I'm going to be taking a RTW starting in November. Here's the basic itinerary:

CHC-ZQN
ZQN-AKL
AKL-SYD
SYD-BKK

Overland to Hanoi

HAN-HKG
HKG-JNB
JNB-NBO
NBO-LHR
LHR-CAI

Overland to Jordan

AMM-LHR
LGW-DFW
DFW-LAS
LAS-HOU

HOU-somewhere in the Carribean...haven't looked yet to see what's available.
Back to HOU

There will be ticketed LAX-AKL but it will be thrown away.

Any problems with this itinerary?

I don't believe you can include HAN-HKG. I was told it is because it is a code share/revenue share with Vietnam Airline.

Well, that's annoying...at least there are cheap flights from HAN-BKK where I can pick up a BKK-HKG segment.

I think you may be hitting a segement limit problem in NA.

LAS-HOU is going to be 2 segs - via DFW.

HOU-Carribean is going to be 2 segs each way (assuming you want to get back to HOU). That would make it 7 segs already. You will need to cut onw out or buy an extra.

If on the other hand your 'destination' is LAX (given that LAX-AKL is going to be thrown away) then you could do:

DFW-LAS-DFW-HOU-DFW-XXX-LAX

to keep you within th 6 segment limit. XXX would have to be something in the carribean which has a single flight number service to LAX - the only one I know of is SJD.

SJU

Well, actually the final destination is going to be HOU. I'm doing this as a leisure travel thing...I'd like to maximize miles as a bonus, but that's not the main objective.

Here's the basic story: I'm in Antarctica right now working at a research base. When I get out I get dropped off in CHC with a fare credit back home that makes my 4 continent trip (economy class) about $1600 USD. My home base is HOU, so that's why I need to end up there. The LAS part is for a friend's bachelor party, so that has to stay. The DFW-HOU is only a quick stop so that I can take the LSAT on Feb 12th, before I try to use the rest of my segments. As far as the alliance needs to know I'm making my way overland to LAX, so no flights actually have to end up there. I can get a round trip DFW-HOU-DFW for about $120 USD, so there's no point in wasting two segments for that. If I need to buy additional segments at whatever the cost is, that might be a good option.

What are the best destinations in the Carribean that would use my remaining segments to the best advantage, returning me to DFW, IAH, or HOU? An additional bonus would be if they had easy access to Havana, off network of course.

That's actually 5 continents for the price I mentioned...Aus-NZ, Asia, Africa, Europe, and NA.

The easiest are CUN, GCM, and AUA, but GCM and AUA don't go to Dallas. Grand Cayman goes to and from Miami and Aruba goes through and from about 10 cities. You can also go from Mexico City, the Dominican Republic, and a few other places in the Caribbean but they are significantly more expensive from my experience. Unfortunately I was unable to go because I trusted someone to do the right thing and they f-ed everything up but I did about 5 months of research and "bureaucracy navigation" leading up to going.

I won't publically question your sanity about taking the LSAT, but I will say that if youre an American citizen then I would think very seriously before going to Cuba when you're taking the LSAT. Especially with the recent tightening of the restrictions which I don't foresee changing any time soon, you have ample notice that you aren't supposed to be going.

[QUOTE=theglobalguy] The DFW-HOU is only a quick stop so that I can take the LSAT on Feb 12th, before I try to use the rest of my segments. [QUOTE]

Why not just take the LSAT at DFW?

JD

PS Good luck!

Hold on -- isn't there a 2 segment limit in the continent of origin? Or are there exceptions?

No - the number of segmnents you are allowed in the basic price is the same regardless of the continent of origin. What is different about the continent of origin is that you can only have two stopovers, and you may not buy additional segments.

I have been on RTWs for the last several years and have been to SJO and BZE via DFW flights.

I appreciate all the advice.

The Havana thing more than likely won't actually happen...the person who posted about the legal issue especially for someone that will eventually take the bar exam has an excellent point. It's something I've been thinking about, but won't make a final decision until most likely right before the time.

I need to head to HOU just because it's where home is, and that way I've got a week to relax, study and get over any jet lag before the exam.

Afterwards, I'm really going to need some sun and island time...I'm thinking DR at the moment, just for the variety of activities, and the fact that it's easy to avoid the package holiday crowd.

Even if you wanted to go to Cuba, you can't do so and have any American Airlines coupons in the ticket. Explicitly stated in the rules. Iberia and Lan Chile do have flights to Cuba. Though non-US citizen can visit, they are also restricted to no AA flight coupons in their ticket.

By "off network" I think he wants to go to somewhere that he can then buy a seperate ticket to Cuba from. I seem to remember that Cancun is about $250 on Mexicana, Grand Cayman is about $175 on Cayman Airways, and Aruba is about $200 on Aeropostal. All the others run about $500-600.

I do hope youre going to put more than a week into the LSAT. A lot of it is natural logical ability but a lot is also question pattern recognition that comes only from doing a slew of them before the test. That's what Kaplan and the other test prep places actually teach and it's what seperates the 170's from the 155's. Whatever you're getting in your practice tests, drop the score 5-10 points and that's about where youre going to end up at. In any event, good luck with it.