If you must keep generally traveling either eastbound or westbound from continent to continent is there any specific order issues around SA and NA and Africa and Europe. Or can they be viewed as interchangeable order.

Is it OK to start in Europe, then travel west and do NA, Asia then Africa and then back to Europe?

This is the routing we are considering for a DONE4. Still working on the exact where to go, but because of timing, we want to start in Europe and then some 10 to 12 months later, find us finishing the trip off in Africa and just flying back to Europe to complete the RTW compliance. We want to start in 2005 and finish in 2006.

TIA
Sandy

I don't see any problem, except for that part where you mention SA. If you wanted to include South America in the itinerary proposed then it'd have be a DONE5.

I wasn't planning SA so I am only looking at a DONE4. So not an issue for me.

So it really doesn't matter, in general, if you do SA before or after NA, or Africa before or after europe. I guess I was just concerned because I was doing Europe at the very beginning and Africa then back to Europe at the very end. Since that was the basis for my research and planning I just wanted to make sure that basic assumption was OK.

My trip planning
I am obviously still in preliminary planning mode right now. My trip start date just got delayed from Summer '05 to likely Spring '06 this past weekend, as the start of my trip was to meet up our floating timeshare. However the timeshare, AKA Tradewinds Cruise Club, decided that they will delay sending their new 69' Catamaran to Greece until after it spends the '05 sailing season in the Carribbean. It is then planned some 6 - 10 months later, to move to Seychelles which I would also like to meet up with again later on the same RTW itinerary.

So I have too much time to plan, and may be hit by rule changes at the start of '05.

I would like to do a few destinations that are NOT on the oneworld list, but are close enough. I have to do Seychelles but I just heard that BA dropped the destination about 2 months ago. So I will likely have to get close and buy a non-oneworld flight to get there, but that is OK. I also want to do Maldives off the coast of India. Again NOT a oneworld location.

I am skipping SWP this trip as I have already been to the great barrier reef diving, and would like to return, put perhaps on another trip. I don't have the time or the flight segments to do it this trip.

We are leaning towards IST as a starting point, as it is also an AA codeshare city, and flying there to start and end the RTW can be done using an AA reward ticket.

So if I plan well, we are hoping for 2 vacations both about 2 week in length. With a good 6-8 month timeframe to use up the NA portion of the flights while at home between trips. Seems to minimize the purchase of any additional flights needed to get to/from the RTW already in duration.

I would like to maximize my AA miles and obtain some level of elite status again. Since it appears more people travel east then west, is there any pitfalls I should be made aware of.

It doesn't matter for NA/SA, since that possibility es specifically mentioned in the rules, but there's no such allowance for Europe in relation to Africa, except for flights to/from Ghana/Nigeria. Besides, there are no OW flights from Africa to NA/SA, so if you want to start in europe and go west the way you are planning to do it is, I think, the only way.

And if I'm wrong then there's more than enough talent in this forum to set the record straight, and time till 2006 for me to stand corrected.

Basically, it works this way. The world is divided into three areas (Area 1 is North and South America, Area 2 is Europe and Africa, Area 3 is Asia and SW Pacific). So each area has one northern hemisphere continent and one southern hemisphere continent. You must route in a continuous direction between these areas.

You can visit the northern or southern continents within an area in any order according to the specific restrictions about transiting the oposite continent when travelling between areas. These continent transit exceptions exist because OW does not have a full mesh of inter-continent flights (ie you can't go from Africa to SA without going through another continent) and some inter-continental routings are quite restricted in options.

OT, Maldives are quite cheap out of CMB, and there's a cnx with the CX flight from HKG via BKK. Gets into MLE at about 1:30 AM, but the friendly airport hotel will take care of you, tho not for cheap.

Thanks for the ideas, here is my first cut at a routing. This requires the purchse of 1 additional segment in NA.

Is getting back to your starting country in Europe included in the routing, or is there problems with that? I am not sure because unless you can fly directly on an intercontinential flight back into your departure city there will always be an issue in travelling at both the beginning and end of the trip in your originating continent.

Any way here is my routing....

IST - LHR (BA) Stop Over Here
LHR - ATH (BA) Stop Over Here
ATH - LHR (BA)

LHR - DFW (AA)

DFW - ANC (AA)
ANC - DFW (AA)
DFW - SJU (AA)
SJU - DFW (AA)
DFW - YYZ (AA)
YYZ - DFW (AA)
DFW - JFK (AA)

JFK - HKG (AA)

HKG - CMB (CX) Pick up non-OW Flight to Maldives
CMB - HKG (CX)

HKG - JNB (CX)

JNB - CPT (BA)
CPT - JNB (BA)
JNB - NBO (BA) Pick up Flight to Seychelles

NBO - LHR (BA)
LHR - IST (BA)

Does that look possible?

LHR-DFW is not operated by AA ... they fly LGW-DFW and I really don't recommend transfer from LHR to LGW though it is possible. BA flies LHR-DFW but on AA you have to go via ORD/LAX/MIA/JFK instead. ANC service is seasonal (ends late September for ORD, was early Sept. for DFW last year, haven't checked the schedules for this year). JFK-HKG is operated by CX but I think AA codeshares (but it really doesn't matter for Aadvantage credit).

IST - LHR (BA) Stop Over Here
LHR - ATH (BA) Stop Over Here
ATH - LHR (BA)
I think that you may have to route via LGW for this one or the BA equivalent service. There are BA flights LGW to ATH or you could do the bus thing between LGW and LHR. I have even been known to drive the odd FlyerTalker between them!
LHR - DFW (AA, if you must...)

DFW - ANC (AA)
ANC - DFW (AA)
DFW - SJU (AA)
SJU - DFW (AA)
DFW - YYZ (AA)
YYZ - DFW (AA)
DFW - JFK (AA)
Is this 7 sectors, with the stated intention of purchasing an additional one.
JFK - HKG (AA)

HKG - CMB (CX) Pick up non-OW Flight to Maldives
There is a Maldives to Seychelles flight)
CMB - HKG (CX)

HKG - JNB (CX) make sure you do not plan on the SAA codeshare, if that still exists on this route but the CX aircraft on alternate days.

JNB - CPT (BA)
CPT - JNB (BA)
JNB - NBO (BA) Pick up Flight to Seychelles, also check the fares from JNB

NBO - LHR (BA)
LHR - IST (BA)

According to the Oneworld scheduler there is a LHR - ATH via BA, is this now out of date? I am not sure yet where I really need to be. I might need to try to fly into Rhodes of something, but since I am not sure where the Greece base is yet I am leaving Athens for now.

The LHR - DFW is via ORD, but is listed as 1 flight number. Since I am collecting AA miles I need to fly AA over the pond.

Yes the DFW - JFK is the one purchased, as it is the 7th segment in NA.

The HKG - JNB is on CX. But you do bring up a good point. I never considered purchasing Maldives to Seychelles as I was trying to also maximize miles earned. Besides we did want to visit South Africa and this would require flying south anyway.

I am actually hoping that BA will decide to reinstate Seychelles flights and then I will just rearrange slightly and add that as flights.

As list on a one the right track. Not too bad for my first draft.

London to Athens is served from LHR and LGW at the moment.

If you are flying to anywhere else in Greece apart from Athens then I would not bother putting it on your xONEx trip. There are lots of cheap charter flights for the Greek resort destinations available from London. You could use the coupons to go somewhere else. The BA fares off LGW are quite cheap and you also have the EasyJet option for low cost carrier on this route.

If you are on a mileage run then ATH is poor value for your 2 coupon Europe sectors. The return distance is about 3000 miles. You could do more than this in a single hop to Dubai and then return in long haul comfort (day or night) with the flat bed rather than a short haul configured Club Europe arrangement. Just a thought. If you need help on the Greek sector then message me and I will have a look for prices.

I would probably go to the Seychelles via JNB unless you particularly want to go NBO. I think that Virgin are taking over the route so there will be no BA as of now.

Cheers for now

Spotwelder