Thank you - good to know!

Have an ex-CAI DONE5 CAI-(DOH)-FRA-MAD...DFW-HND-SIN-HKG-ICN-SYD-PER-LHR-DOH. All 16 segments booked and currently in DFW.

If I need to skip Australia/NZ, what would be my best option to optimize mileage (Loyalty Points) while keeping surcharges low?

Perhaps ICN-HEL-DXB-DOH-AMM to squeeze out all segments? Or ICN-HKG-JNB-LHR-DOH to take advantage of that 5th continent? (Although fearing the BA surcharge for JNB-LHR)

Or maybe include something in India before jumping to Europe from ICN or HKG?

Surface segment for last segment?
 

Hi everyone.

Not relevant to my own RTW but helping a friend plan one and don't think I've come across anything specifically about this.

Is there any issue with the final segment being a surface segment? For example, DONE4 starting in OSL. Can the last 3 segments just be DFW to DUB on AA, then a surface segment from DUB to OSL? So effectively the final flight is DFW to DUB.

Thanks for any advice.

No. But some people have "missed" the final ticketed segment

3015 Rule 4c

Thanks for that.

In practice, is there any risk with doing this? Anyone have any experience of doing this?

There's no real evidence of anybody being punished for missing the final leg of a flight. (LH sued someone for doing it regularly and lost.) Theoretically, the airline could come after you for a change in fare and/or close your frequent flyer account. In practice, the chances of that happening if you miss one flight are nil.

I totally forgot to take the last flight of my RTW last year. No consequences, which is what I expected. ;)

Apologies in Advance if this is the wrong place to be posting. Seeking some help in pricing a RTW. This would be for my Mum and so being a Senior, she'd prefer not too long transits and the likes . I had initally priced the below as 4 separate One - Way tickets. Prices given below. Was thinking, it would be good if she got some decent amount of miles for the flying ahead and then realized might be better to look at a RTW option from Star or One world.

MAA – YVR / Mar 20th / CX – $ 800 INR (One World)

YVR – MEL/ June 10th/ FJ – $ 820 (No alliance)

MEL – LLW/ Aug 30th/ QF, ET – $ 1,085 (One World)

LLW – MAA/ Sep 16th/ ET or AI – $500 (One World/ Star Alliance)

NET TOTAL : $3205


Am a novice to this world of RTW tickets and so any help/ pointers would be most appreciated.

Would need a lot of work to get to an alliance RTW. And 95% sure would price much higher.
Most of those origin- destinations have transits

A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper
HAV can be tricky to get to.
FJ is Oneworld connect, so limited ff partner of OW airlines
QF fly YVR-SYD non stop, then SYD-MEL
LLW a unusual destination. (I have been there decades ago) ET & AI are not Oneworld. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamuzu...tional_Airport
QF does fly SYD JNB, South Africa. QR Qatar fly's to many African airports

Thanks all for the advice!

Many thanks for your reply. There was an error I made with a sector. It should read as MAA - YVR for Leg 1. Have edited the original post as well.
A side trip to HAV is happening, ex - YVR but as part of an all inclusive deal (Flights, Hotel, F & B package) & hence HAV can be removed from the RTW query.

All remaining legs are correct.

OW doesn't fly to LLW, unfortunately. Harare might be your closest option.

Your itinerary needs a crossing over the Atlantic and over the Pacific, and MAA-YVR would be considered Pacific. Even if you force a stop in Europe between MAA and YVR, the OW RTW tool doesn't let you go to Harare and then back to Chennai, although that may be legal in practice.

Hi, -- I would be grateful for any thoughts/suggestions on an itinerary that I will likely start on April 15th. 1) Must stop in BOS and BKK 2) DONE3 3) maximize mileage 4) my understanding is that there's no oppressive tax at LHR if you're connecting (<24 hours) as opposed to stopping. If I can't avoid the tax, I'll substitute CDG for LHR. 5) starting point is somewhat flexible, looks like TYO hits the balance of convenient to me and cheap price, but I'm open to other suggestions, always. I won't start in Pakistan, it's below my personal safety threshold. CAI would be fine, I've started these there in the past, but my impression is that it's extremely difficult to get one ticketed out of CAI now. Here's what I have so far: NRT-BOS-DFW-ANC-DFW-BOS-LAX-DOH-MAD-DOH-LHR-DOH-ICN-CMB-BKK-CMB-NRT. 55,218 miles according to MileCalc.com.

Are you crediting to AA or QR?

If AA, that's an awful lot of AA segments that could credit as Revenue instead of Distance and earn quite poorly, you might consider restructuring your US domestic segments to use AS metal or codeshares instead. BOS to DFW is also available as a JL codeshare, but not sure you can ticket it as a JL codeshare if you stopover in BOS, definitely worth a try. Codeshares have to be entered manually, so will require a phone agent vs. the OneWorld tool.

Not sure when you're planning BOS-ANC, currently in winter season AS has an ORD flight on Saturday and Sunday that doesn't count as your 1 allowable transcon. That can be booked as AS 6392 and AS 97, that goes to daily in summer season.

Your final transcon also could be via SFO instead of LAX to get an AS flight instead of AA... sure I know AS doesn't have a premium cabin like AA and the lounge situation in SFO isn't great compared to the QF lounge in LAX, but if maximizing mileage is the goal, that would earn better. (assuming again that AA credits your flights as Revenue instead of Distance, which can go either way it seems).

Similarly UL is the least sexy of OW partners crediting premium cabin to AA (no cabin bonus on D and I fares). For the last stage, instead of UL BKK-CMB-NRT you'd earn a lot more miles doing MH BKK-KUL and then JL KUL-NRT. JL now has a 150% cabin bonus on D fares.

If you're planning to credit to QR ignore everything I said and use the Q Points calculator, I forget if all partners earn Q Points equally or not.

QR, but you made some interesting observations notwithstanding your caution to ignore everything you said. 😉

When I started seeing J/D redemptions in the hundreds of thousands of miles on AA, then I knew that it was time to move back to QRPC, where I was once PLT and will be again after this trip.

It will either be the very end of April, or the first week in May. Since I'm crediting to QRPC, DFW gives me a slightly longer flight, and hence a few more Avios.

Exactly, there's no cabin or COS bonus on UL when crediting to AA. But since I'll be crediting to QRPC, I'll do fine. I've flown UL a lot, and quite like it, although the facilities at CMB leave a bit to be desired. I've used the shower there, and it's at the very bottom of acceptable (at least it was last time I was there, several years ago), but if I have to, it will be OK.

I don't know if the earnings are equal regardless of the carrier, I just used the calculator on the website. It does require that you select the carrier, so who knows? I should get two years of QRPC PLT (OW EMD) out of this itinerary, so that will be nice. I don't think that the same itinerary on AA would even get me to EXP, never mind the absurd prices on mileage redemptions.

Thank you much for your thoughtful responses. Any suggestions for increasing my mileage?