Australia in the miniRTW is OK but just seems a bit wasteful not to fit it in.

Again, thank you guys for the reviews and great suggestions.

EDIT
As expected, there is zero J availability on NZ flights. So Option is only good in theory. Aint going to take a 6+ hours flight in coach while paying for business award. So sad to see NZ has become so unfriendly. Our very first award travel was with UA miles all booked on NZ business class when it was only 90K R/T US-South Pacific, when it was a hugely undervalued sweet spot on the UA chart...
PER-SIN is it.