I am looking for any critique on the following Itinary....

Couple of notes:

• We are happy with the cities
• We will already be in Hungary for a competition so our positioning flight is taken care of
• We can do 2 ski vacations in North America - allowing us to come back to Toronto (home)

Questions:
1) Can we use several FF programs on a RTW ticket? ie. Use Cathay for segments that credit at 100%, use AA for AA flights, and something to capture the Malaysian Airlines miles (not sure what is best with L class booking)? BTW- We have Oneworld Saphire with Cathay Ruby

2) I think we have minimized taxes on our trip? We want to leave Europe immediately so we can use 2 stop overs next summer, we need to be in HKT but thought we would just by separate tickets from KUL otherwise we waste segments. We are also routing through TPE because we have been to HKG several times on our last round the world trip - like to go somewhere new.

3) Any suggestion of things to do/see/stay in KUL, ICN, DPS, TPE??

Thanks in advance as always!!!



Routing: BUD-LHR-KUL-DPS-KUL-TPE-ICN-DFW-JFK-YVR-DFW-ORD-SFO-ORD-TXL-LHR-BUD

oneworld itinerary summary:

Cabin Class : ECONOMY

Number of Continents: 3
Number of Segments : 16
Number of Stopovers : 14

Fare Component: 579900.00 HUF
Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees: 275300.00 HUF * see breakdown at end of itinerary
Service Charge: .00 HUF
Total: 855200.00 HUF




Sector 1. BUD KUL 08/02/2013
BUD KUL BA 867/MH 0001
14:05 17:35 (operated by Malaysia Airlines)
Stops: 0 Via: LON Booking Class: L/L

Sector 2. KUL DPS 08/05/2013
KUL DPS MH 851
12:05 15:05 (operated by Malaysia Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 3. DPS KUL 08/13/2013
DPS KUL MH 714
12:50 15:50 (operated by Malaysia Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 4. KUL TPE 08/19/2013
KUL TPE MH 366
09:15 14:05 (operated by Malaysia Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 5. TPE SEL 08/25/2013
TPE SEL CX 420
17:10 20:35 (operated by Cathay Pacific Airways)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L
Sector 6. SEL DFW 09/01/2013

SEL DFW AA 26
16:50 15:55 (operated by American Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 7. DFW NYC 09/04/2013
DFW NYC AA 400
10:00 14:40 (operated by American Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 8. NYC YVR 12/15/2013
NYC YVR CX 889
22:00 00:55 (operated by Cathay Pacific Airways)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 9. YVR DFW 12/21/2013
YVR DFW AA 282
08:45 14:45 (operated by American Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 10. DFW CHI 12/26/2013
DFW CHI AA 2320
05:45 08:00 (operated by American Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 11. CHI SFO 02/09/2014
CHI SFO AA 1341
07:40 10:15 (operated by American Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 12. SFO CHI 02/18/2014
SFO CHI AA 1522
23:40 05:35 (operated by American Airlines)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 13. CHI BER 02/27/2014
CHI BER AB 7421
15:25 07:00 (operated by airberlin)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 14. BER LON 03/01/2014
BER LON BA 993
12:20 13:25 (operated by British Airways)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L

Sector 15. LON BUD 03/10/2014
LON BUD BA 868
08:35 12:05 (operated by British Airways)
Stops: 0 Booking Class: L



Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees Breakdown
Total Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees: 275300.00 HUF
Carrier Surcharge/Fee 111600.00 HUF
Airline Insurance Surcharge 4800.00 HUF
Multiple Carrier Surcharges/Fees 17400.00 HUF
Multiple Carrier Surcharges/Fees 58700.00 HUF
Airport Departure Tax - Hungary 6900.00 HUF
Security Charge - HUNGARY 1000.00 HUF
UK Air Passenger Duty 4700.00 HUF
UK Passenger Service Charge 20800.00 HUF
Passenger Service Charge - Malaysia 10000.00 HUF
Taiwan Airport Service Charge 2400.00 HUF
Passenger Service Charge (International) for South Korea 6000.00 HUF
U.S. Customs Fee 2600.00 HUF
U.S. Animal and Plant Inspection Service Users Fee 2400.00 HUF
Immigration and Naturalization Service Fee 3400.00 HUF
September 11th Security Fee 2400.00 HUF
Canadian Air Travellers Security Charge 5900.00 HUF
Goods and Services Tax for Canada 300.00 HUF
Airport Improvement Fee for Canada 4600.00 HUF
OYCB 2300.00 HUF
Passenger Service charge for Germany 4600.00 HUF
Airport Security Charge - Germany 1400.00 HUF
Passenger Facility Charges 1100.00 HUF

NOTE: This is not a booking confirmation. After completing a booking with oneworld,
you will receive a separate confirmation e-mail with your booking reference.
Thank you for choosing the oneworld Alliance.

I'd recommend you try an alternate routing just to see how much BA is adding in fuel surcharges. By having your first segment (BUD-LHR) operated by BA, you're forcing the overall ticket to be issued by BA, and they may well be adding fuel surcharges that other issuers wouldn't. There's no way to know unless you "test" the presumption with an alternative.

So try BUD-HEL-HKG-DPS instead of BUD-LHR-KUL-DPS and see what the program spits out. By having Finnair issue the ticket you might see a drop in taxes and fees. Might not, but at least you'll have a data point.

Plus, Helsinki is a terrific airport for transfers, way less chaotic then the T3 - T4 terminal switch you'd have to make at Heathrow.

You can change your FF program as you go. Just make sure each program
appears on your boarding pass. You may still have to chase up some missing miles.

One tip is to visit Alishan in the centre of Taiwan. It is the reason why the island was known as Formosa ( beautiful ).

Do you upgrade individual legs as you go?

That's great that we can change FF program as we go - much better then allowing no credit in mileage. We will definitely go to Alishan based on your recommendation.

We have never upgraded individual legs before. If it were just myself and wife we would go Business; however, we have two teenagers too. Any suggestions about upgrading legs? Can we do so with miles (Avios, AA, MR, Aeroplan are available)? Or other cost effective ways....we might just upgrade 2 of the 4 on some segments if possible?

Kevin

I like the idea of BUD-HEL-HKG-DPS; however, it doesn't seem possible with the online Oneworld tool. I would have to make HEL a stopover in order for it to pick up Finnair. I need to get right out of Europe so we can use our two stopovers on the end of our trip next summer.

Any advice? Can the AA rtw desk force it to use Finnair via HEL?

Looking on EF, if you ask it for BUD-HKG, via HEL on AY, there is no L inventory (not L0, but no L inventory class). However, if you ask it for BUD-HEL and HEL-HKG separately, there is L inventory. I don't know why it does that. In the online tool, can you not simply pick the two flights separately? There are two flights BUD-HEL (11.40am/3.00pm and 7.15pm/10.35 pm); the later flight connects to the 11.40 pm flight to HKG). Does the earlier flight result in a stopover (even though it's a less-than-24-hours connection)? Setting up a dummy itinerary in the online tool, it did not appear to have a problem selecting the flights separately. I also asked it for BUD-HKG and it gave me the AY flights as a pair (and correctly identified it as using two segments); it confirmed the inventory was available (though I may not have been using your dates). Obviously, YMMV.

I just tried it. I can select the two flights separately ie BUD-HEL and HEL-HKG then HKG-KUL; however, it adds an additional segment. I was getting to KUL: BUD-LHR-KUL (3 segments instead of 2). I'm maxed out with 16 segments already.

Remember that Gardyloo was suggesting you start BUD-HEL in order to see if that made a significant change to the surcharges (ticketing by AY instead of BA)

Did it?
If it did, then in order to take advantage of it - perhaps have your first five segments as BUD-HEL-HKG-DPS-KUL-TPE (unless you really need to go to KUL twice?)

There is a 10% savings in surcharges routing through HEL which is great; however, I can't get ex BUD with KUL, DPS, TPE, and ICN..... I need a direct flight from either of these airports to the US. ICN-DFW works for my last stop. We need to get to KUL, DPS and ICN with hopes to see TPE instead of HKG again.

Any ways of doing this with the segments we have?

I'm a bit confused
I think the itinerary I suggested will work for you?

Your itinerary:My itinerary

Do you have any status at American or any miles with any One World airline?

I would suggest you try to reach the 90 post level which would allow you to participate in the Coupon Connection. American Systemwide Upgrades ( evips) are frequently on offer. Feel free to message me for any further help.

I tried this routing and it saves us about $350/each or $1400 for the 4 of us.

Great savings!! You rock.

You're welcome