Just wondering if the 5th Freedom VIE-ZRH route operated by Korean Air could be useful in any way for our purposes. Any of you talented at constructing End On End which could extend the itinerary? I met somebody on VFT who managed to construct a huge extra itinerary around the LATAM operated 5th Freedom between FRA-MAD. Think it yielded him some amazing status level in Topbonus of Air Berlin, poor thing.

On the subject of 5th Freedoms, I think there are some interesting ones out of BKK if you happen to be out that way with low Business fares, for example BKK-HKG on KQ.

Maybe have to try it with Expedia or some other OTA. I’m having a similar issue with the Ethiopian 5th Freedom between Geneva and Milan ... or is it Rome? Can find any sign of that route anywhere.

Just to feedback about my trip back from Jeju and I will try to keep it brief. Jeju is an amazing place, full of extinct but recognizable volcanoes and slightly reminiscent of Tenerife with beaches of black volcanic sand. There are a lot of natural sights to see and hiking possibilities, but when I was there it was a bit too hot to do much. The main old volcano in the center of the island constitutes the highest point in all of South Korea. There is also the longest lava-tube cave in the world and the only waterfall in Asia that plunges direct into the sea.

MU502R CJU-PVG - South Korea also gets hit by typhoons along with the rest of Asia and a typhoon over the sea by Shanghai messed flights up totally. I had a 5 hour wait at CJU with no SkyTeam lounge and China Eastern provided soft drinks and a small snack. Luckily I was with loads of friends from the music festival, so the wait went quickly. Oddly, I was rebooked on a flight with the above number (don’t know what the R means, could be Replacement) even though that number is usually used for the HKG-PVG flight.

MU8271(KL) PVG-AMS - My plans of making a quick TWOV visit to downtown Shanghai went out the window due to the previous delay. This KLM operated 787 flight was excellent with a superb, older cabin crew, one of my best Economy class flights ever. I was in Economy Comfort, but economy is economy and gets the same service all over. I thought the food service was excellent, way above usual Economy class, and the IFE was the best quality I’ve seen away from Emirates.

MU8281(WA) AMS-DUS - It was strange doing this short KLM cityhopper flight up the Rhine to Düsseldorf, but it was perfectly pleasant and punctual. Catering has improved also on these short hops.

So how many XPs will a Saudia trip in Business class from Rome get? There have been quite a few good fares from Rome to Indonesia in the past, so I wanted to compare that to my recent experiences. Here’s what I got in Saudia Economy on a recent trip:

CDG-JED - 8 XPs
JED-DXB - 5 XPs
DXB-RUH - 5 XPs
RUH-CDG - 8 XPs

So it seems flights from Europe to Riyadh or Jeddah would not be so lucrative for XPs. These destinations are probably medium long haul.

I guess that’s what I meant, just wasn’t sure! But it does mean that those Saudia deals are a bit less lucrative than I thought, doesn’t it?

Interesting post, thanks very much. The miles and XPs for all of my Saudia flight sectors turned up, so that seems to be a glitch in the system. Saudia award tickets on own metal book into M, which earns 75% in FB. Shame I don’t have any more Alfursan miles left! :-)

I am just wondering if I can book an upcoming itinerary to Russia (MOW) with a transit in both CDG and AMS. That would yield 90XPs and if I could get it around the 500 euro mark then it could be a good deal for XP earnings. The ideal starting points will be Switzerland or Italy, so I’ll have a fiddle around and report back. I’ve managed this sort of thing on business tickets in the past, once when there was a good fare to China and I used it to get to Hong Kong.