Hey all - longtime lurker of this thread, as I assembled the points necessary to book a six-week holiday next June.
I wanted to express my appreciation for the information and back-and-forth contained across these 100 or so pages, as they were my primary resource in getting my #@&% together to book a RTW in J using points for 2014.
Lessons learnt:
1) Even eight months out, flexibility is key. Much of what I wanted to do had to be shifted +/- one day to make things work
2) I called up Qantas to make the booking at 530AM on a Saturday (I'm an early riser) and I felt like I had the agent's full attention and collaboration. Not sure if that's standard service or was helped due to the timing of my call, but I appreciated the way I was handled over the phone.
3) Bouncing around Europe on the RTW fare can be challenging because it seems like the easiest flights to make go through LHR and you can only go through LHR so many times (I thought it was twice, though the agent told me once and we made once work) on a valid award fare. Berlin and Helsinki were secondary hubs to use, and since one of my destinations was Oslo, Helsinki is pretty convenient in that regard.
4) Thought the "must travel in one direction" rule was stricter, but it seems to apply when bouncing between continents/zones. I was able to go Europe --> Vancouver --> Chicago --> Tokyo on a valid award fare (didn't eat up all my allowable miles either)
5) Was difficult to find any availability to go between Vancouver and Chicago, so I chose to get myself to Portland, OR and then fly my award ticket to Chicago from there. Because there's no business class on American Airlines, I had to settle for Economy. I think I could have gotten First if my flight was coupled with an overseas leg offering J. Because the agent couldn't book it that way, the system wouldn't let her book me straight into First.
6) The BA and AA websites were invaluable for checking award availability. I mapped everything out the day before using QF/BA/AA award ticket searches and it was all bookable by the time I made the phone call.
Again, thanks for the civil discourse and helpful commentary across all these pages. Here's what I'm flying:
1) BNE - PER - DOH - MAD with QF/QR/QR
2) MAD - LHR - OSL with IB/BA
3) OSL - HEL - JFK - YVR with AY/AY/CX
4) (independently getting to PDX) PDX - ORD with AA - this is the only leg not in J
5) ORD - NRT with JL
6) NRT - SYD (787!) - BNE with JL/QF
280k points, 6k booking fee, $872 taxes and fees.
