i have a year studying at university in japan starting in september 2003 and really want to do a rtw trip as follows :

lhr - bkk (ba)
bkk - sin (cx)
sin - hkg (cx or qf)
hkg - nrt (cx)

all at the begining of september, and then in june/july :

nrt - hnl (aa operated by jl)
hnl - sfo (aa)
sfo - jfk (aa)
jfk - lhr (aa)

i want to purchase a business class ticket and i have the following questions (sorry if there are too many/they have been answered before) :

1. is the above itinery ok?

2. what suggestions would you make/what other options are open to me?

3. what happens if there is no availability in business - will i ever get downgraded to coach?

4. where there is no business class (eg domestic usa) will i travel in first or coach?

thanks for your help...dx

Can't do the NRT-HNL as JAL is not included in either of the Oneworld RTWs and non-participating airline operated codeshares are limited to a few QF coded flights eg on Air Tahiti Nui and Vietnam Airlines.
If you go for the Global Explorer RTW you could do all your route except you'd need to do NRT-NAN-HNL on Air Pacific or NRT-SYD-HNL on QF. I'm sure either itinerary would come in under the 34000 mile limit.

ok, so i've done a bit more research and come changed my itinery a bit :

man - xlhr - sin
sin - xhkg - nrt
nrt - hkg
hkg - sfo
sfo - ord
ord - xlhr - dub
dub - xlhr - man

question 1 : does this work? i would like to purchase a business class oneworld explorer covering 3 continents.

question 2 : could i do :

man-xlhr-bkk-sin or man-xlhr-xsin-dps-sin instead of man-xlhr-sin

sfo-hnl-xlax-ord instead of sfo-ord

ord-lhr-dub instead of ord-xlhr-dub

thanks...dx

Q1: Yes

Q2: You seem to be worried about stopovers. On a OWE stopovers are only of significance in the continent of origin (i.e. Europe in your case) where you can only have two in total. In Asia or N America you can have as many as you want - the only constraint is max 4 segments in Asia and 6 in N America.

So man-lhr-bkk-sin-hkg-nrt-hkg-sfo is OK, but man-lhr-sin-dps-sin-hkg-nrt-hkg-sfo doesn't work for two reasons: 5 sectors in Asia, and no OW airline flies sin-dps that I know of.

sfo-hnl-lax-ord-lhr is fine and you could have 3 more domestic US segments if you wanted.

ord-lhr-dub-xlhr-man is OK provided that you go xlhr on the way out (only two stopovers allowed in Europe).

"..and no OW airline flies sin-dps that I know of."

Qantas operates this route 3 nights a week.

Dave

No, you can't backtrack between Hawaii and continental North America on a OWE.

thank you for all the responses...

update on my itinery :

man - xlhr - bkk
bkk - sin
sin - dps
dps - hkg
hkg - nrt
nrt - xhkg - jfk
lga - ord
ord - sfo
sfo - mia
mia - xjfk - bda
bda - xjfk - lhr
lhr - dxb
dxb - xlhr - man

i hope this itinery is ok - let me know if there are any obvious problems...

now all i have to do is work out how many miles i will get ;-)

got a few more questions :

do i get to travel up front when there are just two classes of service?

do you think i could fit in any more flight segments?

thank you again for you're help and advice

dx

On AA in NA you will travel up front on 2 class airplanes. Domestically this is designated F, to Canada and the Carribbean it's called J. On 3 class planes you will be in J.

If you want to fly BDA-LGW direct on BA instead of LHR then you could free up one more NA segment.

I stand corrected on the sin-dps route, and the hnl. But I still maintain you can't do this as proposed becasue you have five segments in Asia and only four are allowed. You still seem to think that the transit (x) is important, but it makes no difference at all outside your continent of origin. You would need to get nrt-jfk ticketed on a single coupon (doesn't matter if the plane stops somewhere so long as it is one coupon) for this to work, and I don't know of any way of doing that.

Five segments in Asia is actually fine, as long as you are willing to pay for the fifth one (only four are included in the basic price).

If you want further suggestions you will need to tell us a little more about your objectives, such as, are you after miles, are certain stops "mandatory," do you want to fly particular airlines, etc.

thank you for your help.

christep : so am i right in thinking that if i transit in hkg on my way from nrt to the us the nrt-hkg leg will still count as one of my asia segments?

how much extra would an asia segment cost? and would it be worth paying extra to fly cathay pacific across the pacific rather than american?

having a bit of trouble with my itinery in the us. now thinking i'll fly

...
nrt xhkg sfo
sfo ord
ord xdfw sjd
sjd xdfw lga
lga mia
mia lhr
...

would this be ok? and would i have any segments left over?

hagbard viking : i am happy with my travel up to nrt and then lhr onwards, so its just the us that i'd like some advice on please. i'm looking to visit some cities (chicago is a favourite of mine and san francisco/miami would be something new) but would also like a resort break as well. mileage-wise, i am looking at maximising my rtw ticket but i want to visit the cities in asia and europe that i already specified.

any advice is more than welcome. thanks...xd

As it appears you are originating in the UK, the extra segment in Asia will cost you GBP75 for coach or GBP200 for business. You might want to consider buying a separate ticket BKK-SIN rather than buying an extra Oneworld segment. You should be able to pick up that ticket inexpensively in BKK.

Your NA segments look OK and you have used all six that are allowed. However, the way you have planned these segments, hkg-sfo-ord-dfw-sjd-dfw-lga-mia-lhr, will result in about 18,000 miles. You can hit the same locations, albeit in a different order, by using the routing, hkg-jfk-sfo-ord-mia-dfw-sjd-lax-lhr, and get about 4,000 additional miles.

Yes. A segment is essentially a single ticket coupon in the pack of tickets you get. If the carrier sells the flight between the two points as a single "flight" (which will have a single flight number) then it doesn't matter if the plane stops somewhere. In some cases it could even be on two different planes.

For example, there is a Cathay plane which goes 3 or 4 nights a week from HKG to CMB (Colombo, Sri Lanka). It actually stops in BKK, but it is the same flight number whether you take it HKG-BKK or HKG-CMB. If you catch this flight, get off in BKK and then continue on to CMB a few days later you will need two ticket coupons and it will count as two segments. If you continue on to HKG on the same plane then it is ticketed on one coupon (HKG-CMB) and counts as only one segment even though the plane stops in the middle. If you do get off the plane in BKK when it was ticketed as HKG-CMB then you will lose the BKK-CMB part.

What is important is whether the carrier sells it as a single segment. CX does not sell NRT-<USA> via HKG as a single flight number / segment so it must count as two. It doesn't matter at all whether you stop in HKG for 2 hours or two weeks. If you stay in a city more than 24 hours (or beyond the next available flight to your next destination if that is more than 24 hours away) then this stay is counted as a "stopver" rather than a transit. But as I keep saying, you can have as many stopovers as you want in every continent except the one you start in (where you can have two only).

whatever class you are travelling, you can opt for coach for your "extra" segment, and of course, pick the shortest segment as 'coach'

in your case, e.g., say you fly D/A class, you can pick the shortest segment, i.e. bkk-sin or sin-dps(not sure if there is OW flight on this route) in coach. so that you only have to add GBP75

and, if you are flying D/A. CX is significantly better than AA. if flying coach, perhaps the seat pitch becomes more important, and if you are over 5'5", go AA

QF flies SIN-DPS direct 3 times per week.

I also recall reading about some problem another FT RTW traveler had with specifying which extra segment they wanted to downgrade to coach, with the airline insisting it had to be the last one. I think the issue was with QF so BA may not raise an objection to it being specified as one of the middle segments.