vasantn

And how does one incorporate them into the routing?

Apologies for starting a new thread, but I wasn't sure where the question would fit. I'm a veteran FFer and FTer but a complete newbie when it comes to RTWs. I have spent a good part of the last 2-3 days reading all the stickies, FAQs and master threads, and feel no wiser as a result.

[Edited to add;] OK, I'm dumb. QR flights are showing up today. For some reason I couldn't find any yesterday.

A couple of other questions:

What are intra-continental "free flight segments" and do they count against the limit?

I've seen itineraries containing, e.g., XXX-LHR-DXB-LHR-YYY. When I try to do something like that I'm informed that it's not a permissible routing. What am I missing here?

Thanks for any help that you can provide. Please be nice! I've tried to do my own research but have not had great success.

pandaperth

Qatar Airways flights
Maybe (just maybe) you're not dumb. Were you trying to have a QR segment as the first segment (which the tool cannot do)? You can certainly have QR segments after the first

Free flight segments
In earlier versions of the rules you were allowed a number of 'free' intra-continental flight segments, and you could purchase 1 or 2 more (but you still have to keep within the overall limit of 16 segments on the ticket)

IIRC it was earlier this year, a new version of the rules removed the ability to purchase additional segments. So now the word 'free' could be removed

XXX-LHR-DXB-LHR-YYY
This could be caused by a number of things, depending on your overall itineray, such as:
- do you have other long-haul intra-continental flights into/out of the U.K (only two are allowed)
- are you making use of the two entries to Europe in conjunction with Africa? (there are fairly new rules which you may be violating)

Feel free to post more of your itinerary and we'll provide feedback

vasantn

I'm glad I'm not going crazy. Yes, I was trying to start the trip with JNB-DOH on QR. Now I understand why it didn't work.
Thanks for all the information. There's a lot to learn here!

I will post an itinerary after I've got it in the best shape I can. FWIW, I am trying to do a pair of RTWs that will get me 100K EQP (approximately 67K miles in F/J) as economically as I can in terms of time and money. That means I need each RTW to yield about 34K miles in premium cabins (or full fare Y). Let me do some homework and I will post back.

skunker

Depending on your starting point (SA?) you could probably get really close to 67k on one ticket. It would also depend on where you want/have to go.

Boogie711

If you're trying to rack up inexpensive EQP's - Premium Economy is the way to go. Heck - Toronto/Johannesburg RT on Cathay in Premium Economy is 45k EQP alone, typically for $3600.

An RTW ticket isn't going to deliver that same punch... even JNB-HKG-YYZ-LHR-JNB in Premium economy is only going to deliver 36,000 EQP.

vasantn

Really? That would be about 44K miles. I don't doubt you, but it would seem to be very challenging! I don't really need to go anywhere; this would be purely to accrue status miles. Of course I would happily take short stopovers at interesting points.That's a very interesting option. Exciting stuff! I feel like a kid with a new toy.

skunker

No, I meant 67k flight miles.

Here's one that is almost 65k http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23809848-post908.html

Also, as Boogie711 mentioned, the DONEx aren't the best for mileage runs. When the exKRT fares were around, it was a different story. Check out PE fares to JNB or the ME on BA. From the ME you can do runs back to the US on CX.

vasantn

Wow, that's amazing. Thanks to all for the great suggestions!

creampuff

Is that ~65,000 miles? Impressive. It's a shame I had to ditch all bar one of my Lan Chile flights from my DONE6; I could otherwise have done Asia-> N America arriving in New York and N America-> S America leaving from New York, which would have added a few thousand miles to mine.

skunker

Yes. There used to be a thread in this forum with the longest 3, 4, and 5 continent routings. You usually don't gain much for a 6 continent. Most probably aren't legal anymore due to changes made with the addition of QR, but some of the xONE5 approached 70k miles.

EDIT: Here's the thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...ent-rules.html There is a xONE6 with over 77k miles! But, its no longer valid.
This one might be legal and get EXP in one ticket http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23024232-post65.html

creampuff

Interesting.

I wonder what the average miles per xONEx is.... ie what do the people that fly them for a holiday as opposed to maximising miles do?

JohnAx

Remember that if you start an RTW someplace far from home, you can make two holiday trips out of it, separated in time by almost a year by a stay at home. Perhaps best if 'home' is North America, where we still get 6 segments to spend. Unfortunately all the caveats and very few single-flight-number long-hauls make it unproductive from a mileage-accumulation standpoint.

Another poster complained that an RTW wasn't the cheapest way to accumulate miles, and used a 4-segment RTW that earns just 36k eqp to justify his position. Merely adding a couple of pleasant side trips on Cathay to DPS and MLE brings the total to over 50K eqp and AA Platinum (subject to caveats), and the traveler still has lots of segments left.

anabolism

That includes AKL-PER-AKL, which has very limited flights (MileageMonkey says there is no service, and at first I believed it, but after more extensive searching I found flights only on one or two days a week and only during some months. Not sure how the tool handles seasonal flights, or how it should. Perhaps permit them but with a warning? )

I often use the OneWorld interactive map to find long sectors, but get frustrated when it turns out there aren't any flights.

It depends on one's goals and budget. I enjoy using DONEx trips to achieve multiple things:

• Earn a big chunk of AA EQP to ensure requalifying
• Visit fun places
• Have enjoyable flights
• Keep within our vacation allotment
• Keep within our travel budget, or at least not exceed it by too terribly much
• Break the trip into two (or even three) trips, with long periods at home in between

Indeed!