Hello All!

I am considering doing the following routing and just wanted to check a few things (London is my actual home port):

CAIorWAW-LHR-SIN-HKG*-BKK-SYD*-MEL*-AYQ*-PER*-MEL-LAX-JFK*-DFW-YYZ*-DFW-YVR*-LHR*-DXB*-LHR-WAWorCAI

* = stop

a) Is the above routing valid?

b) Can I have the above ticket all on e-ticket which means I can purchase the ticket and not have to worry about having to pick it up in either Cairo or Warsaw

c) Is it better to purchase it in Cairo or Warsaw? i.e. anyone got any idea on the price differential as current information displayed on this forum seems a little out of date? Suggested agents? What is the impact on the EU ruling on pricing (i.e. will this make CAI the definately better starting point)

d) My definite stops are Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto and Vancouver (New York as an almost definite stop) however could be flexible on everything else and interested in trying to maximise mileage and status. All mileage and status will be applied to my QF account and all travel will be post May 25 so the new 10 zone mileage/status table will apply.

e) Can I stop in LHR twice as a stop over (i.e. just before and just after I do the DXB run?)

f) Could look at the AONE4 ticket, although quite a few legs I have don't offer first class so it may not be worth it and to be honest I find Skybed a great product with BA being reasonable, but if anyone can come up with routing which means I can travel first most of the way, I will certainly look at it. Not looking forward to being downgraded to Y on the AA flights!

g) When does the ticket expire? 12 months after ticketing or 12 months after 1st date of departure?

Any other suggestions or comments would be much appreciated!

It would not be valid from CAI, because you cannot have CAI-LHR and LHR-DXB.

Thanks for the feedback on the routing. Might change that to something like TLV or IST then. Would be nice to have a routing on something with NCW rather than CE, but at the end of the day it is not a show stopper.

Still hope that people can help with the other questions. Also aware that I have only used 19 sectors so I effectively have 1 up the sleve to use somewhere else to perhaps gain additional mileage & status.

12 months after 1st date of departure.

You can check threads on this subject from the last week. Basically they boil down to if you have more than 16 segments then no eticket.
Within the last two weeks or so there has been a thread with updated pricing. As to buying in CAI numerous threads detailing the procedure from Emeco travel and from BA(which seems to again be an option from a thread from the last few weeks).
You can have two stopovers in your continent of origin so two stopovers are fine in LHR provided you do not stopover in IST, TLV, DXB(which you can do starting from WAW but not CAI) or wherever else you decide to go.

IST is ok, but TLV is on the restricted "two sectors only from the UK" list.

On other question, I seem to be a little confused about domestic travel within the US and Canada. The rules seem to state that on a DONEx that you are downgraded to economy on domestics and business is fine on US/Canada flights, yet some people seem to travel first on some flights within the US. Could somebody please clarify what class I am to travel in?

For example, I read recently in this forum that travelling on a DONEx between SFO and BOS would actually allow the traveller to go in First.

Any clarification would be helpful.

Thanks!

When on a DONEx, you will ride:

- in the front cabin of a 2-class flight (the majority of AA flights).
- in the middle cabin of a 3-class flight (JFK/LAX, mostly).
- in the only cabin there is on a 1-class service (AE, mostly).

And American Connection or whatever they call the flights in and out of STL.

One hopefully final question:

Is there any way to have three stops in continent of origin?

BTW, I think I have revised my plan to the following so any suggestions would be most welcome:

CAI-LHR-SIN-HKG*-BKK-SYD*-MEL*-AYQ*-PER*-SYD-JFK/LGA*-YYZ*-DFW-YVR*-DFW-BOS-SFO-LHR-IST*-LHR*-CAI*

*=stop

total miles = 50940 not including status and cabin bonus

You can see that in NYC I have to change from JFK to LGA as it seems only LGA have direct flights to YYZ (I am assuming this is 'legal' as it is the same city and therefore won't be counted as yet another segment).

Thanks again everyone for your help. Very much appreciated!

The "2 stopover in continent of origin" rule is firm and there is no way around it (also no way to buy additional segments in continent of origin). But your shown itinerary complies with that rule as it only has 2 stopovers (the origin/destination is not a stopover!).