First, you are going to africa twice.

Second, if you were a customs officer in Santiago, what would you think about someone going to Bogota *twice* without stopping?

Third, are you stopping anywhere? Seems like you are mileage running the entire trip.

All I can say is have a good trip and pack a butt donut, because that's a *lot* of flying. But just be careful and use your head. These are countries you are going into, not just letters on a page.

Hi,

Has anyone been to CCS recently? Even though it is in Spanish, the CCS airport website says departure tax is 29600 Bolivars which comes out to around $22.50 USD. I assume this is irrespective of passport, and must be paid for each international departure. At Columbus Guides, it says that passengers in transit are exempt from this tax. Is this correct?

I'm definitely not mileage running the whole trip. mel-drw-per-???-akl-hkg-cmb-hkg-cmb-hkg-jnb-lun-nbo-lun-jnb-lhr-tlv-lhr-lpa-lhr-lax-sxm-dfw-anc-dfw-bos-lax-eze-ccs-scl-ccs-scl-jfk-syd is my current routing and I'd probably stop in JNB first, then LHR, TLV, possibly SCL, then JFK and SYD.

goodo


[This message has been edited by goodo (edited 12-09-2002).]

[This message has been edited by goodo (edited 12-09-2002).]

A couple of months ago I paid a little less than 45,000 Bs to get out of CCS.

You could be right about transit pax but you should check the schedules to make sure you can do a turn around. LA currently only operates 2 flights per week, M and F, on the SCL-CCS route. The SCL-CCS flight arrives at 1545 but the return CCS-SCL flight leaves at 1220. Makes it a bit tough to connect. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Sorry about the IPC suggestion. I must have been thinking of something else or maybe it was my intense dislike for CCS (the airport not the city).

goodo, your latest itin has you going twice to Colombo, which is not permitted under the rules.

Well Darren is wise here dude...

Just look at what you're doing. This is foolish and you're visiting airports. And doing that in M class is just insane. (Though like me, I suppose you don't have the choice)

Do you realize how you will feel after a LHR-LAX ? And you're doing a LHR-LAX-SXM-DFW-ANC-DFW-BOS-LAX-EZE-CCS-SCL in a row....eeerk.

At least get a break in SXM on the beach and breath some fresh air in the mountains nearby ANC rather than the fuel in the tarmac.

If you really want to do that I really suggest you do a medical check up before and after and try to get some sponsoring from the NASA to study cumulative flying effects in coach class. :-)

Could you enlighten us as to which rule prohibits this? It looks OK to me.

BoSoxinBKK: I thought you were able to fly twice to the same city on condition that a)the second was not a stopover, and b) it wasn't the city of origin.

Bearaway: I did the Star Alliance 55k promo earlier this year. Given it wasn't 100k that I would be doing now (that is IF I end up doing this trip), I did fly for 3 days/nights straight and look how I turned out, I wanna do it again! I would time it that my stops are spaced along the trip. MEL-PER-DRW-SYD stop SYD-AKL-HKG-CMB-HKG stop HKG-CMB-HKG-JNB stop JNB-LUN-NBO-LUN-JNB-LHR stop LHR-LPA-LHR-TLV stop. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is where to stop from lhr-lax-sxm-dfw-anc-dfw-bos-lax-eze-ccs-scl-ccs-scl-jfk-syd, other than JFK which is a definite stop and SCL is a possibility also. I am a student on a limited budget, so until now I've really been selecting places where I know someone that I could crash by.

BTW, you got any connections in NASA http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif?

goodo

goodo, it's fine that you want to fly a lot, but I am just cautioning you of a few potential problems. First, some of these countries are not going to understand what a mileage run is, and you run a severe risk of getting hassled. I stood and watched hk-umich get nailed one time at the gate in Santiago, and it wasn't fun. I have had my fair share of agents hassling me, including the good ol' USA, pre-9/11. You are talking about going to places that are not pinnacles of stability and lawfulness, and doing something that looks awfully fishy to someone who doesn't get paid enough to give a hoot about your mileage account. Second, there is far more to planning one of these things than just deciding what is furthest away. For example, Caracas has had a schedule for a long time that keeps people from doing turnarounds because the return flight leaves before the arrival. Same with Easter Island. Or in the case of Sri Lanka, you have to stopover in Bangkok, so a 5 hr flight quickly becomes 7 or 8. Customs aside, a non-stop Delhi flight becomes potentially more attractive. Okay, here is another. Visa issues. Last time I looked, you needed to secure a Kenyan visa ahead of time, even for a transit. There is a $30 reciprocity fee in Chile for you if you choose to stop. There is also a $20 departure tax, which often is not put on the ticket. Some places will force you to pass customs when you arrive, which means you will have to pay fees when you leave.

Darren, thanks for the heads up. I've never been to Africa or South america before so I guess I didn't really think about all the probs they can give me.

When I have time I'll go through everythin that you mentioned, so stand by.

goodo

Sorry, dupe post.

goodo

[This message has been edited by goodo (edited 12-09-2002).]

christep, when you responded to my RTW questions in September, you had written that "You may only fly once between any pair of cities in the same direction." Should this not apply to HKG-CMB-HKG-CMB-HKG, or is it only a requirement for the North American segments?

Yes - I was wrong and was quickly corrected. That rule applies to "Global Explorer" fares, but not to "OneWorld Explorer" fares.

ScottC has recently published here a link to the latest version of the rules.

While we're on the topic of getting hassled by agents and the likes of them...

I did a quick run of bgo-osl-nyc-toronto-iad-ams-zurich-hamburg
-cph-bgo a few years back and the only place I got problems was a few funny queations from imigration in the US.

In terms of the US nowadys, I guess you woudl be flagged for every possible extra search and get a wonderful row of S'es on top of your boarding cards, but in the end, just make sure you have an hour to spare in case you get "pulled over" and need to explain yourself.

Apart from that, going turnarounds in places like Columbia, Israel and a few other places like it, would be asking for it http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

DOing those stretches in M class isn't too wise. I've had a few long stretches in M class before and if you look at long haul from europe during autumn and winter, the chance of gettign a cold while stuck for 12-13-14 hours in the back of a 744 with 300 others is very high... now imagining doing an additional 3-4-5 medium hauls and a few more long hauls while brewing a nice cold...

You can get it from the airport at US$50. (yes, fifty dollars !)

I called about a week ago the Kenyan embassy in Paris, as the visa last only 3 months I cannot take it in advance.
(It cost me 58EUR in France to get it, so no discount)

The stupid thing is that French did not need a visa until last year ... grrrr