My first RTW
 

Going to buy my first RTW.
Start and finish in Moscow, Russia. I need to visit Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York. I would like to be in First class. There is only one flight with First class from Moscow - to London.
So I have some questions

1. How is better to fly - eastbound or westbound?
2. London - New York. BA or AA? And 747 or 777?
3. New York - San Francisco. Direct or with connection? 767-300 or 767-200?
4. San Francisco - Hong Kong. AA or CX? 747 or 777?
5. Hong Kong - London. CX or BA? 747 or 777?

Thanks for help. I am newbie with OW. In the past I used *A.

General feeling that West is best, as you just extend your day. But all depends on how long you are spending in each city.

I think generally in F - CX>BA>AA
With BA you want to try and pick flights with a greater probability of next gen F. I think 747/777 have similar rollout

Personally prefer the 747 over 777 with noise etc the same. You might also consider JL 787 for US to Asia (albeit only Business class), or add HKG-SIN and fly QF A380 SIN-LHR (until end March)

JFK-SFO - depends what you are after. Many on this board will try and max out the *ONE* fares so would go indirect.

AA doesn't fly to HKG; you're probably seeing an AA code on CX metal. I would definitely opt for the CX 77W with the new F suites.

Nah, try to get the CX 744 between HKG and SFO.

P.S. There's a lengthy debate between those who favor the 744 and those who favor the 77W for F. You can see which camp I'm in. Either way, you can't lose with CX F.

Many people here prefer BA F to AA F, but you'll find quite a few who prefer AA F. Tons of discussion with lots of details elsewhere, but in brief, AA has better hard product while BA has better soft.

Also, you'll pay significantly more in BA fuel surcharges if you book flights with a BA code (regardless of which carrier operates it -- BA or AA).

CX F is vastly better than either BA or AA.

The BA/AA F decision depends in part on when the trip will be taken, and whether the new AA 777-300s are running yet. The AA F Suite provides greater space/privacy than BA's F seat, but the older 777-200 Suites are being held together with duct tape. [That said, some of BA's cabins are really filthy dirty.]

I agree the suggestion about travelling westbound --- the eastbound JFK - LHR overnight flight is really too short for a proper sleep (often just 5 or so hours in flight time).

Thank you very much for your kind help, friends.

Sorry which airport in New York should I choose - JFK or EWR?

And one more question - if I buy RTW in business class is it possibile to upgrade to F using Avios?

No. I tried but BA says that it is disallowed on RTWs.

Should be possible but you can generally only upgrade on the carriers own metal (eg QF points only on QF, Avios (I think) on BA, IB and AA) but allow depends on fare class booked and the particular rules.

Wow, BA disallowed ?
CX/Asiamiles permits upgrade from business to First of CX flights of DONEX.
However, if a ticket is not issued by CX, practically very hard to sort out e-ticketing issue of award booking/ticket and original booking.
Recently I have read a thread about AA-RTW desk's handling of CX's upgrade reservation about this.

Edit:
Asismiles permit roundtrip upgrade from D class to First on BA and AA but not for oneway.
This is a tricky part for upgrade of RTW.
I have no real experience, but theoretically, Asiamiles permit upgrade for AA/BA's roundtrip flights within a RTW.

+1 @:-)

1) Westbound for me as it usually works better for sleeping
2) BA
3) Direct and 767-200 in middle seat to avoid having to climb out over a neighbour
4) Definitely CX and definitely 747
5) CX 747

That would be my personal choice ;)

Most likely you'll be flying to JFK if going west and AA does not have that many flights to EWR going east. Keep flying west as that will give you most time enjoying the F experience.

I find east bound is better (AU-Asia-US-Europe-Asia-AU). Much easier for me to sleep and adjust to timezone changes. I generally only get jetlag if I'm on a day time west bound flight from Asia to Europe.

When you say "Should be possible" are you just guessing?

I've investigated and attempted this, so am not sure what you are saying.

Well, the specific question and the specific answers were about using Avios to upgrade BA flights, so I'm confused as to what you're trying to say.

• The AA upgrade award chart used to include specific language disallowing the use of AA miles to upgrade a BA flight that is part of an RTW. This language was removed earlier this year, but when I attempted doing so, AA disallowed it, insisting it was still prohibited.
• BA does not have a rule sheet published that I could find for using Avios to upgrade BA flights, but when I tried, I was told by the BAEC that it is not permitted on RTW flights.
• AM does allow upgrading CX flights that are part of an RTW using AM, but if the ticket was not issued by CX to start with, it can be very difficult to accomplish (not impossible, just difficult and must be done in weird ways to avoid leaving the reservation in an inconsistent state which causes AA to cancel the upgrades).
• AA does allow upgrading AA flights using AA miles that are part of an RTW, and AA is generally quite good about re-issuing the ticket when doing so.
• If AM allows upgrading BA flights using AM, that would be terrific. I have no knowledge about this, so would be very interested to learn the details.

There is nothing in any oneworld ticket fare rules disallowing upgrades. The only mention of upgrades are paid upgrades from L to W on a per sector basis.

Use of frequent flyer program upgrade instruments (eg, points, miles, stickers, etc) are permitted subject to the rules of that frequent flyer program. ie, I can use my QF points to upgrade a QF coded, QF operated flight.

Right -- it's up to the individual FF programs and airlines as to what is and what is not allowed. I posted immediately above my experience and knowledge of these.

But I believe open-jaw (so something like HKG-(BA)-LHR-(BA)-LAX) is allowed, right?

Yes, see http://www.asiamiles.com/am/en/redeem/charts#2.

Thanks a lot for your kind help.