RTW or a bunch of one ways??
 

Hey everyone..

Ok so longstory short, like to fly ( All in J) from EU to HNL, spend 10 days with family, then fly to Japan, spend 2 wks, then fly back to EU. One ways appear to be cheaper than rtw, about 4.5k ish. Since I only want these two destinations, is that the way to go? Is there a cheaper rtw ticket that restricts u to a few stops? Just wondering how to accomplish this?
Thxs

4.5k what? Dollars, Euros, Pounds?

You can do an ex-OSL RTW for about $5,600. the benefit is easy flight changes if plans change along the way as well as potentially enhanced earnings (D fare vs. I, R, or X fares). Can fly on the airlines you really want vs. the cheapest (Example QR from OSL to USA, and Japan to Europe). You can also add more stops should you want to. You can likely also just end your trip wherever you are in the EU vs. actually flying the final leg back to OSL.

I don't know if any of those points are worth a bit more or not, but something to consider.

Apologies...all in pounds. Based in UK

The rules for the Oneworld Explorer state that a minimum of two stopovers have to take place (stopover = 24h+) so your plan would fit into that rule. Before we could do a fair apples-to- apples comparison we'd need to know when you plan to travel and what airlines/routes you've used to determine the one-way prices. I just did a short back-of-the-envelope survey for mid-June departing London, and using what I'll call "major" airlines rather than more budget carriers like WestJet, and came up with a total of around £7000 - £8000.

The base price of a DONE3 (three continents) RTW started and ending in the UK is £5471; adding (a guess) of 15% for taxes and fees and you've got a total of £6291. If you flew from EDI or GLA to Norway (roughly £80 - £120) and started the RTW there, the base price is £3908, and after the same 15%, £4494. Of course, the RTW allows up to 16 flights, and you could, if starting in Norway, return to Scotland and still have a trip within Europe or the Middle East possible before returning to Oslo within the 12 months of the ticket's validity.

You could also look at two nested return trips, London - Tokyo - London and Tokyo - Hawaii - Tokyo, which in mid-summer comes to a number very close to the Oslo RTW cost counting taxes and fees.

But more information on your timing and carrier/routes would be beneficial.

Thanks so much for all this great info.

So plan is to travel with OW in J. Travelling primarily end of Jan and all of Feb 2025. Osl is easy to get to. Flying to HNL first for a week, Then to Japan ( visit Hoikido and southern part of Island) for 17 days I may need to use Avios for those little flights. Then back to Eu (fly back to Edi). Thoughts?

With the RTW you're allowed four flights within Asia, six within North America (which includes the Caribbean and Central America as well as Alaska and Hawaii) and four within Europe and the Middle East, but only two stopovers in the "continent of origin," in this case Europe.

In your case you could fly around Japan for the 4 flights - CTS/Sapporo for Hokkaido, or to other Japanese destinations, or Okinawa, or you could stop for a day or two in Hong Kong or Singapore on the way back to the UK. For Hawaii, you could fly to Honolulu, Maui, the Big Island or Kauai nonstop from the mainland. Alaska Airlines recently announced it's acquiring Hawaii Airlines, which has a big network in Hawaii as well as serving a number of mainland cities. If that acquisition is complete by the end of this year (??) you might be able to use the RTW for in-state travel in Hawaii too.

I put together an imaginary route using the RTW from Oslo. Like I say, imaginary, but maybe indicative of what you could do.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7c73d38da7.jpg

This would start in Oslo, then travel to Dallas from London, then to Honolulu. I picked DFW as the connection point on the mainland because American flies 789s with beds from DFW to HNL, while service from the west coast on American or Alaska is in planes with domestic business/first class seats, i.e., recliners.

After Hawaii you'd fly on JL to Haneda, then I show a JL flight (on 787s also) up to CTS on Hokkaido, back to Tokyo, then returning to Edinburgh via Helsinki. After however long you want, you'd end the trip back in Oslo. I show a side trip to Qatar using QRs nonstops from EDI to DOH, then DOH-OSL, but you could go someplace else (Madrid? Finland?) if you want. I haven't figured out the tier points or Avios for this route, but they'd be significant.

Just an example.

Amazing stuff. Thxs so much.

Yeah I was trying to see how i could effectively get two holiday trips out of the one fare. I'm assuming the side trip from Edi to doh, then back to osl is the second trip?

Talk of rtw starting from TYO really good value is that correct? Prob is, its a stack of cash to get to that start point i guess.

Yes, that's the second trip.

A DONE3 ex-Japan is around 450 quid cheaper than ex-Norway. Wouldn't be enough difference in my view.

Realistically. If after 3 wks i went back to Edi. Whats the best trip i could do in J from Edinburgh to make this worth while? Qatar? Or something better?

Which one-ways did you find on which airlines that added up to 4.5K?

Apologies it was 4.6k

Jan 2025.
Osl-Kef-Sea-Hnl £1410 ( Iceland, Alaska)
Hnl-Tyo £1453 ( Hawaiian)
Tyo-Osl £1650 ( Singapore, sas)

RTW from OSL is absolutely better Value.

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With a DONE3 anywhere in Europe/Middle East that OW service as long as you don’t exceed your max 16 segments and stay within the stopover/free flight/routing/included airline rules.

Rules are here:

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

You're limited to four flights within the Europe/Middle East "continent," and two stopovers.

Because there are no Oneworld longhaul flights that operate from Oslo to other continents, your first segment will have to be one inside the region - to some Oneworld destination like Doha, London, Helsinki, Madrid, etc. Likewise your last flight will need to get you back to Oslo, with the same problem but in reverse.

So on my imaginary trip, I'd have you returning to Edinburgh from Japan via Helsinki. That would be your second Europe segment, the first one having been OSL-LHR at the beginning. That would put you in Edinburgh with two of your four flights used, and one of the two allowed stopovers. At present, as far as I can tell (and I'd be happy to be proved wrong) the only airports in Europe/Middle East with direct service to/from Edinburgh are a few in the UK, Madrid, Helsinki and Doha. Everything else would require burning a segment from EDI to the likes of LHR, leaving only one Europe/ME segment remaining, which would have to be to Norway. Hope that makes sense, thus my suggestion is that your Europe/ME segments and stopovers be OSL-LHR, HEL-EDI, EDI-DOH, and DOH-OSL, with stopovers at EDI and DOH. Now you could swap HND-HEL with HND-LHR and use London as your first stopover (head home to EDI on your own) then go someplace else from London on the "bonus" holiday, but you'd still need to reserve a final segment to get to Oslo, with the same limitations on airports with direct flights to OSL that you had before.

You might also want to consider the impact of your routing on your BA status. Finnair is moving to an Avios system (Qatar and Iberia already have) but I don't know how flights operated by AY or QR count toward BA status or if they satisfy the "4 BA/Iberia metal" requirements to advance in BAEC status (in addition to tier point thresholds.) This is something you could/ought to review in light of any other travel plans you might have for the year.

Yeah, starting in OSL, whilst saving a good amount of £ over LHR, does give you some limitations as does including EDI within the ticket.

I think I’d go HND to LHR (self return to EDI) and save a flight (3 now) for the mini trip starting at LHR, which would give you more options effectively, as a return trip out of LHR, remembering you can’t have another stop over so you’d need to book a connection of less than 24 hours from LHR to OSL even if not flying it, to complete the RTW.

Say book LHR>Wherever in E/ME>LHR>OSL and maybe don’t fly the last leg.

You will get TPs and Avios on both AY and QR with your BAEC number on the booking, but they’d only count against the 4 flights if they are booked as BA codeshares.

If you really wanted to maximize the rtw tickets, you would start one DONE3 ex-OSL and use that for your US flights and to get to Japan. While you are in Japan start another DONEX and use that to return to the UK. Then whenever the mood strikes you continue on with the ex-TYO DONE3/4 -- you could do a trip or two within EUR/ME before continuing west sometime within the validity of the two tickets to the US and then to Asia eventually returning to Japan to end your ex-TYO DONE3 and picking up your ex-OSL DONE to return to EUR.