Please critique this oneworld Explorer itinerary ...
 

Am finally about to ticket my oneworld six continents itinerary. Please let me know if you think any of it breaks certain rules or if you have any suggestions on maximizing mileage. Although the stopovers are "musts", the order in which they occur is not. An o indicates a stopover whilst a x indicates a transit. Thanks for your help!!

Darwin - Melbourne x
Melbourne - SYD o
SYD-LAX x
LAX-SCL x
SCL-La Paz o (using two intercontinental dep / arr from N America permitted if one is a transit to / from S America rule)
overland
Caracas-SCL x
SCL-Easter Island o
Easter Island-SCL x
SCL-LAX x
LAX-BOS o
BOS-DFW x
DFW-SAN o
SAN-BOS o
BOS-DFW x
DFW-LGW x
LHR-Accra o (using two intercontinental dep / arr from Europe permitted as long as one is a transit to / from Ghana rule)
overland
Nairobi-Lusaka x
Lusaka-Jo'burg o
overland
Nairobi-Lusaka x
Lusaka-Jo'burg o
Jo'burg-LHR o
LHR-Casablanca o
Casablanca - MAD x
MAD - Istanbul o
overland
Cairo - LHR x
LHR - DEL o
overland
BOM - BKK o
overland
HKG - Manila o
Manila - HKG x
HKG - SIN o
SIN - SYD o

You have two intercontinental arrivals in Europe (DFW-LGW & JNB-LHR) neither one of which is from Ghana/Nigeria. Is this allowed?

No stop in Canada!!?? A missed opportunity

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I miss Canadian Airlines

I belive he is flying DFW - LGW (transit) - ACC which is in Ghana so he would qualify under the rules. Ticketing may be tough though.

ALso you have 2 NA transcons, but with only 5 NA segs you can break one of the trans cons up into a connection.

rich

leroy11,

looks like a fun trip. What class are you flying in? You obviously spent a lot of time getting those connection times down to a minimum. Where do you plan on putting your miles? I would like to hear your reasoning for that decision if you have the time to post them.

Only suggestion i can offer to increase miles but maintain your stopovers is to take advantage of a direct BOS - PHX flight to connect to the PHX - London BA flight. But the point is mute if you are getting AA miles, however if you are going for BA tier points you will get an extra 165 in F i believe.

rich

This is quite a trip. Looks to be a little over 75,000 actual flight miles. Another alternative to fix the 2 NA transcon problem is to do SCL-DFW-BOS and then add on a DFW-LAX segment to the end to use your 6th NA segment and take either AA or BA LAX-LHR, depending on where you want the miles/points.

A couple of items you may want to watch for. Chile insists that their airport tax show on the actual ticket coupon. If it's not there you will probably have to pay it again in SCL and IPC. Also, CCS has a ridiculously high airport tax that they want paid at check in, in local currency. As I recall it is about 45,000 Bolivars (around US$50).

Right, but what about JNB-LHR which is his second arrival in Europe neither one of which is from Ghana/Nigeria. I would have guessed from the wording of the rule that you can transit Europe to do a roundtrip to Ghana/Nigeria, not an open jaw to return from JNB. Anyone tried this and knows for sure?

Interesting point. The rule for Europe is worded slightly differently than the NA and Asian rules. I think that the intention is to be the same as those two rules, i.e. one transit and one not but I guess that will be up to some rate desk person to determine.

Not sure why you would think this? Many people have had this type of trip ticketed.

rich

Hmmm, a little "angel" has whispered in my ear that there may be a problem doing the transit of Europe before you do the European stops. IOW, apparently you're supposed to do the transit when leaving Africa via Europe for another continent.

As I guess you will ticket this with QF, you may find a different interpretation of the rules. Although, based on JohnAx's experiences with QF, they may complain about every segment. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

i suppose SAN is san diego?
then you have 2 transcontinent trips in N America (you r allowed only 1)
lax-bos, san-bos

Thanks very much for all of the responses.

I've changed the SCL-LAX-BOS legs to SCL-JFK-BOS. Not optimal mileage option (DFW would probably have been), but I wanted to fly LanChile. However, it still meets my goal (barely) of qualifying me for AA Platinum status for 2004 (a substantial part of the trip will be in 2003).

RichLond -
I would be flying in Economy! However, I will probably end up trying to upgrade some of the segments. I will be putting all of the miles with AA except for the IB and CX flights where it appears that QF would be the best bet.

Thanks again for everyone's input and I will post the response from the rate people - positive or negative - when I receive it.

Thought I'd give everyone an update on this ...

My travel agent called me and told me that QF approved of everything with the exception of:

- Accra in the order where it is now. I can fly LHR - Accra - do Europe then do my Africa segments.

- the repeating of the NBO - Lusaka - JNB segments because it's "back-tracking". Thought back-tracking within a continent was allowed! Not an issue now though.

So my new itinerary would be:
USA - LHR - Accra - LHR - my European segments - CPT overland Nairobi - Lusaka - Jo'burg - Hong Kong - Delhi overland Mumbai - Bangkok overland HKG - MNL - HKG - SYD

Does anyone have any creative (high mileage) ideas to do with the two extra African segments?

Thanks for all your help!!


[This message has been edited by leroy11 (edited 07-19-2002).]

WOW... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif This sounds like a great trip, congratulations!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif With your changes, how many actual flight miles do you expect to log in total?

I know nothing of OneWorld RTW fares, being a die hard Star Alliance Flyer, but the options on this Explorer fare look very very tempting. Are Explorer fares offered in all three classes of service?

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Gaucho100K

Just bringing this up again in the hope of getting some advice!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif