RTW with KF points - fill in a form

[DavidM1]

I've just tried to book a 2 RTW business class tickets at the SQ call centre. I'd built an itinerary on the Star Alliance website and checked that all selected flights had points availability with UA MileagePlus. All seemed fine.
After going through all the details with the call centre guy he went away to check and told me that for him to do the booking it would cost US$200 per ticket. SUggested that I fill in a form which I've done and sent off.
Waiting to see what will happen.

 

[SOPOOR]

I've just tried to book a 2 RTW business class tickets at the SQ call centre. I'd built an itinerary on the Star Alliance website and checked that all selected flights had points availability with UA MileagePlus. All seemed fine.
After going through all the details with the call centre guy he went away to check and told me that for him to do the booking it would cost US$200 per ticket. SUggested that I fill in a form which I've done and sent off.
Waiting to see what will happen.

is he insinuating that if you fill it in via paperform, you wont get charged $200?

 

[DavidM1]

is he insinuating that if you fill it in via paperform, you wont get charged $200?

Turns out it costs US$250 per ticket no matter whether booked by phone or email.
But are these tickets even available? I built the route below in J class using the Star Alliance tool to make sure valid. Then checked availability of every sector with MileagePlus to find the lowest point flights, assuming they would be Saver Awards. This is the response from KF support.

Route	Flight Date	Flight Number
MEL - SFO	27 August 2024	No availability
SFO - LIM	28 August 2024	No availability
LIM - UIO	09 September 2024	CM 760 LIM - PTY CM 152 PTY - UIO
UIO - CTG	23 September 2024	No availability
CTG - CDG	24 September 2024	No availability
CDG - MEL	Date not provided yet	Pending for date

The latter dates aren’t quite right because the SA tool limits how far in the future you can book. The date of our final flight home will actually be based on J Saver availability on SQ’s website.
Would I be spending US$500 (2 tix) to find out I couldn‘t book such a ticket even 10-11 months in advance?

 

[levelnine]

MEL - SFO

27 August 2024

There is no J saver availability on that route on that date (or any other date that month).

United rarely releases J saver seats on its Australia routes more than a few months out.

To make a RTW ticket from Australia work booking far in advance, you're probably going to have fly via SIN on SQ both ways — pretty much no other Star Alliance carrier has award availability far in advance.

 

[aikman]

you're probably going to have fly via SIN on SQ both ways

Isn't there a "no backtracking" rule? MEL-SIN-SFO is backtracking.

 

[levelnine]

Isn't there a "no backtracking" rule? MEL-SIN-SFO is backtracking.

Quite possibly. Good catch. I've never looked into the details of that rule as I've found availability too restrictive to bother trying.

 

[mireille]

My understanding of "backtracking" is that you keep going in one direction and not go backwards to the cities you just passed through. The airline you chose has to stop at their mother base, it's not backtracking; SIA even allows you to have a complementary stopover.

 

[mireille]

Have you got any confirmation for your tickets? I'm doing the same with mine, still waiting for their response.

 

[nat000]

Hi. Quick question. What code do I want to look for in the UA mileage plus site to be able to book a business class flight as part of the star alliance RTW ? Would (JN) do the job for me to get a business class seat in my RTW ?

 

[Atleastonce]

I am starting my research now for a Feb 2025 RTW trip. Initial thoughts are SIA in both directions if I can.