KrisFlyer Star Alliance Round-the-World Award Planning

[mireille]

Hi Ade,

Good point but I just checked all their emails. That's the salutation when they send any document from

"Singapore Airlines" <[email protected]>​

unless the agent wrote to me directly regarding my ititnerary under SINGAPORE AIRLINES COURTESY EMAIL

 

[tharaka]

Hi Milk-Man,

Congrats on the above mentioned booking, it seems your persistence has paid off.

I am looking at a similar route with yours and I have called up numerous amount of times without luck.

I will be trying your suggestions in the next few days, where I fill in the form and advise of my itinerary via email.

I have a few questions before I send through my email to Krisflyer.

- will you be enjoying a stopover in SIN or are SIN stops to be layovers?
- did you provide specific dates for the each flight and were they booked as requested? or did you have to spend time finding new dates for all flights?
- would you be able to share a template of the email you sent? obviously with all personal and sensitive information removed.

Thanks for sharing your experience in the previous post and any future guidance.

Don

How did you do EDI to BRU? I've been told this is backtracking!

 

[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

I'm being told that all flights MUST be on Business now. Tried 2 reps and both saying the same thing. I want to add one United domestic short economy flight and they won't allow it.

 

[Myztikal_]

I'm struggling to find any availability from LIS (Lisbon) > GIG (Rio De Janeiro) on Business (I).

Is this generally very hard to get? I've looked on seats.aero and United Mileage with no luck. This is for end of December (30). TAP website shows they have business class on the day, but perhaps not award seats.

Are there any other preferred ways (good flight/service) to get from west europe to south America?

EDIT: The food and service from MAD > BOG by Avianca appears to be underwhelming. Maybe FRA > EWY > BOG?

 

[robbo135]

For those who were thinking about booking a RTW award, this is going to be gone for good from 1 May !

KrisFlyer axes Star Alliance Round-the-World awards from May 2024

From 1st May 2024, you’ll no longer be able to ticket a new Star Alliance Round-the-World award using KrisFlyer miles, removing this rare but valuable redemption option from the programme.

mainlymiles.com

I was in the early stages of planning a RTW redemption for Nov 2025 when I would reach the 10 year milestone at work and get my LSL, but that plan has now been scuppered .

 

[aerostar]

Hi All,

I am new here. So please excuse me if the questions are too basic. We are planning a RTW trip in 3 months time. I know it is quite optmistic given the short timeframe. Looking for some help on award seat availability. We are planning

Hyderabad-> Tokyo(Singapore Airlines)
Tokyo-> San Francisco (United or ANA)
San Francisco-> Newyork (United)
Newyork-> Franfurt(Singapore Airlines)
Franfurt->Zurich(Swiss Air)
Zurich->Cairo(Swiss & Egypt air)
Cairo->Hyderabad(Egypt air & Air India)

roughly as our route

I understand that all the bookings need to be on saver type.
1) When searching on United website, I only see saver award tag for economy but nothing for Business. How do I know which business fares are saver award?
2) Finding it very difficult to see an award seat between Tokyo->SanFrancisco. Where can I check for ANA award seat availability?
3) For airlines like Egypt air, South African airways & Ethiopian airlines, how do we know about seat availability?

Appreciate any support on this!

 

[quackie]

For those who were thinking about booking a RTW award, this is going to be gone for good from 1 May !

KrisFlyer axes Star Alliance Round-the-World awards from May 2024

From 1st May 2024, you’ll no longer be able to ticket a new Star Alliance Round-the-World award using KrisFlyer miles, removing this rare but valuable redemption option from the programme.

mainlymiles.com

I was in the early stages of planning a RTW redemption for Nov 2025 when I would reach the 10 year milestone at work and get my LSL, but that plan has now been scuppered .

I was in a similar position as you.

I had initially tried to book a RTW two months ago for a trip starting in October 2024 this year but I couldn't either find any flights back to Australia, or ended up in Y for most of the journey and so I gave up then. I then set my sights to do this trip in October next year. And then this bombshell dropped.

Rejigged my plans by moving the trip forward by eight months to mid Feb 2025 and managed to redeem a booking, all in J for one person.

Here's what I managed to book:

TPE - VIE (BR)
VIE - LIS (TP)
LIS - FCO (TP)
FCO - MUC (LH)
MUC - CPH (LH)
CPH - FRA (LH)
FRA - JFK (SQ)
LAX - NRT (SQ)
NRT - TPE (BR)

Tools I used for this booking were SQ's own booking site, UA's booking site, *A's RTW booking tool to validate routing, and the occasional use of Seats.aero and Award Nexus.

 

[aerostar]

I was in a similar position as you.

I had initially tried to book a RTW two months ago for a trip starting in October 2024 this year but I couldn't either find any flights back to Australia, or ended up in Y for most of the journey and so I gave up then. I then set my sights to do this trip in October next year. And then this bombshell dropped.

Rejigged my plans by moving the trip forward by eight months to mid Feb 2025 and managed to redeem a booking, all in J for one person.

Here's what I managed to book:

TPE - VIE (BR)
VIE - LIS (TP)
LIS - FCO (TP)
FCO - MUC (LH)
MUC - CPH (LH)
CPH - FRA (LH)
FRA - JFK (SQ)
LAX - NRT (SQ)
NRT - TPE (BR)

Tools I used for this booking were SQ's own booking site, UA's booking site, *A's RTW booking tool to validate routing, and the occasional use of Seats.aero and Award Nexus.

Congrats on the booking! Well done!

I have a basic question to ask. I am looking to make the booking but have limited knowledge in the space. I am using seats.aero, united & singapore website to find award seats. So the only allowed Business class seats for RTW are Business class(I) is it? With United, struggling to find a I seats. And within the US, is backtracking allowed. like can i go from SFO to DFW and come back to SFO? Appreciate any inputs

 

[aerostar]

I'm being told that all flights MUST be on Business now. Tried 2 reps and both saying the same thing. I want to add one United domestic short economy flight and they won't allow it.

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

Nice route.
I am looking to book RTW starting from India. My biggest issue right now is
a) Travelling from EWR to SFO. Should the united business ticket be marked Business(I) on the united website for me to book or is there any other fares which can be booked?
b) I see you mentioned United Polaris. Again should the business ticket be marked Business(I) on the united website?

Appreciate your support here!

 

[quackie]

Congrats on the booking! Well done!

I have a basic question to ask. I am looking to make the booking but have limited knowledge in the space. I am using seats.aero, united & singapore website to find award seats. So the only allowed Business class seats for RTW are Business class(I) is it? With United, struggling to find a I seats. And within the US, is backtracking allowed. like can i go from SFO to DFW and come back to SFO? Appreciate any inputs

Yes you should be looking for an I fare class ticket if you're after business class.

In my experience, the best way to look for availability is through SQ's own booking site, selecting the Star Alliance tab as these tickets are usually I fare class anyway. I used UA's site to validate what I found on SQ's site as the taxes wouldn't show for one of my TAP Portugal sectors on SQ's site and it showed an error.

There are three zones. There is the Americas (North, Central and South) (zone 1), Europe and Africa (zone 2), and Asia (zone 3). You cannot backtrack between zones. So if you were heading eastward from zone 3 to zone 1, you cannot backtrack from zone 1 to zone 3, you need to continue on from zone 1 to zone 2. And vice versa. You'll need to continue through the zones in one continuous direction (eastward or westward).

However, when you're in one particular zone, you can start to switch direction. In my itinerary, I'm going westward for my journey. My journey is TPE - VIE - LIS - FCO. Notice FCO is actually east of LIS but because it's in zone 2, you're allowed to do so.

In the example you gave on US, you're allowed to switch directions but you are only allowed to have a stopover once in each city. SFO - DFW - SFO means you'll be having a stopover in SFO twice, so no. However, if you have a layover of under 24 hours (say SFO - DFW - SFO - LAX) with the second SFO stop being under 24 hours before flying to LAX, I think that's allowed as it's considered a layover if the time between flights is under 24 hours. Don't take this as gospel though as your mileage may vary with the agent on the phone.

Hope this helps.

 

[aerostar]

Yes you should be looking for an I fare class ticket if you're after business class.

In my experience, the best way to look for availability is through SQ's own booking site, selecting the Star Alliance tab as these tickets are usually I fare class anyway. I used UA's site to validate what I found on SQ's site as the taxes wouldn't show for one of my TAP Portugal sectors on SQ's site and it showed an error.

There are three zones. There is the Americas (North, Central and South) (zone 1), Europe and Africa (zone 2), and Asia (zone 3). You cannot backtrack between zones. So if you were heading eastward from zone 3 to zone 1, you cannot backtrack from zone 1 to zone 3, you need to continue on from zone 1 to zone 2. And vice versa. You'll need to continue through the zones in one continuous direction (eastward or westward).

However, when you're in one particular zone, you can start to switch direction. In my itinerary, I'm going westward for my journey. My journey is TPE - VIE - LIS - FCO. Notice FCO is actually east of LIS but because it's in zone 2, you're allowed to do so.

In the example you gave on US, you're allowed to switch directions but you are only allowed to have a stopover once in each city. SFO - DFW - SFO means you'll be having a stopover in SFO twice, so no. However, if you have a layover of under 24 hours (say SFO - DFW - SFO - LAX) with the second SFO stop being under 24 hours before flying to LAX, I think that's allowed as it's considered a layover if the time between flights is under 24 hours. Don't take this as gospel though as your mileage may vary with the agent on the phone.

Hope this helps.

This is super super helpful! Thanks a ton I think the within Zone backtracking you mentioned is gold. I didn't know about it. Also with the taxes, are the taxes shown on United website (say for example for TAP portugal flight) same when booked with United as with Singapore airlines?

 

[quackie]

This is super super helpful! Thanks a ton I think the within Zone backtracking you mentioned is gold. I didn't know about it. Also with the taxes, are the taxes shown on United website (say for example for TAP portugal flight) same when booked with United as with Singapore airlines?

Yes. Just do up a dummy flight to find the taxes to find the taxes.

Good luck with finding flights on United by the way. I had difficulty looking for them.

 

[TimW.R]

We got rushed into booking with the announcement of the award ticket being axed as well.

After a very lengthy phone call (with a couple call-backs probably to cater for the rep's breaks) of nearly 7 hours managed to book the following for 2 people in J for the last week of Jan till first week of March '25:

MEL - SIN (SQ)
SIN - (JNB) - CPT (SQ)
CPT - GRU (SA)
EZE - BOG (AV)
BOG - (PTY) - JFK (CM)
EWR - (SIN) - MEL (SQ)

Couple things stood out:
The very first rep (Thai) wouldn't consider MEL-(SIN)-TYO as it was considered backtracking despite me stating this was allowed as you are allowed to travel through the same city more than once. No joy so hung up and tried again - connected to a Singaporean rep this time.

There was only one J seat available between GRU and EZE (Ethiopian) despite there being Swiss and Air Canada on the route as well for all dates so opted to make our own way (via Rio).
Same thing between DEL and CPT and thus opted to go via SIN instead.

Initially wanted to go to MEX, CUN or even stop in PTY after BOG, but no availability between those cities and the US west coast (and from there to get back to MEL) in order to avoid backtracking.

 

[aerostar]

Yes. Just do up a dummy flight to find the taxes to find the taxes.

Good luck with finding flights on United by the way. I had difficulty looking for them.

Got it. Yeah very low availability on United for intra US travel. Will keep you posted on how I go

 

[BrianLee]

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.)

Hi…is it possible to leave from Melbourne Australia…and include Manila either outbound or return? Will SQ allow Manila- Singapore - Melbourne or will that be backtracking? Thanks

 

[tharaka]

I was in a similar position as you.

I had initially tried to book a RTW two months ago for a trip starting in October 2024 this year but I couldn't either find any flights back to Australia, or ended up in Y for most of the journey and so I gave up then. I then set my sights to do this trip in October next year. And then this bombshell dropped.

Rejigged my plans by moving the trip forward by eight months to mid Feb 2025 and managed to redeem a booking, all in J for one person.

Here's what I managed to book:

TPE - VIE (BR)
VIE - LIS (TP)
LIS - FCO (TP)
FCO - MUC (LH)
MUC - CPH (LH)
CPH - FRA (LH)
FRA - JFK (SQ)
LAX - NRT (SQ)
NRT - TPE (BR)

Tools I used for this booking were SQ's own booking site, UA's booking site, *A's RTW booking tool to validate routing, and the occasional use of Seats.aero and Award Nexus.

Well done! those taxes on LH and many intra EU 1-2hr flights is killing. I always opt to do trains between EU cities. Also I'm surprised at the inconsistency with SQ's application of backtracking rules. I've been denied EDI-BRU, CPH-MUC, many intra EU sectors.

 

[zan5hin]

OMG I'm devastated it's gone, I just got caught up now

I did one in 2023 and planned to do one in 2025. I finally have heaps of velocity points to convert...... More than enough for the former 280k requirement.

To be honest, the hoops required to find the availability while using tools to search, already made it too hard for 99% of people.

Does any airline with any alliance still offer RTW using points?

 

[tharaka]

OMG I'm devastated it's gone, I just got caught up now

I did one in 2023 and planned to do one in 2025. I finally have heaps of velocity points to convert...... More than enough for the former 280k requirement.

To be honest, the hoops required to find the availability while using tools to search, already made it too hard for 99% of people.

Does any airline with any alliance still offer RTW using points?

You can still do all SQ rtw using their fifth freedom flights for 293k. It doesn’t have the USD250 booking fee either so pretty much same as the rtw. Stopover options are obviously limited.

If you do it as two one ways you may even be able to do partner airlines on all SQ pnr. This will give you more locations. Check the stopover limit if you do this though.

 

[Mattg]

Does any airline with any alliance still offer RTW using points?

Yes, there is still:

• Lufthansa
• Thai Airways
• Asiana
• ANA

The following oneworld airlines also still offer a multi-city award that you could use to fly around the world:

• Qantas
• Cathay Pacific
• British Airways
• Japan Airlines
• Iberia

You can still do all SQ rtw using their fifth freedom flights for 293k. It doesn’t have the USD250 booking fee either so pretty much same as the rtw. Stopover options are obviously limited.

If you do it as two one ways you may even be able to do partner airlines on all SQ pnr. This will give you more locations. Check the stopover limit if you do this though.

Yes indeed. This guide has more details: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/fly-round-the-world-krisflyer-miles/

 

[zan5hin]

Yes, there is still:

• Lufthansa
• Thai Airways
• Asiana
• ANA

The following oneworld airlines also still offer a multi-city award that you could use to fly around the world:

• Qantas
• Cathay Pacific
• British Airways
• Japan Airlines
• Iberia

Yes indeed. This guide has more details: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/fly-round-the-world-krisflyer-miles/

Thanks @Mattg for your articles. I read your fantastic articles.

There is some potential to still use SQ Advantage for my travel plans but the limited amount of stopovers really kills it for me. In 2023 I stopped in Japan, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Turkey, Bangkok which allowed side trips - and now I'm limited to just one or two for the similar amount of reward miles.

Because I'm really targeting South America, this year I'm doing MAD-BOG using old AAmiles and then GRU-CPT-SIN-MEL to get home on Sth African and SQ. So spending 293k without even getting to the same continent is impractical. At least with the KF S* RTW, I could get to PTY as a hub and then CNF open jaw to GRU and find some flights to Europe from there.

Only one stopover on a S* award is S**** and those are not the type of stars you would want in an alliance. Going to Boston and not stopping in Bangkok or Munich is crazy because I need my side trips.

I just can't see how it can work for me. I'm gonna have to find some other solution to travel long distance in business, mixed with paid economy/premium economy for short flights.

This is my 39 day trip in July/Aug 2024:

China Southern to FCO in economy for $600 (call 2 days before flight to ask for offer to pay for premium economy seat upgrade)
then overland to NCE via Florence/Cinque Terre, fly to LIS and MAD on Easyjet
then MAD-BOG on Iberia using some old AAmiles I've been hanging onto since 2010 (!)
BOG-CNF in paid Premium Economy on Avianca (approx $800)
CNF-CGH (other airport in Sao Paulo) in economy on LATAM
GRU-CPT on South African Airways in economy for 29k Velocity points
CPT to home in SQ Biz for 139k Velocity points

Pretty expert way to travel as you can see.... but this is only because ExpertFlyer doesn't work anymore and I just couldn't see a way to search for availability without it in 2024.

I think the only way forward is to stop moving my credit card churn to Velocity and find a way to start collecting more AAmiles or another program that can give me business awards for long distance travel....from Australia to Europe or North America. Qantas is a joke, firstly it is hard to collect 500,000 points just using bonus points and not business spend and secondly, their redemption costs for a round trip are ridiculous.

Using Australian credit cards, I have no idea. I have ANZ and AMEX to convert to Velocity for the 15% bonus this month, unless someone has a better idea.

Maybe Turkish airways has miles, that way I can jump all the way from Melbourne to Europe. I refuse to use Qatar airways for political reasons. Maybe United or collect to 50k Air Canada miles from the HSBC S* card to see what that can do for me.....or start looking at those airlines with programs that frequently service Colombia/Brazil/Argentina.