Help / tips for my CRTWSTAR1
 

So, since my job may take me to PVG for a few days, and the C ticket is almost as expensive as a RTW, I figured I'd kill three or four birds with one stone, see the people in London and Zurich I should see, and go the long way around ... :D

My routing looks to be ORD-LHR-ZRH-???-HKG-PVG-ORD. This is for work, and I'm not turning it into a leisurely jaunt, so I don't really have any flexibility in scheduling, other than a free weekend which I could spend ... well, just about anywhere.

Questions/thoughts -

1) ORD-LHR I don't really see the point in getting a somewhat better seat/service and connect in FRA/MUC, ZRH, or ARN/CPH and then backtracking to London (vs. just taking United). However, I am tempted to go ORD-LAX and take NZ LAX-LHR. What I give up is basically a day (I'd be at work anyway ...) and what I get, or at least what I'd hope to get, is a great flight that is both long and comfortable enough for me to actually sleep on. Thoughts?

2) LHR-ZRH - certainly no reason to go any way other than LX ...

3) Where to go on a free weekend between ZRH and HKG ... this one is tricky. I was thinking about DXB - the only downside there is that the C service onward on SQ (or TG) is the "regional" product, and I guess I've read too much flyertalk, and it somehow feels like a waste to do that. Moscow or St. Petersburg are possibilities, with the only flying-related downside being that the onward flights would probably be LH, which I've done before, so I'd lose the novelty factor. I can't really fathom going anywhere in India for a weekend - I've never been and it just feels like a huge shortchange. Other possibilities would be somewhere in SE Asia - BKK or Siem Reap, perhaps. :confused:

4) From HKG to PVG I think the only thing that makes sense is just to buy a ticket non-stop on another carrier. The *A connections all take a full day, as far as I can tell.

5) Finally, PVG-ORD; I'd rather take the NH NRT-ORD than the UA non-stop, but the only way to get that flight is get to NRT the day before, so I may do that and have dinner with some friends in Tokyo. (I suppose I could fly PVG-SIN-NRT-ORD to connect to the NH flight... but that's sort of nuts.) If I don't stop in Tokyo, the only reasonable way to fly non-UA long-haul is the AC PVG-YYZ. Any thoughts on whether or not the seat / service on that flight warrant a connection in YYZ vs. non-stop on UA?

I think that's it ... or at least a start ...

It's been a while since I planned my RTW but just a couple of thoughts...

I had several NZ flights in my itinerary and I was very impressed with the service and the new seats. Unfortunately I had several pacific stops (lots of 767 :( ) so I only got the 'fully-flat' experience on a <3 hour SYD-AKL flight and a daytime AKL-NRT flight. I'd definitely choose it again for a long night flight, but I didn't think the seat had enough recline for daytime (I preferred TG for that).

Of course if you can put up with that bit of backtracking you could do JFK-FRA with SQ...

..... or all part of the fun :D

One other thing you might want to consider is that all your UA flights will give you 50% EQM bonus, while flights on the other airlines won't.

I could do that ... but it is a double-connect (ORD-JFK-FRA-LHR) and would force me to buy B6 or AA for ORD-JFK (or even worse, stay with UA and do the ORD-LGA/JFK thing ... with a carry-on, maybe, but with an actual suitcase? Serious hassle. Way more, it seems to me, than ORD-LAX-LHR.) Also, I've certainly heard the raves about service on SQ but I've never heard much to make me believe that the spacebed is so superior to LH or SK's new C that it would make ORD-JFK-FRA-LHR a more reasonable choice than, say ORD-CPH-LHR or ORD-MUC-LHR ...

That's a great point, and I hadn't been thinking much about it. With this trip I'll make 1P with no worries but I don't know that I'll be doing enough travel during the rest of the year to make 1K a legitimate possibility, even with 50% EQM for ORD-LHR and PVG-ORD. I should definitely at least game out the rest of my travel for the year, though, to see if it might matter.

Wherever in SE Asia you decide to go, you may want to explore the routing ZRH-SIN-xxx-SIN-HKG (with SIN-HKG on SQ862) so that you can fly on the new 77W on SQ with the new C cabin. Of course, with a RTW ticket, there's a surcharge for these 77W flights (IIRC US$500 for ZRH-SIN and US$300 for SIN-HKG (SQ862)), but if your employer is willing to pay for the surcharge, then I think this routing is the way to go! SIN-HKG may be too short a flight time for the surcharge to be worthwhile, but you should seriously consider the ZRH-SIN surcharge.

Believe it: SQ's spacebed is much superior to SK's new C.

cheers,

Henry

Why the stop in HKG?
If you fly from Europe to BKK, or SIN, or ICN, for example, you can
then get direct flights to PVG.

I had thought about that - quite frankly, it might be worth it even if I had to pay the $500 out of my own pocket.

That's too bad for SK flyers but I still don't think it would justify ORD-JFK-FRA-LHR vs. ORD-LAX-LHR ... I'd love to fly upstairs on SQ but if I can pay the surcharge and take the new C ZRH-SIN that will more than satisfy my "wanna go SQ" urges.

Sorry, I wasn't clear about that. I'll have a little work to do in HKG and will also visit a friend there; If I cut out HKG I'd be taking a trip that was 50/50 work/play, which might not go over so well when I explain why my firm should pay for this - at that point, they'd probably rather just shell out for the ORD-PVG-ORD C ticket, and have me be gone 5 days rather than for almost two weeks.

I only did one SQ flight on my CRTW (and I had similar "wanna go SQ" urges :) ). Also, SIN-JNB on a 777 probably wasn't a very good example as it's a very late night flight where the meal service was a light meal and breakfast. However, based on my other experiences with NZ, if I was in your position I'd quite happily do ORD-LAX-LHR instead.

If I were doing it, I would fly ORD(UA)-LAX(NZ)-LHR(LX)-ZRH(SQ)-SIN-HKG-SIN-PVG(NH)-NRT-ORD and spend the weekend in Singapore. That's 27022 miles. Another possibility would be to spend the weekend in Bali.

Another convenient stopover on an east-bound Star-RTW in SE-Asia (other than the obvious choices like BKK and SIN) is Saigon. On a Star RTW it can be reached from Europe via BKK or SIN and there is a United flight out to HKG (UA862 05:05 08:40 2:35 nonstop) early in the morning. No going back to BKK or SIN, very convenient.

Saigon and southern Vietnam are a great area to visit. The city itself is quite interesting. If you have a little more time you can take short trips by boat or bus to the beach or to Mekong Delta, among others. Depending on your preference, you can stay more back-packer style or regular hotel (Sheraton was quite nice).

Anotherer idea: On my upcoming trip to HKG we are stopping over in Ko Samui in Thailand for a week at the beach. LX will get you to BKK from ZRH. PG (Bankgkok Airways) will get you to the island from BKK and on to HKG. PG is not a Star carrier, but our ticket HKG - Ko Samui - BKK was only €265. Airport code for Ko Samui is USM and PG flights can be booked on their homepage.

Have fun.

BKK looks much more interesting to me than SIN does; Bali would be fabulous, but in trying to make the trip manageable I think going ZRH-SIN-BKK and then BKK-HKG will allow me the best combination of enjoyable flying and quality time on the ground.

Along similar lines, HKG-SIN-PVG is 9 hours flight time plus layover in SIN ... I just can't do that when I can fly non-stop in 2.5 hours.

Any chance that Shanghai and/or Air China will be *A members by May? Given the fact that neither of them currently has a functional English website, I'm not holding my breath ...

I hadn't considered this will give it a look ...

I don't think I can pull this off - I'm not a huge beach guy to begin with, and given all of the flying I'm doing I don't know that adding more connections makes sense (I was thinking about Siem Reap but am probably not going to do it, more or less for the same reason). If I want to relax, I think my best option is to find myself a nice 5* hotel in BKK, get a massage, and sit by the pool ...

And don't forget the minimum 3 stopover ( 24+hrs) rule and min 10 days away. Have fun and trying out various airlines is a great experience.