ANA RTW Award Booking Reports/Discussion
I just booked my latest RTW ticket as an award ticket with ANA. This forum was obviously invaluable to me during the planning process, so I thought I'd share a few things I learned that were not super obvious, at least to me, in the hope that it's useful info for others.
We actually booked 2 tickets, business class, with a routing of: SEA-NRT (NH) KIX-SIN-DPS (SQ/SQ) SIN-IST-ATH (TK/TK) ATH-LHR-EWR (A3/UA) Total cost of 115000 AMC miles (aka AMEX MR points) per ticket, and we paid USD$490 per ticket in taxes and fees. Total distance of 19532 actual miles according to AwardNexus. My "tips":
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Thank you very much! Very useful!
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Yes, thank you very much for your experiences.
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Hannibal, Thanks to you for sharing your insight and to others that have posted about booking RTW.
In about a month (as some availability hopefully opens up) I will be trying to book ANA RTW for three of us(family) in business class. Trip is in March of 2019 and will include SIN as we have a cruise departing from there. We will also be doing a multi day visit to MUC and one in Japan(Tokyo). ORD is basically our home base but we might have a different start or end to hit the under 20,000 miles level on the RTW award chart. My biggest concern is finding flights that have three business class seats available. We might have to make some "tough" choices of either our teenager traveling in economy or one of us flying a separate date/flights for some legs. The good news is that except for cruise departure and return dates we are flexible on when we can fly and even what direction to make the trip. |
Should we make it into a sticky and allure more reports?
I arranged my parents' luxurious RTW thanks to ANA and AMEX MR. Paid 105,000+$450 per person for this itinerary all in business class: ICN-SFO OZ EWR-FCO UA FCO-ATH A3 ATH-CAI MS CAI-IST TK IST-DEL TK DEL-ICN OZ Total 6 stops (8 is max), 3 in Europe (which is max possible in Europe), and one open-jaw. My take-home messages are: - I relied on star alliance round-the-world itinerary quote that prices out tax and total distance. It was very close to my final charge. Travel distance from the website was very exact to what ANA quoted. - ANA agent couldn't see AI award seats although UA or AC website showed availability. - A3 (Aegean) isn't searchable at ANA website, but the phone agent could find it. - Regarding travel distance, open-jaw sector isn't added which is fair. But a same flight number with a stop (TG 628 BKK-HKG-ICN) sums BKK-HKG and HKG-ICN, not a direct distance from BKK to ICN. - Once purchase, only date change is allowed. No airline change, no routing change. If airline and/or routing should be changed, be aware that ANA has to cancel whole itinerary and rebook which means reserved award seats might not be available anymore. - ANA phone agents are very smart and fast and consistent (HUCA didn't work for me). Regarding travel itself: - Short haul business class worths every penny. - OZ&TK overrated. UA&A3 underrated. IST lounge was awesome, though. |
Originally Posted by john c wisconsin
(Post 29378673)
My biggest concern is finding flights that have three business class seats available. We might have to make some "tough" choices of either our teenager traveling in economy or one of us flying a separate date/flights for some legs. The good news is that except for cruise departure and return dates we are flexible on when we can fly and even what direction to make the trip.
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Originally Posted by bobbybrown
(Post 29378857)
- Once purchase, only date change is allowed. No airline change, no routing change. If airline and/or routing should be changed, be aware that ANA has to cancel whole itinerary and rebook which means reserved award seats might not be available anymore.
- OZ&TK overrated. UA&A3 underrated. IST lounge was awesome, though. |
Originally Posted by bobbybrown
(Post 29378857)
Should we make it into a sticky and allure more reports?
Regards, armagebedar ANA forum moderator |
This is a great thread. In the future I will book a trip for my parents and I will use all this knowledge.
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there is a post from reddit.com/r/awardtravel reporting their ANA RTW booking experience which i have bookmarked for a fair while now, would it be appropriate to post it here?
from Dec 2016 by EXIA12126: https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel...ns_to_ana_rtw/ from Feb 2018 by the_fit_hit_the_shan: https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel...booking_report |
We booked our own RTW last Summer.
SEA-FRA-ZRH (on LH) - stop ZRH-CPH-SVG (mix of LX and SK) - stop SVG-CPH-PVG-NRT (mix of SK, and NH) - stop NRT-YVR (on AC) - stop I used combination on KVS tool and UA web search to find space and book. The taxes and fees are higher due to LH and SK, came out at about $900 per pax. We spent 105K MR points per ticket. I attempted to price out the itinerary on ITA, and it came out I think around $18K each? We had option to book via ORD, or YYZ, with lower overall YQ (LOT or TK), but then we would spend $ buying positioning tickets and hotel stay the night before departure so decided to bite the bullet with LH, and it's convenient since we're SEA-based. The YVR to SEA ticket is on cheap AS 1-way. Among the 3 different business long haul that we flew (AC, LH, and SK), the most comfortable IMO is ....... drum roll ..... LH. Yes, it's weird, the most basic J seat, no privacy and what not. But we both slept the longest, and service is quite nice. SK has very nice looking cabin, but foot well is very constricting for sleeping, and the FA is so clumsy. One of them dropped a b'fast sausage on my lap while serving ..... AC cabin is very nice too, but I kept hitting the tray table with my knees while trying to sleep. We are planning another one next year, with stops in Norway, Denmark, and Japan. |
do UA domestic flights with only "First" count as J flights for purposes of an ANA RTW J ticket? I'm thinking of HNL-SFO or HNL-ORD in particular. Thanks for help.
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also, are US & Canada considered the same "country" for RTW ticketing? E.g. can I start in SEA and end in YVR (or vice versa)? ANA makes it clear that for regular partner awards, they are the same country, but I don't see anything re: RTW routing.
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UA domestic first is regarded as J. RTW should come back to the same country, and Canada and the US should be regarded differently for that matter. Prepare a few backup plans before making a call. They are really helpful.
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Originally Posted by bobbybrown
(Post 29658651)
UA domestic first is regarded as J. RTW should come back to the same country, and Canada and the US should be regarded differently for that matter. Prepare a few backup plans before making a call. They are really helpful.
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