The ANA Mileage Club is the most lucrative program for planning a Round-the-World (RTW) Star Alliance business class award redemption. You can visit several countries in business class and pay just 115,000 ANA miles to travel a total distance of 18-20K miles (see image below). Amex is the single best transfer partner for the ANA mileage club and it takes around 2 days to complete the transfer of the MR points.
ANA Mileage Club RTW Award Chart
ANA RTW Routing Rules
- You must call ANA (800-235-9262) to book RTW award tickets.
- Flights must be operated by ANA or Star Alliance partners.
- Travel must begin and end in the same country (e.g., if your first flight departs from the U.S., you must also return to the United States and not to Canada or Mexico).
- Flights must cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans once (you can’t just cross the Pacific ocean twice).
- Flight direction of the itinerary must be east-to-west or west-to-east and backtracking is not permitted (except when traveling to/from Australia).
- The minimum trip duration is 10 days, and the maximum trip duration is one year from the ticketing date.
- A total of 12 flight segments are permitted for the RTW itinerary.
- A total of 8 stopovers are permitted in the RTW itinerary (maximum of three stopovers in Europe and four stopovers in Japan).
- Airports at either end of an open jaw will be counted as stopovers (e.g., flying into Tokyo and taking a train to Osaka will count as two stopovers even if you are paying for them without ANA miles).
- The RTW itinerary may also include a maximum of 4 ground transport sectors.
- Airport transfers within the same city (e.g., flying into Tokyo Haneda and flying out of Tokyo Narita) will count towards ground transport sectors.
- The definition of ground transport includes open-jaws.
- The total required mileage is calculated by adding the distances of each segment in the RTW itinerary, EXCEPT between the ground transport sectors and open-jaws.
- Mixed Classes: the required mileage for the highest class of travel in the entire itinerary will apply.
- The ANA Mileage Club allows for unlimited changes to flights (e.g., changes from economy to business class when award space is available; flight dates & times) as long as you keep the same route.
- Your RTW itinerary must touch at least one country in each of the three following “areas”:
- Use http://www.gcmap.com or http://milecalc.com to calculate the distance between various city airport codes. The calculated distance is not 100% accurate until finalized by the ANA agents.
- I recommend using the “Multiple cities/Mixed classes” tab to confirm each individual flight before calling the agent (https://awardcracker.com/ana-mileage-club-sweet-spots/).
Airlines with high fuel charges may still work for RTW trip
The ANA Mileage Club passes on high fuel surcharges for certain airlines (e.g., Lufthansa, Swiss Air and Austrian Air) when traveling from the US to Europe, but these charges are typically low when traveling from Europe to Asia (see images below).
High ANA fuel charges on Lufthansa from “US to Europe” ($2000 USD for roundtrip)
Reasonable ANA fuel charges on Lufthansa and Swiss Air from “Europe to Asia”
Taxes/fees listed in the examples below are for a roundtrip flight and you will only pay half the amount for RTW award booking.
Lufthansa FRA-ICN $600 for round trip ($300 for RTW one way)
Lufthansa MUC/FRA to PVG Roundtrip
Swiss Air ZRH-PVG $680 for round trip ($340 for RTW one way)
Singapore Airlines premium cabins can be booked with ANA miles on a few routes
Singapore airlines only releases premium cabin space to a few select partners (Aeroplan and Alaska), but certain routes (SIN to SYD/MEL/PVG/TPE) are still bookable with ANA and United miles. It is important to remember this when planning an RTW trip to enjoy Singapore airlines and pay very little taxes.
ANA RTW trips that can be booked 350 days ahead of time
Egypt Air, Eva Air, LOT Polish and TAP Portugal release award-space around 350 days ahead of time, which is perfect for planning a business class RTW award trip.
I tried two different dummy RTW bookings for January 2025 and called the ANA agent and confirmed that each of them can be booked with 115K ANA miles. The agent was not able to tell me the exact amount of taxes/fees but estimated them to be around $900.
EXAMPLE 1 (US to Egypt, China, Japan and Taiwan)
| Segment | FROM | TO | Carrier | |
| 1 | JFK | CAI | Egypt Air | |
| 2 | CAI | PEK | Egypt Air | |
| 3 | PEK | HND | Air China (open-jaw) | |
| 4 | HND | TPE | Eva Air | |
| 5 | TPE | ORD | Eva Air | |
| Total Distance & ANA miles: Less than 20,000 miles total distance; 115K ANA miles; taxes/fees = ~$900 USD | ||||
EXAMPLE 2 (US to Poland, Japan, China and Taiwan)
My plan is to enjoy some hiking in Tatra mountain range near Zakopane; then to Japan for hikes in Hokkaido; later spend a few days in Beijing and visit Guilin; conclude the trip with a short stay at Taipei and catch a flight to the US.
| Segment | FROM | TO | Carrier | |
| 1 | ORD | WAW | LOT POLISH | |
| 2 | WAW | NRT | LOT POLISH | |
| 3 | NRT | PEK | AIR CHINA or ANA | |
| 4 | PEK | TPE | Open-Jaw | |
| 5 | TPE | ORD | EVA AIR | |
| Total Distance & ANA miles: Less than 20,000 miles total distance; 115K ANA miles; taxes/fees = ~$900 | ||||
My Issue with RTW Bookings with ANA
I have 240K ANA miles expiring in October 2025 and I have been trying to finalize a plan for the RTW award trip for me and my wife. I can easily find business class award space for two from the US to Europe and Europe to Asia, but not able to find more than one business class seat availability to return to US from Asia.
The above mentioned examples will only work for one person traveling in business class since Eva Air, Asiana and Air India release a single business class seat 350 days ahead of time. Air China has not released any premium cabin seats to the US since COVID-19 pandemic. The ANA premium cabin award space has not been consistent. Singapore Air never releases premium cabin space to ANA for SIN-USA routes.
My only hope is for Air China and ANA to relax premium cabin availability over the next year. My plan is to complete the RTW booking with an economy inbound flight (from Asia to US) and change it later if I can find business class award space.
Summary
Round the World award trip using the ANA miles is on the bucket list of many miles and points enthusiasts. RTW award booking is best done by booking 350 days ahead of time using ANA miles with certain Star Alliance partner flights with low taxes.