Friends,

My wife and I would like to purchase Star Alliance Circle Pacific tickets, for departure next January for a 3.5 month trip around Asia. I have compiled our preferred itinerary below using the Star Alliance Round the World calculator.

A few questions from a newbie who would appreciate any advice:
1. Is this a valid Circle Pacific routing (note that we want to fly into Saigon and out of HCMC for Viet Nam leg of trip)?
2. I understand that Air Canada or a TA can sell ticket. Recommendations for a Canadian TA that would be good on this would be appreciated.
3. Anyone know approximate prices for either economy or business for Circle Asia?

Thanks ,

Jeff



Total Trip Mileage: 23329
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1. YVR-NRT 11 JAN 2008, Depart 14:00, Arrive 17:30 4681 miles
YVR-NRT (Vancouver BC CA to Tokyo Narita JP)
AC 5, Depart 14:00, Term: M, Arrive 17:30+1, Term: 1, Duration: 10h30m
Aircraft Type: 763, Meal: LM
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2. NRT-HKG 26 JAN 2008, Depart 9:50, Arrive 13:55 1822 miles
NRT-HKG (Tokyo Narita JP to Hong Kong HK)
NH 909, Depart 9:50, Term: 1, Arrive 13:55, Term: 1, Duration: 5h5m
Aircraft Type: 744, Meal: M
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3. HKG-SGN 30 JAN 2008, Depart 20:50, Arrive 22:20 929 miles
HKG-SGN (Hong Kong HK to Ho Chi Minh City VN)
UA 867, Depart 20:50, Term: 1, Arrive 22:20, Term: , Duration: 2h30m
Aircraft Type: 744, Meal: D
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4. HAN-BKK 17 FEB 2008, Depart 10:40, Arrive 12:30 607 miles
HAN-BKK (Hanoi VN to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi TH)
TG 683, Depart 10:40, Term: , Arrive 12:30, Term: , Duration: 1h50m
Aircraft Type: AB6, Meal: M
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5. BKK-DPS 13 MAR 2008, Depart 8:50, Arrive 14:15 1849 miles
BKK-DPS (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi TH to Denpasar-Bali ID)
TG 431, Depart 8:50, Term: , Arrive 14:15, Term: , Duration: 4h25m
Aircraft Type: 333, Meal: M
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6. DPS-SIN 21 MAR 2008, Depart 13:05, Arrive 15:35 1040 miles
DPS-SIN (Denpasar-Bali ID to Singapore Changi SG)
SQ 943, Depart 13:05, Term: , Arrive 15:35, Term: 2, Duration: 2h30m
Aircraft Type: 772, Meal: M
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7. SIN-SYD 25 MAR 2008, Depart 9:40, Arrive 20:15 3900 miles
SIN-SYD (Singapore Changi SG to Sydney NS AU)
SQ 219, Depart 9:40, Term: 2, Arrive 20:15, Term: 1, Duration: 7h35m
Aircraft Type: 744, Meal: M
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8. SYD-YVR 22 APR 2008, Depart 9:35, Arrive 6:40 7793 miles
SYD-YVR (Sydney NS AU to Vancouver BC CA)
AC 34, Depart 9:35, Term: 1, Arrive 6:40, Term: M, Duration: 14h5m
Aircraft Type: 77L, Meal:

I think you mean fly into Saigon and out of Hanoi. Saigon and HCMC are the same place a la Bombay/Mumbai. If you fly domestically, VN's domestic business class is only a few $$$ more than the econ, and well worth it just to escape the unruly aiport crowds in the lounge.

The routing looks OK. The rules do allow for taking surface sections, although you have to include the mileage between them in your totals.

Re: fares: I've just paid ~$5,900 CAD booked through SQ for a Business Class fare. The price seems to fluctuate with the value of the dollar, but I'm not sure what the base currency is (US$?). Last year it cost around $6400. Don't know the Economy fare.

Somewhere recently someone posted the fare rules published by NZ, but I don't recall where the thread is.

Any TA can do this for you, or you can book through an airline.

FYI: The more recent rules don't count the US and Canada as one country for departure/return. It doesn't affect yoor trip, but now you can't leave from SFO and return to YVR.

Try the Star Alliance forum further down the list here. It holds stickys with spreadsheets for prices and all manner of information for Star Alliance products/carriers.

Fares are determined by the country of origin. Re this, fares originating USA are now much cheaper because of the differential caused by the plunging USD. Business class out of Seattle is about C$1000 cheaper than out of Vancouver.

Circle Asia fares aren't really a significantly better deal than Circle Pacific, but they do vary by country of origin. IIRC, Japan, Australia, and Singapore are about the cheapest.

There are 2 tiers, 15,000 miles and 18,000 miles, and I seem to remember the 15k mile tier being around US$2000 in economy and US$3700 in business, originating from NRT. You can look up the prices ex-NZ on a link in the *A forum, but they're higher than these.

I wrote down several of the prices back when I was looking into getting one of these fares a few months ago, but don't have them with me here at the office...feel free to PM me and I can follow up later.

We got around that by having an ongoing ticket to SEA from YVR - just didn't get on the flight.

The Star Alliance board is a lot of help - also I used a TA I found here and it really helped. PM me if you want his name

Thanks for your advice. We would like to go Business class and it has been suggested that we should fly out of Seattle instead of Vancouver to take advantage of the strong CAN$. Initially flying from Toronto, we could quite easily go through Seattle. However, we would prefer to avoid the US for convenience sake.

Would it be possible to buy the Circle Pacific exiting Seattle, booking the AC flight from Seattle to Tokyo through Vancouver and just skipping the Seattle to Vancouver leg and checking it in Van? Probably not but worth my asking...

Thanks,

Jeff

Why don't they offer these rtw/circle pacific etc. fares online?

www.staralliance.com for round world bookings. Circle fares are still in the planning.

You presumed correctly with "no" being the answer.

Thanks again for everyone's advice.

Exiting out of the US seems like the way to go given the very strong CAN$ at the moment.

One (maybe final) question: With a Circle Pacific fare in economy is it possible (and likely?) to get upgraded for the AC portions using the Special System Wide AC upgrades I have from Elite status?

Thanks,

Jeff

They book into H class on AC, so yes, you can either clear or waitlist yourself at the 4 day windown with a SWU or SSWU.