As a holiday project, I am begining my planning for my RTW in May, departing and returning to Melbourne.
Thought it may be useful to get some starter tips.

I will be doing this trip as a QF Gold with the aim of gaining the SC's for Plat, possibly with partner Gold.

My very "rough" trip outline requires me to be in:

CNS
PER
CHC
JFK
DFW
SFO
GLA
FRA
LHR
HKG
BOM

Only definite date is to be in FRA 15-20 May. The rest is flexible, but would like to complete in during May.

This is my first RTW and am looking to FT's to give me maximum exposure to a variety of airlines and options.

Thanks in advance.


[This message has been edited by under the clocks (edited Jan 13, 2004).]

I have been using similar tickets in the past few years and achieved WP this past year (thanks to routing help on FT).

As a starter and time allowing:

-within Europe i do at least LHR-DXB-LHR as a SC run
-from Aus/NZ if I was you I would do MEL-CBR-CHC-SYD-JFK....6 NA segments....-Europe
-within NA make sure you do most of your segments in the 1001-2700 range, only longer one in NA is SFO-BOS which is 2702 and that can be your transcon
-if on DONEx in NA you fly in F and get miles and SCs (although not much diff) for F and not D
-NA-Europe should be LAX-LHR or the like - ie west coast NA to Europe
-Europe to Aus I did LHR-BRT-HKG-MEL to maximise SCs and miles. SInce you need to be in PER and SIN why not LHR-NRT(BA)-HKG-SIN-PER

Good luck and have fun - planning a RTW is almsot as much fun as doing it :-)

I agree that the entire planning process is incredibly fun and exciting

Unfortunately this is not a legal routing for xONEx fare originating in MEL (entry to country of origin is not allowed prior to leaving continent, thus cannot leave Australia to go to NZ and return). Either skip AKL or have to go AKL-LAX.
In NA there are over a dozen flights with more than 2700 miles, not just SFO-BOS. LAX-SJU is 3300 miles, for example, and operates year round (DFW-ANC and ORD-ANC operate only in the summer). There is a good up-to-date timetable available at aa.com for planning the NA segments. Otherwise the CX Oneworld timetable is the most useful (downloadable from cathaypacific.com).

Hi, I am new to oneworld and have no clue on what WP means.

Also, I will be flying from SA to NA. I didn't know I can earn miles on OWE tickets, but now that I can, I would like to maximize my mileage accural.

Should I fly from RIO to LAX or NY? I hope to visit NY and Seattle and end up in LAX. So if I want to maximize my mileage, can I fly from RIO to LAX, LAX to SJU, and then make my way to LAX from NY to Chicago to Seattle?

Thanks.

Alex

I don't know what WP is referring to either. Where did you see it used? Do you mean SWP (i.e. southwest Pacific - Australia, New Zealand and a few other islands)?

From your other messages, it appears as though you are flying economy. This is booked in "L" class. Depending on what airline FF program you are in and what airline you are flying you will likely get either some fractional mileage credit (e.g. 50%) or none at all.

There are no direct flights from GIG to LAX. You would need to connect in MIA or JFK. You could work your way across the country via ORD or DFW and then do LAX-SJU. Also, there are no direct OW flights between SEA-LAX.

You need to download one of the electronic timetables from here or here to determine what flights are available on the routes you want to fly.

WP = QF Platinum (OW Emerald)
SG = QF Gold
PS = QF Silver
NB = QF Bronze.

To discover the first letter of the abbreviation, check out the QF FT Board. Rest assured, the abbreviations are irreverant and "standard" terminology for those who frequent the QF Board. They all started about a year ago at a FT meeting at the BNE Qantas Club Lounge. Do a search and "enjoy".

Here is my first draft of my A/D ONE 4.
QF 167 SYD CNS 1222m 60SC's

QF 989 CNS AYQ 1112 60

QF 1923 AYQ PER 1021 60

QF 768 PER MEL 1682 60

QF 179 MEL NRT 5060 160

AA168 NRT JFK 6745 160

AA 1176 JFK DFW 1391 60

AA 2462 DFW BOS 1562 60

AA 183 BOS SFO 2704 150

AA1994 SFO DFW 1464 60

AA 2217 DFW LAS 1055 60

AA 1945 LAS LAX 236 30

BA 282 LAX LHR 5456 160

BA 910 LHR FRA 407 30

BA 905 FRA LHR 407 30

BA 1488 LHR GLA 345 30

BA 1489 GLA LHR 345 30

CX252 LHR HKG 5995 160

QF 88 HKG MEL 4590 100


42799 miles and 1520 SC's. Please provide as much feedback as possible. I believe this will meet my initial aim of obtaining WP in one hit, if done in D.

A query on BOS - SFO. I have allocated 150 SC's as AA do not operate J. Am I correct in using the F SC's even though I will be ticketed in D?

Route looks OK.

Your fare basis will be D but you should be ticketed as A or F on the AA domestic flights (subject to availability).

Hello again in this forum.

My only comment is that your requirement to be in GLA and FRA are using up your Europe segments for little benefit. How about using a low cost airline for these, e.g. Ryanair, Easyjet etc, or even going by train (or even by bus if you are a glutton for punishment), and instead doing other longer European segments on your RWT ?
Anyway you will clearly make WP.

Alex: You be better to ask this on your own RTW thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum83/HTML/001992.html

Do this is May only is tough work. Not much time to be in places

This is a thread to help maximise distance One World Distances

As above, try to avoid under 1000 miles and get a few trips greater than 2700 miles in in NA. Alaska (ANC) is good. You can go down to the Carribiean. or Mexico CUN -ANC 4066 miles is good a distance (if still running in May). In EU take a few long flights LHR/LGW to IST or FNC or the classic LHR-DXB. As said above buy the other short trips.

As for OZ, you can do these when you come back. The ticket is good for 12 months

You have used 19 segments so MEL-HKG-NRT will get you more miles & SC. than MEL-NRT although the MEL-NRT is over the 5000 miles

Also by May LX (Swiss) should be in the OWE system, so there will be more options then

Also going Oz-Eu-NA-Asia-Oz may get more miles as you �back track� to Oz. I did this on my OWE at the suggestion of QF, so it is probably a legal routing

It all depends where you want to go to visit and where you go to max miles/SC




[This message has been edited by Mwenenzi (edited Jan 13, 2004).]

I would only advise a couple of things differently. I would probably substitute going MEL-HKG and HKG-JFK on CX for going Narita on AA. It'll take a day longer (I think) and AA's F class is ok, but you'll get better service and more miles on CX.

As far as the US segments, you can certainly milk a ton more miles out of it - try downloading the AA timetable on pdf and looking at routes. I would actually avoid BOS-SFO if you can - they downgraded it last year and you're back on a 757 with mediocre seats without footrests (I'm actually flying it tomorrow myself and downgraded myself to an empty coach cabin). Try going out of JFK if you can to SFO on the 767s. Enjoy!

From To Distance 2 segment path: 11805 mi
MEL NRT 5060 mi
NRT JFK 6745 mi

2 segment path: 12662 mi
MEL HKG 4590 mi
HKG JFK 8072 mi

3 segment path: 13177 mi
MEL HKG 4590 mi
HKG NRT 1842 mi
NRT JFK 6745 mi

Undertheclocks --> you have got mail

Possible tweaking of NA sector's

JFK-DFW-BOS-SFO-DFW-LAS-LAX is 8413 miles, with 1 LAS-LAX at 236 miles (poor SC's)

BOS-SFO-DFW-LAS-SAT-ORD-LAX is 9079 miles and all flights are over 1000 miles. Take Amtrak train NYC(JFK)-BOS 187 miles. SAT is better to go thru/visit than going to Dallas twice. Still the real miles are to ANC or SJU