Am planning to shortly book ex OSL DONE4. We have completed a number of xONEx - but many years ago. Just had some confirmations and questions that I would appreciate any comments on.

1. As an ex Europe ticket we need to finish in country of origin, in this case Norway
2. We can book a ticket today with first segment in 330 days and take our final flight 12 months after that. Specifically, we can book now for our first segment next September 2025 and leave later segments open dated, to be taken up to July 2026.
3. Assume it is not possible to have open dated segments when booking through the online tool?
4. Our first segment will be Finnair. Assume they are not best to ticket through?
5. Am considering using AA RTW desk (but wary of noted issues with availability) or possibly a specialist travel agent that we have used before. Any thoughts on preferred option?

Proposed itinerary: OSL-HEL-HKG-HAN-HKG-SYD-PER-ADL-SYD-HNL-DFW-MIA-JFK-MAD-OSL

Use your travel agent.

One further question. The online tool says if you go over 26,000 miles you can only have 4 North American segments. Is that right?

It is picking up an error (for a DONE) and defaulting to the distance based GLOB. May be a false error. No distance restriction on DONE.
https://www.oneworld.com/round-the-world

Are all the flights on OW airlines and non stop? GLOB has more eligible airlines.

All flights are One World. The OSL - HEL - HKG I had to put as separate flight otherwise it kept routing me via London from OSL - HKG, but I have chosen flights that give me less than 24 hours in HEL. It works when I take out the extra NA segments, but I presume that it is because it is just forcing a Global Explorer.

I think I will just get the agent to do it.

Thanks

Have you thought about using Qatar for the OSL HKG? I stumbled on that option to try.

I would strongly advise the AA rtw to ticket, not aware of any availability issues unique to them. Your life will almost cetainly be very significantly easier both to ticket and when you want to make changes.

i don't think Finn Air ever ticket xONEx tickets. Its non trivial to have open dated tickets most ways you ticket but it's free to change dates later so just far-ish out dates in.

The rules allow 16 segments. You seem to have less.
OSL-DOH-HKG would be my preferred routing for obvious reasons.
JFK-MAD can be on AA coded flight to ensure your ticketing by AA.
You can't have open date. All flights must have dates.

OSL-DOH-HKG would definitely be a nicer first flight, but I wonder if it's a bit (~$200?) more expensive in taxes/surcharges which may or may not sway you.

Thanks for the comments.

We like the Finnair business class seat and don�t drink alcohol or eat much in flight. We also prefer not DOH following events at that airport historically.

Will chat to the agent soon and consider whether AA RTW might also be an option.

I have to recommend the AA RTW desk for a far in the future XONEX.

We booked DONE3 back in March 2024 for travel starting January 2025.

Fortunately, we booked it with AA RTW because I've already received a couple handfuls of changes/cancellations to the itinerary that required phone calls.
One of the changes was cancellation of the first flight from ORIGIN.

Lots of phone time. At least it's a dedicated desk.

Generally you can’t leave segments open dated, at least in my experience with AA RTW desk. You might need to leave until say 300 days before departure then book flights on specified dates, and move them later. No charge to do this as long as you don’t change routing - watch out that you separate the flights because if one ends up automatically classified as a “stopover” then rescheduling may trigger repricing and a change fee.
While the Finnair blueberry juice is wonderful, QR’s Qsuite is very comfortable indeed, and the service excellent. I don’t know why DOH is an issue - we have always found it very smooth and the lounge is excellent (once you go through all the flapping about which lounge you are allowed into).
Nevertheless regardless of AY or AA or QR it’s usually best to book with the AA RTW desk.

This is why we prefer not DOH. Thanks

Australian women sue Qatar Airways over forced examinations at Doha airport | Australia news | The Guardian

“authorities searched for the mother of a newborn baby found abandoned in a plastic bag”
Yes, that sounds like a sufficiently frequent scenario to warrant changing travel patterns to avoid :-)
A horrible incident all around, for sure - but shown in court to be actions of police and not QR.

Well, since QR is government owned�.