My Summer Trip Home Award Booking: ANA Mileage Club

After ymlulu shared his ANA redemption experience, I also completed a real-world redemption of my own. Overall, although ANA redemptions between the U.S. and China are very attractive from a miles-cost perspective, the whole process is quite tricky, especially if you want to book an itinerary with a stopover and are also trying hard to avoid YQ. Of course, once everything is finally put together, ANA award redemptions really are an excellent value.

Trip Planning

Date Requirements

Because I needed to renew my visa during this trip back to China, it was best to leave a full month to deal with any possible complications. But if I stayed too long, my advisor might not be very happy about it. So I tentatively planned to stay in China for one month. Any departure date after mid-to-late May would work, and any return date before late August would also be fine. However, after considering my friends’ vacation schedules back home, especially around the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, as well as how difficult it would be to redeem an award ticket, I tentatively settled on departing in late May and returning in early July.

Stopover Requirements

Inspired by ymlulu’s booking, I started researching ANA award redemptions and ultimately decided to use ANA miles. One important reason was that ANA allows one stopover and one open jaw. After discussing it with LD, I came up with several possible stopover locations to make full use of this ANA award-ticket benefit.

• Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya)
• South Korea (Seoul)
• Taiwan (Taipei, Kaohsiung)
• Guam, Saipan
• Hong Kong

All of these stopovers are permitted under the rules for a U.S.-China round-trip ticket redeemed with ANA miles. For the specific ANA redemption rules, please read OneMoreDay’s articles: “2015 New ANA Mileage Redemption Rules (1),” “2015 New ANA Mileage Redemption Rules (2),” and “2015 New ANA Mileage Redemption Rules (3) – Redemption Chart Changes Effective October 15”

Checked Baggage Requirements

Of course, the more free checked baggage allowance, the better. If redeeming economy class, being able to get two free checked bags per person would naturally be a big plus.

For international connecting itineraries, you can refer to this explanation on the Cathay Pacific website regarding checked baggage rules. Simply put, IATA checked baggage rules can be divided into two categories: itineraries involving the U.S., and those not involving the U.S.

For itineraries involving the U.S.:

• The marketing carrier of the first flight segment in the itinerary determines which baggage rule applies. In simple terms, that means the airline whose code appears before the flight number on your ticket. Here, U.S. and Canadian airlines usually apply their own baggage rules for the same route, while most other airlines apply the MSC (Most Significant Carrier) baggage rule.

For itineraries not involving the U.S.:

• The MSC (Most Significant Carrier) baggage rule applies.

As for how MSC is defined, please refer to the explanation on the Cathay Pacific website. It is simple and clear.

Cabin Requirements

Because I did not have a huge points balance, and because the points used for this ANA redemption came from AMEX MR, I wanted to save enough points for two domestic U.S. round-trip tickets booked with Air Canada Aeroplan miles. (Why Air Canada? Because Aeroplan also allows a stopover on domestic U.S. round-trip awards! For details, see OneMoreDay’s articles “Introduction to Air Canada Aeroplan Miles (1) – Award Redemption Analysis” and “Introduction to Air Canada Aeroplan Miles (2) – Earning Miles, Redemption Advantages, and Fuel Surcharges”.) So for this trip, as long as the ticket met my needs, economy class round-trip would be more than enough.

Initial Options

Understanding ANA Award Rules

OneMoreDay has already written three excellent articles on ANA award tickets, which are worth reading:

• 2015 New ANA Mileage Redemption Rules (1)
• 2015 New ANA Mileage Redemption Rules (2)
• 2015 New ANA Mileage Redemption Rules (3) – Redemption Chart Changes Effective October 15”

What I want to point out here is that ANA’s Asia 1 region includes Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and the Philippines. For round-trip U.S.-China itineraries, stopovers in those places, as well as Japan, South Korea, Hawaii, and Canada, are all allowed under the rules.

Avoiding High Fuel Surcharges

As mentioned in articles by both ymlulu and OneMoreDay, the most annoying part of ANA award tickets is the fuel surcharge. If you want to avoid YQ, your choices of airlines and routes become much more limited.

For round-trip U.S.-China travel, ANA mile redemptions generally involve the following airlines: UA United, AC Air Canada, NH ANA, OZ Asiana, CA Air China, BR EVA Air, and ZH Shenzhen Airlines.

Among them, the airlines/routes with no fuel surcharge are:

• UA: all flights
• CA: nonstop U.S.-China flights only (including Hawaii), plus domestic flights within mainland China
• AC: all flights
• ZH: all domestic flights
• NH: all domestic flights within Japan

The following do have fuel surcharges, but they are relatively low:

• CA: mainland China–Hong Kong flights (about $27/person)
• NH: flights departing Japan within Asia (only $2/person, basically negligible)

What surprised me the most here was CA on China-Japan routes, with $70+ in fuel surcharges, and OZ on China-Japan routes with a Seoul connection, where fuel surcharges were over $120.

Although CA’s fuel surcharge to Hong Kong is relatively low, at around $20+, Hong Kong airport’s airport tax is also close to $30. So unless you specifically want a stopover in Hong Kong, it is best to avoid it if possible.

Initial Shortlist

After gaining a preliminary understanding of the routing options and rules, I narrowed things down to several possible itineraries below. (Only the China-bound segment is listed here; the return to the U.S. would be CTU- (UA) -SFO- (UA) -OKC in every case.)

Tokyo stopover:

• OKC- (UA) -UA's hub- (UA) -NRT/HND- (ANA) -domestic China
• DFW- (AC) -YYZ/YVR- (AC) -NRT/HND- (ANA) -domestic China

Taiwan stopover:

• OKC- (UA) -SFO- (UA) -TPE- (ANA) -NRT/HND- (ANA) -domestic China

Seoul stopover:

• OKC- (UA) -SFO- (UA) -ICN- (ANA/UA) -NRT/HND- (ANA) -domestic China
• DFW- (AC) -YYZ/YVR- (AC) -ICN- (ANA/UA) -NRT/HND- (ANA) -domestic China

Hawaii stopover:

• OKC- (UA) -UA's hub- (UA) -HNL- (CA/ANA via NRT) -domestic China
• DFW- (AC) -YYZ/YVR- (AC) -HNL- (CA/ANA via NRT) -domestic China

Guam stopover:

• OKC- (UA) -UA's hub- (UA) -HNL- (UA) -GUM- (UA via HKG/ANA via NRT) -domestic China
• DFW- (AC) -YYZ/YVR- (AC) -HNL- (UA) -GUM- (UA via HKG/ANA via NRT) -domestic China

Note:

• For the Guam itinerary, because my U.S. visa had already expired and I needed to return to China to renew it, I could not transit in Tokyo on the way to Guam. I could only rely on UA’s Hawaii-Guam flight. This flight is considered a domestic flight and does not require immigration or customs clearance.
• For visa issues when choosing an Air Canada connection in Canada, see ymlulu’s article (“Things You Must Do After Buying a Plane Ticket,” section 5.2 “Visa Issues”). Since my Canadian multiple-entry visa had not yet expired at the time, this itinerary was not a problem for me. As for the Hawaii routing returning to the U.S., it would also have been fine under the AVR (Automatic Visa Revalidation) rule.

Further narrowing down the options

The initial shortlist was set, but there were still too many options. So after my LD and I weighed the pros and cons, and after gathering more information, we eliminated the following routings:

• A stop in Taiwan. Reason: getting an entry permit for Taiwan was difficult. Although mainland Chinese living in the U.S. fall under the third category of mainland applicants when applying for a Taiwan entry permit, which makes the process relatively simpler, the requirements for students in the U.S. specifically stated that a valid F-1 visa was required, and mine had already expired. On top of that, the Taiwan entry permit had to be handled in person, and in the U.S. the only places that could process it were (New York, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami), all too far from where I lived and too costly to deal with. So Taiwan was a PASS.
• A stop in Guam/Hawaii. Reason: my LD did not want to visit another tropical island again, since we had gone to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands over Christmas and New Year’s last year. Personally, I did want to visit Guam, but considering the multiple connections required (via Hawaii), the extra fatigue, and my limited decision-making power, Guam/Hawaii was also a PASS.

Checked baggage vs. convenience

In the previous round of route screening, I included an option departing from DFW, the nearest Air Canada AC station to me. Why add this? It had to do with checked baggage policy (see the first section of this article, “Checked Baggage Requirements,” for details). Since AC’s own U.S.-China policy allows two checked bags, while UA on U.S.-origin U.S.-China itineraries allows only one, and both AC and UA, when they have a choice, apply their own baggage rules rather than the Most Significant Carrier (MSC) rule. Under the U.S. exception in the IATA baggage rules, the operating carrier on the first segment has the right to choose the baggage policy. So if the trip started at DFW and the first segment was on AC, the entire U.S.-China itinerary would allow two checked bags.

Although DFW was only about a 3-hour drive from where I lived, this was still an issue I could not ignore. If I drove myself, parking at DFW would not be cheap. If I rented a car, the one-way drop-off charge would not be cheap either. If I took Amtrak/Greyhound + Uber, the cost would still be significant, and I might even need to stay overnight near DFW. If I asked a friend to drive me, a 3-hour trip each way was a lot to ask. Also, the main reason for dragging along one extra checked bag was to pack more stuff (things relatives ask you to bring, or shopping requests—something I’m sure many of you can relate to every time you go back to China). Then I considered that if I stopped over in Tokyo or Seoul, I might need to do a lot of walking or take the subway, and two checked bags would be pretty inconvenient. So I ultimately PASSed on this option.

When an award cannot be ticketed

As everyone knows, airline search engines are usually very stupid not very smart, and generally cannot find every possible flight combination. In that case, we usually have to search segment by segment, then use multiple destination to ticket the itinerary we actually want. For the specific method, see ymlulu’s article “Booking a U.S.-China Business Class Award: ANA Round-Trip.”

Here, I also used the UA + AC segment-by-segment search approach, trying to piece together a full award itinerary with availability. But sometimes, when using multiple destination, after adding all the segments and confirming that each segment has award space, you can run into the following problem after adding the final segment.

Of course, to demonstrate this issue, I chose the following segments specifically to make sure the problem would appear.

For an itinerary like this, based on my own testing, calling customer service does not solve it either; this is caused by certain internal limitations in ANA’s system.

That said, solving it is not too hard. One simple fix is to reduce the number of connections (or change the connection point—for example, switch from NRT-PEK-CTU to NRT-KIX-CTU). For example, if you change the itinerary to the following, it works.

My personal guess is that ANA has internal system limits on MPM and the number of flight segments, but I cannot confirm that. I say this because when I called customer service and tried to ticket the following itinerary, I was told it could not be issued. The agent then said he would check with his supervisor and call me back. A little later, I got the callback, and the answer was still that it could not be ticketed. Moreover, neither the agent nor the supervisor knew why, because the itinerary looked completely reasonable and compliant. The itinerary I was trying to ticket at the time was as follows:

My final workaround was to move the departure date up by one day. That changed the first portion from OKC-DEN-SFO-HND to OKC-DEN-NRT, and then the entire itinerary could be ticketed directly.

Running into phantom award space

For the NRT/HND-CTU portion of the itinerary, there were several airlines and routing options to choose from:

• ANA nonstop
• Asiana OZ via Seoul ICN
• Air China CA nonstop
• Air China CA Japan-China + Air China CA/Shenzhen Airlines ZH domestic
• ANA Japan-China + Air China CA/Shenzhen Airlines ZH domestic
• ANA Japan-Hong Kong + Air China CA Hong Kong-Mainland China

Here,

• Asiana OZ was eliminated first because of the high fuel surcharges (on the Japan-China route, YQ was roughly $120 per person).
• ANA nonstop was eliminated because ANA had either not released award space or it had already all been taken.
• The Air China Japan-China option was also eliminated because of the YQ issue mentioned earlier.

That left only ANA Japan-China + Air China CA/Shenzhen Airlines ZH domestic, and ANA Japan-Hong Kong + Air China CA Hong Kong-Mainland China. Of course, the former was the ideal option, because it mostly avoided YQ as well as HKG’s ridiculous airport fees.

However, this is where I ran into the notorious Air China CA phantom award space. What is phantom award space? Simply put, it means award seats show up during the search, but cannot actually be ticketed. In ANA’s booking process specifically, after confirming passenger information, an error appears and you cannot proceed to the next page for seat selection. (The reason is that when ANA gets to seat selection, it actually first attempts to lock the ticket, so if the ticket cannot really be issued, you cannot select seats. P.S. If you do not complete ticketing this time, the space on that itinerary will be locked for about an hour.)

The solution is to use Air Canada AC to search segments like this. Of course, it is still unclear whether AC can identify Air China CA’s real, non-phantom award space; that remains to be verified. But UA and ANA will both display CA phantom award space.

Here, Shenzhen Airlines (ZH) is also a Star Alliance (SA) member, and ZH is actually a subsidiary of CA. In theory, ZH and CA should be working hand in hand. But in practice, that is not the case. During my booking process this time, I found that ZH award space was not phantom space, and the availability was actually quite good. However, when searching for ZH flights, you cannot use the UA engine, because for some reason UA cannot see ZH space. But both AC and ANA can see it, so using AC to search is enough.

For the Japan–China segment on this trip, I ultimately ticketed the routing HND- (ANA) -CAN- (ZH) -CTU. This perfectly solved both the YQ and phantom-space problems.

Itinerary Confirmed

After the difficult ticketing process described above, my itinerary was finally set, as shown below:

Among these, OKC-DEN-NRT and CTU-SFO-OKC are UA flights, HND-CAN is an ANA flight, and CAN-CTU is a ZH flight. I also get a five-night stop in Tokyo, and departing from Haneda Airport (HND) shortened my travel time to the airport that day, because Narita Airport (NRT) is really quite far from central Tokyo.

The final mileage cost and taxes/fees were as follows:

Summary

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, booking through ANA uses the fewest miles, and the miles are also relatively easy to earn from a wide range of sources, but the entire booking process is very tricky. This is no exaggeration: for this one award ticket discussed in the article, I spent two days trying different options in front of my computer, for roughly 10 hours total. Of course, as you can see from the result, the final itinerary and total cost were basically the best among all the award-ticket options. And LD was also very happy with the overall itinerary.

While I was writing this article, OneMoreDay shared a way to reduce fuel surcharges on ANA award tickets; for details, see “2015 New Version ANA Mileage Redemption (4) – The Unavoidable YQ, the Secret Y Skill.” The technique discussed there is not really any secret anymore; it is called 3x fuel dump. Normally this trick is used on paid tickets, but it can also be applied to award redemptions—except that you would have to give up one Stopover/Openjaw. The tradeoff is something each person will have to weigh for themselves.