Sin-nbo//jnb-sin
 

Hello guys,

I am planning a trip for a friend SIN-NBO//JNB-SIN and wonder how best it can be done using AA miles. It appears that the route will have to be:

SIN-LHR-NBO on BA and returning (open jaw) JNB-SIN on BA/QF via LHR/SYD?
That seems like a really good use of 60,000 miles, too bad CX cannot be used.

Is it possible for the return to be JNB-CAI-SIN? The trouble seems to be:
(1) Only BA can be used for most of these flights and QF does not fly CAI-SYD-SIN so it has to be CAI-LHR-SIN
(2) One may need to transit at LHR on more than 2 occasions (not allowed) with the OW award; 115,000 miles for OW-J is an excellent use of miles for 13500 miles.

For myself, I am trying to figure out the same itinerary, except the originating airport being YUL. Any help, somebody? Would appreciate greatly, thanks and cheers.

Just read a few threads down that SIN-HKG-JNB(CX)-NBO(BA) is possible, but I am doubting availability in late June / early July.

So technically, this should work?
SIN-HKG-JNB-NBO(stop)//JNB-LHR-CAI(stop)-LHR-JNB-HKG-SIN

As for me, this route seems good except I will be passing by LHR more than twice?
YUL-LHR-NBO(stop)//JNB-LHR-CAI(stop)-LHR-YUL

Would appreciate all help.
Thank you.

On the OneWorld awards, if memory serves me right, you can only transit a city twice - so neither of the above will work - you have three at LHR.

If you just wanted to visit JNB and NBO I would do

SIN-HKG-JNB(all CX)-NBO(BA) // JNB-HKG-SIN and
YUL-LHR-NBO(all BA) // JNB-HKG-JFK (all CX)-YUL(AA)

To bring in CAI, maybe route the returns

JNB-MAD-BCN-CAI (on IB) // CAI-LHR(BA)-SIN (BA or QF)

and

JNB-MAD-BCN-CAI // CAI-LHR-YUL

JNB-MAD is not daily though.

Just stay under 16 segments and remember that for the award distance tiers, what counts is your origin, stops and destination - not how you get from A to B. You are easily meeting the "2 airline other than AA rule". I haven't checked great circle distances to see how much CAI bumps up your total award miles.

If you go with a Oneworld award routing that has many connections between stops, be more or less certain of your dates because it will be a pain in the @ss to make date changes when you need them. At a minimum confirm that your routing is based on flights that have at least a daily frequency.

But, if you have the time to stay more than 24 hours in London, you could do:

CAI(stop)-LHR(stop)-YUL

because CAI-LHR-YUL is only 11 miles more than CAI-YUL.

Two transits and one stopover are allowed through any point (such as LHR in your case).

Not sure if I should jump in here, or go back to my own thread, but:

Is it possible to do something like US- Africa - US - Asia - US - Australia on one of these awards, as long as I manage the cities properly and keep the segments below 16?

Assuming that is true, how do the dates work? I would obviously be looking to extend it to as close to twelve months as possible, but the flights farther out may will not be open when I book. For example, I would need to call say 4 months ahead of time to get the US - Africa - US portion, but would want to fly to Australia 15 months down the road. Do I book it for nine months out and then change the dates, or am I only allowed to fly one year after the booking date?

Finally, are co-terminals treated as one city for purposes of stopovers and connections? Thanks!

Note that BA has just terminated their license agreement with Regional Air.. so all intra-Africa flights from NBO are no longer available for oneworld awards/RTWs. :(

http://www.oneworld.com/pressroom/re...?ObjectID=4782

So it looks like Johannesburg is safe, though, right? I cannot tell if they mean from NBO or not.

My understanding is this is do-able if booked carefully. But you have to book and ticket the whole itinerary, which is going to limit you to one year from ticketing date to last flight - no route changes or class changes allowed.

These OneWorld tickets have their own specific (and restrictive) regulations concerning stopover definitions, etc and you'd have to check what you wanted direct with AA.

Comair is still a oneworld affiliate; they operate the intra-africa flights from JNB (JNB-CPT/DUR/HRE/LVI/PLZ/VFA/WDH). However, all flights from NBO-JNB/HRE/LUN/JIB/ASM/KRT/MBA/etc are gone.