I transited through KHI twice in 2022
First transit - in on a QR positioning flight, out to CMB, first flight of a DONEx
Second transit in from CMB as last flight of the DONEx, out on QR as first flight of next DONEx
Felt totally safe both times (me - a European in my 70s)
But the airport doesn't handle transit passengers at all well - had to get the relevant airline station manager each time to smooth the process for me.

FYI in what I now call my mis-spent youth, in my 20s, I spent about two weeks ravelling across northern Pakistan from the Afghan border at the Khyber Pass to the Indian border at Wagah (near Lahore). And again, I felt perfectly safe the whole time.

DONEx ex-DEL haven't changed.
Now coming in better than ex-JPN lol.

I've heard Karachi isn't the safest place, but Lahore and Islamabad seem fairly tame, at least from what I've read from others. ISB is only served by QR, so makes it more difficult, but LHE is served by both QR and UL, making both positioning and an xONEx much easier. But I think even the safety aspect of Karachi has to be put into perspective, supposedly it's safer than Sao Paulo, somewhere I've been a million times despite never actually spending a night there (been in the actual city though several times during daytime and early evening). I also go to much of east and southern Africa without any hesitation, and I think nothing about driving myself around Johannesburg and Pretoria. Definitely not the safest places in the world.

For someone using AA miles, it's only 40k to position from Japan to S. Asia or the Middle East, that's a lot less than Europe to position for OSL. Since I live in Japan that also would give me the ability to do an extended stopover (or two) here so becomes that much more attractive. I'd definitely be foregoing a few miles because AA's rather lackluster earnings on UL codes, but several of their flights from CMB to East or SE Asia have codeshares available. I'm relatively ok only being allowed 2 stopovers in Asia since I've pretty much been everywhere that OW carriers fly in East and SE Asia already. Seems I've more or less talked myself into doing ex-LHE on my next one, LOL. Not sure yet when that'll be, I don't need to earn any more miles until after March so no rush to plan yet.

Was it you BTW who mentioned booking RTWs with UL? If so what was the process? Just general telephone line or was there a better contact?

Yes, that was me.
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Well doesn't sound any worse than dealing with QF, LOL.

Just finished mapping out my next DONE3. I'm going to stick with the AA desk and ex-Japan itinerary. Yes, Pakistan and India are lower. But when I back out the lower additional extra charges of an ex-Japan ticket, and the positioning cost of getting to Pakistan or India from NRT (where my current ticket ends), then factor in the somewhat increased safety risk in Pakistan, particularly with the MidEast just a hair's breadth away from exploding, sticking with ex-Japan is the right decision for me. I did hear back from my Pakistani friend, and he, too, advises against Pakistan, particularly at this time.

Of course, you have to do what's in your own comfort zone, and your reasons all make very good sense. I guess no luck getting BA to ticket it on the old Japan rates?

At the end of the day it's not a massive price jump for DONE3, and still very good value at the new prices. (as long as the yen remains suppressed but that's going to get a lot more expensive if we ever get back to the 115-125 / $ range)

I myself though am going to have to think long and hard about how important DONE4 and 5 are going forward. In South America and Africa until we get new OW members in each, you can realistically only get 1 or 2 points if you use a surface segment and they are roughly $1000 price hikes at each interval except ex-Norway. That was the true beauty of ex-CAI, the DONE5 was barely much more expensive than a 4 or even 3 so why not throw extra continents in there. I know of course business class flights into and out of Africa or South America are worth way more than $1000, but not sure I'm personally getting that much value out of them vs. a well optimized DONE3 like you posted yesterday. Oceana is easily a region though that someone could get massive value out of the extra continent, but not necessarily maximizing miles flown. I'm very much looking forward to FJ joining next year and explore some more off the beaten path islands when I'm able to take an extended holiday. That'll be an excellent use case for a DONE4 from somewhere or maybe even a Circle Pacific (I see they are still offered from Japan but have never attempted to price one). (Yes, I know FJ can currently be on a DGLOB34, but I would never get an itinerary I was satisfied with under 34k miles).

I am in the same mind set. A DONE 3 form OSL will probably be my next RTW. I can still easily get in excess of 200k mi / lps out of it. Side trips can also be cheaper. Redemptions in J on AA from Asia are a pretty good value at 30/40/55/60k one way. I have plenty of miles but still want to maintain OWE. 30-35 LP/$ is better than doing milage runs in PE or buying things I dont need.

I'm definitely not doubting that it can be done, certainly Dr. HFH has impressed me with their BIS maximized DONE3. But would love to see an example itinerary for 200k LPs in AAdvantage if you have one built. Especially an ex-OSL it seems challenging where you can only have 2 Europe stopovers, so you're more limited on how many times you can use QR and DOH as a transit point within Europe. Now you've really got me thinking, I'm coming up with some potential ideas but 200k is really strong for a DONE3 when I only managed 160k on a very JL and QR heavy DONE5.

Edit: Ok, I've found one, someone could definitely do slight variations of this and still get over 200k LPs (must be an EXP already). Also need to find a way to book it because it has zero AA segments and QR as the first, so need a real travel agent. Plus you need JL codeshares on the UL flights. (This is also 59,900 BIS miles for non AA folks, so still might be of interest)

The 4 segment per continent limitation was initially causing issues because there's no way to get into and out of OSL without consuming an intra-Europe segment each way. Leaves only 2 more segments for an extra city.

OSL-DOH (QR)-DOH-LAX (QR)-LAX-SJO (AS)- SJO-LAX (AS)- LAX-ANC (AS)-ANC-JFK(AS)-JFK-HND(JL)-HND-SIN(JL)-SIN-NRT(JL)-NRT-CMB(JL code)-CMB-NRT(JL Code)-NRT-DOH(QR)-DOH-CMN(QR)-CMN-DOH(QR)-DOH-OSL(QR)

With that I calculate about 210k LPs as an EXP. You could change out some of the Asian cities as long as you stay on JL codes for all of them, it does have one spare segment that you could do a HND-NRT surface segment if needed, but all Asian flight segments are used. I only selected SIN because my first itinerary had all 16 segments used up and no space for a surface segment, so needed a city that has both NRT and HND service. BKK would work too but fewer miles, but since this version can afford the surface segment you could sub CGK for SIN for some extra miles. Or even BLR if you're felling quite sporty.

The AS flight ANC-JFK only operates in summer time, so you'd be losing some miles if you have to go ANC-ORD which I believe operates year round but only a couple of days per week, plus ORD doesn't get the JL A351 which is a quite nice ride.

Apologies- I type this from a bustling hole in the wall eatery in BKK.

I just ticketed an exJP DONE3 at the old fares.

Details later, but here�s what worked for me- timeline in brackets:
1. book online with the first sector with CX (04Oct/~noon SIN). This makes it a CX ticket (at the QF fares, I think), and payment info is taken, but not charged. You have to call to get them to send a payment link.
2. call to change (regular line- I get a CX Diamond priority, but was still dumped to the MNL call Center)- do not pay- the call centre will see the ow website fare- I changed a DFW-BCN-MAD to a DFW-DOH-MAD
agent couldn�t process/figure out if it was allowed, sent to the manual pricing team (04Oct/~1400 SIN), supposedly on �Diamond Priority�
3. got an email with the required itinerary (05Oct/2120 SIN- it�s Saturday night in HKG!)
4. got a call that I missed (immediately after the above)
5. got a payment link that I paid through (10 mins after the above) with the CX filed fares.

The phone agent being unable to just make the change might have been the key.

etickets in the inbox, base fare of JPY 656,300/492,300 per Adult/Child.

A long post of gratitude to the regulars in this thread, and especially dvs7310 & of course pandaperth , with experiences with the engine, and a saga of mistakes, laziness, confidence with the first rtw (lack thereoff) etc will hopefully follow in the coming days (tight tax filing deadlines etc to be dealt with).

Great to hear, and CX isn't bad to deal with, though they do have a proper RTW team that isn't directly accessible. You do have to get someone who knows what's going on.

But definitely great to hear that you got one booked under the old rates that CX still have / had posted after most other carriers increased.

When I did my last CX one via the OW tool, thankfully I knew that it was essentially a dummy booking and not live ticketing like QF. So I just immediately contacted them before making payment for the changes that I needed. I'm pretty sure at the time on that one it was only changing my AKL-DFW code from AA to QF, but was no issue and ticketing was painless after.

I really do wish that in the next generation of the OW tool, it'll allow us to choose our preferred ticketing carrier based on who's eligible on the itinerary. Would make a huge difference since essentially no one wants QF.

Are you able to say more about this? There's still YQ but maybe varying by airline there seems to be less than other origins but I couldn't find any info on how much less or how it works. E.g. is it just the YQ for the first segment that's less? Or just for some airlines (marketing? ticketing)?

You have to hope there's a fixed tool coming soon, it's so broken! Being able to pick the ticketing carrier (among eligible options) would be be icing on the cake to a tool that accepts most valid itineraries.

Fuel surcharges are regulated in Japan. So there is a tiny bit of YQ on ex-Japan tickets, but it's so negligible that it doesn't matter. They do have YR, which is also a fuel surcharge, but it's a lot less than YQ ex-CAI, ex-OSL, etc. So even if the Japan price is a bit higher, once you build your itinerary, if you're using a bunch of high YQ carriers (QF, BA, MH, and I believe CX as well) then ex-Japan can work out less overall.

I recall people posting with prices from other countries and were talking $2k+ in fuel surcharges alone, for ex-Japan it should be less than $400 regardless of carriers chosen.

That's super helpful (this cheaper YQ exJapan isn't ticketing carrier specific + MH and probably CX are high YQ +).