Originally Posted by
allset2travel
Gardyloo,
Thank you so much for being so open to sharing your wealth of frequent fly knowledge, and particularly in dealing with OW RTW. Read many of your posts, you always spent time on strategic issues which frankly RTW newbies like myself wouldn’t even know how to post the question.
I was not aware that RTW fares could be so much lower when ex-europe (selected countries). That couples with your suggestion of doing some MR’s (to tie RTW (begin in Europe & ends in Europe) I went ahead and tried a dummy itin or 2.
Anyway, I like your diea of doing Europe > S. America > Oz > Asia > Europe. I am having problems however, in creating an actual itin ex-HEL (or LHR, PRG). E.g.:
HEL-IST-LHR-MCT-MAD-STO-SYD-PER-NRT-DPS-HKG-BOM-KIX-……….
So after only 12 segments at KIX, system shows DBX as the only “green square” but allows no selection of it. Funny, I can’t even get back to HEL from KIX. Where did I go wrong? Also MCT and MAD also show red-triangles.
Can you throw out a couple of itins ex-Europe? Thanks.
By next year, I have little clue as to what my AA status will be as biz travel slowing.
Per suggestion, I am also looking into doing couple of MR’s to Europe to boost status with AA. Major problem to overcome is time. That said, I checked into SFO-FCO for mid winter. Whether I will make plat or maintain gold remains uncertain.
Originally Posted by
allset2travel
...Handful of places on MUST-DO list: HKG, NRT, SYD, MEL, LHR, FCO, HEL, IST
3. Want to be on A380 on a looooong flight (hoping SYD-LHR will suffice)
First, you're very welcome. I think you'll find that this board has some incredibly knowledgeable people (way more than me) who take genuine pleasure in helping indoctrinate new victims - er, members into our goofy little sect/coven/asylum.
Ex-Europe itineraries that optimize your route/miles/etc. while hitting as many of your "must-do" locations? I can give it a whirl, others might do better. Couple of things, though: you can't re-enter the continent of origin until the end of the trip, and you can't leave the country of origin once re-entered. This makes the UK a bit problematic, since so many intra-Europe routes transit LHR. Second, you're only allowed two stopovers (24 h+) in the continent of origin. It's for that reason I'd suggest you hit a couple of your European "must dos" either before or after the RTW. If you travel to Europe on a Oneworld carrier, you can use the Oneworld Visit Europe air pass (or some similar name) - see
www.Oneworld.com - which can be fairly reasonable.
So, a couple of examples...
Non-RTW access, example, SFO-xJFK-FCO-LHR-ARN
Sweden-based DONE4, avoiding N. America: I'll include the carriers between the city pairs - just my judgment as to which is preferable - others may disagree. BTW "x" means transit, "o" means stopover in continent of origin.
ARN IB xMAD LA SCL LA IPC LA SCL LA EZE QF SYD QF AKL QF MEL QF SIN CX HKG CX NRT JL SIN QF LHR BA oIST BA oLHR BA ARN. (Around 46K miles.)
Having Iberia issue the ticket may be problematic but ought to avoid BA's big fuel fines. I've added IPC (Easter Island) into the South America itinerary as it's very popular with RTWers; it's good for AAers because Lan gives elite bonus miles. I also added Auckland into the SWP itinerary because with 4 segments/continent in this itinerary (only N. America gets six) you need to use up the segments in each continent to get maximum value from the itinerary, and the "transcon" rule in Oz limits segment lengths there. Besides, I really like NZ
.
Here's a DONE4 originating in Europe and going through N. America, for considerably more miles than the S. America option cited above. Again, these routes are only indicative; your own preferences come into play.
ARN (AA) BA LHR AA LAX AA ORD AA ANC AA DFW AA SFO AA JFK CX HKG CX SIN JL NRT JL SIN QF SYD QF LHR BA MCT BA LHR BA ARN (around 57K mi.)
This one doesn't hit any of your must-dos in Europe, but adds Alaska and a stop at home in the Bay Area if you're inclined. In lieu of IST I added Muscat, which is a nice long segment in BA J and either an easy turnaround or an interesting destination on the Arabian Peninsula. Use the AA code on any BA flights whenever allowed in order to earn elite status bonuses.
If you wanted to originate in Poland you could substitute WAW for ARN.
Others can chime in...