My First Step at getting DONE4
 

Hi everyone,

I'm a *A flyer, first time in OW land. Please be gentle. :)

I'm planning a RTW for next year, and think the OWE is a far better deal than *A. Here's my itin so far:

CAI-GIB;BCN-VCE;SVO-NRT-PEK-HKG-SIN-SYD-BNE-AKL-SCL-UIO-EZE-GRU-DXB

I'll insert some more segments later for MR. This trip will last 6-12 months, with plenty of surface traveling on my own (Egypt, Morocco, E. Europe, Mongolia, Galapagos).

Questions:

1. Are there any obvious concerns/problems w/ my itin?

2. How is AKL-SCL in J w/ LAN? Is it crowded? Someone said in another post 'book a date for that flight and "alter the rest of your life" to make the flight'. Should I be concerned?

3. I'm AA basic, w/ 10k miles due to expire Dec 06. Even if I fly 50k in J here, since none of these flights are AA, I won't get any status?

4. What about the Gold/Plat Challenge? Will I get status even if they're not AA flights?

5. Will I get lounge access flying J w/ no status?

6. By searching the forum, it seems most people used Ms. Shohi @ BA or Emeco for tiks ex-CAI. Is there a particular person @ Emeco I should contact? Any other good TAs? Can I bargain on tik price?

That's all the questions I have for now. Sure more will be coming. Thanks in advance for your help and critique. Looking forward to seating backwards on a plane, and chilling at The Wing ...

Europe-Asia-Southwest Pacific-South America-Europe, 4 continents - check.

I'm not a OW expert, but AFAIK

CAI-GIB no direct flights will need to go via LON
SVO-NRT no direct flights will need to go via LON.
NRT-PEK no direct flights will need to go via HKG

South American routes I'm not familiar with but as only LAN (not LAN Argentina?) some of those sectors may not be allowed

SAO (presume you mean Sao Paulo GRU?)-DXB no direct flights need to go via LON. Not sure if you're allowed to start and finish in different countries?

Only allowed 2 flights to/from LON and CAI/SVO/DXB (and several others) - appears you have more than 2.

AKL-SCL is more of a problem in first - due to extremely limited F seats at all, never mind "A" booking class. Slightly less of a problem in business but still only a few flights a week so harder to get than most routes.

You're right, I meant GRU.

I'm pretty sure I can start and finish in Middle East (CAI and DXB).

Oh yes, that annoying LHR restriction. Does CAI-GIB and GRU-DXB count as flights to the UK even if I'm just connecting @ LHR?

Worst case, I can do SVO-HEL-NRT. Though not sure I want to spend 15 hr on AY ...

Are you sure about this? Have you checked with the Oneworld Issuer?
I thought the rule said you have to START and END at the same country except for a few situations (eg. SIN/KUL, Canada/USA etc...)

If you are starting ex CAI then you might want to consider upgrading to an AONE4 as the increase is less than 2000USD.

But you have to plan the routes accordingly to use the F Class flights to the max.

From the sticky on this forum:

Q: Can I end my itinerary in a city other than the one where I started?
A: Yes. You can separate your origin and destination under any of the following circumstances: anywhere within the country of origin, between the US and Canada, anywhere within Africa, anywhere within the Middle East, between Hong Kong and China, between Bangladesh and Bangkok or Singapore, or between Malaysia and Singapore. So you could start in CAI and end in DXB, but could not start in JFK and end in MEX.

Looks to me like this of one of those "few situations".

You are correct about the Middle East, no problem with your start and end points.

If there aren't direct (single flight number) flights then you have to count those segments.
So CAI-LHR-GIB,BCN-VCE,SVO-HEL-NRT,NRT-HKG-PEK...GRU-LHR-DXB
Leaves you with too many segments in Europe(5).

OK, I reformated my itin, hope its clearer.

CAI-LHR-GIB
BCN-VCE
SVO-HEL-NRT
NRT-HKG-PEK
PEK-HKG
HKG-SIN
SIN-SYD
SYD-BNE
BNE-AKL
AKL-SCL
SCL-UIO
UIO-SCL-EZE
EZE-GRU
GRU-LHR-DXB

According to http://www.oneworld.com/products/det...fm?ObjectID=21
The 4 flights rule only applies AFTER my first continent. In EU/ME, I stopped at GIB and VCE only. Is that in compliance w/ the rules?

No - the full version of the rules (rather than the "marketing version" on OneWorld site) are clear that you may only have 4 segments in Europe (and you may not purchase extra segments in your continent of origin) so you need to lose one of those segments. http://www.hardlink.com/~markdu/OWFi...eExplorer.html

Qs 3, 4 & 5: yes all OneWorldExplorer flights in business or first get status on AA and qualify for the challenges and get lounge access.

Q6 - I don't think it is possible to bargain the ticket price; certainly not for a credit card purchase. Perhaps 1-2% if you offer cash, but I have no direct experience of that.

You have 1 segment too many in Europe, easily fixed by dropping BCN-VCE. You could alternatively drop SVO-HEL but that is likely to be a much higher fare. The problem isn't the flight limit per continent, but a special rule that says you cannot purchase additional flight segments in the continent of origin -- so you are limited to 4 with 2 stopovers. There is no way around this rule (except to start at a different continent).

No. As reiterated by christep and number 6 you can only have 4 segments in Europe with two stopovers. You can also have four segments in every other continent, except N.A. in which you may have six segments, with unlimited stopovers with a hard limit of 20 segments total per ticket. This rule applies to all the continents included in your ticket with the special limitations of only two stopovers in continent of origin and no purchase of additional segments in continent of origin.

Thanks for the correction. Here's my revised itin:

CAI-LHR-GIB
SVO-HEL-PEK
PEK-HKG-DEL
DEL-HKG
HKG-SIN
SIN-SYD
SYD-NOU
NOU-BNE
BNE-MEL
MEL-AKL
AKL-SCL
SCL-UIO
UIO-SCL-EZE
EZE-GRU
GRU-LHR-DXB

I stretched it to the max, 4x4 intra-cont + 4 inter-cont = 20 segments total. :)

Is this itin now legal?

No - SYD-NOU & NOU-BNE are operated by Air Caledonie. Codeshares are only allowed on OneWorldExplorers if the underlying operator is a OneWorld airline.

Put your itin into the "Oneworld Explorer Validator" section of this tool: http://jph.bytestacker.com/award.htm

You will wonder how you did without it after you've used it. :)

Be aware that AA/Emeco will not ticket the itinerary as shown, because they insist that you fly at least one transoceanic segment on AA.

What is AA/Emeco?