Help on RTW ex CAI
 

My wife and I are travelling on a RTW 1st class from Cairo this spring. I'd like to ask for some ideas as to how to get some additional miles, but we intend to visit all of the places were going to, so it's not really a mileage run. I'm putting an "S" where we are stopping.

CAI - LHR
LHR - ORD S
ORD - HNL
HNL - OGG S
OGG - HNL
HNL - SYD S
SYD - PER S
PER - BNE S
BNE - HKG - NRT S (I'd rather fly Cathay 1st)
NRT - HKG S
HKG - JNB S
JNB - CPT S
CPT - HKG - SIN S
SIN - LHR S
LHR - ???
and finally LHR - CAI

Does this look OK? Also, I was wondering how I could maximize something else in Europe out of LHR?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Ray

Is this an AONE or an AGLOB? Assuming its the former, you've got a couple of problems. First, you're backtracking by going Asia-Africa-Asia. You have to go Asia-Africa-Europe, meaning you'd need to take a BA flight from CPT-LHR or JNB-LHR (or potentially even NBO-LHR or SEZ-LHR I suppose).

Second, you can't do SYD-PER-BNE. You're only allowed one QF transcon in Australia. Instead do something like SYD-PER-MEL-BNE. PER-MEL isn't counted as a transcon.

Thanks JSD!

So if I do something like

CAI - LHR
LHR - ORD S
ORD - HNL
HNL - OGG S
OGG - HNL
HNL - SYD S
SYD - PER S
PER - MEL S
MEL - BNE S
BNE - HKG - NRT S (I'd rather fly Cathay 1st)
NRT - HKG S
HKG - SIN S
SIN - HKG - JNB S
JNB - CPT S
CPT - LHR S
LHR - ??? S
and finally LHR - CAI

I'd be OK?

Ray

Are you sure that CX still offers F on BNE-HKG? I tried to buy an F ticket for this route and it wasn't available (maybe only some days of the week? It is one of those weird routes that sometimes is nonstop and sometimes one-stop, through another city in Australia). I think CX has F only to SYD and MEL (definitely not on all flights to Australia).
Otherwise your routing looks fine. LHR-HEL-LHR is a nice trip and you do have one more stopover allowed in Europe (as well as 2 flight segments).

I was under the impression that CXs BNE-CNS-HKG was operated by the "regional" Buisness Class layout (ie: non NBC). This then makes it an easy decision to fly SYD or MEL to HKG (and not BNE).

Who would you be flying HNL-OGG-HNL? I don't think AA does these routes and even if they codeshare with someone, I don't think the codeshares would be allowed on an AONE. You might have to buy a separate HNL-OGG-HNL ticket, but I might be wrong on this point.

If you did take these flights out of the AONE ticket though, it would give you the extra segments you would need to do SYD-PER-MEL-BNE-SYD in AU as well as a second stopover in Europe at the end of your trip (LHR-xxx-LHR) and still stay under the 20 segment limit. I'd guess that an HNL-OGG-HNL return can be bought fairly cheaply?

One more thought - rather than going ORD-HNL-OGG, why not do the ORD-OGG non-stop and then buy a o/w OGG-HNL to meet up with the HNL-SYD flight?

And lastly, its worthwhile considering that CX's HKG-JNB may not be three class for much longer since CX is planning to convert the 343s to two-class planes.

If CX are operating the route with "new" regional business class (as opposed to long-haul NBC) I would give it a very wide berth. I had a flight a couple of weeks ago HKG-KHI on a new regional congfig A330 and it was without doubt one of the worst business class seats I've experienced in a long time. The recline seemed quite a bit less than the old seats, the leg rest wasn't worth the trouble and overall the seat was quite hard (not great when your flight is 8 hours +). Even the crew thought the seats were pretty terrible. This seems to be one of the few mistakes CX has made over the years in upgrading their cabins.

OK, then let's try this:

CAI - LHR
LHR - ORD S
ORD - OGG S
HNL - SYD S
SYD - PER S
PER - MEL S
MEL - BNE S
BNE - SYD - HKG - NRT S
NRT - HKG S
HKG - SIN S
SIN - HKG - JNB S
JNB - CPT S
CPT - LHR S
LHR - ??? S
and finally LHR - CAI

If I'm doing this in April, I'd rather go somewhere south from LHR rather than Finland. Any ideas would be appreciated.

I thought I could only do one more stop as Europe is my starting continent. And I also thought I couldn't do Dubai, or Athens.

Once again, thanks to everyone for all the help.

Ray

[This message has been edited by RayinMaui (edited Dec 20, 2003).]

You get two stops in Europe. You're making one in LHR after arriving from CPT. You are correct about Dubai and Greece. If you are looking for miles and somewhere with decent weather in April try IST. It is also a very interesting place to spend a few days. Let me know if you need the name of a guide there.

BTW, you can either take the early flight back from IST to LHR and connect the same day to CAI or take the late flight and do another overnight in LHR, connecting to CAI the next day.

[This message has been edited by ExMo (edited Dec 20, 2003).]

OK, so here is what I'm going with:

OK, then let's try this:

CAI - LHR
LHR - ORD S
ORD - OGG S
HNL - SYD S
SYD - PER S
PER - MEL S
MEL - BNE S
BNE - SYD - HKG - NRT S
NRT - HKG S
HKG - SIN S
SIN - HKG - JNB S
JNB - CPT S
CPT - LHR S
LHR - IST S
IST - LHR - CAI

Instead of doing ORD - OGG, can I do something around the US and/or Canada giving me more miles? Like ORD - MIA - YYZ - DFW - OGG?

Thanks,

Ray

No. You already have 19 segments. 20 is the limit. Thus, you can only do one more segment in the US. You could go to DFW, LAX or SJC, all of which have direct flights to OGG.

Thanks Everybody!

Now the only question is do I book two trips before the price increase?

The raw fare for an AONE4 ex-CAI today is US$4,775. You will spend US$1-3,000 more to buy the same ticket elsewhere in Africa and Asia and US$4,400 more to buy it in the US. It is unlikely we will see any deals this good for a long time -- at least not until the US$ strengthens considerably against most other world currencies.

Edited to add -

If you book a second trip, you do not have to spell it out in detail. Just keep it simple like CAI-LHR-LAX-SYD-HKG-LHR-CAI. You can change it later to what you really want for a measly US$75.

[This message has been edited by ExMo (edited Dec 21, 2003).]

Except that you have to fix the first international flight. If you need to change that flight (even the date) then it requires a ticket reissue which I believe would be at the rules and fares applying at the time of the reissue.

I believe that is correct - however I assume most of us do not live in CAI or Egypt for that matter, the issue is solved by making a quick turnaround in CAI with the last segment of above itin and then fixing the first international segment for the return and then keeping the rest "open" / subject to rebook as described. Works fine if you live in Europe. Have bought 4 RTW that way in the last 8 months.

Cheers

Thomas