The last time I checked (about two weeks ago) Emirates also had all sorts of super-cheap fares out of MPM.

As Himeno said, people often break their RTW tickets at home. Some even have short trips from/to home during that break (more on this below).

Your itinerary looks something like this MPM-xDOH-MNL-HKG-SIN-SYD-LAX-SCL-EZE-MAD-CDG-MAD-JNB
The xDOH means just a transit there, no stopover; that way you can have your European stopovers at the end of the trip.
There are no Oneworld flights MNL-SIN, LAX-EZE, EZE-CDG or CDG-JNB so I added in connecting flights.

Your ticket will be a six continent Oneworld Explorer, so expect to pay ~USD4,500 – 5,000 for business class.

Your itinerary uses 12 of the allowed 16 segments.
So you could use the extra segments to:

• Have flights within Asia, South West Pacific, South America, or Europe (you are allowed up to 4 flights within each of these continents, but remember you are limited to 16 flights overall), OR
• Have trips within North America during your break back home; you are allowed up to 6 flights within North America (there is a restriction on trans-continental flights) – so perhaps trips like LAX-MBJ-LAX, LAX-BZE-LAX or LAX-SJD-LAX

If you want to do that sort of thing, but the 16 flight limit becomes a problem then think of doing some of the following:

• Instead of MNL-HKG-SIN-SYD do MNL-KUL-SYD and train or bus from KUL down to SIN and back
• Instead of EZE-MAD-CDG-MAD-JNB do EZE-MAD-JNB and train from MAD to Paris and back

FWIW, I expect the fares to increase on Sunday night:(.
The general rule is that changes to ticketed points (meaning dropping or adding points) incur a USD125 fee (one fee for all the changes you are making at one time); and simple changes to a flight are free (such as changing the flight number, date or time).
HOWEVER, there are special provisions if you want to make changes BEFORE departure (meaning before you take the first flight on the itinerary) – if you want to do anything to that first flight or you want to change ticketed points then if the fare has INCREASED since you purchased then you must pay the new fare.

Since we all expect the ex-MPM fare to increase soon, you need to be fairly certain of that first flight.

Well actually the first TWO flights if you are not stopping in DOH.

And I will second the hope that the OW bureaucracy moves with due deliberation as I won't be able to pin dates down until the end of next week. At least at the moment WDH is only marginally (well in the worldwide sense) more expensive. But I was planning on a surface trip from JNB to Maputo :cool:

Happy wandering

Fred

i surely hope wdh will stay for my 2018 trip..

Yes, you are right of course - the first two flights if transiting DOH

I too am planning a surface trip JNB-DOH, in about six weeks time (currently in ZNZ). When will you be doing it Fred?

I doubt the fares ex-WDH are on the airlines' radar screens at the moment. Their focus will be on the ex-MPM fares if what we are hearing is correct (statements like "we must do something about these low fares" and "this is about the 10th ex-MPM fare I've done this week)
However, once they "enhance" the ex-MPM fares, if they then see a spike in ex-WDH fares...

hopefully everyone.who needs a rtw have booked ex mpm. given that ex wdh is probably 5k, and with positioning cost, it will be under radar for a bit...

it is amazing that i booked a done3 last august ex japan, then done4.ex.jnb in jan and then now a.done5 ex mpm... they get cheaper and cheaper..

THANK YOU pandaperth!

Again, thank you all so much. The information you are all providing is invaluable. I am going to try to lock this in this weekend. I am just hoping AA's RTW desk is open on weekends.

I have a solid idea of where I want to go and when I would take my first two flights. If I am understanding what I have read and what you all are telling me, the dates of the flights that follow can be changed. When I use the online planner, the calendar only opens up to June 2017. Is that a restriction with the planner only or will I have the same problem when I call AA?

I have been up since the crack of dawn trying to put something together. I would appreciate any input and any help on a couple of hitches I have run into. I'm also going to try to use this fancy new lingo I have been learning. :D <--- and emojis.

I want to book and ex-MPM DONE4:

MPM-xDOH-SIN-(Surface Sector SIN-DPS)-DPS-HKG-MNL-HKG-LAX-MAD-VIE-HEL-CDG-DOH-SEZ-DOH-JNB

The problem I am running into is SEZ-DOH-JNB at the end. A message pops up that says "100: You may have only one intercontinental departure and arrival in each continent. Change your route or your flight choice."

If I were to travel to SEZ via somewhere other than DOH, do you think that would help?

your routing is not possible to book. once you enter africa again, u cant leave again.

That makes sense. Thank you. I think I could end in Nairobi and do a separate trip to SEZ from there.

AA will not ticket your itinerary - it is misinterpreting (IMHO) the rule regarding backtracking through Europe/Middle East and will not allow ANY flights between the Europe zone and the Middle East zone (in other words your flight CDG-DOH)
I am in correspondence with AA on this - it is being looked at by them, but I have no idea how soon I will get a response, nor what the response will be of course. There has been discussion of this problem in this thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...periences.html

As regards getting to SEZ - you could just finish with DOH-SEZ, in other words this flight is your return to Africa. And then make your way home from there, instead of from some other place in Africa. (Always assuming you can get someone to ticket your itinerary.:rolleyes:)

IIRC, the ATW desk is not open at the weekend. Also, purchasing a RTW ticket from AA is a three-step process - set it up with the ATW desk, it then goes to the Pricing Department who price it up, then you phone back in to pay for it. It is unlikely that your itinerary would be priced over the weekend.

As we've said before, once you have taken the first flight then making changes is easy. Changes to ticketed points will incur the USD125 change fee, plus any upward adjustment to the taxes, fees and charges (a downward adjustment would result in a refund to you).

The booking systems can only see so far into the future. When I set up my DONE6 two days ago, AA was only able to see up to June 23rd, 2017.

QR is the only Oneworld carrier that flies to SEZ.

Really? Interesting. I'll read through the other thread a bit more- thank you. I wonder if it work if I just reversed my route? Thanks!

Again, thank you for this helpful info. I guess all I can do is hope for the best and give them a call first thing Monday morning. I'll update here as soon as I know more.

good luck. it is not that easy to setup and,book a rtw. it took me over 2 weeks for my first done3 via email. but all my done have 16 segments with a lot of miles and low yq.

Not my experience, ever.
For my latest DONE6, just three days ago:That was the third xONEx I have bought from AA - the other two were as easy to do as the one described above.

Now, if only AA would interpret the backtracking rules correctly...

My recollection is that it is not. If you find that it is, please let us know!! I'll have mine done (i.e., planned out) in time to book on Sunday, hopefully avoiding the price increase risk for Monday.

Depending on the airline and booking system, flights are only loaded for booking a set time out which can be anywhere between 3 months and 11.5 months. In most cases, it is between 330 and 353 days.

This can be an issue in some cases if you're planning ahead or using the full validity period of the ticket. You might book a trip today to start next June. The ticket would be valid for 12 months from that departure date, but flights are currently only available for booking until July 17.

I thought it was, with reduced hours on the weekends.
However I haven't used the RTW desk since 2009, so the hours could have changed.

reduced hour on sat and closed on sun

It looks like I'll have three itineraries ready to go on Monday morning (EDT) assuming that a price increase does not hit.

u fly 3 rtw in one (or 2) years ex mpm? impressive

It is, I've rung on a Sunday as recently as a week ago and will be calling later today. Hours I have in my Skype saved "name" for the RTW from a few years back: Central Time: 7am to 8pm Mon-Fri, 9am to 5.30pm Sat/Sun.

Oh, though there's only one agent on a Sunday evening at least plus the rate desk aren't there though if it's urgent they may try and rustle something.

there is a seperate rate desk for rtw.

I have a problem with QF system and my current DONE5 ticket. I can't check the booking at QF website, add the seat or meal reservation to QF segments, even on the phone. Tried phoning to AA and QF with no success with seat or meal reservation.

QF agent said, that the problem is caused by multiple e-ticket numbers on the same ticket, according to him, their systems support only one e-ticket number per booking reference.

I made two changes before on the way, thus my e-ticket got reissued twice. The old e-ticket numbers still appear in the booking. Moreover, latest e-ticket number appears twice, with 15 digits for non-QF segments and with 13 digits for QF segments. Also JL segment does not have the e-ticket number attached at all.

Ticket is issued on AA stock by AA RTW desk. According to AA RTW desk, they need to keep old e-ticket numbers attached to booking and my booking should be ok now.

Week ago, QR cancelled one segment because no e-ticket number was attached. Luckily, there was still availability and AA PLT desk was able to fix that, but she needed to manually call to QR to confirm the segment, so that QR won't cancel it again.

So how those e-ticket numbers really should be in Amadeus? Any ideas, what to try next to get the issue fixed, as both AA and QF are saying that issue should be handled with the other airline? Would it be safe to get the old e-ticket numbers removed from the reservation by other airline than ticketing airline?

Not really. Once I position for the first one, the rest are easy. In the old days, I had been doing this starting at MRU. Loved that the BA staff there misunderstood the rules, thus allowing us a routing which wasn't [supposed to be] permitted. Haven't done it in a number of years because of the cost. I got an AONE3 or 4 (I can't recall now) for around USD $5K ex-ICN during the anniversary sale, but that was a number of years ago. At these prices, however, I can't pass them up.

I commute more or less every other month between UTH and various points in the U.S. (mostly BOS, JFK and GSO).

When I called the AA RTW desk last night, it says they are open on Sat./Sun. I will be calling soon, so I'll let you know.

Can you experts give me your input on this DONE4:

MPM- xDOH-SIN-(SIN- DPS surface sector)DPS-HKG-MNL-SAN-YYC-SAN (SAN-LAX surface sector)- LAX-LHR-VIE-LHR-JNB

The only bummer is no a380 on QR

May be a silly question- Are you allowed to choose your actual flights?

Not a silly question at all
In fact when phoning to book, it is preferable to spoon-feed the agent with the exact dates and flights you want.

In terms of (a) validity and (b) whether AA will ticket, your itinerary appears fine to me: you transit DOH at the beginning and then have stopovers in the continent of Europe/Middle East at the end and you have no segments between Europe and the Middle East

Thank you!! I just got off the phone with them and it all seemed okay. I'll see when I call back tomorrow. Details here in post #90 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...l#post26994673

Does those changes mean I could do:
MPM- xDOH-SIN-(SIN- DPS surface sector)DPS-HKG-MNL-SAN-YYC-SAN (SAN-LAX surface sector)- LAX-LHR-CDG-LHR-SEZ?

How long does it take for other carriers to update their rules?

Has anyone called today? Im curious if the prices have gone up. My husband has decided that he needs a DONE4, too.:D

No sign of any price rises yet
I've never known price rises to occur on any day other than the first of the month. But I've only been around on this forum since 2008(;)). And there's always a first time for everything - for example the Rules changed on April 22nd and that was the first time I'd seen them change on a date other than the first of the month.

As far as your itinerary is concerned - the answer is yes you could do that. There is no Oneworld flight LHR-SEZ; in fact the only Oneworld flight to SEZ is QR's DOH-SEZ, so you could fly LHR-DOH-SEZ.

And just a by-the-way, no true FTer would consider short hops such as LHR-CDG-LHR on a premium class RTW ticket!! Not when you could take Eurostar for that and use the two flights segments freed up for some nice long-haul flights:D.

Nice of you to countenance letting hubby accompany you;)

.
So THAT'S why you aren't very helpful on this forum ;)

Ack! Typo. meant LAX-LHR-CDG-SEZ. Thank you!

So nice! Now I am going through the process all over again to get his ticket. But, I kind of enjoy it :D

If I am understanding correctly, I can't make the above change with AA RTW desk until they recognize the rule change?

ticketed a 5 segment ex mpm on july 2017.
will pay rerouting fee after first 2 segments are flown。

there are report on aa forum that a rerouting causes aa lost the fare cost for rdm purpose and ends up credit based on fare class.

do u think aa can compute the cost of a rtw easily?

Question re code shares
 

I just called BA, who issued my DONE4, and asked them to change my flight from JFK to HKG, CX 831, to AA 8924 (the latter being the code share number for flight 831) I will be taking this flight after having flown SFO-JFK on AA, so my previous flight is AA. He said it can't be done. Any advice? Should I have fed the code share number to the agent when I booked? (The oneworld booking tool, of course, does not list code shares.) Will AA do it? I understand if another airline touches the ticket, they have to reissue the whole thing, so I doubt they'll be enthusiastic even if able. It matters for EQM accrual to AAdvantage 2 EQM/mi on AA vs 1.5 on CX.

It can be done, and indeed it should not incur a fee. I would ask another agent and press them for their reasons.

(The only reason it might not be possible is if availability differs in the codeshare and D class is zeroed out.)

Which, to confirm, you can look up in expert flyer (under AA).

I'd say no harm in calling AA and asking if they've do the change for you. Given you're switching a flight to them and it sounds like you are going over an ocean with them they may well be up for it without a charge as there's no re-routing.

Thanks for verifying, Calchas. According to EF (which, I have found, is not always right :)) there is still D availability. Agent didn't even look, just pulled up my PNR and said an airline can't book a "third party" code share. If I read the rules correctly, the change would get me about 4000 more EQM. Will definitely try again. Is there a "best number" to call for BA RTW? I had been skyping to JNB as ticket was originally issued ex CPT, but US # has been willing to make some changes and I've dealt with them successfully 2-3 times, always with transfer to another agent though.