DONE3 even possible?
 

Hi all, really hoping you can help.

I am a UK citizen based in New York and recently left my job so have lots of time on my hands (for the next couple of months). I would very much like to visit Bali, Hong Kong, and Auckland (it that order) to see friends and family.
Pricing as a multi-city on OW airlines is showing $17k, pricing a DONE4 is showing about $11k. I have two questions:

1) is it possible to do a DONE3 visiting these locations, in the order above? the OW Explorer engine won't let me fly 'back' from Auckland via e.g. Delhi, saying this constitutes 2 Pacific crossings, even though Delhi-> NYC will travel over Europe

2) given how much time I have on my hands, is there a way to significantly save money, by potentially amending/adding to my routing?

Not that it'll make a difference, but I am a OWE. Thank you in advance for your words of wisdom!

North America - Asia - South West Pacific - North America is not a valid Oneworld *ONE* RTW.
http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm?ow...L-JFK&cabins=y
What has DEL to with this? That would NA-Asia-SWP-Asia-NA. You cannot back track, (unless a specific exemption, but not applicable for this)
Anything with SWP & Asia is a *ONE4

Maybe a Circle Pacific would work

From the rules:
https://www.oneworld.com/documents/1...9-d346ec820edf

Thanks for confirming that. I was looking at a circle pacific (as I agree, the trip seems to fall within the bounds of acceptability) but it seems incredibly difficult to find anywhere to price it up. Should I just call AA's RTW team?

Thanks Jerry, what is confusing me is given both Asia and SWP are considered TC2, how I'm failing to continually progress forward by doing a <24h transit from Auckland -> NYC via somewhere such as Delhi

That said, I take your word for it that it's just not possible, so given that it looks like a DONE4 is my fall-back (if I can't work out how to access the Pacific Circle), is there a sensible way to bring the price of this down?

Yes. Or a Travel Agent, but is a product not well know.

Or you could do North America-Asia-Eu-North Amercia DONE3 with a separately paid side trip Asia-NZ return

You can't, as that involves going back to Asia region (and no direct flights AKL-DEL anyway)

You have to go round the world and not round the pacific on *ONE*

Start in Egypt or South Africa or do a circle pacific.

A DONE4 out of Canada has a base price of US$8151; a 26K mile Circle Pacific ex-Canada is around $7300; however YYZ-xHKG-DPS-HKG-AKL-LAX-YYZ is more than 26K miles, so you'd have to shorten it somehow, e.g. starting or ending in Vancouver.

A DONE4 would convey the benefit of lasting well beyond the two months of the Asia/NZ period. You'd have several segments, and two stopovers, available back in North America before the clock expires in 12 months. That additional travel might be useful over ten months.

Here's a sample route, includes a 24h stopover in Europe en route back to North America, then a trip to the west coast and a second trip to the Caribbean (just imaginary) in the itinerary. The "backtracking" via Asia after NZ is allowed provided you don't stop over en route to Europe.

this is very helpful, thank you. I'm going to look into whether making this a DONE3 + Auckland is more economical, but 8k is a bit more justifiable than 11k+ I guess. I read about people starting to have problems with tickets issued outside the country their credit card is issued in, is this something you have encountered in canada?

I would first try using the online booking tool at Oneworld - https://rtw.oneworld.com/rtw/ - and see if you can get to the payment screens. Note this tool is notoriously buggy, so have a beer handy.

It appears it's just AA that's coming up with this credit card BS; it's not in the Oneworld rules and in fact may be counter to the tariff filing made by AA for the product. But if you originate in Canada and fly on Cathay from Toronto or Vancouver for the first leg, the online tool would have CX issue the ticket, and the credit card's issue country isn't a factor. Failing that, you could probably spend a couple of hours on the phone with CX and have them pull it together for you.

As for the DONE3 plus AKL separately, the difference is something like CDN$600, so not worth it IMO.

In general* if an xONEn has any flights via Africa, South America or SWP, it MUST at least be an xONE4.

* There's may be strategic routings available to avoid this, but they come and go and generally the rules get changed to ensure a minimum xONE4. e.g. For a while, AA flew ORD-DEL (NA-Asia) and the rules were changed specifically.

I get the impression you're pretty well versed on this RTW game, so thanks -again- for your help.

I was repeatedly getting to the payment screen without issue earlier today, but of course after reading your message I'm getting the dreaded indefinite spinning disk. Lets hope this resolves itself.

Spoke to AA RTW desk and interestingly they weren't seeing the same flight availability as I was getting shown bookable prices for online, but ultimately came to the same conclusion that DONE3 and Circle Pacific weren't worth it/weren't feasible respectively here.

Only question I have left, and I pretty much know the answer to this already, is whether there is a credit card / offer out there to discount the cost any further?

There is a dedicated thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...cket-faqs.html
pandaperth is a current expert, as he seems to be on a permanment *ONE* trip (such is life in retirement ^)

Have never read about any discounts to the base fare. But OW may have had a sale recentlty for a short time.
The total cost can/will vary with the route. Avoiding a UK departure will save hundreds (UK APD)

As above you have 12 months for the complete trip. Say 1 month travelling followed by 10 months home (stop over) and finally another 1 month travelling to the Caribbean or what ever

The cost of getting to AKL as an addition to a DONE3 depends a lot where you decide to stop and add the connection as a separate ticket. SIN/HKG/NRT (although I didn't price them) would likely no be high on my list. CMB and SGN however, might offer a great deal more savings. And even though further from AKL, would offer less expensive tickets. And in the end a return ticket will (err:rolleyes:) return you to where you paused the DONE3.

OTOH, had you said PER rather than AKL, SIN would be the logical stopping point.

Be creative in your wandering

Fred

thanks everyone, this has been really helpful. mostly likely going to book:
YYZ-xHKG-DPS-xHKG-CAN-xHKG-AKL-xSYD-MEL-xDOH-NYC then 10 month break to use remaining NA segments before -YYZ.

Look reasonable? What would happen if I failed to take the final YYZ flight, is the advice the typical 'don't do it too often and you should be fine'?