OneWorld Explorer Advice
 

Hi Guys,

First of all apologies if this question has been asked a hundred times - I've been doing a bit of searching on the forum and found some really useful stuff but I would still appreciate all of your learned opinions!

Me and my girlfriend are planning a RTW adventure starting in July this year. I've got an itinery that works on the Oneworld planner - but there are a few issues (I've read the tools bug thread so at least everyone is experiencing them!). One of my big problems is that there are missing flights that I know exist - but the alternatives require connections which are taking up my number of segments unnecessarily. Eg London to Colombo is directing via Frankfurt and Auckland to Santiago is directing via Sydney which takes up an extra two segments! I also have Buenos Aires to El Calafate on the list - but this flight doesn't seem to exist at all in the planner, so how could I book it?

What would be your advice on this - would it be better to get an agent to book, would this cost me much more money?

My final question surrounds the segments allowed on each continent - I believe it's four, but is this four cities that you are allowed to stop in or is it the flights between the cities that count!?

Appreciate any help you could offer,

Andy

I'm seeing no L class availability on some AKL-SCL QF321 flights (eg 25 July). This could be why you are being directed via SYD to hook up with the QF direct flight. Perhaps other dates may give more favourable results?

An agent is likely to add a "booking fee" to the price - after all, their time costs money too. But, if you do the prep work, you might be able to negotiate a cheaper fee (ie tell them exactly what flights you want and know whether there is availability). Expert Flyer (subscription) will help tremendously.

Its segments and not cities. Check the rules, its 4 segments and IIRC its 6 in North America for the xONEx fares. Stopovers are a separate issue. Some cities have 2 or more airports (eg London). Moving between the airports counts as a segment. Stopovers are >24 hrs and transits <24 hrs - even 23 hrs 59 minutes. Transits can be used to your advantage.

Hi Og,

Thanks a lot for the reply. I've tried quite a few dates for the AKL-SCL leg but still having no luck - perhaps I'll have to take book the extra segment via Sydney and then re-book direct with Qantas for the AKL-SCL flight (hopefully!)

Thanks for the segment advice - I'm assuming then that your segments start once your in the continent (i.e. AKL-SCL wouldn't count as a S.America segment but SCL-GIG would be? )

I think I might contact an agent just to see what they think, thanks again for your help

Try Mileage Monkey. But it is not 100% accurate. Shows what is transcontinental and intra continent
AKL-SCL is know to be a hard segment to get in L or D. As well as the LA flight ask about the QF codeshare on LA

duplicate

An ExpertFlyer subscription would be very worthwhile, as you can easily find availability for each segment. As said above if there is no A/D/L fare bucket availability you will not be able to book.

Correct - the intercontinental flights (segments) don't count in the segments allowed for each continent but DO count in the max 16 segments allowed overall.

Many agents will not have a clue about these fares. They are very specialised and time consuming. I suggest you work through your plans HERE and then phone through to the AA RTW desk or the airline of your choice and get them to make the reservations (and validate the itinerary against the rules) - then you phone the local AA office in the start place and give your CC number for ticket issue.

There are enough people watching this FT Board to give constructive comment - based on experience.

I find EF the best way to get base fare for various starting points but a pretty tedious way to search availability. I prefer to use ITA which can be told to restrict look ups by airline and/or fare basis (e.g. L, D or A).

I think they both complement each other quite well. ITA Matrix is good for finding availability across a range of airlines/routes/dates but if you know the route/airline and approximate date then ExpertFlyer I find is quicker. You can also restrict EF to certain fare buckets and airlines across a 7 day window.

Thanks again for your support - my full itinery so far is:

LHR - CMB (Overland to) NRT - HAN (Overland to) SIN - MEL (Overland to) BNE - ZQN (Overland to) AKL - GIG - EZE (Overland to) LM - UIO - LHR

As far as I can tell, this itinery doesn't break the rules but I'm not completely au fait with how segments/stopovers etc work - what do people think?

One thing I've noticed over the past couple of days is that the LHR - CMB leg has become available by an extra day 4 months into the future (i.e. yesterday I could get the direct flight from July 11th and today it shows for July 12th) - does this sound probable? It seems odd that they would show all the connecting flights far into the future but not the direct one?

Definitely get an Experflyer subscription to assist.

Andy, sorry if this has been raised, but I just reread the entire thread and may have missed it. Why are you starting this ticket in London? There may be more expensive places to start, but off the top of my head I can't think of any.

Have you considered alternate starting cities?

May be cheaper from DUB or AMS. UK taxes will be less

MM LHR-CMB,NRT-HAN,SIN-MEL,BNE-ZQN,AKL-GIG-EZE,LIM-UIO-GIG-LHR There are problems with your itinerary. Click ignore errors.
Great circle map

There must be flights between the airports. You have problems in South America : 4 flights maximum. Fixing and adding/deleting some airports gets MM LHR-CMB,NRT-HAN,SIN-MEL,BNE-ZQN,AKL-SCL-GIG-EZE,LIM-UIO,GIG-LHR

Note MileageMonkey is not up to date, so may be giving errors

Mwenezi - great advice. I tailored your second itinery a little bit to go home via Madrid and it's all got the green light:

LHR-CMB,NRT-HAN,SIN-MEL,BNE-ZQN,AKL-SCL-GIG-EZE,LIM-UIO-MAD-LHR

Dr HFH - I've heard that the ticket will be cheaper avoiding Heathrow but I've not been able to find this using OneWorld's booking tool. I've tried using European cities and now Dubai on your advice as starting cities and can't get them any cheaper (even when completely avoiding London in the itinery) - perhaps I'm doing something wrong?

I am assuming this is an economy-class ticket, not a business-class one, right?

You can save around £300 on the base fare for an LONE4 by starting in the Euro zone as opposed to the UK. For example, this itinerary - AMS-DOH-CMB,NRT-HAN,SIN-MEL,BNE-ZQN,AKL-SCL-GIG-EZE-LIM-UIO-MAD-AMS passes muster and avoids BA fuel surcharges as well as UK departure taxes. You can fly to Amsterdam from London for £50-60, so you're still ahead on the base price.