RTW award planning help!?!?
 

Dear all,

I need some help planning an rtw for my parents on BA EC award points. I've been told by BA that the award will be limited to 8 segments (apparently this is the same as a single flight or multiple flights using the same Flt #?). Here's the challenge: They will be leaving from the U.S. and are able to get to pretty much any starting point in the states. The absolute must cities are Edinbourgh and Auckland. Other desired stopovers are Moscow, Florence, Amsterdam, and Tokyo (assuming I'm on one of my regular trips there at the same time). We know that it will not be possible to get to all the locations.

I'm having a little trouble understanding the various rules for passing through the same airport more than once and, quite frankly, can't get a grip on what is possible using all the OW carriers.

Thanks in advance!

Jenn

Jenn - I have been planning a RTW using AA miles. The ticket I am planning on getting is mileage based. I'm not sure how the BA award works.

What I have been told is that as long as you stay within the mileage limit you can make as many stops as you want. You are only allowed one open jaw (fly in one place, out another). You can connect through one city twice and have one stopover per city. A connection is defined as less than 24 hours, a stopover is greater than 24.

Hubs for the European airlines are Madrid, London, Helsinki and Dublin. You might be able to have two passes through each of these points.

Good luck on getting this organized. In my experience working with the AA people after a couple of calls I knew more than most of the people I had to deal with.

Call BA until you get an agent who will play along.

What you want to get is a oneworld award. It's based on total mileage (by segment, not from point-to-point, I think) and your parents will need to fly 2 other carriers other than BA (most likely AY, CX & QF).

Suggested itinerary:

BA U.S.-LHR
BA LHR-Edinburgh
BA Edinburgh-(LHR)-AMS
BA AMS-(LHR)-MXP
or IB AMS-(MAD)-MXP
AY MXP-HEL
AY HEL-SVO
BA SVO-(LHR)-NRT
QF NRT-(SYD)-AKL
QF AKL-SYD-LAX

parentheses means transits and no stops.

FWIW, I flew YVR-HKG-BKK-MEL-LST-MEL-SYD-ARM-SYD-HKG-NRT-YVR last year on such an award issued by CP.

Just a thought: RTWs are a great way to EARN miles. (few $ = lots of miles) They're a very expensive way to spend miles. (lots of miles = little travel)

I don't know the specifics of your case but I suggest taking a second look.

If you go for the OW award, you could cut down on mileage used and travel/flight time by modifying the itinerary proposed by terenz by doing

AY SVO-(HEL)-NRT

However, AY only fly HEL-NRT twice a week.

I thought of the SVO-(HEL)-NRT flight too but I understand that AY long haul flights are miserable, not that BA islikely to be much better especially in the space department.

If you find yourself near the ZRH airport, why not go by (preferably during a slow time) and ask an AA counter agent to print a copy of the rules (star file OW Explorer)? I find that it really helps in planning trips-- the devil truly is in the details with this fare.

Thanks for all the input. I'll be trying to iron things out over the next couple of days and will let you know / ask more questions as things come together.

Thanks again!

mcrt are you sure about the open jaw
limit ?

sunil-The open Jaw limit is one of the things I am still unsure on. I have also been told that route changes on an award ticket cost $75 and that once the route is booked it is fixed. We'll see which it really is.

mcrt thanks for the info. I will be booking
an award oneworld ticket this year, and boy
is this a challenge.

I flew a OW biz rtw award last summer. I used the one allowed open jaw. I was told we could not change the routing once ticketed. Never tried to do this.

On some segments had to fly coach because no biz seats available. Was told that if a biz award seat became available, I'd have to pay $75 change fee. As it turned out, I was never asked to pay the fee on the two segments I did change to biz.

For me, biggest challenge in planning had to do with restriction of flying in and out of a particular city only twice.

routing can be changed anytime with $75 re-issue charge. whatever you have booked in, you are entitled to the class of service, this is reflected in your fare code AONEW/DONEW/BONEW for A/D/B tickets repectively on your ticket. the airport chech-in staff are supposed to know this and should not ask for additional charge (as long as routing does not change). However, report has that AA staff do not know what A class really is. also if you can even change transit routing in UA without re-issuing, at gate only. i had tried, eg, flying SFO-ORD-BOS, when the ticket was SFO-DFW-BOS, as long as there is seat when you are at the gate.

I can't speak for the program rules for airlines other than AA, but I have been working on a RTW award ticket from then. Whenever I get stuck I ask them to read the rules to me, exactly, and twice, just to make sure I hear it right. With an AA OW award once the ticket has been booked there can be no additions or deletions of stopovers or carriers. They were pretty strict on this one. NO ROUTING, STOPOVER OR CARRIER CHANGES ONCE TICKETED. Good luck with this on other partners. I know the rules do differ greatly on things like open jaws and mileage calculation.

I think apples are being called oranges here.

Pegasusnnnn seems to be speaking of a OneWorld Expolorer ticket (AONEW3, etc.), which you purchase for real money (rather than accrued miles). Itineraries on these tickets can indeed be changed after they're ticketed, once for free before the trip starts and for $75 either for subsequent changes or after travel starts.

Mcrt, sunil, and everyone else appear to be speaking of an "award ticket," which I interpret as a ticket for which you pay miles from a 1W carrier. I don't know of any specific RTW award, though of course there's the mileage-based 1W awards -- the number of miles you need to pay depends on distance traveled and class of service.

It would help a great deal if everyone were discussing the rules for the same program.