potfish

Key details: Based in Boston but aware it's much cheaper to start from Oslo. We are two adults and one child (will be 9) so school holidays are a big factor in our planning.

Idea: position to OSL mid to late July 2023, start DONEx late July, focusing on Southeast Asia and Australia/NZ to arrive back in BOS late August in time for school.
When schools stop again late June 2024, resume DONEx with some select stops in Middle East and maybe a little Europe to arrive back in OSL just before the 1 year is up. Then, reposition back to BOS at our leisure.

Because we only have effectively say 5-6 weeks of actual travel time each summer, we won't do much of Europe or Africa and no South America at all (this time). Europe is easy to do another time, and for Africa and South America we'd rather take more time. We toyed with the idea of putting a week in NBO but I think it's stretching too thin.

We are looking to maximize our destination experience. Miles and status earnings are much less important (sacrilege I know) but I am sure I'll want to look at that once we have a basic outline.

So we're thinking a DONE4 as follows:
2023: OSL xDOH BKK TYO SYD AKL ...???... BOS (via HNL would be nice)
2024: BOS MAD CAI DOH OSL

Priorities: Japan, Thailand, Australia (SYD), NZ, Egypt
Would like: A stop in Vietnam would be amazing. How could we add Darwin? Have to go via Perth or Brisbane, or any other route possible other than buying an extra ticket?
Not important (this time): Europe, anywhere else in Australia, any USA stops other than Boston

Issues: the Oneworld tool can't find flights so I can't get a baseline, let alone experiment with more creative options. I tried to make it easy by saying start in Oslo and then added only BKK TYO SYD AKL BOS CAI and it says it can't find anything from Tokyo to Auckland. Dragging things around, it said it couldn't find anything from Tokyo to Sydney, and a variety of other errors. I once had an error that I was exceeding the number of segments in my starting continent but I could only count 4 - OSL-DOH at the start and then transit (e.g. MAD/DOH/LHR) to CAI to transit (e.g. DOH/MAD) to OSL.

Looking for help how to plan an itinerary that can actually pass checks and show that what I'm trying to do is possible, please.

Mwenenzi

The wikipedia entries for airports give a good guide on airlines/routes. Not always up to date or include published future routes, But a start for more detailed research:-- airline route/schedule checking

Qantas are due to start a new route SYD-AKL-JFK in June 2023. A good fit for your plans as counts as 1 segment. SYD-JFK or AKL-JFK. 3 off D tickets may be a challenge.
Otherwise backtrack from NZ via AU to USA. Flights AU east coast<--->NZ [~3:30hrs] can be cheap to buy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin...tional_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel...tional_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Airport QF fly to HNL

Will be 100's of possible options.
A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper
You need to check all those routes exist with OW airlines as a direct route. (without transit airport with a different flight number)
Unsure if CAI-DOH-OSL fits the rules. CAI-LHR-OSL would.
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=c%3Ablu...=bm&PW=3&DU=mi

potfish

Thanks re Wikipedia and also the new Qantas flight, I'll check both.

I did already research Oneworld flights on https://www.flightconnections.com/route-map-oneworld and there are flights HND-SYD (I must have made a mistake thinking there are flights TYO-AKL direct, seems not). The tool errored on HND-SYD so I wonder if that was more an availability of D tickets (for the random dates I put in) rather than the route not being valid.

I wondered whether moving Japan after Aus/NZ might help, since there is an NRT-BOS flight, but am I reading the rules correctly? Flying back into Asia from SWP would only be permitted to make a transit, no stopover allowed?

potfish

Looks like this is all possible on direct Oneworld flights - OSL DOH HAN NRT BKK SYD AKL JFK ...

I checked a few and see D9 on ExpertFlyer. In some cases though I see D9 on the main carrier but D0 on the codeshares. Not sure what that means.

Mwenenzi

D is a discounted business class fare. Due to regulatory constraints and/or commercial agreements D, as a code share, may not be offered.
Depending in the ffp at times flying the code share can have better ff earnings.

A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper

potfish

Still learning the rules here:

So that means OSL DOH BKK ... JFK MAD CAI xLHR OSL is not possible, we'd have to transit-only at either DOH or MAD. That's a shame.

pandaperth

Doha is as hot as hades in June/July (I know, I was there for a few days in June this year)
A transit can be up to 24hrs
QR daily flight from OSL arrives DOH @ 23:15
first onward flight to HAN departs @ 02:55 daily (but is only an A330)
second onward flight to HAN departs at 19:50 (Mon, Wed, Fri only) (but is a B788) - this would give you a day in Doha

With regard to the rules etc - have you looked at the wiki to the User Guide, might give you some ideas

potfish

Thanks for the pointer about DOH and up to 24 hours. That would certainly be long enough. The July/August weather at various points will probably trigger more changes of mind as we research.

Yes I have, and also the FAQ from Oneworld, but there are so many rules it is taking a while for all the implications to settle in. Thanks for your patience.

In that user guide:
If that is true then my route needs further modification, but I can't find that rule in Oneworld document. What am I missing?

pandaperth

It is not one of the ticket rules, it is a restriction of the online booking tool.

In the User Guide, it is under the dot point of "Use the Online Booking Tool" (to book your itinerary)
For some reason, unknown to us, the tool cannot handle QR's being the first carrier on an itinerary
You can still have such an itinerary, but it must be booked directly with an airline or with a travel agent

potfish

Still trying to include Darwin. If I check ExpertFlyer, class D doesn't seem to exist. Not D0, no D at all.
Does that mean that on a DONE4, we would have to sit in economy using the L class bucket, or we can't do it at all?

Current plan, adjusted to save some places for another time, that would be much better at a different time of year.
2023 summer: OSL DOH SIN NRT BKK HKG PER DRW SYD AKL JFK (DOH less than 24h possible)
2023 winter: JFK SXM or CUN or somewhere else warm, back to JFK
2024 summer: JFK TLV AMM xLHR OSL (yes TLV-AMM is a waste and may do that as a surface sector)
Great Circle Mapper

Other than the PER-DRW leg there is availability in D for all of the summer 2023 flights, and the later ones will just be placeholders anyway.

It would help if we didn't have to return to OSL at the end... if we could quit the RTW ticket in LHR or maybe MAD that would get us back to BOS faster. (I know we'd have to avoid getting our bags checked through.)

jerry a. laska

From the rules:
https://assets.ctfassets.net/m9ph4qv...d-explorer.pdf

Mwenenzi

Not all domestic QF flights/aircraft have business class.
But most of the time PER-DRW looks to be B737, so has business class. May be some reason why QF not selling the discounted business class D
Some PER-DRW flights are on a Qantaslink - Network Aviation A320 180 seats all economy (e.g. QF1604 random date of Friday17 Feb)
https://www.qantas.com/au/en/qantas-...imetables.html

potfish

Thank you both. I think we can handle 3h30 out of a RTW in economy!

allset2travel

Re: First flight on QR

I had flown the First flight OSL-DOH on QR. That ticket was booked by AA (call the AA RTW Desk). Some on this board claimed that AA would ticket if you had a long haul on AA. In my case I did have a cross Atlantic flight on AA.

I recommend book with AA because they have more competent agents to assist you post sales. Next to AA is CX. This is based on my own experience.

allset2travel

Deleted due to double post (slow web).