Thank you for sharing.


My discovery re LHR-MCT return, please refer to my reply post to Gardyloo. I could not find AA codeshare here. What did I do wrong?

Of course ticketing it this way will mean higher fuel fines as BA will be issuing the ticket and the reason why Gardyloo recommended ticketing the ARN-LHR-LAX using the AA codeshare from ARN connecting to the AA transatlantic flight.

Indeed I find them all here ^^. Thanks everyone for sharing.


Here's a DONE4 originating in Europe and going through N. America, for considerably more miles than the S. America option cited above. ..

ARN (AA) BA LHR AA LAX AA ORD AA ANC AA DFW AA SFO AA JFK CX HKG CX SIN JL NRT JL SIN QF SYD QF LHR BA MCT BA LHR BA ARN (around 57K mi.)...[/QUOTE]

Love more miles! Even at the sacrifice of some must-do cities (as said, they can be done through access trips or pseudo-MR’s). Never been to MCT, but have heard good things about it. SO IST can be waived. Further, it is interesting that mid-trip, I can return home (SFO) and sleep in my own bed!. I had wanted to include ANC earlier routing attempt in vain. Now its there. Great time to be there in mid to late summer. I am a photo-buff, thus ANC is welcomed. I will work on this one. Thanks.

Together with your suggested non-RTW access: SFO-xJFK-FCO-LHR-ARN, boy, I really have to accum MORE time-off to be able to put this right before the RTW ex-ARN.

Questions re above routing:
1. Instead of DFW-SFO, can I do DFW-YVR-JFK? .Which carrier to go with for bonus miles for this leg YVR-JFK?) [NOTE: I may still go home to SFO from LAX as side trip; OW tool did not flag YVR-JFK].
2. Do I get bonus miles on JL as AA Gold?

As I am typing this post, I am also using OW routing map. Before even getting to choose flights, and up to segment 14 (LHR-MCT) and 15 (MCT-LHR), they both red-flagged. Tools would not allow me to go on further to complete LHR-ARN. What's wrong here?

Absolutely, thanks for the heads-up.
However, when tried to choose flight for LHR-MCT (despite red-flag), only BA73 shows up and it is NOT an AA code-share flight. Am I reading it right? Does that mean 25% bonus miles only? The return MCT-LHR is BA72.
If I take RJ, it would take 2 segments each way (with connection in AMM).

At this moment, I am stuck in LHR. Technically 2 segments will be allowed in continent of origin. It does not seem to grant me even 1 segment. Any idea what’s wrong here?

I have been reading couple of other DONE4 threads for added ideas. Thank you all.

1. Yes. CX is the carrier for YVR-JFK, so bonus miles fine.
2. No. No bonus miles for any AA elite on JL. All you'll get is the 25% class of service bonus on top of the base miles. You'd get bonus miles if your JL flight is a codeshare carrying an AA flight no. (or any other OW partner's code provided the partner awards AA elite bonuses.)

However, I think I mentioned that you should sign up for the Platinum challenge so that as soon as possible you hit 10,000 EQP, 'cause from then on you'll get the Plat/EXP 100% mileage bonus instead of the Gold 25% bonus. Thus on, e.g., CX or QF flights (and of course AA) you'll get 225% of the miles flown in business class, e.g. YVR-JFK, and 250% in first class (e.g. DFW-ANC) - 100% base miles, 100% bonus, and 25% (business) or 50% (first) cabin bonus. This is why RTWs are so good for your mileage balances.

Right. You can only use the AA code on BA flights when you're connecting directly off of, or on to, an AA metal flight, without stopover. So, e.g. you can use the AA code on BA 72 when your itinerary is MCT-xLHR-USA, with the LHR-USA flight on AA metal. Same thing going the other way.

Looking at the route, you might consider giving up the JFK-HKG leg on CX and substituting JFK-NRT on AA, connecting directly onto NRT-SIN, using the AA code on JL. You'd need to rework your Asia segments, but the AA Plat bonus on NRT-SIN might be worth the effort.

jerry a. laska is right - I put that route together to allow you to use the AA code on ARN-LHR, thereby trying to trick the online tool into letting AA issue the ticket. I don't know if the robot can be tricked in that regard, but the AA RTW desk, fine humans all, can easily set that up, thereby saving you hundreds of dollars in BA fuel surcharges.

The other reason I put the ARN-xLHR-LAX... itinerary together was to dissuade you from any stopovers at LHR outbound. A year or so ago I went CPT-xLHR-HEL-xLHR-xMCT-xLHR-LAX with only a hotel night in Helsinki splitting it up. (Couldn't leave the airport in Muscat due to pesky Israeli visa stamps in my passport.) I didn't want to stop over in London in either direction so I could avoid a couple hundred bucks in British Air Passenger Duty charges (big hit in J and F on longhaul departures from the UK, but waived for <24h transits.) I was shattered on arriving in LA - too many plane hours in too short a time. Your experience may vary, but it seemed to me like a high price to pay for around 3000 extra FF bonus miles generated by the AA codeshare on MCT-LAX. YMMV as we say.

I think you're hitting one of the many bugs rife in the online tool. There's a whole sticky thread above on this. I personally think once you've got an itinerary finalized (dates and all) you should

Yes, the Plat challenge is part of the plan. What complicates matters a bit is that DW and I have to do the same challenge. She is not even Gold. Our main concern now is "how much time we can take off to fly around" ??:D


I will keep this in mind. Thanks.

Note BOLD. How would I know that the online tool would allow AA to issue ticket? When flight is selected, it is BA.

I got it ^

That's awesome!


Thank you for the hand-holding. I will do as recommended.

2 itins & plenty questions
 

I am back.

Acknowledging current sentiment about best countries to originate a RTW includes but not limited to ex-ARN, ex-MCT, ex-WAW and ex-HEL. Here I am, after hashing out various itin possibilities, I now focus on these 2. Warning: Lots of rookie questions.

Itin 1 - ARN-LHRx-LAX- ORD-ANC-DFW-SFO-JFK-HKG –BOM-SIN-NRT-SYD-LHR-MCT-LHRx-ARN
FARE: DONE4 US$9,181 + $597.74 (taxes) = US$9,778.74 {I got this online without calling}
MILES before bonus (from milecalc dat com): 58,129 miles. {note: MileageMonkey shows 60,254 miles, and red-flags 2 segments (ORD_ANC; HKG_BOM) as no OW service.
Total segments = 16

Question 1: Is the above current and lowest fare available from AA and NOT from BA?
Question 2: Is milecalc give the most accurate mile count? I have used mileagemonkey also.
Question 3: re non-RTW access to ARN from SFO, how else can I leverage the Plat challenge (I am looking at calendar mid-year 2010)?

Itin 2 - MCT-LHRx -LAX-ORD-ANC-DFW-SFO-JFK-HKG-DEL- NRT-BKK-SIN-PER-SYD-LHR-MCT
FARE: DONE4 OMR3,250 {I got this online without calling; and think it is before taxes & surcharge, right??}; exchange rate 1 OMR = US$2.6008 {unsure if it is current??}
MILES before bonus (from MileageMonkey): 57,291 miles.
Total segments = 16
Fares = US$8,452.26 (using above exch rate)

Question 1. MCT-LHRx-ARN (BA flights only; can’t find AA codeshare); same true for last segment LHR-MCT. Does this prevent me from having AA to issue ticket? (think fuel surcharge & taxes of course.)
Question 2: How can I find out the EXACT fares plus all surcharges? (same Q for itin 1 as well)
Question 3: With Itin 2, can I have tickets issued by AA. (trying to avoid BA & its related taxes + surcharges)?
Question 4: re access trip to MCT, is this {SFO-DFW-LHR-AUH-MCT-AUH-LHR-LAX-SFO} the best in terms of miles & cost (RT fares about US$2,000 ai)?

General questions applied to both itins:
1. I often work on a new itin on different computers, is there a way to port itin from one computer to another, including all the already chosen flights?
2. What other items I need to address before I call the AA OW desk (e.g. possible seasonal discount; US greenback value etc…)?
3. When do you think I ought to ticket if my first segment takes place in May 2010?
4. What possible enhancement of above itins in terms of miles (more) and $ (less)?
5. Which site do you use for mileage calculation, milecalc, mileagemonkey or others? (OW site somehow does not show miles early in flight search stage, or am I missing something?)

I appreciate all the comments and suggestions. Thanks.

I will take a crack at this; others may have different/better answers...

Specific questions -

Itinerary 1 -

1. Don't know - it's probably using the new (post 10% sale) fare from ARN. Subtract the fare shown on the OW website from the quote you've gotten (converting to SEK) and look at the "taxes" subtotal (opens in a new window.) If you see a scary big number next to YQ-fuel surcharges for BA, then it's BA issuing the ticket. If not, then maybe AA.

2. See answer below.

3. You need 10K EQP during the 3-month challenge period, using AA codes. Go to the AA or Mileage Run Discussion board for pointers on the challenges - you'll get plenty of help.

Itinerary no. 2 -

1. You can't use an AA code (most of the time) on flights that aren't connecting directly off of / on to AA metal flights. If you were going MCT-xLHR-LAX it would be easy; as far as I know no other airlines codeshare MCT-LHR with BA besides AA. 1b - AA will issue the ticket, no problem. You'll have to do it through humans rather than the web tool, however.

2. You'll have to (a) rely on the online tool, or (b) phone the AA RTW people and have them send if off to their tariff office in Ireland.

3. Yes, no problem.

4. Have a look at originating in AMM or TLV - I think you'll find those countries are now the "cheapest" European points of origin for DONExs.

General questions -

1. Can't say.

2. Nothing; just have your flights and dates pinned down. They need to assemble the whole shebang and send it off to their tariff people.

3. Depends on your currency risk tolerance. If paying in USD, the current times are pretty miserable. However, in the past there have been a couple of fare increases annually (different places at different times) one of which "traditionally" has been around late January - early February. No guarantees of anything of course. Also note the spot price of oil is heading up, so fuel surcharges are only likely to get worse in that environment.

4. Depends on where you want to go, and when. See (4) above.

5. I use the Great Circle Mapper. Mileage Monkey is also good.

Hope I haven't goofed up the order of questions/answers.

A couple of things to add to Gardyloo's comprehensive post.

Itn 1 Q1. Use the AY codeshare on the ARN - LHR leg to get the cheapest price. The taxes almost halved in my case.

General Qs. Q1. There is an option to save itineraries to your OW profile, but you need to register on the OW website. I haven't used this but I suspect this means it is stored on a OW database and can be retrieved from any computer.

Q5. I have found that the miles earned seems to be dependant on the FF program. For example a BA flight LHR-HKG pushing miles to BA earns a different number of miles than when pushing the miles to AA. From my experience I have not found that Great Circle Mapper and Mileage Monkey do not accurately reflect the miles you will earn on AA. However both seem to be within 20 or so miles usually, if not spot on. I haven't tried milecalc.

Gardyloo,

Thank you for being so organized in your reply. I value your expert opinion very much.

I have been reading the Plat Challenge thread as suggested, and have gained much insight and understanding. I decided to participate (with DW too) and achieve Plat before our RTW. In fact, I have a trip to BKK coming up (will take DW also) and will use it as part of Plat challenge. After doing some searches, decided to best do it from JFK via NRT to BKK. See my thread with this link (Post 157, I think)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post12845094

I will look into an itin with ex-AMM, and see what is the fare for that.

Great Circle Mapper is great. Thanks for the link.

Do you mean using AY codeshare for ARN-LHR leg and still be able to have AA issue ticket (since connecting flight LHR-LAX is on AA)? I need to do a dummy booking to see what the real difference in fare is. Thanks for the heads-up.

Good idea about saving the itins on OW site. I will try that. Currently I save them on my desktop; and other times on laptop when away.

Yes. I was putting together a routing using the OW tool and realised that when I selected the AY codeshare on the ARN-LHR sector the taxes portion of the quote almost halved.

I did not get a price from AA as it seemed there would be little more, if any benefit from doing so.

I went ahead and purchased online and it was ticketed 3 days later by AY in HEL using the SEK price quoted by the tool.

I did note the other day that AY have since instigated a service fee of 50SEK (IIRC) which now shows on the OW tool quote page.

Give me a break. I haven't finished the last one yet. ;)

Yes e-ticket and all sectors with dates. However most of the dates will be changed as I am still planning my summer holiday.

are there any ambassadors that I could speak with in person to explain exactly what I need to do?