Let's build a DONE4!
 

I am starting a one year vacation this summer. I want to travel around the world in business class. Could you help me figure out a good route for DONE4? Would be good to get as much miles and TPs as possible as cheap as possible. I have BAEC Gold if that makes any difference.

I want to start my travels somewhere in Europe (I live in Helsinki, but looks like starting in BUD is pretty good value). I don't care going anywhere in Africa, but rather North America, Asia and Australia.

I'm not so fussy about where in those places as I want to go anywhere and will also take many side trips (AirAsia allover Asia, LAX to Costa Rica and Honduras etc.). So that's why I thought I could maximize the miles and TPs.

Any suggestions? This is what I started with: BUD-LHR-LAX-MIA-ORD-JFK-HKG-NRT-SIN-BKK-SYD-AKL-MEL-LHR-BUD

This is like asking a bunch of strangers to pick a wife for you.

Go read a bunch of [*Lonely Planet] books. *substitute a series (or individual books) suitable to your travel life-style.

Or ask pointed questions that might focus on an interest of yours. If you haven't traveled much and can't come up with such questions, do a bunch of reading first - anecdotal stories of others' rtw trips, not the cookbooks detailing destinations, sights, hotels.

Hello and welcome to FT, RTWfromFinland!

Don' be discouraged if the random poster snubs you off just because this is your first post&thread. It's like IRL, but chances are you meet fellow travellers in the OW forum with lots of experiences on:
1. Where to start an XONEX
2. How to build an XONEX
3. How to minimize fuel surcharges
4. How to maximize on miles and/or TPs

A long, but very valable thread here to browse

A very valuable help, IMHO, is the interactive world map cum RTW fare listings found here

Also check out single RTW/XONEX threads in the OW forum.

First things entering my mind, when I see your ticket plan are these:

1. You only have 14 sements out 16 allowed.

2. Considering you need a positioning flight to commence outside your your own country, are you paying that flight with cash or miles? Use the fare instrument above and check for prices ex TLV or AMM

3. To maximize miles (and Tps), you could do more with Asia, and side trips BKK-SIN-BKK and SYD-MEL-SYD, saves segments for longer journeys for more miles...

One example could be: BUD-XLHR-LAX-MIA-ORD-JFK-HKG-NRT-BKK-BOM-XHKG-AKL-SYD-LHR-MCT-XLHR-BUD (16 segments = max)

By doing immediate transit in LHR first and third time, you can use the second as a stay in London/UK, and even pop by your friends in Finland . For HKG it’s a matter of taste which of the two to place as a transit or stay.

Once bitten by the RTW bug, you’ll expose yourself to more bites…


:cool:

Hello and welcome to FT, RTWfromFinland!

Don' be discouraged if the random poster snubs you off just because this is your first post&thread. It's like IRL, but chances are you meet fellow travellers in the OW forum with lots of experiences on:
1. Where to start an XONEX
2. How to build an XONEX
3. How to minimize fuel surcharges
4. How to maximize on miles and/or TPs

A long, but very valable thread here to browse

A very valuable help, IMHO, is the interactive world map cum RTW fare listings found here

Also check out single RTW/XONEX threads in the OW forum.

First things entering my mind, when I see your ticket plan are these:

1. Which FFP will you accrue miles to? (with TPs, I expect AY or BA?)

2. You only have 14 sements out 16 allowed.

3. Considering you need a positioning flight to commence outside your your own country, are you paying that flight with cash or miles? Use the fare instrument above and check for prices ex TLV or AMM

4. To maximize miles (and Tps), you could do more with Asia, and side trips BKK-SIN-BKK and SYD-MEL-SYD, saves segments for longer journeys for more miles...

One example could be: BUD-XLHR-LAX-MIA-ORD-JFK-HKG-NRT-BKK-BOM-XHKG-AKL-SYD-LHR-MCT-XLHR-BUD (16 segments = max)

By doing immediate transit in LHR first and third time, you can use the second as a stay in London/UK, and even pop by your friends in Finland . For HKG it’s a matter of taste which of the two to place as a transit or stay.

Once bitten by the RTW bug, you’ll expose yourself to more bites…


:cool:

I didn't know about that. I thought that any touchdown in London meant that you couldn't return, transit or otherwise.


Yes, I can tell you from experience that no one has yet developed a vaccine for this. Incredibly addictive.

Excellent! Just the kind of comments I was hoping for. Thank you =)

I'm using money to buy the positioning flight so AMM or TLV actually might be even more value. Need to look into that. I have quite a lot of Avios and was planning on using them for few C flights to/from and within South America.

The route you suggested is otherwise good, but I'm not interested in Muscat. I think I would rather fly more in Asia or Australia. For example, fly HKG to Perth and then Darwin to SYD... or something like that. Whatever brings more miles to my BAEC account. I'm sure I will like the places no matter where I go (except Muscat....) =)

Within SA almost all LAN (and family) flights are on A319-class a/c with 'domestic' biz seating. There are two similar-but-different "visit South America" ticketing schemes that imo offer reasonably-priced coach seating. One is LAN's own scheme, the other is OneWorld's. The "Oneworld Visit South America air pass" requires that you buy at least 3 segments (before arriving in SA on a OneWorld airline, and leaving on one), and no more than 16 due to e-ticket restrictions. They book into B or K, give full miles and q-points for AA, don't know about others, and are fully flexible, including add/drop segments - USD25/50 change fee. They're priced in mileage brackets:
Zone 1: 0 to 560 USD119
Zone 2: 561 to 750 USD143
Zone 3: 751 to 1280 USD179
Zone 4: 1281 to 1810 USD203
Zone 5: 1811 to 2300 USD263
Zone 6: 2301 to 3500 USD359
(Data from a 2008 table, but seemed very close in late 2012)
OW ticketing was arranged by speaking with the AA RTW desk, but of course online arrangements may now be possible. LAN's can be ticketed on-line, but their sites can be 'difficult'.

I didn't intend my original post to be denigrating in any way, btw. I just can't imagine going off on my first rtw (in my case at a relatively tender age, and mostly on B707 aircraft) without first having spent a lot of time curled up reading the personal stories of those who'd already done the trek.

The nexus of year-travelers used to be KTH and Goa, btw. Goa seems all touristy now, haven't been back to KTH recently enough to comment but if politics hasn't destroyed the place the gang might still gravitate there. I envy you all, having never found more than a couple of months for the trip. Bucket-list item, perhaps.

And now that I've joined the advisors, against my own advice, I can't resist mentioning that a long RTW should not miss Kruger National Park in South Africa. Very inexpensive DIY wild-animal experience, not counting the cost of getting to JNB. At the expensive end of adventure travel, a visit to Antarctica on an expedition-class ship (e.g. MV Ushuaia) easily trumps anything else I'll admit to.

Personally doing this routing twice on 16 segments, just altering the starting point and ME destination:
WAW/MXP-XLHR-MCT/AUD-LHR-LAX-MIA-ORD-JFK-HKG-NRT-BKK-BOM-XHKG-AKL-SYD-XLHR-WAW/MXP

The last of my 20 segments (allowed on paper ticket, gone a couple of years ago) AONE4 was:
ARN-XLHR-MCT-LHR-LAX-XJFK-XDFW-ANC-DFW-JFK-XHKG-NRT-HKG-BKK-SIN-XHKG-AKL-SYD-BKK-XLHR-ARN
which is basically the same, but as HKG-BOM at that time was C/Y only, and I wanted to maximize F travel, the Asia trips are shortish.

OK, starting ex TLV or AMM rules out any other trip to ME.

Concentrate on Asia AND maximise miles/Avios and TPs, right?
But: If you want to do both AKL and PER, you have to make the journey back from SWP two segments, as neither AKL or PER has any flights to EU; making AKL a separate side trip from SYD makes segments for PER (NB: No return to PER from eastern OZ).

Accruing to BA, you get a lot more TPs if the flight is >2000 miles. Could ORD be avoided in the RTW? CX flies to HKG from ORD too, but JFK-HKG is a longer flight to be pampered. If you want ORD, do as side trip from either MIA or NYC (only once daily JFK-ORD) and youll have a segment for SWP

How about:

AMM-LHR-LAX-MIA-JFK-HKG-NRT-CGK/KUL-NRT-DEL-HKG-PER-SYD-AKL-SYD-LHR-AMM(or any other ME destination is allowed as final destination)? Or do -PER-DWN-SYD- and do a side trip to AKL?

TYO to CGK (fascinating)* or KUL (shopping better)* are both >3000 miles, as are TYO and HKG to any Indian destination. DEL has the advantage of being served both by JL and CX, enabling the return to position for OZ. BOM only by CX from HKG (but one-stop BKK en route!) [*= both cities are fascinating and have good shopping]

Oooh, writing about a RTW like this almost makes me want to pack a bag already!

:)

Ha! What a timely thread! I've been toying with a DONE4 ex-AMM or a DONE5 ex-JNB for a while, and after much playing around, here's the routing I came up with to maximize mileage for myself.

AMM-LHR-LAX-DFW-ANC-DFW-LAX-JFK-HKG-BOM-HKG-DEL-NRT-SYD-LHR-MCT @ 57230 Miles / 1800 BA Tier Points

In the quoted routing, DEL-HKG would be the 5th segment in Asia thus making the itinerary invalid.

One thing to keep in mind (and I assume you have) is that BA requires 4 BA-metal segments per status tier bump; i.e. 4 from Bronze to Silver, 4 more from Silver to Gold.

Owing to BA's fuel fines (again, probably something you know about) RTWs aimed at harvesting umpteen tier points - combined with the 4-segment/tier requirement - can make for awkward and expensive RTWs. That is, using BA for your first flight (e.g. BUD-LHR) will open the door to high fuel fines throughout the ticket, whereas using some other carrier for first flight and/or ticket issuance (e.g. RJ AMM-JFK) will be cheaper, but will mean that getting the 4 BA segments done within the bounds of the RTW will be more complicated.

So I'd probably be looking at some rapid mileage runs on BA metal prior to commencing the RTW if the 4-segment rule with BAEC is an issue. Then if you're going up a tier during the RTW, end it with some BA segments and/or with BA repositioning flights after the RTW is over. The BA flights prior to/after the DONEx wouldn't have to be in business class - a couple of rapid LHR-AMS/CDG etc. turns in economy would do - thus conserving RTW segments for longer hauls and avoiding BA's fuel surcharges in the process.

Hope that makes sense.

I don't believe this is correct Gardyloo. Tier points and 4BA segments do not reset as you move up the tiers they only reset at the end of your membership year.

Also the requirement that the 4 segments be BA metal has also been changed and BA flight numbers on other metal also count towards the requirement.
From ba.com:

I stand (happily) corrected - I guess the four flights per tier move was eliminated when Avios appeared.

On your second point, I'm not so certain - here's the language from the BAEC T&Cs:

(My bold.)


Still, it's a far easier threshold than it used to be. However, I think the definition for "eligible flights" you cite that includes IB is what would be counted to make status by segment count, not tier points.

BA metal changed sometime back. More recently the IB language showed up and persons on the BA have received qualifying segments for the IB flights. The BA board is aware that the BAEC t&c's still say metal but the BAEC website where it explains avios and tiers says otherwise in a couple of locations and persons have received segment credit for other than BA metal segments as long as on a BA flight number. For example, see the BA forum dashboard:
And see a few of the following threads on the BA board:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...r+flights+tier
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...r+flights+tier

Great, thanks.