Yes, although just for clarity, some airlines insisted that there be an overwater flight marketed by them (that is, with their flight number, regardless of which carrier operated it [whose metal]).

Indeed, but I wouldn't put too much stock in what a AA ATW agent says about these things, as they don't necessarily know what they're talking about. Also, AA has significant influence in OneWorld, so there's no chance that OW would institute such a policy if AA didn't want them to.

I have heard back from Oneworld on this:The email is from a VP in Oneworld, so I think it carries some authority.
(As an aside, I was not aware that QF did the ticketing for AS.)

Reading the OneWorld Explorer User Guide, I can't quite figure out if Alaska is considered part of the West Coast, i.e. if ANC-PHL counts as a transcontinental flight or not. Any clues?

https://www.oneworld.com/world-travel
Go to "How is my fare calculated" (down the bottom)
Click on "oneworld explorer" Downloads OW rule 3015
Look at 4 section K (page 5)
Alaska is not in column A or column B.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7d7ffb565b.jpg

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ANC-PHL...X&MS=wls&DU=mi

Looking in ExpertFlyer, I cannot see any direct flights between ANC and PHL (for any airlines, not just Oneworld Airlines - i.e. AS or AA)
If that is the case, then to get from ANC to PHL you would need to connect somewhere (and AFAIK the only places to connect are on the west coast or in the mid-west) and so there is no transcontinental "non-stop or single plane service" flight involving ANC

Thanks, that's exactly what I saw, but the online tool was throwing up errors saying "only one flight to Alaska and one flight from Alaska is allowed" when I had ORD-SEA-ANC-SEA-PHL segments there, so I wanted to check.

I've done a couple of fairly straightforward RTWs before, one ex-AMM DONE4 and another ex-NRT DONE3. I am currently looking at booking ex-OSL DONE4 and have a couple of questions that I haven't run into before, so hopefully can find some answers here:

1. If I book Europe-North America-South America-Asia, start the trip and then while the itinerary is in NA portion decide to change South America to Australia (paying the change fee and all), is that going to be possible?

2. Is it possible to fly from Australia to Europe without touching Asia? Via DOH maybe?

Q2
QF currently have flights MEL/SYD-DRW-LHR (Darwin, Australia). Later in the year these will become MEL-PER-LHR & SYD-SIN-LHR.
But OW still consider all those as touching Asia.

A map from Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper

1. Yes, see part 16 of the rules for changes. You could change to EUR-NA-Asia-SWP-(Asia)-EUR. You are permitted two transits in Asia when traveling from SWP to EUR. From the rules:
2. To expand on Mwenenzi's answer, from the rules:

While Alaska is not in the table that defines transcons, there is text just below the table that says Obviously, ORD-SEA-ANC-SEA-PHL only has one flight into and one flight out of Alaska, so it seems to be a bug in the online tool.

not particularly convenient for most, but with the current weakness of JPY, ex-TYO xONEx fares are looking cheap again

And the forecast looks even better: https://longforecast.com/usd-jpy-for...021-dollar-yen

Well, time to consider a DONEx trip since my last AONE4 was during the Egyptian pound collapse in 2017. I have read thru the forum over the last few months in order to check the status of ticketing these trips.

It seems that the AA RTW desk has deteriorated in quality over the last few years. Because the 1st 2 segments are on QR Is this still the best option? I assume that the oneworld web site still cannot process an itinerary with QR as the 1st segment.

Since the trip is ex-OSL, I assume that the cost is in NOK converted to USD if AA does the ticketing. There was an example with the pricing in EUR from the oneword website. Don’t want a NOK to EUR to USD conversion on my credit card.

My 2010 version of the rules was more explicit regarding changes.

(a) Date/time/oneworld carrier/inventory changes are permitted provided ticketed points remain the same.(b) Changes other than to Date/time/oneworld carrier/inventory permitted at a charge of USD125.00 per transaction.

The current rules are: Changes are permitted provided ticketed points remain the same. Changes to ticketed points permitted at a charge of USD125.00 per transaction.

Is this a problem when changing dates/flights/carrier?

I’m planning a DONE3, but may change to a DONE4 after starting the trip. Any issues with doing so other than the extra cost for the DONE4 using the rates at the time of ticketing of the original DONE3?

What are the current opening hours and phone number for AA RTW desk?

Thanks.

Been a while since I did a RTW . Does anyone have any recent experience how an AA coded flight is treated for miles / LPs. On a DONEX it could be a huge difference. For an EXP if it is considered special fare in would yield 2.95 miles/lps per distance. If they extract the actual fare base for that segment it could be quite low. In 2018 - my last DONEX - all were distance based but there were reports of some extracted fare base credits by other people. Thanks for any recent data points.

Based on my very recent experience (my AA flight yesterday) I have bad news for you.

It was the first AA-marketed flight on my current ex-KHI DONE4.
I hoped/expected it to earn AA miles & points based on the distance method (as had happened with my last DONEx in 2017/18). But it earned based on the fare paid method.

So instead of the 3,000+ mile flight earning ~5,300 base miles (using the 1.75 multiplier for booking class D on an AA flight),
It instead earned a mere ~1600 base miles. Using the base fare multiplier of 5 miles per dollar, this implies a fare+surcharges of $320
(the distance of the flight represents ~6% of the total distance of the whole ticket, and the $320 represents ~6% of the base fare paid for the whole ticket, so that computes correctly)

For me personally it won't be a big deal - I will still get from no status to Platinum on the itinerary, but with fewer miles in the bank. YMMV of course