Hello!

As with many others, I have a question about *RTW tickets.

Is backtracking permitted?

In other words, is this a valid routing:

BKK-BGI-LAS-SEA-YYC-YVR-NRT-HNL-NRT-BKK

Here is how I thought of this:
- The BKK-BGI portion crosses the Atlantic via France, and the YVR-NRT covers Pacific.
- I think you are allowed a max of 5 stops in USA/Canada combined, so that's OK
- You are allowed three stops in Japan; I have two

The only problem I see is it says "maximum one stopover in each city". So does that
nail this ticket? Any possible work-arounds?

Also I was wondering about this routing:

BKK-BGI-LAS-SEA-YYC-YVR-NRT-HNL-NRT-Melbourne-NRT-BKK

I've just added Melbourne via NRT. Now I have three stops in Japan, my limit. But again, the three are all in one city.

Would both of these fit in a STAR1 ticket?


Thank you!

STAR1 is 29,000 miles. Both your proposed itineraries are over. (The second one is way over)

Which cities do you want to stopover and which cities are you just connecting?

Once you tell us that, we could try and make it under 29K miles (STAR1).

FYI - you can use this to check how many miles your itinerary is:

http://gc.kls2.com/

I pretty much wanted to stop over in all the places. I live in NRT and wanted to do the beginning portion of that trip for business, then scam two free vacations to Hawaii and Australia off the ticket. Hence the hops via NRT. I was hoping I could take the vacations at various times throughout the year, i.e. fly from NRT to BKK, do the first portion of the trip back to NRT, then at a later date go NRT-HNL-NRT, then at a later time go NRT-Melbourne-NRT.

My concern at this point is that I can't stop at NRT three times, right?

You can't have more than 1 stopover in the same city.

You can't backtrack between different continents. (Asia[NRT] & US[HNL] in your case.)

Doing that NRT-HNL-NRT in addition to your planned travel will bust even the highest level of RTW - 39K miles.

OK, what about:

BKK-BGI-LAS-SEA-YYC-HNL-NRT-BKK ?

First of all, welcome to our small community, rhakim

I appreciate your courage to come up with a routing which could be a valid RWSTAR ticket. As far as I see, in your case the most important thing is to find *A carriers serving �your� destinations. If you do not find *A connections, I do not see much sense to work further.

To give you two examples:

Your first segment should be BKK-BGI (= 10.135 miles) and the BKK-BGI portion crosses the Atlantic via France. I did not find any valid routing via the Atlantic, but there is definitely no direct *A connection for these two cities. Therefore you have to split up this routing in eg BKK-KIK-LAX-YYZ-BGI (= 15.922 miles).

Your second segment should be BGI-LAS (= 3.785 miles). There is definitely no direct *A connection for these two cities. Therefore you have to split up this routing in eg BGI-YYZ-ORD-LAS (= 6.559 miles).

Thanks Patron, I was ready to type up that BGI-LAS part.

This routing should work (each segment represent 1 flight in this case) -

BKK-LHR-YUL-BGI-YYZ-LAS-SEA-YVR-YYC-HNL-NRT-BKK

Majority of this is on AC (YUL-BGI, BGI-YYZ, YYZ-LAS, YVR-YYC, YYC-HNL).

[This message has been edited by Empress (edited 01-09-2003).]

Nuts. OK, let me try it out....how about this:

BKK-ZRH-FRA-BGI-YYZ-YYC-LAX-HNL-NRT-BKK

(I meant LAX not LAS. Oops)

Somehow now I can't get great circle to post the distance in miles. I only get the map. Weird.

Anyways, that looks valid to me. :?

Well done, Empress!

I would add LAS-SFO-SEA which makes

BKK-LHR-YUL-BGI-YYZ-LAS-SFO-SEA-YVR-YYC-HNL-NRT-BKK (27.418 miles), knowing that on some routes there is not a daily service available.

rhakim, as I am not able to find any *A carrier operating FRA-BGI, could you help me out with the *A carrier and the flight number you have in mind?

Patron, I just pulled the routing off the *A electronic timetable software. Does it include non-*A flights? You are right I was surprised at the carrier.

Empress - you are a GEM!! Thank you!

Questions: Does BGI count as a North America stopover? If so, then I am maxed out at 5 with Empress' routing and cannot do the additional LAX-SFO-SEA can I? That is probably OK as SouthWest flights are cheap.

Also, does HNL count as North America or other?

Thank you all so much! I am learning!

rhakim, as you find �your� destinations, it would be a good idea to consult terms & conditions for RWSTAR tickets.

After doing this, you will find out that RWSTAR fares do not apply on DE.

Referring to application of stopovers: As not more than five stopovers permitted within continental USA/Canada, neither HNL nor BGI are relevant in that case.

BGI doesn't count as North America in this case.

Nope.

The link provided by Patron should help with the rules. Or you could just post your questions here and we'll be glad to help you out.

Remember you get 29K miles, so you could still add a bit more to this (dependingo on where else you want to go):

BKK-LHR-YUL-BGI-YYZ-LAS-SFO-SEA-YVR-YYC-HNL-NRT-BKK