Definately worth getting a quote; I think you'll be pleasantly surprised; do post the result

Dave

You need to do nothing more than phone AA , give them an itinery and get them to get it priced; I have booked OWE tickets through AA Sydney which have had no AA sectors at all in them

Dave

I've just phoned AA to get a quote and was pleasantly surprised. I had a little different routing: LHR-NRT-HKG-BKK// SIN-PER-ASP-CNS-SYD-WEL//AKL-LAX-SFO-LAS-ORD-YYZ-BOS,JFK-LHR and was quoted £1473 with taxes. Much better. Although the agent did say that I couldn't fly AKL-HNL even though it appears to be a valid one world flight from their web site. When I purchase my ticket I'll have to debate this with them I guess. Anyway AA seems to be the way to go.

Thanks for the advice Dave Noble.

There isn't anything to debate: the only remotely sensible way from AKL to HNL on oneworld is AKL-SYD-HNL on QF (the next best is AKL-LAX on QF and LAX-HNL on AA). There are no oneworld flights AKL-HNL, and I don't know where you saw that there are. (Air NZ does fly the route, but they belong to *A).

yellow, I am aware that there is no direct flight from Auckland to Honolulu, as the oneworld flight scheduler clearly states that it goes via Sydney, with flights operated by QF and AA, or just 2 QF flights. The agent said to me that I could NOT fly this route as there were no flights operated by the one world group that flew this route. I thought maybe this is because it would take me over the flight limit for Australia (I don't know if the flight AKL-HNL via sydney makes the AKL-SYD count as one flight segment in that continent, can anyone clear this up for me?) Now I was then quoted a flight from Auckland-LA via Sydney, which makes my above statement about AKL-SYD then onto LAX invalid (i.e. it doesn't count as a segment in the continent). Sorry if this post is confusing but I think it makes sense.

Any help would be appreciated.

The rules are simple, if perhaps irritating for you. You get four flight coupons in the southwest Pacific (ie Australia and NZ). You are using all four as PER-ASP-CNS-SYD-WLG. If you then want to fly AKL-SYD-HNL, the AKL-SYD sector counts as a fifth flight coupon in the SWP, so you can't do this. If you can then fly AKL-LAX via SYD on a single flight number (I don't believe you are correct on this: AA must have quoted you based on the nonstop AKL-LAX QF-operated flight, which is codeshared with AA and BA (I think), but assuming you are correct for a minute), then the fact that your flight would actually stop in SYD would be irrelevant since you would have just one flight coupon showing the flight as AKL-LAX, and this would not count against your limit of four coupons to use in the SWP.

There are two possible solutions if you want to go to HNL. The first is to cut out one of the other flight coupons from your ticket and buy it separately (so if you can find a cheap deal for CNS-SYD one-way on QF, for example, which is possible since most QF fares domestically do not require roundtrip travel, you could buy that separately and incorporate ...-PER-ASP-CNS//SYD-WLG//AKL-SYD-HNL-... into your LONEx ticket.) The second is to buy an AKL-SYD or AKL-HNL ticket separately, but I guess this will be more expensive.

Thanks for the help yellow77. I think I must have misunderstood what the agent was saying on the phone about AKL-LAX but I know the rules a bit better now. Is it not also possible to purchase an extra flight on my ONE ticket for the SWP sector(I believe it does say in the rules this is possible) and what is the cost of purchasing an extra flight (is it the same as the fee for changing your route, for some reason I think I may have read that somewhere)?

Glad to hear that you managed to get a sensible price by going to AA. GBP154 for taxes is a lot more palatable than GBP473 isn't it. You could do a WT+ upgrade on the LHR-NRT with the savings :)

As long as you do not exceed the 20 sector limit, you can purchase 2 additional sectors within SWP at GBP75 per sector ( plus taxes ) so you could purchase an AKL-SYD sector and then be able to incorporate HNL

Dave

It certainly is Dave. What's the reason for such a huge difference in taxes between my AA quote and my Trailfinders quote?

It looks like I've finally sorted out my route: LHR-NRT-HKG-BKK//SIN-PER-ASP-CNS-
SYD-WLG//AKL-SYD-HNL-SFO-LAX-LAS-ORD-YYZ-BOS//JFK-LHR.

Is this a valid itinerary providing I purchase an additional sector in SWP? Thanks for all your help guys :)

Sorry to keep asking these questions but searching the oneworld schedules on their site(I searched 8th Sep 2006), there is a flight from AKL-HNL via Fiji(NAN). If I were to try and put this flight into my itinerary instead of AKL-SYD-HNL would it mean I wouldn't have to purchase an additional sector?

I thought we had covered this; fuel surcharges being charged on top of the fare by most airlines other than AA

The routing looks ok to me as long as you add the additional sector. The AKL-HNL via Fiji , although it has a QF flight number, is actually operated by Air Pacific which is not an OW airline, so is not eligable to be used on a OWE ticket

Dave

Thanks Dave. Looks like I have my LONE4 sorted finally. Thanks for all your help on this thread guys :)

Well - almost. You're only using 16 sectors, and you get 20. Plus, you're not using any sectors in Europe. Plan to take any trips within Europe during the same 12 month period? You can add them for free (well, for the additional taxes only). For example, you can alter your trip to (say) LHR-NRT-HKG-BKK;SIN-PER-ASP-CNS-SYD-WLG;AKL-SYD-HNL-SFO-LAX-LAS-ORD-YYZ-BOS;JFK-LHR-CAI-LHR-HEL-LHR and get free trips to Cairo and Helsinki out of it.

The only problem is that you only get two stopovers in Europe, so you would either have to do both these trips with less than 24 hours transit in LHR each time (-LHR(transit)-CAI(stop)-LHR(transit)-HEL(stop)-LHR). A maybe better alternative would be to find somewhere you want to go that might be expensive to get to otherwise and takes up to two flights to get to and do that (eg -LHR(stop)-HEL-IVL(stop)-HEL-LHR would be a good option if you want to go to northern Finland for some reason!)

Thanks, attractive and easy.
May OW rain blessings and op-ups upon you.

This would not be valid due to the rule

(D) ONLY ONE INTERNATIONAL DEPARTURE AND ONE INTERNATIONAL ARRIVAL FROM/TOTHE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN PERMITTED

EXCEPTION: TWO PERMITTED FOR ORIGIN USA WHEN ONE ARRIVAL-DEPARTURE IS ATRANSFER WITHOUT STOPOVER.

NOTE - TRAVEL BETWEEN US AND CANADA IS NOT COUNTED AS
INTERNATIONAL

If really desired, a domestic UK could be included, but nothing such as a side trip to Cairo or Helsinki

There is no need just to take 20 sectors just for the sake of it imo

Dave

Sorry, of course you are correct. You can manage the same effect in a more complicated way by starting the ticket somewhere else in Europe, but it may not be worth it.

And yes, there is no need to take 20 sectors just for the sake of it, but most people do take some extra trip in their country of origin during the same year they do a RTW; may as well get it thrown in on BA rather than Ryanair. People on LONEx tickets also tend to appreciate the small monetary benefit maybe more than those on DONEx or AONEx tickets...