johna

As Oscar Wilde admonished, one should always watch out for the luxuries - the necessities will take care of themselves!

Celestar340

Nathan - it might be wise if you have the miles to upgrade the long haul sectors of your trip and just get a Biz class RTW ticket.

Within Asia and within Europe, there are no F class seats available. ie - PEK-BKK-SIN , I presume will be on THAI. And FRA-ROM-FRA only has Biz class on LUFTHANSA. There are no STAR flights between SIN & KUL, and just for your info - LH will terminate KUL-FRA flights after 31st Aug this year. Logically, it would be better to fly BKK-KUL, and then SIN-FRA.

QuietLion

Definitely make sure your big legs have 3 classes of service. For instance, some FRA-BKK flights have no First Class and some do.

Better check to make sure you can upgrade the special RTW biz class fare (D class). I'm not sure you can, and if you can, it would only be on LH and UA. But the biz class fare is leff than $1000 less than FC I believe.

Rudi

Business to international first-Upgrades on StarAlliance rtw-tickets:
Using UA/LH miles or international-UA/LH-upgrade-vouchers [*]you can't! on international UA flights[*]you can on LH flights using UA miles (UA must make the upgade-request), you can't with a UA-voucher[*]you can on LH flights using LH miles or LH-international upgrade-vouchers.

that's the official rules, but working 100% to the rules is considered to be a strike - and swiss chocolates may help at check-in or the gate!

nathan detroit

QuietLion and Celestar - Thanks for the suggestions. I am on Biz PEK-BKK, BKK-SIN,

both Thai, and FRA-ROM-FRA, LH. I should have made that clear in original message; I am told that Biz Thai is about as good as F almost anyone else but these are short hauls and I am really interested in F for the long sections. I got the word about LH KUL so my present plan is to day trip SIN-KUL-SIN on SA, leaving about 0830 and returning at 2130, plenty of time to catch LH SIN-FRA. Thanks to good info from Rudi and Indogolf I have scrubbed the DEL part of journey. This does not affect my objective which is to go round the world like Rex Harrison and Mike Todd. Be nice if I could meet up with Julie Andrews or the Liz Taylor of 30 years ago somewhere along the trip but, alas, that is not in the cards, oops, my cards.

jamiel

I just did RTW on UA and TG. UA's booking class "D" cannot be upgraded by the rules with miles. TG was booked in C class. For a flight IAD/MXP, I used a certificate Randy was kind enough to send me which expressly stated "invalid for D-class". For a flight NRT/ORD, I asked at the ticket counter for an upgrade and was granted it for 25K miles.

2 things: I would definitely fly westbound rather than eastbound, and I'm not sure if I truly prefer UA first class than UA b/c. Unless you can get the fully flat seat, I 'm not appreciably more comfortable in f/c.

jl

jamiel

Nathan, one other point---you might want to look at a UA/TG flight which is cheaper than the Star Alliance flight---you would need to travel overland for a flight, but I was able to get the following for 3699 in B/C (as I recall F/C was appx $4900).

ATL/IAD/MXP/surface/ZRH/BKK/KUL/BKK/HKG/NRT/ORD/ATL.

Obviously the intra-Europe could be into/out of MXP, FRA, MUC, etc, and I was surprised to be able to have the turn-around at KUL.

jl

nathan detroit

Jamiel - thanks for the most welcome advice. I am booked in A for the long haul, UA and LH, and D for the short haul sections, and I guess I'll let those stand because I can understand them and, who knows, Star may offer a large premium for multiple airline use. If they do that, I can easily do five and, if the price is right, I'll do a hop on Varig.



I agree with your comments on the UA F seats. I've been in 1A FRA-ORD and vv. several times on 777 and I do not find them comfortable. UA assures me that the new compartment-like seats will be on the ORD-NRT section by January when I am going; we'll see. And I do not give the C class seats on 777 very high marks either; in fact, I can't find much comfort difference in 8A and 16A. Maybe they know this and that is why they are making some (?) changes. Ergonomic? Vas ist das?

Comfortable. Ah, that I understand, at least when I am in it.



Thanks again to all of you for your most helpful comments, in particular Rudi and Indogolf for saving me from the Dark Hole of Delhi, but you others, too. It's time to close this thread for now but I will re-open it as I get closer to lift off time.



Cheers, and God's peace to all

mgm

Thank you all for appreciating my report - it makes it worth the effort.

Celestar - yep, in TYO for the time being but will still be visiting S.E.A. fairly frequently.

Speedbird - I do a similar trick on BA, sleep on top of the comforter underneath a blanket (and what is the blanket made of?? Has to be something synthetic given the amount of static that is generated when you take it out of the plastic bag.)

nathan detroit - it may have been mentioned before, but you can get significantly cheaper RTW fares in Asia (particularly SIN) and there are reasonable mileage awards or cheap upgradeable fares to get to Asia from the US.

A further development on the BA side. I happened to meet up in Tokyo with a friend of mine who fly's for BA. Ended up going out for drinks with the crew (and that's a story in itself). Told them about the experience on CX vs BA resulting in a rather boisterous debate. (Innovators vs copy cats). Anyhow, some of the improvements to be introduced to the BA product include mattresses, down comforters and improved amenities in the bathroom (they are progressively putting in the Philosophy range that is also in the BAg amenity kit).

nathan detroit

mgm: thanks for beginning something that has been very helpful to me; the advice I have received from first hand ff's like you and the rest just cannot be equalled elsewhere.

I hear what you say about fares in Asia. I am, foe example, going from SIN to KUL and return, C Class in SA, for $257; no screaming bargain, perhaps, but reasonable for a one day in and out. We all know what that kind of a trip would cost in the US, even MKE-ORD and return. As for using miles, I really don't want to do that because I want to build as large a mileage bank as possible before I stop this obsessive travelling. Now that the miles on UA and AA do not expire, I can do that, hoping that I don't expire. I plan to start an aggressive draw down in 2010, when I am 80, using them for upgrades; by then I should have 2.2 to 2.5 million in the bank(s). That should carry me to 2025 when I will be 95; then I plan to quit with one grand burn out trip, perhaps to the moon, using up all the accumulated miles before I board what I hope will be a first class sleeper to the land where FF plans are just a memory. How's that for optimism!

Catman

Great report MGM and I'm glad that you and your date had a terrific time in one of my Favorite places, LONDON.

jamiel

Nathan, one last thing and then I'll close up--Consumer Reports Travel Letter had an exhaustive discussion of RTW tickets in Aug '98 (roughly)--it would be worth your time to chase it down. It discussed pros and cons of Star/Wings RTW versus 2 carrier RTW and gave pretty good advice.

jl

nathan detroit

Jamiel: Ok, I'll do it and thanks again.

Let me know when you are in ORDland.

tfung

Very interesting report. I'll be flying the same route NRT-HKG-LHR later today. I wonder how much of it has changed since 2 years ago... Will post trip report afterwards.

UAL Traveler

Well, one thing that has changed to some degree is immigration services, which seem to have markedly improved. I've probably cleared immigration in NRT a couple of dozen times in past year or so, and have never had more than a 5-minute wait on either side of the fence (most of my arrivals and departures in T1 have been in mid-afternoon). Also, I have yet to have problems with customs in NRT. KIX is a different story.