Calling all experts out there, my wife and I spent an hour with Bridge The World travel agents in Camden at the weekend and they helped me to plan a RTW trip to 5 continents on Oneworld.

I wonder if someone out there could check if this route is possible/feasible, starting from London in July 2004 for 1 year?

London
Anchorage (via Chicago)
Vancouver (via Dallas!)
Overland to Portland (family!)
Los Angeles
-----------
Quito (via Miami)
Lima
Purchase flight to La Paz
Punta Arenas (via Santiago)
Santiago
------------
Auckland
Overland to Christchurch
Sydney
Purchase flight to Alice Springs
Cairns
------------
Hong Kong
Overland to Bangkok
Bombay
Delhi
London

Any advice gladly received!

[This message has been edited by sergiogarcia (edited Jan 27, 2004).]

Assuming that when you say "Purchase flight to xxx" you mean a round trip ticket between where you are and xxx, then I think your itinerary looks like this:

lhr-ord-anc-dfw-yvr//pdx-lax-mia-uio-lim//lpb//lim-scl-puq-scl-akl//chc-syd//asp//syd-cns-hkg//bkk-bom-del-lhr

where the // indicate segments taken outside of the OWE ticket.

Two quick problems. There is no OW flight from PDX-LAX nor from BOM-DEL. Both of these segments would have to be purchased separately, outside the OWE ticket.

You have only used 18 segments out of the 20 allowed (actually only 16 dropping PDX-LAX and BOM-DEL). You could use these four additional segments to do SYD-ASP-SYD and BOM-HKG-DEL. Both of these (SYD-ASP-SYD and BOM-DEL) are relatively inexpensive segments so you may want to use these segments to go somewhere not currently on your itinerary.

Hi ExMo, Sorry for the confusion. My intention is not to purchase a round trip ticket between where I am and xxx; it is to purchase a one-way ticket and carry on from my new destination.

Although I will have only used 16 segments, my understanding of a OWE ticket means I can not take more than 4 flights in one area, eg Austalasia. The addition of SYD-ASP-SYD would put me of this limit wouldn't it?

Thanks for your patience.

Except in continent of origin, you may purchase two additional segments in each continent (subject to the total 20-segment limit.) I didn't count your U.S. segments, but in North America you're given 6 segments to start with, and can add two for a total of 8 there. And as no doubt was explained to you, intercontinental segments count against the 20 total, but not against either continent's limits.

OK, so your trip will look like:

lhr-ord-anc-dfw-yvr//pdx-lax-mia-uio-lim//lpb-scl-puq-scl-akl//chc-syd//asp-cns-hkg//bkk-bom-del-lhr

Still 18 segments plus the two that OW does not fly (PDX-LAX and BOM-DEL). You have only used two in SWP, two in Asia, four in NA and none in Europe. You get four more segments, however you want to use them within the constraints of four per continent (six in NA) and 20 total.