matticusbond

Hey FT!
I have some 600k avios banked, and my partner and I are planning to do a RTW trip next spring in J, originating on the US west coast, hitting east coast, europe, middle east and asia before returning to LAX. From everything I've read so far, it seems most efficient (by a long shot) to use the multi-carrier reward flight chart vs booking individual segments -- just wondering if anyone has any recommendations on how to successfully book this type of redemption. I understand you have to call in, but so far the two agents I've spoken with haven't known what I'm even talking about.

Thanks in advance!

(expected routing: LAX-JFK-LHR-DOH-BKK-HKG-HND-LAX)

Knodde

I have Only done this a few times. Of course it helps if the agent know what you are talking about. I would suggest that you are prepared, have found date, time and flight number for all the flights you want to book, then I found it quite easy.

Why not go the other way around the world, should be easier with regards to jet lag I have found. There is a reason the song is named "Go west"!

matticusbond

Yeah -- I'll keep trying. I have all the info ready to go. Thanks!
Getting married in England and then Honeymoon is Asia Could always reverse it and do the honeymoon first...now that's a thought

jerry a. laska

Several people have posted this year that they have issues with booking and pricing multi-partner avios awards. See:
Multi Partner Award Bookings
Multi Partner Avios Redemption

See also:
BA multi carrier award
BA multi-carrier award chart

etiene

Well those threads are alarming, and disappointing if no RTW does turn out to be long-term policy.

As to the OP's itinerary, I have three comments:

1. AA J availability seems to be utterly unpredictable, making it useless for trying to arrange something with (nearly-)fixed dates. You might have to initially book in Y and keep an eye out - though it's possible that the LAX-JFK route turns out to be more reliable for J space due to the frequency and capacity on the route. AA also has about the shortest booking window at 330 days.
2. I almost completely rejigged my RTW multi-partner, and it turned out that not using BA metal took the charges from ~£900 to ~£220. This puts you back at the mercy of AA J space for your JFK-LHR though.
3. CX availability is often married-segment limited. In my case I was able to have a decent pick of Japan-HKG-AMS routes, but HKG-AMS wouldn't show up on its own and nor would some of the Japan-HKG legs. You might be alright with BKK-HKG and then HKG-HND on JAL though.

sammyg901

It looks like a return LAX-Asia , into BKK and out of HKG don't mention RTW!

matticusbond

Thanks for this info! Very much appreciated.
I was curious as to the extent of saving by avoiding BA metal - very good to know. Might rethink my east coast stop and explore AA availability across the pond from other cities.
Not sure I understand what married-segment limited means -- could you explain?

etiene

It means that the availability on the combination flight 1-flight 2 is not necessarily the same as that for flight 1 alone and flight 2 alone. To use my own example, using the Avios Award Search for HKG-AMS would show no availability on the CX flight but for KIX-HKG-AMS there was space.

Doesn't always occur that way round: in fact I suspect it's more commonly the opposite for revenue availability. You can imagine that Revenue Management might want to avoid filling up a business heavy direct route with cheaper indirect traffic ahead of time, so they might have I available for the e.g. HKG-AMS but only R for the KIX-HKG-AMS combo. I don't know why CX are keener to offer rewards through HKG than to/from, but that was the case in 2019.

This conflates with another potential problem for trying to reliably use multi-partner awards [albeit one I don't think you're likely to run into with your routing]: the search tool is biased towards BA routings, and can be a bit hit and miss when it comes to showing a connecting itinerary on other carriers. The usual advice is just to check the individual legs one-by-one, but that doesn't work if e.g. CX is using married segment availability.

l0pez

booked a few multi carrier awards in the past and used the call center in india and in the us as they helped me a lot doing "cheap" mca-bookings on premium class flights. unfortunatly both of them seems to be closed, the guys in bremen cannot book mca and the uk team is never helpful saving 100-200k . where do you call recently to book a mca in mixed classes? my fav is cmn-fra-hkg-bkk-hkg-lhr-cpt which i would like to book another time (for 120k)