I called AA for a quote for a One World Explorer trip and I've been told that Papeete could not be part pf a One World Explorer trip and that I had to take the Global Explorer program. Is that correct? I wanted to do the flight PPT-IPC which is operated by LAN.

If my understanding is correct, I don't think that PPT and IPC both count as being in South America but PPT counts as being in South West Pacific

Although you can get from South America to Tahiti using a One World carrier, you cannot get from Tahiti further into SWP ( such as NZ/AU ) or onto the next continent ( such as Asia ) on an OW carrier

With a Global Explorer, travel is permitted on Qantas codeshares operated by Air Tahiti Nui which enables onward travel

Actually, I would like to go from Sydney to Noum�a then make my own way from Noum�a to Papeete then take the Papeete-Eastern Island-Santiago. Should it be possible?

I called Qantas and BA and they both accepted my itinerary

Welcome to FT hanni

The AA agent you got was incorrect
call again and get a (hopefully) more knowledgeable agent

As Dave Noble pointed out (and you obviously already knew, given your plan to get from Noumea to Tahiti by other means) - the problem on a Oneworld Explorer is that there are no available flights westbound out of Tahiti; the Global Explorer allows travel on the QF codeshare on TN's flights PPT-AKL and AKL-PPT.

It should be worth booking through AA - to avoid some of the various fuel fines. BA and QF are just about the worst to book through for this.

Happy travels

Since you have Lan in your itinerary, I would call LAN and see if you can get it to issue the ticket ; that way you can avoid all the fuel fines that can be charged by QF, BA , AA et al

I suspect that the AA agent was aware of the issue of PPT with OWEs in that PPT becomes a siding that you cannot fly out of , but didn't consider that a "surface" sector could be used

Well, I tried to tell him but he was not very helpful...

I was not aware about the fuel fines, could you tell me a bit more about it please?

Thank you very much for all your answers :-)

My itinerary is: Toulouse (France)-London-hkg-syd-hba-syd-noumea//ppt-ipc-scl-Iquique-La Paz-Lima-lax-den-lon-tls

Any suggestions through which airlines I should book?

I would like to do hkg-akl-syd if available the days I would like to fly, that would be 5 sectors in South Pacific, so I would have to pay for one extra sector. Would I be able to do 17 sectors total in this case? Or do I have to stick to 16 sectors and take Denver out?


And by the wayn thank you very much for your welcome message :-)

You can only book a total of 16 sectors. The only way to do more then that is if you have 16 booked and something changes which requires the airline to add the 17th sector.
(eg having NRT-MEL as the last flight on a 16 sector trip only to have QF cancel the flight after ticketing and QF then rerouting as NRT-SYD-MEL)

Having TLS-LHR as the first flight will have BA ticket if using the online tool (unless you can book a codeshare). Booking through BA will add a lot of extra charges to the tax/fees part of the fare. Booking with AA will be cheaper with fuel surcharges. However AA has been known to not want to ticket oneworld tickets if they don't have an AA coded flight on a long haul sector.

Which airlines operate your planned long haul flights.

I take BA on lhr-Hkg and den-lhr, Qantas on hkg-syd and Lan on ppt-ipc-scl and on lim-lax

Different airlines charge differing "fuel surcharges" . Qantas and BA are the worst offenders and I would avoid them at all cost

AA is better, but the best ime is Lan

Since you have LAN segments in your itinerary, I would try phoning LAN and getting it to book it for you

Which airline does the ticketing can make $1000 difference in the overall cost . The base fare will be the same, the genuine taxes will be the same but the surcharges can vary wildly on the exact same itinerary just based on which airline tickets it

Dave

Waow! Ok, thank you very much for the tip!

And should I book it with LAN in France or should I call Santiago or somewhere else? Would it change the rate at all?

Phone LA in France. If you have it done in Santiago, the base fare quote will be the higher of the ex-France price and of the ex-Chile price

If France prices are higher than Chile prices it will do no harm, but in the reverse case you would be worse off

Dave

Some thoughts for you

If you change either the LIM-LAX or the DEN-LHR to be on the AA codeshare, then AA will ticket for you

I suggest you fly CX on LHR-HKG, to avoid BA's rapacious fuel fine

Of course you could start from Paris - CDG-HKG on CX, unless you particularly want to go to London
That would also free up a segment, which you could use for your HKG-AKL-SYD (though I would suggest HKG-AKL-MEL-HBA-SYD-NOU)

You currently have 3 flight segments in SWP - SYD-HBA-SYD-NOU; your surface segment NOU-PPT does not count towards your allowed 4 free flight segments in the continent

Also, instead of DEN-LHR-TLS, you could fly DEN-DFW-CDG or DEN-ORD-CDG - if you wanted an additional stop in the USA

Mileage Monkey is good tool to play around with itineraries - http://www.slfft.org/mm

There is no benefit of AA booking it over LA booking it, but I would try and avoid codeshares unless there is a good reason

AA will book it regardless of whether AA numbers are used for those flighjts or not, but LA can be better ( esp if there are BA sectors ). Book through LA and no need to even worry about "rapacious" surcharges on BA sectors that AA will charge