It depends what you mean by "change". I've completed 8 xONEx's, only 2 have had reroutes and one of them was due to rioting and travel alerts for BKK. Though I've changed flight times at least once on all of them.

and not forgetting that sometimes involuntary changes are required to due airlines dropping routes or rescheduling flights (broken connections)

oh right, that happened to me one too. One of my last LONE4's before I started using DONE3's.
Had booked NRT-MEL as last flight. QF canned it after ticket issue and reissued the e-ticket to a 17 sector paper ticket before departure. Then during the trip Thailand starting having issues resulting in BKK being dropped (and a stop in SIN instead of the planned connection) causing the paper ticket to be reissued back to an e ticket with remaining sectors and paper stock to be returned to agent upon return. (not that the ticket change stopped BA from demanding the paper coupon)

If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that Gardyloo knows his stuff on xONEx tix. That said, -- I thought that such a ticket is subject to repricing any time you change the city sequence, and the reason is that such a change would change the fare ladder. Is that no longer the case? Have I been wrong all along? (about repricing, not about Gardyloo!!)

Where is the Middle East? :D

The OW Explorer rule sheet
http://www.oneworld.com/documents/10...9-d346ec820edf

I can't see it explicitly says which countries are in the Middle East and which are in Europe. For example, is Turkey the Middle East or is it Europe?

Can anybody give me a definitive list of all countries which are classed by One World as Middle East?

I'm booking an ex-Cairo trip and working out where in the Middle East to end the trip.

Turkey is in Europe, including the part that's technically in Asia.

I've never seen a definitive list but what's in and what's out has been worked out by FTers over the years.

What's in:

• all the countries in the Saudi peninsula, including Israel
• Egypt and Sudan
• Libya (IIRC included only since the Europe and ME zones were defined for the rule on two visit to Europe)

What's out:

• Turkey (as Gardyloo said, it's counted as part of Europe even though most of the country is geographically part of Asia)

What's not known:

• Iran (before QR joined OW. no OW airlines flew there)

RTW over Xmas/New Year
 

Hi all

Am planning an itinerary over the Xmas-NYE season, a tough ask.

Would be v. grateful for any tips and tricks!

BOS-JFK-LAX-MEL-CBR-MEL-AKL-MEL-DXB-GVA-DXB-BOS.

OW tool quoted >$5k; I think I can DIY for $4,400 (JFK-DXB-MEL-DXB-GVA-DXB-BOS; BOS-JFK; MEL-CBR-MEL; MEL-AKL-MEL), but wondering whether picking a different routing/origin would be likely to save.

Any help much appreciated - thanks!

Since you say the tool quoted >$5, I'm assume you're considering purchasing a LONE4 (economy class, 4 continent) ticket

The base price of this ticket if starting in the USA is $5299, to which must be added the various country arrival/departure taxes and the various airline surcharges. (So I would have expected your itinerary to price out at over $6K)

Looks like you can save by going DIY

(Note: you itinerary is four continent, even though you only visit three. This is because of a rule that says if you fly direct Europe/Middle East to South West Pacific or v.v. then Asia must be counted :eek:)

In December you can buy a round trip ticket from BOS to Dublin for around $700, where an LONE4 will cost around US$3250 plus taxes/fees.

You could either head west, then finish back in Dublin before your flight back to Boston, or you could reverse your route and "stop over" in Boston for a long time, and maybe use your North America legs during the balance of the 12-month validity period of the ticket. In that case, you'd probably want to buy a one-way ticket to DUB (around $500) and use miles or points to get back after finishing the RTW.

Westbound - DUB-PHL-LAX-MEL-CBR-MEL-AKL-MEL-DXB-LHR-GVA-LHR-DUB
Eastbound - DUB-xLHR-GVA-DOH-DXB-MEL-CBR-MEL-AKL-MEL-LAX-BOS-(MIA-BOS?)-PHL-DUB

(I.e., you could squeeze in another trip from BOS before ending back in Ireland.)

Thanks very much Gardyloo and pandaperth - this is exactly the advice I had hoped for! Will update with what I find/book.

And it would be real shame if you just happened to miss the last segment back to the starting point ;) (but this has risks). I did a 363 day *ONE* with a stopover in Melbourne for 7 months. MEL-CBR-MEL is cheap to buy with cash so a waste of 2 SWP segments. Unless you want to visit DOH & DXB QR flys DOH-MEL

Look at Milege monkey but its now not 100% up to date. Many changes or airlines & routes & rules over the last year or so.

If you're thinking of taking up Gardyloo's suggestion of positioning to DUB (or elsewhere) to commence the RTW
Then I'd suggest you drop MEL-CBR-MEL, and perhaps even MEL-AKL-MEL
and thus gain four segments which you can use at your leisure for say two return trips from BOS to elsewhere in Nth America

MEL-CBR-MEL can be purchased cheaply
and usually MEL-AKL-MEL is also pretty cheap
Check it on itasoftware.com

This itinerary, DUB-xLHR-GVA-DOH-DXB-MEL-LAX-BOS-DUB uses only 8 of the allowed 16 segments
So you could then have 5 flight segments in Nth America (you are allowed up to six, but you are already using one for LAX-BOS)
and still have 3 segments left over (so perhaps add MEL-AKL-MEL back in:))

Getting a bit more complicated - fly into SYD instead of MEL, because it has better international connections. If you need to get to MEL then your add-on tickets could be SYD-AKL-MEL-CBR-SYD
Then fly back to BOS via Tokyo (SYD-NRT-BOS)
This will now allow you six Nth American segments to use at your leisure
And you'd still have 2 segments left - so perhaps use them at the end for a European holiday finishing up in DUB
And get back to BOS using some the frequent flyer miles you will have accrued on this trip
(you have thought about them, right?;))

Lots of possibilities to explore:D

Hello again Flyertalkers!

Have been researching some more (thanks to your advice), and have come up with this first draft for our RTW.

I guess it's a DONE5 (?)

The plan is to make the most of the ticket (obviously:)), and preferably fly with the best possible fleet. We'd like to alternate between visiting cities and beaches/relaxing.

Here is the itinerary as it looks now.

CAI-DOH-MEL-AKL-KUL-CMB-HKG-LAX-GRU-SCL-IPC-SCL-MIA-SKB-JFK-LHR-CAI

We will probably buy some separate tickets (+CPH-CAI-CPH of course) in Australia, Asia and maybe South America, so we get to see as much as possible.

All comments/questions are welcome!

Once again, thank you for your help!^

It looks like a fun trip you've got planned.

I can see a couple of issues, however.

First, you're backtracking. From Europe/Middle East you head to South-West Pacific, then backtrack to Asia. You must travel in a continuous direction, either eastward or westward. (Note, however, you can backtrack within regions (for example, you could fly PER-SYD-MEL-BNE).) So in your itinerary, you would need to go something like DOH-CMB-HKG-KUL-AKL-MEL-LAX (or DOH-KUL-CMB-HKG-AKL which, at a guess, would probably give you more miles).

The Americas are also a problem for you as again you are backtracking. You travel to LAX, then to South America then back to North America. You'll need to visit one of the Americas and then the other. One option would be to change AKL-MEL to AKL-SYD then fly onto South America from there on either LAN or Qantas. With this option I would aim to have your last North American stop as JFK because JFK-LHR is obviously a longer flight.

Do you want to finish in CAI? You only need to finish in the same region (Europe/Middle East) and the LHR-CAI flight is operated by a 767 so I'd be aiming for something a bit further afield and with a better aircraft (eg. DXB).

That's a few preliminary thoughts but others with more knowledge than I will jump in.

I think the first one is allowed (Europe/ME-SWP-Asia) but the second is a no-no unless LAX is a connection of less than 24-hours. If LAX is not a stopover it should be allowed.

Hey,

Can I just use book to book this route by using AA miles?
PDX-HNL-akl-syd-dps-sin-pen-hkg-tpe-tyo-ctu-ist-mil-pdx

Thanks,
Orchidvoyage

Welcome to FT!

Questions regarding the use of a specific FF program should be directed to the relevant airline board, in this case AA.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Europe/Middle East to Australia to Asia to North America is allowed on xONEx fare.

No need to do that. One of the visits through North America must be transit only, in this case a stop of under 24 hours at LAX makes sense. Note can revisit LAX after South America no problem.

And mileage maximising would mean flying for USA west coast to Europe, not from JFK.

Yes, it's a xONE5 (and a DONE5 if it's Business Class)

As has been pointed out, it's OK to visit South West Pacific before Asia
and that your visit to LAX must be no longer than 24hrs so as to allow the second visit to Nth America (after Sth America)

Generally the rules require you to finish in the same country as you started. But there is an exception for the Middle East. So starting in CAI, you can finish anywhere in the Middle East (MCT is the farthest from LHR if maximising frequent flyer miles is of interest;)).

If you are interested in maximising miles then let us know and we can suggest tweaks for you (starting with Kiwi Flyer's suggestion)
Your nice big backtrack from DOH to CMB via MEL-AKL-KUL was a very good start:)
Though CAI-LHR-MEL-AKL-KUL-CMB is even better:p

My apologies for the misinformation, Larssparholt. I'll take my leave.

Thank you for your comments and kind advices. They are all truly welcome and appreciated! :)

I should probably have mentioned that LAX is a transit of less than 24 hours, so I guess that makes the ticket in its current form valid, right?

I didn't know about the possibility of finishing the RTW ticket in another country than where we started. I'll definitely look into that. Thanks for pointing that out!

Now that you see the outline of the route, are there any obvious flights with better equipment I should consider?
-It doesn't really matter that much which countries we fly to between continents, as long as the visiting order of continents is unchanged. (Like I wrote earlier, we'll probably buy some separate tickets to travel between countries within the same continent).

If we can get extra miles on top of that, that's just icing on the cake. :cool:

Ok, I guess I have an additional question...

Trying, as suggested, to switch my final destination from CAI to, say, DXB caused the ticketprice to go up by roughly 25% (!) from $19K to $24K!!! :confused:

Can anyone explain that?

Yes, this is a known bug in the online tool. When you end in a different country than the originating one, the tool uses the end country's base price rather than the originating one's.

You have a couple of choices - either have airline personnel (such as the AA RTW desk or a GSA) make the booking, or use the online tool but show a return to the originating country, then change it ($125) after the ticket is issued.

I don't know if anyone has tried to exploit the tool by starting in, say, DXB and ending in CAI, possibly avoiding BA fuel fines (e.g. DXB-HKG...CAI) in the process, while ending up with the CAI price.

There is a bug in the online booking tool which causes flights ending in a different country within the middle east to price at the price for the ending location rather then the start.
An ex-CAI ticket should price at the Egypt price, but it's showing an ex-UAE price.

The buggy tool is one reason many people have been trying to locate other ways to ticket their xONEx's trips offline (often from outside the departing country).
You may need to find an agent in Egypt who will issue the booking and accept payment from outside Egypt.

So, it's a bug and not intended. Great! I'll hear with a travel agent if they can book it with the correct price. I'll need to use an agent or airline company anyway, since my first planned flight is with QR.

You might contact AA's and CX's GSA in Egypt, Emeco. A number of people have had good luck with Emeco arranging XONEX tickets ex-CAI.

Right - I have got a ticket to correctly price on the OW booking engine.

DONE5 ticket starts in Cairo and ends in Tel Aviv.

So I need to decide either to book it through the American Airlines RTW desk or online through the booking tool.

My questions are:
1. There is an infant who you cannot book online through the booking tool. Does a DONE5 ticket work the same as other tickets where there is an infant where you just phone up the airline and get them to add the infant after you have booked and paid for the adult tickets?

2. If I book it online with the booking tool, which airline issues the ticket.

3. If I book it through the AA RTW travel desk is it correct that an oceanic flight needs to be on AA? In my itinerary, the only possible candidate is HKG-JFK which is operated by Cathay Pacific but which can be a AA codeshare. I do also have some long AA metal flights, JFK-CUN, CUN-MIA and MIA-LAX.

Time to pull trigger on a Done4 ex-JNB
 

I've finally got a good place holder DONE4 ex-JNB, question will be can I actually do all of it within a year!

JNB-DOH-MAD-HEL-DXB-LHR-LAX-DFW-YVR-JFK-SJU-ORD-HKG-CMB-NRT-HKG-JNB

Total BIS - 52,878

I hope to avoid BA fuel fines throughout using codeshares wherever possible (eg. DXB-LHR by connecting direct to LAX), although QR D availability JNB-DOH-MAD is a threat to that strategy.

Anything I should have considered to maximize?

Possible side trips (Avios//AA)
1. MAD-MXP
2. MAD-LHR
3. LHR-XXX
4. DXB-MCT//GOA
5. CMB-MLE
6. NRT-ICN
7. HKG-SGN//MNL

Infant fares
 

Anybody bought a xONEx fare with an infant before?

Here is an extract from the Rule Sheet:
"Infant: under 2 without a seat – charge 10 percent of fare.
Ticketing code - base fare code plus IN
NOTE – If an infant reaches two years of age after travel has commenced but before travel is complete, a full child fare ticket must be purchased for the entire journey."

This makes an xONEx fare unusual... most fares if the infant turns 2 during the trip, you phone the airline and they provide a seat and there is no additional charge. My reading of the above fare rule indicates that you either have to complete the trip before 2 year old or buy a child ticket for the whole trip.

Is that the way it actually works?

RTW early 2015
 

Hi all, I'm a semi-regular lurker, first-time poster. Thanks to the community for the wealth of information buried within the forums!

My wife and I are planning a LONE4 for our honeymoon from January to Mayish, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I've already booked award tickets to Japan so we can take advantage of the cheaper RTW fare. Our ideal itinerary is KIX-BKK-SIN-MEL-AKL-SCL-IPC-EZE-UIO-LIM-MAD-IST-CPH-HEL-NRT with some side trips thrown in. All of those seem to be direct flights except for the IPC-EZE leg and IST-CPH. If I do a surface sector from UIO-LIM, will this be a valid itinerary? Or will I be at 17 segments?

The online booking tool doesn't offer me any direct flights for AKL-SCL, but the route map seems to show a LAN flight. Does that mean there's no availability on my dates? Or is it a quirk of the tool?

Are there ways we can be wringing more miles out of our itinerary?

Will I be able to book through AA even though none of my flights are operated by American?

And finally, this question is a little more free form, but does it make sense to look into a DONE3 instead? By which I mean will the extra miles we accrue by flying business class allow us to book travel to the 4th continent that will get left off the itinerary?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

macks Welcome to FT

Mileage monkey KIX-BKK-SIN-MEL-AKL-SCL-IPC-EZE-UIO-LIM-MAD-IST-CPH-HEL-NRT shows as an invalid itinerary. (click ignore errors)

IPC-EZE needs to be IPC-SCL-EZE. Putting IST-CPH as IST-MAD-CPH and IUO-LIM as IUO,LIM its OK by Mileage monkey KIX-BKK-SIN-MEL-AKL-SCL-IPC-scl-EZE-UIO,LIM-MAD-IST-mad-CPH-HEL-NRT

For AKL-SCL you may looking for a day where no service is offered or LAN are not offering L. QF codeshare this route so that is another possibility. Over the years many others have had problems with L & D by LAN over the pacific. Try SYD-SCL (QF & LA fly that route)

Welcome to FT macks

And also note that most FF programs require a minimum number of flights on the airline operating the program for tier progression. For example, to progress to higher tier from the Bronze base tier on Qantas (from memory, could be wrong about the exact number) you need 4 flights on Qantas.

First question:
Can anybody let me know what the base ex-tax fare for a LONE5, DONE5 and AONE5 is ex-Cairo?

Second question:
Anybody who subscribes to the premium paid Expert Flyer service..... do you like it?

LONE5 3217.49 USD
DONE5 7022.53 USD
AONE5 14327.64 USD

ExpertFlyer has a few of shortcomings, but on balance I am quite happy with it. I shall be renewing my subscription at the end of the year.

The ex-Egypt base fares are actually quoted in EGP, so their cost in other currencies can fluctuate

LONE5 EGP23000
DONE5 EGP50200
AONE5 EGP102420

Just used EF to get these numbers for you
Been using its premium service for a couple of years and am very happy with it (and especially so with its fairly recent enhancement to show timetables)

Thanks both of you.

The AA Desk has taken my ex-Cairo DONE5 itinerary which I gave them on the phone and are pricing it now & I wanted to check the base price.

Was thinking of subscribing to the Expert Flyer. Not sure how much I'd use it. Did the fares quoted come from Expert Flyer? Oops, just noticed EF is where they came from ;)

Thank you for the assistance!

I'm not sure I quite understand what "point-of-sale issue" means. Is the best course of action to call the AA desk and get it priced via a representative? Will they do this if I don't have AA flights on my itinerary?

I have a good bit of year-end travel lined up, so the hope is to do a Platinum Challenge on AA and secure status by the time we set off in January. Is a DONE3 Asia-SWP-S America route worth considering, using accrued miles to take us to Europe after wrapping up in Tokyo? Or is it impossible to get from S America back to Japan without touching N American or Europe?

Thanks again, and appreciate your patience with a newbie.