Ok, so I'm planning my first DONE. It's been pretty exciting (am I sick or what? ) planning this. My #1 goal is to visit Australia. Everything else is secondary. Since IST seems to be one of the cheaper places to start these, I'm figuring on starting there, and breaking this trip up into 4 "trips": Europe, USA, Australia, Asia. The validator has blessed my itinerary, but it's only a measely 45k EQMs on AA and I still have 1 segment left to use either in NAM, Europe or SWP. Here it is:

IST-BCN-HEL (stopovers in both BCN/HEL, my 2 max)
HEL-JFK
LGA-DFW-YVR-JFK (Whistler!!!, 2006 SKI-DO?)
JFK-CUN-JFK (just for the heck of it)
JFK-SYD-BNE

here I take a break and fly home on an award ticket that I can hopefully (please help me out on this) do this with:

BNE-LAX-JFK-(LAX)-AKL
The idea here is to do an open-jaws award ticket out of Australia, stop at LAX on the way home to hang with family and then connect in LAX and go into New Zealand. Next I'll continue my OWE:

AKL-WLG-MEL (stopovers at both WLG and MEL)
MEL-SIN
SIN-HKG-KUL-HKG-BKK (stopovers at SIN, HKG, KUL and BKK)
BKK-LHR-IST

The actual OWE portion of this itinerary comes out to be:

IST-BCN-HEL-JFK,LGA-DFW-YVR-JFK-CUN-JFK-SYD-BNE,AKL-WLG-MEL-SIN-HKG-KUL-HKG-BKK-LHR-IST
and according to the validator is 45,222 miles.

Any comments, suggestions, ideas or anything else is greately appreciated!

Like you said yourself, the INT should be valid, you could certainly accumulate a lot more miles out of it if you wish, depends ofcourse where you want go...

If you do not find any other use for your last segment, you can always fly HEL-LHR-JFK etc to enjoy better J cabin as you have only 3 segments in Europe . Finnair won't have sleeper seats on their MD11s until later this year/early next year...but then again you AA members do not like to cross the pond on BA metal...

Surely going to places you want to go is more important than accrual to an FF scheme? You may only earn 45k EQMs but you will earn around 67.5k EQPs

I see that you have AKL-WLG-MEL; since you are travelling on a business class ticket you might want to consider doing AKL-WLG-AKL-MEL or AKL-WLG-CHC-MEL, since WLG-MEL will be on a 733 which doesn't have a v good business class whilst CHC-MEL/AKL-MEL will be on a 763 with the dreamtime seats

Dave

Yeah, something about earning 0 mileage on those routes keeps us from flying that way. I honestly don't care about a sleeper seat when returning from Europe, since I tend to spend that time watching movies. And on top of that I despise the connecting experience at LHR. But thanks for the suggestion.


Umm... This is FT... We're all obsessed with status and points, aren't we?

Yes, going to places I want to go is definitely important, but if there are routing changes that would still let me go where I want to go but would maximize my mileage accrual, then I would be very interested in those.

Agree on the LHR point

Anyway, HEL-JFK is often considered as AY's flagship service, as they do not have F at all and westbound JFK being a fully daytime flight they usually have their best inflight catering available on that particular route in J. They also have nice seasonal specials often on this route. Only minus being that it's somewhat ruined by the US regulation of plastic cutlery, alltough this might be changing for the better, I have heard.

Enjoy your flights

So my trip is almost ready to be ticketed. This is what I actually have in the system:

IB6965 D 12SEP 1 ISTBCN
AY 906 L 15SEP 4 BCNHEL
AY 005 D 19SEP 1 HELJFK
AA1751 D 23NOV 3 JFKSJU
AA1488 D 28NOV 1 SJUJFK
AA1488 D 11DEC 7 SJUJFK
AA 743 A 10FEB 5 LGADFW
AA 887 D 10FEB 5 DFWYVR
CX 888 D 15FEB 3 YVRJFK
QF 008 D 19MAR 7 LAXSYD
QFOPEN D AKLZQN
QFOPEN D ZQNROT
QFOPEN D WLGMEL
QFOPEN D MELSIN
CXOPEN D SINBKK
CXOPEN D BKKHKG
CXOPEN D HKGKUL
CXOPEN D KULHKG
BAOPEN D HKGLHR
BAOPEN D LHRIST


Except they're still telling me that I can't have both SJU-JFK segments in there -- please note, this is after the fare and taxes have been calculated. I do intend to fly both of them -- I'm going to buy a one-way on my own to go down to SJU. This is essentially a mileage run, because I don't know what else to do with the extra segment.

I couldn't find anything in the OWE rules that prohibit me from taking the same flight twice. What gives? Any ideas?

I believe they are mistaken. Who is telling you this? Ask them where in the rules it states that prohibition.

Agreed. I see no rule prohibiting this. I have had a number of AONE3s with the same segments in twice (HKG-NRT-HKG-NRT-HKG normally).

Looks like all the confusion has been cleared up, my wire payment received and my ticket issued. ^ BA tells me that it will be ready for pickup at the airport ticket desk on my day of departure. I just asked them for my ticket number, just so I have it.

Thanks to everyone for their help. I couldn't have planned this trip without FT!