Business / First around the world ticket using Amex 241? Does it exist?
Discuss today's stories:
-
The holy grail of redemptions, the UK to Australia route needs at least two flights so surely applying that logic, the round the world option needing X number of flights seems feasible.
Does anyone know if this is possible or not ?
Need 2 x 241 vouchers and nest them to do that + either too many Avios or higher surcharges.
Why would anyone do that when you can get RTW with ANA for 115k miles in J or just piece it on your own with separate legs on non-BA/Iberia/Aer Lingus? It will work out much cheaper.
Need 2 x 241 vouchers and nest them to do that + either too many Avios or higher surcharges.
Why would anyone do that when you can get RTW with ANA for 115k miles in J or just piece it on your own with separate legs on non-BA/Iberia/Aer Lingus? It will work out much cheaper.
Ooooh 115k miles is exactly how many I have with Virgin. That’s got me thinking. Know nothing about ANA though other than I can use my points there.
Need 2 x 241 vouchers and nest them to do that + either too many Avios or higher surcharges.
2for1 vouchers can only be used with BA, Iberia or Aer Lingus. None of these fly transpacific so there’s no way of completing a round the world trip purely on a 2for1.
I doubt you can even do an open jaw as you’d need to find routing where the missing transpacific sector is shorter than the flights to/from London, Madrid or Dublin.
I assume you’re talking about using two vouchers for one way flights, e.g. to Asia and from the US, which is possible but there would still be a gap in the middle.
Why would anyone do that when you can get RTW with ANA for 115k miles in J or just piece it on your own with separate legs on non-BA/Iberia/Aer Lingus? It will work out much cheaper.
Surely you can only get as far as the US on ANA? You’d still need to get back from there (or get there if going the other way).
Sorry I hastily said 2 x 241 vouchers without properly explaining all options.
There are a few open-jaw routes that offer the right distances. Tokyo-San Francisco, Sydney-Santiago I believe too. This option is only available for new-style vouchers which you can use to start from outside UK.
Option 1
Book TYO-LHR-TYO on one voucher and nest it with LHR-SFO-LHR in a way that it aligns with dates.Just as an illustration
TYO-LHR 15 Feb Voucher 1
LHR-SFO 16 Feb Voucher 2You can add returns to each voucher for another time and do it again in the opposite direction.
For transpacific leg add an extra RT flight on Avios with JAL. Why anyone would do that is another matter, but it’s possible.
Option 2
It’s possible to book over the phone Tokyo to San Francisco via LHR as one-way on 241 voucher over the phone. If I remember correctly it’s 250k Avios in J. Then you can add an extra flight on Avios with JAL for transpacific separately. Not all agents will want to do that, but some will. Before the recent changes that was possible online, but not any longer so maybe this option is no longer available.Regarding ANA they have an option of RTW ticket in J for 115k miles. It’s valid for any Star Alliance flights.
https://www.ana.co.jp/en/gb/amc/partner-flight-awards/around-the-world/
You can do up to 20,000 miles up to 8 stopovers allowed and there a few other rules. Many other blogs outline possible routes.
It can only be done with ANA miles so the only option is to transfer from Marriott Bonvoy or credit some Virgin/Etihad/Star Alliance flights to ANA.
Sorry I hastily said 2 x 241 vouchers without properly explaining all options.
There are a few open-jaw routes that offer the right distances. Tokyo-San Francisco, Sydney-Santiago I believe too. This option is only available for new-style vouchers which you can use to start from outside UK.
In that case you should, in theory, be able to book an open jaw starting from London using a single companion voucher.
Of course, as round the world itineraries go, it’s quite constraining. Great if you want to visit those city pairs, places close-by and anywhere you can stop off in between (Alaska?) but otherwise not hugely useful.
Hence why ANA RTW options look attractive. If you want to up the number of miles to 170k ANA miles you could have a really great trip. They even allow some backtracking if you have to transfer in Tokyo.
I’m planning this for 2025/2026, but the way things are going it may not exist then.
Regarding ANA they have an option of RTW ticket in J for 115k miles. It’s valid for any Star Alliance flights.
https://www.ana.co.jp/en/gb/amc/partner-flight-awards/around-the-world/
You can do up to 20,000 miles up to 8 stopovers allowed and there a few other rules. Many other blogs outline possible routes.
It can only be done with ANA miles so the only option is to transfer from Marriott Bonvoy or credit some Virgin/Etihad/Star Alliance flights to ANA.
Virgin allows you to transfer miles to ANA? I always though Virgin Miles couldn’t been transferred to any partner airline….just that you could book ana, KLM, air France on the virgin website with within miles.
If only @Ash… dream a while longer then read it again 🙂
You can’t. But that’s not the same as crediting Virgin flights to ANA, which would be one route to earning ANA miles.
DOH! Got too excited and mis-read.
I guess the only way is via pumping Virgin or Amex MR into Bonvoy then ANA – you’d lose some value on the conversion but it’s an option
Au contraire, I’d say you’re gaining value becaise this game doesn’t get much better than this reward.
True. Caveats to check are any limited Marriot places on transferring Bonvoy points into miles. Unlikely they would limit transfers into Bonvoy.
Heathrow Rewards dont let you use them as means to convert one airline points into another eg Emirates Skywards to/from Avios via Heathrow Rewards. Hope Marriot is not the same.
PS the ANA RTW is solely on ANA metal? Can’t use partner airlines?
Last October Marriott started removing the 5k bonus on transferring 60k Bonvoy points to some airlines but not ANA. It’s another Hilton breakfast thing, you have to wonder where and when it all ends once it has started.
I was looking at RTW the other day and managed to price the below (with actual availability) across Economy tickets using Avios. This takes the lowest Avios cost so you could flex and pay more and use fewer points. PE for the same journeys is around 250k points and £750. The Business Class availability was sparse I gave up trying to create it
Economy
Out In Points £Tax Airline AirMilesHours
London JNB 12,500 £211.84 BA Avios 11
JNB Sydney 36,250 £52.50 Quantas Avios 12
Sydney LA 51,500 £96.70 Quantas Avios 14
LA London 30,000 £74.54 BA Avios 10.5Total 130,250 £435.58
I was looking at RTW the other day and managed to price the below (with actual availability) across Economy tickets using Avios. This takes the lowest Avios cost so you could flex and pay more and use fewer points. PE for the same journeys is around 250k points and £750. The Business Class availability was sparse I gave up trying to create it
Economy
Out In Points £Tax Airline AirMilesHours
London JNB 12,500 £211.84 BA Avios 11
JNB Sydney 36,250 £52.50 Quantas Avios 12
Sydney LA 51,500 £96.70 Quantas Avios 14
LA London 30,000 £74.54 BA Avios 10.5Total 130,250 £435.58
Nice find. Especially Joburg to Sydney
I was looking at RTW the other day and managed to price the below (with actual availability) across Economy tickets using Avios. This takes the lowest Avios cost so you could flex and pay more and use fewer points. PE for the same journeys is around 250k points and £750. The Business Class availability was sparse I gave up trying to create it
Economy
Out In Points £Tax Airline AirMilesHours
London JNB 12,500 £211.84 BA Avios 11
JNB Sydney 36,250 £52.50 Quantas Avios 12
Sydney LA 51,500 £96.70 Quantas Avios 14
LA London 30,000 £74.54 BA Avios 10.5Total 130,250 £435.58
This makes me cry even thinking about doing this in economy
Interesting @NP, that would appeal to RTW dreamers who are short on cash or don’t want to spend it, given 130k avios is a modest amount for those in UK to collect. Why I find it particularly interesting is because it appears to be costing roughly £1350 all in based on the new avios Nectar cash-out route. I don’t know what OneWorld RTW products retail for these days but I’m guessing it is much more than £1350 therefore by that metric and should this be what you ( or others wanted) this is a good reward. Some might pick holes in it, shudder at thought of economy etc but if it’s what you want and the avios and cash are doable then why not.
Regarding ANA, even if you buy all Marriott Bonvoy points outright in a 50% bonus sale this will come to roughly $2500 and with minimal taxes if you choose the right Star Alliance partners, your J RTW ticket would cost in GBP about £2500-2800. Of course you could do better than that.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
