Oneworld Explorer - first timer
 

Hi everyone. I'm new to Flyertalk and was hoping to get some general feedback on my proposed Oneworld Explorer route and also some of the specific queries I have. Apologies if my lingo isn't up to scratch - I'm still learning! Let me know if you want to clarify anything. I've read a lot about the xONEx ticket rules and have spent many frustrating hours playing with the Oneworld online tool, but I won't pretend to know all the nuances of all the rules at this stage.

For some background, my wife and I are planning to take a year off work starting Feb/Mar 2024 and doing some extended RTW travel for the full year. We've flown a bit over the last 10 years or so, but wouldn't be frequent flyers by any stretch of the imagination - most of our flights have been simple returns or maybe the odd open jaw return, so this is a whole new level of complexity! We've largely planned our route out (albeit have plenty of room for tweaking as it will probably be summer next year before we book anything). I don't have a subscription to Expertflyer, but will strongly consider this from next Apr/May when I start looking at real dates for flights, as I understand it is the go-to for checking flight availability by fare class. We are hoping to stretch the flights budget to business rather than economy, so the below is based on a DONE5 (coming in at approximately €7,700 incl. taxes and charges based on the below).

Current planned route is BUD-xLHR-SCL-MIA-ORD-ANC-HNL-SYD-NAN-SYD-AKL-KUL-DEL-xDOH-AMM-xLHR-BUD

• We don't have any status with any airlines at the minute or any existing miles/Avios. My current thinking is to sign up to British Airways Exec Club to credit these flights to. I understand that the best Avios earning is with BA, AA and IB, of which we have quite a few flights (and some where we can book the codeshare, e.g. AA on Qantas metal for HNL to SYD). In addition, the distance based earning will come in handy for short haul redemptions in US and Europe, as will the link to Aer Lingus (as we are based in Ireland). Additionally, it seems relatively easy to get to Silver status on BA which has lounge access and seat selection benefits that would really interest us. I'm open to comments on any better frequent flyer program to join instead.
• I'm a little unclear on how the proposed change to revenue-based Avios earning will impact a RTW ticket such as this - is it based on the overall ticket price, or the standard fare price for the flights I travel on. If it's going to be based on the price we pay for the DONE5, it looks like the mileage earning will be way down vs the distance/fare method at the minute.
• I am unsure who to actually book this ticket with. I have read that BA tend to add a lot of additional surcharges to their tickets, but when I check dummy flights on ITA Matrix, BA seem to come in lower than the other options such as IB and QR (as long as I transit UK rather than stopover). That's why I am going via Heathrow on the first leg at the minute, but can easily change that to MAD on IB if that's a better or cheaper option. IB flights count towards eligible flights for bronze/silver status on BAEC also so no issues there. I understand AA have a RTW desk and we will probably be flying over the Pacific with them, so they are an option to book through also. Any thoughts?
• We are starting in BUD which I understand is the cheapest place in Europe at the minute to start a DONE5. We can easily change this if somewhere else becomes cheaper in the next 6/9 months. I would intend to book the positioning flights from DUB to BUD on BA or IB via LHR or MAD which will count as eligible flights towards bronze/silver status.
• From looking at dummy bookings based on 2023 equivalent dates, the main problem segment for getting availability seems to be HNL to SYD on Qantas. I'm a small bit concerned that we could end up being bumped down to economy on that leg due to lack of D availability on the Qantas flight. One possibility I considered was changing HNL to LAX and then just redeeming miles for flights to/from Hawaii on AA. There are extra flights from LAX to SYD so should help with availability, but would ultimately end up costing more in either cash or miles.
• Transit through Doha from DEL to AMM could be changed to MCT if Oman Air on board with Oneworld by then, as Qatar surcharges seem quite high.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Looks like a fun trip. Just a few pointers I can think of. Look at departing OSL as well, that's often the cheapest in Europe, I hadn't heard that BUD is now cheaper but could be wrong.

The surcharges seem to depend on which airline plates the ticket. I have a 6 QR segments on a current DONE5 and my surcharges were very low, it's QF issued. Having said that if you go QF issued, book via a travel agent, QF's customer service line for changes is mostly clueless about RTWs. I don't have any BA segments on my ticket to have tested it, but I did hear that IB segments have much lower surcharges than BA. I think both are equally as bad in business class, but just saw that the IB flight attendants sued the airline over carry on weights because they don't want to lift the larger bins on the A350 so apparently the airline will be strictly enforcing weight from now on, if that matters to you.

Agree, HNL-SYD is going to be extremely difficult, if you go LAX instead you have 2 QF flights (currently) and an AA flight, in addition to the QF BNE and MEL flights. I suspect by the time of your trip all QF LAX flights will be back on A380s again so more seats, and hopefully more D space. QF is very stingy with D space on North America flights, but AA not so much. You can always ticket it on AA72 and change it to QF later if D space opens.

For a frequent flyer plan, it's hard to say for 2024 right now as things change fast, but with BA and IB going revenue based, those may not be the best answers, depends on how they deal with partner coded flights, but also if they are like AA then there could be a hard cap on max miles earned on a revenue based ticket, we'll have to see. From just a pure mileage earning perspective AS Mileage Plan is pretty darn sexy for that trip, however you won't earn any status without a pretty substantial number of AS metal flights. AA also has a pretty good award chart for some regions and credits quite well for BA / IB / AY / QR flights, but pretty miserable for AA coded flights themselves, if you credited to AA you'd want to absolutely minimize any AA coded flights... the good news is that a lot of them can be booked as codeshares as long as AA isn't the ticketing carrier. (Travel agent still can, but word is that AA will insist on using their own codes if booking with them directly).

If you're just after status then you might still credit to BA, but you'll want to do some comparisons between BA, IB, and QR as they all earn Avios, all can be transferred between the programs (and EI) and all will get you the same lounge benefit. All 3 are similar but slightly different in how they award status points, so you really have to put it down to the actual itinerary you settle in on. Apparently IB and BA status point earning won't change in the new revenue based program. If you go with QR Privilege Club you'll probably earn 125% of miles flown on most the flights and a bit better (175% or more depending on status level at the time) on QR flights themselves.. That's not bad but also not the greatest you can do. QR also has reduced elite point thresholds for renewals to make it easier to keep once you earn it.

Padkir Welcome to FT and the OW *ONE* subforum/threads

For SYD-HNL from the rules
So a QF code share on the Jetstar JQ HNL MEL or SYD B787 service an option
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jetstar lists that JQ code share's with AA & others. But a quick look JQ3 JQ4 is not offered as AA code share. Does have a QF flight number. Have not checked if QF5574 (JQ4) has D class
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel...tional_Airport

From June 2023 QF is scheduled to fly AKL-JFK. That will introduce options for some people, if QF offer D.

For NAN is a pity FJ is not a full OW member. FJ's Oneworld connect seems to do very little. Would give many more options other than SYD-NAN-SYD. Paying cash or ff miles/avios for NAN (return or one-way) an option, and gives some *ONE* segments back.
Wikipedia FJ routes (may not be up to date)-->https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s_destinations

A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper

With the changing avios earning in 2023 will need some good number crunching to optimise avios earning to BA-IB-IE-QR
By Feb/Mar 2024 routes will be different. And ffp rules different

Thanks for the detailed input.

Just on the surcharges, so are you saying that sometimes the airline that issues the ticket doesn't necessarily always include the surcharges for other airlines that would show up on the flight as per ITA Matrix. Or is it that certain airlines, e.g. British Airways, would add additional surcharges on top of what's on ITA Matrix results?

Yeah, I guess I'll just have to re-assess the frequent flyer program closer to when I'm actually flying to see what's the story then. I might be misunderstanding, but I read a few things which would suggest that the flights operated by partner airlines would still have to earn Avios on the fare class/distance method, because they wouldn't have the access to the actual fare price to do everything on a revenue based model. How does that work with other airlines that are revenue based miles earning? If that's the case, then BAEC might still be the most suitable for me as most of my flights won't be with them (there are alternatives for the few flights I currently have on BA).