• If you're planning on taking this trip in 2012-2013 then for sure seats will be available this far out
• Your ticket will be a DONE5 (D=business class booking code, ONE=Oneworld Explorer ticket, 5=five continents - being Nth Am, Europe, Asia, Sth West Pacific and Sth Am)
• Base cost ex-US is USD12,299 to which must be added the various country entry and exit taxes & charges and also possibly the fuel surcharges (aka fuel fines) for the various segments you will be flying.

Some comments for you:

• you have three stops in your continent of origin (MIA,SJU and DFW) - the rules only allow two (see here rule 8). So one of them would have to be a transit (less than 24hrs)
• you have two flights out of LHR both on BA; this means you would be paying i) the UK governemnts hefty APD departure tax and ii) BA's hefty fuel fines
• if you start your DONE5 from TLV then it only costs the equivalent of USD8500
• starting outside of the US removes the restriction of two stopovers in Nth Am - but moves that restriction to the continent where you do start - in this case Europe. But you only had stops in LHR and MAD anyway (in addition to TLV of course)

Possible re-worked itineraries:

Thank you Pandaperth, Danger, and Gardyloo. Exactly what I was looking for. I'll continue doing my homework.

Although my wife does not like traveling on different tickets for a journey (i.e. MAD-LHR on the DONE5, then a seperate ticket to JFK,, and EZE-MIA transit MIA-LGA) in case we miss a connection/snowstorm, with the cost vs. J or a circle fare, it certainly seems the economical way to go.

I'll keep working over the next month to refine, and then focus on the pricing/availability.

fbnewyork

We try to make sure that we have at least an overnight connections between the first ticket (the positioning flights) and the second ticket (the round-the-world), to allow for delays in the positioning flights.

The routing is valid for one from the date of the first segment. It is possible to book a segment 353/330 days in advance depending on each segment's operator and/or the ticketing carrier.

In March I completed a LONE4 originally ticketed in October 2009. Date of First travel was March 2010.

I used the DUMMY dates in September at first; changing them to my desired dates as they became bookable.

It is important to keep the dummy routing the same as that of your plans, keeping stopovers/transits as originally booked. Otherwise you may need to re-ticket and thus incur additional charges.

Got it. While the first segment could be 353/330 out, since there is a one year out limit on the ticketing, we could not set the whole trip at this time. But as we are looking for non-restricted seats, there should not be a problem with capacity. Just change the dates when the flights load into the system.

xONEx seats are restricted, not just as much as, say, award seats. But as flights fill up, you're more likely to see fewer seats in A than F, fewer in D than J, and fewer in L than Y.

If you have an ExpertFlyer premium subscription, you can set an alert for when your desired class (i.e., A, D, L) goes below some value (e.g., 5) and jump to book then.

(BTW, I have no idea if 5 would be a good threshold for use here. Maybe 7 or 3 would be better? But 5 seems plausible.)

Generally A and D are very easy to find as long as you plan at least a couple of months out, though of course not as abundant as F and J. The issues with availability in the premium cabins come more frequently when you need to make a last minute to change. L, on the other hand, is a comparatively much more difficult inventory to find.

edit... wrong thread

8/2011 - US Pricing for OW Circle Pacific?
 

The OW site no longer list out the fares for Circle Pacific fares for the different countries. Does anyone have a current listing of prices for leaving the United States for each of the mileage buckets for a Circle Pacific fare?

Thanks for your help.

------------

I finally just called the AA RTW desk to get the prices.

Miles First Business Coach
>22k $12,700 $9300 $4500
>26k $15,200 $11,200 $5400
>29k $20,000 $12,000 $5900

It seems that these prices have gone way up. I did IND-NRT-SYD-LAX-IND 3 years ago for about $6000 in business class.

Courtesy Bukhara on this thread, the BA Speedbird website may have the information you're looking for:

I'd appreciate some advice in understanding rule 4(e)(3):
Does this mean the following, for example, would be permissable?

The rule exception allows a second entry and exit of Europe provided one is transit between one of the named countries and another continent.

So your two transits of LHR (one from NBO and the other to NBO) are both within the rules. (By the way only one of them needs to be a transit)

However, there is no exception allowing a second entry and exit of Africa - so your xLHR-JNB-HKG... is not allowed

Okay, thanks. Less confused but still a little!

So maybe something like this:

This part is OK "NBO-xLHR-HKG..." - that's a transit of Europe coming from Kenya and therefore you will be allowed a second entry/exit of Europe later in the itinerary (and you can have European stopovers on that visit)

But your itinerary does not conform to another rule - that you keep going around the world in one direction - westbound or eastbound
You start off eastbound (LHR-HKG) but then you turn around and head westbound (HKG-LHR..-JFK). And that is not allowed

This itinerary would be OK as it's westbound all the way
NBO-xLHR-JFK...SYD-HKG-HEL-CDG-LHR-JNB

Thanks pandaperth. I think I've got it (for now).

I was concentrating on trying to understand the 4(e)(3) rule and forgot about the eastward/westward direction rule.

Hi, I am so new to this that I have only just worked out what DONE stands for! I would really appreciate some tips here please.

We are looking at RTW tickets for 2 x adults plus 1 infant and 1 child, leaving Sydney round March/April 2012, spending most time in UK but interested in other destinations, as yet flexible (though relatively child-friendly).

1. I can see sales on buying direct flights to europe (inc stopovers) but can anyone point me the way of good prices/deals etc for RTW/DONE?

2. Also, there is currently a voucher deal on living social here in Oz where $99 gets $1000 off business class on BA web or phone. Is there any way this could be used to buy a DONE or will it only be for direct flights?

3. I was thinking maybe I could use the voucher to get better deals on adult fares and use QF points to buy child/infant seats? Is that even possible?

thanks!

DONEx prices are flat fares depending on the number of continents visited (with supplements for additional sectors within a continent). They are already deeply discounted as against buying the sectors you want one by one, and as such they do not go on "sale" as such. They are, however, priced wildly differently depending on where your ticket originates, and under some circumstances, where it is sold.

I would be very surprised if BA honoured the A$1000 off voucher you mention for a DONEx. For it to apply, you would need to have the booking originate from Australia so that it would price in AUD, and also ticketed by BA. And even then the conditions may say it's only valid for normal roundtrip bookings.

I'm not familiar enough with QFFF rules to know whether they'll allow RTW bookings using points.

Hope that helps somewhat.

yes, thanks I have gathered that I can't do any of it :)

Would appreciate pointers as to best place to look for buying and where from for best pricing?

Many thanks

The oneworld rules have been updated (new version dated August 1, [internally dates 17th]). Few changes, none significant.

http://www.oneworld.com/content/libr...20explorer.pdf

Assist, please
 

I'm looking at booking LONE5 in the following manner: (using AAdvantage as earning program)

MIA-MAD-BCN-LHR-xHEL-BKK-SIN-HKG-NRT-SYD-xNRT-HNL-DFW-MIA
(x is a transit point only, no overnight).

This trip was booked to hit 15 segments by flying through OW hubs without breaking the rules. The questions are:

1) Would it be cheaper to start in YUL or elsewhere with roughly the same cities?

2) I was able to book D class SYD-NRT-HNL, which is the longest flight and most important to to me. Would that change stick? the price seemed to go up $800 or so.

I'm bummed about the last of EQM on CX in L class.

Thanks.

Firstly, you have not booked 15 segments, but rather, 13. You are counting the airports (including MIA twice). Segments are the same as flights (except when it comes to direct flights with a single flight number but a technical stop). Use your additional three segments!

1) YUL would not be cheaper. Canada is $58 more expensive than America for a LONE5.

2) I'm not sure what you're talking about. You were able to book in business class on two segments on a LONE5? I didn't know that was possible.

I have about 260K in AA miles, and I'm looking to do this DONE3 in summer 2012. Anyone care to comment?

x = transit point
y = land transfer

SFO-xORD-xLHR-TXL-BUD-yARN-HEL-DME/SVO-HKG-HND/NRT-SFO

DONE3 are only payable with real $$. Not AA miles
AA have a award product called OneWorld award that is nothing to do with what is discussed on this forum
AA Award & DONE3 rules are very different

For a paid DONE3 your intineray is invalid
http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm?ow...-HND%2CNRT-SFO

Thanks, I'll take a look there.

This post was the only one in the thread which mentioned eVIPs on AA. To confirm, if the ticket is issued by AA, and one is flying on AA metal with an AA flight number, eVIPs can be used?

EDIT: I did find a bunch more posts in this thread that mention eVIPs, but they didn't come up in my search results, for some reason. Thanks anyway for the responses!

Yes, have done it a number of times.

Excellent. Thank you!

start in london or boston
 

hello,
we're planning a rtw trip in november, we live in london and want to go to boston first before heading south to brazil, would it make more sense to start the oneworld explorer in boston or in london?
what credit card would you recommend to use for the payment of the ticket? i have a barclays platinum visa and bnp mastercard gold or would it make more sense to get an amex platinum?
thanks for your help.

It seems "link to current pricing" is not working. Where to find the price info?

This hasn't been available since earlier in the year.

This thread may assist:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...check-out.html

Thanks! That's really helpful.

Land segment rebooked to be air segment
 

If I book a LONE4 and leave a segment as a land segment, can I later change that segment to be on an airline?

Eg if I put JFK-MCO as a land segment, but later want to change to an AA flight?

In general, the answer is yes. But since it is a change, you must pay the change fee (USD125), plus any additional taxes etc for the flight segment

But there are some circumstances where is might not be allowed, or might cost you more, such as:

• The change is being made before departure - might trigger a complete recalculation of the fare if things have changed since the original booking
• The additional flight segment causes you to exceed the number of free flight segments in the continent - an additonal fee will be payable, the amount depends on the booking class
• the additional flight segment causes you to exceed the number of free flight segments for the continent - AND the continent in question is the continent of origin - NOT ALLOWED
• There might be more to consider...

The reason I wanted to try this was because the tool won't let me book AA segments with 9 passengers. So I was wondering if I could leave those segments as surface segments and then sort out the flights later.

I had understood that as long as the cities stay the same then changing dates/airlines could happen at no cost. But what is not clear is surface segment rebooked to air segment, leaving the cities the same.

Advice on RTW trip Syd-LHR
 

We are planning to leave Syd around April-May 2012.

2 x adults plus a 4 year old and 1 year old (will be 2 by end of trip)

Will spend most of our time in UK with likely side trips to Europe that we can arrange from there.

Pretty flexible with other destinations. Open to advice re costing advantages especially if it means we can go up to premium economy or even business class for not much more than the crazy Australian fare prices.

Kyoto could be nice on outward journey, especially if we can get there during cherry blossom season.

Italy or Greece en route could be good, but probably a huge hassle to connect.

Obviously London is key.

Return leg via USA, friends in San Fran/San Diego/Portland but also could be interested in Disneyworld/land, Yosemite, Arizona.

If possible, final leg in Tahiti or Hawaii or similar.

Thanks for any tips and suggestions!

Initital thoughts:

If you want to fly in Business, start in JNB. If not, start in New Zealand, but this will make HNL difficult, I think.

So, JNB-MAD-ATH-AMM-FCO-LHR-SFO-other US destinations-DFW/LAX/ORD-HNL-KIX/NRT/HND/NGO-other Asian destinations-SYD-JNB.

This routing doesn't maximise miles but I can help with doing so in the US if you need assistance. Just post three or four destinations in the US you're keen to go to.

Note that this routing means a five continent. If you're prepared to start and finish in JNB you could do a four continent with your final sector being HKG-JNB.

I've no idea where Kyoto is (other than in Japan) but it's not a oneworld destination so you'll need to do a sidetrip.

thanks very much for all that - will have a look. Where do i seek prices from JNB?

I doubt we would do the final JNB leg, would likely just stay home in Sydney after all that travel!

HNL isn't a necessity - though why would we start in NZ as it adds an extra couple of legs? Are prices much less from there?

The thinking of Kyoto in april - may was likely to still see cherry blossoms whereas when we return at end of year or start of Jan it will be ski season. Can we turn the order around?

We are no longer totally convinced of staying OW, have been QF for years but since the kids much less flying so just lifetime silver. Obviously wrong thread but if anyone knows equivalent on STar Alliance/Virgin etc very happy to look at that too.

thanks again

You can check prices here using this great tool created by a Flyertalk member whose name escapes me.

Yes. A DONE4 ex-New Zealand is about USD10499 but ex-Australia it's about USD12415 (both ex taxes). This link may also help with prices.

Certainly.

Kyoto is certainly served by a number of oneworld airlines via Osaka-Kansai airport (KIX) which has easy connections via the Haruka Kansai Airport Limited Express Train. If you fly into NRT you can save a segment connecting from Oz by taking the Nozomi Shinkansen which is only about 2.5 hours. Other than connections with major Japanese airports on JL (most domestic service is to ITM, however) KIX has nonstop oneworld service to TPE, HKG, BKK, PVG, HNL and even HEL (Helsinki on Finnair)

If headed to Kyoto on a RTW ticket I would almost certainly fly into Tokyo to save segments and did so with a JR pass on my AONE5 this summer, flying in/out of HND with stops in Nagano, Hiroshima and Kyoto.

My apologies. I referred to the oneworld online timetable and it didn't list Kyoto as a destination.