emaij

I found the prices for the various options for RTW tickets (class and mileage options) but there is only one mileage amount per class listed on the award chart: http://www2.usairways.com/pv_obj_cac...wardtravel.pdf

Has anyone used miles to buy RTW travel? And where can I find the DM requirements for the various mileage options within each class?

fsfsfsfs

Same question from me... Bump?

Called USAir, and CS was useless in providing me any T&C of RTW awards.

Here was our conversation:

fsfsfsfs: Can you please let me know the terms and conditions for a RTW award ticket, including number of stopovers allowed, distances traveled, change fees, etc?

USAir: Sure, please hold.

20 minutes later

USAir: I have found the conditions for your round the world ticket. It says here that you are allowed one stopover in each direction, one on the outbound and one on the inbound.

fsfsfsfs: Sir, that sounds like the conditions for a regular round trip. On a round-the-world, there is no inbound or outbound because travel occurs in a single direction.

USAir: I see what you're saying. In that case [nb: I swear I am not making this up], you are allowed a single stopover on your RTW ticket.

fsfsfsfs: [laughs] Are you sure you're reading from the right set of rules? The whole point of a RTW is to have multiple destinations, and that is why I would be redeeming 200k/300k/400k DM for it.

USAir: I understand your concern, but those are the rules we have. One stopover in each direction.

fsfsfsfs: Are you at the international desk, or...?

USAir: Yes.

fsfsfsfs: Can you transfer me to someone who might have more knowledge about the RTW ticket? I just want to make sure I get this information right.

USAir: Sure. [click] [hold 5 min]

USAir Supervisor: Hi, what can I help you with?

fsfsfsfs: I'm looking for the terms and conditions of a RTW award ticket, including number of stopovers allowed, any restrictions on distance traveled, change fees after ticketing, basically the fare rules for this ticket.

USAir Supervisor: Sure. Now, the rules we have written here are sorta confusing, so let me go brush up on that for you.

fsfsfsfs: [wait 10 min.... still on hold, yay!]

BoeingBoy

Try this link - it's the *A 'Around the world ticket' page.

Jim

freakazoid

Number of stopovers is answered at the homepage: "Star Alliance Round-the-World awards permit five en route stopovers in a forward direction toward the original departure city. "

Wouldn't be surprised if they used the normal rules for the rest (250$ changefee, no changes after departure etc.).

emaij

If you pay $$ for it, there are three fare levels that are available (in addition to class choice), terms as follows:

Fare calculation and booking classes:

* The applicable Round the World fare is determined by the total number of miles of your planned trip as well as the country where your journey begins (country of origin). The number of miles is based on IATA industry (International Air Transport Association) standards (Ticketed Point Mileage Table) :
o The Normal Round the Word fare includes up to 29 000, 34 000 or 39 000 miles.
o The Special Economy Round the World fare includes up to 26 000 miles.


So maybe for the points ticket this does not apply.

fsfsfsfs

Ok, US Air supervisor got back to me and said that US Air RTW award rules are:

- Max 5 stops.
- Max 10 segments.
- Max 2 stops in each region.
- Unlimited miles (she insisted).
- $250 change fee for routing OR dates after ticketing

As with all info from US Air, I will call back to verify

CPRich

That 5 stops is disappointing - it looks like just the Special Economy version (without the mile limit), not the standard RTW. I put together a 10 stop, 16 segment RTW on the *A tool and it was <$7K - probably a better deal than 200K miles for 5 stops.

It's good to know the details though - I've often wondered, but not enough to actually investigate.

ArizonaGuy

Wow. 5 stops and 10 segments is horribly limiting! People routinely book 6, 7, 8 segments and possibly a couple more on inter-region awards. I usually end up at 6 and if I were going RTW, 10 just wouldn't cut it.

emaij

That's disappointing. I was hoping it was at least the low level *A RTW ticket. I guess it's not really documented online?

fsfsfsfs

Yes, it's pretty insulting. I'm still trying to verify the no-changes-after-travel for sure, but I'm guessing they're not going to bend because that is technically the rule for all DM partner awards

phlwookie

Interesting. You can see how this compares to a paid RTW fare via staralliance.com here in their terms and conditions:
http://www.staralliance.com/en/fares...world-fare-tc/

15 stopovers and a mileage ceiling of 39K.

ArizonaGuy

What if you, or any of us, keep calling and asking about RTW award rules? Will we invariably get a different answer as is so often the case with other complex awards?

fsfsfsfs

Called a couple times more. Keep getting the same answer about how a RTW award is still a "partner award," which means that no changes are allowed after travel has commenced.

Has anybody heard otherwise?

ArizonaGuy

That part I fully expect to remain true, unfortunately. I was more curious about whether 5 stopovers is the max. That's very limiting considering, with the right rules-bending agent, you could get the equivalent of 3 stopovers (origin to stopover, destination, stopover to origin) for less miles.

Hell, for two separate F awards of 120/125K each, one could cover as many stops and more segments for fewer than a 400K F RTW, albeit on fewer continents than an RTW allows. You could do 3 F awards - North America to South America and return, immediately starting on the next award North America to Asia via Europe, stopover in Europe, and upon returning to North America start on the 3rd award to South Pacific with a stopover in that part of the world and you'd still spend less than 400K RTW F level. Pick top notch C products like AC or NZ and you'd save even more using C awards.

This is assuming US really limits RTW's to 5 stops, 10 segments. 3 separate awards would be better, and you could book them as you go when you find availability.

freakazoid

Given that 5 stops is the only rule about Award-RTWs that's actually published on their website I would consider it to be set in stone.