RTA (Round the Asterisk) Booking

Compliments of the season, milepointists,

I've got enough miles (with UA) for a RTW, but I called it a Round the Asterisk because I don't reckon I can get to a select few locations on * carriers. For example, sure, I'd like to check out Easter Island, but LAN seems to have that number. St. Pierre and Miquelon, that's another one, but unsurprisingly, * (nor ST or OW) go. Sao Tome and Principe may as well round out the three, but I guess it's time to pose my question.

If starting in PHL/NYC/WAS/BOS and desiring to end up in either of those four places, what major hubs could * take me to where I can most easily get to the above three places in a RTW booking?

Thanks for your suggestions. This might be a tougher 'un based on non-daily flights to certain destinations, but any recommendation is appreciated.

For LAN, you can connect to them in SFO, MIA or JFK. From those airports you can fly them to SCL or LIM to connect to their Easter Island flights (LIM-IPC is a seasonal flight; SCL-IPC is year-round; both run once daily.) I hope that helps!

And I hope you do make it to Easter Island- it's a unique place to visit. I enjoyed my trip there a couple of years ago.

For IPC you want to end up in SCL or LIM as noted above.

For St. Pierre & Miquelon YYT, YQY and YHZ are good options, served by AC and UA (not YQY).

For Sao Tome I'd look at LIS or Angola. And really probably LIS. http://www.saotome.st/travel.php

Thanks for your replies, LizzyDragon84 and Wandering Aramean. I should have paid more attention last night; in another post, I commented about enjoying flights from former colonial powers, thus completely neglected to think Tap flies to São Tomé.

As for Luanda, yep, I'm interested (particularly in the TAAG transAtlantic flight), but isn't it not the most tourist (visa) friendly place, in addition to be extremely expensive? In other words, the idea sounds like a larf, but where could I go from São Tomé without backtracking to LIS but also trying to use *A? Let's say the end result of leaving the African section of the RTW would be to fly from JNB-PER on SA, and also that MPM is a priority.

Thanks again.

Is it an award RTW? If so then MPM doesn't matter. And if not then the open-jaw mileage counts anyways so whether it is LIS-LAD or LIS-JNB is only about 1500 miles different. If you really want the TAAG flight and can reasonably transit LAD then maybe book LIS-Sao Tome and then pay cash for the one-way TAAG flight connecting on to somewhere more pleasant than Luanda.

LIM and SCL are the best bets, but FWIW there is LAN flight between PPT-IPC. PPT can be reached on NZ. Now, the LAN flight is only once or twice a week and seasonality may vary that. Probably no help to you but thought I'd mention it.

For Easter Island/IPC, I'd first see from which gateway (LIM, SCL, PPT) you can easily get a ticket for (either on cash or miles) and then plan to be in that gateway with *A. If you're using miles, Avios are great for the LIM-IPC and SCL-IPC flights.

Also, IPC doesn't charge the Chile reciprocity fee if you land from LIM (and also if you land from PPT, I assume). So that's about $141 saved if you're a US Citizen versus going into Chile via SCL.

I always thought it might be interesting to combine an Easter Island / Galapagos trip. Yeah, you'd have a lot of flying between them, but....

It would be interesting, but would take a lot of flights. The fastest way would be IPC-LIM-GYE-GPS, so you'd need at least 3 flights to go from one to the other. You're restricted to LAN for the first flight, so using AA miles would be tough since IPC is in the South Pacific region instead of South America. You'd have to use Avios to do IPC-LIM, then figure out LIM-GPS with Avios or AAdvantage. Can't use *A since although you can fly to GYE on TACA, Avianca Ecuador (2K) isn't a *A affiliate.

I've been pondering this for my Easter Island at Christmas and Christmas Island at Easter 2014 special trips.

Yes, I would be using UA miles for my RTW booking, hence this thread's presence in the UA forum.

Thanks for your replies. Ideally, I would go from Lisbon to São Tomé and then onwards to MPM without backtracking to LIS. Since that idea is not doable with *A, which route is the most digestible? Taking an expensive one-way to somewhere and then continuing the RTW on SAA to MPM via JNB? Is Moçambique known for its culinary delights?

BTW, double-check your itinerary first to see if one-ways would save you miles over the round-the-world fare.

Example: I did SFO-HKG-DXB-ZRH-JFK-SFO (the last two as one ticket with no stopover) earlier this year.

While I did a mix of Avios/United miles, here's what it would be in biz on UA:
60k SFO-HKG
50k HKG-DXB (no non-stop, though)
27.5k DXB-ZRH
50k ZRH-JFK-SFO

= 197.50, quite a savings over 260k.

For Mozambique, yes -- see the episode of No Reservations about the area. tidbits here