A follow up on my backtracking question.

What is the most number of miles one can get for a six continents RTW and how do you do it? This would require a maximum of backtracking on the longest possible routes.

You'd have to look back on this post say about 6 - 8 months. There was someone who claimed to have earned over 100K miles on a 6 continents RTW fare.

Following is a snip from 3544quebec many months ago. This is the longest itin I could find in this discussion group and still short of 100k base miles. (very impressive though)

Note that 3544quebec uses no intercontinental backtracking.

From To Distance
35 segment path: 85459 mi
YYC YVR 427 mi CP/AY
YVR JFK 2447 mi CX/AY
JFK GRU 4738 mi AA/CP
GRU MVD 971 mi AA/AY
MVD GRU 971 mi AA/BA
GRU EZE 1061 mi CP/AA
EZE GRU 1061 mi CP/CP
GRU LAX 6158 mi AA/AA
LAX DFW 1234 mi AA/CX
DFW LHR 4763 mi AA/QF
LHR LCA 2034 mi BA/AY
LCA LHR 2034 mi BA/BA
LHR CAI 2179 mi BA/IB
CAI LHR 2179 mi BA/QF
LHR JNB 5598 mi BA/AA
JNB HRE 615 mi QF/AY
HRE JNB 615 mi QF/BA
JNB CPT 781 mi BA/CX
CPT JNB 781 mi BA/CP
JNB HKG 6643 mi CX/AA
HKG BKK 1082 mi CP/QF
BKK HKG 1082 mi CP/BA
HKG NRT 1819 mi CX/BA
NRT HKG 1819 mi CX/IB
HKG JKT 2011 mi CX/CP
JKT HKG 2011 mi CX/CX
HKG SYD 4542 mi CX/QF
SYD PPT 3832 mi QF/CP
PPT SYD 3832 mi QF/IB
SYD PER 2067 mi QF/QF
PER SYD 2067 mi QF/CX
SYD JFK 9942 mi QF/AA
JFK YYZ 365 mi AA/IB
YYZ YWG 936 mi CP/IB
YWG YYC 742 mi CP/CX


[This message has been edited by PaulSEA1 (edited 08-29-2000).]

I referred to that itinerary many times while planning my RTW. Kudos to 3544Quebec. Some addendums make it even longer.

1) In Australia, I think SYD - PPT is the longest seg but instead of going to PER, go back to PPT again and rack up over 2,000 more miles.

2) Europe, I think there are a couple of Mid-East locations that are longer, but you can only go to the Mid-East once.

3)With the addition of LanChile, you have several long trips like SCL - CCS that you can now add which weren't available when 3544 wrote his master plan.

FWIY ,my routes were chosen by length and comfort (ie only routes that had flat seats etc.)

Good luck.

CMoss

Paul,

Don't forget that AA will allow you to qualify for Exec Platinum using points. Hence if you book a RTW first class ticket you can quite easily qualify for Exec Platinum by flying under 70,000 First Class miles. This can be done quite easily using a 5 Continent RTW fare.

However, many of the longest routes in a continent do not lend themselves to mileage runs. I believe SYD-PPT is only once a week and if you miss the return you are screwed. It is also only offered on a 2 Class service. Hence the best options in Australia are SYD - PER and SYD - Darwin.

In South America SCL - Easter Island requires you to stay on Easter Island for a couple days while the plane continues on to PPT. Until recently the SCL - CCS flight was only twice a week and would require a 14 hour wait in CCS while the plane continued to MIA and back. I think in October you can fly up and back leaving SCL Monday Morning and returning back into SCL Tuesday Morning with only 6 hours or so in CCS.

In Europe the longest we found that did not require a massive wait was London to Dubai that came in at over 3,400 miles and permitted 2 hours to get off the plane and checked in for the next flight. If you missed that flight however, another flight was scheduled 8-10 hours later.

In North America during the summer one of the best is DFW - ANC getting over 3,000 miles and returning after only 2 hours. Actually the flight from DFW - ANC originates in SJU so you could do a SJU - ANC segment for over 5,000 miles.

Suprisingly, when you consider how big Asia is there are no > 3,000 miles intra continental flights available in First Class on a RTW fare. Does anyone know of any?

Anyway even restricting you choices by saying you will only fly in flat sleeper seats overnight you should find MANY alternatives that will garner Exec Platinum Status with only one 5 Continent First Class ticket.

rich

[This message has been edited by RichLond (edited 08-30-2000).]

Rich:

The longest inner asia flight on oneworld that I could find is HKG-BOM for 2600+ miles. Following is a pretty good use of a ticket I think.

See the color coded itin in easier to read format

[long version deleted in favor of above linked one]

[This message has been edited by PaulSEA1 (edited 09-01-2000).]

Very good points Rich. As for PPT - it was on my list of big vacation spots, but I checked all the time for availability and nothing ever worked. I could never find both the flight over and the flight back. With there being limited service, you could easily get stuck. Be careful about that.

As for Australia, Perth was a problem because there is limited 3 class service (3 or 4 days a week) and only one of those matched up to where you could arrive and return on the same day.

Rich....does DAR have First service. I don't think I ever looked into that.

Paul...a few more things.

My personal opinion is to use LanChile to and from South America. Service was better and the seat was very comparable. Anybody else care to chime in? But maybe I would choose AA since I just read that tomorrow they launch the new sleeper seat that swivels.

If you get the double entry into Europe approved tell me who did it. i.e. the Australia - Europe - Africa - Europe. If you do get it approved and were going for just the most miles, look into going from LHR to Mauritius (MRU) and the Seychelles (SEZ). Both of those flights go through NBO and are almost 2000 miles long. My planned itinerary is LHR - SEZ - NBO - MRU - NBO - LHR. You would actually have one seg left over.

Also, remember that you can only go to the Middle East once, but I am sure you could swindle your way out of that one.

Paul,

The posted itinerary has too many segments in North America (7 instead of 6), Australia (5 instead of 4) and Europe (5 instead of 4). Also as of 2 weeks ago you were only permitted 1 transcontinental segment in North America (you do MIA-SEA and then SEA-MIA). Also let us know if AA will really allow you to go Europe-Africa-Europe.

Chris: I will concur that in First Lan Chile is better than AA unless you are flying on an AA 777. However, the fact that Lan Chile seems incapable of consistently posting miles to AA accounts is a HUGE negative. Also the fact that they seem to only open 1 A Class seat per flight and refuse to clear wait lists until the day of the flight is also a problem.

The Darwin flights are 2 classes however, since they were daytime flights I was not to concerned. Also be careful about that trying to do SYD - PER - SYD on the same day. The 3 class service arrives PER in the international terminal and the bus service between domestic and international is somewhat arbitrary it appears and a cab actually cost 15 AUD. If you try and make the return 3 class service you only have an hour on Sundays (other days the flight leaves Perth before you arrive) and you will need to clear immigration inbound, check in for Sydney, and clear immigration again outbound. All this even though it is a domestic flight.

Just my 2 pesos,
rich

[This message has been edited by RichLond (edited 08-30-2000).]

also, would you not be restricted to go directly from lhr to scl without entering north america again? service is on ba to eze and la from there.

The SYD-PPT flight is the same aircraft there and back so you cannot miss the connection.

When arriving at the International Terminal at Perth I usually try and clear Customs in Sydney and then get them to show me as domestic for the SYD-PER leg.

PER seems not to have too many International flights and their staff can be really horrid in Custom/Immigration.

There are now some 3 class services from AKL-SYD which helps out for points.

My other tip is that AA won't let you go AFRICA-EUROPE-ASIA if you came via EUROPE - you have to use the CX flight JNB-HKG which is on a horrid A340. As you're handled by LH in JNB they never know how to post the points properly.

Rich & Lonman:

As I understand, the extra segements you talk about are part on an intercontinental leg. Therefore they do not count so long as I do not make a stopover. (Follow this link to see it more clearly)

This was verified to me by the AA rep:

SYD-HKG-LAX is OK even if all Asia segments are used up so long as no stovover is made in HKG. See my other post on rules update.

By the same token, my CPT-SCL trip via LHR and LAX should be OK since neither woudl involve a stopover. (I have not verified it specifically though)

[This message has been edited by PaulSEA1 (edited 09-01-2000).]

In reference to the airline forcing you to fly a shorter route, I flew SYD - JFK - MIA - EZE - SCL instead of SYD - SCL non-stop. I find that airline reservationists only know the routes for their company so getting a long routing approved for a LHR - SCL route by BA may be hard but not from other carriers. Just read them the list segment by segment and tell them you are meeting clients in each place for a quick meeting.

With new routes/OW partners this is about the max I can come up with not using any intercontinental transits (until I see it in writing in the fare rules I'd be very sceptical about it being officially allowed although I can believe someone in airline reservations saying you can do it and even ticketing it!)
I'm sure some extra miles could be worked out in North America but I have excluded flights like SJU-ANC which is only a seasonal flight and I'm sure only in the current timetable - next year it will almost certainly not be a single flight number.


From To Distance
34 segment path: 110701 mi
PER SYD 2067 mi < 24hr stop
SYD PPT 3832 mi
PPT SYD 3832 mi
SYD JFK 9942 mi < 24hr stop
JFK SJU 1597 mi
SJU DFW 2165 mi < 24hr stop
DFW ANC 3042 mi
ANC DFW 3042 mi < 24hr stop
DFW JFK 1391 mi < 24hr stop
JFK LAX 2474 mi
LAX SCL 5571 mi < 24hr stop
SCL BOG 2599 mi
BOG SCL 2599 mi < 24hr stop
SCL CCS 3008 mi
CCS SCL 3008 mi
SCL LAX 5571 mi < 24hr stop
LAX LHR 5455 mi
LHR MCT 3636 mi
MCT LHR 3636 mi < 24hr stop
LHR LCA 2047 mi
LCA LHR 2047 mi < 24hr stop
LHR MRU 6047 mi
MRU NBO 1924 mi < 24hr stop
NBO SEZ 1305 mi
SEZ NBO 1305 mi
NBO LLW surface
LLW JNB 933 mi < 24hr stop
JNB HKG 6643 mi < 24hr stop
HKG KHI 2978 mi
KHI HKG 2978 mi < 24hr stop
HKG BOM 2672 mi
BOM HKG 2672 mi < 24hr stop
HKG NRT 1819 mi
NRT SYD 4797 mi < 24hr stop
SYD PER 2067 mi

The itin that PaulSEA1 posted above was not aimed at maximum number of flight miles but at getting last year's 100,000 bonus mile promotion in each of the then six OW programs


[This message has been edited by 3544quebec (edited 09-02-2000).]

Great info and itins guys, clearly a lot of effort was put into it and it is very helpful thankyou.

Where do you find the listing of # of miles for each segment when planning these itins?

How do you buy one of these tickets and is there a listing of prices/rules online?