tcyeg

Guess it's easier to book a minirtw once you have done it before. Helped my parents book this

YYZ-TPE BR J
TPE-HKG BR J STOP
HKG-SIN SQ J DEST
SIN-PEK SQ J
PEK-HND CA J
HND-YVR NH J
YVR-YYZ AC Y

$350 + booking fee.

CanadianMike

Found myself with 3 weeks vacation in June so wanted to book my first mini-RTW.
Admittedly fairly challenging given how last minute it was and how my dates were pretty fixed / inflexible.
Still pretty pleased I made it work within the MPM and get to fly a few different J products (especially TK and LX).

YVR - YYC - NRT - ICN (AC J) STOP
ICN - BKK - KUL (TG J) DEST
KUL - IST (TK J) 12 hour layover
IST - DBV (TK J) STOP
DBV - ZAG - ZRH - YUL (OU then LX J)
YUL - YYZ - YEG - YVR (AC J)

155,000 + $540

Plan is to monitor for BR J availability to change to YVR - TPE - ICN and get a bunch of the YQ refunded (and fly EVA J).
Obviously would also prefer a direct YUL or YYZ - YVR at the end but not hopeful any J seats will open on the direct flights I need.

Open to any comments / suggestions, trying to learn!

rankourabu

It doesnt work like that. The AC legs are not cumulative in YQ/tax - you are including YVR departure tax/aif for example, not due on connecting itins.
Its possible that that itinerary has $420 in tax - but not likely. With that combination of carriers, there should have been no YQ charged (max $82 for all the AC legs - but those are not charged as part of a larger, non-scamchargeable itinerary). Would love to see the tax breakdown for that one. The only scamcharge should have been for HKGBKK on TG Y

hogdogz

Just wanted to throw an update to this trip now that we are back for a couple weeks. On the morning of our last day, I had my passport stolen in Paris. Was discovered while in CDG about to board a flight to ZRH to meet the trip home to YUL. Ms Hogdogz made the flight and finished the itinerary above to return home. After a stressful/successful trip to the embassy to acquire an emergency travel document, I was pretty screwed as my original flights departed out of a different country and with the ETD, you cannot layover anywhere along the way.
Thankfully Aeroplan came to the rescue. Due to the time difference, their offices actually opened 10 minutes after the original ZRH-YUL departed. After some quick thinking and an awesome supervisor, they split my wife and I's itinerary and rebooked me on new flights 2 days later. They allowed an exception to the booking rules of a mRTW and changed my trip home to CDG-YYZ (AC X) and YYZ-YYJ (Prem Rouge). Was upgraded at the gate for the first flight which was amazing but it was just nice to be getting home with only having to pay the $100 change fee. Last minute flights back to Canada that weekend were $2000+. No extra taxes or YQ were charged either. I tried finding contact details for Aeroplan to send along my thanks but no working email exists that I could find.

As an aside, I found the AC 777 biz > LX 777 biz. More spacious and the menu was better.
Best lounges? IST (RIP) then SFO Polaris

asovse1

YYZ BOS AC J
BOS LIS TP J
LIS ORY TP J STOP

CDG IST TK J
IST HKG TK J POT + 5 weeks here to attend a conference, visit SE Asia on BA Avios, and explore HKG

HKG ICN AI J
ICN NRT ET J STOP

HND YVR NH J (hope they don't sub out the 789 for a 788 ffs)
YVR YEG AC J
YEG YYZ AC J

2 people, conference spending paid for by work (in IAD)

AP 150k * 2 + YQ $450 * 2 + booking fee ($30 * 2)

OB MPM difference: short by 0.2k or so miles
IB MPM difference: had about 3.7k miles to spare

It's effectively a 1.5x circumnavigation! Also, hooray for Asian fifth freedom flights but I'm not seeing swell trip reports for the AI segment.

Stuga

First mini-rtw. Thank you to everyone who posts here it really helped me book an amazing trip.

All flights in J!

YYZ-YUL AC
YUL-ZRH LX
ZRH-CAI LX 21 hour layover to see pyramids
CAI-AUH MS 22 hour layover
AUH-IST TK 20 hour layover
IST-SIN TK 23 hour layover
SIN-DPS SQ Destination
DPS-TPE BR Stop
TPE-PVG CA really didn't want to have a layover here but there was no availability direct to Tokyo from TPE. Oh well.
PVG-NRT NH Stop
HND-YYZ AC

155,000 miles + $540 in fees. Fees seem high maybe someone here can educate me on something I did wrong. I know the flight leaving HND on AC should have YQ capped to a reasonable amount since Japan has good YQ restrictions so not sure what happened. Can't complain though this is going to be an amazing experience.

rankourabu

You are charged for the entire DPS-YYZ YQ, and its based on YYZ origin YQ, not Asian. Its a nice scam AC has going.
Make sure your PVG layover is at least 3 hours. You need to wait in the 24 hour transit line, get your bags, and re check-in with NH.

Stuga

Thanks I wasn't aware they calculated YQ like that.

EngineerBobby

Booked my first mini RTW for December:

YYZ-LIS TP (22HR LAYOVER)
LIS-BCN TP (22HR LAYOVER)
BCN-ZRH LX
ZRH-MXP LX (17HR LAYOVER)
MXP-ATH AG (17HR LAYOVER)
ATH-IST TK (17HR LAYOVER)
IST-KTM TK
KTM-BKK TG (STOPOVER)
BKK-SIN SQ
SIN-MEL SQ (DEST)
MEL-SIN SQ (6HR LAYOVER)
SIN-ICN SQ (STOPOVER)
ICN-YYZ AC

All in J. ~$620 per passenger.

Rykoshet

Thanks for giving me some ideas. I tried to make use of of the same flights starting Feb 3 and had a lot of (22 hour layover in LIS, 23:55 layover in BCN) but availability dried up suddenly. I had to re-route and now I've got this booked Feb. $370 tax /pp + $60 booking. Should be flying lots of 787s and 350s.

YYZ YUL AC 2 hr
YUL ZRH LX 11 hr
ZRH BCN LX 22 hr
BCN ATH A3 19 hr
ATH CAI MS 20 hr
CAI IST MS 6 hr
IST DPS TK 4 day stop
DPS SIN SQ 17 hr
SIN PER SQ 2 day stop
PER SIN SQ 19 hr
SIN ICN SQ 2 day stop
ICN BKK OZ 22 hr
BKK TPE TG 22 hr
TPE YYZ BR

seks

I didn't think you could backtrack: SIN-ICN-BKK-TPE

Rykoshet

That's what one agent said since both SIN and BKK are in Asia 2 but ICN is in Asia 1, but I asked in the mini RTW questions thread and they said there's no ruling against it.

Leads to an extra 8 hours of flight time

Murasakikumasan

Just booked the following over Christmas period. All flights from NZ to SYD were ghost tickets so ended up leaving it open jaw just so I can get the rest of the flights.
YVR-NRT J (AC)
NRT-AKL J (NZ)Stop
SYD-SIN Y (SQ) Because this is open Jaw, looks like they still picked SYD as Destination
SIN-TPE Y (BR)Stop
TPE-PEK J (CA)
PEK-YVR PY (AC)

Total tax is $725 ($497 of which is the carrier surcharge). 160K points. Given AirNZ J is hard to get on Aeroplan I thought I will pay the YQ so at least the trip to NZ is comfortable.

After the ticket is issued I found X class ticket for BNE-TPE on BR... should I pay the change fee so I don't need to fly via SIN now, and hope for an upgrade, or should I just wait until there's J ticket available for the BNE-TPE segment?! What are the chances of J opening between now and December for AU-TPE segment?!

canadiancow

I don't think I'd bother paying a change fee to get BNE-TPE in X unless you really want to switch from SYD to BNE.

If you're flexible on dates and routing, I'd be shocked if you can't get everything in J in the next 6 months.

Murasakikumasan

Thanks Canadiancow - ideally I would like to switch Australia-TPE leg and TPE-YVR Leg with BR J. Never been to Singapore so if I cannot get the Eva seats I get to visit a new country...
Have set up seat alerts on EF. Fingers crossed!