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ANA RTW Award Booking Reports/Discussion

Old Nov 13, 2018, 3:33 am
  #91  
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,188
Originally Posted by arfaczar
Four business class seats on ANA RTW award tickets are difficult, but not impossible. I booked my family of 4 in J class for 125k + $533 each -
SEA-TPE (BR)
SIN-MEL (SQ)
JNB-GRU (SA)
GRU-EZE (ET) - 2 biz + 2 economy (short flight)
EZE-BOG-LAX (AV)

Good luck on your search!
so, how are you going to travel from TPE to SIN, MEL to JNB? Do you swim in the ocean?
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Old Nov 13, 2018, 8:38 am
  #92  
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Japan
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Posts: 1,580
Originally Posted by tys90
Sorry if this was answered elsewhere, I tried a search and ANA's website. Can you change flights after the trip has started? It would be moving just the dates of flights, not the routing, class, etc.
Yes, you can.

https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/amc/refe...ation.html#a03
Changes after Ticket Issuance
The departure date and flight can be changed until the ticket's expiration date.

Change Acceptance Deadline: Until before the departure of your reserved flight and 96 hours prior to the departure of the flight you wish to board. The following changes cannot be made if you do not change or cancel your reservation by the departure of your reserved flight.

*Changes can be made through the ANA website until 96 hours prior to the departure of the first flight of the itinerary if the ticket has not been used.


Same rule for partner award is applied.
However, you have to call.
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Old Dec 26, 2018, 7:06 am
  #93  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Fishers, IN (Indianapolis)
Programs: Hilton Honors Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 97
I just booked a round trip award ticket on ANA. I just wanted to share how I did it and why. Any suggestions for improvement next time would be appreciated. We have been visiting Japan every year for about 8 years, usually around Thanksgiving.

We live in Indianapolis, and the closest airport served by ANA/JAL is Chicago ORD. If we want to fly out of IND and take ANA/JAL transpacific flight, we have to take either United or American flights one of the airports served by ANA/JAL.

Our preference is to take either ANA or JAL on the trans-pacific portion. We were also willing to try Air Canada via Toronto if we could find business/first awards, since it has a very nice itinerary from IND.

I had enough AMEX MR or Chase UR to do this, but I realized that:
1. ANA releases awards much sooner for those planning to use ANA Mileage Club Points.
2. It takes much fewer ANA Mileage Club Points v. United MileagePlus points to fly on ANA.
3. But ANA charges (fuel?) surcharges that is much higher than United.
4. It takes even fewer Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points to fly on ANA, but ANA awards are released to Virgin Atlantic later (possibly even later than that to United). And the "savings" by using the Virgin Atlantic route vs. ANA is not as drastic as ANA vs. United.
5. We also could have tried Air Canada (IND-,YYZ-HND and then the reverse), but none of their business/first awards were available at that time. Just the economy seats were listed on both ANA and United websites. I did not check the Air Canada website (maybe I should have?).


We had about 240,000 MR and about 218,000 UR when we started thinking about this.

So, ideally, I could have waited until next month to get the tickets through Virgin Atlantic (who actually holds award seats while transferring points, in contrast to ANA or United??), but I was seeing that award seats at this popular time for travel was booking fast, so I pulled the trigger early by transferring my MR to ANA.

Since it was still less than 330 days before the date of return travel, ANA did not list the United IND-ORD flights in the award search, so we decided to drive to ORD to catch the flights. We were flexible enough, especially on the return to ORD, in terms of which airport in Japan to start our return journey.

Transfer of MR to ANA took about 36 hours. When we -re-checked the ANA website, the desired ORD-HND flight was still available in Business. The return ITM-NRT-ORD flight in the afternoon was all gone in both business and first, so we settled with NRT-ORD in first class. This will take an extra train trip from Kyoto to Narita, but since the flight leaves around 5 PM, we can manage that approx. 4 hour trip to get to Narita either that day or the day before.

So we spent 235,000 ANA points plus approx $700 for two passengers, ORD-HND on ANA business and NRT-ORD on ANA first. If we waited and went the Virgin Atlantic route, we could have saved about 20,000 UR points, but we wanted to secure these seats before they disappeared. The major downside of this itinerary is that we are flying out of ORD. We could purchase a separate round trip ticket IND-ORD/MDW to avoid the driving, though.

We have always been arriving in Japan at Narita, but we are looking forward to flying into Haneda this time.
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Old Dec 27, 2018, 5:34 am
  #94  
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 6
ANA RTW Award Booking Report 2018-2019

Hey All,
I have just successfully booked my first RTW (round the world ticket). It took me approx. 4 days, ~20 hours to put together. I had a lot of help from reading this forum as well as some critical advice from @john c wisconsin, so big thanks to him, and I figured it is best to give back to the community by sharing my thoughts and experiences.

I calculated the total retail price of the tickets to be a whopping $17358 using google flight. That is a close to 17 cents per points of redemption value of my AMEX/ANA points.
All flights are direct flights except for the last segment. All flights are booked in business class.

Itinerary:

San Fransisco-Auckland
(open jaw)
Singapore-Bankok-Dubai-Cairo-Athens-Rome
(open jaw)
Oslo-London(layover)-New York City

Total mileage 17511 miles
Surcharges $522


Tips:
  • Miles are calculated individually by each flight using Star Alliance RTW tool and are added together later, upon calling ANA to book, the rep told me it was 17511 and I came up with the exact mile before calling (time to ditch all the other tools)
  • Since the total mile is calculated by distance flown, it is recommended to book direct flights when possible to maximize value, especially with international long hauls. (If you fly from Chicago to Sydney and have a layover at Tokyo, the total miles would be the distance between ORD-TKO + TKO-SYD)
  • Transferring 105000 AMEX points to ANA took 60 hours.
  • Avoid the insanely high-cost European airport departure fees at all cost. (London-$189, Manchester-$142.8, Frankfurt-$116.8, Munich-$98.5)
  • Avoid the high-cost airlines fuel surcharges. @john c wisconsinmade a chart about it which helped tremendously.
  • The ANA search function for RTW is notoriously unfriendly for the purpose of finding seat availabilities, I only used it to confirm the search results I got from united. com and google flight.
  • The ANA reps are professional most of the time, I called in 10 times, there was only one guy who didn't know what he was talking about, others are helpful. If you are planning a complicated RTW ticket and do not want to spend 5 hours on the phone with a rep, I would highly recommend to plan it yourself and confirm seat availabilities before calling in to book.
  • The ANA reps do not seem to be able to see some flights with layovers. You will have to find it yourself and tell them the flight numbers.
  • Flights can be changed free of charge after booking within the same route and airline.
  • The ANA NA(North America) call center will redirect you to their Japanese call center if you call from the states after 9 PM.
Big thanks to John again for his kind help. if you have any questions, feel free to comment below or send me a direct message on Instagram @orkkah

Cheers and happy traveling to all the savvy travelers out there.

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Last edited by yanglida; Dec 27, 2018 at 6:23 am
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Old Dec 27, 2018, 5:36 am
  #95  
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 6

Last edited by yanglida; Dec 27, 2018 at 6:07 am
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Old Dec 27, 2018, 8:18 am
  #96  
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Central Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 189
Yanglida,

I loved that you snagged the SFO to AKL. That is one of the longer flights and I think elusive awards out there. I will be interested to hear how the service and food was on a couple of those airlines but what great stops and great leverage to keep both the miles down and the fuel charges low and then spend some other cash/awards on other areas. Great Itinerary for a trip that starts in about a week. Have fun.

John
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Old Dec 31, 2018, 9:44 am
  #97  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: SEA
Posts: 307
How did you get ANA to book OSL to LHR on BA? Are they code-sharing that flight?


Originally Posted by yanglida

Last edited by armagebedar; Dec 31, 2018 at 10:09 pm Reason: removed excessive quote
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Old Jan 4, 2019, 9:23 pm
  #98  
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 8
First of all I’d like to just thank everyone who contributes to this. This info is absolutely priceless when trying to book a RTW trip. Especially all the info from John C Wisconsin, which goes above and beyond.
My wife and I are planning to start our trip in September 2019 and want to take 9 months or possibly the full year to enjoy our trip. I think this might be difficult to book as we won’t be able to book the final portions of the trip until closer to our departure time. If we wait until closer to September 2019 to book our trip I’m sure our beginning portions will be unavailable.
Has anyone had experience planning for a year long trip?
Also, I know it’s not advised, but we are starting in Europe and traveling east to Egypt first. So any advice on a departure city that has the least fees would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks very much for taking the time to answer. Cheers, Stephen.
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 2:28 am
  #99  
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Central Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 189
Stephen, Wow thanks for the call out and I hope you can plan a great around the world trip. You are in that tough spot of being tied to when award space is being released. Some shows up right around 11-12 months out and some won't show up until very close in. There is one feature that is sort of to your advantage. Once an airline/route segment is booked you can always change it to a later date if/when its available. So if you can find routes that typically show some availability AND have more then one flight to choose from AND you realize you might have to accept economy you could hedge your bet on booking.

For example Lets say your booking now and your trip starts June 1st but you want your final flight home to be May of 2020. You are not going to find anything for May 2020 this far out. If your last leg was getting from Japan back to USA you could book a route like NRT-LAX on ANA that has a couple of flights a day. You would book it for January of 2020. Then from the end of May 2019 until January of 2020 you just need to find an available day you can change the flight date to. Using a route that has more then one flight might help your chances and of course being willing to fly economy opens up so much.

A few other possible strategies if USA was start and finish(adjust for Europe):
- Don't focus the around the world trip on any short flights on sections you plan to use more then 365 days out. Use the open Jaws and main hubs to your advantage. This would save on total distance and you could use miles you saved and cash on short hops. So for example JFK-FRA-CAI-SIN-NRT-LAX(19,580 miles). If you want to hit southeast Asia use Singapore as your base and don't tie your far out RTW dates up with flights like SIN-BKK or SIN-SYD book those separate.
- If you are going to start out booking business class realize that when changing those far out dates later you may have to take a seat in economy. The good news I have heard is that because it is still a business class ticket when the flight day comes you are suppose to get priority to the open business class seats before any other travelers get their status upgrades. I have only read this can not say its 100% true.
- Easier said then done but know the routes that generally will have availability later. For example, through planning my trip and helping a couple of others I have come to realize you can almost always find availability from SIN-KIX but not always from SIN-NRT. Singapore Airlines flies a daily 787 and an A380 SIN-KIX. If I was in your shoes trying to book a route that later was going to change dates by months I would of course try to book SIN-KIX knowing you can get a 1 hour flight from KIX to NRT for $79. For the USA example maybe do an open jaw from west coast to east coast.
- One last strategy might be to book now what you want and keep checking. You will have the ticket locked in but perhaps a month out from departure you can find a whole new route in the 11 month window that will also work and you can cancel original booking and rebook. As its been posted you need to find "new" availability as your canceling will not put those seats back into inventory as award space.
- Use the Expert flier trip alerts to catch when availability first opens up for possible date changes. You get 200 alerts for free now with the $10 a month service. It may take awhile to set up but when the times comes and you are busy "vacationing" you will know the day some availability shows up.
- Finally, and this is a odd one to even type. Go into the last long leg(s) knowing that if you can't find replacement dates you can walk away. It would sort of be a waste of points but if you got $20,000 a ticket of retail value in the first several months maybe its easier to just not show up and use that last leg because you are having fun and are not ready to come home yet.

For departure cities in Europe just stay away from major ones like Paris, London and Frankfort. It will save you a cash on departure. See the chart here...
https://www.pointswithacrew.com/comp...rt-taxes-fees/ and see the "COST FROM" column

Good luck and let us all know what you end up booking so we can be jealous of your year of traveling.

John

Last edited by john c wisconsin; Jan 5, 2019 at 3:20 am Reason: typo
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 3:17 am
  #100  
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 8
Fantastic ideas!. Thanks mate. Gives me a lot to chew on. Definitely will let everyone know how I get on. Keep up the great advice
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 4:07 am
  #101  
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the air
Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,917
Has anyone booked lap infants onto these RTW tickets? Any idea what they price them as? (assuming a ticket in J)? % of fare, % of miles, etc...
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 4:48 am
  #102  
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Central Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 189
Originally Posted by Pseudo Nim
Has anyone booked lap infants onto these RTW tickets? Any idea what they price them as? (assuming a ticket in J)? % of fare, % of miles, etc...
Looks like 10% of points if on your lap and under 2 by departure of first flight but full fair if they want their own seat. Not sure if this helps but I found the following here: https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/amc/reference/tukau/award/int/zone.html Usage Policy for Infants and Children

Infants (less than 2 years of age)
  • Infant passengers occupying their own seat will be able to use flight awards of the same boarding class as the accompanying adult. The required mileage will be the same as that of the adult passenger.
  • Infant passengers who do not require their own seat will be able to use flight awards by paying 10% of the required flight award mileage for the same boarding class as the accompanying adult. In this instance, the infant must be registered as an award user.
    Alternatively, an infant fare ticket can be purchased separately for the same boarding class as the accompanying adult.
NotesWhen redeeming miles for flight awards, the application and ticketing deadlines will be different to those for the infant fare ticket. Please confirm the ANA international flight award application and ticketing deadlines.

Ticket purchases for infant passengers not occupying their own seat must be made by phone. In this instance, please reserve the adult's flight award first, and then make a reservation for the infant using the contact details below.
Contact ANA
  • *Age on the day of departure for the first sector.
  • *Flight awards are available for infants occupying their own seat upon paying the same mileage as an adult.
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 5:35 am
  #103  
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Join Date: Jan 2006
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Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,917
Originally Posted by john c wisconsin
Looks like 10% of points if on your lap and under 2 by departure of first flight but full fair if they want their own seat. Not sure if this helps but I found the following here: https://www.ana.co.jp/en/jp/amc/reference/tukau/award/int/zone.html Usage Policy for Infants and Children

Infants (less than 2 years of age)
  • Infant passengers occupying their own seat will be able to use flight awards of the same boarding class as the accompanying adult. The required mileage will be the same as that of the adult passenger.
  • Infant passengers who do not require their own seat will be able to use flight awards by paying 10% of the required flight award mileage for the same boarding class as the accompanying adult. In this instance, the infant must be registered as an award user.
    Alternatively, an infant fare ticket can be purchased separately for the same boarding class as the accompanying adult.
NotesWhen redeeming miles for flight awards, the application and ticketing deadlines will be different to those for the infant fare ticket. Please confirm the ANA international flight award application and ticketing deadlines.

Ticket purchases for infant passengers not occupying their own seat must be made by phone. In this instance, please reserve the adult's flight award first, and then make a reservation for the infant using the contact details below.
Contact ANA
  • *Age on the day of departure for the first sector.
  • *Flight awards are available for infants occupying their own seat upon paying the same mileage as an adult.
Wow, thanks! Thats really good info and good to know. Sorry I didnt catch this on their website!
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 3:34 pm
  #104  
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 8
Is it possible to skip out North and South America altogether?
For example Fra-Cai-Sin-Hnd-Fra. Technically not backtracking zones but skipping a zone.
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 5:24 pm
  #105  
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Central Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 189
Originally Posted by Stephen Patterson
Is it possible to skip out North and South America altogether?
For example Fra-Cai-Sin-Hnd-Fra. Technically not backtracking zones but skipping a zone.
What you don't want to come and visit us in the states? Yes I believe it would be a valid itinerary as people have booked things like JFK-HND;NRT-LAX. As you head out of FRA to CAI you started a direction. There is no rule you have to fly over a certain ocean so I don't think this would be considered backtracking as you went from HND-FRA its more of a direct route over "arctic". If you tried FRA-HND-FRA then I think it would be a backtracking issue. This question might be worth a call to get a definitive answer from ANA.

Last edited by john c wisconsin; Jan 5, 2019 at 8:09 pm Reason: typo
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