OWBlueMoon

Hey guys,

I'm finishing up planning of a RTW DONE3 itinerary and would appreciate some review and/or critique. Here is a link to the Mileage Monkey itinerary.

The route is NRT-xORD-BOS-MIA-JFK-SFO-xLAX-LHR-BUD,PRG-LHR-xDOH-DPS-xKUL-DEL-xHKG-HND.

Some info on my plans:

- I want to originate the ticket out of Tokyo since it's so much cheaper. I'll be buying a round trip Y ticket most likely to position here and return home at the end of the RTW trip.
- I'm using the ticket for two separate trips -- one from Tokyo to the east coast before returning back to SFO, and the other travelling RTW beginning with SFO - xLAX - LHR and spending some time in Europe and Asia.

Some questions/areas I'm looking for feedback:

i) I'll be enrolling in the AA Platinum status challenge and am hoping to achieve it quickly so I can earn as many miles as possible. I currently have no FF status. I know this is the OneWorld forum but it seems like there are lots of AA experts around -- I'd appreciate any input on approx how many redeemable miles and EQPs I can expect to end up with on this trip including the positioning trip and all the promotions AA is running for premium class travel. I'm assuming I'd hit Platinum very early on in the trip and could benefit from the bonus status mileage and the 6000 bonus miles for long haul premium travel for the rest of the itinerary.

ii) I'm debating between JAL and AA coach for the positioning trip to Tokyo. It seems like JAL offers a better product and I could maybe upgrade to PE at the gate? On the other hand with AA I could try to use miles to score an upgrade on the return leg at the very end of the trip. Any suggestions on which is better or a third option I haven't considered?

iii) I'll be visiting Berlin and Amsterdam (not on the itinerary above) and was hoping to do (for example) TXL - BUD on Air Berlin. Unfortunately I'm having a lot of trouble with finding AB flights through the OW tool. I'd like to book online if possible for speed and convenience so I worked around this for now. But it seems a waste using a ground segment and then having to spend more out of pocket, so please let me know if there is a workaround for the AB flights or a better routing.

iv) I'm not all that flexible on destinations, but wherever possible I've tried to optimize for the newest equipment and best product, so routes with A380/787/77W. That said, I'm definitely open to feedback on how to improve the routing.

Thanks in advance for any input/advice, I'll be booking soon and just want to make sure most of my thinking is sound.

Gardyloo

First, welcome to FT!

Best I can tell, you'd earn something like 85K spendable miles on this itinerary before the current bonuses, about which I don't know enough to comment. You can do the math; it sounds like you already have. That would be before positioning flights, and assuming you'd have to fly in business class on JFK-SFO (hence a lower cabin bonus).

Ignoring positioning flights, the NRT-ORD first segment would fall just shy of 10K EQP, so you wouldn't earn the status bonus on that flight. Whether you cover the (roughly) 600 EQP gap with a paid positioning flight, or just a short RT mileage run before you go - SFO-PHX-SFO for $160, for example - I'd do that before heading over the Pacific so that the Plat bonus would apply to the longhaul flight back to ORD.

Buying a coach round trip to TYO for positioning is fine; note that (1) a number of JAL coach fare classes earn fractional miles and EQP, and (2) depending on how long the RTW is going to take, you might not get the cheapest economy fare, since some fare buckets will require a 90-day or 6-month return. So I'd probably look at AA (including codeshares on JL) for the positioning flights and/or do the MR first then use some AA miles (25K or 32.5K depending on month) for the outbound positioning flight.

I understand trying to optimize the route for the best/newest equipment; it's fun to try out the new planes. However timing is important (when is this all starting and ending?) as the airlines do shuffle their fleets around quite a bit. For example BA is putting an A380 on YVR-LHR but cutting frequency from the 2x daily 744s to the solo whale. Similar things happen all the time.

Anyway, sounds like you're off on a decent trip, come back with more questions, and again, welcome to FT!

OWBlueMoon

Thanks for the welcome and the helpful response!

So, just to confirm -- the status bonus counts for the flight on which you cross the mileage threshold? That would work out perfectly since I will probably reach the 10,000 as you suggested with the combination of a paid positioning flight and the NRT-ORD segment on the RTW ticket.

To answer your question -- all this travel would be taking place over the next couple months, so in the fairly near future. Good point regarding fare class and fractional miles -- I think I may aim for AA codeshare on JAL to keep it simple, but either way I will check the fare class and make sure I'm earning full mileage/EQP.

anc305

OWBlueMoon

Seems like you a fairly flexible. 50K flown and 130-140k miles to redeem should be no problem. Maximize your miles in USA , use DOH to your advantage , and travel by train in Europe as the places you mention are so close together. The below gets you 50k+

NRT-ORD-SFO-ATL-SFO-PUJ-JFK-LAX-LHR-DOH-TXL-DOH-LHR-HKG-DEL-KUL-NRT

This is just something to think about. Routes change and you can probably do better.

zoombee

i) You might fly NRT-JFK as your first segment (AA marketed, JL flight: great 787 option) to hit platinum (10+k EQP) immediately and earn double RDMs for all flights including that one.

A big AA RDM earner for a 2015 DONEx is this promo: https://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/aadvantage-currency.jsp -- earn 12k for most AA/US marketed flights over 3000 miles or for JFK to SFO/LAX. If RDMs are important, this may impact your desired itin.

I suggest putting the route into a spreadsheet, one segment per row. I track all my AA earning flights and use these columns: FLIGHT, DATE, RDM (cumulative), EQM (cumulative), EQP (cumulative), BIS, RDM (for flight), EQM (for flight), EQP (for flight), RDM Multiplier, EQM Multiplier, EQP Multiplier. Eg here is row 3 showing the formulae: AMERICAN AIRLINES 1112 Y SFO DFW, 30/01/2015, =H3+C2, =D2+I3, =E2+J3, 1464, =G3*K3, =G3*L3, =G3*M3, 2, 1, 0.5 (economy flight on AA)


ii) no real opinion.

iii) no comment on finding AB dates in the tool for online booking. Personally I'd book by phone to get the flights I want.

iv) Improved routing depends on what counts as "better". I see that itin and think "so many poorly valued segments, so many more miles could be flown", but you say you have limited flexibility on where you need to be so that's probably not the right thinking for you.

One option is to buy some separate tickets to replace some low value segments with better ones. e.g buy LHR-BUD,PRG-LHR yourself and earn back 3 business class segments for not much cash. I would never use a DONEx segment for a Europe short haul except as a way to reduce taxes (eg PRG-LHRx-DOHx-DPS or LHR-AMS-HKGx-DPS).

pbd456

have you price out the YQ? when is the AA premium bonus end? when will you fly all the segments?

Himeno

Plotting out my DONE3 for the year, currently have HND-HKG-BOS-DFW-LAX-MIA-JFK-MIA-ZRH-HEL-LHR-DXB-LHR-PVG-HKG-SIN-HND, with side trips ex LAX (LAS) and JFK (DTW or DCA) and paired with a DAS13 (CBR-SYD-HND-ITM-HND-SIN-MEL-CBR).

Still thinking about stop in PVG or ICN.

Stuck on this rule:
4 (i) The same city pairs/sectors cannot be flown more than once in the same direction

I have the MIA-JFK sector. The MIA-ZRH flight is a 3h stop and aircraft change in JFK. Could some agents count that MIA(-xJFK)-ZRH AA64 as a second MIA-JFK?

pandaperth

Personally, I doubt the agent's screen will even show the connection in JFK and so you should have no problems; and of course what you are proposing complies fully with the rules

I base my opinion on past experiences with the AA RTW desk setting up xONExs. The agent reads off what's on his/her screen - flight#, from, to, departure time, arrival time. The occasions where I've had direct but not non-stop flights, the agents have not mentioned to intermediate stop at all
(the instances I've had are SYD-JFK and DOH-EZE)

allset2travel

Have not done it myself, but I agree with pandaperth that you should be fine.

Himeno

Thought as much. We'll see if CX says anything when they get back to me.

The main things that worry me now is the recent on time reliability of the QF LHR flights for that LHR-DXB-LHR turn (last year, QF10 was 110 mins late [faulty cargo door sensor kept the flight at LHR for 90 mins, then DXB ATC delays] and my 3 hour connection to QF1 became so short that they had started boarding just after I cleared transit security. The year before, I got stuck in DXB for 24 hours because BA wouldn't issue the connecting QF pass, the aircraft was late and none of the DXB transfer desks would issue a QF pass [even the desk with QF branding] and by the time the EK F lounge had worked it out, the flight had closed) and the flight delays in China which could use issues with the PVG-xHKG-xSIN-HND at the end of the DONE3.

Kiwi Flyer

It wasn't a problem for me in similar circumstances in the past (e.g. both AKL-SYD and SCL-SYD (via AKL on single ticketed segment).

Himeno

So I sent the itinerary off to CX for quoting. They loaded it as a booking and sent it to ticketing. While I'm waiting, I took at look at the booking.

2 mistakes right off (though much better then they started with last year). First minor, entered HKG-BOS on the CX code instead of the requested AA codeshare.
Other one... BOS-xDFW-LAX. They put in a different DFW-LAX then requested, an earlier one, one that departs DFW before the flight from BOS arrives. @_@
I'll have to get that fixed when they reply with the price.

Cerebus

Hi, I'm thinking about a DONE3 or AONE3 with HND-HKG first segment. Did you use the oneworld RTW online tool to send your itinerary to CX or was it sent direct to CX via email?

Himeno

This year and last year, I have direct emailed CX Japan (email on the CX website contact page) as the tool simply does not work. The year before (2013), I got the tool to work, then later emailed CX Japan to make a stop over/route change after ticketing.

The person who replied to my emails this year and last year is the same. It appears that they are learning about these tickets.
Last year, they thought LAX-IAH was a transcon (confusing IAH with IAD), booked most flights as L to start, stated the 2 class NA flights couldn't be D and booked in L. It took a number of quotes of the fare rules to get them to fix it. Only making 2 errors to start this time, one of which is quite minor, is much better.
I wonder if they've started getting a lot of people booking xONEx's with them.

Cerebus

Excellent, thanks for the info. I'll email once I finalised the routing. It appears that patience and knowledge of the rules are the key.

Things are still in a sate of flux (Mileage Monkey is so much fun) and it's possible my final routing may not start HND-HKG. Alternate routings have either JAL or Sri Lankan as first carrier out of Tokyo which could be interesting at booking time.