KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round-the-World Award Planning

[Zanzara]

These things are hard to do. Harder than the old "US Airways" partner redemptions.

Harder than getting a refund out of Qantas.

Harder than…you add your own comparison.

I used the seats dot aero (seats.aero) site to try to find routes and low-points availability, and then the Singapore Airlines mileage redemption "finder" (it has a lot of bugs) to validate that Saver was available.

I had each leg mapped out so I could feed it to the operator: ports, dates, flight number and I re-checked availability at "saver" right before I called.

I managed to get, leaving quite soon, at the 280,000 plus taxes rate for Business Class, as a KrisFlyer Gold:

SYD-HND on ANA
Take a 2-night stop in Tokyo.

HND-TSA on ANA
Half a day to hang out in Taipei, and to get to the other airport.

TPE-BKK-FRA on Thai.
Hang out in Europe for a while.

FRA-LHR on Lufthansa.
LHR-EWR on United "Polaris"
Take a 1-night stop in New York.

EWR-LAS-LAX-SFO on domestic United.
Yes, this was the only routing available, and it will take f o r e v e r to complete the trip.

SFO-SYD on United "Polaris"


Planning took a full day of research and furious scribblings on paper. First booking attempt worked, and it took 30 minutes on the phone.

But then, after two days, no ticketing and no "please pay your taxes" request.

I had called them each day. On the third day, they decided that my original itinerary had backtracking on the return journey -- "Sir, we calculate back-tracking on every segment, not on whether it was a connecting flight" -- so I had to rebuild my itinerary using seats.aero, their site, and my paper while I awaited call-backs, had hour-long discussions on the phone, etc.

Eventually, the last call lasted 2 hours whereby I had the above itinerary for the return journey validated, confirmed, booked, and the taxes paid.

They issued tickets on their stock.

…then called me back 5 minutes later. My heart jumped.
They had to reissue the tickets due to some glitch on their end. So, new ticket number(s) issued, itinerary the same, so far so good.

Regrets:

• First itinerary had nice legs on Lufthansa 747-8. That's a lovely thing to fly in :-(
• First itinerary had a nice little European ping-pong amongst small airports flying Swiss
• I wish I had asked them to check back-tracking, as it would have saved 2+ days of stress/worry
• I had wanted to go RTW in F but this was absolument impossible in any direction, any way, any how.
• I now have to miss an event I was trying to be in Europe for, and miss staying with my friends

Pluses:

• First itinerary had a 15+ hour leg that could only be confirmed in Economy. "Y", I ask, would I do this to myself‽
• By changing dates, I found a neat little way to bypass IAD, which seemed to be slammed with every seat taken in and out Domestically

Wish it wasn't so hard! They don't make it easy. Enjoy it! Interesting that there's not a single SQ flight in your itinerary. Presumably SQ need to pay UA, NH, LH, TG for those seats...

 

[RooFlyer]

I haven't been following this thread, but I've just planned and am currently booking a $ Star Alliance RTW.

I used this site: ✈ FlightConnections - All flights worldwide on a flight map! to find the routes and connections, as I wanted to go to some 'funny' places. Its more functional with a subscription - ie allows you to filter results by alliance as well as the other free ones, such as airline.

Here are the Star Alliance flights out of CDG



Versus unfiltered, all flights.



Click on a destination it will give you the airline flying, and the frequency (it can also then go into prices, but I never use that). You can filter by dates with a subscription (ie seasonal flights).



Click on the day of week at left, it gives you the flight number, depart/arrive and aircraft type (sorry about the resolution).



If you select a non-direct destination, it will give you the non-stop options



Click on the option to find the flights and frequency, then drill down to actual flights, as above.



Happy hunting.

 

[Zanzara]

I haven't been following this thread, but I've just planned and am currently booking a $ Star Alliance RTW.

I used this site: ✈ FlightConnections - All flights worldwide on a flight map! to find the routes and connections, as I wanted to go to some 'funny' places. Its more functional with a subscription - ie allows you to filter results by alliance as well as the other free ones, such as airline.

Here are the Star Alliance flights out of CDG

View attachment 337483

Versus unfiltered, all flights.

View attachment 337482

Click on a destination it will give you the airline flying, and the frequency (it can also then go into prices, but I never use that). You can filter by dates with a subscription (ie seasonal flights).

View attachment 337484

Click on the day of week at left, it gives you the flight number, depart/arrive and aircraft type (sorry about the resolution).

View attachment 337492

If you select a non-direct destination, it will give you the non-stop options

View attachment 337486

Click on the option to find the flights and frequency, then drill down to actual flights, as above.
View attachment 337487


Happy hunting.

What a cool website!

 

[zbender]

What a cool website!

It is! user "igreen" mentioned it here in May, just one page ago on the forum ;-)

KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round-the-World Award Planning

Hi All, I am a longtime lurker, and have done a lot of reading and not a lot of posting (due to my inexperience when it comes to traveling utilising FF miles. However, I did want to walk you through my experience with attempting to book SQ RTW *A. I have read through all the tips of the forum...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[zan5hin]

Most important site besides flightconnections is expertflyer. EF is the more important one, but it's a one-two punch.

I'm sitting in Bogota now in my RTW. I quickly ticketed SYD-HND-MEX as only way to get across the Pacific, then South America is a PITA as no backtracking and no Avianca availability Mena's COPA from Panama only option.

I took economy flight from BLB to BOG as I really wanted to visit Colombia, and I have to fly back to PTY next week to rejoin my RTW to Belo Horizonte, then bus or flight to GRU so that's the extra stopover of the 7, which I had up my sleeve.

The rule "no changes once you start" sucks as originally I had more time in Colombia but switched it to Europe so I had time to go to Athens, but Greece is on fire and I wish I could stay in Colombia.

Flights from GRU was hard, originally I had ticketed Ethiopian air on a Boeing 737 Max (not the best idea, if you know what I mean ) for a transit then to TLV, the Air India to DEL and home to MEL.

But I saw what biz class looks like on Air India, and the visa fee for Ethiopia for one day so I tried to change it before I started.

Now I'm going GRU-IST on Turkish, some external routes then pick up again IST-xJED-BKK-MEL.

A quick google and I thought Saudi now had visa free stays to promote tourism, I didn't read it carefully enough and it's only for their flag carriers and the visa includes travel insurance, lie WTF, whacked me $220 for a transit visa but with taxes and fuel surcharges on the biz RtW only $1500, I just put it down to less learnt, and I much prefer BKK then DEL.

I have two cards i hit spend on St George and need them to apply bonus before end of July when redemption is devalued from 2:1 to 3:1 and same with AMEX but I have plenty of time for AMEX to hit spend.

But yes, you need to enjoy spending time refreshing expertflyer a few hundred times to find the route and tickets and supreme flexibility to make the RTW work. But I will still chase Krisflyer miles again to do it all again next year. But not for the faint-hearted.

 

[jh001]

Quick (noob) question - if a search on SA website shows "saver" availability (not waitlisted) is that flight available for RTW booking? Does this apply to Star Alliance flights as well?

Very new to this, so apologies if it's been explained before. I've got a trial on Expert Flyer as well, a lot of the "saver" flights (I assume that class I?) is not showing up there, but that might be operator error

 

[zbender]

Quick (noob) question - if a search on SA website shows "saver" availability (not waitlisted) is that flight available for RTW booking? Does this apply to Star Alliance flights as well?

Very new to this, so apologies if it's been explained before. I've got a trial on Expert Flyer as well, a lot of the "saver" flights (I assume that class I?) is not showing up there, but that might be operator error

If it shows SAVER as AVAILABLE that is the combination you need to be able to add it to an SQ RTW Award booking. SQ and any other Star Alliance flight needs to say SAVER as AVAILABLE.

 

[Kelbell]

I managed to book it....
Sydney -> LA -> Chicago -> Bologna -> Istanbul -> Tapei - > Sydney
September - 280k points + AUD 980

I had a good rep and at the end he looked hard for any Air Canada flights but nothing from Sydney over the next 12 months (I have another booking to make before June)

My Chicago to Bologna is in economy, the rep suggested if I say ask for an upgrade to business (at check in - it's a business ticket) it could muck up the rest of the flights....is that something folk have found here?

Also when on a business around the world ticket but on an economy leg do you get access to the business class lounge?

 

[Kelbell]

There is a lot of wonderful information about the Qantas Oneworld (Multi-City) Classic Flight Reward on this thread: Oneworld Classic Award

However, I have often wondered why there is no equivalent, dedicated thread where members can share information, tips, booking experiences, etc. for the KrisFlyer Star Alliance RTW Award.

So, I thought I would kick it off!

For starters, here is some information about the KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round-the-World Award that might be useful.

Since 2022, the price for a Star Alliance round-the-world award is:

• 200,000 KrisFlyer miles for Economy (previously 180k)
• 280,000 KrisFlyer miles for Business (previously 240k)
• 405,000 KrisFlyer miles for First (previously 360k)

According to section J.3 of the KrisFlyer terms and conditions, here are the key rules of this award:

1. Normal Star Alliance Award travel restrictions apply.
2. You must travel in a continuous eastbound or westbound direction, beginning and ending in the same country. You must make only one crossing of the Atlantic Ocean and only one crossing of the Pacific Ocean. You are allowed an origin open-jaw in the same country.
3. Your total travel distance must not exceed 35,000 miles. You are allowed a maximum of 16 segments in your itinerary.
4. You may include a maximum of seven complimentary stopovers in your itinerary. The same stopover restrictions for Star Alliance Awards apply for Round-the-World Awards. In addition, you may stopover only once in each city and no more than twice in any one country. You may not purchase additional stopovers. Surface sectors are permitted but count as stopovers.

If you want to check whether your routing is valid (i.e. there is no backtracking), one method is to plug the full itinerary into the Star Alliance (paid) round-the-world booking tool. If the routing shows as valid, and there is award availability on all flights, it should be allowed as a KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round-the-World Award.

The only way to book is by calling Singapore Airlines.

(With thanks to @Mattg for his assistance in putting this together.)

Unfortunately Krisflyer communications are not what they used to be. Not sure about SQ outsourcing, I feel like booking and complaints are being handled by staff, who have no authority to take any requests higher. Certainly SQ ain’t what they used to be. Over 12 months of trying to reclaim points deducted incorrectly in the first place. Sorry not related to this post but a lot of frustration with SQ and Krisflyer

 

[Jacques Vert]

Unfortunately Krisflyer communications are not what they used to be. Not sure about SQ outsourcing, I feel like booking and complaints are being handled by staff, who have no authority to take any requests higher. Certainly SQ ain’t what they used to be. Over 12 months of trying to reclaim points deducted incorrectly in the first place. Sorry not related to this post but a lot of frustration with SQ and Krisflyer

I also had to call a number of times to get something fixed recently; it appears that Kris has become another HUACA airline.

 

[Chalkie]

A question for the SQ experts:

I'm currently considering a paid First RTW on *A (2 pax). As I understand matters, it books into A and if no A available then into J.

Using expert flyer to search fare bucket availability, I'm seeing that there's either zero or only 1 A availability in Suites, and very often only a single A availability in First on the 777. And then on SIN-SYD, there appears to be never more than a single A availability in First on the daytime flights (I try and avoid red eyes wherever possible).

Does SQ ever release A bucket seats if asked?

It is much easier to book a RTW in F with oneworld it seems (although F standards aren't as high as in Star).

 

[zbender]

A question for the SQ experts:

I'm currently considering a paid First RTW on *A (2 pax). As I understand matters, it books into A and if no A available then into J.

Using expert flyer to search fare bucket availability, I'm seeing that there's either zero or only 1 A availability in Suites, and very often only a single A availability in First on the 777. And then on SIN-SYD, there appears to be never more than a single A availability in First on the daytime flights (I try and avoid red eyes wherever possible).

Does SQ ever release A bucket seats if asked?

It is much easier to book a RTW in F with oneworld it seems (although F standards aren't as high as in Star).

If Solitaire: one can ask, and I have seen that one may receive.

Otherwise, my experience as Gold is that they laugh a little when you ask them about availability.

I used Seats dot Aero, the SQ site and luck to build my RTW in J in August 2023.

 

[Myztikal_]

long time lurker here and have a krisflyer miles expiring in March (already extended once, no status with kf) and have a few questions. I'm planning a RTW trip for 6 months.

- If my points expire in March (according to the website), do they expire at the beginning of March or at the end?
- What happens if i don't show up for the last leg of my RTW trip? Let's say i want to stay in the country and continue travelling longer.
- With tightening of benefits, do they still allow LAX - SIN - SYD backtrack?

 

[tharaka]

These things are hard to do. Harder than the old "US Airways" partner redemptions.

Harder than getting a refund out of Qantas.

Harder than…you add your own comparison.

I used the seats dot aero (seats.aero) site to try to find routes and low-points availability, and then the Singapore Airlines mileage redemption "finder" (it has a lot of bugs) to validate that Saver was available.

I had each leg mapped out so I could feed it to the operator: ports, dates, flight number and I re-checked availability at "saver" right before I called.

I managed to get, leaving quite soon, at the 280,000 plus taxes rate for Business Class, as a KrisFlyer Gold:

SYD-HND on ANA
Take a 2-night stop in Tokyo.

HND-TSA on ANA
Half a day to hang out in Taipei, and to get to the other airport.

TPE-BKK-FRA on Thai.
Hang out in Europe for a while.

FRA-LHR on Lufthansa.
LHR-EWR on United "Polaris"
Take a 1-night stop in New York.

EWR-LAS-LAX-SFO on domestic United.
Yes, this was the only routing available, and it will take f o r e v e r to complete the trip.

SFO-SYD on United "Polaris"


Planning took a full day of research and furious scribblings on paper. First booking attempt worked, and it took 30 minutes on the phone.

But then, after two days, no ticketing and no "please pay your taxes" request.

I had called them each day. On the third day, they decided that my original itinerary had backtracking on the return journey -- "Sir, we calculate back-tracking on every segment, not on whether it was a connecting flight" -- so I had to rebuild my itinerary using seats.aero, their site, and my paper while I awaited call-backs, had hour-long discussions on the phone, etc.

Eventually, the last call lasted 2 hours whereby I had the above itinerary for the return journey validated, confirmed, booked, and the taxes paid.

They issued tickets on their stock.

…then called me back 5 minutes later. My heart jumped.
They had to reissue the tickets due to some glitch on their end. So, new ticket number(s) issued, itinerary the same, so far so good.

Regrets:

• First itinerary had nice legs on Lufthansa 747-8. That's a lovely thing to fly in :-(
• First itinerary had a nice little European ping-pong amongst small airports flying Swiss
• I wish I had asked them to check back-tracking, as it would have saved 2+ days of stress/worry
• I had wanted to go RTW in F but this was absolument impossible in any direction, any way, any how.
• I now have to miss an event I was trying to be in Europe for, and miss staying with my friends

Pluses:

• First itinerary had a 15+ hour leg that could only be confirmed in Economy. "Y", I ask, would I do this to myself‽
• By changing dates, I found a neat little way to bypass IAD, which seemed to be slammed with every seat taken in and out Domestically

Super useful post. Thanks.

I'm planning a similar RTW but the other way. MEL-BRU, then over to the USA and Japan and back.

I was wondering what cities in your initial itinerary came out as backtracking? I remember when I planned this last time back in 2019, going to LHR from SIN and LHR-FRA came as backtracking.

 

[mireille]

Good morning,

I have been making a RTW booking and managed one for end of year.
Anyway this is the real reason I post this message.

I would like to let you know that while I did the transaction to Singapore Airlines, the agent sent me a phishing email that has been flagged by Gmail.
She laughed when I told her that her email was a scam and she sent me quickly the genuine one with my itinerary.
Unfortunately, eventhough Gmail has a warning system, it only appeared after the email was clicked on and by that time it was too late.
This was on Sunday and it's only on Tuesday that I discovered that all my emails from work with my payslips and link to work have been all wiped. I work from home and had Monday off so by the time I tried to log in for work on Tuesday, I found out everything has disappeared.
That agent has my debit card details so I don't know to what extent the damage could be done, but this is to let you know that the scam came from SIA own booking team.
So far I checked my account, it's still ok and have accordingly advised my bank.
There have been 3 different times when I had to key in my card details.
I did the first transaction with the booking agent from the beginning. Then she said the system didn't work on her end so she had to connect me to another one to finalise.
The second agent was the one sending me the phishing email. The second transaction took a while to be done but it had to be annuled because my miles hadn't been deducted for the ticket. Then I had to wait a while after putting my payment details again before everything was finalised. I guess now it took all that time for the downloading of my email contents.
All my messages with anything concerning money were wiped.
The first agent was from US Reservations but I don't know where the second one was from or whether she was a genuine one.

I have advised Singaporeair and am waiting for their response.

 

[tharaka]

Good morning,

I have been making a RTW booking and managed one for end of year.
Anyway this is the real reason I post this message.

I would like to let you know that while I did the transaction to Singapore Airlines, the agent sent me a phishing email that has been flagged by Gmail.
She laughed when I told her that her email was a scam and she sent me quickly the genuine one with my itinerary.
Unfortunately, eventhough Gmail has a warning system, it only appeared after the email was clicked on and by that time it was too late.
This was on Sunday and it's only on Tuesday that I discovered that all my emails from work with my payslips and link to work have been all wiped. I work from home and had Monday off so by the time I tried to log in for work on Tuesday, I found out everything has disappeared.
That agent has my debit card details so I don't know to what extent the damage could be done, but this is to let you know that the scam came from SIA own booking team.
So far I checked my account, it's still ok and have accordingly advised my bank.
There have been 3 different times when I had to key in my card details.
I did the first transaction with the booking agent from the beginning. Then she said the system didn't work on her end so she had to connect me to another one to finalise.
The second agent was the one sending me the phishing email. The second transaction took a while to be done but it had to be annuled because my miles hadn't been deducted for the ticket. Then I had to wait a while after putting my payment details again before everything was finalised. I guess now it took all that time for the downloading of my email contents.
All my messages with anything concerning money were wiped.
The first agent was from US Reservations but I don't know where the second one was from or whether she was a genuine one.

I have advised Singaporeair and am waiting for their response.

This is terrible and I'm sorry to hear that you've lost all of your email data. Happy you managed to secure the accounts.

I booked a RTW the day before yesterday.
- The CC key-in system - same happened with me. Was told her system was giving an error hence had to try the other system. I'm not sure what this meant, but I keyed in the number/details and didn't read out to them. So I think this was ok.
- My etickets went to spam only on gmail. I did another redemption on my partner's account and her Yahoo mail (I know!) didn't have an issue. Now that I've heard your story, it's possible that gmail's algorithms marked it as spam based on a similar (similar time, IP, etc). I have checked that these etickets pdf's are legit. All came from [email protected]

 

[mireille]

Hi Tharaka,

I appreciate your email but I still think that this is not from a Gmail's problem.
I have worked on this booking since 26/01 and have had numerous back and forth emails with the first agent and had to change itineraries multiple times and each time she sent me a new one with no problems at all. She even sent me the separate receipt of the $250 booking fee through with no problem. Then she realised the key-in payment system didn't work, that's when she connected me to the other agent.
There's no problem with Gmail whatsover because each time they confirm they have scanned the attachments and this time they recognised it was a phishing email from that particular email header and blocked them from being opened.
Gmail is actually the only one so far that I know personally to block the opening of attachments. I also have Yahoo, Outlook and Thunderbird.

 

[tharaka]

Hi Tharaka,

I appreciate your email but I still think that this is not from a Gmail's problem.
I have worked on this booking since 26/01 and have had numerous back and forth emails with the first agent and had to change itineraries multiple times and each time she sent me a new one with no problems at all. She even sent me the separate receipt of the $250 booking fee through with no problem. Then she realised the key-in payment system didn't work, that's when she connected me to the other agent.
There's no problem with Gmail whatsover because each time they confirm they have scanned the attachments and this time they recognised it was a phishing email from that particular email header and blocked them from being opened.
Gmail is actually the only one so far that I know personally to block the opening of attachments. I also have Yahoo, Outlook and Thunderbird.

Absolutely didn’t mean this is a gmail problem. I think what you’re saying is right. What I meant is since someone’s phishing to the same emails sq are using at the same time,, possibly from same/similar IPs Google is detecting some SQ legit emails as phishing as well. Hence why my legit etickets went to spam.

 

[mireille]

It didn't go to spam, it stayed in inbox but with a red warning

 

[Ade]

It didn't go to spam, it stayed in inbox but with a red warning

May I point out that the salutations on this email is "Dear Sir/Madam". I wonder is that how airlines address? I'd have thought "Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms PaxLastName" ? Is it just me?

Dear Mr. Smith or Dear Mr. John Smith?