List of OneWorld Direct flights? (1 flt #, multiple stop)
 

I can use the oneworld electronic timetable to list all non-stop flights. To maximize my OWE fare, I would like to get a list of all direct flights instead. Or if that is not practical, then all direct flights to or from a particular airport.
Any suggestions?

Why does non-stop versus direct make a difference in order to maximize your owe? For mileage/segment purposes I think all the FF programs just give you credit for a single segment non-stop distance regardless of how many intermediate stops are made along the way.

If you just want to spend more time on a plane, well...

You can fly for more miles. For example CX has no nonstop flights from HKG-BOM and has a one stop flight via BKK. Similarly you can do a number of creative routings by AA both international and domestic. Example is LHR-LAX It actually stops in ORD and you chage planes for ORD-LAX. It is still counted as no segment as you are traveling from Europe to North America. Another example is HKG-YVR-JFK by CX

My primary purpose is to see more places, not earn more miles.

For example, I can fly to the seychelles from LHR on a single flight number (direct) even though it stops in Nairobi. That frees up one more segment to explore more in Africa. Or, a direct flight might free up one segment that I'd otherwise have to spend getting to a major hub before the place I want to visit.

There are many other examples where direct flights would free up segments, for example TPA (tampa) to SJC (San Jose California). This gets me across the country, without actually counting technically as a "transcon". It also frees up a segment I'd otherwise flush on getting to a hub.

OK, so my secondary purpose is to earn more miles. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif For example, I can fly to Zurich from San Francisco on a direct flight, which earns many more miles than just flying non-stop from DFW. Even more useful if I wanted SFO as the last place I visit in NA anyway, freeing up a NA segment I'd otherwise flush on going back to a hub...

I still don't understand unless by seeing a place you mean the landing and departure.

You certainly won't be allowed to see any more of Nairobi than the airport gift shops, assuming they let you off the a/c during the stop (which I think I remember reading here, they either strongly discourage or don't permit.)

OK John, lets look at two different OWE itineraries. One uses a direct flight to SEZ, the other fails to take advantage of the direct flight, listing LHR-NBO-SEZ.

1) LHR-SEZ-NBO-JNB-VFA-JNB
By using a direct flight to SEZ, it frees up one of my 4 inter africa segments letting me see more. Notice that I still get my fill of NBO, since I must go through there on the return anyway... A proper stopover, so looks like I get to see more than airport eh John?

2) LHR-NBO-SEZ-NBO-JNB-VFA that's it!
Oops, because I didn't take advantage of the direct flight on this one itinerary, I end up with one less segment to play with in Africa. I made it to VFA, and now need to pay for an extra segment or overland somehow to get to JNB for my next continent.

Suppose I need to fly from TPA to SJC on my OWE. Do you understand the benefits of ticketing it as TPA-SJC on a single direct flight coupon, versus TPA-DFW-SJC (or TPA-ORD-SJC, whatever)? It frees up one of my 6 segments to go someplace I want to, instead of a major hub I don't. Unless a person gets excited about multiple stopovers in major hubs, a direct flight can be very useful. Sometimes I want to skip hubs altogether. Other times, one stop is plenty.

A direct flight can save me extra segment charges, or get me more places in each continent.

[This message has been edited by benoit (edited 05-17-2003).]

Benoit, since no one answered your question, it can be difficult and time consuming. I really don't recommend wasting your time doing it unless you have a good idea of where you want to go and just need flight numbers. Besides the fact that the main airline that uses an amazing amount of direct flights is AA. If you go to aa.com and download the pdf version of their flight schedule, it will list destinations that are both nonstop and direct. For example, there is a flight that goes MIA-EZE-MVD. Under the Miami section, it will list both EZE and MVD. Conversely, under Montevideo, it lists both EZE and MIA.

For the other airlines, it's a bigger pain in the arse to figure out. Someone posted the africa flights a while back. If you have a question about a certain area, just post it here and I am sure someone can help.

For those who are picking a lot on people gaining miles just to gain miles, I generally agree with you. But there is a certain utility to knowing and using direct flights beyond earning miles.

Look at One World Distances

If the flight has a single flight nunber and continues on all you will see is the airport and the view landing and taking off. I doubt if any continuing flight number has more than a few hours at the intermediate airport
If you get off and get the next days flight you have added a stopeover / segement

In NA on the aa.com web site just put in yout city pairs and see what happens

You get nothing for nothing

[This message has been edited by Mwenenzi (edited 05-17-2003).]

benoit - your strategy makes a bit more sense now. One starting point for carriers other than AA would be to look at route maps - they generally show the flights that have intermediate stops. Not terribly accurate but it's a starting point.

I understand that you want to avoid spending unwanted sectors, benoit - we all do - but I don't understand why it's a problem doing that. That's pretty much the default, unless you log into some engine and click "cheapest fare up to N stops". You wouldn't do that for a OWE.

I normally plan from the CX downloadable trip planner, and if I want to fly LHR-SEZ, I tell it that and it lists all the flights it thinks makes sense, I believe starting with the non-stops, then the direct flights.

If you see a direct flight in the list (it shows > 0 stops) and you want to see where it stops out of curiousity, you can click on the details tab.

OTOH, if you happen to *want* to see Nairobi, you just ask the planner for LHR-NBO.

For cases where you have to make a connection (no direct flights) and it has shown you cnx through a city you're not fond of, you have an option to have it try a different city, e.g. LAX-JFK via ORD or via DFW.

It seems to me that the only real problem if learning which OW carrier actually serves NBO (bad example these days), and from where.

I took Benoit's request to be for a list of all Oneworld direct flights -- whereas JohnAx describes a method of checking whether a particular route is one served by a direct flight.

A list would make it far easier to get a sense of where the direct flights are, to brainstorm as to how to make use of them, etc. With query-based don't-find-out-until-you-ask ("twenty questions"), you can't know what's out there unless you think to specifically look for it.

(Not to take this off-topic, but ... The analog of this list-versus-query differenec comes up in my field all the time. See http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering -- studying Internet filtering in China, Saudi Arabia, etc. Most filtering systems provide no comprehensive list of all blocked sites ("Here's all the porn sites we won't let you see: ___" -- as if!). Yet it's typically possible to find out whether any given site is blocked (just try to go there and see if it works or not). One of my main areas of research and software design, then, is testing access to hundreds of thousands of sites, tracking which are blocked, and posting lists to this effect. It's as if I ran the CX trip planner with every possible combination of cities and looked at each result to see where the direct flights are -- which I guess would actually be one way of answering benoit's question, if anyone is so inclined (and has the ability to write software to do this!).

OK, now I see why John still doesn't understand my question at all. John is looking at this from the perspective of a person who already has a set list of cities he wants to visit, and just plugs them into a trip planner. Of course finding direct flights between *specified* cities is totally trivial, and not at all what I asked. Not sure where he got this since my original question clearly asks for all direct flights, not ones between a particular list of cities. John has it backwards.

I don't have an required order to visit cities in, I don't even have a mandatory list of cities. I am very flexible, just like the ticket I bought. Seeing the list of all direct flights will open my eyes to what is possible, and bias me in favor or against certain cities and routings. I might give a city with a direct flight, a second look. I hadn't considered the Seychelles until I spotted the direct flight from LHR for example. Likewise some cities cost twice as many segments to visit as others, and may move down the priority list.

If the list of direct flights is too long, it would still be useful to see all direct flights to/from a particular city. Note that is very different from asking about direct flights between two particular cities.

I have another list in mind that would be similarly useful to see. How about a list of cities that are served by more than one carrier or hub. Once you screen out hubs, this shows you places you can visit without any backtracking. For example you can fly from Barcelona to Athens on Iberia, and then Athens to Helsinki on Finnair. 3 carriers go to Moscow, etc...

Benoit, my first response was with a full understanding of what you wanted. But you are asking for a tremendous amount of work and there is no easy way of doing it. It just takes a bunch of tedious work. I will list the LA and CX flights because I am far too familiar with them, but otherwise you will have to give some idea of what you want. I wouldn't be surprised if AA alone has several hundred direct flights.

Cathay
hkg-yvr-nyc
hkg-sin-jkt
hkg-bkk-sin
hkg-bkk-bom
hkg-bkk-khi
hkg-bkk-cmb
hkg-tpe-nrt
hkg-tpe-ngo
hkg-tpe-sel
hkg-tpe-kix
hkg-bne-cns
hkg-cns-bne
hkg-adl-mel
hkg-dxb-bah
hkg-bkk-bom-dxb

Lan Chile
scl-ipc-ppt
scl-lim-lax
scl-mad-fra
scl-lim-nyc
scl-lim-bog-mia
scl-lim-ccs-mia
scl-lim-puj-mia
scl-uio-gye
scl-iqq-ari-lpb
scl-sao-rio
scl-akl-syd
cancun/havana flights seem to change frequently, but iirc, it went hav-cun-mia-scl, but I could be wrong. Many moons ago, there was a flight that went scl-mia-uio-gye or similar. Never understood that one.

I am not going to list Chilean domestics. First, I don't know them. Second, just about anywhere you want to go in Chile, there is going to be a direct flight from Santiago. Some exceptions here and there, but not many.

This is from memory, so parts could be inaccurate and/or outdated. Check to make sure. As I said, for AA, there is a bajillion of them. Download the pdf file and go through it. BA doesn't have all that many. Most are either lon-oz, lon-middle east, lon-africa, comair, or ba mediterranian flights. I don't think there is any in Continental Europe. Iberia has a ton, not interested in flying them so frankly I never paid much attention. Finnair has some, mostly direct through arn and cph, but a few others here and there. I think all are redundant routes. Finally Qantas has a lot, but I have no idea what they are. I expect a lot of them are reasonably redundant as well. I have never used their planner, but it might help. And last but not least, Aer Lingus. Are they even in Oneworld? Anyway, I don't know of any they have, but I am sure they do.

Tenacity is about the only way to figure this nonsense out, there is no easy solution.

[This message has been edited by Darren (edited 05-17-2003).]

Like benoit, I might well have made different decision on my RTW had I known where the direct flights were. (Then again, I might have done everything the same!)

Maybe I can write a script to pull this data out of an electronic source. (I'd certainly love to do my part to give back to this forum.) PDF would be considerably easier than Windows app, I suspect. Can anyone point me to the PDF(s) I should be looking at here?

Lan Chile also go EZE-SCL-LIM-LAX (LA600 LA601)

Just of the many