Star Alliance round the world award - Kris Flyer points - booking tips

[geoffb78]

Hi all

I've started detailed planning for a Star Alliance round the world business class award (departing September 2017) using KrisFlyer points. I called KF recently and was advised that I need to book all the segments required to meet the 'around the world' requirement/condition at one time. However, I called again yesterday and managed to snare the seats I needed for the first outbound leg (with SQ), which the operator appears to have reserved for me until a ticketing deadline in July 2017.

Now that I've gotten this far, I don't want to miss out on award seats for subsequent legs because I am waiting for award seats to open up on the even later legs. I'm also keen to see if I can avoid the US$20 fee per change per ticket (there are two of us travelling).

Does anyone have any advice? I could probably book a set of earlier 'dummy' dates and then call to change the dates once award seats for my actual preferred date of travel are released but that could get expensive.

Also if anyone understands the backtracking rules, I'd value advice on that. The KF call centre operator was lovely but I couldn't get an answer to my question about whether flying YVR-xYYZ-SIN constituted backtracking in an itinerary that looks like BNE-xSIN-BKK-ICN-FRA-MIA or MCO-YVR-xYYZ-xSIN-BNE.

Any other routing suggestions for getting back to Oz from the west (or east) coast of the US/Canada?

Finally, the KF operator advised that even date changes are not permitted after departure. Does this sound right?

Thanks in advance.

Geoff.

[SQ228]

Hi all

I've started detailed planning for a Star Alliance round the world business class award (departing September 2017) using KrisFlyer points. I called KF recently and was advised that I need to book all the segments required to meet the 'around the world' requirement/condition at one time. However, I called again yesterday and managed to snare the seats I needed for the first outbound leg (with SQ), which the operator appears to have reserved for me until a ticketing deadline in July 2017.

Now that I've gotten this far, I don't want to miss out on award seats for subsequent legs because I am waiting for award seats to open up on the even later legs. I'm also keen to see if I can avoid the US$20 fee per change per ticket (there are two of us travelling).

Does anyone have any advice? I could probably book a set of earlier 'dummy' dates and then call to change the dates once award seats for my actual preferred date of travel are released but that could get expensive.

Also if anyone understands the backtracking rules, I'd value advice on that. The KF call centre operator was lovely but I couldn't get an answer to my question about whether flying YVR-xYYZ-SIN constituted backtracking in an itinerary that looks like BNE-xSIN-BKK-ICN-FRA-MIA or MCO-YVR-xYYZ-xSIN-BNE.

Any other routing suggestions for getting back to Oz from the west (or east) coast of the US/Canada?

Finally, the KF operator advised that even date changes are not permitted after departure. Does this sound right?

Thanks in advance.

Geoff.

I just booked such a ticket, but as revenue fare in Y, not redemption in J (April 2017).

I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of dealing with AC, NZ or VA to get me back home from the west coast and UA is a no-go, so I just popped SFO-MEL into the multi-city search on the SQ website. Routed me quite happily on the new non-stop SFO-SIN then onto a flight to MEL.

My routing is MEL-SIN-DUS//FRA-JFK//SFO-SIN-MEL. No problem getting it to be recognised as round-the-world and I was quite happy with the price.

Between JFK and SFO I haven't finalised my exact plans, but will just use short flights on AC or UA so my Elite Gold is recognised for luggage etc.

I have no idea about date change rules I'm afraid though.

(And welcome to the forum, fellow Australian!)

[lcpteck]

I wonder how the taxes are calculated using Krisflyer Miles. Must be quite hefty for a RTW J redemption.

[geoffb78]

Thanks SQ228 for the info.

Does anyone understand the backtracking rules as applied by SQ? I'm wondering whether the following would be permitted as part of my RTW trip:

BNE-xSIN-BKK-xTYO-ICN-xTYO-FRA, or even

BNE-xSIN-BKK-xSIN-ICN-xSIN-FRA?

I haven't been able to find SQ's definition of backtracking so any advice would be helpful.

Cheers

Geoff.

[lcpteck]

RTW Redemption in J

I'm looking to redeem a RTW J Redemption using 240k SQ Miles.

This is the itinerary I'm looking at (7 cities stopover limit it seems).

SIN-xBKK-oVIE-oTXL-xFRA-oGIG-oLIM-oGUA-oORD or JFK-oHND-SIN

SIN-BKK TG
BKK-VIE BR
VIE-TXL OS
TXL-FRA-GIG LH
GIG-LIM AV
LIM-SAL-GUA AV
GUA-ORD/JFK ??
ORD/JFK-HND NH
HND-SIN SQ

I've looked through all the flights and it seems doable, however I'm having difficulty flying from GUA to ORD or JFK. Seems there are some connecting flights available but would it be considered backtracking? I notice UA doesn't seem to have business class in the 2 class configured planes so maybe better to fly AV?

Suggestions are welcome, thanks.

[mad max]

I'm looking to redeem a RTW J Redemption using 240k SQ Miles.

This is the itinerary I'm looking at (7 cities stopover limit it seems).

SIN-xBKK-oVIE-oTXL-xFRA-oGIG-oLIM-oGUA-oORD or JFK-oHND-SIN

SIN-BKK TG
BKK-VIE BR
VIE-TXL OS
TXL-FRA-GIG LH
GIG-LIM AV
LIM-SAL-GUA AV
GUA-ORD/JFK ??
ORD/JFK-HND NH
HND-SIN SQ

I've looked through all the flights and it seems doable, however I'm having difficulty flying from GUA to ORD or JFK. Seems there are some connecting flights available but would it be considered backtracking? I notice UA doesn't seem to have business class in the 2 class configured planes so maybe better to fly AV?

Suggestions are welcome, thanks.

hey man, i'm curious to know if you managed to do this in the end. i'm thinking of doing this at some point in the future, though not relishing the prospect of spending hours on the phone trying to suss out routes.

feel free to PM me if you want to discuss more.

[behyx]

Digging out this thread, to plan for my upcoming RTW J *A redemption.

How early can I call SQ to do my redemption? How early do the *A airlines open up J seats?