DONE3 Trip Planning Advice Needed
 

This is my first RTW trip and I need some help. I have not found the OW website very intuitive to use.....although with time on it I suppose I would get better. For one thing, I cannot figure out how to actually sign-in to the OW website!!

Anyway, I have some SWU's that are expiring at the end of Feb and I want to make use of them. Also, I am going to have a busy (not busy with travel)
Mar/Apr/May so I decided a RTW in Jan/Feb will be the most cost effective way to use up the SWU's, earn lots of points early in the year, and get to see some of the world (asia) that I have not been to before.

My tentative planned itinerary is as follows:

Jan 17 MIA-DFW-LAX on AA
Jan 18 LAX-NRT-HKG on AA & JL
Jan 22 HKG-BKK on CX
Jan 27 BKK-LHR-BCN on BA
Jan 30 BCN-LHR on BA
Feb 4 LHR-LAX on AA
Feb 5 LAX-MIA on AA

Please critique my itinerary and let me know if I am breaking any rules and also if there are other ways to further maximize miles on the US portions of the trip. Also, what should I expect this trip to cost me in D class? BTW, I use EF and that is my resource to choose AA flights that have upgrade inventory. I plan to use SWU's on the LAX-NRT, LHR-LAX, and LAX-MIA segments.

Thanks in advance for your help!

If you want to know the cost and you are an expertflyer person, just look up the cost on EF. Go to the fare information page and input the same departing and arriving airport codes. EF even states this on that page:

Since you are starting in MIA, why not book AA61 which is a single flight number to NRT. Saves 3 segments. And since you are planning on a DONE3, the SWU gets you into 1st on AA. Also, if you can wait to start after Feb 1, you can use Malaysian Airlines. Most of your intra continent segments are short and do not maximize the mileage as you seem to want to do. Try this.

MIA-NRT-HKG-BKK-SIN-NRT-LHR-BCN-LHR-LAX-JFK-???-???-???-MIA. You are allowed only 2 stops in N.AM and I would pick JFK and one of the ???. Airlines would be AA to NRT, CX to SIN, JL to LHR, IB/BA in Europe, and AA for the rest.

No, you can not make 2 stops in this itinerary.
One stop for outbound, and one stop for inbound.

Thanks for that info. I had no idea I could get fares from EF.^

In doing so you should have a look at other starting points, which can be significantly cheaper but which also allow more stopovers in North America.

For example, starting in, say, Paris, the base price for a DONE3 is $2577 less than a DONE3 starting in the USA. You could probably use one of your eVIPs (or just one-way miles) to get to CDG, then just head to Asia. If you did the trip west-to-east (i.e. start with Europe > Asia) you could get back to the US at the end and have a whole year to use up the six North America segments, with no need to worry about stopover limitations. You'd have to return to France before the end of a year to finish the RTW (oh what hardship) but in the meantime you could use it to do whatever other domestic/Mexico/Canada/Caribbean travel (in J or F) you needed to do.

Using this approach could earn you way more EQM/P than you'd make with the route you describe, at a considerably lower cost per mile/point.

For some extra miles you also could do a short hop to Dubai, Oman or somewhere else in the middle east from LHR.

A DONE3 from NRT is 7566 USD (plus fees), from the US it is 10199 USD.
If you plan to start another RTW within a year you could position to NRT and then keep buying new tickets there.
This would also give you 6 segments in North America (but limits you stopovers in Asia).

Thanks for all your comments folks. I consider myself an experienced international traveller, but clearly I have a lot to learn about RTW travel. I found all your inputs helpful.....especially regarding originating in France or Japan to lower the cost.

I need to be in London at the end of the month and I was thinking of building a RTW trip around that. However, based on what I learned here, I think I need more planning time for a RTW journey......so I will only do a r/t Europe sequence later this month. Thanks again!!

I'd suggest DFW-NRT rather than LAX-NRT. Your SWUs will get you into F (assuming upgrade inventory) so why not enjoy a nice long flight? Plus you'll get more miles. Or maybe even DFW-ICN (I forget when that starts)?

Also, LHR-TLV is 2216 miles each way but Jan/Feb isn't the best time of year to visit TLV since it's a beach city.

If you start outside North America as suggested above, you could add a trip to the Caribbean which is very nice all year round.

Ditto - Without the wisdom on FT to help, I wouldn't even attempt to put a RTW itinerary together. I find myself in a very similar position as the OP but I'm UK based and I'm pretty flexible on a start point

I have a EF subscription and have played around with various originating points but my question is whether there is a comprehensive list of where the cheapest place to buy/start a DONE itinerary is and whether there's any residence restriction on where/how it is purchased?

There's no official list; the Wandering Aramean's very useful site provides a quick snapshot, but some of the data there is obsolete and/or incomplete, and all fares are quoted in USD, so exchange rate fluctuations may change "cheapest" to "less cheap" at any time. You should always confirm the price by using EF or even make a dummy booking. http://www.wandr.me/RTW_Fares.aspx/

And always remember that "cheap" origin points can become decidedly "un-cheap" once taxes and fees, especially fuel surcharges imposed by the issuing carrier, are added in. The difference can easily outweigh the "true cost" one would encounter with a higher base fare but lower taxes/fees, not to mention the cost of getting to/from the "cheap" point at the start or finish.

There are no residence restrictions. Visa and immigration exceptions, however, are another thing.

Many thanks for that. Your advice is much appreciated. ^