RTW First Timer suggestions please
 

New to FT and overwhelmed by all the information to hand. I am hoping to get some advice on a RTW I am thinking of doing next April.

I want to spend time in the following places: PEK, MEL, PER, LHR (break the trip as it is my home port), SAT & JFK.

My starting point will be YVR as Canadian xONEx are quite a bit cheaper than the UK which, once again, lives up to its reputation as being the most expensive place in Europe.

I haven’t yet decided on DONE or AONE.

Here is a routing I have planned. It is based on 3 criteria.
1. The places I want to stay
2. My preference for CX, BA
3. Maximum mileage

YVR-HKG
HKG-PEK
PEK-HKG
HKG-MEL
MEL-PER
PER-SYD
SYD-HKG
HKG-SIN
SIN-LHR
LHR-LAX
LAX-DFW
DFW-SAT
SAT-DFW
DFW-JFK
JFK-YVR

Some questions:
Any suggestions on other routings?
Have people been able to buy a ticket in a foreign country without too many problems?
Am I mad?
How soon should I get this organised?
I know this is a piece of string question, but does anyone know the sorts of numbers available for flights that could be allocated to xONE tix?
J or F?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Routings: You could change -SYD- to -SYD-BME-SYD- for 4000 extra miles. You could substitute in SJU instead of SAT likewise. I'm guessing that you can still get to SAT from DFW with a cheap ticket outside the xONEx, if you need to. If you decided miles were more important than sights, you could substitute NRT for PEK, and have the added benefit of CX-F class if you use a AONEx (but only 2 of the flights on that route have F).

Mad: no more so than many of us

Buying in foreign country: I think there are recommended solutions for buying tickets in all of the "good" locations for buying xONEx's.

How soon: depends. it's worth getting confirmed on any of the longer routes; depends on when you're planning to travel and whether a given route is busy. As you're booking in either discounted-F or discounted-A, when it is busy the airlines may restrict inventory in A & D, preferring to sell it to people paying full F & J.

J or F: If you can afford F, then that's an easy question. You are planning to use two airlines with F products right "up there" - BA & CX.

...and you've made no use of the 4 segments in Europe. I assume this is deliberate, but if not, then you could add in a LHR-CAI-LHR run etc., and another somewhere else. But if you then include CAI, you may wish to start your xONEx from there instead...and then this restricts what you can do in Europe (e.g. two stopovers only).

I assume you've been making use of http://jph.bytestacker.com/award.htm for planning? If not, it's a great tool :)

Thanks for the suggestions ropmot141. I have been using the above metioned tool - it has been fab.

Also thanks for the suggestions on using the Europe legs. I could do a weekend away from LHR into the bargain.
Hmm Japan in the spring that would also be a bonus. Perhaps China can wait a while.

A further thought. I'm not sure if SYD-HKG-SIN-LHR is valid for your second Asia visit. You might need to do SYD-HKG-LHR, SYD-BKK-LHR or SYD-SIN-LHR. Hopefully someone else will be able to confirm whether this is a problem or not. If it is a problem, then perhaps do HKG-PEK-HKG-NRT-HKG to use your 4 segments in Asia, and then the direct through for your second visit. (Or use CTS instead of NRT, but frequency of flights is less, and no F).

I think you might struggle to get the SYD-HKG-SIN-LHR bit ticketed - in any case both HKG and SIN would have to be transits, so I'm not quite clear why you would want to do this.

1. I'm mad
2. 2374 miles

If they would allow 2 transits on the same day it can be done. Night flight out of SYD - HKG and HKG - SIN during the day night flight from SIN - LHR

Do note that you can only have 2 STOPOVER in the CONTINENT of Origin. This rule is always ommited in the planning stage of many people's XONEX.

If collecting miles is important, then there are better ways to get them than this route.

E.g. if you replaced SYD-HKG-SIN-LHR with a simple SYD-xxx-LHR, then you can use your two remaining Asia segments earlier in your first Asia visit (i.e. before getting to MEL), and get more miles. NRT is included below because of the F availability which changes it from simple comparison.

HKG-NRT-HKG: 3684 miles
HKG-CTS-HKG: 4264 miles
HKG-DPS-HKG: 4298 miles

You also get the added benefit of a simple routing which you won't have to argue about whether it's valid or not. This factor could be especially important if you need to reissue somewhere. And you will also use your 4th Asia segment, which you haven't done.

Even though Canada is cheaper than the UK for your start point at the moment, it's much more expensive than other places in Europe, including the Euro zone, for both A- and DONEs. See WearyBizTrvlr's recently revised Excel spreadsheet referenced in an earlier thread. Also note newcx12345's comments about limited stopovers in continent of origin. Don't know how long you'd want to spend in N. America, but six segments but 2 S/Os sounds like a lot of sleepless nights to me.

Of course if you start in Europe (say IST or even GIB) you'd need to manage your stopovers in Europe, too - London for one, maybe, then?

One thing to consider is eastbound v. westbound. You might look at something like (Europe)-LHR-Oz-Asia-(or -Asia-Oz)-N. America-Europe which wouldn't give you the mid-trip break at home your initial itinerary had, but which would you to make the most of your mileage accrual aims given the possibility of longish Asian and American routes.

Welcome to FT Johnosan :)

You still have quite a few segments unused - max 20 in total.

Unless starting in europe, or have somewhere particularly want to go, I'd only do 2 european legs (to maximise mileage).

LHR-MCT-LHR is a good one if crediting to QF as just over a SC threshold. It also connects well from Australia to LHR and LHR-LAX.

If starting in europe (so no need to visit Canada), then change NA-Asia segment to JFK-HKG.

Could do 2 more legs in SWP. Perhaps PER-BNE-AKL-MEL/SYD?

Some long routes within asia are HKG to KHI (Karachi), BOM (Mumbai), CMB (Colombo).

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will keep them in mind.

One of the two reasons I wanted to fly out of YVR was that I have friends who live there. I would have been able visit prior to the RTW, spend some time at 'home' in London in the middle of the trip and then visit them again later in the year.
The other reason was that I took the original spotwelder posting of GBP fares in Canada as gospel. Upon further investigation I realised that the Canadian price for AONE 4 continents is actually 5566 and not the quoted 4889. This does make travelling on a EUR fare less expensive.
I am now back to the drawing board for the time being.
Planning these things is half the fun! Or am I now really bordering on insane? :p