Longhaul US flights not considered transcons by OneWorld rules
 

The current RTW guidelines consider these city pairs to be transcon:

BWI/BOS/FLL/BDL/MIA/EWR/NYC/ORL/PHL/SJU/YYZ/WAS and one of
LAS/LGB/LAX/OAK/SNA/PDX/SAN/SFO/SEA/SJC/YVR.

Are there any flights that are long distance but not picked up here? 2 years ago, there was a flight from LAX-SXM with 1 flight number - very nice for getting us into the Caribbean.

I am struggling with the US portion of an RTW I want to book. I've got 4 sectors available for the US. I'd like to go somewhere that I can't get to inexpensively in the normal course of events. I'd love to go to a new Caribbean island such as Aruba. I can do one direction with just two segments - SAN-JFK-AUA - but due to the transcon rules, can't do the return in 2 segments.

Are there any Caribbean islands with flights to DFW or ORD (other than San Juan - been there, done that, little interest in going again). Are there any quirks such as LAX-SXM?

I'd like to fly in and out of SAN, but can use LAX as a jumping off point to save sectors.

Once upon a time there was a thread that addressed this. hauteboy might have been a key contributor - but I haven't found it.

And is there a resource where I can look at all the nonstop and direct flights from a particular city on a particular airline? Obviously, I want to do this for ORD and DFW for AA.

I don't know if things have changed, but we've been using the really cheap JFK-LGB flights to fill in one direction. Of course if you're also up against a two-stopover limitation, that may not help.

Good thought - and I don't believe I've got a stopover restriction, as I'll be originating in CAI again.

You are allowed to take 6 flights in North America; but perhaps you have two already identified and you are referring to 4 remaining; or perhaps you are up to your 20 segment total limit. Regarding getting across the country it can be done easily based on where you are coming from. Then again I don't know if you are possibly trying to maximize mileage, as opposed to just getting to your AUA destination. Based on my assumption that you are flying east since you are trying to get across the country I will outline a few options based on assumptions listed at the beginning of each.

1. Flying east from Asia. Out of NRT fly AA to JFK. Out of HKG fly CX to JFK. In both cases connect to AUA flight out of JFK, but make sure you arrive in a manner that allows you to take the Saturday only flight from JFK to AUA. If you are doing Asia followed by Oceana/Australia you are allowed to do these continents in any order - in other words you can do Australia first and then Asia. You can also maximize mileage accrual this way by doing Europe - Australia/Oceana - Asia - North America - Europe.

2. Another way to maximize mileage is to fly HKG to YVR, then do an Alaskan Cruise followed by an ANC to DFW and on itinerary. Bad news is that the ANC-DFW flight is Domestic FC w/NO sleeper seats. But then again I don't know what class you intend to travel. Unfortunately there are no ANC -> JFK flights even though CX route maps indicate there is - if you find out otherwise please let me know. Obviusly this later option does not solve your AUA problem of getting there in the least number of flights, but it does provide another option for visiting someplace you would not normally consider and at the same time give you a bunch of mileage accrual (ANC -> DFW 3043 miles) and this is not considered a Trancon.

Another way to maximize mileage accrual is to fly to Europe from the west coast and fly from Asia to the East Coast (previously mentioned). Well, hopefully I have given you some things to consider; but my guess is that these weren't quite the answers you were looking for. Oh, BTW if you are flying west from Europe I believe there are some flights directly from LHR and MAD to Caribbean/CA destinations (MIA, SJO, SJU, and SDQ to name a few).

Good luck.

aaupgrade, you've put a great deal of time and thought into your response, and I appreciate it. Let me go a little more into my RTW plans. I'll be buying a four continent first class ticket in CAI, then flying to the States and spending time at home. During that period, I'll use my domestic flights - which as you guessed, are limited to 4 because I need my other sectors elsewhere. My domestic trip will be standalone, with time at home before and after.

It's not important to me to maximize miles on my domestic travel. I'm more interested in going somewhere interesting and expensive to reach in the normal course of airfare sales. I haven't done much travel in the Caribbean or Central America, so those are interesting possibilities - also, I'm likely to travel in March or April so don't care to head north. (I went to St Martine two trips ago; I went to Bermuda this year. At the time, St Martine took 4 segments, but Bermuda took 5 - the classic problem with almost any Caribbean destination it appears.)

I do have some concern for comfort, so the summer ANC flights don't suit - they leave ANC in the middle of the night.

I have found some possibilities:

- Belize via DFW
- San Salvador via DFW - or SAN-DFW-SAL-LAX (there is nonstop LAX-SAL service I've discovered) - but a very quick read on El Salvador doesn't make it sound inviting.

Well, if San Salvador doesn't sound inviting then you aren't going to like what I have to say about Belize. I was there back in 1998 and it too was not very inviting. Very poor, and high petty crime. We were on the Belize Aggressor live aboard dive boat for the week and for anyone that dives I highly recommend it; however I would not recommend a land based trip unless you are into that rustic atmosphere of Ambergris Caye and don’t mind hour or so boat rides to the outer atolls. Other than diving there are some Aztec ruins, but that's about it unless you are into roughing it on eco tours.

Now there are flights from DFW to SJO (San Jose, Costa Rica) which is a beautiful country with lots to do. Volcanos, Black, white and yellow sand beaches, scuba diving, eco tours, rain forrest tours, butterfly farms, jungle river rides, Coffee plantation, etc. Sunrise breakfast on Caribbean beach, lunch picnic on a volcano, and sunset dinner on the pacific. Well you get the idea. San Jose is kind of nice for a day or two. We have customers down there and have visited numerous times - and will be back there later this month. FWIW, Costa Rica has the highest literacy rate in North America.

Yes, YGPM.

One World Distances Not the current timetable but may help

If SJO does take your fancy, consider AA927/938 LAX-SJO-LAX. This flight commences 5 Nov 04, and goes daily from 17 Dec, and at 2,722 miles its longer than a transcon :)

Now there's one that may well prove popular with the QF Frequent Flyers around, anything over 2,700 miles is certainly sought after! Good to have a winter alternative to the ANC runs I'm sure! :D

It's so very much a matter of personal taste, but we've not been able to find any Caribbean to love. So much of it is geared toward the mass-market cruise ship crowd. SXM seemed to have a nice flavor but we haven't done much there. Did ANC last summer and also found little to love. The Seward glacier boat tour was worthy, and I suspect there are some great adventures lurking not far from civilization, but we didn't get there. YQB at Christmas was just glorious, but it's hard to get to.

Yeah, the LAX-SJO-LAX is definitely going to be good for the QF earners... :) but of course you'll only earn Biz-class credit even if on a AONEX (caribbean/mexico are considered Biz).. so not as good as DFW-ANC or SFO-BOS which earn first class SC's.

I'll have to run my script on the latest schedule to see the longest flights.. LAS-POS or POS-LAS was a good one until recently.

I have booked on my current DONE4 LAX-SJD-LAX. Not exactly a long flight, but one of the few single flight numbers from LAX area which allows for a separate other domestic trip via DFW.

May not suit you as would leave you with 2 sectors...

Here's the current list >2000 mile 'domestic' flights:

Amazing, simply amazing. Thank you, hauteboy. That post will be printed out and digested at leisure.

oops. forgot to mention.
These should all be 'allowed' transcons :) I filtered out all the transcon city pairs

Great but for QFs...
 

Hi,

Well done with the non-paired transcons. Could you do the same for paired as we are allowed to do one of them?

For the QF AONExers (rather personal here), could you please explain the difference between "business" and "first class" on AA?

Could you also comment on seasonality of any of the flights. The ANC option has gone to bed for winter.

Could you also comment on LAX-SJO. Is this "AA metal" or is it operated by LACSA, and if so, does this make a difference to the non-AA 1Wers.

SXM is great for the plane spotters. However, the long sectors would appear to be to MIA on AA 2160 and SJU on 1312. Do these go onwards anywhere? They appear to be summer only schedules as well, at least in the awful 1W timetable. Comments please.

I hope that I am wrong on some of this stuff. I have a Honduras run to do soon so the information will be put to practical status and mileage run use, I assure you!

All domestic flights (including Alaska/Hawaii) on two-class planes on AA earn First class SC's on AONE*/DONE*. (Three class planes transcons earn biz SC's on a DONE*). So if only doing a DONE* the best North America routes are DFW-ANC-DFW and SFO-BOS as you will earn 150 SC's for each leg. However, all two-class flights to Canada/Mexico/Caribbean/Central America will earn Biz-class SC's, even if on a AONE*. LAX-SJO is on AA metal (flight #'s < 6000 are AA/Eagle metal) and can be used on OWE's, and there aren't any limits on its routing, and you will earn 100SC's on DONE/AONE.

It looks like the only SXM-onward flight is to LAS

What a great list! How did you determine it?

I have a script that scans the AA PDF schedule for flights, then strips out all international flights and domestic flights between the transcon cities.

Hauteboy-

You do good work! Thanks!

1) I noticed that all the >2000 mile non-transcons were on AA or an AA codeshare. I guess this is because you use the AA timetable, and not the OW timetable. Are there NONE >2000 that are on other OW carriers that fly Canada-US or Carib-US or Central America-US or Canada that are non-transcons?

2) Can you show us a list of the top (25?) transcons by miles? We only get one! I'd like to maximize it!

The only non-AA flights in North America are on QF LAX-JFK and CX YVR-JFK.. both of which are on the transcon list. So for all intents and purposes, any > other 2000 mile segment is going to be on AA. Iberia did have a hub in MIA with several flights to Central America, but I believe flights end this weekend (they are going to nonstop service from Spain). LAN also has a flight from PUJ-MIA, but I think this is actually under the Lan Dominicana flight # and can't be used on OWE's.

LAX-SJU-DFW-ANC-DFW-SJO-LAX is a pretty good routing, >16k miles in 6 segments, 4 segments are > 2700 miles (great for QFF earners :D ).

The longest transcons are:
lax-sju 3385
fll-sea 2716
bos-sfo 2700
bos-sjc 2685
bos-lax 2608
sjc-bdl 2605
bos-sna 2589
bos-san 2585
sfo-mia 2583
sfo-jfk 2582
sfo-lga 2575
sjc-jfk 2565
sfo-ewr 2561
sjc-lga 2559
sjc-mia 2557
sjc-fll 2555
ewr-oak 2551
phl-oak 2507
bdl-sna 2504
sjc-phl 2500

If not going for maximum miles, the best bets might be the LAX-JFK which would have three-class 762's.

I have converted hauteboy's excellent table in to Excel format so that it can be sorted in a number of different ways.

http://www.rtwinfo.co.uk/ft/US Fligh...City Pairs.xls

Indeed. At 2475 miles, it is not too far off the other non-stop transcons. F calss on these flights is quite nice, especially lunch and dinner flights.

Duh, I wasn't even thinking. Even a better deal is taking QF LAX-JFK. especially in First. :)

JFK-PHX axed
 

Unfortunately (see here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=359984 ) the JFK-PHX non-stop, non-transcon is finishing at the end of October. This is a great shame because a JFK-PHX-JFK mileage run was a great way of using up the last two segments on a ONE before getting on the CX JFK-HKG. (Because being a same plane turnround you had less risk of being stuffed by delays.) It's also strange since the plane was pretty much full every time I've taken it.

Would someone mind compiling the current list?

Checking a few of the "Gateway" city pairs on the original list it seems quite a few have vanished. hauteboy it would be great if you could rerun your script and give us an update.

wow what a great resource
 

excellent, as here i sit in NYC on my first DONE3 thinking about how work schedule just hasn't left me with enough spare time.. needless to say, I have at least 2 or 3 more RTW coming this half year, so shall get planning. cheers.

LAX-SJO is seasonal
 

I just learned that LAX-SJO is seasonal. Service ends on April 23; AA flights after that are actually on LACSA metal which is not a OneWorld partner.

Yep, but it was not seasonal until recently. We talked about it here some time ago, when my ticketed LAX-SJO-LAX got cancelled by AA and automatically rebooked. I ended up with a 22 segment OWE with three US transcons, involuntary, of course.

Has there been any updates to this? I'm beginning to wonder if my ORD-ANC-ORD back to back is such a good idea. :confused:

Just to add: PVD (Providence, Rhode Island)-LAX should be on the list. One-stop via ORD. ~2,592 miles. May only operate westbound - not sure.
Easy access to PVD from either NYC or BOS.

There a 2 flights per day ORD-ANC this year, departing ORD at 3:30PM and the other about 7PM. Same planes return from ANC about an hour after arrival in ANC.

Will this be resuming on AA metal? When (approximately)?

If it isnt resuming, or the season doesnt work out, any suggestions for long round trip non-transcon ex LAX; for QFF earning. Over 2400 miles is good as that is band for SC earning under the new QFF rules.

End of October.

I can't see any >2400 mi non-transcons from LAX (or ONT or BUR or SNA) in the current timetable. AA appears to have purged many of the direct flights on Hauteboy's splendid table.

Thanks. The next band down is 1200-2400 miles so should be plenty of options there I hope.

Latest transcon flights
 

This is the latest set of >2000 mile transcon flights from the oneworld schedule:

The format is:
From City,From Country,To City,To Country,# miles,Flight,Validity,Dep/Arr,Days,Flight Length

Note that any non-domestic flights will only earn Business class mileage credit and SCs.

Hauteboy, you da man. ^ ^

And here is a list of longest (non UK longhaul) Europe flights (>1200 miles)

All Finnair 757 flights are going to be economy only (yuk).