Looking for some advise and help from AFF who have managed to snaffle the elusive J flights using Krisflyer points RTW. Having finally saved up the 240k points each to fly RTW in J my husband and I are now at the planning stage and to be honest it's not as fun as I thought it might have been!
We know the rules of travelling in one direction, The Americas one way and Asia on the return, no backtracking. We plan on spending the majority of our trip in Europe (mainly Italy, and also Barcelona, and possibly Croatia) and UK visiting family and friends. We have no desire to go anywhere in America so looked at Argentina or Canada for up to 5 nights.
I know that the award flights show around 340 days before needing to book. If doing RTW and spending 7 weeks away the logistics of the dates on the way to Europe (which are very flexible) still being available when the award flights open for the ones we are trying to get the flights on the way back 7 weeks later are not likely. We were originally going to stop in Sri Lanka but due to the devastating news over the last few days and the smart traveller website stating not to go, we know insurance will likely not cover us. We again, are flexible on the way back on where we stay for up to 5 nights, probably Vietnam now, but open to change.
I've read tips on point hacks etc and got a limited free account with awardnexus but wondered if anybody had experienced using star alliance (krisflyer) awards to do RTW business? Airlines that are a 'must do' in J class? Good availability of award points, stopover places to visit. I'm finding Air New Zealand difficult to see award flight availability - are these the same as 'using Airpoints' that show as a payment option? How difficult is choosing these with Krisflyer? Melbourne to Buenos Aires is most effective via Aukland with Air New Zealand.
Do we have to nominate each stop at the beginning from phoning up or can we try and get the main long flights and then add some smaller internal Europe flights later (knowing that these are likely to be economy) to be included in the RTW tickets?
Just really looking for some pointers from those that have been there, done that. Long time lurker but very green when it comes to this.
Thank you in advance for some ideas of making this a reality.
We know the rules of travelling in one direction, The Americas one way and Asia on the return, no backtracking. We plan on spending the majority of our trip in Europe (mainly Italy, and also Barcelona, and possibly Croatia) and UK visiting family and friends. We have no desire to go anywhere in America so looked at Argentina or Canada for up to 5 nights.
I know that the award flights show around 340 days before needing to book. If doing RTW and spending 7 weeks away the logistics of the dates on the way to Europe (which are very flexible) still being available when the award flights open for the ones we are trying to get the flights on the way back 7 weeks later are not likely. We were originally going to stop in Sri Lanka but due to the devastating news over the last few days and the smart traveller website stating not to go, we know insurance will likely not cover us. We again, are flexible on the way back on where we stay for up to 5 nights, probably Vietnam now, but open to change.
I've read tips on point hacks etc and got a limited free account with awardnexus but wondered if anybody had experienced using star alliance (krisflyer) awards to do RTW business? Airlines that are a 'must do' in J class? Good availability of award points, stopover places to visit. I'm finding Air New Zealand difficult to see award flight availability - are these the same as 'using Airpoints' that show as a payment option? How difficult is choosing these with Krisflyer? Melbourne to Buenos Aires is most effective via Aukland with Air New Zealand.
Do we have to nominate each stop at the beginning from phoning up or can we try and get the main long flights and then add some smaller internal Europe flights later (knowing that these are likely to be economy) to be included in the RTW tickets?
Just really looking for some pointers from those that have been there, done that. Long time lurker but very green when it comes to this.
Thank you in advance for some ideas of making this a reality.
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) HOWEVER...given what "Euro-Business" is like on virtually all airlines, and the relatively short flights you are doing.... I'd suggest its not a GREAT loss to be in Y.... EDIT: Just checked the seat maps...looks like SN is the "blocked middle" Euro Business type of thing on their narrowbodies. If you can select a seat in the first few rows I'd imagine you ARE in that class....
