As a light-hearted antidote to the obsession here with maximising mileage on xONEx tickets perhaps we should have a thread where people can come to confess their sins. This could be seen as a cathartic exercise for those driven to despair by the needs of their job, or whatever.

I'll start by confessing that today I approved the purchase of a DONE3 to take me on a business trip with the following routing:

HKG-LHR-NYC-HKG for, er, 17517 miles

I have wasted hours trying to work out how to do something better with it that won't make me look completely mad in front of my colleagues, and failed - they simply don't understand what I am upset about since it is anyway by far the cheapest way to do that routing in business!

Not quite a mileage sin, but I'm ashamed to say I never used my BA Amex 2-for-1 redemption voucher and was too late to renew it. Very embarassing and a big waste, I was too scared to mention it on the BA forum! I've got another one now and I'm determined not to waste that one too.

Some years ago, I had to take quarterly trips from Boston to Italy for work, and Digital's travel policy at that time allowed business class travel for trips > 6 hours. (Neither the policy nor the company still exists.)

After my first of about 10 trips, I offered to fly in coach to save money.

I flew out of OAK last week. To compound the sin, I flew back into OAK yesterday. At least I didn't commit the ultimate sin of flying Southwest.

I needed to find a way to fly a single economy trip USA-Europe for less than $1,000. So, I am routed DCA-JFK-LHR-DUB-FRA with 2 segments on EI. But it was a cheap $300, but almost 7 hours more travel time. $50 more than EI USA-DUB-FRA, but I could not fathom an all EI economy trip.

I assume you weren't "healthy or rarely bedridden" (i.e., you must have been delirious) when you suggested this?

I found an old ticket from August 2001 (hmm, right at the time I joined FT ) for a DONE4 BNE-LAX-DFW-LHR-SYD-BNE. What a waste of an opportunity. And back then they were not subject to the 20-sector limit!

Its a good thing I learned much from FT since then. My last DONE4 was BNE-LAX-DFW-SJC-DFW-ORD-LAX-JFK-LHR-HEL-LHR-FRA-LHR-SIN-MEL-BNE. Much better use of the same fare thanks to my FT-gained knowledge and wisdom ^ .

My very first RTW was ex-YYZ starting in Dec. 2000. The 4 European sectors were all on IB and yielded a whopping total of 1860 miles. Then there were 2 SWP sectors that yielded 2987 miles. After that, I had 1 Asian sector that yielded 1048 miles. Even the 5 sectors in NA yielded a measly 4773 miles. That was a DONE4.

But with thanks to all of the OW gang here on FT, my follow-on DONE3 yielded more total miles than the the entire mileage of the original DONE4.

I`m ashamed to say on my current DONE4, one sector is WLG-AKL on an all-economy QF codeshare. It was the best I could do with short amount of time to use the 1 segment I had. However, I am doing SYD-LHR, so it all comes out in the wash I guess.

not even any J seats to sit in ?

Pah! Is that the worst you can do?? In May 2000 I used an MONE4 to fly MEL-LAX-BNA-ORD-LHR. I did intend to fly LHR-SIN-MEL but never got round to it. I didn't even use the four segments I had in Europe, let alone the six I had in NA. I am ashamed to this day, especially as I had quit my job in April and was moving to London to start a new one in September, meaning that not only did I have the ticket, but I also had the time to do rather more creative routings. And back in the day, they were full mileage-earners. Mea culpa.