DCIR22 Suggestions
 

Again planning a DCIR22. This time I need to start in Brisbane (BNE) and only require one stop in either PHL, BWI or I can even accept JFK or EWR. My preference is to cross the North Pacific first eastward, and the South Pacific westwards, but can go the other way around if there is advantage in doing so.

Reason for the SP westward preference is that I am shortest on time for the return trip and also would like to try to upgrade the trans-Pac flight using QF Upgrade Credits.

So that means I would prefer to travel between LAX-SYD (or JFK-SYD) to get Skybeds and Z options, while LAX-BNE will not have Skybeds and no F cabin when I am flying. QF108 does have Skybeds and plenty of D available on the day I would be returning to Australia.

I would prefer to route BNE-HKG (again for the QF Skybeds), but the only way I can fit PHL/BWI/NYC into a DCIR22 ex BNE is to route BNE-NRT-ORD/JFK, which means a QF 763 followed by AA 777.

The best routing I can find so far is: BNE-NRT-ORD-PHL/JFK-LAX-SYD-BNE, with PHL/JFK being a ground segment. I make that about 21,900 miles and 540 QF SC's.

I would have liked BNE-HKG-JFK-LAX-BNE but it is 22,014 miles and there is no grace with the mileage on these fares. Another option is BNE-NRT-DFW-PHL-LAX-BNE for 21,715 miles flown and 540 SC's, but no Skybes on LAX-BNE.

Any other suggestions on how to for the PHL area into an ex-BNE DCIR22? At a cost of about A$6000 plus taxes, it is a great business class fare to the USA East Coast.

Hmm, looking at the schedules, I might have to go the other direction. The only BNE-NRT flight (QF69) does not arrive into NRT until 8pm, by which time all AA flights NRT to USA have long departed. So that would mean an overnight stay at NRT. Interestingly, there is not a Y seat to be had on the QF69 BNE-NRT for the three days around when I will be flying, but plenty of J and D available.

Also note that the AA flights to NRT seem to have very restricted D availability. Most days show lots if J and no D. So that may make it very hard to make this routing work.

AA RTW desk has always been able to release A/D inventory on request for Emeralds, so the lack of inventory is not really a problem as long as lots of J seats (and typically there are to/from NRT). In the worst case NRT-SJC is always available these days.

Presuming the mileage on the circle fare is calculated the standard way, you could go bne-hkg-phl-lax-bne which is 21981 miles (actual travel is of course hkg-jfk-rdu-phl-...-lax- ).

You could even route via MIA, e.g. hkg-jfk-mia-phl-mia-jfk-lax (jfk-mia is 60 SCs). Even better, so is phl-mia (but bwi-mia is only 30 SC). So you can get an extra 240 SCs for jfk-mia-phl-mia-jfk (all this presumes that circle fare counts mileage between stopovers and not including transits).

From my experience, DCIRC22 fare mileage was based on sectors. Eg SYD-AKL-LAX-DFW-YVR-HKG-SYD where AKL and LAX were transits (<24 hrs) but different days and flight numbers. This was important for the SCs.

Thanks, that os good to know.
Mileage for all OneWorld mileage based fares (eg Circle Pacific, Global Explorer) is the sum of the distance of ticketed sectors, including any ground sectors. So unless there is a single flight number HKG-PHL, this is not going to fit as the sum of HKG-JFK-RDU-PHL is going to put me over 22,000 miles.
But again, unless its a single flight number HKG-PHL, its not going to fit in the mileage allowance. Getting a DCIR22 to the USA East Coast is always tight. Forget doing it from SYD or MEL, BNE is generally the only optoin which is helpful for me at least.

You can even to the transit same day on same flight number. I did LHR-SIN-MEL on QF10 as two ticketed sectors and received 160+100 SC's. The TA was not willing to book it that way with the same day/same flight connection in SIN - she said she had to book the through flight. So I asked he to leave me in SIN overnight, connecting to QF10 SIN-MEL the next day. Then once the journey was commenced, I called QF and changed the date of my SIN-MEL and MEL-BNE flights to remove the overnight in SIN. There are generally ways around these things ;) .

But when trying to get to PHL, BWI or JFK on a DCIR22, there are not many miles to play with, so breaking in AKL is unlikely to fit. Using NRT for the Asia transit instead of HKG opens up some more options, but HKG is prefered due to CX vs AA experience and the HKG lounge vs NRT lounge experience.

A real hard decision - go for the comfort of the flight and the lounges (CX) or go for the Status Bonus (AA) - if you can't get an AA code of the CX flight.

Ah yes, I can see it now. Its just like "the money of the box" :D . I can hear the crowd shouting ... the lounge, the lounge, the lounge.

But I will take the best of both sides of the equation and stick with the AA codeshare on the CX flight.

How about:

BNE-LAX-STL-BWI and then JFK-HKG-BNE

I believe this is less than 22000 and should get you 570SC

Probably doesn't get you QF skybeds but it does get you CX across the pacific (with an AA codeshare), which is much better than AA to NRT

I get 22053 miles so long as the BWI-JFK surface sector is included in the mileage (which I think it is?). Please tell me that the surface sectors are NOT included!

I thought it was just the flights that were flown but I don't know for sure becuase I have never used a surface sector on any mileage based ticket

xONEx fares require the surface sectors to be added to the mileage.

176N . * SURFACE TRAVEL IS PERMITTED AT PASSENGER*S
177N . EXPENSE, AND IS INCLUDED IN THE TOTAL MILEAGE.

Yes, as others have noted, ground sectors are included in mileage for DCIRxx fares. And so many of my tested options end up less than 30 miles over.

I would really like to go through DFW on the way to PHL/BWI/JFK. So it looks my best route is BNE-LAX-DFW-PHL-DFW-NRT-BNE. But no skybeds of CX WB to be seen, just QF Dreamtime and AA J seats all the way. But it is worth 600 QF SC's. And no chance to use my UC's to get into an F cabin :( .

Now I wonder if I can find a CX codeshare on LAX-DFW to get the 15,000 point bonus before the end of November? The BNE-PHL will be in November, the return in early December.

Maybe I should start to look at the additonal cost of DCIR26??

A bit more tweaking and it looks like I can go this way:

BNE-SYD-LAX-DFW-PHL-ORD-NRT-BNE

This gets me skybeds SYD-LAX on QF107, and AA 763 LAX-DFW. Just have to put up with NRT for about 5 hours connecting to a QF763 for the return journey. This is 21,866 according to Great Circle Mapper. And will earn 600 QF SC's.