pandaperth

Certainly it will work. Either one of your Sydney stops must be strictly less than 24hrs - 23:59 is OK, 24:00 is not OK
I suggest you schedule the final SYD-AKL flight to be as close as possible to 24hrs after your scheduled arrival into Sydney from HKG - that way there will be no questions asked when you request that your bags be tagged through to SYD only, not AKL

The rules of the two tickets are quite differentAmongst other differences, the Oneworld Explorer has no restriction on multiple stopovers at the same city (I have heard tell of someone who stopped over in NYC four times on a Oneworld Explorer ...jfk-bgi-jfk-nas-jfk-bda-jfk... - it was his hometown after all)

andreirublev

I have sort of a subjective/philosophic question about the Circle Pacific fare and I wouldn't mind hearing experiences and opinions from folks who have taken a Circle/RTW trip before.

I was originally looking at a DFW-LAX-MEL-SYD-DFW itinerary, which in discount business (I) would run about $8500 before taxes. Then I noticed the existence of this Circle Pacific, which in D from the US appears to be about $9300 -- so for less than $1000 more, I could tack on NRT-KIX-HKG or start from LAX and maybe tack on HKG-BKK-KUL (or any number of permutations) and still be under the 22k mile limit.

This would be leisure-only trip for 2 weeks (can't be flexible on the 2 weeks). Having never been to any of the places on either itinerary, were you happy cramming in a lot of destinations in a short period of time, or would you have preferred more time in just one continent?

Thanks.

Gardyloo

Obviously those are personal questions; two weeks including travel time (call it 2 days in each direction counting day/night and date line just for US/Australia, call it 4 days if Asia < > Oz are included) means 10-12 days of "functional" time. If you can visit a place and see a lot in 48 hours, then hitting five or six cities is okay. If you want to see more of a place (and possibly sleep in beds instead of on planes) then it would probably be too much. Hard to say. But remember that BKK-SYD is almost 5000 miles, so not exactly a puddle-jump in time terms.

At $9300 plus taxes, however, I'd be inclined to look at RTW fares instead of Circle Pacific. If, for example, you flew relatively cheaply to Europe, you could conceivably start a 4-continent RTW in someplace like Poland for under $8300 plus taxes, or around $7000 - $7300 in the "near" Middle East. Then fly east - to Asia en route to Oz, then home... and still have six North America segments and a couple of European ones remaining, which you could use over the space of a year.

In other words, do your Australia vacation (via one or two stops in Asia) then travel for pleasure or leisure around North America - including the Caribbean, Central America, Alaska, whatever - before ending the trip in Poland (or, cheaper, Israel, Egypt or Jordan) sometime within the next year. Use miles to get to Europe in the first place if you have them, optimize your route and maybe hit EXP with all the EQP, and your money stretches even further. If you're looking at $9300 plus tax for a DCIR22 from North America, vs. $7200 plus tax for a DONE4 from Israel or Jordan, could you get yourself from DFW to TLV, AMM or CAI and back for $2100? (Short answer, "duh.")

So for example, use miles, DFW AA ORD RJ AMM, which would take less time than going to Oz. Spend a few hours in the lounge at AMM, then start the (paid) DONE4...

AMM RJ BKK CX HKG QF MEL QF SYD QF DFW. (Then pause the trip and go back to work.)

Then, later (imaginary) DFW AA ANC AA DFW AA YVR CX JFK AA DFW AA MAD IB IST BA LHR RJ AMM, then miles home. There are literally thousands of permutations on this theme. IMO way, way more bang for the buck than the DCIR22.

andreirublev

Wow, thanks for taking the time for such a detailed response with some great ideas. I really appreciate it.

ozvirginuk

Thanks pandaperth. That's good advice. I'm thinking arriving in Syd on QF128 at 06:55 and being booked on SYDAKL the following day at 0625. That's 23:30, so providing no schedule changes, that will work, otherwise, I"d go for the 1825 flight on the same day as landing...

Thanks for everyone's contribution and advice. I love this site...

Cheers
Ozvirginuk

serfty

Of course, doing that should save the AU$47 departure tax as well. ^

ozvirginuk

Good point serfty. Between myself and my partner that's half a hotel night in LAS!!

Republicau

Do circle pacific rules allow me to travel mel-dfw-jfk-ord-sfo-hnl-mel?

Its south pacific in one direction and central pacific in the other. Well under the 22,000 miles but I'm not sure what they consider central pacific and how many stops i'm allowed in the US. DFW would be just a transit point to JFK.

thanks

jerry a. laska

Probably not. It appears to me that you have two south pacific crossings and no crossings of the north/central pacific. If you continued on from hnl to nrt you would satisfy the rules.
See these threads where hnl routings were discussed:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...e-pacific.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...ific-dcir.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...central+circle

MiamiPrep

I just ticketed a circle pacific J yesterday: HKG-BKK-NRT-ORD-MIA-SCL-AKL-SYD-SIN-HGK 28,378 MILES

FARE-HKD 50520.00 EQUIV FARE-CAD 6795.00 TAX/FEE/CHARGE 70.30
TICKET TOTAL 7165.30

pandaperth

Those taxes etc are really low
I presume you ticketed this in Canada
Which airline?

Jerry_Maguire

I'm planning an ex-HKG circle pacific for late next month. Did you use a HK travel agent? Or one in Canada? Could you PM me the details?

og

Set it up with the AA RTW desk and tell them it is to be issued in HKG and paid in HKD. The only problem is that the AA HKG office will not accept faxed or emailed cc information. Still, it makes for a nice long weekend to do a HKG run to get the ticket (just make sure you know the hours that the office is open and that you don't target a public holiday).

MiamiPrep

AA - their RTW desk is the best.

aaupgrade

From a curiosity standpoint I would like to know if this works. Just last fall I had to go to YYZ to reticket my not yet started CirPac as the AA RTW desk said CX requires tickets to be purchased 7 days out.

You may want to double check with them so you don't encounter any unwanted surprises.