AA is hit or miss, and seems similar in the AA forum but I get the impression that they're more revenue than distance these days.

The way AA does it (if they credit by revenue) is to calculate the total fare vs. the total miles flown, then assign the revenue to miles flown on their segments. It's absolutely pitiful on these RTW fares.

My last QF ticket that I used in 2022 / 2023, my AA coded segments credited as distance. My more recent CX ticket all AA coded segments credited as revenue which was an absolute pitance, thankfully they weren't very long so didn't sting so bad. My most recent one that I haven't flown yet, I managed to put only one AA segment onto it from DFW-STL so I frankly don't care how they credit that one. I'm sure it'll end up being worth like 100 miles / LPs. :D

I quit crediting to AA partially due to how they credit these tickets. I had one that was changed several times, rerouted, reissued, etc. and yet they still credited via fare and when I asked them what the original fare was and how it was recalculated no one could answer. It just wasn't worth it.

Crediting to AS or BA would be good. If crediting to AS, BA codes would earn 350% for D plus elite bonus and earn 250% EQM. Of course you'd have to pay extra in BA fuel fines. Most other carriers would credit to AS at 225% and 125% EQM, except AA which is 150% and 150% EQM.

AY is also 200% EQM on AS...that's where I've credited and getting to 100K was a piece of cake with these.

I've encountered a new problem trying to change a ticket with CX. I need to change my connection into a stopover and move the connecting flight to a later date, but also need to keep my first flight as it is.

CX is telling me there's no D availability on that flight and I'd have to change it to the earlier one (which isn't going to work). I can pull it up on EF with both Japan and Hong Kong point of sales (It's an ex-TYO ticket) and it's D9 on both POS... (I hate that we can't check POO but I don't think that's the issue... BTW does KVS have POO? I haven't heard anyone talk about KVS for years). They then tell me that availability is different for a reschedule vs. booking a new ticket. I'm calling BS on this. But I can certainly pull it up in the OW tool and make a new booking with that flight on it in business.

Can one of the awesome members here with GDS access check this and see what's going on or if CX is just full of something?
July 16 DUB-DOH on QR18 (15:00)

I got a bit irritated with them and asked what happens if I just no-show the connecting flight then and they said I'd have to pay the no-show fee ($125) and rebook right away. Seems to solve the problem as long as I can go without checked luggage. I really wanted to make another change at the same time which is only D3 on the day I want, so really don't want to wait until July to force this into a stopover by intentionally missing the flight.


**Can disregard, I finally found someone to put it into the OW desk, they called me back about 3 hours later and got it done. Very surprisingly they didn't even charge me the $125 change fee, but I suspect it's because my YR and airport taxes went down more than $125 on the updated itinerary.

I was going to post once I received the tickets. Today is Thursday.
Credit card charge is pending. Original call was Monday. Repriced and paid on Tuesday.
Full itinerary is in aa.com with different booking codes for other airlines.
But I have not received any email from aa.

This is my first xONEx.

Almost embarrassing since I did not think to select for YQ.
Departure in 2025 with everything but the start date off the calendar (just dummy dates).

I am posting the first DONE3 (x2) itinerary that I picked starting with QR and also the change to RJ which brought the base fare back down to 130,000 EGP - since both were legal. We're doing it over five-six months and we'll be adding separate flights in Asia and from ANC, maybe from HNL as well.
Awesome ideas/suggestions welcome.

CAI xDOH QR (changed to CAI xAMM RJ)
xDOH HKT QR (changed to xAMM BKK RJ)

HKT HKG CX (changed to BKK HKG with CX)
HKG DPS CX
DPS KUL MH
KUL NRT JL

NRT HNL JL
HNL ANC AS
ANC LAX AS
LAX SJO AA
SJO DFW AA
DFW SFO AA
SFO MIA AA

MIA DOH QR
DOH AMM QR
AMM CAI RJ

I'm likely crediting to BAEC. Both itineraries earn 1,560 TP. Fare was just under $4,300 USD or lots and lots of CAD.

After submitting the initial QR start and seeing the price, I called back and asked to change to RJ and to submit for a reprice. Agent said that changes like that won't change the ticket price but she obliged anyway since I am so charming.

Lots of fun experimenting and booking.

I'm thinking about another xONEx starting next month since I have travel from Europe to NA in April and then from NA to ME in August. Likely I'll book directly with the OW tool since my dates will all be on the calendar so (hopefully) no need to call the dreaded QF number for changes. And I want to make it a bit crazy. If the base fare is still there, I'll book it up once I've figured it out.
insert maniacal laugh here

Thanks for posting! I have found that AA ticketing may take up to 48 hrs, but you can always call the RTW desk and check on progress. I'm not sure if the agent has any way to "push" things along, but YMMV.
The cc charge will show as pending for a while, even after ticketing is complete. Who knows why.

Good luck if you voluntarily choose the OW tool -- I have found that any "crazy" itinerary will almost certainly trigger an error, even if it's a legit routing... or it may offer you only one carrier, despite having availability on multiple carriers.

Actually the OW site tool works perfectly fine on "crazy" itineraries too, I've certainly assembled enough of them and flown a couple. The issue is that it wants to defer ticketing to QF for most of them... something avoided if possible. Though having said that, I've had almost as bad of an experience trying to change a CX issued RTW the last 3 days, finally it got done. I truly believe that the AA desk is now the only reliable one, BA maybe number 2, but QF and CX aren't much different. I think CX takes a little less HUCA because they can at least process date changes without assistance. But routing changes are another story.

As far as ticketing queue goes with AA, I can't prove this but I suspect it's based on status. I've booked partner mileage tickets for others many times that got stuck in queue for ages, and all it took was for me to call and ask for them to push it, it was done in 5 minutes.

Great find for the amount of TPs! Now that I've spent a few days looking more closely into the fares, I'm wondering how it's possible to get over 34k miles here (over 37k here)? Saw a few itinerary with more miles like that.

Edit: Always had the Fijis in the search so far, hence Global Explorer with max. 34k. Question answered...

One receives an email post ticketing as "e-ticket receipt". I ticketed earlier in the week and called back to stop the ticketing so as to apply trip credits. They were able to take the reservation back from the manual ticketing queue, apply multiple AA trip credits and re-authorize my credit card. Waited just over 24 hours to receive ticket, but only for 1 of the 2 pax. Called back RTW agents, who called ticketing with me on hold and issued the second ticket. So it seems their ticketing is a bit of a mess, especially because my eticket receipt shows wrong amounts. However the charged totals equal to the quoted price. Still gotta trust that they know how to handle these tickets as they seem to be senior agents who are experienced with these kinds of tickets.

Mine is a DONE5, but it's 46,617 according to Great Circle Mapper. I think I could have gotten it over 50k if I really wanted to by going to SCL instead of GRU and JNB, CPT, or HRE instead of NBO. I'm not exactly sure I understand the rule on South Africa on these, so not sure I could use it or not, but HRE definitely ok, I'm gutted that QR cut the WDH route, Namibia is one I really wanted to visit. Even once WB (Rwandair) joins, they still don't have that route so will remain a hole in OW for the time being. (Maybe I should have grabbed one of those *A fares while they were up....)

There's not much price difference between DONE3-5 ex-CAI on the base fare, just have to watch your YQs.

That's a really nice itinerary for a DONE3, great job. I would however challenge them on RJ vs QR. Neither would change the base fare itself, just a difference in YQ (fuel surcharge) and I'm pretty sure RJ has a higher YQ than QR does. Also the experience on QR and RJ are night and day different. RJ is more of a bargain basement carrier, they aren't on the same level as the big 3 gulf carriers or even SV. Sad to say but I'd much rather fly AA's business class than RJs given the choice... The RJ 787 to BKK is pretty tired to say the least, and they cancel that flight a lot, it's not daily, so they'll try to reschedule you days before or after your planned flight if it happens. QR on the other hand is top notch most of the time.The longe in AMM is also nothing more than average, while the Al Mourjan in DOH is really good (It's actually not my favorite lounge, but it is really good) I think it'd be well worth your while to try to change that back to QR while the base fares are still the current price, it's definitely worth the $125 change fee.

Of course if you're wanting stopovers on both ends in AMM then RJ is necessary but otherwise I'd skip them entirely.

Did you call AA to book? I tried to use online tool, but 2 things really annoying

1. first leg can not be QR operated
2. If I use old tool, 34000 miles bug
3. If I use new tool, must return to CAI, I can not return to DOH

It’s probably not a popular opinion on FT but given the bargain fare for these recently is this really a deal killer? Something something cake and eating it too.

I've noticed that the 'over 34,000 miles' message can be entirely unrelated to actually having an itinerary over 34K. Everytime I've got the error message, it's been due to another issue that's easily rectified yourself. In my case, it's occurred where a direct flight wasn't available on the day I chose and the indirect flight causes the itinerary to have two many sectors. Or it's because business isn't available on all flights. Or it's because the tool has chosen a routing that arrives at one airport and leaves from another, again causing issues with the maximum number of segments. In all cases, I've been able to get rid of the error by reviewing each flight individually. In all cases, my itinerary is well over 34K.

Thanks for the reply.

I looked closely at what little information was in the price breakdown in the AA booking. There was clearly a very large fare difference in the base fare for the itinerary I originally set up than what it shows now. Wish I took a screenshot. I can't recall now what the base fare was in USD but I thought I lost the window of opportunity for currency conversion. The overall trip for two people when starting with QR was over $16K CAD. I was pretty disappointed with myself that I didn't move on it faster.

Agreed. I really don't want to start with RJ. Especially to BKK. I've read the reviews here. Also agreed that I should pay that change fee to get QR.