Originally Posted by phillipas
It all looks legal. You will not be allowed a stopover in LHR on the CAI-LHR-CPT routing, due to the LHR-FCO-LHR at the end of the trip. Also the LAX-LHR flight will need to be AA rather than BA. If you want to crosss the Atlantic in BA first you could do it from YVR.
The flights which offer A are CAI-LHR, LHR-CPT, JNB-SYD, JFK-YVR (this will be operated by CX), LAX-LHR and LHR-CAI. The North American flights you have choosen, with the exception of JFK-YVR can only book into 'D' class. This makes no difference in terms of service, but it does impact on miles a little.
By my calculations your routing will net you, asuming you start the routing as a Plat, about 127,500 AA miles and about 78,100 AA Qualifying Points. You wife will get about 2000 less of the miles, as IIRC, the flight on which you complete the Plat Challenge earns you miles as if you were Plat.
In terms of mileage running, you could, depending on season do Alaska instead of SJO or SJU, and you could have a bit of a rejig in Australia - but you're pretty well there.
One tip, if you've not been to NZ before - include it in your plan. Maybe you could do SYD-CHC, surface, AKL-MEL, MEL-CNS, surface, BNE-PER, surface, SYD-JFK. The long surface sector between PER and SYD should be done by train - one of the 'top' train trips in the world - check
www.gsr.com.au
Happy Travels.
Thanks again, (Incidentally I had meant to say that the “second” trip details were open, not the first- but certainly I’m open to suggestions for the first too).
I wasn’t planning a LHR stopover on either end of the AONE4 trip because I can take LHR stopovers with no restrictions with the separate ticket of YVR to/from CAI through LHR in either direction.
Thanks for the info on A class routes (I assume that SYD-JFK is also meant to be on the list).
I thought that I had read somewhere that although there is indeed only 2 class service on the AA NA routes, that it was called economy and first. If so, would an A ticket still become a D there?
The NA segments to SJU and SJO are planned for February and so Alaska would be a big shock, temperature-wise. Although it is worth thinking about (for the glaciers, etc), I think we’ll pass that route for this trip.
Also, we appreciate the suggestions about NZ. We did spend the month of January this year in NZ—and it was great- especially enjoyed the South Island. We did it then on a C$900 RT ticket (YVR-CHC)—this trip should be very different quality-wise. I’ll give some thought to reconfiguring the AU segments- the train sounds appealing. We will be based in TSV for about six weeks starting in late November so perhaps buying some kind of train pass for trips to and from there makes sense.
Thanks for doing the calculations, they agree pretty much with what I have.
The persuasive advice from you and others on earlier drafts did cause me to focus on AA credits rather than BA and I definitely plan to go for EXP but I am still toying with the idea of getting BA Silver along the way. By my calculations, I can do so by the end of the AONE5 trip by using the six segments (CPT-JNB, SYD-TSV,LAX-LHR,LHR-FCO,FCO-LHR, and LHR-CAI)on BA which will give me exactly 600 BA points and 4 trips (the last 4) on BA metal. It also will mean flying LAX-LHR on BA which I understand is preferable.
Rechecking my calculations, based on the points/mileage credits brought out earlier in this thread, even allocating these six segments to BA, I still should be able to reach AA EXP during the second AONEx trip-- on a segment planned for Dec. 30, 2006!