Just be aware 4 horus is unique to AA, and I thought was only applied to domestic flights. Most airlines are 24 hours to avoid a "connection" which typically means married segments. I quite purposefully build in 24+ hour 'connections' if I need to avoid married segments. Because for international itineraries that becomes a stopover rather than a connection, hence breaking the 'married' segment.

Married segments are quite problematic on a lot of RTW itineraries, especially doing close in changes or near holiday periods. They are purposefully blocked from the lower priced RTW starting points, so no D fares or below will show up, you're forced to break them with a 24+ hour stopover quite often.

Having said that, breaking a married segment doesn't always work to your advantage as you are experiencing. Sometimes there is D availability on the married segment, but not the point to point segments. I've seen that a lot on AA / QF itineraries.

I'm trying to work out which South Pacific destinations I can get to on on a Oneworld Explorer and how. Ideally from Australia (SYD or BNE) to one or more dstinations and then on to LAX or DFW. Does anyone have recent experience with this?

I've looked at SYD/NAN/LAX, SYD/NAN/DFW and also BNE/HIR/NAN/LAX (or DFW) - QF and Fiji Airlines flights - but couldn't get the online tool to price any of those. Fiji Airlines recently joined Oneworld, so I think this should work.

Ideally I'd like to get in and out of PPT if possible, but I think that will require Air Tahiti Nui flights and therefore not viable. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Currently none unless you're doing one of them r/t from and to Australia where QF flies. It's certainly possible to use your 4 allowed Oceania segments for 2x islands though and use inter-continental segments into and out of Australia. QF covers a fair number or S. Pacific islands on their own metal, which is required for the OW Explorer ticket.

FJ isn't a OW member yet, but will be in the next 1-2 years. TN isn't and hasn't indicated any intention of joining. TN does fly to places that are efficient to use AA mileage redemptions on though if you're set on going to French Polynesia. Japan and New Zealand are both very efficient redemption points for TN flights but they don't give out many business seats, it's mostly economy, and they are fairly long flights.

With FJ joining up with AAdvantage, I suppose it might be possible for an AA operated NAN-DFW flight in the future, but nothing that's bookable at the moment.

Newbie here and I found this subforum extremely helpful. I have spent a few days reading the posts here and learned a lot. I made my first attempt to buy a Oneworld Explorer ticket (for me and my wife) by composing an itinerary and contacting AA RTW desk. My initial requested trip would go like this (starting Feb 2025 and finishing in Sept 2025): (ex)HND-oSYD-oQZN-(surface)AKL-(x)HKG-oPEK-xHKG-oJFK-oEZE-oJFK-oCMN-oPKX-(surface)PEK-HND. It took 3 conversations with AA before a rate/pricing is made available. The first issue was CX pricing is not available (between AKL-(x)HKG-PEK), using travel dates of Mar 2025. The second issue is, I was told I cannot visit Asia twice as I am originated in Asia, even though come back from NZ, which I can't find any specific rule explaining this. Anyway, in the final rated trip, AA just removed my leg from AKL-(x)HKG-PEK and go from AKL-JFK directly, which avoided CX pricing issue and two visits to Asia. Can anyone help me understand the restriction from AA staff saying "no two visits to Asia if originated Asia"?

Later I revised my trip like this, which has being successfully rated by AA: (ex)HND-oJFK-oEZE-oJFK-oCMN-oDOH-oHKG-oDEL-HND. To avoid the pricing issue with CX (seems not available as soon as China mainland legs are involved), I will manage HKG-PEK return myself. I am happy about this plan (and it's ~$1K cheaper as its a DONE4, instead of DONE5). I may add couple of more stops in USA/Canada and Europe (so far I only used 8 segments?) before I finalize it and make a purchase. Welcome and appreciate any suggestions.

What about Hawaiian? With the AS merger (and I'm not even sure it's a done deal) has Hawaiian become a partner? Will it still exist as separate entity? Papaeete, Raratonga, Pago Pago, plus several Japanese cities, Seoul, Aukland and Sydney--wow!

HA has not yet been included. HA as an airline has/will cease to exist and become a brand of AS. Included on AS reservation system and operating certificate. My view it will be included just like other subsidiary brands of full OW airlines. As Oneworld Explorer [*ONE*] Rule 3015 4j. Horizon Air to AS, American Eagle to AA, QantasLink to QF etc. Not as separate entity.
HA & full membership of FJ will extend the destinations in the South Pacific. [FJ are already in *GLOB* , but not yet in *ONE* RTW's]

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b3fd09b089.jpg

Wondering for some help.

Looked at the online tool, and I can see the pricing for ex OSL and ex CAI obviously being lower. When travelling through Australia on QF, the price ends up repricing into AUD. I wonder why that is? Is there some way of avoiding this?

And I've noticed that there is always low availability around QF for flights in D. How does this interact with the Point of Sale and Point of Origin? It's not very clear online or in the FAQ above. Are there certain flights that have even more restricted D availability than if we were to book originating in, say, the UK or France?

It switched to AUD as the tool has decided you should ticket with Qantas. If you search the forums here you will learn this may not be the ideal choice. Generally far better to call the aa rtw desk unless you have a well understood reason to do otherwise.

Availability can indeed vary by POS, you may want to consider a period paid up with expert flyer if you want to search for availability based on this. I've often looked once but did see less Japan and Norway availability (in that case for I class) than other POS options.

​​​​​​Thank!. Just to help me figure out how to evaluate what flights there are for ex-CAI, I had a few more questions if you could kindly help me with them!

1. Does EF show availability in D based on the POS being Egypt? I can only see the option for other countries like USA, UK, but not the POS being Egypt on EF for flight availability search
2. Presumably the AA RTW agents will see availability based on the POS being Egypt (this allows Qantas to restrict D availability even further for ex-CAI RTW trips?)
3. I presume AA can sort out this nonsense QR being the 1st flight bug? Or is the recommendation to use some other airline for the first flight because this is a real issue? I think QR don't offer much D availability for CAI-DOH so I might need to do CAI-AMM-DOH anyway
4. What tips are there to cut YQ fees? I've read that BA and IB are terrible for adding these in. Should I avoid them altogether, or just ensure if flying on then, it's marketed as a codeshare? When I did manage to make the online tool work for ex-OSL, the taxes and fees were 20k NOK for a 60k base fare!

Just want to confirm that SkyWest Airlines codeshares do not earn AA miles ? ( according to the AA website - only Horizen Air ) Is this correct ?

Yes, AA (or any other ticketing airline / travel agent) can book CAI-DOH as your first segment. That's just a strange limitation of the OW online tool.

You're also correct that QR doesn't offer much D availability ex-CAI, it offers precisely zero to be more accurate. Most middle east flights are marketed as First Class, so you need A on those segments instead of D. (Also grants you access to the Al Safwa lounge in DOH).

When ticketing ex-CAI or ex-OSL, just anecdotally, in addition to BA having high YQ, MH, CX, and QF tend to as well. You may reduce those by booking as codeshares but note CX can't carry an AA code for TPAC due to government restrictions since CX is (or was) overflying Russia.

BTW, ex-CAI isn't cheap anymore, it's quite a bit more expensive than other points of origin now. OSL and ex-Japan are currently cheapest, followed closely by ex-Pakistan, then India and Sri Lanka.

How much more expensive is LHR or MAN as a point of origin than OSL?

We have our first RTW coming up starting in OSL but wonder whether the cost of getting to OSL and a nights accommodation makes the saving significant. Planning our second RTW and would be more convenient starting in MAN.

Thanks, I have now discovered that I missed the boat with ex-CAI!

Ex-OSL might work but the fees are the killer. 66k NOK becomes 100k NOK when flying on BA and QF marketed flights.

Cutting them out takes it down to 77k NOK (QF only for internal domestic, BA for the last leg to OSL). Vast majority of flights are QR or AA marketed.

Not sure if anyone else was able to price up a DONE5 for less than that, NOK all in?
​​​​​

Expertflyer.com will answer that for you. UK APD is another issue, since every stopover or point of origin in the UK attracts it and the price is going up soon. But before taxes and YQ, approximately US$3000 more to start in the UK. You can get to OSL for probably $50-100 and hotel about the same. Currently the cheapest in the world are ex-Norway, Japan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India in that order. (Actually Pakistan and Japan may flip flop depending on the JPY exchange rate)

Reckon not many people here know the NOK conversion to major currencies. Might get more advice (meaning less people ignore it) if you put it in USD, EUR, or GBP. QR doesn't have really bad YQ charges, get rid of BA and you'll likely be happier. I've had very heavy QR itineraries from Points of Origin that are YQ heavy (like CAI) and QR doesn't add much.

Thinking about booking a DONE4 in 2025 to celebrate some life changes, and here's our proposed itinerary:

OSL - xDOH - oCMN - xDXB - xHKG - oSIN - xSYD - oAKL - oNYC - oLIR - xPHL - oCPH - OSL

It's my first OWE booking and I haven't looked to see if there's availability, but wanted to check the collective wisdom to see if I'm breaking any rules. I know there are four more possible stops, but think this is enough for us!