I have been reading this message board for quite some time and have been planning a OWE trip for years (about 40 different variations). I just got off an hour and a half call with the friend who will be joining me on this trip making our final plans. Below is our planned ANOE4 itinerary and side trips (one of the questions involves these side trips). I am departing from DCA and my friend is departing from IND, other than that the itins are the same. We were flying into NGO and out of NRT, but after reading about the surface sector issue I changed that to in/out of NRT. OK, our itin:

AONE4
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DCA-DFW-LAX-JFK-HKG,HKG-BOM,BOM-HKG-NRT,NRT-CNS,CNS-SYD,SYD-PER,PER-DRW-MEL,MEL-LHR,LHR-CAI,CAI-LHR-HEL,HEL-LHR-YVR-DFW-DCA

Side trips
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NRT-PEK AA partner J award 40,000 miles on JAL
HEL-TLL and HRL-LED paid Y on AY
CAI-SSH paid J on EG

OK, I did a search and was unable to find information on the following, or the information I did find led to more questions. I have 3 questions:

1. As you can see from the above itin we are going through LAX and I wanted to get AFS 762 service LAX-JFK, but all flights show A0 for pretty much all dates on a going forward basis. Can the AA ATW desk open up A inventory, or are they powerless when it comes to this? Remember we will need 2 seats. When I did a search on this I found reference to A inventory not being available but did not find any definitive answer as to whether inventory could be made available by the AA ATW desk. or the success in doing so.

2. If A inventory on the AA AFS flight is a problem, then another alternative is to fly DCA-DFW-YVR-JFK-HKG. Yes, in addition to a 58 day ATW trip we are doing a mileage run, and we want to take full AAdvantage of the A part of the AONE4. The question here is what do you think (other than "you are nuts")? And, if we do this, would it be better to book our AONE4 through CX than AA? Pros and cons of doing so? I am an AAdvantage Plat FF, and have no status or FF account on CX, nor am I interested in one. Looking to garner AA EXP in this process in addition to a fantastic trip, so we want to get all miles, plat bonuses, COS bonuses and EQPs credited to our AA accounts.

3. If I go through CX for the AONE4, then will I have any issues booking the an AA all airline J award ticket for the side trip NRT-PEK through AA? I can't see any, but thought I would ask just in case. BTW, we could book HKG-PEK J AA all airline award, but it is 60000 miles instead of 40000 from NRT.

Any other issues you see with our itinerary please let me know. We already changed SYD-PER-MEL to be SYD-PER-DRW-MEL due to the recent August 15 change in the OWE rules. BTW, other paid side trips will be booked directly with AY and EG and I don't see any issues there.

Thanks in advance for everyone�s help, and if I missed an obvious search my apologies in advance.

No problem getting LAX-JFK A inventory released (unless you have picked a special date, like the day after the Academy Awards). Just ask and it is usually done within a few minutes, max a few hours. Be aware that F varies quite a bit by route, for example NRT-CNS on QF probably doesn't offer A (and it if does now, likely to have schedule change and not have F by the time you fly -- safer to fly to SYD instead if you care about these things). LHR-YVR is a nice flight but LHR-PHX on BA is nicer, depends on your objective.
No problem having ticket issed by CX, in fact they do a great job (as good as AA RTW desk) and send it by Fedex next-day for free.

I echo the above, plus...

HKG-NRT is far superior to HKG-NGO due to the Kaiseki meal in F (make sure you do get on CX504)

I would go HEL-TLL by ferry not plane - it will be quicker (city centre to city centre), probably cheaper, and some variety!

If the commas are the stopovers and the rest are for miles then you could do better with the mileage maximisation in NA at both ends of the trip (e.g. LHR-SFO-DFW-DCA)

Enjoy the trip!

Thanks for the info. Good to hear about A inventory on LAX-JFK.

Regarding NRT-CNS, we did have NRT-SYD-CNS but had to drop a segment in order to add a segment that was needed to get to and from PER due to the new rules as of August 15 which only allows 1 non-stop segment between PER and CNS, BNE, SYD, MEL (MEL being the addition to that list). And yes, NRT-CNS is 2-class. We didn't have much choice as we have to be in Cairns on Thursday to board Mike Ball Dive Expeditions Spoil Sport for a week of diving the GBR/Coral Sea. This is the pivotal date around which our ONE is planned.

Unfortunately for AAdvantage mileage accrual we can't do UK to US on BA flights, so LHR-PHX is out.

Thanks again for your help.

Thanks.

I explored the possibilty of HEL-TLL ferries but found their schedules to be somewhat bad for a day trip. Arriving TLL at noon and then returning at 4 PM would only give us a little under 4 hours there. You can do the later ferry but then it is overnight and a berth would be needed. Roundtrip Airfare on AY's version of American Eagle on a Saturday is only $126.50 US - but that has to be on a Saturday as weekdays are $357 US. (BTW, I looked at TALLINK ferries. If you know of others that may have better schedules, please provide name or web link. - TIA)

Thanks for the info on NGO vs NRT and flight CX 504. I will have to ponder this and talk with my friend. It means additional time on the train as Nagoya is one of our desired destinations. After reading the other thread's most recent posts it doesn't sound like surface sectors will count as one of our 20 segments. We will see and have options either way as NGO-NRT was our only surface sector.

If you have time I would recommend staying overnight - there are good restaurants in the old city centre and quite reasonable hotels, but anyway there are ferries pretty much every hour, and they only take about 1hr40mins. You could be there before 10am and leave about 9pm. Roundtrip in economy is about 45 euros.

This is a good place to start for info about Tallinn: http://www.tourism.tallinn.ee/?setLang=2

From which, links to all the ferry operators here:
http://www.tourism.tallinn.ee/index.php?page=49
We used Nordic Jet Line just because they responded extremely quickly to emailed request for information and reservations.

My mini trip report is here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=181900

I hope you're not going to NGO because of the Expo. We made that mistake - watching the river flow flowly through Okazaki, where we ended up staying, was a lot more interesting.

One other important point that you may have addressed - but I'm not sure with your routing since it's hard to tell where your stopovers are, so I'll bring it up.

One reason why so few of us book ex-US besides cost (which between hotels and travel over to some nice remote place to pick up tickets and stay a few nights can actually be somewhat similar) is the 2 stopover rule in continent of origin. So...I'm not sure what your plans are with the DCA-DFW-LAX-JFK legs, but one of those three is going to have to be less than 24 hours. Kinda kills the mileage run aspect in North America unless you really wanna kill yourself.

I've always meant to get to TLL some year - had a ridiculous QF fare TLL-SYD a few years back courtesy of this board (think it was like $294) but was too busy to use it so never got to go. Have fun.

Wow, thanks for all the great info.

Christep, I will follow-up on your ferry info - that is a great help. I guess I wasn't too thorough in my research on those as TALLINK was the only operation I seemed to have found. Thanks for the link to your trip report too.

JohnAx, no we are not planning on the expo as the dates for this trip are April and May 2007 and expo will be over by then. We are doing 3 nights in NGO as it look interesting and is a good place for a full day trip to Kyoto. The other full day will be spent exploring Nagoya. I addition to a AAdvantage mileage whore, I am also a Marriott Rewards whore and the Marriott Associa hotel in NGO is suppose to be one of the nicer hotels in Japan. Now, if I am off base in going to NGO because it is boring or something similar then please don't hesitate to speak up. All opinions I find useful; but just because I ask for advice and will consider taking it, doesn't mean that I will. Oh, and yes I know it is way off for the planning of this trip. I am using next years April and May dates corresponding to the same days of the week in 2007 for planning purposes. I know schedules will change, and probably some metal (Airbus 380 SYD-LHR?) � and hopefully the 737-400 they are flying between DRW and MEL will be replaced with something nicer. But if we don't nail this down somewhat now I will spend another 9 months messing with this as I have been for the last couple years. So other than dealing with flight changes, OWE rule changes, OWE and other price increases, we should have a done deal within a few days.

Toofewmiles, actually we have no stopovers in NA. Actual stopovers are where the commas are. We travel to LAX the first day and overnight at LAX Renaissance. Then AFS P service to JFK connecting with CX F service to HKG and CX J service to PEK (changed this from the NRT-PEK on JAL). At 40 hours including layovers, yes we will be dead but should get some good sleep on CX F so it shouldn�t be too bad. The cabanas at the Wing should be nice too. On the return, HEL-LHR-YVR-DFW-DCA we overnight at the airport Marriott in YVR. Our connections are long to avoid missing flights in the event of delayed flights. 4.5 hours at JFK, 8 hours at HKG (Wing and Pier, plus we are going to do some left luggage), going to CAI 4.5 hours at LHR (Molton Brown, Concord room, etc.), our final connection through LHR on our return is only 2 hours, but if something were to happen at that point then making changes would be a little less involved. Even with the precautions we are taking there is always the chance of not making a connection, but at least we put our best foot forward to avoid potential problems.

BTW, this itinerary with side trips garners 87668 EQPs so I don't think getting EXP should be a problem in 2007. We originally planned this for January and February 2007 but my friend�s work can't afford to have him gone during February and March. So we changed it to November and December 2006, but that didn't work for numerous reasons including reducing the window for the EXP benefits. So we finally decided on April and May 2007, and doing it at that time we are pushing the window on warm waters in the Coral Sea as they will only be in the upper 70s if we are lucky. Earlier would have been better from a diving standpoint. The good news is that this should be a good time, weather wise, for most all destinations. Oh and FWIW, The November-December, and January-February itineraries did not include HEL, TLL or LED for obvious reasons.

Once again, thanks to everyone providing all this great info.

Yes, I explored the ex-CAI option and it looked inviting, but there were down sides too. The travel getting there in a AA oneworld award involved 150000 miles (for one person at 1� a mile $1500) and 3 oneworld carriers, plus hotel, plus food, plus at least 3 days away from the ATW trip (8 weeks is about my max from a fiscal and time standpoint). CAI would have extended it at least a week and I would have done a lot of flying that did not earn miles. Either that or purchase a WAS-CAI J ticket but that kind of defeats the purpose. It did offer the option of ending in DXB which I found appealing, and I worked a ski trip to Vail in my itinerary and was able to split up the trip. But I will do Vail for a few hundred and mileage upgrade or a $1200 YUP anyway, so that is not a very good use for mileage earning OWE segments IMO. Maybe in 2008/2009 when I have eVIPs to get to FCO, MAD, or LHR I might reconsider it.

Regarding the ex-CAI option, a OW biz award ticket dca-cai-openjaw-lhr-dca is only 90K FF miles. For the open jaw, begin your RTW as CAI-LHR. You can do the lhr-dca after the RTW trip or a return after a stop in LHR. And the EMECO staff in Cairo are top notch.

While all of that is true, there are a couple problems. The first is managing to work AA plus two other OW carriers into the OW award itinerary without doing UK-US on BA (an AA rule). And, unfortunately the LHR-DCA return kind of leaves you up in the air, or more appropriately "on the ground", with regard to getting from the Middle East to LHR. If the OWE starts in the Middle East, then it must end in the Middle East - OWE rules:

FARES GOVERNED BY THIS RULE APPLY TO FIRST / BUSINESS / ECONOMY RTW TRAVEL VIA AA/AY/BA/CX/EI/IB/LA/QF/LP OPERATED SERVICES WORLDWIDE. TRAVEL MUST BEGIN AND END AT THE SAME POINT EXCEPT ORIGIN - DESTINATION SURFACE SEGMENTS PERMITTED AS FOLLOWS:
(A) WITHIN THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
(B) WITHIN THE MIDDLE EAST
(C) WITHIN SOUTH AMERICA
(D) BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA.
(E) BETWEEN HKG AND CHINA
(F) BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND BKK/SIN.
(G) BETWEEN MALAYSIA AND SIN
(H) WITHIN AFRICA

So the best that can be done here is a DCA-CAI roundtrip (11642 miles), or DCA-CAI,DXB-DCA (12873). For both a J OW award is 115K miles and an F award is 150K miles. For a J award you could fly DCA-CAI on AA and IB, and CAI-DCA on AA and BA. On an F award I would do DCA-CAI on AA and BA (on BA via YVR or YYZ), and DXB-DCA on CX F with the last leg from JFK to DCA on AE Y. Either way it is a minimum of 3 days of flying.

Now, if I am misinterpreting the rules then please let me know.

Good to hear you got around the stopover rules, even if you're nuts! That's a whole slug of miles in a short period of time, but I'm glad you'll give yourself time at the airports and hopefully you'll be dead to the world in CX rather than dead.

Depending on how much you spend getting/staying there, ex-CAI can not necessarily save you all that much. That said, an award ticket there is probably the worst use of miles. Generally a lot cheaper to fly over on AA metal with a VIP upgrade and use an award ticket on BA for half the miles (or even purchase a ticket depending on what they're running.) Long flight to sit in coach for, but BA often upgrades elite to Club World.

But to each their own, and it sounds like you have this pretty well planned out.

The bottom line is that even the simplest OWE is quite complex. Adding in the complexity of getting 2 non-yet-EXP to CAI for discounted OWE fares makes it a bit challenging, not to mention more complex. So, that resulted in my decision to not do that on this trip.

I emailed my friend with the latest changes earlier this afternoon and told him I had to put it down for a while. BTW, I found a better option for the new PER limitation, in case someone like myself wants to visit SYD, MEL and PER and maximize mileage, but minimize pain. On Sundays there is an excellent connection from SYD through BME to PER that does not require a nights stay in another town (westbound) or a long layover and an overnight flight (eastbound) of a 737-400 with convertible configuration (yikes). The SYD-BME-PER is on a 73H and 734, but the later flight is only a 2.5 hour flight so better than overnight on a 734 (DRW-MEL). Of course the nice thing about all this is that not only will the rules probably be different a year from now, but the flights probably will be too. Never a dull moment.

Next challenge is to see about working in CX504 HKG-NRT. Our return flight from BOM arrives after all the F service to NRT departs. I have to take some time off before tackling this one.

I am also considering doing BOM-SYD-CNS instead of NRT-CNS or NRT-SYD-CNS. I am curious why number_6 suggested flying NRT-SYD instead of NRT-CNS. Best I can tell NRT-SYD only has J service too, which brings up another question for those who have actually made it this far into this long post. What's better QF 743 J service (BOM-SYD) or QF 763 J service (NRT-CNS)? Note that NRT-SYD has both types of metal to choose from. All are overnight flights. BOM-SYD is 11.5 hours, NRT-SYD is 9+ hours, and NRT-CNS is 7+ hours. For the later 2 scenarios we return on daytime flight from BOM to HKG on CX 773 J class. Ok now the bottom line question, which scenario should I do? There is a variation in mileage accrual of about 1000-2000 miles so that is not as much an overriding factor as a strong desire for comfort. Could always go back to NRT-HKG (CX F) and HKG-CNS (CX J), but would like assessment of the other three without considering this as one of the options. Thanks in advance for your opinions and any insights you offer.

The Aug 15 Changes did, in fact, take BME into account: