Hagbard Viking

If this contest is about being first to make EXP in real-life with actually flown flights I don't see why the rules should dictate legal connections (although I am not writing the rules). Minimum connection times only apply to booked connections. If you are willing to take chances you can always book separate tickets in which case you can make your connections as tight as you want. I am not saying that this is necessarily a winning strategy but it can be done.

On the other hand, if the contest is about designing an itinerary in theory I think legal connections should be required.

This was already answered by oklAAhoma, correctly and helpfully.

beckoa

This thing looks completely crazy. And if wasn't already in LIH over the first 4 days of the competition, I might of been crazy enough to do this, since I have the first week off of college due to x-mas break. I am partial to AS myself, so I devised a "plan" to complete this in 10 days using segments on "technically" QX Metal, shown below. Thanks to a recent cut on QX airfares, the "Full Flex" OW between SEA-PDX is $99. Thus, one can achieve the objective while staying under the $10,000 budget, at $9,900. (without taxes- with it runs slightly over at $10,940.)

I personally am not too familiar with the AAdvantage Program, and AA FWIW, but it appears that there are several tiers for earning EQP's, based on fare level. I am not sure if this translates over to EQS's or not. For the "Full Flex" it would be at least 100%, if not "Y". It is the "Bargain" ones I wonder about, since some OW's can be had for $59-79 w/o taxes, which if added, can bring the overall cost down to less than the $10,000.

So, here is the "exciting" routing I found:
(Repeat 10 days concurrently)

6:00 AM - 6:55 AM PDX-SEA AS2244
8:00 AM - 8:50 AM SEA-PDX AS2429
9:30 AM - 10:20 AM PDX-SEA AS 2156
11:00 AM - 11:50 AM SEA-PDX AS 2263
12:30 PM - 1:20 PM PDX-SEA AS 2246
2:00 PM - 2:50 PM SEA-PDX AS 2455
3:30 PM - 4:20 PM PDX-SEA AS 2464
5:00 PM - 5:45 PM SEA-PDX AS 2495
6:30 PM - 7:25 PM PDX-SEA AS 2496
8:00 PM - 8:45 PM SEA-PDX AS 2229

For food, QX does offer "light" snacks on board, as well as complimentary Northwest Brews and Wine, so they could try to nourish themselves that way. I am not sure about sleeping- possibly in the airport "for free"- just find an extra bench to sleep on, "The Terminal" style, make a new friend near PDX and crash at his house for free, or, someone can try to find a "filler flight" between 9 PM and 6 AM to sleep on. Your choice!

Have fun!

ECOTONE

Some of those tight connections might be hard to negotiate - unless the same equipment is being shuttled between PDX and SEA.

nrr

After reading #107, I wonder if I would ever want to see the inside of a plane, after 10 days of shuttling between pdx and sea.

wonderbret

I dont think i could do that iten. The only thing that is going to help my sanity is the fact that i will at least be in business seats. Also my desire to win anything im involved in gets the best of me sometimes .

MileHigh

Airline version of "Ground Hog Day".......

writetorich

"legal" connection

c'mon, if you can get them to book and ticket it and you are willing to fly it , then I think any flown flights should count.

mikeef

Yeah, the AA board is well known for its kindness to those who ask repeat questions.

Seriously, though, I think it might be wise for us to wait for Randy to post some rules before we hit the res system. For that matter, why don't you guys all wait until about 1/14?

Mike

Ajohn

OK, this doesn't really solve the puzzle as I haven't a clue how to price this even below $20,000, but maybe someone can work with this (EQPs in parentheses, assuming flying J)

1/1 AKL-SYD LAN 801 0545-0720 (2015)
1/1 SYD-NRT JL 772 0940-1710 (7290)
1/1 NRT-JFK JL 8 1840-1710 (10104)
1/1 JFK-LHR AA 104 1930-0740+ (5178)
1/2 LHR-SIN QF 32 1115-0750+ (10140)
1/3 SIN-HKG CX 736 1010-1400 (2393)
1/3 HKG-YVR CX 888 1505-1025 (9555)
1/3 YVR-JFK CX 888 1150-2000 (3660)
1/3 JFK-LHR AA 132 2105-0905+ (5178)
1/4 LHR-HKG CX 252 1130-710+ (8985)
1/5 HKG-JFK CX 840 1015-1255 (12102)
1/5 JFK-LHR AA 100 1815-625+ (5178)
1/6 LHR-HEL AY 832 1020-1515 (1724)
1/6 HEL-NRT AY 73 1720-1000+ (7290)
1/7 NRT-DFW AA 176 1300-0920 (9630)

Crossing the 100,000 mark, therefore, by 9:20 AM CST on January 7

Importantly, someone would have to book the Cathay 888 flights from HKG-YVR and then from YVR-JFK separately. Otherwise the mileage would count as HKG-JFK direct. There are a couple tight connections here, but the only really troublesome one is the JFK transit on the 3rd. It's only 1:05. If that sounds ridiculous, I've got another itinerary with big connections everywhere that finishes two hours later.

I'm intrigued to find who's got ideas about pricing (for this or other possible itineraries).

Adam

wonderbret

Im starting to think there will be a lot of people on the same flights but the only way I can see this being done is business is with a DONE4. At least thats what im seeing, please feel free to correct me

Ajohn

Haha! I'm not sure there will be "a lot of people on the same flights" with you if you do this. In fact, I would be stunned if there were two!

Unfortunately the rules of the DONE4 say you can only cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans once each. That means you would need at least three (though if you use my schedule you could subsititute DONE3's for two of those plus one more trans-Pacific flight. And it actually gets even more complicated than that, as xONEx awards generally have to start and finish in the same country (though there are tons of exceptions to this rule) – meaning you'd have to be cleverer than my itinerary to use them. Out of interest, does yours beat 9:20 CST 1/7/08?

skunker

Damn! I just came up with a DONE5 that gets EXP at 10:25am 1/9/08. Back to the schedules.

EDIT: Well, if yours is CST then I need to shave a day off since mine would be on the other side of the time line. Hmmmm

Ajohn

Are you kidding me? You've destroyed mine! My itinerary was just trying to minimize time. I never truly thought about the spending rule, as that's loads more difficult. A DONE5 costs just $9200 when bought in the States, so if you can actually get 100,000 EQPs that way and stay within the rules of the Explorer ticket (and I'll be duly impressed if so) then you've all but certainly won the thing. Granted, of course, that you're crazy enough to fly it

Adam

Kiwi Flyer

1 - you don't need a 5 continent DONEx to get there
2 - I'm fairly sure that a DONEx will not be the quickest way (within the $ cap)

skunker

EDIT: I'm an idiot, nevermind.