Hi All:

Following the lead of Garyloo, NoWindowSeat, hfly, spotwelder and others, I have planned an ex-IST DONE4 for next April. I am Boston based, but the plan is to use a MFU from WT+ to Club to get to and from IST. The choice of IST as a starting point has several advantages

1. Lower price (4150 Eur or about $5200 ex-IST vs $7700 ex-US)
2. It enables me interrupt the RTW in Boston and continue on eight months later (really get two long vacations for the price of one).
3. Setting it up this way also gets me Silver on BA for two membership years.

The plan is:

April 2006:
BOS-LHR-IST (on the MFU ticket)
side trip to TLV paid separately

Begin DONE4:
IST-LHR-FCO (stop)-HKG-BKK(stop)-SIN(stop)-PER(stop)-SYD-AKL(stop)-MEL(stop)-LAX-BOS(stop)

Nov 2006: BOS-SJU-BOS
Dec 2006: BOS-AUA-BOS

Feb 2007: BOS-LHR-IST (end of DONE4)

Then IST-LHR -BOS using back-end of the MFU ticket


Although accumulating BAEC tier points is not my primary objective, I have tweaked the itinerary a bit to get 2000 mi segments (eg. PER-SYD-AKL-MEL rather than PER-MEL-AKL to get the 2000+ mile PER-SYD segment; the BOS-AUA is also 2000+). I also realize that I could go MEL-SYD-JFK-BOS (rather than MEL-LAX-BOS) to save a transcon, but I'd give up 120 tier points (and I have no need for the transcon anyway).


A few questions:

1. Am I doing anything obviously stupid or illegal? I only have 5 segments in NA and only one transcon so that part is legal, but I am unsure if I can pass through BOS so many times. The mileage monkey OW tool seems to approve, but I haven't tried to book it yet.

2. Can someone post the e-mail address of the BA office in IST (suitably disguised so they don't get spammed)?

3. I can buy and upgrade to club on the BOS-IST round-trip for $892 + 32,5000 miles. Availability of departure dates is wide open. Of course, my return date is in 2007 and thus well outside the booking window. One-way MFUs are too expensive. So my plan is to buy the MFU with a meaningless return date and then change the date when the return date I want becomes bookable (just before using the first leg). I believe I can do this for a $75 change fee and any difference from the original "T" fare. Does this sound right?

Thanks in advance for any help!