DONE4 ex-AMM : Comment/Critique Please
 

I'm hoping the resident xONEx experts will have some input in maximizing this ex-AMM DONE4 I've come up with. Positioning flights to AMM are not much of an issue as I am in BOM once every 12-15 months and BOM-AMM is a cheap 5 hour hop on Royal Jordanian.

AMM-xLHR-SYD-xNRT-DEL-xHKG-BOM-xHKG-JFK-xYVR-xDFW-xSJU-xDFW-xLAX-LHR-xMCT-AMM
(57447 Miles; 1840 SC's - 1800 + 40(DFW-LAX books in F) around 49k miles and 1720/1760 SC's if I credit HKG-JFK to AA for Plat Challenge)

The locations in bold are where I will definitely break the RTW. The idea is to combine a trip to Mumbai, hop over to Jordan to pick up the RTW and make my way back to Sydney using the first part of the DONE4, and continue from there.

On this DONE4 routing, I can make QF and AA Plat (by booking HKG-JFK on AA code share and signing up for a challenge). Though I'm wondering if there's any pro's or con's in gaining status on both QF and AA, besides the obvious fact of having status on both QF and AA!

Having checked at on the OneWorld booking tool, the ex-AMM ticket books on AA and comes in at just under 8000USD including taxes (which is consistent with ex-Jordan DONE4 + taxes).

Does anyone want to tweak this routing further to maximize SC's / Miles?

1. I could start the RTW in RUH (1400 more miles, 20 more SC's);cheaper & more miles - not to mention BOM-RUH is 50% cheaper than BOM-AMM. but the first flight is then on BA and I'm not sure how much YQ + taxes differ between AA and BA; not sure how that compares with the final price vis-a-vis ex-AMM

2. Does Qantas still fly between PER and NRT? (Search for random dates on QF.com seems to suggest otherwise!). If so, I could fly SYD-PER-NRT and drop the last leg, thus ending in MCT instead of AMM (doesn't change the SC's but nets 600 or so more miles)

Cheers
SQ421

They fly three times a week - use http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airl...able/global/en to find out the what days when you are travelling.

RUH is harder to transit through (and also harder to get visas for) than AMM.

While the online tool tickets based on first airline, you could ticket through a TA or directly with another airline as long as they have some flights (some require longhaul flights) on the ticket.

The LHR stopover is costing you a lot in taxes, although at least it is at the end of the itinerary and not at the beginning (taxes for LHR-SYD are higher than LHR-MCT/AMM).

Changing JFK-YVR-DFW to JFK-SEA-DFW will save on taxes and earn more SCs (as JFK-SEA books into first).

True. I did read your transit experience in RUH in one of your trip reports. According to Timatic, Australian Citizens can avail a visa for Jordon upon arrival for 20JOD


Transiting LHR on both occasions drops the fare to 7815USD. Here's a breakdown of the taxes

True that. Going via SEA is 90 more SC's and 121 less miles.

Part of the reason for JFK-YVR-DFW was to spend more time on CX J.(Then again, I'll be practically living on it between DEL-HKG-BOM-HKG-JFK; so SEA might be the way to go.

Also, not having to explain a second entry into the US at the YVR pre-clearance facility within days of the entry at JFK might swing me towards JFK-SEA-DFW. And surely, more SC's couldn't hurt!


Any words or wisdom for or against aiming for both QF Plat and AA Plat? I've read that redemption is easier on/via AAdvantage as compared to QFF, does that hold true for redemption on QF metal as well? Would there be any wisdom in crediting the entire RTW to AA to hit EXP?

I'd be surprised if you'd encounter any resistance at YVR; the US border people at YVR are accustomed to pax using it as an alternate to SEA in a wide range of scenarios. The one reason I've shied away from CX 888/889 in recent years is the rotten timing, especially westbound. YVR at 1 AM is not exactly hoppin'.

Although QFF members get to redeem flights earlier than AAdvantage members, I haven't experienced a case where a flight shown as available on the QF website wasn't available for AA redemption. I do believe that AA in general requires a lower mileage spend on many routes than QF (but am no expert) and IMO the AA Oneworld award product is second to none in terms of usefulness, especially in premium cabins. One note, however is that for the time being one cannot redeem AA miles for any partner's premium economy product, since AA doesn't have one itself.

Otherwise, the biggest difference that would come with AA EXP would be 8 SWUs usable on AA metal only. If you travel to/through N. America a lot, those could be useful, as could the "free" upgrades on all N. America AA flights, space available.

However, you don't get any mileage bonus for EXP compared to Platinum (both earn 100% bonuses on most but not all Oneworld airlines) and as QF Plat you'd have superior lounge access worldwide compared even to AA EXP (which doesn't get you into any domestic AA lounges unless traveling on an intercontinental itinerary or booked into transcon F.)

So IMO it would boil down to your own flying patterns. The RTW route you indicated wouldn't get you all the way to EXP - you'd still be around 13,000 EQP short, so you'd have to allot some additional flights to AA to hit the 100K mark. Note too that all AA elite qualifying must be done in one calendar year (we're all sitting on 0 balances at the moment) so your timing might also be an issue.

Cheers Gardyloo.



After another look at MileageMonkey, I did realize that I wouldn't have enough EQP's to make AA EXP. Also, with most of my flying within N.America likely to be in conjunction with this or future RTW's, the SWU Vouchers aren't much of an attraction. Also, even within N.America, QF WP seems to have more benefits in terms of lounge access as compared to AA EXP. Having compared that, I might just credit the RTW to QF and make QF WP.

I did look that up on AA.com a couple of days ago. Then again, AA status also seems to last for close to two years (if you qualify in Jan/Feb)? or do I have that wrong?

Qantas seems to work off the anniversary of when you joined QFF, and status applies immediately, and lasts for atleast 12 months. Does the status then reset on the next anniversary after qualifying, or the subsequent one? The wording leads me to believe its the latter.

If you qualify during CY 2011 your EXP/Plat would last until the end of February 2013. AA has a "soft landing" in which you'd fall to Plat (or Gold) for the program year following (i.e. until 3/2014.)

Chiming in here, if you are aiming to make AA PLT via a challenge, I am pretty sure you aren't able to qualify on a codeshare, challenge points have to be earned on a AA metal flights. Double check for yourself at the AA forum wiki, but that rings a bell. And no, AA doesn't fly JFK-HKG on its own unfortunately. :-(

No, all AA marketed (AA flight numbers) flights count. It doesn't matter whose metal it is on. See, e.g.,
http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index...lenge_%28AA%29
From a sample AA challenge letter posted at the wiki.

whoops, sorry! I must have been thinking of the 'no more partner flights' change. I'll slink away quietly now...

Hmm.. MileageMonkey is addictive!

Tweaking the above routing further to

AMM-xLHR-SYD-xPER-xNRT-DEL-xHKG-BOM-xHKG-JFK-xYVR-xDFW-xBOS-xDFW-xLAX-LHR-xMCT earns about 1200 less miles than the quoted routing, but a whopping 210 more Status Credits totaling to 2010 SC's (and couple of hops around Australia or a trans-tasman hop on LAN could push me past Partner Gold!).

Decisions Decisions!

If my math is right, if you substitute SEA for YVR you'll pick up an additional 90 SCs since both JFK-YVR and YVR-DFW will book into D, while JFK-SEA and SEA-DFW will book into A. You can take the train from Seattle to Vancouver for forty bucks if you need to get there; in addition the timing for JFK-SEA beats the stuffing out of JFK-YVR.

Since you're in playing mode, don't overlook NRT-HNL-ORD/DFW (HNL-ORD/DFW also books into A) and if you're in N. America between May and September, DFW-ANC-DFW is 3040 miles each way, also in first class.

Thanks Gardyloo;

I've already swapped YVR for SEA after some posts upthread. For the most recent post, I just quoted the first post and copied the routing. Cheers for the tips on NRT-HNL-ORD/DFW.. can certainly play around with that AND see if I can fit in the seasonal ANC turnaround....(and i was able to get the routing up to 2070 Status Credits...)

One small thing I might suggest. There's a convention some of us use for spelling out the routing, and that is to put stops in caps and transits in lower case. Thus AMM-lhr-SYD-nrt-DEL... rather than your AMM-xLHR-SYD-xNRT-DEL... Why do it this way? The reason is that tools such as the Mileage Monkey or the Great Circle Mapper don't care about the case, so one can just copy the string and paste it in without having to then delete all the 'x' notations (and even worse is when, as some people do, the airline code for each flight is also interspersed). The logic behind this method is simple: when asking for help, one should always try to make it as easy as possible for potential helpers.

cheers,

Henry

MileageMonkey actually works just fine with the 'x' notations. Further more, I've always been under the impression that the airport codes are always keyed out in capitals to let the reader read them as such (i.e. read them as airport codes).

FWIW, I doubt any of my queries (or the way they were keyed out) here made it less easy for the potential helpers.

YMMV