But often there are seats in the right fare bucket available on the operating carrier but not for the AA codeshare number.


The answer is it depends. Let's start with L, D or A? Any cities required or is this strictly a MR?

In D, goal to maximize EQPs and see new places (so no strictly an MR, a combo of vacation-MR), including SWP, Asia, probably S.Africa, probably will include all 16 segments and all continents. Ideally, maximize EQPs and re-qualify for AA EXP for two consecutive years (or as close to that) in one RTW trip with about 6-8k USD total in airfare.

In general, is it significantly cheaper trying to squeeze as many segments in one RTW, or is it about the same if you do 2-3 separate RTWs? Because doing 2 separate smaller ones would seem more convenient in terms of scheduling and avoiding backtracking restrictions.

Also, what is a good cpp (cents per EQP) that someone can get out of these, has anyone calculated it?

Everyone has their own metrics for the "worth it" questions.

Yes, you can split up one RTW over two calendar years; AA will credit the flights and EQP to the year flown, not booked.

It's critical that one adds positioning costs into the formula. If it takes too much money or too many FF points to get to the origin point (e.g. South Africa in order to capture "cheap" ex-SA fares) - and to get home after - then the savings can be less spectacular, even moot.

The same goes for the taxes and fees totals added to the base price. A DONE4 ex-South Africa may have a base price US$1000 less than a DONE3 ex-Egypt or ex-Japan, but things like BA or Qantas fuel surcharges on the ex-SA ticket might reduce, or even neutralize the savings compared to an ex-Japan ticket issued by American Airlines.

There are several threads on this board about "maximizing" 16-segment RTWs. For 4- or 5-continent RTWs under the current rules, it's become increasingly difficult - not impossible, to be sure - to craft an itinerary that exceeds 60-62,000 butt-in-seat miles, hence something around 90-95,000 AA EQP. However, when one adds in positioning flights (if paid) then reaching 100,000 EQP is not especially taxing.

So if such a ticket cost US$6000 ex-SA (after taxes and fees) then it would work out to around 6 cent per EQP.

If you're keen to embark on this tack, don't forget some other opportunities lurking in the woods, mostly the result of currency fluctuations. For example, Circle Pacific tickets in business class ex-HKG start around US$5000. Or, given the weak Loonie, around US$6000 ex-Canada. And, of course, one can very often pick up cheap business/first class fares within North America, e.g. LAX-MIA-PTY round trip for $723, also around 6-7c per EQP, and easily done over a weekend.

Thanks, it looks like that with the current cheap J fares around the world, one can do an average of 6-8 ccp with separate tickets, so I was hoping that a RTW could produce more like 4-5 cpp. If cpp value is about the same, then I guess the remaining benefit is the 16 segments and some additional level of control of travel planning, vs. the disadvantage of the complexity of doing so (as opposed to separate tickets).

So, taxes and fees are based on the initial issuing carrier, not on whom are the individual segments each time?

I am hoping that AA will continue offering the .5 bonus EQP in the next couple of years, because this will decrease the cpp cost by 25%.

Taxes should be the same regardless of carrier; they have to do with routing (higher airport/departure/etc. taxes from one jurisdiction to the other.)

As for fees, this is a the big variable. The carrier that issues the ticket (usually the first airline flown) applies a fee schedule that it controls. Depending on that airline's policies, fees may be added which might not be if another airline were the issuer/first carrier. This can result in otherwise very similar tickets having a "bottom line" hundreds or even thousands of dollars different, despite having the same base price. The process is extremely opaque.

Unfortunately, there's no definitive way to know how much the combined fees/surcharges will be on a given ticket, but the sense among many of us is that any RTW ticket issued by BA will carry a higher combined fee total - principally what used to be called "fuel" surcharges (but aren't any more since BA got sued in US federal court over it) compared with comparable tickets issued by other carriers, notably CX and AA. Qantas also seems to be happy to add YQ or similar fees to their tickets, but I can't say (maybe others can) how this compares to BA's fees. The data/anecdote base regarding fees from other Oneworld airline-issued tickets is too thin to say anything remotely definitive.

The best (albeit time-consuming and potentially frustrating) way to see the impact of fees on an itinerary is to load it into the online booking tool and get to the final pricing screen, where you can pull up an itemized list of the taxes and fees. Even then, you won't know what flights/carriers the fees are attached to, but you can at least get a sense of variations by issuing carrier.

For example, I just ran two simple DONE4s ex-Johannesburg, one starting with JNB-HKG (and therefore issued by CX) vs. one starting with JNB-LHR (BA) with JNB-HKG-NRT-LAX-JFK-LHR-JNB as the CX-issued route and JNB-LHR-JFK-LAX-NRT-HKG-JNB as the westbound BA-issued route. The taxes and fees total on the CX route amount to 9,313 ZAR (around US$667) while the BA route total is 15,980 ZAR ($1145.) And that's on only six flights, only one of which (JNB-LHR or v.v.) is actually on BA metal (used AA for both oceanic crossings.) Airport and arrival/departure taxes are the same, so the only variable has to do with carrier-imposed (i.e. fuel) surcharges.

Didn't we recently decide that QF, BA and AA all levied similar surcharges (with QF being worse than BA)?

Someone compared them all upthread.

I can't speak for AA's programme but actually I think RTWs are a disappointing way to earn points in BA's programme. Although the arithmetic will be different it won't be far off.

Here in Europe we are inundated with special J deals. Dublin to Hawaii is regularly under US$ 1600 in J. Oslo to South America is the same and we have sub 1000 USD fares to Hong Kong popping up.

So if you are really looking for the cheapest way to earn points it might be better to sit around in the premium fare deals forum and see what comes your way.

It seems that the most convenient (for US-based AA EXPs) and perhaps cheaper overall among carriers, is to get an issuing ticket from AA, and the most affordable and feasible starting point with AA seems to be ex-TYO. Do you agree with this?

Is this feasible from afar, or at least in person in TYO but with US credit cards? Or is it YMMV?

[QUOTE=Calchas;25389008]I can't speak for AA's programme but actually I think RTWs are a disappointing way to earn points in BA's programme. Although the arithmetic will be different it won't be far off.
QUOTE]

Is this because certain routes have carriers that give less than 1.25 EQPs per mile for AA? Most business tickets seem to credit 1.5 or at worst 1.25 EQP per mile to AA ffp.

Use the online tool with AA or CX as the first carrier and you can book it right now.

The basis for achieving status through BAEC is very different from AAdvantage; it has to do with tier points (a combination of class of service and segment length) instead of elite qualifying miles or points.

Would this price in Japanese currency, based on starting point in TYO? It is cheaper starting TYO than in the US, I assume, correct?

Aye, it's different but there are so many cheap J and F deals around now, all the oneworld special fares (including circle Atlantic and so on) look hideously overpriced even forgetting about the points.

I'm not saying it's definitely more expensive but it's worth doing the arithmetic.

My first relaxed attempt for a DONE6 not that good, $10k, 19 cpm and likely 13 cpp, lol. A few questions:

1. Does it matter what dates (close to booking vs. a few months later) or days (midweek vs. weekend) you choose for pricing? Is this based on actual dynamic pricing as it applies to regular flights? Also, I assume some near future flights may not have availability and therefore not showing at all?

2. Does it matter which carriers you choose for each segment, and if yes, do we have a rank ordered list of who is cheaper in general and has the lowest surcharges/fees? (at least a vague one? in general?)

3. Are there key airports to try to avoid for taxes/fees, perhaps LHR (although probably hard to avoid I assume, as a major OW hub.)? Others?

4. Do number of connections increase the price in general, reduce it, variable, or it doesn't matter? (I know they count as segments).

5. I assume number of continents affects the base price?

6. Do we have any MR maximized itinerary samples posted on this forum, ex-TYO, particularly?

3. LHR was quite easy for us to avoid, flying into mainland Europe, between AY, AA, JA, Air Berlin, QR, etc.

5. Yes

Can't help with the rest, unfortunately, but my recent RTW had us hitting:

AMS
FRA
ZRH
MUC
HEL

without touching BA

I agree that "partitioning" a DONEx across multiple qualifying years is a great idea when crediting to AA. Consider that PEY/Y+ fares are normally quite $$ efficient ways of generating EQP (perhaps except from Australia/HKG). In using one or more of those fares as positioning/partitioning, getting to the 100K EQP becomes somewhat more practical. In the day, SIN to Canada/USA on those fares worked quite well for me.

Maybe I'll get a chance to try a xONEx again before the ZAR exchange rate forces re-pricing...

Happy wandering

Fred