desi

The first post has wealth of information. Extremely useful post (many items are not known by most of AA agents)

Howver, what is very clear once you understand and know the point, may not be clear at the first reading.

Regarding warning/headsup about doing dummy booking, please see real datapoint in post 1858-59-60. In addition to risk of availibility changing to "no seats whatsoever", dummy booking also has anti-social aspect of ruining rare award seats as canceled award seats may not go back to award inventory.

Regarding STOPVE vs CONNECTION, not only read the firt post but also refer to the logic on post 1637 or 1788 (also 1541) as this has been stumbling block for many first timers. (try to book tickets as CONNECTION whenever possible)

TheBOSman

And my bold.

That scares me honestly with this award and its restrictions. I hope the routes you want to book consistently have award availability, or you have some flexibility, or even are willing to wait and wait and wait if needed. I would try to hold out on booking the award as long as possible so you don't have to risk the availability, but of course then you might lose the seats available now. Approach with caution! Good luck.

TheBOSman

Any particular reason why? I would always book with whatever my intent is, and not overly worry about whether I have a stopover or connection (assuming I'm not over the limit on one of them at the particular point in question).

JDiver

Questions concerning the use of AAdavantage miles and their use on partner awards have been moved to the appropriate thread.

/Moderator

srittle001

I am planning my first ATW trip for me and my wife for Dec 2014 and Jan 2015 and I was hoping I could have suggestions on my flights and see if you see any problems. We are going to do a zone 7 business class less than 25k miles flown. I am based in ATL and my open jaw will be at the begining and end of the trip to save miles. The trip is as follows.

JFK/ORD-CDG on AA anyone know what is the best product/flight?
CDG-HKG on Qatar or Cathay which is direct? I believe Cathay is a better product? Any idea on which flight I should be targeting?
HKG-BKK
BKK-HKG
HKG-SYD on Cathay or Quantas. Which should I choose and what flight?
SYD-LAX/DFW on Quantas and I want to be on the A380

Also, if I wanted to do a side trip from SYD to Queenstown to New Zealand anyone konw the best way to do that using miles? I have looked at AA miles and award space seems very very sparce. I have Avios, AA, US Air and United points.

Thanks in advance for all the responses.

sk3x

I recently booked my first OW Explorer and have a few comments here (general and specific to your itinerary).

1. An ExpertFlyer subscription and the BA website will be your best friends in terms of figuring out flight schedules and availability.

2. AA product will be the same from JFK or ORD to CDG as long as you are on the 763. Note that AA also flies a 757 on this route.

3. If you leave from ORD you will not be able to fly back to DFW for under 25K with your proposed routing.

4. I'd take a direct route from CDG to HKG on CX, unless you really want to try out QR. Also note that routing through DOH would also add on a little over 1,000 miles.

5. Avios for shorter hops - positioning within the US or intra-Australia flights - are extremely useful.

zznoname

As mentioned, all AA J equipment out of ORD/JFK to CDG is dated. Meaning NO lay flat seats.

You could Open-Jaw DFW-ATL and fly ATL-LHR-CDG-HEL-BKK-HKG.OLD-SYD-LAX-DFW
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ATL-LHR...LD-SYD-LAX-DFW

LHR connection to BKK would work also. Maybe better seating? Maybe much more money?
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ATL-LHR...LD-SYD-LAX-DFW

Seating on BA9 doesn't look so good.
Pick HEL connection instead of LHR to save money?
AY95 flies A340
CDG-HEL-BKK
AY has new J seats non-stop to BKK.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ay-2013-a.html

HKG connection too many miles, doubling back.
IMO: I'd spend a few days in HKG.

Austinrunner posted DOH transfer hardships:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22067294-post2.html

Tools I use:

Oneworld Planner:
https://rtw.oneworld.com/rtw/

NOTE:
Has limitations/quirks, but useful.
Maybe the recent version shows only the available flights, so if you wanted to check equipment and the A380 flight was not available, it might not show up.

Great Circle Mapper (essential):
http://www.gcmap.com/

NOTE:
Use HKG.old for Hong Kong (AA mileage quirk)

JAL Availability (have to sign up):
http://www.ar.jal.com/ar/en/jmb/login/

Others use BA, AA, telephone AA (a lot) and EF.

NOTE:
EF does not have CX availability.

AA EXP Desk:
800.843.6200

As mentioned by sk3x, your current routing JKF-CDG-HKG-BKK-HKG-SYD-LAX-DFW has your itinerary going over 25K:
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=jfk-cdg...ld-syd-lax-dfw

Dep. ORD more:
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ord-cdg...ld-syd-lax-dfw

Bad and badder J seats.

CX: Don't like the "unnecessary" doubling back from HKG.
DOH transfer stuff:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22067294-post2.html

sk3x

Good point, though I was assuming that HKG would also be a stopover - more clarity from the OP on what his desired destinations/stopovers are would be helpful. Also to avoid doubling back, BKK-KUL-SYD could be a good alternative at ~800 fewer miles, and would also give you a chance to try out MH for some variety (and also add in another stopover, if you wanted to see Kuala Lumpur). Haven't flown them personally, but heard decent things.

zznoname

I've edited, re-editing and more edited that post A LOT, too much.

What do you think of this routing?
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ATL-LHR...LD-SYD-LAX-DFW

sk3x

Assuming OP does not want to go to London, ATL-JFK-CDG makes a lot more sense and avoids YQ on BA (understanding you won't get a lie-flat seat on the transatlantic leg). But if sleep or wine is a priority, taking the BA flight at substantially more cost is an option.

ETA: YQ in J would be $428 for an ATL-LHR-CDG routing

zznoname

Yep. Good routing.
My wife would pay the extra (extra) for the lay flat 100% of the time.
But it's a good routing choice.

Having said that, I'm thinking it won't cost too, too much more considering you're flying in J.

We're doing CDG-LHR-IST on an Explorer thingy and it's maybe $250. extra including an ORD-MAD flight.

On a slow day I'm calling in to AA and get an itemized fee list.

srittle001

Thank you for everyone who responded and providing me links to do more research. You have all been very helpful in my planning my trip and I apoligize for not clarifying the stopover/connections in HKG. I was planning on stop over in HKG for New Years 2014 (my only real set date) and then continuing on to BKK.

After reviewing what you said I also realized I could cut out BKK-HKG and go straight from BKK-SYD. I am not sure why I didnt think about that sooner and after checking BA.com I realized that I should be able to fly straight from BKK-SYD and save me miles because of not having to double back. However, as one poster mentioned I could also possibly visit Kuala Lumpar so I have something to think about.

The main reason I wanted to fly out of JFK/ORD was to avoid BA and not have to pay fuel surcharges but if it is only another 250-300 a person that isnt to bad. I was thinking it would be about 550+ a person and figured I would save some money here and use it on the trip.

I have two more questions.

1. Any Oneworld partner except BA flight fly out of any east coast city to CDG or FCO in lie flat to avoid fuel surcharges? (I was planning on flying short hop from CDG-FCO and then back to CDG then on to HKG but I could always do the reverse since I can also fly direct from FCO-HKG although I see much better availability on the CDG-HKG so I think I should target that.

2. Anyone know if it is possible to use miles from SYD-ZQN Queenstown New Zealand on United? AA/Avios availability seems very sparce on Quantas and thinking I wont be able to use in my ATW trip although I would love too.

Thanks so much everyone as I am going to book my trip next month...cant wait!

Steve

sk3x

On #1, check out IB. They fly JFK-MAD (and other US cities) on the new A330-300, which is lie flat and looks nice to me. I believe there will be YQ, but significantly less than going through LHR.

desi

When it is in early part of routing where your travel plan is relatively certain, it definitely make sense to do exactly what your intent is.

However, when people are going with tentative dates and dummy bookings for the later part of the routing, CONNECTION reduces flexibility considerablly.

(found that bit hard way as I did not understand logic fully from the first post)

desi

Would routing via HEL on AY or via TXL for AB work for JFK-CDG portion?