May 30, 2013, 9:55 pm
Last edit by: jerryhung
New List of Mini-RTW 2.0 version after Oct 29th, 2014 "enhancement" (i.e. less MPM)
FAQ: List of valid and booked mini-RTW itineraries version 2.0 (post-"enhancement"
INTRO
This wiki is taken from the excellent overview in the first post of this thread by FrequentFlyer9000 and is meant as a guide to the Aeroplan "Mini-RTW" for the uninformed newbie flyer. This is a no judgment zone and newbies are welcome. In this thread, the usage of scary acronyms and complicated FlyerTalk insider-speak will be minimized.
Also, this wiki is a work in progress so please provide feedback or make wiki edits if you think something warrants it.
INFO & COMMON QUESTIONS
What is the "Mini-RTW"?
The Mini-RTW is a name given to a type of reward booking using Air Canada's Aeroplan miles. It is actually not a "round-the-world" ticket at all - it is a regular award redemption. Just as you would use 75K frequent flyer miles to go to Japan on another airline, you can use 75K to do so using Aeroplan miles. The difference is that Aeroplan allows you to "stopover" in multiple cities at no extra mileage cost, making it very attractive compared to other reward travel. It should be noted that this isn't really that much better than some other airlines. For example, Delta offers one stopover + open jaw, which is only one stopover worse than Aeroplan's deal. But many of the airlines only offer one stopover and no open jaw. So there is definitely value here.
In addition to your final destination (in which you can stay for days/weeks/months), you are allowed:
•Two stopovers in other cities (stay for days/weeks/months). You are allowed to trade one of these stopovers for an open jaw (where you land in one city, but take the next flight out of another city)
•10 segments (layovers during which you spend less than 24 hours in a given city) <-- this limit may be gone as of 2014/2015
So, disregarding the additional 10 segments, an award trip for Japan could actually look like this:
NYC > Tokyo (destination - one week) > Paris (stopover - one week) > London (stopover - one week) > NYC
You basically get three times the world exploration for the price of one. If you add on the extra layovers allowed, you can turn it into:
NYC > Los Angeles (one day) > Hawaii (one day) > Tokyo (one week) > Seoul (one day) > Hong Kong (one day) > Paris (one week) > Munich (one day) > London (one week) > Washington DC (one day) > NYC
Of course, you don't have to do the above. Spending so much time in airports can be exhausting. But the option is there for you if you want it.
How many miles is this going to cost me?
See the Award Travel chart here.
From North America to "Asia 1" countries: (effective Jan 1, 2014)
•75K in Economy
•150K in Business
•210K in First
From North America to "Europe 1" countries:
•60K in Economy
•90K in Business
•125K in First
...and so on. Check the link for other combinations. Assuming you are stopping in three cities, the city in the most "expensive" redemption zone is the zone you will have to pay for. So if you are visiting two Asia1 zone cities and one Middle East city, you will pay 80K miles rather than 75K miles since that is what the Middle East trip costs (numbers assume Economy class travel).
Which miles do I need to use? Can I use miles from other Star Alliance airlines?
You need to use Aeroplan miles. You cannot use miles from other Star Alliance members, such as United, to book this mini-RTW. However, you can book flights for the mini-RTW on any airline that is in the alliance and has the desired award seating available. You technically do not have to fly any segments on Air Canada at all.
So, what's the catch? What are the restrictions?
There is no catch. However, there are some restrictions on your itinerary. This is where things get a bit more complicated.
Want to find the new MPM after 10/29/2014?
Aeroplan City Pair mileage (new pseudo-MPM) - FlyerTalk Forums
This is no longer valid after 10/29/2014
2) If you do elect to use an open jaw instead of one of your stopovers, you must schedule the open jaw so that it is in the same "IATA zone" as either the origin or the destination city. So if you are going from NY to Japan to Europe and back to NY, the open jaw cannot be scheduled in Europe, since it is neither the origin zone or the destination zone. The open jaw also cannot be a larger distance than any two legs you are actually flying. In case you are wondering, IATA zones are as follows:
IATA 1 - The Americas (incl. Caribbean, Hawaii)
IATA 2 - Europe as far as the Ural Mountain range, Middle East & Africa
IATA 3 - Oceania, SE Asia, Far East, Sub-Continent.
Remember that if you use your open jaw at the turnaround/destination point, you will only have one stopover to use left. So you would be able to do NYC > Singapore (destination, open jaw) // Tokyo (stop) > NYC. This has one destination, one open jaw (at turnaround point), and one stopover. However, you would not be able to do this: NYC > Madrid (stop) > Singapore (destination, open jaw) // Tokyo (stop) > NYC. Because your 2 stops + 1 open jaw would be more than the two allowed.
3) You cannot land in the same city twice in any one direction. This means that on my way from NY to, let's say, Cairo, I cannot do New York > London > Paris > London > Cairo on the way there, since I would be stopping in London twice in one direction. However, I can stop in London on the way to Cairo and then again on the way back from Cairo.
4) The actual trip needs to be "bookable". It needs to follow certain rules. I won't get into too many details, but anything completely nonsensical in terms of routing is generally not going to fly. But most routes will not fall into this category. Just something to keep in mind.
Do I have to go in the same direction for every leg of the flight?
No. As an example, you can cross the Atlantic twice or cross both the Atlantic and the Pacific once (more like a real RTW trip).
How do I book this?
Assuming you have already planned out your entire itinerary to the dot and have made sure your trip is in accordance with the above restrictions, call Aeroplan and speak with a representative. Alternatively, you can try to book online for free. However, this is not always possible with more complicated routings.
What will this cost me in real cash? How can I minimize fees?
It depends on the region you travel to and which airline you fly on. In general, the more Air Canada segments you fly the more fees/taxes you will pay. Aeroplan does not collect surcharges on non-Air Canada-operated flights. So flying Air Canada internationally will cost you extra. If you use a lot of Air Canada flights in your mini-RTW, your fees could be anywhere from $150 to $400, even sometimes creeping up above $600. Lesson is to avoid AC "metal" (airplanes) if possible.
Every trip will have a $30 cost per person for booking on the phone, regardless of the itinerary.
What are the change fees if I want to change a leg or multiple legs of the trip later?
$90 for changes after original booking. If there is an involuntary change because of flight schedules changing, there is no fee charged. Note that when you make a change, the taxes/fees associated with fuel, etc. may change. They may decrease or increase depending on the previous flight and the new flight. This is independent of the $90 rebooking fee. The $90 is flat regardless of how many of the segments you change. It is not $90 per changed segment.
How do I plan this trip out? Even finding a simple award ticket can be difficult online, let alone one with 10 segments!
Good question. It is recommended that you use either the All-Nippon Airways (ANA) website (guide on how here), the KVS tool (costs money) or ExpertFlyer (costs money), or http://FliSea.com. I personally like to use KVS, but it is not newbie-friendly. It is $20 for 2 months for the "diamond" level service, and $75 for a year. Small price to pay for saving a lot of time, if you can handle the learning curve. ANA is a good free method of finding segments and many people have had plenty of success with it; FliSea is a metasearch tool that uses all of the sites above.
The trick is to do this one segment at a time. So first find NYC > LONDON for the date you want and make sure that the award class you are looking for is available (e.g. Economy low fare). Then do the next leg: LONDON > ROME. Repeat for every segment. Write down the details of each flight, calculate the mileage using the www.gcmap.com resource, and call up Aeroplan to book.
One of our Flyertalk members has built a database with all the Mini-RTW routes that have been flown in the various threads in one simple place: http://www.turnleftat.com/mini-rtw-list/
FAQ: List of valid and booked mini-RTW itineraries version 2.0 (post-"enhancement"
INTRO
This wiki is taken from the excellent overview in the first post of this thread by FrequentFlyer9000 and is meant as a guide to the Aeroplan "Mini-RTW" for the uninformed newbie flyer. This is a no judgment zone and newbies are welcome. In this thread, the usage of scary acronyms and complicated FlyerTalk insider-speak will be minimized.
Also, this wiki is a work in progress so please provide feedback or make wiki edits if you think something warrants it.
INFO & COMMON QUESTIONS
What is the "Mini-RTW"?
The Mini-RTW is a name given to a type of reward booking using Air Canada's Aeroplan miles. It is actually not a "round-the-world" ticket at all - it is a regular award redemption. Just as you would use 75K frequent flyer miles to go to Japan on another airline, you can use 75K to do so using Aeroplan miles. The difference is that Aeroplan allows you to "stopover" in multiple cities at no extra mileage cost, making it very attractive compared to other reward travel. It should be noted that this isn't really that much better than some other airlines. For example, Delta offers one stopover + open jaw, which is only one stopover worse than Aeroplan's deal. But many of the airlines only offer one stopover and no open jaw. So there is definitely value here.
In addition to your final destination (in which you can stay for days/weeks/months), you are allowed:
•Two stopovers in other cities (stay for days/weeks/months). You are allowed to trade one of these stopovers for an open jaw (where you land in one city, but take the next flight out of another city)
•10 segments (layovers during which you spend less than 24 hours in a given city) <-- this limit may be gone as of 2014/2015
So, disregarding the additional 10 segments, an award trip for Japan could actually look like this:
NYC > Tokyo (destination - one week) > Paris (stopover - one week) > London (stopover - one week) > NYC
You basically get three times the world exploration for the price of one. If you add on the extra layovers allowed, you can turn it into:
NYC > Los Angeles (one day) > Hawaii (one day) > Tokyo (one week) > Seoul (one day) > Hong Kong (one day) > Paris (one week) > Munich (one day) > London (one week) > Washington DC (one day) > NYC
Of course, you don't have to do the above. Spending so much time in airports can be exhausting. But the option is there for you if you want it.
How many miles is this going to cost me?
See the Award Travel chart here.
From North America to "Asia 1" countries: (effective Jan 1, 2014)
•75K in Economy
•150K in Business
•210K in First
From North America to "Europe 1" countries:
•60K in Economy
•90K in Business
•125K in First
...and so on. Check the link for other combinations. Assuming you are stopping in three cities, the city in the most "expensive" redemption zone is the zone you will have to pay for. So if you are visiting two Asia1 zone cities and one Middle East city, you will pay 80K miles rather than 75K miles since that is what the Middle East trip costs (numbers assume Economy class travel).
Which miles do I need to use? Can I use miles from other Star Alliance airlines?
You need to use Aeroplan miles. You cannot use miles from other Star Alliance members, such as United, to book this mini-RTW. However, you can book flights for the mini-RTW on any airline that is in the alliance and has the desired award seating available. You technically do not have to fly any segments on Air Canada at all.
So, what's the catch? What are the restrictions?
There is no catch. However, there are some restrictions on your itinerary. This is where things get a bit more complicated.
Want to find the new MPM after 10/29/2014?
Aeroplan City Pair mileage (new pseudo-MPM) - FlyerTalk Forums
This is no longer valid after 10/29/2014
1) Your itinerary must be within 5% of the total "Maximum Permitted Mileage" (MPM) for the route from the origin to the destination. Even though you are stopping in three cities by using your two stopovers and a final destination, you can define the destination as the stop city furthest away from the origin. Although certain flyers have gotten away with telling an inattentive phone rep that their final destination / "turnaround city" is one of their layover cities to increase their MPM, this does not always work. Sticking with one of your three stop cities is a safe bet.
MPM exist so that you cannot repeatedly fly around the world 10 times on your 10 segments. There is a limit to how many miles you can fly on the reward ticket. MPM guidelines can be found by using the KVS tool or by using Expert Flyer. MPM is calculated between your origin and your destination, one-way. The trips to and from your destination are calculated separately. You are allowed to overshoot this number by 5% ("MPM5"). If you can find a bookable itinerary online that has a mileage longer than the published MPM, this is a "published routing" and can be used even if it exceeds the MPM5. In KVS, navigate to the "Reference" tab, select "MPM" from the dropdown menu, and enter your city pair. MPM information is available under the Travel Information section of ExpertFlyer. It is available to all subscribers, Basic or Premium, and there is a 5-day free trial to ExpertFlyer.com that can be used.
To see if your itinerary fits your MPM limit, you can use the site here to see your total miles traveled: www.gcmap.com. Enter your airport codes separated by dashes to see the itinerary and get the total mileage (e.g. NYC - LHR - NYC). Example here.
TO READ MORE ABOUT MPM: Read this (short) document
MPM exist so that you cannot repeatedly fly around the world 10 times on your 10 segments. There is a limit to how many miles you can fly on the reward ticket. MPM guidelines can be found by using the KVS tool or by using Expert Flyer. MPM is calculated between your origin and your destination, one-way. The trips to and from your destination are calculated separately. You are allowed to overshoot this number by 5% ("MPM5"). If you can find a bookable itinerary online that has a mileage longer than the published MPM, this is a "published routing" and can be used even if it exceeds the MPM5. In KVS, navigate to the "Reference" tab, select "MPM" from the dropdown menu, and enter your city pair. MPM information is available under the Travel Information section of ExpertFlyer. It is available to all subscribers, Basic or Premium, and there is a 5-day free trial to ExpertFlyer.com that can be used.
To see if your itinerary fits your MPM limit, you can use the site here to see your total miles traveled: www.gcmap.com. Enter your airport codes separated by dashes to see the itinerary and get the total mileage (e.g. NYC - LHR - NYC). Example here.
TO READ MORE ABOUT MPM: Read this (short) document
IATA 1 - The Americas (incl. Caribbean, Hawaii)
IATA 2 - Europe as far as the Ural Mountain range, Middle East & Africa
IATA 3 - Oceania, SE Asia, Far East, Sub-Continent.
Remember that if you use your open jaw at the turnaround/destination point, you will only have one stopover to use left. So you would be able to do NYC > Singapore (destination, open jaw) // Tokyo (stop) > NYC. This has one destination, one open jaw (at turnaround point), and one stopover. However, you would not be able to do this: NYC > Madrid (stop) > Singapore (destination, open jaw) // Tokyo (stop) > NYC. Because your 2 stops + 1 open jaw would be more than the two allowed.
3) You cannot land in the same city twice in any one direction. This means that on my way from NY to, let's say, Cairo, I cannot do New York > London > Paris > London > Cairo on the way there, since I would be stopping in London twice in one direction. However, I can stop in London on the way to Cairo and then again on the way back from Cairo.
4) The actual trip needs to be "bookable". It needs to follow certain rules. I won't get into too many details, but anything completely nonsensical in terms of routing is generally not going to fly. But most routes will not fall into this category. Just something to keep in mind.
Do I have to go in the same direction for every leg of the flight?
No. As an example, you can cross the Atlantic twice or cross both the Atlantic and the Pacific once (more like a real RTW trip).
How do I book this?
Assuming you have already planned out your entire itinerary to the dot and have made sure your trip is in accordance with the above restrictions, call Aeroplan and speak with a representative. Alternatively, you can try to book online for free. However, this is not always possible with more complicated routings.
What will this cost me in real cash? How can I minimize fees?
It depends on the region you travel to and which airline you fly on. In general, the more Air Canada segments you fly the more fees/taxes you will pay. Aeroplan does not collect surcharges on non-Air Canada-operated flights. So flying Air Canada internationally will cost you extra. If you use a lot of Air Canada flights in your mini-RTW, your fees could be anywhere from $150 to $400, even sometimes creeping up above $600. Lesson is to avoid AC "metal" (airplanes) if possible.
Every trip will have a $30 cost per person for booking on the phone, regardless of the itinerary.
What are the change fees if I want to change a leg or multiple legs of the trip later?
$90 for changes after original booking. If there is an involuntary change because of flight schedules changing, there is no fee charged. Note that when you make a change, the taxes/fees associated with fuel, etc. may change. They may decrease or increase depending on the previous flight and the new flight. This is independent of the $90 rebooking fee. The $90 is flat regardless of how many of the segments you change. It is not $90 per changed segment.
How do I plan this trip out? Even finding a simple award ticket can be difficult online, let alone one with 10 segments!
Good question. It is recommended that you use either the All-Nippon Airways (ANA) website (guide on how here), the KVS tool (costs money) or ExpertFlyer (costs money), or http://FliSea.com. I personally like to use KVS, but it is not newbie-friendly. It is $20 for 2 months for the "diamond" level service, and $75 for a year. Small price to pay for saving a lot of time, if you can handle the learning curve. ANA is a good free method of finding segments and many people have had plenty of success with it; FliSea is a metasearch tool that uses all of the sites above.
The trick is to do this one segment at a time. So first find NYC > LONDON for the date you want and make sure that the award class you are looking for is available (e.g. Economy low fare). Then do the next leg: LONDON > ROME. Repeat for every segment. Write down the details of each flight, calculate the mileage using the www.gcmap.com resource, and call up Aeroplan to book.
One of our Flyertalk members has built a database with all the Mini-RTW routes that have been flown in the various threads in one simple place: http://www.turnleftat.com/mini-rtw-list/
FAQ: The Complete Newbie Guide/FAQ to the Air Canada Aeroplan Mini-RTW
Jul 3, 2017, 2:56 pm
#1576
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 26
I have just booked two business class tickets;
YUL-IST (TK)
IST-CAI (TK)
stopover
CAI-DXB (MS)
DXB-BKK (TG)
BKK-DPS (TG)
destination
DPS-SIN (SQ)
SIN-PVG (SQ)
stopover
PVG-ZRH (LX)
ZRH-YUL (LX)
Fees $863.10 for 2 passengers. ( More than expected + or - $450. since all low fee carriers ? )
YUL-IST (TK)
IST-CAI (TK)
stopover
CAI-DXB (MS)
DXB-BKK (TG)
BKK-DPS (TG)
destination
DPS-SIN (SQ)
SIN-PVG (SQ)
stopover
PVG-ZRH (LX)
ZRH-YUL (LX)
Fees $863.10 for 2 passengers. ( More than expected + or - $450. since all low fee carriers ? )
Jul 3, 2017, 7:52 pm
#1577
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 625
I have just booked two business class tickets;
YUL-IST (TK)
IST-CAI (TK)
stopover
CAI-DXB (MS)
DXB-BKK (TG)
BKK-DPS (TG)
destination
DPS-SIN (SQ)
SIN-PVG (SQ)
stopover
PVG-ZRH (LX)
ZRH-YUL (LX)
Fees $863.10 for 2 passengers. ( More than expected + or - $450. since all low fee carriers ? )
YUL-IST (TK)
IST-CAI (TK)
stopover
CAI-DXB (MS)
DXB-BKK (TG)
BKK-DPS (TG)
destination
DPS-SIN (SQ)
SIN-PVG (SQ)
stopover
PVG-ZRH (LX)
ZRH-YUL (LX)
Fees $863.10 for 2 passengers. ( More than expected + or - $450. since all low fee carriers ? )
Jul 5, 2017, 5:16 am
#1578
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 26
Jul 6, 2017, 8:13 am
#1579
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: YQB
Programs: AC SE
Posts: 2,139
I am trying to piece together my very first RTW for myself and the mother of my child. Goal is to maximize J, minimize YQ. I would like to hit MLE, IST, VCE and KEF. Here is the itinerary I am thinking of:
YQB-YUL/YYZ/ORD (AC or UA if ORD)
YUL/YYZ/ORD-IST (TK)
IST-MLE (TK)
destination
MLE-IST (TK)
IST-VCE (TK)
stopover
VCE-CPH (SK)
CPH-KEF (SK)
stopover
KEF-YUL (ACr)
YUL-YQB (AC)
What are your thoughts? Does that seem like a valid itinerary? 150k miles per person in J, right?
KEF seems like a tough nut to crack if I want to avoid YQ and AC rouge on the return leg. Any suggestions? Would backtracking to CPH to fly SK TATL be an option?
YQB-YUL/YYZ/ORD (AC or UA if ORD)
YUL/YYZ/ORD-IST (TK)
IST-MLE (TK)
destination
MLE-IST (TK)
IST-VCE (TK)
stopover
VCE-CPH (SK)
CPH-KEF (SK)
stopover
KEF-YUL (ACr)
YUL-YQB (AC)
What are your thoughts? Does that seem like a valid itinerary? 150k miles per person in J, right?
KEF seems like a tough nut to crack if I want to avoid YQ and AC rouge on the return leg. Any suggestions? Would backtracking to CPH to fly SK TATL be an option?
Jul 8, 2017, 9:42 pm
#1581
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: YVR
Programs: Aeroplan, AAdvantage
Posts: 2,100
Is it possible to do a YVR - Europe (stop for half a year) - Far East - YVR ? Eventually I would like to get to Japan but I can handle myself if I get to, I dunno, SIN, HKG or TPE or such.
By Europe, I am open to practically anything from Iceland to the Middle East, moving within is easy and cheap. It's the >6 hour flights I need Aeroplan for cheap lie flat seats
(I will spend much time in Hungary but that's near irrelevant)
The problem is I can only have one open jaw and if I want to max my mileage I need to go to something like DPS or SIN -- but then getting there from Europe takes too long
Edit: apparently http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23759410-post5.html is still valid, the website just priced out a YVR-FRA,FRA-BKK,BKK-YVR flight for me o_O
By Europe, I am open to practically anything from Iceland to the Middle East, moving within is easy and cheap. It's the >6 hour flights I need Aeroplan for cheap lie flat seats
(I will spend much time in Hungary but that's near irrelevant)The problem is I can only have one open jaw and if I want to max my mileage I need to go to something like DPS or SIN -- but then getting there from Europe takes too long
Edit: apparently http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23759410-post5.html is still valid, the website just priced out a YVR-FRA,FRA-BKK,BKK-YVR flight for me o_O
Last edited by chx1975; Jul 8, 2017 at 10:53 pm
Jul 9, 2017, 2:26 pm
#1582
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: toronto
Posts: 914
I am just about finalized my mini-rtw trip and have a question/opinion to ask the masses.
So I will be going to Sydney this december, the outbound trip is straight forward.
Scrap my previous question regarding Air India, I think I read enough to take them off my list.
Now I have another question, the more I do searching on different possible routings, the more questions I have.
So I was playing around with what is available to get me from YYZ-SYD,
and I found some F available with Asiana for December.
going there would be:
YYZ-LAX - AC J
LAX-ICN - Asiana F 380
ICN-SYD - Asiana F 380 Stop
Now the hard part of returning to YYZ.
Can I still return via:
SYD-PEK CA J
PEK-HKG CA J (Stop)
HKG-ICN Asiana J
ICN-YYZ- AC J
Or would that be over the miles limit for the return? It would be nice to go with the F 380, I never flown on the 380 before.
So I will be going to Sydney this december, the outbound trip is straight forward.
Scrap my previous question regarding Air India, I think I read enough to take them off my list.
Now I have another question, the more I do searching on different possible routings, the more questions I have.
So I was playing around with what is available to get me from YYZ-SYD,
and I found some F available with Asiana for December.
going there would be:
YYZ-LAX - AC J
LAX-ICN - Asiana F 380
ICN-SYD - Asiana F 380 Stop
Now the hard part of returning to YYZ.
Can I still return via:
SYD-PEK CA J
PEK-HKG CA J (Stop)
HKG-ICN Asiana J
ICN-YYZ- AC J
Or would that be over the miles limit for the return? It would be nice to go with the F 380, I never flown on the 380 before.
Last edited by Commie; Jul 10, 2017 at 3:35 pm Reason: change of question
Jul 30, 2017, 10:34 am
#1583
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 1
I'm trying to set up an economy mini-RTW from Winnipeg (YWG) to Asia1(75,000 points). But it seems geographically impossible within the MPM. I've called in three times, primarily to obtain MPMs. Here's a typical route of what I've tried:
YWG-DEN-NRT-SZX-SYX(destination) MPM=10526 gcmap=8,817 mi
SYX-PEK(stop)-ZRH-DUB(stop)-YYZ-YWG *not valid* gcmap=11,513 mi
Impossible?
Plan B is visit China only and return via Pacific routing.
Thanks, Fred
YWG-DEN-NRT-SZX-SYX(destination) MPM=10526 gcmap=8,817 mi
SYX-PEK(stop)-ZRH-DUB(stop)-YYZ-YWG *not valid* gcmap=11,513 mi
Impossible?
Plan B is visit China only and return via Pacific routing.
Thanks, Fred
Last edited by 001fred; Jul 30, 2017 at 10:37 am Reason: clarification
Aug 5, 2017, 12:32 pm
#1584
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 2
Hi everyone, total newbie here so I apologize for my confusion. I've been researching the past few days and finally landed on this forum. We're planning an upcoming trip with the following itinerary:
YYZ-Toronto > AMS-Amsterdam > TXL-Berlin > FCO-Rome > MAD-Madrid > YYZ-Toronto
I've read and re-read the the first post a few times and I believe I would only be allowed to book the following with Aeroplan: YYZ-Toronto > AMS-Amsterdam (open-jaw) > MAD-Madrid (stopover)> YYZ-Toronto
Except, that would be the same as booking one-way flights departing YYZ to AMS and returning from MAD to YYZ (roughly $150 with 60K points). Is there a better option given the itinerary?
Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!
YYZ-Toronto > AMS-Amsterdam > TXL-Berlin > FCO-Rome > MAD-Madrid > YYZ-Toronto
I've read and re-read the the first post a few times and I believe I would only be allowed to book the following with Aeroplan: YYZ-Toronto > AMS-Amsterdam (open-jaw) > MAD-Madrid (stopover)> YYZ-Toronto
Except, that would be the same as booking one-way flights departing YYZ to AMS and returning from MAD to YYZ (roughly $150 with 60K points). Is there a better option given the itinerary?
Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!
Last edited by zoe88; Aug 5, 2017 at 12:50 pm
Aug 5, 2017, 3:20 pm
#1585
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,784
Hi everyone, total newbie here so I apologize for my confusion. I've been researching the past few days and finally landed on this forum. We're planning an upcoming trip with the following itinerary:
YYZ-Toronto > AMS-Amsterdam > TXL-Berlin > FCO-Rome > MAD-Madrid > YYZ-Toronto
I've read and re-read the the first post a few times and I believe I would only be allowed to book the following with Aeroplan: YYZ-Toronto > AMS-Amsterdam (open-jaw) > MAD-Madrid (stopover)> YYZ-Toronto
Except, that would be the same as booking one-way flights departing YYZ to AMS and returning from MAD to YYZ (roughly $150 with 60K points). Is there a better option given the itinerary?
Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!
YYZ-Toronto > AMS-Amsterdam > TXL-Berlin > FCO-Rome > MAD-Madrid > YYZ-Toronto
I've read and re-read the the first post a few times and I believe I would only be allowed to book the following with Aeroplan: YYZ-Toronto > AMS-Amsterdam (open-jaw) > MAD-Madrid (stopover)> YYZ-Toronto
Except, that would be the same as booking one-way flights departing YYZ to AMS and returning from MAD to YYZ (roughly $150 with 60K points). Is there a better option given the itinerary?
Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!
Aug 6, 2017, 8:23 pm
#1586
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 2
YYZ
MAD
TXL
YYZ (from AMS)
So it's the almost the same as doing two one-way. Unless I'm missing something, there isn't much savings considering flights in Europe are so cheap.
Aug 7, 2017, 11:42 am
#1587
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,085
Hi, thanks for the response. I did end up calling in was only able to do the following itinerary:
YYZ
MAD
TXL
YYZ (from AMS)
So it's the almost the same as doing two one-way. Unless I'm missing something, there isn't much savings considering flights in Europe are so cheap.
YYZ
MAD
TXL
YYZ (from AMS)
So it's the almost the same as doing two one-way. Unless I'm missing something, there isn't much savings considering flights in Europe are so cheap.
So assuming you booked YYZ-MAD (open-jaw) TXL-AMS-YYZ, you can have a stop-over in AMS if you wanted.
Aug 7, 2017, 6:09 pm
#1588
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Canada
Programs: UA*1K MM SK EBG LATAM BL
Posts: 23,314
I know one was not allowed to do this a while back, any success with backtrack via the same city on a stopover?
For example YYZ-IST-ESB(stop)-IST-BKK
Assuming that ESB is only served by Star Alliance from Istanbul (I know not true - just an example)
For example YYZ-IST-ESB(stop)-IST-BKK
Assuming that ESB is only served by Star Alliance from Istanbul (I know not true - just an example)
Aug 7, 2017, 6:16 pm
#1589
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: AC
Posts: 2,167
It purely depends on the agent. Chances are you cannot do this when you first book the ticket (because chances are even the stupidest Aeroplan agent knows you can't do this) but say you got to ESB, and there was inventory from ESB-IST-BKK, you can call and change your flight to allow you to fly back through IST as most agents will not look at what parts of your trip have fallen off.