Need help to build an itinerary to Canada and USA please!
 

Hi guys, I haven't had any long haul trip for a while and now I am planning to go to Canada and USA for a holiday for few weeks sometime this year. Therefore I would like to get some help from all of you in order to build my itinerary. Remember, I've never been to the USA and Canada before.

I'm based in AKL, an AC's Elite and I have got some of those upgrade vouchers that is given by AC. Okay objective: So in this trip I would like to max to fly AC if it's possible, becasue I would like to use all the vouchers this year before they expire Feb 2009. But you know if other * members have cheap fares I don't mind to fly them at all as long as I can earn some points to get my Gold for next year :D

Cities that I would like to visit:
YVR, YTO, ORD, SEA, JFK


Any ideas about how should I route this trip? Any advice for this trip is welcomed!!! Many many thanks!!!!!:p

If I have post in the wrong place please move me to whichever is right for the question. Cheers

You willing to do this as an RTW? New pricing in Y is $4,479 NZD for the 29k trip. I wonder if pricing it that way is cheaper than AKL-north america-AKL considering all your north american flights.

AKL - xSYD - YVR - SEA - YYZ - ORD - LGA - xYUL - xFRA - xSIN - AKL

A few notes...

xSYD is to allow you to fly AC long haul on SYD-YVR and hopefully use your vouchers (not sure their type and whatnot). Otherwise, NZ flies AKL-YVR direct. The NZ n/s AKL-YVR does list as an AC codeshare... but again, I don't know much about these AC vouchers you have and if they're good for a codeshare on NZ.

No ORD-JFK flights so changed that to ORD-LGA. You can always connect xYYZ if you really want to go to JFK.

The YUL stop is so that you can take AC TATL and again hopefully use your vouchers as AC flies YUL-FRA. If the YUL stop is not worth flying AC on the TATL long haul then you can fly into LGA but then fly out of JFK and take either SQ or LH n/s to FRA.

The xSIN was random. You could fly xPVG on LH/NZ; xNRT on NH/NZ; xBKK on LH/TG. You could also change the YUL-FRA to YUL-LHR and then that also changes this leg to allow xHKG on NZ/NZ; xNRT on NH/NZ; xBKK on TG/TG; xSIN on SQ/SQ.

If you do the RTW, ask yourself if you would like to visit LHR or FRA. If LHR then ask yourself if you want to visit SIN, BKK, or HKG. If FRA then ask yourself if you want to visit SIN, PVG, NRT, or BKK.

It's 28,030 miles. If you got rid of the xSYD and were willing to fly NZ then you could make a lot more room in there (frees up around 2000 miles I think) for other short visits around U.S. or Europe or Asia.

It would be a lot cheaper to get an AC return from AKL to YYZ with a stopover in YVR. And then once in North America, get a North American Air Pass.

A return on AC AKL to YYZ starts from NZ$2445. Will probably be better to do an open jaw returning from YVR instead for YYZ... unless you want to clock up the mileage and go back to YYZ from SEA.

[QUOTE
If you do the RTW, ask yourself if you would like to visit LHR or FRA. If LHR then ask yourself if you want to visit SIN, BKK, or HKG. If FRA then ask yourself if you want to visit SIN, PVG, NRT, or BKK.QUOTE]

Thanks very much for yo help!!! Well, I would like to visit UK as well but I don't really have enough time for this trip, maybe next year. At the same time no plan to go to Asia this year. It would be great if I can fly to Canada with NZ as they have the non-stop flight. It would be great to use AC's upgrade vouchers just to add a bit comfort to this trip. I will find out if I'm allowed to use the vouchers on AC's codeshare flights. I didn't realise US is big and it takes time lol

I think it would be a good idea as you said it costs $2445 to YYZ and have a stop over in YVR, then continue to America with North America Air Pass. I don't really mind if I will have a stopover in YVR. I will need to find out the North America Air Pass. ;) Thanks a lot!

Here you go... http://www.staralliance.com/en/trave...n_airpass.html

Basically you can buy 3 to 10 coupons for travel within North America and must be sold in conjunction with an international fare entering North America with a Star Alliance carrier.

Based on the destinations you want to travel to within the US, most of your flights will be on AC and UA.

So it will be something like: YYZ-AC-LGA-UA-ORD-UA-SEA-AC-YVR or YYZ

Thanks that's helpful.;)

Sorry to disappoint you:

1) AC's upgrade vouchers can only be used on flights operated by AC and are not valid on codeshare flights

2) Economy RTW tickets book into AC's H class, that means you would have to have the Special System-Wide Upgrade (SSWU) certs and not only the System-Wide certs (SWU) to upgrade. If you have a SSWU, you can get your upgrade confirmed 4 days before departure. See the "How to upgrade on AC" thread in the Aeroplan forum.

Thanks for your information. I thought AC would only let you use the upgrade vouchers on it's own flights, so that's fine. At this stage I will stick with AC.

In term of SSWU and SWU, it will be my 1st time using them, this year is my 1st year to be gold to have those vouchers, therefore it's the time to study how to use them.

Many thanks!!!