Feb 8, 2018, 12:08 am
ANA RTW Award Booking Reports/Discussion
May 6, 2019, 3:52 pm
#137
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: SEA
Posts: 311
One of my segment is with Asiana (KIX to ICN). I heard and read that Asiana has been having some difficulties lately. If they ended up canceling a segment, where does ANA responsibility start/stop? Is ANA on the hook to get the segment replaced?
May 12, 2019, 1:28 pm
#138
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 218
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:
Cheers and happy traveling to all the savvy travelers out there.
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.
Cheers and happy traveling to all the savvy travelers out there.
Would you mind sharing the surcharge for each segment? I am surprised to see you only paid $500 in total. As you mentioned, LHR alone costs about $200. I searched a few round trips using ANA website and most segments cost $200 plus.
May 12, 2019, 11:55 pm
#139
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: SEA
Posts: 311
How is it possible to have a BA segment in an ANA rtw itinerary?
May 14, 2019, 12:20 am
#140
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 4
Booked two tickets for
LAX-YYZ(AC)
YYZ-LHR(AC)
MAN-IST(TK)
IST-TPE(TK)
CAN-ICN(OZ)
ICN-LAX(OZ)
115K miles and $885 per person. Here is my problem, couldn't find any business seat for YYZ-LHR since I booked the tickets last month until now. Flight takes off exactly a month from now. Expertflyer shows availability as J9 C9 D9 Z9 P0 R0 O5 and half of the business seats are taken. Is it possible that AC will release some seats for partners near the departure time or is there any other way to do so?
LAX-YYZ(AC)
YYZ-LHR(AC)
MAN-IST(TK)
IST-TPE(TK)
CAN-ICN(OZ)
ICN-LAX(OZ)
115K miles and $885 per person. Here is my problem, couldn't find any business seat for YYZ-LHR since I booked the tickets last month until now. Flight takes off exactly a month from now. Expertflyer shows availability as J9 C9 D9 Z9 P0 R0 O5 and half of the business seats are taken. Is it possible that AC will release some seats for partners near the departure time or is there any other way to do so?
Jun 20, 2019, 7:48 pm
#141
Join Date: Jun 2019
Posts: 1
Been lurking for awhile, recently joined. HUGE THANK YOU to the boatload of information available here!! Just booked my RTW Itinerary for May 2020 Honeymoon for 2 in J! 125k Miles and ~ $600pp. Couldn't be more excited for my first big redemption!
ORD-LIS-FCO - TP
ATH-MLE - TK
MLE-SIN - SQ
SIN-KIX - SQ
HND-ORD - NH
ORD-LIS-FCO - TP
ATH-MLE - TK
MLE-SIN - SQ
SIN-KIX - SQ
HND-ORD - NH
Jun 20, 2019, 10:12 pm
#142
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Central Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 189
Been lurking for awhile, recently joined. HUGE THANK YOU to the boatload of information available here!! Just booked my RTW Itinerary for May 2020 Honeymoon for 2 in J! 125k Miles and ~ $600pp. Couldn't be more excited for my first big redemption!
ORD-LIS-FCO - TP
ATH-MLE - TK
MLE-SIN - SQ
SIN-KIX - SQ
HND-ORD - NH
ORD-LIS-FCO - TP
ATH-MLE - TK
MLE-SIN - SQ
SIN-KIX - SQ
HND-ORD - NH
Nice trip. Congrats on your wedding and honeymoon plans. Nice job at some great legs and keeping the surcharges low. We took the same last two legs back in March of 2019. Just a few thoughts if we were doing that route again.
Singapore
- Even if you are not staying there, you should visit the Marina Bay Sands hotel complex and the Gardens by the bay.
- Bring your own paper napkins when you are out and about. None of the food stands or Hawker centers have them.
- Don't fall for the tourist pass on the MRT (subway). You spend a bunch of time and money finding an open station that can sell it and then to get your deposit back you have to do that again. The MRT is clean and easy to use but just load up a card. Taxi's were as cheap as I have seen in a modern big city as well.
- Get to the SIN airport early for departure, not because of long security but because there is actually a lot of great things to see and do in that airport.
Japan
- If you were on SIN to KIX on flight 622 you will have a little culture shock landing in Osaka later at night. That was the one spot on our entire RTW trip we struggled with the language barrier. No signs in English and we had to translate everything. Know where you are going to get to your transportation at the airport that night.
- I hope you take advantage of the fastest Japanese bullet train, Nozomi, that runs from downtown Osaka to Tokyo. Very cool experience and don't forget to buy your Bento Boxes at the station.
- If you have the chance in Tokyo, spend an afternoon and evening at the Ameyoko "market". This is block after block of small shops, food stands, small restaurants etc. Nothing high end or fancy here but a must see. This is in the Ueno district in Tokyo.
- We only had one day in Tokyo so we stayed at the Royal Park Hotel right in the international terminal of HND. It was a nice hotel and very convenient to walk from hotel lobby to airline check in.
- Flying out of HND on ANA was the ONLY airport that our business class tickets did not get us in a separate line for security so plan some extra time if you are on the morning 112 flight. We were in the security line for a good half hour.
- The food on that ANA flight was the best in all the five airlines we flew around the world (SK, LH, LX, SQ, and NH)
Think of these unsolicited thoughts as an early wedding gift
Jealous already,
John
Here are some food pics....
Bento Box on Tokaido Shinkansen
Great Corn Dogs at the Ameyoko market
Fresh made dessert stand with custard filling.
Chicken Thighs
Appetizer on ANA flight. I still have dreams about this plate.
More ANA food on flight from HND to ORD and that is a stack of crab meat under there.
Jun 21, 2019, 12:40 pm
#143
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat
Posts: 184
Been lurking for awhile, recently joined. HUGE THANK YOU to the boatload of information available here!! Just booked my RTW Itinerary for May 2020 Honeymoon for 2 in J! 125k Miles and ~ $600pp. Couldn't be more excited for my first big redemption!
ORD-LIS-FCO - TP
ATH-MLE - TK
MLE-SIN - SQ
SIN-KIX - SQ
HND-ORD - NH
ORD-LIS-FCO - TP
ATH-MLE - TK
MLE-SIN - SQ
SIN-KIX - SQ
HND-ORD - NH
Jun 21, 2019, 2:08 pm
#144
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Central Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 189
John
Jun 21, 2019, 6:51 pm
#145
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat
Posts: 184
I was looking for tpe -> sin or sin -> to somewhere near Italy. I didn't see anything in the areoplan or united booking tool
Jun 22, 2019, 12:07 pm
#146
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Central Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 189
When you are 335 days out I would also also check Swiss airlines SIN-ZRH because we did that flight the other direction a few months ago and it was great. We were all in the "throne" seats. SWISS fuel service was a lot compared to SQ but I would fly it again. Also at 335 days out check BKK-VIE on Austrian airlines which I have read this is great flight. Getting from SIN-BKK should be easy. I would also watch Lufthansa SIN-FRA and SIN-MUC as well.
The yellow "2" means two seats available in J. "0" means no availability that day or that flight does not fly that day. I used Expert flier searching 7 days at a time and then confirmed on ANA web site any availability that showed. Here is what I found:
Days out chart for reference:
Jun 22, 2019, 1:15 pm
#147
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat
Posts: 184
Found some of this for you. TPE to SIN there are several days early in June for two seats. You are right at the edge of how far out SQ releases space, 355 days. For SIN to Italy area, nothing really showing on SQ right now.
When you are 335 days out I would also also check Swiss airlines SIN-ZRH because we did that flight the other direction a few months ago and it was great. We were all in the "throne" seats. SWISS fuel service was a lot compared to SQ but I would fly it again. Also at 335 days out check BKK-VIE on Austrian airlines which I have read this is great flight. Getting from SIN-BKK should be easy. I would also watch Lufthansa SIN-FRA and SIN-MUC as well.
The yellow "2" means two seats available in J. "0" means no availability that day or that flight does not fly that day. I used Expert flier searching 7 days at a time and then confirmed on ANA web site any availability that showed. Here is what I found:
Days out chart for reference:
When you are 335 days out I would also also check Swiss airlines SIN-ZRH because we did that flight the other direction a few months ago and it was great. We were all in the "throne" seats. SWISS fuel service was a lot compared to SQ but I would fly it again. Also at 335 days out check BKK-VIE on Austrian airlines which I have read this is great flight. Getting from SIN-BKK should be easy. I would also watch Lufthansa SIN-FRA and SIN-MUC as well.
The yellow "2" means two seats available in J. "0" means no availability that day or that flight does not fly that day. I used Expert flier searching 7 days at a time and then confirmed on ANA web site any availability that showed. Here is what I found:
Days out chart for reference:
