FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Across the Globe in 5 Continents Again

Sep 20, 2006 | 8:41 pm

#3

Kiwi Flyer

Moderator, Hilton Honors

Join Date: Nov 2003

Location: on a short leash

Programs: some

Posts: 71,445

It's almost time for another trip. There's a lot of travel coming up on several airlines, many aircraft types (big and small) and of varying comfort levels.

As well as my first One World round the world (after several Star Alliance ones), I have a wacky 31 days of travel, so I'll add in the other trips in this report for free just for you.

In the meantime, sit back and relax. At the request of some readers, I've added links to other trip reports.

Index to this trip report

Link to latest summary and current location: no longer being updated

===============

INTRO

If all goes according to plan I will fly over 108,000 miles in 46 flights in 31 days. That's roughly equivalent to circling the planet every week at a ground speed of 145 miles per hour (based on shortest distances)!

Given the complexity of my itineraries I expect there will be some changes needed - time will tell.

The travel includes a round the world (RTW) and a mixture of long-haul and short-haul side trips.

PLANNING

I have wanted to visit South America for quite some time. Only 2 airlines fly directly across the South Pacific to South America - LAN and Aerolineas Argentinas. Given the lengthy flights involved, naturally I wanted to fly business class if possible. When I got around to checking the fares last year I found the direct flights were just as expensive as flying indirectly via USA (LAX and DFW on QF/AA or SYD, LAX and IAD on NZ/UA). Furthermore the fare was about the same as a round the world fare.

That sealed it for me - a round the world it will be to get effectively a free side trip to europe and of course a lot more mileage.

So the next question was which round the world product. Star Alliance round the world's (CRWSTARx) are distance based and so the large detour through USA would eat up a large proportion of the maximum 39,000 miles allowed leaving less options for the rest of the ticket. On the other hand, One World Explorer (DONEx) is continent based and so no mileage restriction. Thus, my decision to try my first one world round the world.

Working through a draft itinerary I realised consecutive weekends in Europe and South America would work best for me, freeing up the interim to visit North America. If I wanted I could have skipped North America to save a continent but opted for the slightly more expensive DONE5.

I wont reveal the routing just yet. My planning consisted of using various online tools, timetables and spreadsheets to optimise the combination of places I wanted/needed to go, my tight timeframe (just 2 weeks for the RTW), and wanting to maximise miles and status earning. In general a DONE4 provides the best bang (miles or status earning) per buck. Note that the best routing to maximise miles varies according to class of RTW (economy, business and first) as well as which frequent flyer program (FFP) is being credited. Since I am crediting to Qantas Frequent Flyer, this meant for example finding 2-class AA domestic flights that are over 1200 miles. Unfortunately for me, the timing I could do this trip fell in between seasons for DFW-ANC and LAX-SJU flights, both favourites of the regular xONEx'ers (eg see here, and here) over on the One World forum. In my planning I found out that I could transit the country of origin on a through flight number - this may be of help to someone else.

It wasn't until after I had ticketed, that on re-reading the One World Explorer rules posted on Flyer Talk more carefully that I realised I had left a significant amount of mileage on the table by returning directly from South America to South West Pacific. Their is an exception to the cannot revisit a continent for North America in transit to/from South America. So I changed my ticket to get some extra mileage, slightly disappointed I didn't have an extra day available to maximise the benefit by flying via JFK and SYD. I saved US$125 on the reissue thanks to FT since the rules had omitted the usual reroute change fee - my travel agent hadn't picked up this omission and wanted to charge me until I asked them to query with an airline and got the green light for nil change fee. Thanks FT ^

The other trips were much simpler to plan so I wont belabour them here.

Last edited by Kiwi Flyer; Apr 1, 2016 at 4:06 pm

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