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Old Jan 27, 2026 | 6:43 pm
  #3271  
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
SDandi does seems to want 3 visits to LAX. Excessive and hard to achieve.
Nobody wants 3 visits to LAX 😁 I live on the west coast and LAX has the most flights to choose from. If you have a work around, I am open to exploring it.

I am thinking I'll replace PTY with somewhere in Mexico to reduce the amount of NA segments. It will look exactly like my last DONE4 (reversed), but I can get over that. Thanks for all the input!
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Old Jan 27, 2026 | 7:10 pm
  #3272  
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Originally Posted by SDandi
Unfortunately, yes. We live on the West Coast and will need to get back to dog and work after our Africa & Asia adventure and still want to utilize the NA segments for future travels. Thanks for the suggestion!
Noting your profile location of San Diego are some AS, HA[AS] & AA flights from SAN. And even BA to LHR and JAL to NRT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Di...tional_Airport
Originally Posted by SDandi
Nobody wants 3 visits to LAX 😁 I live on the west coast and LAX has the most flights to choose from. If you have a work around, I am open to exploring it.

I am thinking I'll replace PTY with somewhere in Mexico to reduce the amount of NA segments. It will look exactly like my last DONE4 (reversed), but I can get over that. Thanks for all the input!
A possibility is LIR Costa Rica which has AS & AA flights to/from the west coast, DFW/ORD and east coast. So does not count in the USA transcontinental limits.
LIR -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanacaste_Airport
Here --> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37563229-post5.html

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Jan 27, 2026 at 11:49 pm
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Old Jan 28, 2026 | 1:19 am
  #3273  
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
A possibility is LIR Costa Rica which has AS & AA flights to/from the west coast, DFW/ORD and east coast. So does not count in the USA transcontinental limits.
Any particular reason to prefer LIR to SJO which, I believe, has the same ins and outs?
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Old Jan 28, 2026 | 10:07 am
  #3274  
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
A possibility is LIR Costa Rica which has AS & AA flights to/from the west coast, DFW/ORD and east coast. So does not count in the USA transcontinental limits.
LIR -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanacaste_Airport
Here --> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37563229-post5.html
I really like this idea- thank you!
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Old Jan 28, 2026 | 1:47 pm
  #3275  
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Originally Posted by henry999
Any particular reason to prefer LIR to SJO which, I believe, has the same ins and outs?
No. Have seen LIR more often in other OW DONE* itineraries here on FT.
LIR (blue) has more USA destinations than SJO (red). [AA AS]
SJO has long haul international destinations of LGW & MAD. LIR none.
Some routes are seasonable
Determining capacity :- schedule & aircraft size/seats is another matter
[source Wikipedia]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanacaste_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_S...tional_Airport
A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper
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Last edited by Mwenenzi; Jan 28, 2026 at 8:34 pm Reason: more links
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Old Jan 28, 2026 | 4:58 pm
  #3276  
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Hopefully closer to a plan...seeking more DONEx advice

Couple of more questions while playing around with the admittedly quirky online tool. That CPT is the main purpose of the trip means rules limit me somewhat, but the tool seems to be allowing me to fly from Europe to CPT then to asia via DOH. For example, both of these were valid in the tool...

Oslo - London - Cape Town - Johannesburg - Doha - Hong Kong - Hanoi - Tokyo - Chicago - Los Angeles - New York - Chicago - London - Oslo

Oslo - London - Cape Town - Johannesburg - Doha - Muscat - Doha - Hanoi - Tokyo - Chicago - Los Angeles - New York - Chicago - London - Oslo

I wasn't able to get it to price alternatives, like my preferred routing via DOH, and then bypassing EU/ME when departing South Africa to satisfy the rules as I understand them when including South Africa. Something like this:

Oslo - Doha - Cape Town - Johannesburg - Hong Kong - Hanoi - Tokyo - Chicago - Los Angeles - New York - Chicago - London - Oslo

I'm trying to maximize my AA earnings somewhat, with getting to/from CPT. After the first stop in Chicago, (basically home, the rest is to use up the ticket, and possibly build in another mini-trip. Not sure how to best mazimize it, depending on what I book, I should have at least one more segment to use.

Thanks all for all of the expertise here.
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Old Jan 28, 2026 | 6:06 pm
  #3277  
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
Have seen LIR more often in other OW DONE* itineraries here on FT.
Thanks for the idea, Mwenenzi. I've been using DFW-ANC-DFW for the North American MR parts of my itineraries. LIR/SEA is a few hundred miles more and avoids the weather problems in ANC. My only real stops in N.A. are LAX and BOS. The rest of the flights are MRs.
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Old Jan 29, 2026 | 2:07 am
  #3278  
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Originally Posted by henry999
Any particular reason to prefer LIR to SJO which, I believe, has the same ins and outs?
If you're spending any amount of time, LIR is on the Pacific coast. There are loads of activities there including great diving (don't forget your 24h wait before flying). I did a great dive there at the Bat Islands where there were quite a few mantas and bull sharks. Worth note though, the beaches there are volcanic sand, it's not the beautiful white sand coastline of the Caribbean side. The Pacific also tends to be significantly colder for swimming.

SJO is more or less in the middle of the country and a sizable city. Great if you're looking for a city escape, but I found it fairly unexciting.

For just the purposes of going just to use up North America segments, I'd easily chose LIR over SJO but I'd stay at least a few days to get a chance to actually enjoy it.
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Old Jan 29, 2026 | 7:42 am
  #3279  
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
Have not looked at your itinerary in detail
To get around the 2nd second transcontinental flight (3015 rule 4J) need to have an intermediate transit airport. DFW, ORD or what ever xxx-LAX-DFW/ORD-MIA-PTY-xxx
What is a cash fare MIA-PTY if running over the 6 NA segments allowed?
A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocume...tional_Airport
The other oneworld airline to PTY is IB to/from MAD (Spain). Instead of AA back for LAX-HEL fly IB PTY-MAD-xxx

Edit
Getting back to USA west coast from PTY takes segments and the transcontinental rule limits options
So fly Iberia PTY-MAD-OSL as attached (still may have itinerary errors)
pandaPerth can give advice on DOH-NDO-DOH [ EU/ME Africa ]. Unsure if allowed.

Nice design of the spreadsheet
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Old Jan 29, 2026 | 10:13 pm
  #3280  
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Something funny happened today.

Yesterday I called the AA RTW desk to price up an itinerary and we managed to get through everything within 20min. Almost every flight was available on the first try, including a bunch of married segments and codeshares, which was a very pleasant surprise.

The next day I receive the standard "your reservation has been rated" email but notice that there's no price quote on the PNR. I call the RTW desk and am told that there's indeed no quote stored in the reservation and that it's somehow shown as "ready for ticketing" despite the lack of a quote. My agent calls the rates desk, the rates desk was equally confused and we could only assume that whoever worked on it forgot to actually save their work.

I resisted the urge to make the airline equivalent of the "it didn't scan so it must be free" joke.

Now it's been sent back to the rates desk. Hopefully the next person remembers to actually store the fare and TFCs...
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Old Jan 29, 2026 | 11:41 pm
  #3281  
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What do the experts think of this:

OSL-xDOH-NBO-DOH-SGN-HGK-LAX-JFK-(DFW-LAX surface)-LIR-LAX-MAD-BCN-HEL-OSL

If three LAX stops is an issue, I could do NA as LAX-JFK-DFW-LIR-LAX-MAD...


I actually need to be in BCN at the end of this and it looks like I could maximize segments this way.

Thank you!
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Old Jan 30, 2026 | 12:01 am
  #3282  
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Originally Posted by SDandi
What do the experts think of this:
OSL-xDOH-NBO-DOH-SGN-HGK-LAX-JFK-(DFW-LAX surface)-LIR-LAX-MAD-BCN-HEL-OSL
If three LAX stops is an issue, I could do NA as LAX-JFK-DFW-LIR-LAX-MAD...

I actually need to be in BCN at the end of this and it looks like I could maximize segments this way.!
To LIR from where?
Is JFK-DFW by surface?
Or OSL-xDOH-NBO-DOH-SGN-HGK-LAX-JFK-DFW, LAX-LIR-LAX-MAD-BCN-HEL-OSL where "DFW, LAX" is a surface segment DFW-LAX. Some write as DFW//LAX.
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Old Jan 30, 2026 | 12:30 am
  #3283  
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Originally Posted by SDandi
What do the experts think of this:
OSL-xDOH-NBO-DOH-SGN-HGK-LAX-JFK-(DFW-LAX surface)-LIR-LAX-MAD-BCN-HEL-OSL
If three LAX stops is an issue, I could do NA as LAX-JFK-DFW-LIR-LAX-MAD...

I actually need to be in BCN at the end of this and it looks like I could maximize segments this way.
OSL-xDOH-NBO-DOH-SGN-HGK-LAX-JFK-DFW, LAX-LIR-LAX-MAD-BCN-HEL-OSL
Maybe OK, but pandaperth can advise on DOH

No over water long haul AA flights, unless AA codeshare on IB LAX-BCN. If AA long haul they will~can ticket.
AA flys to BCN from a range of airports, including ORD & DFW, but rule 4J may hinder others.

You are only using 4 of the 6 NA allowable segments. Texas in not in rule 4J, so could fly DFW-LAX on the DONE5.

Going to NBO adds a continent, so base prices rises, but still 16 segments. Check price of a separate ticket DOH<->XXX.
QR fly's to better places in Kenya ~ Africa than Nairobi. QR Qatar may even return to Mombasa! Go somewhere else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid...arajas_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josep_...l_Prat_Airport
QR destinations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s_destinations


Last edited by Mwenenzi; Jan 30, 2026 at 1:11 am
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Old Jan 30, 2026 | 2:10 am
  #3284  
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Originally Posted by SDandi
What do the experts think of this:

OSL-xDOH-NBO-DOH-SGN-HGK-LAX-JFK-(DFW-LAX surface)-LIR-LAX-MAD-BCN-HEL-OSL

If three LAX stops is an issue, I could do NA as LAX-JFK-DFW-LIR-LAX-MAD...


I actually need to be in BCN at the end of this and it looks like I could maximize segments this way.

Thank you!
Multiple stopovers at a point:
As I told you a week ago in this post FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Oneworld booking and pricing experiences, there is no problem here.

Like ​​​​​Mwenenzi I don't understand what you mean about DFW-LAX surface etc

Your itinerary seems to have in Europe/Middle East a single transit (in DOH) and too many stopovers - in DOH, MAD, BCN and HEL; only two are allowed

I see no need for a surface segment in Nth America: one transcon and five flight segments in total. Of course you may actually want the surface segment!
This itinerary is OK A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper
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Old Jan 30, 2026 | 2:28 am
  #3285  
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Originally Posted by pandaperth
//Your itinerary seems to have in Europe/Middle East a single transit (in DOH) and too many stopovers - in DOH, MAD, BCN and HEL; only two are allowed
Other than BCN, SDandi (from SJC, close to LAX), has not stated were EU-ME stopovers will be.
3015 rule 8
8. STOPOVERS
Permitted.
NOTE:
1. Minimum 2 stopovers required
2. Maximum 2 stopovers permitted in the continent of origin

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Jan 30, 2026 at 1:15 pm Reason: added not
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