TL;DR: Booked a last minute ANA RTW for 115,000 Miles and $780 for about 8 CPP, but along the way I ran into some issues with conflicting business seat availability, ending where I started, and payment confirmations. LIS-ORD, LAS-ICN, ICN-NRT, NRT-ICN, ICN-CDG, CDG-BRU-LIS.

Context

I found out about ANA RTWs from r/awardtravel only a few months ago. I've always known about CC point churning and using them for flight redemptions and whatnot, but I've always found it difficult to part with points since a lot of RT flights cost greater than 140k points and it felt like a waste to me, so I've just been stockpiling up Amex MR points over the last 2 years.

But aftering discovering ANA RTWs, I felt like they were the best CPP value out there. I've heard it was tough finding availability, so I originally tried doing what many others did by looking for flights 355 days out. But then I realized... I really don't like planning that far ahead, since I'll never know what else might pop up closer to flight time.

New Plan

So earlier this week I made a new plan. For the holidays, I'll fly over to the US from Lisbon, Portugal, where I live. Do a few errands (as I'm a US citizen) that I can't do in Europe, visit family, then go to Asia to visit some more family. Then return back to Europe. Seemed straightforward to me...

The Search

I mainly used the ANA award finder tool and Asiana's award finder tool to discover flights. A few tips to make the search more efficient.

• Never use the Round Trip option on the ANA tool, always use Multi-City and put in the flight and date you want in the first line, and some random flight and random future date for the second.
  • You'll avoid getting hit with no availability errors since the tool now only looks for 1 date at a time versus both departure and return dates together. This is the most useful since it's showing availability that ANA actually sees and has access to..... or so I thought... more on that below.
• Asiana's Award finder to look for flights to and from Korea, ICN. It's hard to find HND and NRT flights last minute, and it's also hard to find ICN flights, but having an extra airport code to include in my search was invaluable as I ended up finding an ICN flight around the dates I wanted to go to Asia... Lucky score

The First Itinerary

Here's the initial itinerary I had and what I would call ANA to reserve.

Note: I had already transfered 115,000 MR Points to ANA last week on Friday which showed up in my account on Monday.

I called the US ANA service number around 9am JST and got connected to the Japanese Office within 45 minutes. She reserved the flights, guided me through adding my Amex Card to their ANA Wallet, and told me that I should have my reservation Ticketed within 24 hours. She gave me my reservation number for reference.

Quoted cost, 105,000 Miles and ~$600 in taxes and fees.

The Changes

I originally had seen business availability for LAS-ICN, but by the time I called in, it was gone... I was devastated... and begrudingly decided to fly economy versus trying to finagle a business class flight for some other date through a different airport.

Reason being, I wanted to hit up the Poker tables in Vegas haha... and I was coordinating with a friend in the States to do a weekend trip with me. So it didn't make much sense to fly out of a different airport. And I just accepted that I would fly economy on this 13 hour flight...

BUT THEN... a combination of things happened that warranted me calling ANA again.

1. I realized I gave the wrong CVV code for my card, and I was worried that it might complicate my reservation
2. Some things came up that made flying from LIS-ORD a week later make more sense.
3. After clinging onto the ANA award tool praying that LAS-ICN business opens up... IT DID, and I confirmed that it even showed up on Asiana's tool as well.

The Second Itinerary

I called again, this time 5am PST. I got connected within 20 minutes. I gave the rep my reference number and told her I'd like to make a few changes.

• Give the correct CVV COMPLETE
• Move LIS-ORD by a week COMPLETE
• Switch LAS-ICN Y to J....... Oh-no....

The rep said she wasn't able to see any availability on her side, neither Business nor Economy... My heart sank, and I rushed to the ANA award search tool to confirm it for myself.... And... weird, I could still see that Business seats were available and so were Economy.

I let her know that I'm on the ANA site and it seems to say that availability exists. She's pauses for a moment and trys to look for the flight on a clean itinerary to see if it's just a bug with working on my existing reservation..... I'm clenching my teeth.... She comes back and says no dice. My heart breaks 1 more time.

As a final attempt I let her know that it's kind of weird that it shows up on my side on ANA's site, but not hers. She agrees and says that she'll try 1 more thing. She puts me on hold.

10 minutes go by, but it felt like hours. I felt hopeful but defeated at the same time. My heart racing every time I refreshed the ANA award tool... Then the ANA rep returns...

She says that she was able to find the flight after some digging and let's me know that there indeed was a Business class seat available and had reserved it for me... A rush of excited and relief washed over me and I profusely thanked her for being able to find the seat.

One Last Hiccup

But there's 1 last issue. The ANA rep said that the RTW rules state that I must complete the itinerary in the same country I started... Shit, I thought. I didn't know that, but I also thought that that was unfair to non-USA countries....... If you don't know. Portugal is a tiny country. Which means more miles versus flying out of SFO and landing in BOS.

She asks if she could attach a 1 stop segment from CDG-BRU-LIS. I of course say yes since it's the rules. And I'm worried about the milage now.

She puts me on hold again and comes back with the total cost.

115,000 Miles and ~$780.

I say great and wasn't worried, I originally transfered 115,000 Miles anyway so luck saved me again.

The Final Itinerary

115,000 Miles, $780 Taxes and Fees... Estimated 8 CPP

The ANA Fare Desk ended up charging my card around 11pm Lisbon Time, about 10 hours after the call ended. I was good to go.

Learnings

• Don't set your heart on dates, be flexible if you're booking last minute like me
• If you see availability on ANA's site, it's available, even if the rep says they can't see it, let them know you can see it on their Search Tool
• Call the Office at the beginning of JST business hours or PST business hours, it gives the fastest hold times.
• Be diligent

This was my first RTW, I'm burnt out from searching, but it was worth it. If you read through the whole thing, thank you for listening.