I have a couple of questions. I am thinking of taking an rtw, in the spring, on either the Star alliance or the OW alliance. (if anyone has opinions on each, I would appreciate it)

1. In the flyertalk archives, I ran across this site on which an itinerary was listed with 112K miles. http://www.fichters.net/rtwcraze.htm I don't know if the guy actually went, or was just goofing around, trying to see how many miles he could come up with. I am looking at it, trying to get some ideas of maximizing return on the cost. I don't really understand, though, how it is set up regarding the Intercontinental stops. It appears he is milking 4 stops out of each continent, but I can't find anything in the rules that allows this.

2. I am looking for about $3000 for economy, $4500 for bus, and $6000 for first (exclusive of tax). The itinerary I am considering would be about 4 months and 80K miles. I realize it is a subjective question, but does anyone have opinions about spending the extra $$ for first or biz?

I appreciate any responses given, even those who say I am nuts... :-) If there are any other recommendatons regarding cities and routes, that would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks

I have made the RTW two times. First or business is ABSOLUTELY worth the extra money as many of these flights are extremely long. Also, they represent a great bargain when comparing point to point costs.

Biz amd F class are worth it especially with all the long flights. If you look up the archives here since April/May, you'll see various schemes to get many miles out of the alliances (namely oneworld).

FWIW, YYZ-HKG on CX will get you some 20k bonus, and 10K for 6 CX flights on AA.

Might also want to consider starting out of Canada as it is cheaper than ex-U.S.

Thanks for the opinion. I am tending more and more to agree. I can leave from pretty much wherever I want. The F is cheapest from Seoul and the E and B is cheapest from Belgium.

As far as the flight plan listed on the website, is it feasible? I guess I don't quite understand the Intercontinental stuff.

Looking at that itinerary, I am guessing that the poster has made several errors.

1. He cannot go from MEL to LHR and then to Africa (CPT) because that would be backtracking through Asia. You're only allowed one intercontinental departure and intercontinental arrival per continent EXCEPT for N. America where you are allowed 2 of each.

2. Not entirely too sure many of his internal African trips can be done because the local BA franchisee (Comair?) is not eligible.

3. Believe Easter Island is considered Oceania/S.W. Pacific so that would be backtracking into Australia/NZ/et al.

4. He's had to buy an extra leg or 2 in Europe (former assuming BCN-CAI exists as a single segment flight).

5. I am not sure if his fare defines CAI as "Middle East". If so, i think he is only allowed to go to from "Europe" and "Middle East" once even if they are in the same continent.

Commair can definitely be used and Easter Island is included in South America.(Also have the option of the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas once a week!!! on Lan Chile)

OK, I'm the crazy guy who posted the 112k itin. No, I did not fly it. However, I think it works with the new rules given to me by AA's RTW desk.

I believe that there are not too many segments or that there is backtracking. The segments in yellow count as 'intercontinental trips' in which it is OK to transit through another continent without counting it as a visit to that continent. Also, these intercontintal trips do not count towards the segment limits.

Within each continent I have only 4 segments and 3 cities, the limit according to new rules.

I'd love to know for a fact if I'm wrong about any of this. I tried to maximize use of the intercontinental exception to maximize segments and miles. Please post back if an RTW desk tells you otherwise.

Cheers,
Paul

Okay.

My last question on this (probably not)....

3544quebec, you said something that caught my interest. I set up an itinerary, which I think will work. *Except* for what you said about the international departure rules. Could I go HEL-LON, LON-JNB, JNB-SYD via London? Or would I need to come up with something different like flying Qantas?

If you are interested, the itinerary is as follows. Also, please let me know if any other problems exist in it:

HEL-LON
LON-MEL
MEL-PER
PER-SYD
SYD-JNB via london
JNB-PLZ
PLZ-CPT via johannesburg
CPT-BKK via london
BKK-BOM
BOM-HKG via bangkok
HKG-YTO via vancouver
YTO-SEA via dallas/ft worth
SEA-LAX
LAX-ROM via london
ROM-HEL via london

As always, I really appreciate the help.

By the rules I have (and PaulSEA1 has been told that they have changed to allow intercontinental backtracks) you can't return back to Europe after leaving it - disallowed both as an intercontinental backtrack and a return to your continent of origin. So SYD-JNB via LHR and CPT-BKK via LHR would not be allowed.

The rules I have allow intercontinental backtracking only between North America and South America and a non-stop transit in Asia on route to Europe or vice versa. By these rules you can't do the 2 passes through Asia and include Africa in your itinerary. It has to be Europe-(Asia)-Australia-Asia-North America- (+/- South America) -North America -Europe.

So the only way you can get two passes through Asia is on a 4 or 5 continent.

Six continents has to be Europe-Africa-Asia-Australia-The 2 Americas-Europe or Europe-Asia - Africa -Australia- The 2 Americas - Europe.

Now if PaulSEA1's info is correct it seems anything is possible. But I don't go by what anyone in reservations says when it comes to this RTW fare - the printed rules are the only thing I accept!!