RTW questions
 

I'm about to purchase a RTW fare on OneWorld through AA. I'm discovering that almost half my EQM will be lost between no credit on CAX, and 50% on QFF. Am going BOS->DXB->PER->SYD->LAX->BOS. This is making it harder to justify spending $6k and having to go through LHR and pay way too much in tax to the crown.

However, I realize this may sound crazy or naive....but...

If I were to simply "stop" in LAX or perhaps SYD, send myself home to BOS on a separate one way ticket, could I "resume" that RTW itinerary and go elsewhere with it later in the year? I assume I would have to get myself back to the last leg on that itinerary, but depending on where I can go next and how much time I have later in the year, I could probably recoup at least some of the EQ miles lost between DXB -> HKG -> PER on CAX, and the rest on QFF lost between PER->SYD->LAX.

Really appreciate and suggestions, insights, advice here. Booking this as a regular multi-city itin on OO has been pricing out at more than double the RTW coach fare....

thx in advance,

Bartonio

Are you sure you're losing half your EQM? I thought the booking classes for RTW fares were in buckets that were 1:1 or better.

As to your question, you can stop your RTW in the middle, as long as you make sure to leave a long enough stopover. If you're really nervous about it, you could book it on another carrier, but I don't believe there is anything in the RTW rules prohibiting it.

You can stop your RTW in the middle, fly home, then fly back to resume it. There is no requirement that you fly it continuously without doing any other flying between the beginning and end of your RTW. Forget the "another carrier" advice above.

The person giving that advice is also confused between EQP and EQM, and appears to be giving you EQP advice when you asked about EQM. I would suggest disregarding that part of his advice also.

Economy RTW tickets book in to L inventory, so as you already know, that means no AA mileage credit for CX flights and 50% for QF flights.

You're allowed a total of 16 flight segments, so most people use all 16 to maximize the miles/value. You can have up to 6 flight segments in North America and up to 4 in each other continent (Europe, Asia and South Pacific), though as you're starting in North America, that also limits the number of USA flights (as flights in the continent of origin are more limited). Depending on the itinerary you want, you may want to consider starting in Europe, with a positioning flight to get you there (and back eventually). The RTW ticket itself may be cheaper starting in Europe rather than the US. You can stop and start as often as you like, subject to flying the last leg within 12 months of starting. Date/time/carrier changes are free but routing changes are $125 each time you change the routing so better to get it right first time when you ticket it.

For those legs that are on carriers that have premium economy, you can upgrade (for $) on a leg-by-leg basis, so that can improve the mileage earning (at a cost). You may want to look at flying on Finnair, as that will get 100% credit on AA. You'd need to fly via Helsinki, but AY flies to Hong Kong and Singapore and has code shares on to Oz. From Oz to LAX, you can take the AA code share (on QF). People often fly LHR-DXB-LHR to rack up the miles (albeit in J rather than Y).

You could perhaps try BOS-LAX-LHR-DXB-LHR-HEL-HKG-SYD-PER-SYD-LAX-DFW-BOS. That only uses 12 of the 16 permitted legs, so you can add legs in Europe and Asia and in Oz (and would need to do so in Oz as I don't think you can do 2 transcontinental flights).

It all really depends on where you must go/would be interested in going and whether you simply want to get there as quickly as possible or whether you have the time to maximize the miles etc. Your best best is to ask your questions in the oneworld forum, rather than in the AA forum.

Why are you doing this in whY?
If I were spending that kind of $$$ May as well buy F/J.

I agree with the sentiment others have posted. If you've resolved to pay for a positioning flight anyway, I think you'd be better off originating the RTW in the middle of the itinerary and paying the much cheaper non-US price.

For example, while the LONE4 from the US costs, $5300, a DONE4 from AMM is $7200. If you're not using all 16 segments anyway, the AMM-DXB segment would be free to tack on and start your actual vacation from there.

For $1900, getting every flight in J, 100% EQM, and 150% EQP is a pretty darn good value. That SYD-LAX (13 hours!) segment alone commands a $2000-$3000 premium in J over Y even in the most-discounted J (I) that's sometimes available.

You'd also have a bunch of extra North America segments to play with that book into domestic F to run up miles. Some BOS-DFW-SEA-DFW-BOS, BOS-ORD-SFO-ORD-BOS, etc are good times for mileage runs when F is guaranteed...

Feel free to visit the Oneworld board, where these kinds of questions are meat and potatoes.

thx for all the fish - thread moves to OW
 

wow, really appreciate the ideas and insights! re: Finnair, the routings I wanted (seem to be) seasonal, the current ones on OO were from FRA to DXB via AMM on RJ and not on my outbound schedule. Timing is everything on this trip, but am going to look a lot harder at a positioning flight choices. Definitely seeing this more as an investment that should be maximized where possible - will move the rest to OneWorld and thanks for such fast replies!

Bartonio

A few ideas for you:

• HKG-PER - fly QF instead of CX - you'll get 50% miles instead of zero
• SYD-LAX - fly the AA codeshare on QF metal - get 100% (if you weren't stopping in SYD, then you could also fly the AA codeshare PER-SYD)
• DXB-HKG - you could always fly DXB-AMM-HKG on RJ and get 50% miles on a longer journey, instead of zero on the non-stop flight

If you did the trip in reverse (starting BOS-LAX-SYD...), flying AA for the first two flights, and did the Platinum challenge, then you would have Platinum status when you arrive in SYD --> lounge access etc and 100% bonus, so those 50%s become 100%s

With regard to breaking the journey - as others have pointed out, that can certainly be done. With regard specifically to breaking the journey in Nth America - a couple of fare rules come into play (source KVS):

There's also a rule stating only one transcontinental flight allowed in Nth America and gives a list of West Coat and East Coast cities between which the rule applies

So, putting all the above together:

• if you depart from BOS to a destination outside of Nth America, then you have 6 flight segments and two stopovers to play with when you come back home
• You can have one stopover in the US, and one stopover in Canada
• You do not have to finish the journey back at BOS

How's about your return journey being SYD-JFK (on the AA codeshare of course, on the direct QF flight; it stops at LAX on the way but it still counts as only one segment, does not consume one of the allowed 6 Nth America segments and does not count as a transcontinental flight)

Then later, perhaps much later (you can have up to a year between the first flight and the last flight) - something like JFK-oYVR-xDFW-oANC-xDFW-HNLThen use you your hard-earned miles to get a redemption flight back to BOS

You can use the Mileage Monkey to play around with itineraries (though I've just plugged an itinerary into it and got error messages that imply ANC and HNL are not part of the USA! - I will post this into the mileage monkey thread)

Happy planning:D

Footnote: After posting, I see you're moving the thread to OW. Hope you see my post too!

Although a couple of people have mentioned it already, I would emphasize to use the AA codeshares whenever you can. You will earn mileage as if you were flying on AA metal. You can check the AA timetable for AA codeshare flight numbers here.

+1 for andreirublev's suggestion to start your trip 'overseas', because pricing for essentially the same trip varies hugely depending on the starting place. Then fly the first third ending at home, a second chunk that you can use to visit North American destinations (Alaska, Caribbean, Central America), and the third to return to your starting point - perhaps ending a year after you began, i.e. next year's 'summer vacation.'

..and for the suggestion to do it in biz.

Planning all that to conform with the rules, and understanding how to avoid extremely high "fuel" surcharges on certain carriers, and extremely high departure fees from certain airports (e.g. London) will keep you busy, but might get you a nicer trip than you had imagined.