stealthflier

(from 5 cont. rtw ticket in biz for bonus: all travel for fun & bonus so almost all flexible)will begin travel in 2 wks.

YVR - jfk - sjo (AA)
sjo will be my stop
sjo-dfw-yyz (AA)-hkg (CX)

hkg-bkk-cx
(4 more cx flts. intra Asia)

hkg-sydney

sydney-johannesburg-Capetown (my stop)
capetown-LHR(BA)

LHR-MAD-CAS-LGW-CAI (my stop)-LHR-
LAX-JFK


i'm plat. in AA but have very few miles this year. on this trip i'd like to qualify for exec. plat (or come close)on AA; get oneworld bonus on AA and maybe Cathay - or qantas

i've registered for all bonuses, joined a couple of mileage programs (on oneworld carriers, i have miles only on AA)

i know i need a Pacific flt. to get the 6th cont. do i really need to buy the 5 cont. fare or should i skip capetown and save the money. i have no other trips scheduled until AA resume the weekend international offers in the fall.

also, would i be better buying economy than bz -- i don't need extra leg room, and the food not so important, and then spend the extra money on sidetrips? the 1.25 miles appealing though, and maybe better treatment/easier to get flts. if biz?.

this started out to a fun idea, but i've spent a remarkable amount of time trying to sort out the flights, and find it wildly frustrating.

help!
stealthflier

YVR Cockroach

You only need a 4 continents fare to get the 6 continents for the promo as central america is considered S. America for the promo and N. Africa as Africa for the promo (it is considered Europe/M-E for the RTW fare).

If you go economy, bear in mind M class does not count on CX so you'll lose 20-30k in potential CXMAX promo bonuses. M class does not count for certain flights too (notably IB, EI and if you're not resident in Canada CX) as far as AAdvantage goes.

However, if you plan to get the bonus in more than 1 Programme, 5 continents would be a good idea as you can get more South american flights in.

Comments on your itinerary:

I'd switch to YVR-JFK on CX. A/c is a 747-400 and seats will be better than on AA 757. Also works for the CX Max bonus.

You're allowed 6 sectors within Asia so go for all of them.

From SYD, I'd do SYD-BNE-MEL-ASP-PER if you can to get extra Australian segments (allowed 4 IIRC), or better yet, instead of HKG-SYD, go HKG-AKL, then AKL-SYD-BNE-MEL-PER

Not sure if the Comair (BA's not DL's) in S. Africa count for the bonus or miles. Might want to skip Africa if you can go Australia-Europe via Asia (I think it'd violate backtracking)

Intra-Europe plan is good as you're getting 2 Europe-Africa legs and 2 Africa-Europe for the purposes of the promo. BTW, BA operates LHR-CAI-LHR in 747-400s so go on that for best luxury.

Do LHR-DFW-YVR for your return trip to N. America

For 5th continent, consider LHR-EZE them EZE-SCL-CCS-SCL-GRU (if possible) and then GRU-DFW-YVR

stealthflier

thank you for the suggestions. i really appreciate them.

stealthflier

bers

Terenz, are you sure about the 6? Perhaps you are getting confused with the AA CX promotion. I'm looking at the fare rules here as printed off www.travel.com.au and it clearly notes 5 (five) intra asian segments. Are Australian fares different?

As for LHR->CAI->LHR, I personally chose LHR->CAI->MAD->LHR. BA's flight comes in just before midnight and then the IB flight leaves just after 1am - that way you don't have to go to a hotel for 6 hours or wait around for 8 hours in the airport for your next flight. Plus you arrive in LHR earlier so your journey can continue sooner. Plus CAI->MAD is the same as CAI->LHR more or less so you get a nice MAD->LHR leg for no extra time.

The IB flight does come up as "unconfirmed" on travel.yahoo.com whatever that means....

stealthflier

i read the bonus section more carefully, and la to jfk bonus ends july 31.

would i be smarter to reorder my flights to go sjo-ny-lax to get the aa one way bonus
and then lax to sydney/auk to take advantage of BA promotion of double miles on some QF flights? and then figure out a way to come home thru HKG to YYZ for cathay bonus?

stealthflier

Spider

Terenz,

Are you absolutely sure about no miles on CX for "M" class?? I checked Asiamiles site and it says that Y,B,H,K,L,M and W are all eligible fares while G,N,O,S and V are ineligible. There were also a couple of postings regarding the same.


Bers,

What do you have planned for your North America - South America leg? How many segments there and what airlines?


Stealthflier,

Do you have more info about BA double miles on certain QF flights? Which flight are eligible?

3544quebec

Sorry to rain on your parade stealthflyer but your 1st stop in SJO with continuation to DFW isn't allowed by the Oneworld Explorer rules. In your continent of origin you are only permitted a stop at the intercontinental arrival and departure point. So if you stop in SJO your next flight has to be to another continent (as defined by the Explorer rules). The only point that you can fly to from SJO that is intercontinental is LGW once a week on BA. So unless you've found someone who doesn't know the rules to ticket your itinerary - its back to the drawing board I'm afraid.

Spider

3544quebec:

Isn't there a mileage restriction on the explorer fare which makes it very difficult to accomlish this bonus? Seems like 4 continents fare is the go for AAdvantage. Not too sure what's best for BA or CX. Any ideas?

3544quebec

The Continent fare is the Oneworld Explorer Fare and that is what I was clearly talking about in my post as that was the fare that stealthflyer was also talking about. The mileage based fare that you're refering to is the Global Explorer Fare which includes but is not limited to Oneworld carriers - Air Pacific and Aerolineas Argentinas I believe are two of the non-alliance airlines that participate in the Global Explorer Fare.



[This message has been edited by 3544quebec (edited 06-18-2000).]

bers

He's totally right about the no M but read his post again. AA doesn't give miles on M Class CX Flights. However, QF for example does so just credit it to a non AA program.

I had planned on MIA->SJO return on AA to keep things simple. My itinerary had a simple 6conts in AA plus 4 in both IB and QF with all the spare segments going to QF to guarantee my Blue (1W Ruby - low I know but such is life in discount economy) for this year.

However, I was going to go next week and with no hint at sign off by management (seeing as I haven't asked yet - not a good enough case to fly to the US) I don't see me going. I still got a kick out of planning the trip I now also know the 1W RTW regs a lot better so can help people here a lot more and also at work where I often get asked to help with travel problems .... Oh well

hsi.chang

Not the rules I'm reading. Ex. North America, you're allowed:

- Stop in departure gateway
- Stop in arrival gateway
- Stop anywhere in North/Central America

So you can indeed stop in SJO, as the "anywhere" stop.

However, what is wrong is:

YVR-JFK and LAX-JFK

That's 2 trans-continental segments, not allowed, plus it ends in an open-jaw, which I believe is also not allowed.

3544quebec

Thanks for the correction hsi.chang - the rules I have printed by Canadian for ex-North America are a year old and I wasn't aware that there had been that rule change for North America.

Open jaw is permitted at origin within the same country I believe!!! but that would not include YVR/JFK unless there has been a change in the make-up of the USA in the last year as well.

[This message has been edited by 3544quebec (edited 06-19-2000).]

Gabriel

Where can I find the rules for the Oneworld 4/5/6 continent RTW fare ex Canada? Thanks.

stealthflier

what do you think of this revised first leg of 4 or 5 cont. rtw for bonus:

train from NY to Montreal (to fly rather expensive -- length of trip more than 45 days, and beginning within 3 wks)

Montreal-JFK-SJO
(stop in SJO)
SJO-dallas-toronto-HKG

is there a way i can do south america next and still get the toronto-hkg bonus? or do i need to go straight out?

i would end the trip probably london-lax-jfk

stealthflier

stealthflier

sorry, by next i meant after sjo.

does SJO count as south america in all the partners for the bonus or is it just AA?