eosphoros

Hey guys,

Here is the situation:

I was originally planning to book an RTW ticket in J to start in Sydney for 12.9k (with the main focal point being LHR as I will be in Europe for a good seven months on exchange). After playing around with Oneworld's planning tool, it turns out booking RTW out of LHR is much cheaper than booking out of SYD (due to the AUD). I was wondering if it were possible to book a standalone SYD-LHR-SYD in the cheapest discount economy (around 2.8k) and during my time in Europe, book another RTW in J LHR-LHR (around 10.4k AUD), but - and here's the bit I'm not sure about - if that RTW trip could include SYD in it without Qantas telling me that I am not allowed to have two open tickets like that (I'm not too sure what the rules are here).

Reason I ask is my plan is to leave SYD for Europe during August, stay there until mid Feb (travelling around Europe making my own plans in the meanwhile), then going from LHR (on my RTW ticket) through the US and Canada, and then back to Sydney where I will stay for a few months, and then go back to LHR (via a few destinations in Asia) hopefully for the olympics, and then returning on the originally booked SYD-LHR-SYD ticket in economy.

So basically (tentative destinations):
SYD-LHR-own travel plans-LHR-JFK-DCA-ORD-YYZ-DFW-LAS-LAX-SYD (and stay for a few months)-BNE-MEL-HKG-BKK-SIN-FRA-MAD-LHR-LHR-SYD

Red is the original SYD-LHR-SYD, Blue is the RTW

The price would work out to be only 400 more than SYD-LHR-SYD, and it would give me more flexibility in my options (not to mention more SC's too!)

So basically, is it against any rules, whether with Qantas or with Oneworld, to have two open itineraries with the same destinations on both of them? And is it against the rules of RTW to make your own travel plans as well as holding the RTW ticket (I notice it uses up a flight segment if you choose a Surface section)? Also, I assume as I start in LHR (I have never booked with another airline other than Qantas), I will be booking with BA. Will there be any problems/delays regarding points and SC's?

Thanks so much for any help and I hope all that wall of text made sense! Sorry if I am asking stupid questions. I have never booked an RTW before and would prefer not to throw that much money down the drain in the event that they tell me I am violating the rules. I have read the terms and conditions too but would like to double check with the knowledgable members here =)

Thanks again.

og

I have had three open itineraries at one time. It is a good way to do multiple trips over a long period of time. Why should that be a problem?

Based in Oz, I'll go - say to North America on a xONEx ticket, get a return ticket to Oz, re-start the xONEx ticket, get another return to Oz and so on.

The only problem is keeping up to speed with what you are doing and managing accordingly.

Just remember that each stopover gives opportunities for taking another trip from that stopover point. And, the rules of xONEx allow changes to date/time without penalty.

eosphoros

Great! Thanks for clearing that up. One more question: What is the penalty from either Qantas or OW for extending the 12 month limit on tickets?

tt7

$0. They don't penalize you for something you can't do.

Himeno

Last year I had two oneworld tickets in use at once, and another return ticket.

CBR-SYD-NRT/HND-ITM-NRT-SIN-HKG-JFK-BWI-JFK-DFW-ORD-MCO-DFW-SEA-JFK-CDG-HEL-LHR-DXB-LHR-HKG-NRT-SIN-PER-MEL

Red: DAS13 (issued by QF[AU])
Blue: DONE3 (issued by QF[JP])
Green: return (issued by AA[AU])
no one had any issues with it (other then the confused Japanese immigration agent).

number_6

As stated there is no penalty (though there is the potential to reprice the ticket as point to point if the fare rules were not adhered to due to missing sectors -- but historically nobody has reported this to have happened). The ticket becomes worthless on the 366th day, no refund and no way to resurrect the unflown segments.

tt7

If you use the online tool to book the ticket, it will be issued by whoever is the marketing carrier of the first segment (with a couple of exceptions - for example, QF does the ticketing for JL, AA does it for RJ). If your first leg is LHR-JFK, it will be ticketed either by AA or BA, depending on whose flight you choose (and note it is the marketing carrier, not the operating carrier so (in theory) if you take a BA codeshare on an AA-metal flight, it will be ticketed by BA). Conventional wisdom is to avoid having BA issue the ticket if at all possible, as they tend to charge punitive fuel fines which others (e.g., AA) do not.

As to problems/delays with points posting, there shouldn't be a problem ..... though having said that, the AA miles never, ever post automatically for the QF legs on my AA-issued xONEx tickets. AA # shows up on the QF boarding pass, no issues with status recognition etc., but the miles never post automatically. No big deal really - just have to keep the boarding passes, follow up etc.

tt7

I'm not sure which of these (perhaps all?...) are places you want to go (=stop) versus connecting points on the way to somewhere else. However, if you want to maximize point/SC earning, there may be ways to re-work the places/sequence depending on where you want to get to and in which sequence. As you are presumably interested in QF SC earning, I'm not qualified to help but others (e.g., number_6) certainly are and can offer advice if you think your proposed itinerary is open to tweaking. For example, going LHR-DFW or LHR-LAX rather than LHR-JFK and then working your way back to JFK (assuming New York is a stopping point) would certainly be more miles and SC. I know number_6 has some strong views on DFW versus LAX .... (although in the context of coming from Oz, not from LHR) but my knee-jerk is that starting LHR-JFK-DCA-ORD isn't doing much to maximize the points/SC (assuming that is an objective).

eosphoros

I am looking to stop at all the US places and you do provide a good point regarding SCs. I'll amend my itinerary to fly LHR-LAX and work my way to JFK. The only places where I don't care all that much about are CBR, MEL and BNE. As for Asia, I would definitely like to go to at least HKG and BKK. MAD is also expendable.

Edit to Add: Is it better to book the first leg with BA or with AA? Which is easier to deal with? Putting those changes into Oneworld's planner, booking the first leg with AA saves 300GBP. But if they are hard to deal with, is it worth it?

og

Hmmmm

eosphoros

Well... I do care about MEL but thats a cheap ticket (but I am happy to include it on the ticket). CBR and BNE I really do not care about though haha.

Edit: Whoops CBR isn't even in this itinerary. It was in a previous one I was trying. My bad.

tt7

AA has a dedicated RTW desk (phone number is 1-800-247-3247) which is widely regarded to be the best there is. Although occasional reports of spotty service or 'new' people, they know their stuff. I'm not even sure any of the other OW airlines have an equivalent, dedicated group. Booking with AA versus BA is a no-brainer - obviously as an "AA person" I'm biased but I think you'd find most people around here would suggest AA over BA.

Gardyloo

I think you'd find having the ticket issued by AA will save quite a lot in terms of fuel surcharges tacked onto the ticket cost (look for "YQ" in the "taxes" breakout if booking online.) It's not really a tax but an additional payment to the operating carrier. BA and QF tend to levy much higher fuel surcharges than some other OW operators.

Since you indicate you'll be traveling around Europe prior to traveling to North America, you might also want to consider originating somewhere besides the UK. Depending on currency exchange rates, a DONE4 originating somewhere in the Euro zone won't carry a terribly different base rate than one originating in the UK. However, by originating someplace besides LHR you'll avoid the very high premium-cabin UK Airline Passenger Duty levied on departures from UK airports. In the case of a business class flight from, say, LHR to the USA or Canada, the APD is Ł120.

You could, for example, depart from Madrid on Iberia's new nonstop to LAX, use the AA codeshare designation on it, and end up paying roughly US$500 less in taxes and fees on just that one flight. It's definitely worth using Skype or some such to phone the AA RTW desk and have them put the ticket together rather than using the online tool, since they can book it using AA flight numbers, thereby avoiding Iberia's equally high fuel surcharges. But even if they pass IB's fuel fine through, it's still cheaper - net - than starting in the UK and paying the APD.

jbalmuth

I strongly agree that booking with AA versus BA is a no-brainer.

DownUnderFlyer

But: YMMV. I just booked a DONE5 and BA was cheaper than AA. No idea why.