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?