Maximising a CCP..
 

Have been (avidly) reading up on the Circle Pacific fares... and noticed that none of the itins folks have talked about came anywhere near the segment limit for this very tempting fare type...

IS this simply coincidence... or is it that the segment limit is so generous as to be unapproachable in practical terms? Is it the mileage limit of even the CCPSTAR2 that prevents a full use of that allowance?

Has anyone attempted (in practice or even just as a theoretical exercise) to plan a "maximised" CCP?

The objective of a CCP fare for me is to get where I want to go with the greatest convenience. Next, I'll get the most mileage possible to include any interesting stopovers. Segments are not an issue for me as I credit to UA and I get status from maxing out on miles rather than segments.

There'd be oodles of opportunities to maximise segments within mileage limitations on a Circle Pac.
Segments like LAX-SFO-SEA-YVR for example, or Japanese domestic flights, Thai domestic flights, SIN-KUL, AKL-WLG-CHC and now Chinese Domestic flights as other examples of racking up segments without racking up much mileage.
Just need to watch some of the other rules, like maximum stops per country rule and maximum transfers at any one airport rules for example.

og....Good point about the mileage etc... you tends to focus on the benefits under your own FFP.. and in effect mine pushes me to look for segments... not a bad thing with a mileage limited fare perhaps??:D

I was hoping for an example from a previous segment keen traveller.. (why reinvent the wheel?)(;)) .. but that's good advice Al B... (I had got as far as building that west coast shuttle run and considered HNL, but my ideas for Asia were a bit too simple... I think I was trying to avoid "backtracking"..and if I read it right, that is not necessarily disallowed..) ) ..I think I'll need to "chart" (or even literally map out) ideas... to keep within the tfr/stop limits..

Should be an interesting exercise....

Plenty of opportunities in SE asia. I had played with one earlier which was fairly maximised (of course :D ) but I didn't end up booking as I needed to include europe that time. I'll see if I can dig it out.

Thanks very much!!!!!

I'm sure you won't take it amiss if I suggest that a CCP YOU worked on is probably "ultra-maxed"...:D Wasn't it you that got within 3 miles (? - very close anyway) of the limit on a mileage based RTW????^^

An upcoming *A RTW is 39,000 miles exactly (and uses all 24 segments) :D

Ahhh - but can you do a STAR1 using all 22 senior and junior partners?!?!?!?! :)
I'm digressing from the subject at hand, sorry.

Maybe so Al (can I "call you Al???" :D).... but with a VERY interesting question indeed!

I'm just happy that my next trip sees me go from "tick in the box" for 3 *A airlines.. (NZ/UA/Us) to 7... (NZ,UA,US,TG,NH,OZ,AC)...

All 22 in ONE trip? WOW! 39,000 miles exactly AND all 24 segs? WOW Again!

The CCP looks more and more interesting the more one studies it.... I'll clearly be able to use it the way many folks use RTW's... as the "base" upon which TWO trips are built... although a bit lopsided in my case...

Thinking.... One way trip to start point in Asia... Commence CCP and do half the Asian segments then across to YVR... SEA, SFO, LAX (having my usual US "roam" in there somewhere...) .. then back to SYD via AKL...

Back to work for a few months...:p

Pick it up again and head north, completing the Asian segments and in fact the whole CCP... then from there head out again on either one of the typical Asian C deals (with a one way return from LAX...) OR... thought just hit... start a NEW CCP.....

Why didn't I think of that first???:confused::eek::D

Two questions however... The fare rule link on the *A sticky thread doesn't seem to work... anywhere else I can find them? I need to study them so i know what questions to ask next!! :D

Second... As I don't have access to the rules just yet.. I don't suppose one can go YVR-SEA-SFO-HNL-LAX-AKL..?? That'd be cool.... (mileage problem I suppose even if allowed...)

Try: http://www.airnzagent.co.nz/fareadvi...es/default.htm

Yes, that would be allowed.

You supposed wrong :). There is nothing wrong with that scenario, although it would rack up 4,000 odd in mileage. HNL to/from the mainland is not a Pacific crossing (North or South) so it's legal.
The Circle Pac doesn't have the maximum stops per country rule (exception Japan) like the RTW does.
Given you'd get 500 miles minimum on each of the YVR-SEA-SFO-LAX legs for nowhere close to the actual mileage flown, it's a good trade-off for adding a HNL-AKL segment onto the back of them to save your mileage.

THANK YOU BOTH!!!^^

That is all good..... But.. Al..... The reason I would try for a SFO-HNL-LAX inclusion would be - well to visit Hawaii obviously :p - but also to make possible a LAX-AKL segment on NZ.... Options HNL-AKL are less enticing!

(I think.. better check that!)

Might have to "do" HNL on a different trip.. an extra 4000 miles for one stop?? NAH!

Under 29k miles - that would be tough. Wasn't there a thread on this (or similar) a while back?

Coming up to the 10th anniversary I did play with some RTW routings involving many *A carriers (20 IIRC) in case they had a fly 10 get xxx,xxx bonus (or fly 5 get xxx,xxx bonus). Don't think I got it down to 29k miles though.

Yup. 777/747 on LAX-AKL = business premiere, 767 on HNL-AKL = old business class

Incidentally, another RTW I am playing with is 3 miles under limit and 1 spare segment. Trying various combinations to try to improve on it (closest with 24 segments was 39,012 miles - dang).

I've never thought about using CPSTAR or CASTAR tickets to maximize segments, but I do tend to use them to hit a cluster of cities in each of the regions on routes that can be painfully expensive. In fact, I now leave at least 2 open at any given time and come back and pick them up later (typically leave one in NASIA and one in SASIA). I used to book these trips as a sequence of widely expensive one ways (try PEK-ICN in C) and then learned about the circle fares- no thanks to my corporate travel agent of course. I have one CPSTAR2 parked in N Asia now with enough miles on it for a 4 country set of meetings in N Asia and am starting up a CASIA ticket and heading down to Aus/NZ. I find ways to squeeze all the miles out of them, but in reality for me the value is having an open ticket in NASIA and SASIA that I can pick up on a moments notice and use to cover some routes that would themselves cost almost as much as the entire ticket.
The additional "value" for me is getting to pick NZ across the south pacific and SQ across the north, as well as the NZ flights ex-NASIA. That is priceless!

You folks certainly have all this 'down pat"!!!:D

Ah well... I am slowly learning.. (at my age there ain't no other speed!!;))

Not sure - can't recall it, but it's probably there somewhere.
Yeah, it's real tough on a Star1, but there has to be a way. It's much easier (in theory at least!) now that Lauda and Tyrolean folded into OS and RG went away.

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space have been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

Not really, the rules say: "Return travel from last international stopover must commence no later than 6 months after departure." but don't specify when you finally have to be back home...

So where exactly are you meant to go if you don't go home when you take your return travel from last international stopover? If you go somewhere else apart from home, then you're at another international stopover, non??!! :)
You certainly can't "transit-hop" on the way back home from the last stopover with -24hour overnights as the coupons on the ticket will have the not valid after date of whatever the 6 months date is and render them invalid for any booked dates after that.

Smiling Boy devised an itin for all 20 *A members (at the time) in 25,648 miles. Missing FM and CA of course.

Yes there is a 6 month limit... I should have made it clear I was talking about starting the second trip (ie flying the last few flights of CCP #1) within that timeframe!

Which is probably why trip 2 will NOT be another CCP... I can't do 2 trips every 6 months... :( (Recreational travel only for me!!!)