RTW Ininerary
 

I apologize in advance for the long post. I had a few people ask via private email how the trip was going, and this is what I came up with. I do have a question also, though. When AA Platinum is reached, if you fly first class, is the class bonus also doubled? Thanks. You all have been great. Comments are welcome as always http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif The only one I am not sure of is the PPT route, and I am too tired to look now. Total miles for 5 continents came to about 101K, according to the Great Circle Flight Display.

BUD-LON on BA
LON-MEL on BA via SIN
MEL-PER on QF
PER-PPT on QF via SYD, AKL
PPT-BKK on QF and CX via AKL, SYD, HKG
BKK-BOM on CX
BOM-JKT on CX via BKK, HKG, SIN
JKT-LAX on CX and AA via SIN, HKG, ANC, NYC
LAX-ANC on AA via EWR, DFW, SEA
ANC-SJU on AA via SEA, DFW, EWR
SJU-RIO on AA and LC via LAX, LIM, SCL
RIO-CCS on LC via SCL
CCS-SCL on LC
SCL-LON on LC and AA via LIM, LAX
LON-DXB on BA
DXB-TLV on BA via LON

As I said, the only one I am not sure of is the PPT route since I realized it is a codeshare with Tahiti Air. Don't know if they would let me do it. All the others certainly fit into the "rules". I am going to bite the bullet and fly F class, which is why I was asking about the bonus. If they don't double it, there should be about 220K miles, and almost 280K if they do. My goal is to reach 100K base miles. I am convinced I now need a lobotomy... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Also, if anyone knows anything more about price hikes or promotions (like last summer), the info would be appreciated.

I take that back, the PPT should work. Expedia can't find it, but Travelocity can. QF43.

You'll be receiving 100% flight miles + 50% class of service bonus + 100% AA Platinum bonus = 250% of actual flight miles. Hope that clarifies. You can go to PPT if you use the once a week QF operated flight. You won't be able to use the Air Tahiti code share.

BTW, where did you have your reservations made? I'm having mine done with BA Budapest direct, but so far I am a little concerned with their tendacy to be slightly slow in response. Since we're both doing similar bookings we might want to share some info on Budapest agents, mail me if that sounds good to you.

A few questions on routings: on your final leg, you're flying LON-DXB-LON-TLV. Are you stopping over in DXB and TLV? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you are only allowed to make two stop overs from the continent of origination (except N.America), one each in the outbound and inbound sector. Plus, I thought you're only allowed to travel to middle east once in the Europe/Middle East continent.

Also, are you finishing your journey as an open jaw at TLV, or do you have a TLV-x/LON-BUD leg in the end?

Cheers.

Thanks for the clarification on the miles. Now if they only extend the 100% additional match.... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I am in Los Angeles, so I will go to the AA office in Beverly Hills. From talking to the rep on the phone, the exchange rate is almost identical to Interbank.

Yeh, I will suffer in Tahiti for the week. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif The only reservation is cost, since it will be high season there. :/

What you say about the two stops is for the most part correct, so I will explain what I did. According to the AA lady, it is all correct. You get 3 stops in the continent of origin, and 4 segments. One is where you leave from, so that leaves two. One MUST be the international hub, which is in my case London. The second can be anywhere. In my case, Dubai. The trip must end in the same continent, but not the same city. So I am getting the Tel Aviv by just ending the trip in TLV. I will then arrange transportation up to where I will fly home from, which will probably be Paris. As far as the mid-east restriction, I might have overlooked it. If so, then I will change to Istanbul, assuming it is not considered the mid-east. That is not a big concern to me. Ending in the south is not a problem in my case, since I am also going to spend an additional 4-6 weeks visiting friends throughout Europe on a railpass.

Thanks.

Darren,

A couple notes on your trip:

- the LHR-MEL route via SIN is only served by QF. BA metal no longer goes anywhwere other than SYD and BNE in Australia. If you went to Perth first you could take CX via HKG to SYD and connect to QF 63 from SYD - PER that offers a First Class service during the Aussie summer. make sure you take advantage of the spa in HKG.

- AA will no longer serve ANC from SEA. I believe service ends Oct 31. They will serve ANC for DFW in the summer however.

- Many of your choices (SYD-PPT, HKG-BOM) do not offer First, which with all your flying will be quite uncomfortable.


Also, why do you want 100K base miles??? If you are flying First 66,667 base will still get you AA top tier status.

rich

Darren,

Are you really sure that AA LAX will issue you the ticket in the US and allow you to buy it in USD converting ex-BUD prices? If so, you're a lucky man and congratulations. The common rule is that no SOTO issue is permitted with OWEs (except ex-Canada). (There's some info about this at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum83/HTML/000316.html . Also, you might want to refer to Guy Betsy's comment at the bottom of the page at hsi.chang's website http://www.geocities.com/osointer/ownotes.htm )

As for the issue regarding the number of stops permitted in the continent of origin, yes there are some exceptions for a few countries where three stopovers are permitted. If your agent allows you three, take it! However, I just wanted to let you know that the official rule, according to BA Hungary, is that ex-BUD OWEs only allow two stopovers, one an international gateway, and one anywhere else.

And finally, ending your journey as open jaw is a new idea to me. Personally, I'm not sure how it would work, since I have no idea how the fare is going to be calculated.

Good luck!

silver,

The price of a RTW ticket purchased in the USA will be the same as if purchased in the country or origin except converted to dollars. This has been discussed many times and the comment you pointed out from Guy Betsy reflects the USA and Canada exception.

In addition, AA in the USA also follows the 1 stop at an intercontinental gateway and 1 stop anywhere else for the continent of origin, so by the rules AA in the usa will probably not permit his 2 stops in london and 1 stop in dxb. However, we have all learned that mistakes are made and many exceptions get throught the ticketing process.

rich

ps. too bad about the burst of strength in the Hungarian currency over the last 2 days. it moved from 310 to the dollar to 300 to the dollar in less than 48 hours.


[This message has been edited by RichLond (edited 09-26-2000).]

My apologies for not figuring out how to quote text, so be patient with me... :P

I don't know what SOTO is, but I assume that it has something to do with purchasing in a locality other than departure. I *specifically* asked AA whether I could do this, and they said yes. Actually, I asked two people at different points, and they both said yes. One gave me the price in USD after the exchange, and there was maybe a 1% exchange surcharge. Now if they tell me something different, I will be very very upset.

I realized the BA - QF thing, and I am thinking of modifying the itinerary to go to Sydney instead.

Quite by accident, I found out about the Anchorage problem. They cease on Nov 10th, if I remember right. I can deal with that, though it is disappointing. My justification was because I would like to see the Northern Lights, so I will just try to go to Finland or Sweden before starting anything. Freeze my hiney, but it would be worth it.

I am beginning to look more closely at what offers first and what doesn't. If it becomes "not worth it", I will book BC.

I have to drop Papeete for financial reasons. Wish I didn't have to. It is high season when I would be there (early March), and I can't afford the hotel cost. It would be okay if I could do it for 3 days, but given that it is minimum a week because of the flight schedule, it becomes cost prohibitive for me. It is the irony of flying FC, but staying in hostels. Go figure.

I want 100K base miles because I am psychotic. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif Actually, I want 200K FF miles more. In the next 3 years, I will have little non-loan positive cash flow, because I am going to graduate school. Having the miles will give me the opportunity to take a trip in the middle for cheap(er). The 200K is because a FC ticket to Europe is 100K, and I would like to go FC with my mother. She has never had the chance for FC, and unless I treat her at some later point, she never will. That's my rationale, for better or worse.

As far as silver's comments, I don't think I completely understand them. I only have "two" stopovers (I think). One is London, which is my gateway, and the other is Dubai. I was told that I still get 4 segments. My understanding is that I can use those segments in any way I want, even for milage runs. A stopover is anything over 24 hours, as I have been told. Otherwise, they don't care where I fly through, or how many times I do it. Right? I hope? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I don't think that the fare would change with an open jaw. The fare is a set rate, and taxes are based on where you are going from, not where you are going to...generally.

There is actually only going to be one *stop* in London. The first will be a connection, so I will stop on the way back only. I talked to the agent specifically about this, and she said it was fine.

Yes, I have been following the burst. It will cost me an additional hundred dollars so far... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

If you have any opinions on who has the better of the FC's between Qantas, AA, BA, Lan Chile, or Cathay, I would appreciate it. Especially the first three. I am going to try to rework getting BA to Australia and CX to Asia. A big decision I need to make is the trans-at. I want to go on BA, but I want AA's FF program. Guess you can't have everything you want. If you have an opinion about that, I would like to hear it. Needless to say, I like to hear lots of points of view, then I will make my own decision.

Thanks.

Currently only the Oneworld RTW permits tickets to be issued in the US / Canada and converted to the approriate US or Canadian exchange from whatever currency it is based on. AA rates desk knows about this trend and that many people are taking advantage of lower currencies elsewhere.

But one must remember to originate from that country.

However, OneWorld members might restrict that rule soon so don't be surprised when you actually have to purchase and pay for the ticket in the country where you'll be originating from.

Thanks Guy Betsy, I've misinterpreted your posting on hsi.chang's site. I stand corrected. Good to know that SOTO is allowed in the US, and I hope they don't restrict this in the near future. I also strongly support your comment that "One must remember to originate from that country." This was one of the reasons why CX/AA Tokyo restricted SOTO; some sly travelers issued SEL (Korea) originated OWEs, tore off and threw away the first segment of SEL-x/HKG-NRT and started their journey from NRT, at half price of what they should have paid for a legitimiate NRT originated OWE.

Darren, As for Tahiti, it's a great destination, expensive, but worth it. We visited a small island called Rangiroa for diving, deliberately avoiding the one and only resort hotel on the island and stayed at a ten cottage hotel for one third the price of the resort. We weren't really on a budget, and we simply wanted to stay out of the crowd, but we were completely satisfied with the friendly service, food and surroundings of the small hotel. Most major resorts in Tahiti charge you USD200-300 for a night, but there are very nice petite hotels and guest houses between USD30-100. Don't give up on Tahiti!

I have just gotten off the phone with American Airlines Fares and Tariff Desk regarding the issue of returning to the same continent of origin on the abovementioned RTW Oneworld fares. Please note : YOU MUST ONLY RETURN TO THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN. You cannot OPENJAW and STOP ELSEWHERE even if it is ON THE SAME CONTINENT of travel.

Darren - if you have already issued your above ticket, then you may have gotten a one-off agent who misinterpreted "Gee, if it does not mention here that you have to return to the original country, then I guess you can go somewhere else". I spoke to a few agents who had this theory. But the whole reservation had to be referred to the International Tariff Dept who has the final say when the tickets are issued. The tariff agent I spoke to referred to a few of his co-workers in that department and came back to the same conclusion. That it is not permitted to TERMINATE your travel other than the country of origin. You may STOPOVER one more time in addition to the one stopover that you had already done when you started the trip, and this can be anywhere on the continent. Meaning, it can be LON, TLV or anywhere else in between.

Other travellers please bear this in mind that this is generally not the rule. Darren, if you have not issued your ticket, then be forewarned that everything is not set in stone until your ticket is issued!

[This message has been edited by Guy Betsy (edited 09-30-2000).]

Thank you Guy and Silver for your responses. Been quite busy, so I didn't have time to respond. Guy, you are correct. Also sounds like you got the runaround when you called to find out. I had been told by two people that it was the continent, but turns out it was the country. It is okay, though, because of the route I will be taking to get back to London, Paris, or Frankfurt, wherever my initial flight will be into. I just arranged to do the flight back to BUD. Will save the headache for me. I found a TA that was willing to help me make sure that things were not screwed up. No personal offense to any TAs reading, but I have had issues in the past. Will charge $50 for the handwriting, if needed, but will back me up if there is a mistake anywhere. Also said they knew a few tricks and whatnot, since they deal with a lot of corporate travelers in bus and 1st, so we will see. I won't post the new itinerary, as to spare the bandwidth (29 segments), but I will say what cities the stopovers will be. I decided to go AA on the transatlantic, and do the AA miles program. Silver, I am also trusting you, and I put Papeete back in. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I trust it will be worth it, but I also trust that there will be less expensive accomodations. If not, my big fanny will be wrapped up on a beach somewhere. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Could think of worse places to spend a night on a beach, though. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

BUD, SYD, PPT, MEL, BOM, BKK, DPS, SJU, BZE, LAX, SCL, CCS, GYE, DXB, LON, BUD.

I thought about it, and I decided that I would pick a few places that I really would probably not visit for a while, or at least certainly not for business. Now I need to begin looking for information on hostels and other cheap accomodation. I have never stayed in a hostel, so they are a sort of mystery to me still.

I think base miles will be around 90K. I hope to get an op-upgrade on the flight back to Los Angeles. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks.

Regarding Tahiti, many visitors will tell you to escape Papeete and go to Moorea, Bora Bora, or smaller islands like Rangiora. If you opt for Bora Bora (Michener's "most beautiful island in the world") here's an option. Fly to Bora Bora for about $200 rt on Air Tahiti. Stay at Chez Temanuata ($70 bungalow or $80 beach bungalow and eat modestly priced tasty meals at restuarant of same name or eat from market across the street). All this while looking out at the $500+ night overwater bungalows of the neighboring Bora Bora Beachcomber Parkroyal Resort (where you can walk-in and use their tourism services and bars/restaurants). Walk a few meters to Bora Bora's best beach. Alternatively, stay at mid-priced Chez Nono on the beach. Btw, diving in the lagoon was nice with shark feeding and giant manta sighting! The lagoon is truly fabulous. Cheers.

Thanks fmttm. Do you happen to know if there is a ferry/boat between the islands, or only plane?

Darren - I've stayed at several hostels in Europe and NYC. They are usually downtown, in an ok area, close to public transportation, and a great place to meet other travels on RTW wanderings. Many of the hostels will take reservations. Cost is usually in the $20 range for a bunk in a dorm room. Check out www.hiayh.org for more info. Some of my best travel stories come from hanging out with people I've met at hostels.