xONEx musing
 

Is it possible to have an xONEx with at least one sector on each member airline? If so, what's the longest routing possible?

If money is no object, then its a xONE6. And I am sure you can figure the routings out yourself.

Yes you can on a xONE4.

Now extra segments can't be purchased you have to make use of various 5th freedom flights.

I'm skeptical; I think there are too many European/ME carriers to fit into 4 Euro segments + intercontinental. (AB, AY, BA, IB, QR, RJ, S7). Maybe I'm missing something.

Here is a sample xONE4 itinerary which I think includes all current OW airlines.

1) LA AKL-SYD
2) QF SYD-PVG
3) KA PVG-HKG
4) RJ HKG-BKK
5) QR BKK-HAN
6) JL HAN-NRT
7) MH NRT-LAX
8) AA LAX-JFK
9) AB JFK-DUS
10) IB DUS-MAD
11) S7 MAD-DME
12) AY DME-HEL
13) BA HEL-LHR
14) BA or CX LHR-HKG
15) CX HKG-AKL
16) spare

MM shows " Error!!! No oneworld service exists DME-HEL" but that does not mean its wrong

S7 starts service 26 April 2014 according to their website.

I'm sure there are other ways of routing it given how little effort it took to put this one together. S7 and AB seems to be the most difficult to fit in.

But thats ~6 months away, not now :)

With a few tweaks, how about the following?

1) LA AKL-SYD
2) QF SYD-PVG
3) KA PVG-HKG
4) RJ HKG-BKK
5) QR BKK-HAN
6) JL HAN-NRT
7) MH NRT-LAX
8) AA LAX-JFK
9) AB JFK-DUS
10) IB DUS-MAD
11) S7 MAD-DME
12) BA DME-LHR
13) AY LHR-HEL
14) AY HEL-HKG
15) CX HKG-AKL
16) spare

What fun!

Itinerary including 2014 future OW members......decided that TAM counts as LAN Brazil. Could remove Dragonair which is just an affiliate member, but could not work out an itinerary to include JJ and LA plus UL and US.

1. AUH-AB-HKT
2. HKT-KA-HKG
3. HKG-RJ-BKk
4. BKK-UL-PVG
5. PVG-JL-NRT
6. NRT-MH-LAX
7. LAX-AA-PHX
8. PHX-US-YVR
9. YVR-CX-JFK
10. JFK-JJ-GRU
11. GRU-QR-EZE
12. EZE-IB-MAD
13. MAD-AY-HEL
14. HEL-S7-DME
15. DME-BA-LHR
16. LHR-QF-DXB

Why would anyone fly S7 if there was an alternative?

Because the question is

I was thinking the same thing. I think the key would be using one for NA/SA-EU, another for EU-Asia/Africa and making using the RJ or BA 5th freedom sectors outside Europe.

Most likely will be mostly hub to hub flights, perhaps including something like -DOH-AMM-MAD-DME-

No, Kiwi took care of it by using 5th Freedom flights (several of which I didn't know existed.) The key was in avoiding some of the Euro/ME hubs if possible.

QR has some random 5th freedom flights in EU, Asia, and one in SA, too.

Trying to determine most efficient set of flights to make EXP (or come close)
 

I assume that the most efficient cost-wise fare to make EXP in a single set of flights in a *ONE3. Is that the prevailing view? Or does it need to be a *ONE4 to get to $67k flown miles? Or does that not work for some reason?

Also, is there a presently maintained spreadsheet that lets a user compare the cheapest fares and adjusts for currency? The AA website no longer has (or at least, it's now harder (for me) to find) a chart showing each of the different fares by starting location (which still has the currency conversion issue). I found a spreadsheet on the web, but it seems not to be current.

Many thanks. (I did do some searches ahead of time, but didn't see the answers for the above.) Thanks again.

Don't think you can do it in a xone3. Here's the discussion from when you asked this a couple of years ago:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-one-trip.html
See also:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...light=earn+exp
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...ent-rules.html

Oneworld doesn't publish the prices in a group format anymore and so the old pricing tool which drew from the OW prices no longer works. You should get an expertflyer membership.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...re-tables.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...nts-xonex.html

Very sad that I don't remember asking that 3 years ago. Time passes... Thanks (again).

There's a thread here somewhere where people wrote down the longest mileage xONEx itineraries they could design; a simple search using "longest" ought to bring it up. However it was last updated (I think) long before Qatar joined the alliance, and with TAM and US routes also now available, the permutations are even lengthier.

Traditionally getting to 67,500 flown miles (= 100,000 AA EQP if flown in D or A) has been difficult or impossible to reach with an xONE3, given the per-continent limitations and the prohibition on multiple transcons in North America. It's also been tough in xONE4s but technically attainable. I suspect that's now changed with the addition of the new members, but it's still going to be difficult.

For North America residents, it's a little easier if you pay for access flights to overseas RTW origin points, but of course that adds a lot of dollars to the overall cost, making "cheap" origin points less so. What I've done on a couple of occasions is to use the RTW for the great majority of the EQP I need, then add a mileage run (usually an AA YUP fare or two) as needed to top off the account.

As to the second part of your question, you'll need to subscribe to Expert Flyer or use KVS to get the base fares; Oneworld took them down after several countries and the EU required advertising for airfares to be inclusive of fees and taxes. Because of the complexity of RTW tickets - thousands of permutations of routes, airports, stopovers, fuel surcharges, etc. - this wasn't possible, so they just pulled the fares. A little reading on this board will help you learn where the "cheap" origin points are, being mindful that the cost should include your access expenses, taxes and fees, etc. Sometimes fuel surcharges can basically negate the savings arising from some "cheap" origin point.

Edited to add - I see others helped while I was composing the above dissertation.

Appreciate your comment on this, Gardyloo. I'm going to keep an eye on this thread since I'm thinking about requalifying for EXP next year. If I can get 100K EQM/EQP on one ticket for a decent cost then fantastic. However, I'm worried about EXP benefits diluting next year...