Hi all. I'm planning an rtw done4 itinerary for my fiancee and I for our honeymoon. I used to be AA PL but have since switched to *A. But I'm booking a OWE because I think we both could reach AA Exp with the ticket. There are three goals 1) make AA Exp. 2) Visit places that we like have friends (del, mel, jfk, lhr, dxb, west coast US (sfo/lax), at least one beachy type location) 3) maximize the nice long haul on airlines like BA and CX where we can get good sleep; prefer long haul miles to short jumps; i find them less tiring per mile flown. Oh and I need to end in DXB or AUH because i'll be flying to DEL and those locations are the cheapest way to get back.

I've read all the sticky threads and then some but still have some questions.

1) Is this a valid itinerary
seg--flights--notes
1) ist-lhr
2) lhr-dxb (1st mideast flight)
3) dxb-lhr (2nd mideast flight)
4) lhr-sin-mel (continuing flight on BA) (non-stop transit through ASIA)
5) mel-bme (assume this doesn't count as transcon though Per and DRW do)
6) bme-per
7) per-syd (Aus Transcon)
8) syd-bom (return to asia)
9) bom-bkk-hkg (continuing flight on CX)
10) hkg-del
11) del-hkg
12) hkg-jfk (assume this is a pacific crossing? )
13) jfk-lax (US transcon) (AA seg 1)
14) lax-sjo (AA seg 2)
15) sjo-lax (AA seg 3)
16) lax-dfw-gua (continuing flight on AA 2195) (AA seg 4)
17) gua-mia-ewr (continuing flight on AA)
18) ewr-mia
19) mia-hel
20) hel-dxb
Total Miles: 67,504 on Great Circle Mapper; All points would be credited to AA.

2) Do qantas link flights count for Q-points? (i've avoided it here but would make the trip more convenient)

3) Is HKG JFK considered a pacific crossing ? (i think SQ from JFK to SIN actually counts as an atlantic crossing)

4) Are any of the AA routes only Y class ie: am i going to lose the 50% Qpoints bonus?

5) Has any one tried to ticket these monster itin? WIth my star RTWs I found most agents and even the UA rtw desk to be less than well informed.

6) To start in IST, does the ticket have to be purchased in IST or can it be issued elsewhere.

Cheers, trip is scheduled for 2005 summer so have some time, but might want to have the first half done in Mar.

1- itinerary is valid if all the flights exist when you are travelling, eg lax-dfw-gua. some may be seasonal, ie mel-bme and mia-hel

2- yes

3- yes

4- not on AA, but definitely on the 2 Finnair flights, mia-hel & hel-dxb. Those are only Y and will be booked into L class. According to number_6 and others, those flights are worse than LRTC on AA...

5- AA and BA are good as they have dedicated desks for these tickets. With BA in the USA/Canada, they have a tendency to quote the N. American fares even when you start elsewhere. Try to contact the BA office in Turkey first, then have them takeover the reservation once you make it with BA here.

6- You must buy and fly the 1st segment in IST to get the IST price.

Good luck.

N.B. OOPS! I forgot that geography and OWE rules are different. As Gardyloo says, Turkey is not in the Middle East, so you must end in IST.

1) No - (as mentioned first by Gardyloo below) if you start in IST you have to finish in Turkey. And remember that only two out of LHR, DXB, LHR & HEL can be stopovers.
2) I believe so (but I'm not certain).
3) Yes.
4) No, but the HEL-DXB is Y only crushed into a 757. The OneWorld timetable shows HEL-MIA as an MD-11 so I would have thought that would have business class.
5) There doesn't seem to be much experience here of doing it in IST, but plenty in other places. Levels of expertise in the ticket offices vary enormously. You may need to be very conversant with the starfiles. And patient.
6) Yes. It might be possible to do the spade work with a BA office nearer you and then get them to set it up on their system and hand it over to IST. But at the end of the day it has to be ticketed and paid for in IST.

Turkey is not in the Middle East as far as the OWE is concerned, so you have to end the trip in Turkey, not DXB.

The LAX-GUA-EWR through flights are indeed seasonal, as is LAX-SJO (codeshared by LACSA after 4/30).

I have gone most of the way to ticketing through IST but am likely now reverting back to WAW because I can do it cheaper and quicker. However, the BA office in IST seems cooperative - book your itinerary through the the BA RTW desk closest to you (Toronto in NA, otherwise London) and get a locator, so that they can pull it up at IST.

When booking the res with BA's NA RTW desk, you may get guff when you mention that you will be paying and ticketing in Turkey. No bonus or commissions for the phone people in Canada made one of my calls less than pleasant.

The good news is that IST says they will take US-bank credit cards (faxed copies both sides.)

Others in this forum are certainly more expert than I, but I'm not reading this itin as valid at all. Isn't going from LHR to SYD and then back to BOM (subtle Rushdie reference, anyone?) backtracking?

Finally, cannot end in DXB if starting in IST.

Am I wrong?

No, that's allowed. It's only between the three big areas (Americas, EMEA, Asia/SWP) that backtracking isn't allowed.
Yes - you are right. I read the OP as saying that these were direct (1-stop) flights on a single flight number, in which case that would be OK. But on consulting the OW Timetable they both look like two separate flights to me. So you are correct - it is two segments too many in N America, and in total.
You're right about that one, as commented by Gardyloo and corrected in my post.

Really? That comes as something of a revelation. Can you point to the appropriate section of the rules so that when (as it inevitably will be) it is challenged I can counter-challenge?

It's a bit hard to prove an absence of rules... you show me the rule that could possibly be used to challenge it and I'll counter

The validator here: http://jph.bytestacker.com/award.htm accepts it so others agree with me. (Although it doesn't recognise the LAX-GUA-EWR direct seasonal flights)

The rules say only one entry and exit to each continent, but there are number of exceptions, of which transiting Asia en-route to/from SWP permitting a second entry is one. (The others concern re-entering Europe in conjunction with Africa, and re-entering N America in conjunction with S America.)

They also say that routing must be in a continuous direction between TC1, TC2, and TC3, which are the IATA terms for the three continent groupings I listed above.

You have a point. Just walk me (us) through the rationale here...

They are single flight numbers through April 2005, then discontinued, same as with the LAX-SJO nonstops on AA.

If the OP wants to do a summertime route with max. mileage, ending up with a flight to HEL, then the following offers a few more miles without breaking any routing rules AFAIK:

(HKG-) JFK-SJU-DFW-ANC-DFW-YVR-JFK or -ANC-DFW-SFO-JFK (I wouldn't give up a CX J ride for AA transcon but that's me.)

Apologies - they don't seem to come up in the OneWorld Timetable, but I do find AA2195 LAX-GUA and AA2128 GUA-EWR on the AA site.

So the problem that remains is the start/end in IST.

Thanks for the clarification. I knew there were much more knowledgeable people on this board. Glad to know that one can go Europe-SWP-Asia. I assume, then, that one can do the reverse as well (SWP-Europe-Asia)?

No you can't because that wouldn't take you round the world (it would be SWP-Europe-Asia-N America-SWP) and you would be entering TC3 (Asia/SWP) twice.

I think the complete list of valid xONE4 routings going basically eastwards is:

Europe-Asia-SWP-NA-Europe
Europe-SWP-Asia-NA-Europe (utilising the Asia transit exception on Europe-SWP)
Europe-Africa-Asia-NA-Europe
Europe-Africa-SWP-NA-Europe
Europe-Asia-SWP-SA-Europe
Europe-Africa-SWP-SA-Europe
Europe-Asia-NA-SA-Europe
Europe-Asia-SA-NA-Europe (utilising the NA transit exception on Asia-SA)

Asia-SWP-NA-Europe-Asia
Asia-NA-Europe-SWP-Asia (utilising the Asia transit exception on Europe-SWP)
Asia-NA-Europe-Africa-Asia
Asia-NA-Africa-Europe-Asia (only in certain specific cases involving overlands and Ghana or Nigeria)
Asia-NA-SA-Europe-Asia
Asia-SA-NA-Europe-Asia (utilising the NA transit exception on Asia-SA)

NA-Europe-SWP-Asia-NA (utilising the Asia transit exception on Europe-SWP)
NA-Europe-Asia-SWP-NA
NA-Europe-Africa-Asia-NA
NA-Africa-Europe-Asia-NA (again only in certain specific cases)
NA-SA-Europe-Asia-NA
NA-Europe-Asia-SA-NA (utilising the NA transit exception on Asia-SA)

SA-NA-Europe-Asia-SA (utilising the NA transit exception on Asia-SA)
SA-Europe-Asia-NA-SA

SWP-Asia-NA-Europe-SWP
SWP-NA-Europe-Asia-SWP
SWP-SA-Europe-Asia-SWP
SWP-NA-Europe-Africa-SWP

and then of course all of the exact reverse routings going basically westwards.

Note that the transit exceptions for NA en route to/from SA and for Europe to/from some places in Africa are not as good as they used to be because they both effectively require you to use two segments from your 20 allowed to make one intercontinental journey. (The Europe-SWP via Asia is OK because it counts as only one segment if on one flight number.)

But you could do Asia-SWP-Europe which is what I believe was the question.

Thanks everybody for the input. Just wanted to clarify where we are falling out bec i'm still a bit confused.

seg--flights--notes
5) mel-bme (need to check if this is seasonal; i don't believe it is)
14) lax-sjo (AA timetable does not list this as seasonal; the OW timetable i find to be quite useless)
15) sjo-lax (AA timetable does not list this as seasonal)
16) lax-dfw-gua(AA timetable does not list this as seasonal)
17) gua-mia-ewr (this flight is shown as eff Jan 31 so should be ok.)
18) ewr-mia
19) mia-hel (this is shown as nonstop MD11 so should have J class)
20) hel-dxb (this needs to change to ist)

SO BASICALLY if I change MIA-HEL_DXB to MIA-LHR-IST, then I should be all set. off to the races, flying the coop, ... taking off!

Unfortunately the mileage count is below the AA EXP threshold, but if I'm able to use Qantas link, i'm sure i'll be able to work something out for a bit more out of australasia.

thanks, will post the final itin when i figure it out.