Hi all,

Wanted to post the route I am thinking of taking on my first RTW. I'll be taking this in C. I intend to doa few side trips with points, but I will worry about those later. In general have I got a good set of flights? I am correct that when flying domestic US I would be seated in F in 2 class aircraft?

Routing:
ARN-LHR-YOW-YYZ-CUN-PHX-HNL-NRT-HKG-SIN-PER-BKK-ARN

28862 miles

Details:

Leg 1
From/To: Stockholm Arlanda SE (ARN) - London Heathrow GB (LHR)
Flight No: SK 531

Leg 2
From/To: London Heathrow GB (LHR) - Ottawa ON CA (YOW)
Flight No: AC 889

Leg 3
From/To: Ottawa ON CA (YOW) - Toronto Pearson ON CA (YYZ)
Flight No: AC 443

Leg 4
From/To: Toronto Pearson ON CA (YYZ) - Cancun MX (CUN)
Flight No: AC 1256

Leg 5
From/To: Cancun MX (CUN) - Phoenix AZ US (PHX)
Flight No: US 316

Leg 6
From/To: Phoenix AZ US (PHX) - Honolulu HI US (HNL)
Flight No: US 20

Leg 7
From/To: Honolulu HI US (HNL) - Tokyo Narita JP (NRT)
Flight No: UA 879

Leg 8
From/To: Tokyo Narita JP (NRT) - Hong Kong HK (HKG)
Flight No: UA 891

Leg 9
From/To: Hong Kong HK (HKG) - Singapore Changi SG (SIN)
Flight No: SQ 859

Leg 10
From/To: Singapore Changi SG (SIN) - Perth WA AU (PER)
Flight No: SQ 215

Leg 11
From/To: Perth WA AU (PER) - Bangkok Suvarnabhumi TH (BKK)
Flight No: TG 998

Leg 12
From/To: Bangkok Suvarnabhumi TH (BKK) - Stockholm Arlanda SE (ARN)
Flight No: TG 960

Looks like you've planned your flights and mileages carefully.

For the NRT-HKG portion, I'd suggest the ANA flight instead of the United flight: better food, better service, and less likely to be delayed. UA's seat has more legroom, but I much prefer ANA's intra-Asia business class to US'a int'l business. I don't know anything about ANA's service between HNL and NRT; if the seats are reasonable, you might want to take the NH flight instead of UA.

Yes, provided that there is availability in the 'A' bucket at the time of booking.

cheers,

Henry

Looks like a good plan. As mentioned by henry999, your seats would be in F in the U.S. (nothing to write home about, but still better than being in Y) provided there is availability. And don't give up from day one on those seats; have your TA check on a daily basis. That's what I did through the LH office here in Beirut (I recently completed a RTW in C too). Also, please make sure you save your boarding passes as I am sure some of your flights will not post to your account. Good luck and enjoy your trip.

Hi all,

I have just booked this trip, I am ticketing with SAS, who so far have provided good service.

With the US Air segments, i was initially booked into economy, I pushed to be booked into the A bucket. They did this for PHX-HNL, however for CUN-PHX they told me the following;

"CUN-PHX is an international segment, and there is no business class available. Therefore you would have to sit in economy class"

The SAS fare rules state: " On sectors within/between USA/Canada where Business class is not offered passengers will be accommodated in First class subject to availability of seats at the time of booking. In the event First class seats are not offered/available no refund will apply."

So the question becomes, is CUN-PHX really counted as international?

/kris

SAS is correct. CUN-PHX is not a sector "within/between USA/Canada." Therefore, the standard RTW rule applies:

"On sectors where First/Business Class is not offered/available at the time of booking passengers will be accommodated in the next lower class."

The question of whether CUN-PHX is "international" unfortunately has no particular relevance in this context. The only question is whether CUN-PHX is within or between the US and Canada, and it is not.

Yes, it is counted as international. The only chance to avoid sitting in Y is taking UA from CUN to HNL via LAX or SFO, as they offer C/D from CUN. This may require an overnight in LAX/SFO, but you also avoid the very tight First Class on the US (ex HP aircraft) flight PHX-HNL.

Thanks for the info. Now i just have to weigh up how upset my PHX friends will be if I ditch visiting them just to avoid 4 hours of economy and 6 hours of tight first class.

Just to advise that UA is dropping NRT-HKG within the next few days.

Thanks for letting me know, Fortunately I already took others advice and am on NH909 for this leg.

So, thank you FT'ers all for the help. I ended up sticking with US flights, as I could not find anything with UA that fit my schedule while still keeping under 29,000 miles. According the GCM, I am now at 28990. Everything is confirmed, and for some reason, on my last leg, Thai has only let me assign rows 1 - 4 (i.e. first class), will be interesting to see how that turns out. Regardless, I am very happy today.

Here is my final routing;

1 SK 525 D ARN-LHR
2 AC 889 C LHR-YOW
3 AC 441 C YOW-YYZ
4 AC1256 C YYZ-CUN
5 US 316 Y CUN-PHX
6 US 045 F PHX-KOA
7 UA 879 D HNL-NRT
8 NH 909 D NRT-HKG
9 SQ 891 D HKG-SIN
10 SQ 225 D SIN-PER
11 SQ 216 D PER-SIN
12 SQ 970 D SIN-BKK
13 TG 960 D BKK-ARN

That�s because TG is selling no F on that route, but the -older- F seats as C (and C seats as PE). Enjoy!

F.R.

Keep in mind that if you credit your miles to Eurobonus you only earn 100% points for Air Canada booking class C (which sucks big time, but that's the way it is).

If point earnings are important to you, for example to requalify for *G, you may want to change at least the transatlantic segment to an airline which awards 200% for business class (basically any airline but AC).

Really? Just look at my profile, then you see 2 more exceptions .

F.R.

As I'm sure the OP knows, after your first flight, the dates on the rtw's are fully changeable without penalty. You may even change carriers as long as you do not change routing. Once you change routing (even if it is merely a connection), you pay the $150 USD penalty.

Have a great trip!