I finished putting together my first OW RTW itinerary. It is a combination of business/study, visiting friends/family, and pure leisure. I think I have adhered to most of the rules found in the sticky, but I imagine there will be mistakes.

Itinerary:
HRE-JNB / BA
JNB-NBO / BA
NBO-JNB / BA
JNB-LHR / BA
LHR-BCN / BA
BCN-LHR-JFK / BA
JFK-MIA / AA
MIA-LAX / AA
LAX-SEA / AA codeshare with AS
SEA-ANC / AA codeshare with AS
ANC-SEA / AA codeshare with AS
SEA-SFO / AA
SFO-HKG-SYD / CX
SYD-AKL / QA
CHC-BNE / QA
BNE-ADL / QA
ADL-SYD / QA
SYD-JNB / QA

Summary:
20 segments including those between regions
Both oceans crossed (3 even)
4 continents: Africa, Europe, North America & Asia Pacific
-3 segments in Africa
-2 segments in Europe
-6 segments in North America
-4 segments in Asia Pacific
No stopover in HKG (hopefully can time it to maybe go into town)
Will claim miles/points with BA & AA

Questions:
-I have a few open jaws; are they allowed on L & D fares?
-Are the AA flights on AS metal permitted?
-Would there be any way to eliminate Europe to make it a xONE3 (BCN is purely for fun, so not really necessary).
-When I get it right, can I just book it with my local BA agent, and then ticket and purchase it in HRE (or even better, JNB)?

So, what's wrong with my itinerary?
Thanks for all your help... be nice; I am still new to this!

AS metal cannot be flown on OWE tickets. Any OWE including Africa must be a minimum of 4 continents (ie. all OWE include Europe, Asia and either North or South America). The rules are that the pricing is the higher of country of origin or country of sale, so BA is very happy to sell it to you in JNB but for the much higher South African OWE price (haven't looked but guessing double the ex-HRE purchase price). Don't have time to check your routing and with the AS flights gone it is likely to change drastically. AA does have DFW-ANC and ORD-ANC service but it is seasonal (June to mid-September).

Since my fears that AS metal would not be permited have been confirmed (), here is a slightly modified itinerary. I have heard on the BA board, however, of people getting full points/miles on AS metal for AA flights, so is there no way of being a little sneaky about it?

Modified Itinerary:
HRE-JNB / BA
JNB-NBO / BA
NBO-JNB / BA
JNB-LHR / BA
LHR-BCN / BA
BCN-LHR-JFK / BA
JFK-MIA / AA
MIA-LAX / AA
LAX-ORD-ANC / AA
ANC-ORD / AA
ORD-SEA / AA
SFO-HKG-SYD / CX
SYD-AKL / QA
CHC-BNE / QA
BNE-ADL / QA
ADL-SYD / QA
SYD-JNB / QA

It is slightly more circuitous having to go via ORD, but I suppose I could see somone or do something there. Problem is connections between LAX and SEA on AA seem non-existant. I could also just buy a seperate ticket with AS, but then I wouldn't be able to take full advantage of up to 6 flights.

Hi Schmeck.. have you tried the Oneworld Validator?

It's here:
http://jph.bytestacker.com/award.htm

Scroll down and enter your city names, seperates by - if flying between them and , if making your own way.

Also note that you have 5 continents, not 4. You're going through HKG which is Asia, and then on to SYD, which is South-West Pacific. You didn't mention where you'd have stopovers, but you're allowed only 2 in your continent of origin. As you list JNB as home, you won't be able to stop over there twice and in NBO as well.

Oh, and the code for Qantas is QF, not QA.

I played around with it a little and came up with this as a way of using your 6 NA segs, touching your NA destinations (but using a separate but not expensive AS RT on the west coast), and cutting Asia out of the mix. You'd still have a European seg to use in addition (LHR-IST?/HEL?/? -BCN-LHR) or whatever, so I don't think you would lose much mileage.

1 HRE-JNB
2 JNB-NBO
3 NBO-JNB
4 JNB-LHR
5 LHR-BCN
6 BCN-LHR
7 LHR-ORD
8 ORD-ANC
9 ANC-ORD
10 ORD-SEA//
Then separate AS open-jaw (mileage earning but not OWE legal) SEA-LAX or -SFO then LAX/SFO-YVR. Note RT from SEA might be cheaper during cruise season - YVR prices go way up. Train from SEA to YVR is around US$30, 4 hours.
11 YVR-JFK (CX, daytime flight, your transcon)
12 JFK-MIA
13 MIA-JFK
14 JFK-SYD (QF)
15 SYD-AKL
16 AKL-BNE
17 BNE-ADL
18 ADL-SYD
19 SYD-JNB

I thought one could fly from North America to the Asia Pacific region via Asia, as long as one is only in transit, and not making a proper stopover (which for BA means longer than 24 hours). That would not count as a stopover, so would not add a 5th continent, or have I read it wrong?

Regarding stopovers... I'd be flying "direct" HRE-JNB-NBO without a stopover in Joburg. So that should make for only two stops in JNB: one coming back from NBO and another making the final leg from SYD on QF (sorry... I did know that).

Will try the validator in the morning... have to go now.

Just tried the validator (could not help myself), inputing the following:

HRE-JNB-NBO-JNB-LHR-BCN-LHR-JFK-MIA-LAX-ORD-ANC-ORD-SEA,YVR-HKG-SYD-AKL,CHC-BNE-ADL-SYD-JNB

It tells me it works... so, does it?? The summary is below.

In my modified itinerary, I forgot to add that I actually want to go from Vancouver, as it is fairly close to Seattle and I will be sailing around there anyway. Otherwise I'd go with QF from LAX. Also, as mentioned, I will fly directly HRE-JNB-NBO, only because HRE is so much cheaper than SA.

So my "modified" itinerary should read as follows (every line is a stopover, with multiple segments on one line meaning I just want to transit.

Re-Modified Itinerary:
HRE-JNB-NBO / BA
NBO-JNB / BA
JNB-LHR / BA
LHR-BCN / BA
BCN-LHR-JFK / BA
JFK-MIA / AA
MIA-LAX / AA
LAX-ORD-ANC / AA
ANC-ORD / AA
ORD-SEA / AA
YVR-HKG-SYD / CX
SYD-AKL / QA
CHC-BNE / QA
BNE-ADL / QA
ADL-SYD / QA
SYD-JNB / QA

I had hoped it would be more miles... oh well, great value and I get to go where I want/need to go!

Keep the suggestions coming please, thanks for all your help!

Thanks for the suggestion. The problem is, I need to be in MIA and LAX before I will be in ANC. Otherwise I would fly to ORD as you suggest and have two more flights to play with in Europe. I will give it more thought, however.

I might be able to get rid of MIA depending of work/study (never been much a fan of Florida anyway), and I'm only going to JFK to see friends (and I've never really been either), so there's a chance I could play around with the NA region a bit more.

Now I really have to go...

Yes. The rule allows for transits, but any continent you touch will count towards the total number of continents visited. The way around it is to do take the QF flight from JFK or LAX, or fly AA to HNL and then take QF onwards to SYD. Of course, you'll miss out on the CX experience, but since you're not planning any further Asia trips, it'll represent a worthwhile savings to omit it.

Update:
Well, I was pretty certain that that was the rule, but I decided to re-read the star file, and now I can't find where it says what I said it said. Here's what I can find:

It only explicitly applies the rule to the Europe to SWP routes, not the other ones. However, the wording of exception B does seem to imply that you are stopping over in Asia, which will still add to the continent count. I guess point 5 is there to avoid using the single flight number excuse to avoid counting Asia as a continent. If you do JFK-HKG-SYD, you have two flight numbers, making the transit in Asia more explicit.

The minute you touch HKG, even on a connection will count that as one more continent. From YVR , do a oneway from there to LAX to continue on QF to SYD. There are many cheap oneway flights from YVR to LAX on AS.

Yes unfortunately you've read it wrong. For example, if you go Oz-Europe-NA-Oz it's also a 4-continent trip because all OW Oz-Europe flights, even on one flight no., stop in Asia. So if you want to do just a xONE4 ex-Africa, you need to go directly between the SWP and N America (JFK, LAX, HNL) with no Asia stops.

The "just passing through" Asia rule relates to the prohibition on doubling-back between continents, but not the continent count. The wheels touch a continent, you count it.

This rule may come under pressure after aircraft range increases to the extent that you can do Oz-Europe non-stop.

Thanks for the clarification; you are indeed right. I re-read the rules more carefully. I guess I will have to go down to LAX and get QF. Maybe I can do LAX later to avoid having to go there twice, or find a way to squeeze in a flight to Hawaii from SEA.

Where can I find the "star file" with all the official rules written in official language?

http://www.qantas.com.au/agents/dyn/qf/fares/global