Doubt availability will be an issue.. CX HKG MNL is practically a shuttle flight for domestic helpers.

According to expertflyer, IONE3 starts at 9748 USD from MNL and a DONE3 is another 200 USD extra. Both of these are excluding taxes, surcharges, etc..

definitely bookable. And so is OSL DOH LHR ASIA

Just for your information, you can take an LCC up to Tokyo or Osaka and get a DONE3 for about $4,000 cheaper than starting in MNL.

very sound advice indeed!

1st RTW booking. Questions and a bit of help...
 

I’m planning my first RTW trip as a DONEx. I’ve read the big RTW threads and Wikis here in the OW forum, and other posts in the AA forum. I’m hoping to book this sometime in the next week or so, and I have some questions.

I’d position to OSL, and then fly:

OSL-DOH-SEZ (QR) ~March 4
SEZ-DOH-AKL (QR) ~March 11
AKL-SYD (QF) ~March 16
SYD-HND-JFK (JL) ~March 18
JFK-GRU (AA) September 2026
GRU-MIA-PHL (AA) September 2026
PHL-SEA-STS (AS) November 2026
STS-DFW-PHL (AA) November 2026
PHL-LHR-OSL (AA/BA) early March 2027

The dates are approximate, and there’s some flexibility.

I’m trying to maximize points earnings with AA, so looking to fly as many QR and JL coded flights as possible.

1) If I buy though the AA RTW desk with the first segment being QR from OSL-DOH how will the RTW be plated? AA or QR? Or does it just plate by which flight is selected for each leg? I’m pretty sure AA doesn’t sell OSL-SEZ at all, so that may answer my question.

2) If I buy the RTW through the AA desk will they try to use AA codeshares on as many legs as possible, or can I specify particular flights that I know are available? For example, the AA website will sell me SYD-JFK using various routings with all segments on AA coded flights. I’d prefer to fly SYD-HND-JFK on JL metal with JL codes.

3) The Oneworld RTW tool keeps returning errors saying they don’t fly between SEZ and AKL. A few weeks ago the tool did show some results for SEZ-AKL, but it didn’t give me the option to fly SEZ-DOH-AKL, instead giving me double connections through KUL or HKG (e.g. SEZ-DOH-CGK-AKL). There’s QR D fare availability showing on EF for SEZ-DOH and DOH-AKL, and the QR website will sell me SEZ-DOH-AKL. I suspect that it didn’t show me the SEZ-DOH-AKL option because it involves a 21 hour connection at DOH and the CGK and HKG options were quicker. Any way to set up SEZ-DOH-AKL via a travel agent or through the AA RTW desk?

4) I won’t be able to book the November 2026 or March 2027 flights for months. I assume I can just book placeholder flights near the end of schedule and change the dates later, correct?

TIA!

AA will only plate as a 001 ticket (AA). You can ask them to ticket as your exact route. If they can see D fare is another unknown issue. POS and married segments can come into play. Until you ask you do not know the answer. Book with the AA RTW desk.

SEZ is in Africa so that is adding a continent for 1 destination
GRU is in South America so that is adding a continent for 1 destination
DONE6 by my count which pushes up the base price, for the same 16 segments
https://www.qantas.com/content/dam/q...continents.pdf

A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper

Interesting. Since AA doesn't sell OSL-SEZ at all is it even possible to purchase this RTW through the AA RTW desk?

I know that the SEZ and GRU destinations add to the cost disproportionately. However, they're half of the reason for the trip.

Is it a DONE6 or DONE5? I'm not stopping in Asia.

Ask AA about SEZ

As you going to HNL Asia counts. Transit vs stopover mkes no differece.
Anyway from the rules 3015

AA doesn't have to sell a flight in order for it to be available as part of a OneWorld Explorer ticket purchased from the AA RTW desk. I buy all (3 - 4 per year) of my Explorer tickets from the AA desk, and they include lots of flights that aren't otherwise available through AA .

Thanks for that. To further pull the string on this, would I be able to have the AA RTW desk book me on SYD-HND-JFK on the JL flights with JL flight numbers?

You are over thinking flight numbers for a OW RTW by1000%. Most OW flights are not code shares.
You can ask AA RTW desk to ticket as your exact route - exact flight numbers. But some flights may not be available.

Yes of course, subject to availability.

Booking codeshares is where it gets dicey. Availability can be different and there might be traffic restrictions that prevent you from booking a particular codeshare unless it connects to an international flight. Or in some other cases, it's the opposite - some can only be booked with a stopover. It's pretty random and unless you have access to a GDS there's no way to know in advance what the rules are going to be.

Additionally, for AA metal the AA RTW desk will only book you on the prime (AA) code, and even for non-AA-operated flights some agents might require some convincing before they'll book you on a codeshare. (Usually mentioning that you're not crediting to AAdvantage helps)

In that case, why not PHL-DOH-OSL (AA/QR)?

Pretty much, adding anything in South America or Africa for now means going +1 on the DONEx count and one destination unless you do a surface segment. Unfortunately we no longer have a OW carrier on either continent (sub-Saharan Africa since all of North Africa counts as Europe or the Middle East) to get multiple destinations on the ticket. I tried to get 2 African destinations via DOH and it won't allow it.

But considering how from most points of origin the extra continent adds about $1000 or less to the ticket it's still probably worth it if you want to go there. You can get some sale fares from North America to South America in business sub-$1000 but usually Colombia, not Brazil or deeper in South America. Same with Africa, I do know of some sub-$1000 (mostly) Skyteam fares from various points in the middle east to Kenya especially but also some other points in Africa, but from Europe or elsewhere usually much higher.