Wow, thanks for the welcome and all the helpful comments!
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
I might be inclined in your position to look at alternatives using cheap local flights to close the "open jaws" such as HAN-BKK or LAS-LAX; this would let you conserve segments that might be more useful elsewhere - look at the Caribbean or Central America for example. But of course it's your call.
Ah so if I'm understanding correctly (after looking up what an 'open jaw' is
), you mean to take a flight straight back again on a cheap internal carrier after a surface segment, to then continue on the RTW (effectively removing the surface segment)? Interesting and hadn't thought about it before. I can see it makes total sense from a miles point of view to add extra segments to other places... but don't think we would have enough time to actually explore them! The primary goal is backpacking, mile collection added bonus (but the more I look into it, I don't want to be wasteful either... :P)
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
With a DONE4 you'd have a pretty good chance of achieving elite status in your chosen frequent flyer program; this will be very difficult in flying economy.
I'll look more into this, your strategy for a year-on year-off is very nice! This trip will be the first foray into travelling vs short holidays for us so it is uncharted territory. But even planning it is super exciting so can imagine wanting to do another RTW/long trip in following years.
Originally Posted by
Gardyloo
Easter Island? Patagonia? Siberia? Easy on an RTW, hard using conventional methods. Dream big.
Dreaming...
Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
Haven't seen these tools before, thanks will play around! Long back and forth is interesting, really is maximising miles and flight time (guess the forum is called FlyerTalk
). We will be hiring a car and driving all around California from LAX to end up in LAS and not flying, so long way doesn't really fit this time but will keep it in mind for future trips (although think I would be knackered from all the extra flying if it was in L class
)
Originally Posted by
pandaperth
Your itinerary is valid, but could perhaps be improved
Lingo Lesson: not -sXXX rather ,XXX for a surface segment
Cool, good to know
Originally Posted by
pandaperth
OSL-xHEL-BKK
AY has a daily flight HEL-BKK which is an overnight flight
Maybe instead OSL-xDOH-BKK flying QR. It has a daylight 787 flight OSL-DOH and a number of daily flights DOH-BKK
This would however mean you cannot use the online tool to book (it doesn't handle QR as the first carrier)
Ah great, I'll check out that AY flight. Hadn't seen a direct one there so that would be nice. What is the advantage of the routing via DOH over the OSL-BKK direct?
Originally Posted by
pandaperth
S.E. Asia
You are being very wasteful here
Using 5 segments BKK,HAN-NRT-HAN,KUL-MNL
Better would be 3 segments
BKK,KUL-NRT-MNL
This is true
The plan is to land in BKK and then travel (overland) clockwise through Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and back to Thailand. The reason for the jump out to NRT and back is to run the marathon in Tokyo, then pick up where left off on the clockwise path. Was looking at doing NRT and back on a separate ticket, but cost seems fairly high so willing to sacrifice a couple of segments instead
Originally Posted by
pandaperth
Australasia
Why BNE-xSYD-AKL
why not BNE-AKL
BNE-AKL would be great, but didn't see it as an option using the explorer tool...will look again!
Originally Posted by
pandaperth
North America
Depending on the time you have for your road trip LAX-LAS, maybe return to LAX (we did such a road trip 4 years ago - drove from LA to Las Vegas, and on to the Grand Canyon, then up the central valley to San Francisco and down the magnificent coast road back to LA)
Yeah its not a bad shout, might do that and would save on one-way car rental fees as well. The route you drove is pretty much what we're thinking
Originally Posted by
pandaperth
Europe
MIA-xLHR-OSL
You are London-based, so why not stopover there and some time later (up to 12 months after the first flight) finish off by returning to OSL
You are allowed two stopovers in your continent of origin
If you have a spare segment then you could fly LHR-XXX-OSL
Had not thought of that, nice idea. Can start planning next trip before even taking this one
Originally Posted by
ernestnywang
For GCMap that's how the system works, but in general ticketing lingo surface segment (or open-jaw) is usually denoted as either // or /-, so your first open-jaw would be BKK//HAN or BKK/-HAN.
Cool, again good to know thanks
Originally Posted by
skunker
There really isn't any reason to use LAX-LAS on a xONE product. Southwest flies there for $39 or you can drive it in 4 hours, which is about how long flying takes when you account for security and the taxi line at LAS.
Do the drive in the evening so you can see the light of Luxor when you make the final turn.
Yeah that's what we're planning (surface seg), hopefully in a nice convertible of sorts. And yeah, like the idea of arriving evening that would be cool
Originally Posted by
henry999
Of course, we know -- and a beginner will soon recognise -- that having any surface segments at all (not to mention four !) is foolishly wasteful. Luckily, most people asking for help here -- just as, I presume, most people taking xONEx trips -- don't have any. (Still, it's too bad that something such as ...-AAA//BBB-... doesn't work in the GCM.)
Haha, yeah four is quite a bit isn't it...25% of the ticket :P I am definitely a beginner to all this...but learning fast
The time between each of the flights (and surface segs) will be several weeks as we'll be travelling bus/train/boat/foot. But will look at rejigging a bit and possibly flying backtrack a little with an internal carrier to remove some of the surface segs.
Again thanks for all the detailed replies. Can see that you lot are points maximising machines
Have only looked at it from a points angle in the last couple of days, before was just tweaking to bring the cost down (avoiding charges,positioning etc) so more money to spend during travels. But upgrading to D is interesting now too...
Going to spend a while tweaking now...