ANA Round-the-World Tickets: Best Use of Amex Membership Rewards?

by Sanjay

ANA (All Nippon Airways), Japan’s largest airline and an integral member of the Star Alliance, offers arguably the most valuable Round-the-World tickets out there. When used correctly, an ANA Round-the-World ticket can shave hundreds-of-thousands of points off the cost of business, first class or even economy class award tickets.

This is perhaps the best value proposition for transferring and redeeming American Express Membership Rewards earned on cards like as The Platinum CardThe Gold Card and The Business Platinum and Business Gold Card from American Express OPEN 

Star Alliance is the largest airline alliance, and Round-the-World tickets can include travel on any number of Star Alliance airlines like Air Canada, Asiana, Lufthansa, Thai Airways, SWISS and others.

Star Alliance Round-the-World Award airlines American Express membership rewards points

Choose from some of the world’s most premium airlines when booking a Star Alliance RTW

This is the fourth part in a four part series exploring Round-the-World awards and their perks.

  1. When Does It Make Sense To Book a Round-the-World Ticket
  2. Which Airlines Offer Round-the-World Tickets; What are the Rules
  3. Alternatives to Booking Round-the-World Tickets (Do-It-Yourself Guide)
  4. How to Book Round-the-World Travel for Maximum Value (With ANA)
A Great Value

ANA Mileage Club uses an old distance-based price chart for Round-the-World fares. This affords prices that are incredibly lower than similar Frequent Flyer program.

Lufthansa First Class bed round-the-world award Star Alliance ANA Mileage Club American Express Membership Rewards points

Lufthansa First Class bed onboard the Boeing 747. Star Alliance Round-the-World first class awards can be had through ANA Mileage Club for the price of business class using other programs.

For instance, a shorter-distance RTW route such as JFK-LHR-ICN-JFK, which clocks in at 16,000 miles, costs only 105,000 miles to redeem a business class ticket. Your flights could be on some of the best airlines in the world, including Singapore, EVA, Asiana, and ANA itself.

ANA Mileage Club is a transfer partner with American Express Membership Rewards, which means that points transfer at a 1:1 ratio directly to the program. It’s free to sign up for a Mileage Club account and transfer Amex points, even if you’ve never flown ANA.

Not interested in navigating the ins and outs of this complex award? You can save yourself a lot of hassle by partnering with a Juicy Miles or Points Pros award booking consultant to plan your round-the-world.

How to book an ANA Round-the-World Ticket Using American Express points

ANA’s distance-based chart for Round-the-World redemptions.

The Rules

ANA allows a total of eight stopovers (with a limit of three in Europe and four in Japan) and/or four ground transfers. Ground transfers — arriving in one city and departing from another — count as 2 stopovers.

For example, if you stopover in Rome and then take a train to Milan and depart from there, you will use two stopovers and one ground transfer. Unlike a cash Star Alliance Round-the-World ticket, ground transfers don’t count against your distance-flown award mileage calculation. 

All travel must be either eastbound or westbound route. However, I found that ANA doesn’t enforce this restriction if backtracking to connect in a Star Alliance hub. 

It is possible to mix cabins (i.e. economy, business and first class), but rates are always calculated for the highest cabin, even if a passenger is only flying that class for one leg.

Travel has to touch all three ANA mileage zones, and must return to the same originating zones.

Booking Star Alliance Round-the-World Awards Using ANA

ANA breaks up the world into three zones for the purpose of classifying award travel.

Finding and Booking Around-the-World Award Travel

Round-the-World itineraries are inherently more complex than a standard redemption. The key to success and minimizing time on the phone is careful preparation. 

Below I outline the 4 steps to simplify the process:

First, Find ‘saver’ award availability

I recommend cracking open Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets or a notebook to start sketching out your ideal itinerary. 

The most important principles to keep in mind are:

  • Search for intercontinental ocean-crossing flights first.
  • Avoid airlines and routes with hefty fuel surcharges. 
  • Always write down backup options that you’d be willing to accept.

To actually start searching, you can use an Award Search tool associated with any Star Alliance airline. ANA has its own online tool to search partner awards, but many find Aeroplan and United Airlines’ websites much easier to use for these purposes.

When using United’s ‘Award Travel’ search function (this is just a matter of checking off the “Award Travel” box on the flight search page), you want to look for United flights or partner airline flights that show availability in the ‘Saver’ window. Keep in mind that Aer Lingus is not a Star Alliance airline, so those flights can’t be booked using ANA, even when United shows availability.

Use Alternatives Where Possible To Extend Your Trip

Consider using ground transportation, low-cost carriers, or additional award bookings to tie together your itinerary. For instance, as part of my itinerary, I needed to get from Erbil to New Delhi.

Star Alliance options would have required backtracking to Vienna or Cairo – which would add considerably more distance and additional segments to my itinerary. Instead, I used 17,000 Avios points to hop onto a much more pleasant Oneworld flight with Qatar.

Count the number of segments, estimate distance, and count ground transfers

Head to Great Circle Mapper and input the route you’ve constructed to estimate the distance flown. Cross reference the total distance against ANA’s award chart to estimate the number of miles required. 

As you can see below, my 11-segment itinerary came in just the 12-segment max and required slightly less than 29,000 miles, which means my redemption cost 170,000 miles. 

 

a screenshot of a document

Source: GreatCircleMapper

a map of the world with red lines

Next, confirm that you have fewer than 8 stopovers in your itinerary. A stopover is defined as any stop greater than 24 hours. Transits of less than 24 hours are ‘free’ and you’re welcome to leave the airport if you’d like to explore! My itinerary includes a 22-hour transit in Singapore to catch up with a friend. 

Finally, use ITA Matrix or the ANA tool to estimate fuel surcharges. It’s much better to tweak your itinerary to avoid fuel surcharges before getting on the phone with an agent.

Transfer Points and Call ANA to Book

Now for the trickiest part – transferring your miles. It takes approximately 48 hours for miles to transfer from American Express to ANA. During that time, it’s possible that award inventory may change. That’s why having a backup is critical! 

Of course, you could proactively stash miles with ANA in anticipation of a booking. However, know that ANA miles expire after 36 months, regardless of activity. I only recommend transferring miles to ANA when you have a specific use in mind and are highly confident you’ll be using them.

Once your miles have posted and you’re ready to book, call ANA at 1-800-235-9262. Wait times can be long during peak hours, but the good news is that once you reach an agent, you can be confident they will be highly competent and helpful. ANA has some of the best agents in the business! 

Now feed the agent your itinerary and he or she will verify that you are within the rules. If the miles are already in your account, but you’re not ready to ticket, ANA does allow 24 hour holds during which you can make tweaks to your itinerary. It took me less than 45 minutes to book my Round-the-World itinerary!

Once a round-the-world award is ticketed, the only permitted change is to the date of travel. The airline, route, or cabin cannot be changed without re-issuing the entire ticket, which would require that all of your flights still have award availability. ANA charges 1,000 miles to make any date changes.  

Watch Out: Fuel Surcharges & Airport Taxes

ANA passes along fuel surcharge on round-the-world fares. These fuel surcharges can be substantial in some cases and eat into the value that a round-the-world award offers.

Solution:

Fuel surcharges can be minimized or even avoided altogether by avoiding certain airlines and routes. Long haul flights on European airlines such as Adria, Austrian, Lufthansa, and TAP Portugal typically charge the highest fuel surcharges between $200 – $600 per segment. LOT Polish does charge fuel surcharges, but they are often more reasonable (~<$200).

Asian and African Star Alliance carriers have reasonable fuel surcharges, typically around $100 per segment, particularly for flights within their respective region. Flights that originate in Brazil are prohibited from including a fuel surcharge.

You’ll also want to avoid airports that charge extremely high airport taxes, particularly on premium cabin flights. Airports in the UK, France, and Germany charge some of the highest taxes in the world. 

Watch out: Phantom Availability

All too often, awards will appear in search engines, like United or Aeroplan’s Award Travel flight searches, that in fact cannot be booked.

Solution: Before taking any irreversible action such as transferring points, I always recommend confirming the availability using a second website, a search tool like ExpertFlyer, or by calling an agent.

Watch Out: Segments Count Against You

Unlike one-way or round-trip awards, most RTW awards have a limit on the number of segments that can be included and the distance that can be flown. A ‘segment’ is defined as any route with one flight number. Unfortunately, this means that connecting flights will count against your segment count and add to the distance flown. For instance, ANA allows 12 flight segments on a round-the-world booking. A flight from New York to Amman that makes one transit stop in Istanbul will count as 2 segments.

Solution: Wherever possible, always search for the most direct routing to preserve your segments and reduce the distance flown.

In general, it is best practice to search for availability as a series of one-way segments, even when you intend to fly multiple segments or round trip. None of the tools are very good at stitching together multi-segment itineraries and you risk not getting a full picture of availability by attempting to make complex searches. 

Estimating Add-on Fares (a.k.a Fuel Surcharges)

Fuel surcharges can quickly sap the value out of an otherwise amazing award redemption. The best way to avoid or minimize them on a Star Alliance redemption is to carefully select airlines and routes to prefer airlines with little or no surcharges. 

To estimate the potential fuel surcharges on any individual segment, use ITA Matrix.

  1. Search for the exact flight that you’ve found award availability on using one of the previously reviewed tools
  2. If presented with multiple options, select the flight you intend to book. Ignore any prices as you’ll be ‘paying’ with award miles.
  3. Look for the line item coded “YQ.” This portion represents any fuel surcharges that will be added to your Round-the-World award. 

A Few Time-Saving Tips!

Finding award availability can be time-consuming for a Round-the-World itinerary. When constructing your RTW itinerary, I always recommend taking a few consistent steps to simplify the process.

  1. Start by searching for your intercontinental flights first as they will have the most limited availability.
  1. Next, find flights for those dates where you have the least flexibility
  1. Always find backup options for your most critical segments. You’ll want options when you’re on the phone with an agent in case an award seat disappears. 

Of course, you can always elect to use an award booking consultant at a Juicy Miles award booking consultant to save time and energy. 

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

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56 comments

Christian August 13, 2018 - 6:57 pm

A nice addition to a great series. Thanks.
“All travel must be either eastbound or westbound route. However, I found that ANA doesn’t enforce this restriction if backtracking to connect in a Star Alliance hub in the same region.” How is a region defined? Asia? SE Asia?
“As you can see below, my 11-segment itinerary came in just the 12-segment max and required slightly less than 29,000 miles, which means my redemption cost 170,000 miles.” Um, maybe I’m being dense, but I don’t see the itinerary.

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AC August 13, 2018 - 7:29 pm

likewise i think he forgot to attach all the screenshots cuz i was hoping to see the itin and each flight segment

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Sanjay August 13, 2018 - 7:35 pm

Sorry – the screenshots got dropped in editing. You should see them now if you hit refresh.

ANA defines their zones here: https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/amc/reference/tukau/award/tk/usage.html

Scroll down to where it says “Step 1”

There’s more guidance on the rules and limitations here: https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/amc/reference/tukau/award/tk/zone.html

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Christian August 13, 2018 - 10:10 pm

Sorry to be the perpetual pain in the ass, but for the last two segments of your trip, SYD X/ICN JFK looks an awful lot like backtracking, and those are 3 different zones. I’m not doing this to be a PITA, but to potentially use your post as a lesson on planning a trip for myself. Hence all the questions and comments.

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Sanjay August 14, 2018 - 4:45 am

No worries at all Christian. My goal with this post was to help people plan these kinds of trips.

Yes – you’re right that SYD-ICN-JFK requires some geographic backtracking to ICN. As I mention, ANA seems to be flexible on backtracking if you’re going to a star alliance hub for the purpose of onward travel. In this case, I’m not doing a stopover in ICN, but rather a layover of less than 24 hours. My final destination for that particular segment, JFK, is still further east from my origination point, SYD. I edited the post to be clearer about this point

Ping me here if you have more questions. Happy to help!

Stephen Patterson August 13, 2018 - 8:38 pm

How do you start the call with the agent? I’m wondering if they are automatically pissed off once they know they are going to be working very hard on your proposed itinerary.
And what is the best ‘off peak’ time to call?
Thanks. Brilliant article

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Sanjay August 14, 2018 - 4:34 am

I actually think round-the-world bookers might be an agent’s favorite. We tend to have done our homework and know exactly what we want. The ANA agents are genuinely helpful and usually familiar with the rules. I wouldn’t worry about pissing anyone off if you’re prepared!

I found that the worst time to call was around 5 – 9pm ET. Otherwise the wait times are pretty random – anywhere from 2 minutes to 45 minutes. Every once in a while you might also be connected to their call center in Japan – and the agents there are just as professional.

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Brian Bach Huynh August 13, 2018 - 9:01 pm

It is definitely my favorite use of AMEX MR. I don’t know if the 1k points requirement for a date change is recent or not, I wasn’t charged this when I changed dates in May of this year. Hope to make use of this award one more time.

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Sanjay August 14, 2018 - 4:36 am

The 1000 point fee penalty for booking may be a recent change. They did not charge me when I had to make a change due to a flight schedule change – but obviously that was their issue, not mine. I hope you get a chance to book another RTW!

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Paulo August 13, 2018 - 9:25 pm

Very helpful article. I am planning to fly from TPE to VIE on EVA but the flight goes through BKK. Do you know if ANA counts miles as TPE-BKK-VIE or TPE-VIE? Thanks.

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Christian August 14, 2018 - 3:29 pm

I think it’s actual miles flown, so TPE-BKK-VIE.

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Sanjay Sharma August 14, 2018 - 4:49 pm

Yup – they calculate based on actual distance flown. Always try to find the most direct routing possible!

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Paulo August 15, 2018 - 7:05 pm

Thanks much.

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Ken August 13, 2018 - 11:31 pm

Ground transfer is allowed within the same region? For example what if I get to Istanbul with Ana miles and buy a Rev ticket from Istanbul to Frankfurt and restart my rtw trip from FRA. Is it allowed? If so, you are saying ist-fra is not counted toward the total miles?

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Sanjay August 14, 2018 - 4:41 am

A few things to unpack here.

Yes, ground transfers are allowed in the same region or between regions. Just keep in mind that you only get up to 3 ground transfers in Europe and up to 4 in Japan. A ground transfer will end up counting as 2 stops, so you could only do 1 ground transfer in Europe and 2 in Japan.

Now the itinerary you suggest with a stopover in Istanbul would require geographically ‘backtracking’ to FRA.Technically that is not allowed, but I found ANA to be flexible if you’re backtracking to a star alliance hub, such as Frankfurt. Don’t quote me on that though as they may enforce the rule as it’s written. If you have bad luck with one agent, try hanging up and calling again!

Shoot me another comment if anything is unclear.

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ken August 14, 2018 - 4:48 am

thanks for the clarification. I was thinking of heading to IST from Asia, so I guess it is not backtracking. Two points: 1 you mentioned ground transfer between regions is allowed. This means, I can stop my travel in BKK, and then restart from FRA (I book BKK_FRA as rev)? And the second point is that BKK-FRA won’t count in the miles required? If yes to both, this in my opinion is a huge deal…

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Sanjay August 14, 2018 - 4:54 am

The answer is yes to both of your questions. The generous stopover policy is a killer feature that makes some unbelievable itineraries possible.

My itinerary includes two stopovers similar to the one you describe. I stop in Erbil (zone 8) and then use revenue flights to get to Delhi (zone 4), where I pick up my RTW itinerary again. Similarly, I stop in Bali and then don’t pick up my itinerary again until I depart from Sydney. In all cases, the ground transfer mileage does NOT count in calculating the miles required. This is different than a paid Star Alliance RTW fare, which does count ground mileage transfers.

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ken August 14, 2018 - 5:02 am

thanks a lot, this is very clear now

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Sanjay September 1, 2018 - 2:53 pm

Amazing! Enjoy your trip.

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Tom dyson October 10, 2018 - 1:07 pm

Very helpful article, but I’m very confused about something. The fees, taxes and surcharges. So I booked a business class RTW ticket today. I did a lot of research and found a route that would minimise the taxes I’d have to pay. I even used the ita matrix you suggested to double check. Or so I thought. The cost came in at nearly $1,400 (and 125,000 points.) I can’t figure out where I went wrong. So frustrating. Which one of these segments is causing such high taxes?? Any insight at a glance? Could the agent have made an error?

Tel Aviv to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian
Addis Ababa to Mumbai on Ethiopian
Mumbai to Bangkok on Thai
Bangkok to Hong Kong on Thai
Hong Kong to Beijing on Air China
Beijing to Tokyo on ANA
Tokyo to Newark on United
Newark to Tel Aviv on United

Thanks so much for any help

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Sanjay October 12, 2018 - 6:08 am

hmm that is really surprising. I know Ethiopian and Thai sometimes have surprisingly high surcharges, but $1400 does seem too high. Does your ANA issued ticket include a fare and tax breakdown to review?

It’s always painful to pay fees on an award ticket, but I’d still consider your redemption a fantastic value. Your trip sounds amazing!

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Explorer October 24, 2018 - 5:51 am

Did you figure out where the surcharge/taxes came from?

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Ron December 3, 2018 - 5:15 pm

Just got off the phone booking a RTW with 8 stopovers. Every flight available. Was confirmed in about 15 minutes but took another 20 to pay and get passenger info done. Ticket agent was the nicest ever. The transfer took 2 days but was told to expect 5-7 days at time of transfer. It was $845 each, Expected more because a transatlantic and a short flight on Lufthansa. Also had a transcontinental with AC.
Was nervous but no way the fuel surcharges were even half what AC charges on Aeroplan.

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Earl Lee December 23, 2018 - 10:24 am

Great article. What’s the best way to utilize ANA points to get to South America (Buenos Aires)? Thanks in advance.

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Sanjay December 23, 2018 - 11:21 am

Thanks!

Assuming you are traveling from the US, you should be able to use ANA miles to book any Star Alliance carrier with routes into South American. In practice that means, United, Avianca, and Copa. United has a nonstop EWR-EZE – but award space is rare. The good news is Avianca and Copa tend to release a lot of award space. The bad news is that their business class products aren’t anything special and you may have to consider an inconvenient stopover. Depending on the route you select, ANA should charge around 55K for business class for a regular round trip. Hope that helps!

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Shiva January 13, 2019 - 9:33 pm

Thanks for the help! I just booked my ANA RTW trip last week. Going from SJC-NRT-TPE-BKK-VIE-SFO. My first two flights are with ANA itself as well! I really wanted my last stop to be at FRA, as I plan on meeting someone there, but I couldn’t get business class flights out from FRA back home to SFO. VIE is close and there was availability to come back (I’ll just take the train or a flight to FRA). The only bad part is that it’s through Air Canada, so it’s not direct and I have to stop in YYZ for 5 hours before coming home.

My total fees for right under 20,000 miles of travel and 115,000 ANA miles were only $379!

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Sanjay January 14, 2019 - 6:18 am

That’s amazing Shiva. The Air Canada product is pretty good and worth the stop in Toronto. Enjoy the trip!

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Shiva Singh January 14, 2019 - 11:51 am

Thanks! Yes, Air Canada just started the new service between Vienna and Toronto on its 787-9 Dreamliner.

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Javier January 23, 2019 - 1:29 pm

Hey shiva can you help me make my itenerary ?

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Stephen Patterson January 14, 2019 - 10:07 am

“Travel has to touch all three ANA mileage zones, and must return to the same originating zones.”

Is it possible to skip out North and South America altogether?
For example Fra-Cai-Sin-Hnd-Fra. Technically not backtracking zones but skipping a zone.

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Sanjay January 14, 2019 - 12:47 pm

Your proposed routing would not work as one of the requirements for a RTW is that you have to cross both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

However, you might be able to actually do your proposed itinerary as a roundtrip.

According to the ANA website, flights from Europe/Africa (area 2) to Asia (area 3) simply cannot transit via North America (area 1). You may be able to convince a phone agent to read that as meaning that you can build in a stopover in CAI on your way to Asia.

See here for details: https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/amc/reference/tukau/award/tk/zone.html

You’re also allowed one stopover and two open jaws, which should also help make the case for your routing. I’d recommend investigating or even just calling ANA if you see availability and see if they will permit it. I’m curious to hear what you find out.

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Mark January 18, 2019 - 3:05 pm

Great article. Question: When searching for qualifying business class segments using United.com, do the segments need to be “saver” or can they just be available at the everyday award rate? I know I won’t be charged that rate, but as I am planning my RTW, I was hoping for this clarification. Thanks! Great column.

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Sanjay January 18, 2019 - 5:05 pm

Unfortunately only ‘saver’ level availability will be bookable by ANA or any other star alliance partner.

I have a detailed post on finding award availability here if interested: https://pointmetotheplane.boardingarea.com/2018/08/20/best-tricks-to-find-star-alliance-united-awards-without-surcharges/

Good luck with the RTW!

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CSue January 25, 2019 - 1:16 pm

Is there a maximum time you can spend in any single destination?

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Sanjay January 25, 2019 - 4:17 pm

I don’t believe there are any maximum time restrictions if it’s one of your allotted 8 stopover and not just one of the transits (which must be under 24 hours). Let us know if you hear differently from ANA.

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Tom January 29, 2019 - 8:05 pm

Hi – and thank you for this amazing post it came at just the right time for my wife and me. One question: can we go past our origination point? For example, if we start in ewr, and go westbound, can we finish off at mco? If not, do you think that mco-ewr-Lim would qualify as the quick backtrack through a *a hub?

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Sanjay January 30, 2019 - 5:18 am

Glad the post has been helpful.

You should be ok going a bit past your origination point if you’re returning to the same county, as long as MCO is your final destination and you don’t make any stops west of EWR.

And to answer your second question – yes, I think MCO-EWR-LIM would be approved! Obviously both of these responses are based on my experience and the final answer is at the discretion of the ANA agent you work with. Good luck!

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Tom February 3, 2019 - 8:36 am

Thank you 🙂

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Deanna February 7, 2019 - 4:56 pm

We are trying to go from Honolulu to Dublin and back if possible on ANA….how do we go about it?
Thank you.

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Sanjay February 7, 2019 - 5:08 pm

Do you want to actually fly ANA for that route via Japan or do you mean just booking an award with ANA?

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Joanie April 13, 2019 - 7:20 pm

Hi Sanjay – super helpful information. I have a couple of questions. 1) Can I book an ANA RTW using United or AC points, or does it have to be a transfer (e.g. AMEX) directly to ANA? 2) I am planning an RTW itinerary. Can I go ARN-PVG-HAN-BKK or would they consider that PVG is east of HAN and BKK and not allow it? (I am not including all the other segments where I cross both Atlantic and Pacific, and touch all 3 zones.) I could do it the other way around, but it adds miles since I’d be flying south, then back north again. Thanks for any clarification you can provide!

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Sanjay April 14, 2019 - 6:17 am

Hey Joanie,

Glad you found the post helpful. To answer your questions:

1). The ANA round-the-world can only be booked with ANA points, which means you’ll need to transfer them in from Amex or Marriott.

2). Will you be stopping at each of these destinations? Specifically, do you plan to stay more than 24 hours in PVG? If so, they technically might consider it backtracking, but I suspect you’ll be ok because they are in different regions and because they tend to be quire flexible about backtracking unless it’s egregious.

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Joanie April 14, 2019 - 10:36 am

Thanks, Sanjay. I am new to the points universe, and this information is useful. Yes, I will be staying in PVG for several days, so I guess I’ll find out for sure when I’m ready to talk to an ANA agent.

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Sal June 16, 2019 - 1:35 pm

Awesome post thank you!

I know ANA is flexible on backtracking if the purpose to connect in a Star Alliance hub. Singapore Air apparentely isnt so flexible based on a call I had to validate itinerary.

That said, my plan is Eastbound travel and all is good till I get to from HND from Sydney, but then to go from SYD to LAX ANA has be connecting back at HND to go onward to LAX. Would this be allowed? I am trying to end my RTW from SYD to LAX.

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Sanjay June 16, 2019 - 2:37 pm

Hey,

Thanks for reading. I think you should be ok as I was able to do SYD > ICN > JFK on my ANA-booked RTW. ICN is actually even more east than HND, so you should be fine as long as you’re just connecting!

-Sanjay

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Sal June 17, 2019 - 5:35 pm

Thanks Sanjay, your post is what inspired me to do this!

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Sanjay October 30, 2019 - 5:32 am

That is AWESOME! What route did you ultimately book?

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CHOU October 29, 2019 - 7:59 pm

Hi Sanjay!

A question regarding my itinerary. Does JFK-Zurich, Zurich-NRT, HND-LAX meet the rules of an ANA RTW ticket? Thanks in advance!

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Sanjay October 30, 2019 - 5:31 am

Hi Chou! Yes, your itinerary sounds like it would absolutely be compliant with the award ticket rules. You are comfortably within the maximum number of stopovers and cross the Atlantic and pacific oceans – so you’re good to go.

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CHOU October 30, 2019 - 9:59 pm

Thanks Sanjay for all the useful info!

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Maxine Chivers December 29, 2019 - 12:24 pm

Hello Sanjay. I have looked at your route. I wonder how you reached Nosy Be from Victoria Falls? Also did you travel from Erbil in Iraq to Delhi in India? Also how did you get between Bali and Sydney?

I am keen to visit Madagascar and Mauritus, Beijing in China, Sydney in Australia, Lima in Peru and somewhere in Central America like Panama.

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sanjay January 6, 2020 - 8:51 am

Hi Maxine – sorry for the delay in response.

I booked other flights for the ‘ground’ portions in between the destinations you mention.

Victoria Falls > Nosy Be: I actually went to Cape Town, Namibia, and Reunion before making my way to Antananarivo. I then explored Madagascar for 10 days before arriving in Nosy Be to pick up the ANA itinerary.

Erbil > Delhi: I flew FlyDuba from Erbil to Turkmenistan. I spent 4 days there before catching a non-stop to Delhi on Turkmenistan Air (I’ve written up a review of this strange flight on this blog).

Bali>SYD: I used paid flights to get from Bali to East Timor to Darwin (I stopped in both cities for a few days). I then used Avios points to book a Qantas flight from Darwin to Sydney.

Hope that helps!

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