Mini-RTW Costs

Just for my own curiousity of how much these Aeroplan miles are worth for my Mini-RTW trip, I used ITA Matrix website to figure out the costs of booking all these segments.

It costs approximately $19,000 CAD if I paid out all these one-way segments.
Instead, I paid $400 and 100,000 Aeroplan miles, making these 100,000 miles worth $18,600 (each mile is 20 cents)

Outbound in Business Class, $8000 CAD

Inbound Business Class, $11000 CAD

Tools for planning a Mini-RTW itinerary

I used the below tools to plan and book my Mini-RTW trip

Tools
Award Nexus - free website to check rewards & routes (free for FlyerTalk members). A sample resultset for SIN-BKK is shown here (includes both direct and non-direct flights)

ANA Tool - you'll need to sign up for ANA member, and do a manual search on ANA first before you can search on Star Alliance member airlines

Continental Rewards - this helps you to see available rewards routes

RoboForm  - Password Manager, Form Filler so I don't have to re-fill ANA form every time

 
FlyerTalk Aeroplan forum - this helps you decide the "valid" routings and help/tips on which airlines/class are better (e.g. I got tipped about the LX ZRH-YUL to make my Atlantic ocean return segment possible)

• Please list your AP Taxes and SURCHARGES on AP reward tickets
• List of valid and booked mini-RTW itineraries

What's Next?

• Be ready to spend hours and hours to find available permutations on your desired dates (+/- 1 day)
• I spent at least 3~4 hours BEFORE I know my vacation dates to decide my vacation dates :)

e.g. Toronto to Tokyo can have various permutations - YYZ-NRT direct, YYZ-ICN-NRT, or more common via West Coast YYZ-YYC/YVR-NRT or YYZ-[SEA/SFO/LAX/ORD/EWR/IAD]-NRT...which were unavailable to me on my dates.

Tips

• Going through US saves you fees (especially fuel surcharge YQ) on Air Canada flights, which are ripoff. But US means custom delays and troubles also
• Use AwardNexus Route Explorer to find possible permutations (e.g. YYZ-TPE)
• If you want to book Airbus A380 Business/First class, only available routes now are mostly on LH/Lufthansa) between FRA-JFK/MIA/PEK/SFO/NRT (Frankfurt-New York/Miami/Beijing/San Francisco/Tokyo) as SQ doesn't release their A380 seats. FYI FlyerTalk members aren't big fans of LH J class though, which is why I gave up on flying LH A380 routes
• Book your trips EARLY - award space open up 355 days ahead, so you can book up to May 10, 2012 if you book today (May 11, 2011). More important for popular routes like anything involving Sydney

Around-the-World in Business Class = 100000 Aeroplan miles + $400 fees

It is set, I have booked my vacation back to Taiwan, in Business class, and Round-The-World :)

I was planning vacation is in high season of August, and I figured I should try to use up my Aeroplan miles before the reward redemption levels increase on July 15 [see link for Globe & Mail article]

After spending hours researching dates & flight permutations, and on hold with Aeroplan call centre, it's done

I'm flying Toronto-Tokyo-Taipei in Air Canada and ANA Business Class

Returning Taipei-Singapore-Bangkok-Zurich-Montreal-Toronto in Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Swiss Air, and Air Canada Business Class

Total miles 20328 miles, and 100,000 Aeroplan miles, plus ~$400 out of pocket, on 5 airlines, and 17 + 29+ hours

Here are the itinerary

AC1 Toronto Pearson (YYZ) Tokyo Narita (NRT) 77W Executive
14:05 - TERMINAL T1 INTL 15:50 - TERMINAL 1

NH1083 Tokyo Narita (NRT) Taipei (TPE) 763 Executive
17:25 20:00

...TPE...

SQ877 Taipei (TPE) Singapore Changi (SIN) 333 Executive
14:25 18:50

TG410 Singapore Changi (SIN) Bangkok (BKK) 773 Economy
20:50 22:10

TG970 Bangkok (BKK) Zurich (ZRH) 346 Executive
00:30 07:25

LX86 Zurich (ZRH) Montreal Trudeau (YUL) 333 Executive
12:50 15:00

AC437 Montreal Trudeau (YUL) Toronto Pearson (YYZ) 320 Executive
17:30 18:44 - TERMINAL T1


Taxes, surcharges and airline fees per passenger (age of 2 and over)
Canada Security Charge (CA) 25.91
Canada Harmonized Sales Tax (HST #10009-2287) (RC) 3.25
Combined taxes, fees, charges and surcharges *for ClassicFlight, see fare calculation below (XT) 326.00
Additional Charge in Canadian dollars : 0.00
Total in Canadian dollars : 355.16

THE NON-REFUNDABLE AEROPLAN SERVICE FEE OF CAD30.00 PLUS 3.90 HST PER PASSENGER

*Fare calculation:
19AUG11YTO AC X/TYO NH TPE SQ SIN M0.00TG BKK M0.00TG X/ZRH
LX X/YMQ AC YTO M0.00CAD0.00 END ROE1.00 XT12.60SW6.20OI205.00YQ30.00YR10.40TW25.00SQ27.10CH7.30SG2.40OO

ELLA - Y0.M3 Ella is 3 months old

Ella is 3 months old, and it's hard to believe that time flies by and she grows up so fast

She weighs 8.7 kg, height

Soon she will outgrow the infant carrier (up to 10 kg/22 lbs) and her swing, oh my god...

Photos - isn't she cute? ^___^