guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Joyce, substituting AKL-SCL-JFK-IAD (or AKL-SCL-MIA-DCA) for your existing AKL-BNE-LAX-IAD routing would not add any segments to your existing oneworld itinerary. You would still have a total of 15 segments, and could even add a second South American city, if desired.

obscuredolfin

Hi all,

After a couple of hours on the phone, I am striking out on knowledgeable/helpful AA reps here. I'm on my last few hours of holding my reservation: JFK-YVR-NRTx-ICN-HKGx-BKK-SIN-BKKx-HELx-HAM-HELx-ZRH-MADx-BER (overland) FCO-LHRx-JFK

I have a couple of questions:

Once I am ticketed, can I
a) change flights with the same origin/destination? For example right now I am flying FinnAir from HAM-HELx-ZRH. But, with AirBerlin coming on-line to OneWorld in March, there are direct flights I should be able to take. Can I swap these flights out once ticketed?
b) change timing?
c) eliminate legs? For example, if I can't get AirBerlin flights instead of FinnAir flights, can I opt to eliminate those legs of my flight later on and just buy my ticket?

Thanks so much for your help, I'm so excited to be almost there and have my RTW ticket!! (I'm also not having any luck extending my reservation - when Malev ceased operations last week, it ruined my itinerary since I was using BUD as a hub to travel around Europe )

Best,
Christie

ckpeter

Oneworld awards are very rigid, once ticketed. The only change you can make is to change the flight time, but you cannot change carrier, routing, and you must take all flights, otherwise any flight you skip will cause the rest of your itinerary to be cancelled.

Austinrunner

If you will tell me which connections are short, I'll look up the "minimum connecting times" for you and try to find alternatives.

Once you get beyond the 6-hour window, you are required to book the first scheduled flight, even if the flight has no availability. The penalty (which makes no real difference to a traveler who is touching an airport only once during her itinerary) is that the connection is deemed to be a "stopover."

It has been reported that this is allowed, which makes perfect sense given that date and time changes are allowed after ticketing.

Yes, QF loads seats at 355 days, I believe. This is why Expert Flyer now shows QF availability beyond AA's booking window.

There is a ton of AKL -> BNE nonstop availability for 10-23 January except on the 13th. During that window, BNE -> LAX is available nonstop as follows: 11th (2 seats), 13th (9+ seats), 16th (6 seats), 17th (8 seats), 18th (8 seats), 19th (8 seats), 20th (9+ seats), 22nd (9+ seats), 23rd (9+ seats). There is spotty one-stop availability through SYD or MEL. Don't forget that once you're in BNE, you have options in addition to QF.

Honestly not trying to tempt you! Just trying to find a back-up plan for getting you home if QF wasn't available. You have about 6,500 flown miles to play with. Going home through SCL would be just a couple hundred flown miles farther than through BNE. And South America as a connecting point would be a much shorter ordeal than HKG, for instance. (Disregard my earlier suggestion about
SYD -> EZE nonstop. QF is ending that route next month.)

Austinrunner

Given that AB's joining is date-certain, ask AA if you can book AB flights now.

Jwerking

Okay, guys - you are killing me here with temptation - it is like a kid in a candy shop! BTW, guv 1976 and austinrunner, are you guys or gals - or is it too personal to ask - sorry!

Also, there is this thing called money and I am going to so SO SO poor after this trip - esp on retirement pay since I am retiring on April 20th and leaving right away for my first visit to Korea to see my baby!

Okay, I checked online and there is award availability on AA flight 912 from SCL to MIA on Dec 11, 23, or 24. Once again, no availability from MIA back to WAS for the entire month of Dec except for Dec 11 and 12. So I could book Dec 11 from SCL-MIA-DCA and change it later if flights become available in late January. Would this be the proper strategy? Any way, it depends if there is any award availibility from AKL -SCL prior to the Dec 11 date (option 1) ! Or I could just book the Dec 23 or 24 flight (option 2) (can't believe these dates are available) and just pay my own way back from MIA to DCA - should not be too many $$$.

Austinrunner - could you do me a big favor and check if there is availability from AKL to SCL prior to Dec 11 ( option 1) and then around Dec 23 or 24 (option 2)? I have not figured out how to use Expertflyer - I think I tried it a few weeks again and could not figure out how it worked.

This is really crazy right now - with booking these returns in early December when I want to come back in late January - and the only reason is because AA will not load their domestic award seats.

Thank all of you for your help once again!

Joyce

Jwerking

[QUOTE]On June 13th, I have a one hour connection at NRT as shown below. This cannot be a stopover as I am doing a stopover in HND later.
On Dec 3, I have a 1:45 connection in SYD as follows: ( this could be a stopover with no problem)
Thank you again for your help, Austinrunner, you are truly the best!

Austinrunner

The latter is a manly man.

AKL -> SCL nonstop on LA 800 is available for 2 people in Y on 1 December (checked from the 1st through the 11th) and on 24 December.

SYD -> SCL nonstop on QF 27 is available for 2 people in Y on 5 December, 6 December, and 7 December. It's not available on the 23rd or 24th of December.

Booking your earliest acceptable return dates now and then trying to move them to subsequent, more acceptable dates later is a good strategy.

Jwerking

Dec 1 will not work - don't get to AKL until Dec 4th.

Dec 24 may work. It would be:
This is a real possibility - is the 11 hrs in SCL allowed as a stopover.

???? I cannot find Flight QF 27 either on the Quantas site or the ITA site??? Is it nonstop from SYD to SCL or via AKL?

The Dec 7th date would be a possibility.

Once again, thank you for your help!!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Joyce, LA also flies SCL-MIA, so it might be worth checking LA availability too, in case you would like to have more time in SCL. And unless your itinerary already has two connections through NYC, you could look at SCL-JFK-WAS as an alternative to going through MIA.

And I'm a guy also.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Joyce, LA also flies SCL-MIA, so it might be worth checking LA availability too, in case you would like to have more time in SCL. And unless your itinerary already has two connections through NYC, you could look at SCL-JFK-WAS as an alternative to going through MIA.

And I'm a guy also.

tdao

Hi all,

I'm trying to come up with this itinerary, but want to know what options I have from NBO to South America, more specifically, to BOG.

BKK-DEL-AMM-CAI-AMM-NBO-LHR-MAD-BOG

All the flights from NBO seem to be from BA airlines, does this mean I am forced to pay the fuel surcharge?

Do I have any other options?

TIA!

aktchi

Yes! A minimal change to your itinerary would be NBO-AMM-MAD on Royal Jordanian, then MAD-BOG on Iberia as before.

Austinrunner

Because you are touching SCL only once on your itinerary, it doesn't matter whether it's a connection or a stopover.

QF 27 is nonstop SYD -> SCL on a 747-400. The route begins 26 March 2012, which is probably why you're not finding it. Here is a good website for looking up flights: http://info.flightmapper.net/flight/..._Airways_QF_27

Austinrunner

I could not find an alternative to the June 13th flights. The connection time of 1 hour appears to comply with the minimum connecting time rule, but this would still stress me out. I investigated
NRT -> LAX -> JFK but could not find availability on the LAX -> JFK leg (AA 4 and 32) on June 13th.

As for December 3rd, QF 113 leaves SYD at 4:55 pm and is available. An alternative to that is
BKK -> SIN (CX 713) -> SYD (QF 2) -> AKL (QF 55). The CX and QF flights are available and would result in your reaching AKL at 2:25 pm. The connection layover in SYD would be 2 hours, 20 minutes. The routing through SIN would cost you an additional segment.