Optimizing the North American DONE4 section
 

I am arriving into Lax on a DONE4 where getting to Alaska is not really a viable option (middle of winter). Supposing you wanted to maximize your mileage and hence status credits to QF. What six legs would you choose in the USA?

Assuming the break points are 1500 and 2500 miles, I'd certainly include ANC in the equation, served year round from PHX (2551 mi.)

Remember that flights to/from the Caribbean and Canada book into D, not A on RTW tickets; AA doesn't call the front of the bus first class on those routes.

Also look at PIT as a possible mid-haul point, AA has service from both LAX and PHX; 1814 mi. from PHX and 2130-something from LAX, but PIT isn't on the transcon list.

Mmmm - so how many QFF SCs would this give the OP, flying in F of course:)

The other question to maximise your total route mileage is which other continents you are going to. Obviously, if your next stop is Asia then you want to be finishing on the east coast not the west in order to get most miles for the next intercontinental section. If the next is South America then you want to be finishing as far north as possible, and so on. Since you're arriving in LAX I assume you're coming from Europe?

But for those people crediting to AA, remember that JFK/LAX and SFO nonstops produce the higher level 2015 mileage bonus even though they're under 3,000 miles. For PLTs and EXPs, that's an extra 12K miles for Business and First cabins (spendable, but not EQP or EQM).

780 by my count, 4 x 120 + 2 x 150.

Wow! From NB to SG in just those six flights! Would make WP very reachable on a DONEx:)

PIT is on the list.
East Coast:
Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Ft Lauderdale, Hartford, Miami, Newark, New York, Orlando, Phildelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, San Juan, Tampa, Toronto, Washington, West Palm Beach

West Coast:
Las Vegas, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, Seattle, Vancouver

Try looking at places like Columbus or Atlanta.

Are you counting the devaluing of SC earn on non QF oneworld flights in that count?
In many cases, you earn more SC on a QF code then you would on the same flight and booking class with a non QF code.

I made Platinum (from Silver) half way through my first DONE3.
I'm now a little over 500SC from Life Time Gold.

Cripes, sorry, I was going from memory. Right, LAX-ATL-PHX-ANC-PHX-ATL-LAX would give the same yield.

This is the table I used - right one? https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn...status-credits

Gardyloo

Firstly thanks for all the help and advice. I am stuck though. The calculator does not seem to recognize ATL as a possible airport (when flying out of LAX). Or is it just me?

I don't know; AA has either 3 or 4 nonstops/day (depending on the month).

DFW/SJU is 2,165 with no cross-continent limitation and 14×/week service on AA with a 738.

But books into D not A as I recall...

Correct. The F cabin on AA's Caribbean routes is called Business.

Also on Canadian, Mexican and Central American ones.

This is a good one I hadn't consider before. I would go WestCoast-JFK-SJU-DFW-WestCoast if going to Europe or in reverse if going to Asia.

Last time I booked a RTW QR's presence wasn't as great so I'd try to sneak in a USA-DOH if possible, before continuing on to Europe or South Africa.

LAX/SFO-JFK-SJU-ORD-LAX/SFO is actually 300-400 miles farther than via DFW.

Arriving in Los Angeles you could do LAX-ATL-PHX-ANC-IAH-BOS-LAX. The ANC-IAH and IAH-BOS are direct flights. Direct flights change all the time. This is a way you could get 150 instead of 120 on a third segment. The dates I looked at were in December.

Not by AA or US.

Though I wish they were! ANC-DFW is seasonal, while ANC-PHX is all year round (I think).

No, ANC-IAH and IAH-BOS are both in the timetable for December. Both have stops (PHX and PHL respectively) but carry the same flight number on both sectors. They're perfectly legit for use with RTW tickets. You get the city pair miles, not the point-to-point.

These come and go, for example RNO-JFK or SMF-JFK both used to turn up pretty often. It seems like US was/is more inclined to do this; I seem to recall I was on a SEA-PHL US flight (don't remember when, I do it pretty often) where the FAs announced that the flight was continuing on to Europe someplace, obviously with an equipment change in PHL.

They're almost never good in the reverse direction, e.g. IAH-ANC.

In December AA511 goes direct ANC-IAH via PHX and AA1716 goes direct IAH-BOS via PHL. Counts as one segment on OW RTW tickets unless they have changed the rules. The flight schedules change so often that there are lots of direct flights you would never suspect unless you check. Lots of time they are only in one direction between city pairs but can make for excellent SC , TP , and 12,000 mile AA bonus on a DONE ticket.

EDIT - Sorry Gardyloo I was typing while you were posting

I've seen some in the timetable for BOS-STL and BOS-ATL. Many others.

Thanks Gardyloo and ANC305, this is great advice and takes me easily to OWE for another year.

SC Earn with Qantas Partner Airlines:

Intra USA Shorthaul: 0-750 miles: D: 30 A: 40

Others:

751-1500: D: 60 A:90
1501-2500: D: 80 A:120
2501-3500: D: 100 A:150

Frequent Flyer - Flying Qantas & Partner Airlines - Flying with Partner Airlines - Earning Qantas Points

Thanks ANC305
 

The DONE5 is now ticketed and the advice you gave LAX-ATL-PHX-ANC-IAH-BOS-LAX has been implemented and will help me a lot in terms of SC's and FFP's with Qantas.

Much appreciated.

So what happened next?

Well 2 weeks out I decided that staying in Egypt for 10 days was not such a good idea. So I call the RTW desk to change the dates, so I get a weekend in Cairo. But now those direct flights in the USA are no longer direct. Which means now I have 18 segments, but through no fault of my own. The booking subsequently cannot be re-ticketed.

The advice from the RTW desk is fly the segments up until I get to the states. There will then be less than 16 remaining and get it re-ticketed then. Does that sound alright to the experts on this board?

Starting an AONE4 on Thursday. The U.S. portion is [NRT-] JFK-LAX-ORD-SJU-ORD-SFO [-LHR]. Mileage accrual will be pretty good, plus 12K bonus miles for JFK-LAX. Can't do the sixth segment here because I need it elsewhere where it yields more miles.

SFO-LHR and LHR-JNB are both scheduled to be 744s, probably my last flights on my favorite aircraft.

Yes.
One of the last LONE4s I had (before I changed to combined DAS13 + DONE3) was booked as 16 sectors. The last sector was to be NRT-MEL. A few weeks after it was ticketed, QF cancelled NRT-MEL, and I was rerouted NRT-SYD-MEL and got a 17th sector. It was reissued on paper.

Part way through the trip, there were political issues starting in Thailand which lead to riots in BKK - one of my asian stops. It was to be AU-US-EU-LHR-BKK-SIN-JP. By the time I reached Spain, a dozen governments had issued travel warnings for Thailand and half the members of oneworld had wavers in place.
I had the ticket changed to skip the BKK stop and go right to SIN from LHR. Remaining flights were reissued to an e-ticket and I was told to keep the remaining paper coupons to give to the travel agent upon return. (of course BA still insisting on taking the paper coupon even though it wasn't valid anymore)