It's nice, jacob_m!

Have a fun!

Well I've just followed the rules (and read those carefully).
Even though it may look like a one week tour of New Zealand and the South Pacific (three cities and two islands), it is technically just a return ticket SYD-PPT with a number of transfers.

A stopover is defined as a stop lasting more than 24 hours, so as long as your next flight departs latest 23h 55min after your arrival the stop is only considered a transfer (stopovers are not permitted on *A awards).
That's the key to my entire itinerary, none of the stops actually last more than 24 hours, in my case it got even more complicated as I'm passing the date line twice (I will be spending the Tuesday twice, but the Friday disappears).
Of course it is not meant to be like this (as the SAS agent put it), but it does follow the rules...

Other than knowing the rules you need a good bit of imagination, access to various timetables, and lots of luck (award seats are limited).

Really looking forward to it, too bad there are a few more months to go.

The NZ inflight service looks absolutely amazing, even on the Sydney-New Zealand flights (3h-3h30) they serve a full three courses meal in C with a choice of three main courses and with all dishes served separately.
After the meal, cheese, crackers and port wine are served to round up the meal (I checked the meal photos on airlinemeals.com).
They hand out handheld DVD players to all passengers in C as well and naturally there are proper business class seats.
And that's just on a mediumhaul flight of three hours!!! ^
The SAS European C-class is simply embarassing in comparison.

Apparently PPT-AKL (6-7 hours) is considered longhaul, so I guess even more to expect from that flight.

To basically understand how you did this. You find the imaginative itinerary first and make sure there is award availablity. Then you called to SK EB and said I want to book these flights with this award. And he or she more or less just took your order. How much assistance do they provide in finding options?

I am looking at another star award that appears to have interesting posibilities, Caribbean to South America 45000 C. Varig has twice weekly flights from AUA (aruba) - GRU and you get some interesting options then down there with LH, UA and LX segments.

Any ideas how I could start planning that?

Looks great, although you may end up regretting that you are spending so little time on the islands.

Whereas your itinerary is within the rules they don't "owe you" 23-hour-ish transfers. If there are schedule changes that cut down your transfer times you don't have a case for complaining, that's the drawback of the strategy. But, let's hope it works out. Have fun!

But it works the other way around too: last year I managed to spend 24 hours and 10 minutes in exciting Nagoya (who needs Tahiti?) as the plane arrived a little early :D

Well I guess that's about right...
I knew where I wanted to go, and as a true FTer of course I wanted to get the most out of the award.
Since I've never been to the region before I had a look at the NZ route map and the NZ timetable to see if it was possible to make a few stops on the way, and step by step the itinerary was created.

Basically, as you said, the SAS woman just "took my order", checked the routing was valid, award seats available, and then booked it.
Of course they can check availability, provide assistance and give you advice, but you're much better off doing a bit of work yourself before calling if you want a more complex itinerary.
They will always suggest the fastest/easiest routing with as few stops as possible unless being told otherwise.

Sounds interesting...
Download the *A timetable and join ANA mileage club so you get access to their award availability tool (I can confirm it's exactly the same award inventory for ANA and SAS).
Then it's all up to you what you want to get out of it, if you just want to go straight to the destination as quickly and easily as possible, or if you want to make one or two "23-hour-ish transfers" on the way (GIG, GRU?).
It's always a bit rushed to try to see a city/island in 22-23 hours, but on the other hand it doesn't cost you anything extra.

Yeah I know... ;)
But time is a bit of a problem, and apparently French Polynesia is incredibly expensive as well which makes it discouraging to stay longer.

My trip was

SQ11 F NRT-SIN
SQ74 F SIN-MNL
TG621 C MNL-BKK (stopover)
SQ63 F BKK-SIN
SQ638 F SIN-NRT

60000 points + 177 eur. Not bad for 9000 flown miles, most of it in SQ F, plus two long visits in the SIN SKL F lounge with endless supply of Dom.. :)

Would have made this even more complex but needed two seats so options were limited. Had to downgrade one C to Y and one F to C for the second pax, but managed to get exit row seats for those.

I know how to spend my EB points in the future.

Maximizing your EB points usage!
 

You can enjoy Business class of all 8 *A airlines which traffics within Asia for 45,000 EB points.

NRT-HKG NH C 18:45 - 22:25 763
HKG-SGN UA C 20:40 - 22:05 744
SGN-BKK TK C 20:25 - 21:50 343
BKK-KUL LH C 15:15 - 18:15 744

SIN-BKK SQ C 09:40 - 11:05 772
BKK-PEK TG C 10:10 - 15:50 747
PEK-ICN CA C 13:45 - 16:50 738
GMP-HND OZ C 15:30 - 17:35 333


Pros:
You have so much fun :cool:
You can experience 8 *A Airlines Business class
You can visit 6 countries/8 cities in one trip

Cons:
Different currency every day :eek:
You have to pack/re-pack your luggage every day
You need to apply visa of P.R. China and Vietnam
You need few pages of your passport for the stamps/visas

How would you book this?

How much tax do you have to pay?

By calling SAS EB Call Centre.

Approx. 2700 SEK. If you want to leave BKK airport, please add 700 THB(ca 140 SEK).

So the trick here is to book TYO–KUL/SIN with transfers (as opposed to stopovers) in the other cities, which is 45,000 EB points in C according to the Star Alliance award chart:

http://www.flysas.com/upload/Eurobon...chart_0909.gif

Could you book it in F for 60,000 points even though not all of the airlines have an F cabin? And how would you check availability? Just get on the phone with EB Call Centre and have them do the job?

SIN to Osaka and Fukuoka to SIN ?
 

Is it possible to book award flights from SIN to Osaka and back to
SIN from Fukuoka or Tokyo for 30000 EuroBonus points ?

You can do like this:

NRT-BKK TG F 16:55 - 21:25 773
BKK-DPS TG F 08:40 - 14:00 747

//open jaw//

CGK-SIN LH F 20:05 - 22:40 744
SIN-PVG SQ F 10:05 - 15:15 773
PVG-ICN OZ F 12:00 - 14:50 747
ICN-NRT UA F 12:15 - 14:25 777

Combination of poor F award seat availability and no-stopover rule, it will be very tough to redeem such award travel.

It's best that you check *A seat availability by using ANA website before you call to EB Call Centre.
Yes. Open Jaw is permitted.

If you want to put CA also in the list, you may try this routing.
I don't know if SAS EB accept the routing though. Back tracking on outbound travel.

NRT-PEK NH C 17:25 - 20:30 320
PEK-SIN CA F 23:30 - 05:50+1 767
SIN-BKK SQ C 07:30 - 08:55 772
BKK-DPS TG F 08:40 - 14:00 747

//open jaw//

CGK-SIN LH F 20:05 - 22:40 744
SIN-PVG SQ F 10:05 - 15:15 773
PVG-ICN OZ F 12:00 - 14:50 747
ICN-NRT UA F 12:15 - 14:25 777

However, TGs new 777(on NRT-BKK vv) from Jet Airways is muuuuuuch nicer than CAs old 767.