Finalizing the ANA RTW Trip, World Cup & Luck Included

Finalizing the ANA RTW Trip is part of the Iraq Homecoming & Coupe du Monde Trip Report.

In May, I booked a round the world ticket on ANA for 125,000 miles (see 25,000 Mile RTW Trip Including Iraq Booked!). One of the requirements for booking such a trip is crossing both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (see Booked! ANA RTW: 22,000 Miles in Glorious Business). At that time, Asia was still on lockdown and there were no flights available across the Pacific. Since I planned on going to the World Cup, I included a stopover in Doha from May until December and a return via Tokyo on a random date in December that had two business class seats available.

As I began to finalize my plan, I found zero business class flights available from Tokyo from December all the way to May, the month that, per the ANA rules, I had to complete my round-the-world ticket. I had two options:

• Book a separate award flight from Doha back to the US as I did in May (see QSuites: The Best Business Class Flight?), meaning I would have to go back to Doha again.
• Stay in the region indefinitely and wait for availability to open (see Vote for Where TPOL Will Move Next And…).

Neither was appealing. Stressed, I looked at my itinerary to see what date I was scheduled to come home. As luck would have it, it was a few days after the conclusion of the World Cup. I would be lying if I said that this was a result of impeccable planning. Indeed, my original plan was to stretch my round-the-world ticket for a few weeks. Regardless, I was happy to cut it short to avoid the two alternatives above.

TPOL’s TIP: When booking a RTW ticket, finish the itinerary in one go. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself shuttling back and forth to Doha or being stuck in a rental far from home.