sartrism

I'm planning a fairly simple route for honeymoon from BOS to SEZ through ICN, and someone suggested using ANA RTW like BOS [area 1]-ICN [area 3]-(IST)-SEZ [area 2]-(IST)-BOS [area 1]. But I'm not sure if this is allowed because ANA is stating a quite clear restriction on the areas of connections. According to the rule, area 2 cannot connect 1 and 3. Neither can area 3 connect 1 and 2. Am I misunderstanding any part of the rule?

Also it would be great if you could suggest any other alternative route or award plans. I have plenty of MR, SPG, and UR points.

synergypi

The Area 1,2,3 connection restrictions are only for normal RT awards. RTW only east-west or west-east as direction of travel, cross both Atlantic and pacific oceans, leave and end in same country/region, and backtracking within regions is ok. See the Partner Award terms and conditions on ANA web site.

john c wisconsin

For ANA around the world I looked at some dates in May for 2 business class seats as a test and found this availability:

5/1/19 BOS-YYZ-ICN on Business on Air Canada (no fuel sur charge)
5/8/19 ICN-DEL on asiana ($111 fuel ea) Then DEL-ADD-SEZ on Ethiopian air ($107 each long haul fuel)
5/20/19 SEZ-IST-BOS on Turkish ($133 each long haul fuel) DO not go outside the IST airport

BOS-YYZ-ICN-DEL-ADD-SEZ-IST-BOS 22,666 miles so 145,000 points each.

_____________________________ALTERNATIVE__________ ____________________________

Two separate award tickets.

ANA award using AMEX and SPG points BOS_YYZ-ICN on Air Canada Metal - 95,000 points round trip business class each
then...
JAL airlines awards using SPG points ICN-DXB-SEZ on Emeritus metal - 85,000 points round trip business class (Did not check availability on these)

180,000 points each and you fly 4,000 more miles but you do not have to mess with Ethiopia or Turkey.

John

sartrism

Thank you. Somehow I didn't read the sentence inside the parenthesis below in the rule..
There are restrictions regarding the selection of connecting points. (Not applicable to Star Alliance Round the World itineraries.)


​​​​​​​I really appreciate it! I probably go for the first option because I can only make 265K ANA for now. (And this will be my first business-class flights so I will be fine with Ethiopia or Turkey) It will be next July but I hope the similar route works.

sartrism

After studying your example, I made my own adding a visit to Koh Samui. One strange thing is that Star Alliance tool says there is IST-BOS direct flight on Sundays but it is only on Tuesdays in reality. I hope the same is true in July not to mess my plan.
4/25 BOS-YYZ-ICN (Air Canada) or BOS-LAX-ICN (UA & Asiana) - quite difficult tickets to get in summer
5/5 ICN-BKK (Thai) + buy a separate round ticket BKK-USM
5/9 BKK-ADD-SEZ (Ethiopean)
5/14 SEZ-IST-BOS (Turkey) - seems like difficult to get
bos-yyz-icn-bkk-add-sez-ist-bos 23,422 mi so still requires 145K ANA miles. Any comment or suggestion to improve the route? But I cannot make more ANA miles than this.

By the way how did you read surcharges for each trip? The following is what Star Alliance tool says, so is this the actual surcharges I need to pay? Sorry if it's too easy question that I should've studied.
Total Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees: 1,764.52 USD

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update 8/2

I realized that I cannot redeem ANA miles anymore for Ethiopean Air (ADD-SEZ)... Maybe I have to buy a separate ticket.