Hi,

Just completed my RTW on *A three weeks ago (for a business trip), and loved it! YYZ-LAX-SIN-JNB-FRA-LHR-YYZ (which got me to Gold on *A)

I have just decided today that I would like to do a RTW on Oneworld (for pleasure this time!) in First class with AONE4. After reading through some of the threads in this forum, I have come up with the following itinerary below.

The objective of the trip is to both accumulate as much miles as possible and see some cities I won't have otherwise seen. I am AA Gold, and would like to make Platinum.

I would like to get your feedback if this itinerary works (or any other suggestions to improve the trip). Will fly out 2nd week of september and have given myself two weeks for the trip:

(1) YYZ-ORD (AA)
(2) ORD-ANC (AA)
(3) ANC-DFW (AA)
(4) DFW-NYC (AA)
(5) NYC-SYD(QF)
(6) SYD-AUK (QF)
(7) AUK-MEL (QF)
(8) MEL-HKG (CX)
(9) HKG-NRT (w/ stopover in TPE) (CX) - I think this is considered 1 segment
(10) NRT-HKG (CX)
(11) HKG-LHR (CX)
(12) LHR-DXB (BA)
(13) DXB-LHR (BA)
(14) LHR-IST (BA)
(15) IST-LHR (BA)
(16) LHR-SFO (BA)
(17) SFO-ORD (AA)
(18) ORD-YYZ (AA)

Not sure if this represents a problem for you, but "British Airways transatlantic flights to/from the U.S. are not eligible for mileage accrual" (source: aa.com).

LHR-YVR(BA) does earn Aadvantage miles whle LHR-SFO does not. ANC service ends sometime in September (last year was first week of Sept, haven't checked the timetable for this year, but presumably you have already checked for your dates). Not sure if the OWE rules have been revised yet to include IST in the middle east (if they have, you can't combine it with DXB; the old rules did allow IST). An alternative to IST is HEL. You may have trouble getting CX on HKG-LHR, that route has been running fully booked in F most days. BA usually has space when CX does not.

It's only one segment if you transit TPE continuing on the same flight (i.e. one coupon = one segment). As such there's no point in taking the flight which stops in TPE, not least because by doing so you also avoid the excellent kaiseki meal which is only served in F on the HKG-NRT nonstops.

But you have two extra segments available so if you want to go to TPE just add in a HKG-TPE-HKG.

IST is still allowed with DXB.

As number6 says you either need to go BA transatlantic to Canada or use AA to the USA to get AA miles. Make sure you get a 777 Atlantic config if you take AA.

Remember that you can only have two stopovers within North America.

Just a thought, but you can score AA Plat very quickly on a AONE4 using the Plat Challenge. Then you could put the remainder to the QF program and should also be able to reach QF Platinum (OneWorld Emerald) which will also get you access to the AA Admirals Club and Flagship Lounges for almost two years, depending on your joining date.

The downside is that in most cases, QF points are of lower value for awards, except for some specific cases such as AA flights to the Caribean. So if it is AA miles you want, this may not be a good option. But it is worth thinking about and make a decision based on your own targets.

thanks so much for the valuable feedback Viajero, Number6, Christep, and NM,

I did not know that BA transatlantic flights do not get milege on AA. As a result, I have changed my itinerary to not stop in the US on the way back.. and took Number6 recommendation of LHR-YVR. ^

Number6: ANC flight on AA runs until sept 30th (as per AA timetable on August 2004) so that would work fine for this trip. I know that the HKG-LHR (CX) flights are quite full, so if the dates don't work, I was prepared to take the BA flights.

Christep: I completely forgot about the Kaiseki meal from HKG-NRT, and so have changed the flight to be direct rather than stopping in TPE.

Given that I still have one more segment that I could use for Asia, I decided to add HKG-KIX (always wanted to go to KIX).

NM I couldnt quite follow your comment.. Are you saying that for this trip I could get QF Platinum if I were to use QF FF program in addition to AA?

-----------------------------------
Below is my revised itinerary:

1) YYZ-ORD (AA)
(2) ORD-ANC (AA) Stopover
(3) ANC-DFW (AA)
(4) DFW-NYC (AA)
(5) NYC-SYD(QF) Stopover
(6) SYD-AKL Stopover
(7) AKL-MEL Stopover
(8) MEL-HKG (CX) Stopover
(9) HKG-NRT (CX) Stopover
(10) NRT-HKG (CX)
(11) HKG-KIX (CX) Stopover
(12) KIX-HKG (CX)
(13) HKG-LHR (CX) Stopover
(14) LHR-DXB (BA) Stopover
(15) DXB-LHR (BA)
(16) LHR-IST (BA) Stopover
(17) IST-LHR (BA)
(18) LHR-YVR (BA) Stopover
(19) YVR-JFK (CX)
(20) JFK/LGA-YYZ (AA)

TOTAL Milege: 55,522 miles (excluding bonus)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
BTW, I was going to book this itinerary through AA. Anybody know if Travel agent gets commission on this, and therefore I should book through TA so that it goes to the TA?

AA's Platimum challenge is based on completing 10,000 Q-Points in 3 months. On a AONE4 fare, you earn 1.5 Q-Points per mile flown. So that is a requirement to fly 6667 miles to earn AA Plat status.

For QF Platinum (known on the QF board as WP status), you need to earn 1400 Status Credits. SC's are dependent upon class flown and range bands.

So careful selection of which flights get posted to which account could have you earning both during the one trip. If all those flights were put to QF, you would earn 1970 SC's.

Shorter flights in F tend to be of less value to the QF program. Flights less than 2700 miles earn the same SC's in J and F and only a 50% bonus over full Y. But once you cross the 2700 mile boundary, the QF SC's add up fast on an F fare. But of course these are also the ones that are going to earn the most miles to your AA account.

For pure status attainment, you could put all the >2700 mile segments to QF, earning 1460 SC's and Platinum status. That leaves you with 13,800 miles to put to AA, earning 20,700 Q-Points, double the requirement for Plat Challenge.

So you can chose which program to put the extra flights into. Once you reach QF Plat you are getting 100% status bonus points for AA/BA and QF (not CX). Similarly, at AA Plat level you earn 100% bonus miles.

Note that once you put points into the QF program, they can only be used for award flights or upgrades on QF flights. You cannot transfer the points out to another program.

TA commission varies by country, in NZ and Australia it can be substantial (USD 500) for a OWE fare; in the US it is under USD100 (not sure of the amount, I don't have a friendly TA and am not in the industry, but it is small). Canada is somewhere in between. Some TAs will kick back part of their commission but given the amount of work involved that commission is deserved in most cases. I often work out the exact routing and dates, often even book it, and then give it to a TA. I used to ticket through the airlines but it has become more and more difficult to do so (CX in YVR does an excellent job, that would be your best choice in Canada if you didn't want to use a TA; CX will Fedex the ticket to you at no charge).
September is a good time to travel. Hope you spend a day in ANC, it is beautiful country and you can arbitrage the DFW/ORD flights (if both are still operating) to have 23 hour transit and thus not charged a stopover. Personally I would use one of the NA stopovers for ANC and spend a day (hotels may be more reasonably priced by September, all tourist things are expensive during cruise ship season). YVR also merits a stopover, if you haven't been before.

Yes. If it's issued through QANTAS. Otherwise ZERO commission on everyone else including AA.

So... you might as well issue this through AA.

The last AA ANC-DFW flight is on 7 September 2004. ORD may run to a different end date. Top end hotels in ANC may be hard to get in the weekend of 4,5,6 September (but lesser ones have good prices - at least "good" by ANC summer standards).

Auckland is AKL (not AUK).

Well, After doing some more work on my itinerary and reading some of your feedback and suggestions, I have realized two things:

1. This itinerary can't be done within a 14 day period without killing oneself and not having the ability to enjoy the sites. As a result, I have come to the conclusion this has to be done in 3 installments: NA, Australia/Asia, Europe.
2. Thanks to NM, I can maximize 2 frequent flier points: AA Platinum (via the Challenge) and qualify for Platinum (Emerald) on QF at the same time! SWEET! ^

So my revised objectives for this trip are:

1. Travel around the world and see sights
2. Maximize AA milege
3. Gain Emerald Status with QF (gain as close to 1,400 Status Credit, but not any more). I just want the 1st Class Lounge access!

Because of the way the QF FF Program is staggered (combination of milege and class of service) this makes the planning part of this trip even more interesting.

I ran several what-if scenarios (doing some on QF FF and some on AA FF), and to my surprise, the milege earned varies considerably by as much as 10,000 Q miles on AA (while still making QF Platinum):

1. Doing the first 4 segments will get me to AA Platinum with no problems (thanks to the Platinum Challenge) ^
2. The rest of the trip (segment 5-20) was to figure out what route(s) would maximize AA points but at the same time make QF Platinum (1400 SC). The best scenario that I was able to model is detailed below. Doing so would get me approximately 36,000 Qualifying points on AA, and qualify me for Platinum on QF (at 1,410 SC).
3. Interestingly, if I were to only accumulate on AA, the total intinerary would have resulted in approxmately 83,000 AA Qualifying Points (when bonuses are added in)
4. Doing the same itinerary using only QF FF, the trip would have netted me approximately 2,200 Status Credit on QF
5. If the logic holds, then getting QF Platinum is equvialent to 47,000 AA Qualifying points (i.e. 83,000-36,000) or 31,000 Miles.

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

1. YYZ-ORD (AA1371) 436m AA
2. ORD-ANC (AA725) 2,846m AA
3. ANC-DFW (AA279) 3,041m AA
4. DFW-LGA (AA712) 1,387m QF
   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5. JFK-SYD (QF108) 9,963m AA
6. SYD-AKL (QF43) 1,345m QF
7. AKL-MEL (QF34) 1,643m QF
8. MEL-HKG(CX104) 4,590m QF
9. HKG-NRT(CX504) 1,842m QF
10. NRT-HKG (CX505) 1,842m QF
11. HKG-SIN (CX713) 1,588m QF
12. SIN-HKG (CX716) 1,588m QF
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
13. HKG-LHR (CX253) 5,995m QF
14. LHR-DXB (BA109) 3,420m QF
15. DXB-LHR (BA106) 3,420m QF
16. LHR-IST (BA680) 1,565m QF
17. IST-LHR (BA677) 1,565m QF
18. LHR-YVR (BA085) 4,723m AA
19. YVR-JFK (CX888) 2,449m AA
20. LGA-YYZ (AA1063) 366m AA

ACFly,

If you have a stopover in AKL, NZ, let me know and I will buy another Canuck a drink in AKL :-)

Cheers, Mary