quit work, 3mo rtw, complete newbie
 

Hi Everyone, as the title says, I'm quitting work and looking to do an around the world trip for about 3mo. I've traveled a little in the past but nothing like this... I've sketched it out on oneworld as: New York - Sydney - Auckland - Kuala Lumpur - Tokyo - Doha - Cape Town - London - Moscow - Helsinki - Amsterdam - London - Madrid - Sao Paulo - Rio De Janeiro - New York and wondered if folks could help me with the following. My restrictions are to leave 4/18 and be in Auckland by 4/26. Many thanks!

1) Do people generally figure out their itinerary on oneworld then book individually for pricing?

2) I noticed several people talked about better pricing with oneworld when starting from various locations. is there a quick way to figure this out?

3) Business class is about 7k more but some folks say it worth it due to all the frequent flyer mileage. Whats the best way to evaluate this?

4) I'm getting a bank or america travel card (mostly for the no foreign fees), are there other cards I should consider for this flight?

Thank you for any help.

Only you can decide if $7k is worth it.

I am at the point in my life that I absolutely detest Y, especially if flying more than a couple of hours.

Hi and welcome to FT!

It does indeed make a big difference where one starts if you're using any of the Oneworld RTW products. In general North America tends to be on the pricey end of the spectrum.

Have a look at the sticky thread (above) - Oneworld Explorer FAQs. It's well worth your time.

Where are you starting from? It might be cheaper for you to alter your itinerary slightly in order to get a cheaper price.

I won't comment specifically on your itinerary; you need to go through the FAQs and other posts on this board to see what you can and can't do with respect to routing; for example you're only allowed 4 flights in Europe and you have 5.

Are you a member of any frequent flyer program at the moment? That will go a long way to discussing mileage earning possibilities.

Again, welcome!

Hi, and thanks for taking the time to answer. I'm flying out of NYC and not interested in stopping anywhere in the states. I have surface travel from Amsterdam to London so the schedule is good (e.g. oneworld can price it). I'm not a participant in any ff programs.

From my planned booking, it looks like airlines are:

Qantas
Malaysia Airlines
Qatar Airways
British Airways
S7
Finnair
Iberia
American Airlines

Unsure what type of tweaking (other than starting point or FF) are available with OW that could help with pricing. Thanks again.

Welcome to the forum

You can book flight by flight (expensive). Or use a OW RTW fare. Do not book the LONE6 with Qantas, your first carrier. If using the online OW booking tool it will probably default to a QF issued ticket. QF will charge a lot of surcharges. Book direct with AA, as in the ONE sticky.

Your JFK-SYD-AKL-KUL-NRT-DOH-CPT-LHR-DME-HEL-AMS,LHR-MAD-EZE-GIG-JFK itinerary needs work.
(Click ignore errors when developing an itinerary) "2 serious errors detected. This is likely to be an invalid itinerary (52109 miles)"
In my opinion you have too many continents for a 3 month trip. Drop Australia/NZ, Africa or South America. The *ONE* tickets have a limit of 16 segments.

If you are a US resident/citizen AA is probably best for you:- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html

Hi Mwenenzi, thanks for your help. There are no errors when I enter (I have surface travel from Amsterdam to London and Sao Paolo to Rio. Also the first stop in London is a stopover for Moscow.) Not sure if this means I'm good since I haven't booked yet but the engine will price (both economy and business). Thanks for the advice on AA. I did indeed select them on the first leg to SYD with OW and it dropped me by $200. Are you recommending that I book AA direct and start my RTW from Sydney?

No. Make sure the ticket is issued by AA and not QF. Book direct with AA. Not online with OW booking tool. Are you using the OW booking tool?

With land segment EZE, GIG still has errors by MM. MM is not OW, but written/maintained by guys from the forum
http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm?ow...G-JFK&cabins=y

I am using the OW and there is an option for AA (though it does say operated through Qantas). However, when I look on aa.com the leg to LAX is AA but then switches to Qantas for the rest. I'm not exactly sure how to book direct for certain legs of the trip while using OW booking tool so will need to research.

Odd that MM is complaining and OW doesn't... not sure how to interpret that.

Thanks!

OK. It will an AA flight no JFK-LAX and then QF flight number LAX-SYD. As AA is first flight it will default to an AA ticket. But QF have a single flight number QF108 JFK-SYD. This saves 1 flight segment over JFK-LAX-SYD. May be an availability issue for L class JFK-SYD. Try a different day

MM is not 100% perfect, but usually interprets the rules correctly.
What airports are you putting in the OW tool?
What airports does the OW tool show you?

You need to phone AA to make sure you book direct. Ask for the "RTW desk"

hi,

jfk-syd (aa-AA7366* (Operated by Qantas)), syd-akl (quantas), akl-kul (mh), kul-nrt (mh), nrt-doh (qr), doh-cpt (qr), cpt-dme (through lhr-ba), dme-hel (s7), hel-ams (ay - finnair), (ams->lhr surface travel), lhr-mad (ba), mad-gru (ib), (gru-gig surface travel), gig-jfk (aa)

counts 15 segments so i suppose i have 1 more segment to play with...

That's OK. Its good to have the first flight as AA

However "cpt-dme (through lhr-ba)" will count as CPT-LHR-DME due to the Africa rule. Every flight number counts.

JFK-SYD-AKL-KUL-NRT-DOH-CPT-LHR-DME-HEL-AMS,LHR-MAD-GRU,GIG-JFK in MM
Origin: NYC (us|us-ak|us-hi|ca|pr|vi);
1: JFK-SYD: intercontinental
2: SYD-AKL: 1st of 4 (Southwest Pacific)
3: AKL-KUL: 1st of 1 (intercontinental entry to Asia without immediate transit & departure)
4: KUL-NRT: 1st of 4 (Asia)
5: NRT-DOH: intercontinental
6: DOH-CPT: intercontinental
Rule violated!!!! [CPT-LHR] Max 1 segment(s): Ghana/Nigeria/Kenya/Uganda/Tanzania transit (second EUR entry?)
7: CPT-LHR: intercontinental
8: LHR-DME: 1st of 4 (Europe)
9: DME-HEL: 2nd of 4 (Europe)
Error!!! No oneworld service exists DME-HEL
10: HEL-AMS: 3rd of 4 (Europe)
11: AMS-LHR: surface
12: LHR-MAD: 4th of 4 (Europe)
13: MAD-GRU: intercontinental
14: GRU-GIG: surface
15: GIG-JFK: intercontinental
1 serious error detected. This is likely to be an invalid itinerary (49806 miles)

I will ask SLF (MM author) about this error that was OK on OW tool. And check if S7 fly DME-HEL.This is not in the OW timetable 14 Feb 2014 to 14 March 2014 or 7 March to 4 April. There is SVO-HEL by Finnair. (One of the other Moscow airports) Its hard for SLF to keep the MM routes up to date.

Note: There is no u in Qantas, but quantas.com has been set up for those who cannot spell ;)

If the extra cost isn't a bother, biz class is definitely worth it for the comfort. You should be able to arrange your long-haul segments to include flat beds, and I can't say enough about what a difference that makes to arriving in pretty good physical shape. I'm convinced that some large part of what coach travelers think is 'jet lag' is body stress due to the confined/uncomfortable seating.

"Extra miles" are usually secondary unless you have a specific mileage goal.

At the moment, aadvantage allows you to qualify for status using either "q-points" or miles, and premium-class trips earn 50% more points than miles. But aadvantage offers (at present, USdbaAA isn't finished birthing, so anything may change) a "platinum challenge" which earns platinum status for signing up, paying a fee, and earning 10,000 points in a short period. So this time around you don't have to be a mileage whore like the rest of us, scrabbling for our 50K miles or points.

If you start (and end) your trip at (selected places) outside the U.S. you'll save a lot of money. Starting a 3-continent biz-class trip (DONE3) from Cairo will cost you $6020 (plus significant taxes); from any U.S. city it'll cost you $10199 (plus about the same taxes).

You can fly in biz NYC-CAI for around $800. Getting home after the trip should cost less, or you could use some of your newly-earned miles.

I knew Egypt was cheap but didn't look for cheaper places.

Starting overseas also means you can split your trip into two parts. You have a year after you begin to be done with it, so might spend some time in Europe, come home to the U.S. and use your North American segments at your leisure (N.A. includes Central America, the Caribbean, up to Alaska, but not really Hawaii) and then when you're tired of that, continue westward around the world. It works the same flying east, of course.

Starting overseas slightly complicates ticketing. That cheap fare is intended to benefit poor Egyptians, not rich Americans, so there are kinda-rules about ticketing.

S7 don't fly DME-HEL and AY only flies from SVO, so DME-SVO would be a surface segment requiring a separate entry, same as JFK-LGA, DCA-IAD, LHR-LGW or NRT-HND.

Agreed, but nguyenm9 wrote "dme-hel (s7)" Unsure if he/she got that from the OW booking tool. Why I asked in post above "What airports does the OW tool show you?"

As yet I have not tried to duplicate nguyenm9's itinerary the OW booking tool

Some travel agents may be able to issue it without needing the "extra" segment (eg, using NYC, TYO, LON, etc)


If you quit work and have no income, how will you support yourself during the trip? Some places may deny entry if they don't think you can cover the cost of your plans without working illegally.