Star Alliance round the world award w/Kris Flyer points - booking tips

[geoffb78]

Hi all

I'm shortly planning to book a Star Alliance round the world business class award (departing September 2017) using KrisFlyer points. I called today and was advised that I need to book all the segments required to meet the 'around the world' requirement/condition at one time. I understand this differs from the (almost) equivalent Qantas One World award, which allows booking of segments one by one with re-pricing to the relevant price (in points) once all the conditions of the One World award are met.

My problem is that I don't want to miss out on snaring an award seat for my first few legs because I am waiting for award seats on the later legs to be released.

Does anyone have any advice? I could probably book a set of earlier 'dummy' dates (assuming seats remain available) and then call them to change the dates once award seats for my actual preferred date of travel are released but that could be expensive (given the US$20 fee for each change).

Also if anyone understands the backtracking rules, I'd value advice on that. The KF call centre operator was lovely but I couldn't get an answer to my question about whether flying YVR-xYYZ-SIN constituted backtracking in an itinerary that looks like BNE-ICN-BKK-CDG-HAV//YVR-xYYZ-SIN-BNE.

Finally, the KF operator advised that even date changes are not permitted after departure. Does this sound right?

Thanks in advance.

Geoff.

 

[Mattg]

There's not a lot of information available out there about these kind of awards at all, so I'd be very keen to hear how you go.

It sounds to me like the only way to get around the "book all segments at once" rule will be to make date changes as each sector becomes available on the date you wish to travel. Or, just wait until all sectors become available. As you say, there is always a risk of losing flights this way.

As far as I'm aware, the backtracking rules state that you may only cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans once respectively. Not sure about the YVR-YYZ-SIN part though. My guess is that it would be allowed, but I guess you won't find out for sure until you try to book it.

If that doesn't work, would it be possible to do BNE-SIN-ICN-BKK-CDG-HAV//YVR-BNE instead? (Air Canada now fly YVR-BNE direct.)

Regarding your last question, I note the KrisFlyer award rules for travel on Star Alliance airlines say that changes to destination or carrier cannot be made after travel has commenced. Doesn't say anything specifically about date changes, so I am not sure if that's actually correct.

 

[Winston1]

Very keen to learn more about this too.
Im thinking of a 1st class RTW ticket, but presumably snagging 1st awards on partner airlines like Lufthansa and Thai will be quite difficult. Guessing I need to register accounts with all the respective star alliance airlines to search availability and then book through KrisFlyer when I can see availability?

 

[ossi]

Very keen to learn more about this too.
Im thinking of a 1st class RTW ticket, but presumably snagging 1st awards on partner airlines like Lufthansa and Thai will be quite difficult. Guessing I need to register accounts with all the respective star alliance airlines to search availability and then book through KrisFlyer when I can see availability?

Also to redeem RTW tickets. Is there a single place to check seat availability?

 

[Mattg]

Also to redeem RTW tickets. Is there a single place to check seat availability?

The ANA (All Nippon Airways) website is generally pretty good for Star Alliance award availability.

 

[geoffb78]

So, I have just booked my Star Alliance round the world award in J using my KF points.

Prior to booking, I was really worried I wouldn't be able to get the seats I wanted, so I have booked a bunch of dummy dates for all segments except the first. Routing is SIN-BKK-VIE//FRA-xYUL-MCO//SEA-xNRT-PVG-SIN (will add an intra-US leg once some seats are available).

I wanted to get advice on the way the service fees for change of date/route/carrier are applied. I have looked at the info at https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/u.../service-fees/, but can't work out if I will need to pay US$20 for each sector that I change in a single 'transaction' or just one lot of US$20 per 'transaction'.

Given all but the first segment will need to be changed (and I'll be keen to lock in seats from the first date they are available to book, which will mean repeated changes for some, especially the latter, sectors), I am hoping it's just one fee per transaction, regardless of how many changes I make.

Any advice please?

Thanks

 

[Mattg]

I wanted to get advice on the way the service fees for change of date/route/carrier are applied. I have looked at the info at https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/u.../service-fees/, but can't work out if I will need to pay US$20 for each sector that I change in a single 'transaction' or just one lot of US$20 per 'transaction'.

Given all but the first segment will need to be changed (and I'll be keen to lock in seats from the first date they are available to book, which will mean repeated changes for some, especially the latter, sectors), I am hoping it's just one fee per transaction, regardless of how many changes I make.

Any advice please?

Thanks

Thanks for letting us know how you went.

My reading of the Singapore Airlines website is that you would only have to pay the change fee once each time you call up to make the changes, regardless of the number of changes. However, it's not clear at all from the website.

Please do let us know if you find out the answer.

 

[geoffb78]

I'm still not certain but the advice I received from SQ was that the fee is payable once per ticket per 'transaction' (my term), regardless of how many changes are made in that transaction. I'll likely be calling next week to update my itinerary once award seats open for my preferred travel date from Europe to the US; I'll know for sure then I guess!

 

[Lemon_Party]

I'm still not certain but the advice I received from SQ was that the fee is payable once per ticket per 'transaction' (my term), regardless of how many changes are made in that transaction. I'll likely be calling next week to update my itinerary once award seats open for my preferred travel date from Europe to the US; I'll know for sure then I guess!

Out of interest what taxes did you pay on that itinerary and how many KF points did it set you back?

 

[geoffb78]

Taxes about $1500. The Star Alliance RTW award costs 240,000 KF points in business.

 

[geoffb78]

I called KF last night to change the dates on a few segments of my Star Alliance RTW award. It turns out I also got a 45,000 points refund! But I want to check with the collective wisdom on here whether this might cause me any issues in future (or if there are more opportunities to be exploited)!

Current routing is: SIN-BKK-VIE-JFK//YVR-xHND-xPVG-SIN. Ultimately, I want to stopover in PVG but not HND; I haven't booked to stopover currently as I'm booking at the limit of award ticket release dates and I can't yet fit in a stop while still getting back to SIN within the window for award seat releases - hope this makes sense.

It appears this is a valid routing for a south-east Asia to North America return Star Alliance award ticket (I have paid 195,000 points for this). I note the same number of points are required for a south-west Pacific to North America return award ticket.

I have two questions:

1. Will I just be able to pay $100 to stop in PVG once the date I actually want is open for booking?
2. Is there a way to tack on a leg from/to Australia - SIN without incurring extra points? I thought there was a maximum of 6 segments on a Star Alliance return award ticket, so if I can get across the Pacific on a direct YVR-PVG flight (AC flies this route), will I be able to do the following routing for the same points: BNE-xSIN-BKK-VIE-JFK//YVR-PVG-xSIN-BNE (I actually don't want to stop in SIN in either direction, so could return from PVG-BNE on an alternative routing e.g. via TPE with Eva or BKK with Thai).

I realise this may be quite a complicated question so appreciate any advice anyone can offer.

Thanks again.

Geoff.

 

[Mattg]

It looks like this is no longer being treated as a round-the-world booking in the strict sense, but a round-trip Star Alliance award from Asia to North America.

I imagine that you would be able to add on the legs to/from BNE, but you'd need to pay the extra 45,000 miles to convert it into a proper RTW booking.

If using this as a return Australia-North America rather than a RTW booking, I think that technically you would be able to use one free stopover, and add a second for $100. But I highly doubt that BNE-SIN-BKK-VIE-JFK would be permitted as a routing from Australia to North America as it crosses through several award zones and is not even close to the most direct available route. YVR-PVG-SIN-BNE would probably be OK as it's reasonably direct, but I'm not 100% sure.

With the proper RTW award you're entitled to up to 7 free stopovers but cannot pay to add any extras.

Assuming that the return trip was allowed but BNE-JFK wasn't, I guess you could book SIN-JFK using your original routing and YVR-PVG-SIN-BNE, then add a separate BNE-SIN award. You may then need to pay another $100 for the first stopover as this would require 2x one-way awards, and you only get a free stopover on return awards. But that would end up costing just over 240,000 miles anyway - meaning you would be better off just using the RTW award.