RTW - Maximize US 6 segments
 

As I am planning for my RTW US segment, would like to get some advice.
Will be flying in from HKG - JFK via CX then fly out from LAX - DOH via QR, have to make a stop in DFW for visiting friends.

Here's what I draw out, yet to share with QF team, would appreciate advice from experience board member, is there any errors or against the rules?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ede56cd2e4.jpg

You have too many transcontinental flights. The rule is:

Thanks for your advice.
- i need to look up US map to refer back to 4k, definitely didnt catch this rule earlier.
- for Alaska, i thought my routes are ok? ie one to Alaska (JFK-ANC) and one from Alaska (ANC-DFW)

Yes, but note the JFK-ANC service is seasonal.

For your transcons, as already pointed out you have too many. You can only do one, after that you have to have a stopover in DFW or ORD basically (considering OW Hubs, but you could do it other ways with a stopover / transit in a non-hub city)

Having said that, trying to max out all 6 North America segments may not be as advantageous as trying to max out other parts of the world. BOS-LAX for example is shorter than DEL-TYO or DOH-DUB. If your goal is max BIS meiles, since you only get 16 segments in total, I'd make sure my Europe and Asia segments were optimized first since that can be 8 of your 16 plus the minimum of 3 intercontinental segments, you're already at 11.

Within North America, don't forget Central America counts and isn't subject to the transcon rule. Since you have to break up your transcons anyway, it would be more miles to fly to Costa Rica for example than DFW. AA at least seasonally flies JFK-LIR, though it's not the same season that AS's JFK-ANC operates, I think the only one that both AA and AS operate throughout the year (From JFK and AS's west coast hubs) is CUN, but it's still more distance than a transit in DFW.

thanks for the valuable insights
I am both trying to optimize my current and first RTW, as well as learn to plan better for next.

For my current RTW (DONE3), it's ex-Cai - Europe - Asia - US. It's my very first, got it through the RTW online tool, thus it's not optimize both due to tool limitation and my inexperience.
I done my ex-Cai to Europe, and back to Asia now. 3 segments in Europe done, left 1 I probably can add one more stop after my current open jaw last stop in DOH from US
My asia segment is almost fixed, I can add one more segment after remove the surface segment.
As I still have some time before the US trip, thus, looking at how to improve it.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...078e0aa2e3.jpg

Hi,
Spent some time figuring out the rest of segments, learnt many things along the way.
1. US cross continent rules
2. My earlier post on maximizing the miles are not realistic, many of the segments are not direct
3. I can understand more why dvs7310 advice on maximize other continents, seems like the US flights are mostly small plane, and dont have full recline seats
Nevertheless, able to get this work on the manual RTW tools and price out the whole itinerary, so, i guess it's all within the rules.

Happy with this routing as,
1. Can visit both disneyland
2. Can stop by DFW twice, for friends and family
3. Can experience Al-Salwa in final leg.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...482db47bd2.jpg

Basically at the end of the day if you're satisfied with what you have then that's the best solution. That's the goal for all of us on these tickets, whether trying to maximize miles / status, getting to places that aren't cheap otherwise, or just going where you want / need to go... it's all OK.

These are fun, and can be a great value for the flights flown. But when you're getting exactly what you've set out for then it's a win.

With what you've already flown, I don't see many way to add more miles in Asia. You're picking it up from KUL, correct? If looks to me that with the deleted segments you have another intra-Asia segment to go, so via India would add some miles.

I'd certainly dump the LAX-SFO if you don't really need. it. Even a connection via DFW / ORD is better in terms of mileage earning.

If you would be happy with only one Disneyland, you could pick up ~1,700 BIS miles by changing DFW-MCO-PHL-LAX to DFW-SJU-ORD-LAX. SJU-ORD is seasonal, and you didn't mention the dates.

Speaking only for myself, I have no interest in trying to connect through an Indian airport. They're just too crowded and chaotic for me. When I'm looking for a connection in the western half of Asia to increase mileage, I use CMB. It's a small and manageable airport, and there's no transit security. (Each gate has its own security, so you're going through the same security whether you're in transit or CMB was a full stopover.) You get off your inbound flight and just go to your outbound gate. All gates other than bus gates are on one hallway. Yes, it can get crowded, but the airport is so small that it doesn't feel so bad, at least to me. UL is a perfectly respectable airline, at least in business (I've never flown it in Y). I somewhat regularly do long hauls between NRT/ICN and CMB. Not surprisingly, there are several shops selling various types of tea, so you have a good selection if that's your thing. The only downside is that the airline lounges are, to put it nicely, somewhat wanting. I won't use the showers there. The nicest lounge is the UL Serendib lounge, which I would rate as a C/C-, and it goes downhill from there. I believe that there is (or used to be) an EK lounge upstairs, but I've never used it, never flown EK in or out of CMB.

That's actually a really good point, especially for people crediting to BA where the carrier doesn't matter for TPs. For those crediting to AA though, UL doesn't get a cabin bonus where MH and JL do, so if going via CMB it's important to use the MH and JL codes, not the UL ones.

For myself, in this situation I'd still go via India because I'd like to do a stopover and spend a bit of time. But I've never been to the south of Sri Lanka, so that has appeal too if I have enough time, but don't particularly want to spend a bunch of time in Colombo itself. But if just doing it as a transit, then yes, agree, going via CMB on MH and JL codes would be a better experience.

I have explore a few options to optimize Asia segment,
Drawback on connecting to India,
- limited connection from NRT, when I checked, only BLR
- from India - KUL, MH is using narrow body plane
- less favorable airport and lounge experience

I tried to add NRT stop before my HKG connection to US. Was prompted by the manual tool that it's against the rule, cant fly to same direction / airport twice. May be I will do KUL-INC-HKG-JFK then

On the other side, I am again looking at my US segment, I want to try the lie-flat AA, ie 321T or 32B. Based on what I googled, this flight is between JFK - LAX (other airport like SFO, MIA, BOS are not in my plan). But when I checked seatguru, it seems that the MCO-LAX and PHL-LAX are using 32B too.
Still researching, trying to figure out why is AA using same code for different flight

Seatguru has not been updated for a *long* time--> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...u-defunct.html
No idea why people still refer to it. Or in the last decade.

Far better to use

• the airline seat maps
• aeroLOPA, created by Prospero https://www.aerolopa.com

Many thanks! aeroLOPA is indeed a lot nicer!

Update - QF accepted my itinerary, apart from no availability on KUL-HKG, the rest all good.