Was playing with the planner tool last night as I'm seriously considering a DONE4 RTW for my birthday this year. The routing I'm looking at is

AKL-xHKG-JFK-DFW-ANC-DFW-BOS-LHR-MCT-LHR-BOM-HKG-DEL-NRT-SYD-AKL

The OneWorldRTW tool flags two errors (red exclamation mark and all, for the cities highlighted above). The error reads

(i can see why it flags the arrival into BOM and departure from NRT to SYD as an error, as I'm yet to select the flights and only transit in HKG on my way from AKL to JFK, which would make LHR-BOM the first entry into Asia and NRT-SYD the departure form that continent)

Now, am I right in understanding that if the first entry into Asia is a transit then the itinerary is a valid one?

FWIW, mileage monkey says Yes.

Yes - your understanding is right (thought to be pedantic - it's as long as one of your entries into Asia is a transit, it can be the second entry)

I just plugged your itinerary into the tool, and got the same errors as you
then as soon as I selected the first two flights, with a <24 stay in HKG, the errors disappeared

Prior to the tool being available there were reports of the Asian transit being disallowed when the transit was not SWP-Europe. The wording of the rule is a bit ambiguous:But the tool allows any transit such as - yours which is SWP-Nth Am - and also Africa-SWP

So, with the recent price hike ex-JNB, which is the best Value For $$$$$ location to kick off a AONE*/DONE* ?

What hike?

JNB (USD)
LONE4 2886
LONE5 3310
LONE6 3892
DONE4 6355
DONE5 7308
DONE6 8592
AONE4 9651
AONE5 11094
AONE6 13013

What's changed?

Indeed.

I phoned Qantas an hour ago and the agent confirmed that a DONE4 and DONE5 ex-South Africa are ZAR4800 and ZAAR55200, prices being effective (accurate) from 1 March.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/18100758-post13.html and another post in that thread is what I was going by....

Switching from * to OW
 

After a decade or so of RTW with Star, I'm considering a switch to OW for my next trip.

Has anyone here done the switch previously ?

Is there a comparison chart to speak of ?

I've done the Star RTW 12 times, in Economy and Business, and it is the most devalued 'product' in the system's history.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ex-UK xONEx
 

Hi - thinking of doing a RTW taking in Oz and HKG/China. Does anyone know where I can get hold of the prices for a DONE3?

Any itinerary involving Australia has to be a minimum 4-continent ticket.

Current price for a DONE4 ex UK is GBP 5719.

Even if you just transit in LAX on the way to SYD/BNE?

Yes. Any scheduled landing within any of the 6 continents defined in the fare rules counts as having visited that continent.
eg, HKG-xLHR-JFK-SYD-HKG is 4 continents, even though just connecting through Europe.
SYD-DFW-FRA-xSIN-MEL is 4 continents, even though no stopover is made in Asia.

Can you redeem miles/points for a Oneworld Explorer ticket, only if there is award inventory available for each individual segment that you want to fly?

Sorry if this a newbie question.

You can't redeem miles/points for a oneworld explorer ticket. The oneworld explorer ticket that is discussed in this thread is a paid round the world ticket.
If you want to redeem miles/points and go around the world or something similar and you have AA miles then look at this thread in the aa forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ers-award.html
And this chart on aa.com:
http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/oneworld_awards.jsp

If you have BA miles then you can redeem segment by segment or on multiple carriers by mileage:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_us
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_us

If you have points/miles for other carriers you will have to look at the rules for those carriers. Generally, a flight must be available to book it.

No the OWE is a revenue ticket only.

Of course you can redeem miles for a similar route, or parts of one, depending on the particulars of your FF program, and on availability of the sectors. Each FF program will have its own requirements, restrictions, etc. Check in the airline-specific forums for details.