Here is a planned DONE5 that my wife and I are planning. Some of the flights may need to be moved a couple of days ahead or back, as certain flights may only operate on certain days. I haven't checked that part of it yet. We are very flexible and with enough advance warning, we can change our plans to accomodate an earlier or later flight.

Comments are welcome from anything in terms of better flights for comfort, alternative routes for more FF miles, or even "You're going to be there then? Did you think of x,y, or z?"

Here goes:

1. CAI-BCN IB6977 Sep 05 '05 (Train or RyanAir to London)
2. LHR-DXB BA109 Sep 12 '05 (Visit College friend)
3. DXB-LHR BA106 Sep 17 '05
4. LHR-CPT BA059 Sep 18 '05 (Ground to J'burg)
5. JNB-VFA BA6285 Oct 13 '05
6. VFA-JNB BA6282 Oct 17 '05
7. JNB-HKG CX748 Oct 18 '05
8. HKG-DPS CX785 Oct 23 '05
9. DPS-HKG CX784 Oct 28 '05
10. HKG-SIN CX735 Oct 29 '05 (Ground to BKK, Separate ticket BKK-KTM, Ground to DEL via Agra, train from DEL to BOM)
11. BOM-SYD QF124 Jan 01 '06 (Ground to BNE)
12. BNE-PER QF589 Jan 11 '06
13. PER-ADL QF668 Jan 18 '06 (Ground to MEL)
14. MEL-AKL QF033 Feb 01 '06 (QF FF ticket to SYD)
15. SYD-SCL QF321 Feb 28 '06
16. SCL-UIO LA554 Mar 07 '06 (Dive Galapagos, Trek Machu Picchu)
17. LIM-EZE LA601 Mar 28 '06
18. EZE-GRU BA246 Apr 02 '06 (Ground to Rio)
19. GIG-LHR BA246 Apr 12 '06
20. MAD-CAI IB3734 Apr 16 '06

One thing that I am not sure about is that the OWE validator posted in an earlier thread permits this as a valid itinerary when I insert the above cities, but I think that I have three stopovers (BCN,DXB,LHR) in my continent of origin. If this is in fact not a valid itinerary because of this, then I will change the flight from GIG-LHR to GIG-MAD, flying through MAD and not stopping over. (I would prefer to fly trans-atlantic on BA to LHR, but if I have to fly IB to MAD, then so be it.)

Any input would be great in the next couple of days. I wish to purchase this before Dec 31 and have it ticketed in Cairo by Emeco. (If someone has a better alternative, please let me know.) Could someone PM me with Emeco's contact information?

And finally, how do most people get into and out of Cairo? Can you recommend a good hub city in Europe to use as a springboard to get to CAI and not have to pay an obscene amount for a 9 month open ticket? I will be flying to Europe on FF points.

Many thanks in advance,

BdaDiver

You are correct. Your itinerary contains 3 stopovers in the continent of origin.
You need to go GIG-xMAD-CAI
---------------------------------------------
Above was wrong.
1st stop 1. CAI-BCN IB6977
2nd stop 2. 2. LHR-DXB BA109
3rd stop 3. DXB-LHR BA106 (Because LHR-CPT departs afer 24 hours)
4th stop 19. GIG-LHR BA246

BA106, BA059 schedule are:

BA106 0240 0645
BA059 1920 0850+1

What you need to check:
- You have 4 middle east coupons. I think only two are allowed (CAI and DXB)
- CAI-BCN does not have real F, CAI-LHR has.
- BOM-SYD has no F. You would need to route thru HKG or some other place to get F to SYD
- LIM-EZE is a plane change in SCL, F only on the LIM-SCL sector. You should issue the ticket LIM-EZE open in F, then when checking in get F on LIM-EZE and then C in the first row (F seats) on SCL-EZE.
- You also have 2 stopovers in LHR (a surface sector counts as stopover in two places)

Also there are charter flights into CAI from many places in Europe. They dopnt show up on the regular reservation systems. Round trip 200 - 400 Euro.
In germany you can check
http://book.hapagfly.com/westsite/co...g_001158.shtml (cai during some month, other places in egypt)
or
http://www3.condor.com/tcf/us/index.jsp (not CAI, but Luxor and other interesting places - domestic flights in egypt are not expensive)

There should be similar offers from other countries.

2 flights limitation is only applied to LHR flights.
CAI-BCN, MAD-CAI are not counted as this restriction.

Ad chirstep mentioned, a surface sector is counted as a one stop.
However, follwoing transfer is one more stopover.

3. DXB-LHR BA106 Sep 17 '05
4. LHR-CPT BA059 Sep 18 '05 (Ground to J'burg)

BA106 0240 0645
BA059 1920 0850+1

To reduce stopover points within continet of origin,
BA059 must be on Sep 17 for transit (less than 24 hours transfer),
or BA106 must be on Sep18.

No - the restriction on Middle East & "distant Europe/N Africa) is from the UK only (but not just London), so that is OK.

I disagree on stopovers - I believe a surface segment is one stopover. This is not explicit in the OWE Star files, but it is explicit in, for example, the Circle Pacific one.

I am under the understanding that a surface segment is one stop. If upon ticketing, it is considered as two stops, then I may need to either do the trip ex-WAW or take out DXB.

Also, my mistake on the DXB-LHR to LHR-CPT connection. This was to have been on the same day.

Thanks for the help.

As I am doing a DONE5, what does it matter if there is no F on a flight? Or do D ticketed passengers get knocked down to the back of the bus in a two class configured plane?

Thank you for the tips on charters to Egypt. Might make use of chartering to Sharm El-Sheikh and getting to CAI by land.

Sorry - i am so used to RTWs in F that i did not see the DONE5.
Also the surface sectors: a surface sector counts as one stop. But to my knowledge the rule that you can only stop once per city is applied to both ends of a surface sector.
So by doing BCN-LHR as surface you cannot have a second stop in either Barcelona or London.

There is no 'once per city' rule regarding stops in the case of a OWE.

Agreed. I stop in HKG three times on all my AONE3s.

christep you prompted me to go back and look up the rules again on this, now I see the workaround - thanks

You can not buy this ticket in DEC04! Because it�s only valid 1 year! If your travel ends Apr.06 you can buy May 05 !

XONEX is valid 1 year after 1st segment.
So, you can purchase it, but you can not book flights on Apr 2006 until May 2005.
You have two choices.
1. Remain some later segments OPEN.
2. Book earler date flights as dummy, and change them after.

My plan was to have all flights up to the end of Oct '05 filled in and assigned when I purchased the ticket. I would then firm up the rest of the flights 10 to 11 months prior to flight date for the "tough to get" flights ie. SYD-SCL. Which other flights might be "tough to get" in my itinerary. Maybe BOM-SYD? Help!

On another note, I have sent an initial email to Emeco about 36 hours ago, but I have not had a response yet. Should I call AA's RTW desk to book the first few flights thru the end of Oct '05 and then contact Emeco again. I am getting nervous that I may not get this ticket issued before Dec 31 '04. Previous posts on other threads have mentioned that Emeco's service has been top notch, but I haven't even heard back from them. Any advice?

Cheers,

BdaDiver

They seem to have been going through a not replying to emails bout for the last few months, so this time round BA have my business.