Yesterday I wrote about the rare appearance of first class award space on ANA’s new A380 service between Honolulu and Tokyo. I decided to book a whole trip around it!
It has been about a year since I last did a “review trip” and I figured, as my latest “vintage” trip report nears its conclusion, some fresh content for Live and Let’s Fly would be helpful. So I grabbed the award space from Honolulu to Tokyo and built a round-the-world trip around it.
I love what I do—all three of my businesses—most of all because I can leave at a moment’s notice (I also love who I married…). It is not always prudent to do so, but this week is relatively light…so I’m off.
I’ll break down miles/dollars used when I publish my trip report, but the final trip includes seven tickets all assembled together. I’ve given myself buffers between tickets, but one major delay or cancellation could still mess everything up.
My 14-Segment Adventure
Here’s what I’ve booked:
- United 757-300 First Class Los Angeles to Honolulu (upgraded)
- ANA A380-800 First Class Honolulu to Tokyo Narita
- Thai 747-400 First Class Tokyo Haneda to Bangkok
- Thai A350-900 Business Class Bangkok to Guangzhou
- China Southern A380-800 First Class Guangzhou to Beijing
- Cathay Pacific 777-300 First Class Beijing to Hong Kong
- Cathay Pacific A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Colombo
- SriLankan A330-300 Business Class Colombo to Kuala Lumpur
- Royal Jordanian 787-8 Business Class Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok
- Royal Jordanian 787-8 Business Class Bangkok to Amman
- Ryanair 737 Amman to Bucharest
- Ryanair 737 Bucharest to Milan Malpensa
- Air Italy A330-200 Business Class Milan Malpensa to San Francisco
- United CRJ-200 San Francisco to Burbank
I’ve got overnights in Honolulu, Beijing, Colombo, and Milan, but I’ll be moving rapidly…this whole trip will only take about a week.
You might ask, why Ryanair? Well, there are no nonstop flights between Amman and Milan and the timing of the Ryanair service via Bucharest was perfect…and cheap. 57EUR to Bucharest and 19EUR to Milan. I would have loved to try Tarom, another airline I have yet to review, but the flight schedule did not work out.
CONCLUSION
I’ll post daily updates along the way. It should be quite an adventure! The whole trip was built around the A380 from Honolulu to Tokyo, so I guess I am looking forward to that flight the most, but honestly I am looking forward to every single flight on this trip.
I’ll definitely be reading ur reviews cuz I have the same ANA blue turtle flight in F come December, also westbound.
Westbound was the easy choice due to daytime flight. I’m hoping for very strong headwinds!
Hope Ryanair doesn’t get delayed!
So do I, but I’ve built in plenty of buffer there. Plus, I would not mind a delay in OTP…have not been in years.
That looks fun. Enjoy your journey and have a glass of bubbles for me at the Wing in HKG!
Going right to the Pier this time!
Wow. This makes my DFW-IAH-TPE-HKG-DOH-LHR-JFK-DFW RTW itinerary next year look like child’s play…
Useless travel that just causes global warming pretending you are important. POS
Thanks for reading!
Soooo you got a one way 1st Award ticket on ANA?? is this a change? when I wanted to try ANA 1st from IAD-NRT I could only get a RT award? So I booked two Around the World trips around this required RT Award (Used 93K AmEx MR points transferred to Virgin Atlantic w/ bonus and booked RT IAD-NRT in 1st I flew to NRT on January 14, 2019 and returned on May 14
The outbound was quick – just 3 nights 1 one the plane, 1 in Tokyo, and the other in FRA so flts IAD-NRT/HND-FRA-IAD with the other two legs in Lufthansa 1st on B747-8i Seat 1K 🙂
The return positioning flights were DCA-JFK-CNM (air Maroc Business, EY IAD-AUH would not open up so I toured Casablanca) the Etihad 1st to Abu Dhabi on a Dreamliner (favorite plane), then EY Apartment 4K to Sydney. Syndy to Singapore on SQ’s new A380 suite – and it was – sweet! then SQ B777 1st to Toyko and the ANA Flight home.
Total Miles used just over 700K with taxes and fees of $1,630.00 or so Total travel ~ 45,800 miles 🙂
I’ll be looking forward to your trip reports for a RTW Trip next Spring I’d like to get from Hong Kong airport to CAN for Qatar 1st on its A380
Safe Landings!
ANA ticket was booked with United miles.
United site only shows economy availability.
Keep watching. It comes and goes.
Wow, Ben couldn’t do any better. Though I doubt we will ever see him on a Ryanair plane.
Looking forward to the review.
The RT requirement is only if you book through VS Flying Club. You can book one-way through most of the *A programs (Aeroplan, MP, LifeMiles, etc.). You do need more miles, though. For example 90k from NRT to LAX using LifeMiles.
Thanks, No United Miles & if I did, I’d save for LH 🙂
BTW in May on RTW19 2.0 at NRT Hilton (Upgraded to Royal Suite) I took a great pic out the window of the Blue Honu Have Fun!
Are you taking the family or going solo? Only two overnights is a lot of movement for a week.
Solo. I would never subject my family to this. We go to Carmel or Germany for vacation when it is all three of us traveling together. That said, I do hope to take my son along on these sorts of trips one day!
I’ve been wandering whether credit card insurance covers delays on separate awards. I’m
Thinking of booking auckland Tokyo on air Nz (50k United) and Tokyo chicago on jal via Alaska. If my first flight is delayed wouldn’t my next award be covered by insurance?
Also I would have used the open jaw virgin Atlantic for the Honolulu Tokyo Flight on virgin. Same price and keep a free open one way first class flight Tokyo to USA?
While I did think about booking with Virgin since I love ANA so much, I booked HNL-NRT/HND-BKK-CAN for 80K UA, with the first two segments in first and last in business.
Super! Can’t wait to “read all about it”. Do you have a China 10 year Visa?
I do!
Kinda off-topic, but your SriLankan flight caught my eye and I thought you, Matthew, or a reader might know the answer to this question:
I’m considering flying SriLankan from Bangkok thru Colombo to Dubai (the Business Class fare is great) and I phoned SriLankan to see if a passenger needs a visa when just transiting Colombo. The SriLankan agent said “I don’t know. We don’t get involved with Sri Lankan visas.” Oh. Gee. Thanks…
Maybe I should just spend more and fly Emirates or Thai…?
@Kenneth
I travel regularly to and through Colombo. I did the trip you want to do as it is dirt cheap. No need for visa unless you intend to spend time in Colombo in which case you van do VoA or ETA.
Correct. Easy visa on arrival, but transit visa is free (up to 48 hours). Get Evisa online.
Thank you ron and Matthew. The SriLankan business class BKK-CMB-DXB fare is a steal at around 560 euros, whereas Thai’s nonstop is about 940 and Emirates’ is 1150. For that kind of savings I’m happy to change planes at Colombo!
Matthew
You should also write the total money invested for this adventure
Thank you
Just flew TG on a 747 out of Haneda. Lovely as always.
My trip was:
SEA-NRT NH J
HND-BKK TG F
BKK-HEL AY J
HEL-TXL U2 Y
AMS-LHR(stop)-DUB BA Y
DUB-LIS-SFO TP J
SFO-SEA AS Y (unless I get upgraded)
A little over two weeks RTW…
Nice trip. I love AY so much. Would love to fly on them again and check out that new lounge in HEL.
@Dharmvir: I will fully disclose all costs and miles paid when I write the introduction to the formal trip report.