Originally Posted by nickvora
I've got a situation where I need to go on a business trip (client will pay) that will have the following route:
MIA-LON-DXB-HKG-(LAX connection)-MIA
Now this trip is pricing out at a bit north of $9K in J using aa.com - so I figured a DONE4 (can I do a DONE3) is a better bet... even bought in US... Now that I'm doing that - of course I'm thinking - there's got to be a better way - why should I burn the 1 year 16/20 segment ticket for a 2 week biz trip...
What would be the cheapest way to "break" the journey, assuming I can get mileage tickets on AA and partners as the "way back" or "round trip" to make it happen???
Should I stop the RTW in HKG and then add a variety of "segments" in ASIA? and then get an R/T award on CX that's HKG-MIA-HKG? Any other thoughts?
BTW - is the mileage calculator right? Is this almost 47k miles in BIZ? Plus I'm PLAT so it'd be 94k miles?
Thanks
Nick
First, welcome to FT!
Second, read the sticky threads at the top of this forum for very important Q & A and especially fare info.
Third, look at the origin points and decide if you want to travel (as inexpensively as possible) to one of them in order to save money. For example, there are a couple of origin points in Europe - say Sweden or Gibraltar, where a 3-continent RTW (all you need) are ~$2000 cheaper than a US origin. Can you get to ARN or GIB for less than two grand or its equivalent? Even the Euro zone, say Spain, is $1000 cheaper.
If you start in Europe and want to break the circuit, you could do it either in Asia or N. America, where the 6 NA segments (including Central America and the Caribbean) might serve you well. And of course you could easily add Asian segments too. (xONE3s are actually maxed out at 17 segs, but you can buy more.) N. America might be useful from either a personal or work standpoint.
Note that for $700 more (plus more taxes of course) you could get a DONE4 from one of those places, break the trip in N. America, add South America, break it there (RT back to MIA) then complete the Atlantic crossing from S. America back to Europe.
No, you wouldn't get double miles. You'd get something over 225% counting class of service bonus.