ORD-DEL direction?
 

I'm thinking vaguely about an RTW in 2006 and had a question. Tried a search here but didn't find it.

Is AA's ORD-DEL flight considered trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific? The great circle route goes slightly to the Atlantic side of the North Pole - it crosses the north of Greenland, well north of all of Scandinavia - but other flights between the U.S. and Asia are considered trans-Pacific.

(This matters, of course, because of direction of travel among continents.)

I'm sure this has an answer, and if any question has an answer, FTers know what it is!

If you plough through this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...hlight=ORD-DEL you will see that the AA RTW desk are considering it as trans-pacific.

Thanks!!

Ord/del
 

Definitely considered trans-pacific. Booked and ticketed DONE4 with AA. Just finished the first leg ORD -DEL of RTW itinerary this week. I used e-VIP to upgrade this leg to FC. FC was about half full - good food, good service and 16 hours went by pretty quickly.

Would you mind posting the menu of FC of the ORD-DEL flight. I am thinking of adding this segment on my ONE5. Thanks....

Thanks again. Makes more sense to treat it as a trans-Pac, even though its route is slightly to the other side. Were it trans-Atlantic, it would be possible to do an RTW with just two continents - North America and Asia! (I know there's no fare for it, probably in part because it's never been possible and isn't now as things stand, but it would be possible under those conditions.)

Yes there was a lot of speculation of 4-continent trips becoming 3 continent, etc. And at first AA did consider it trans-atlantic, but reverted to trans-pacific 2 weeks later.

did you happen to notice how full J was? I am flying J (company paid!), have mom upgraded to J with miles one way confirmed, waitlisted on the return...EXP desk says they really dont have a handle on how full the flights will actually be as its a new flight...for the return, flight has only used up 6 of the 35 j seats, but none are available for EVIP right now...just curious..

One of the main reasons for this is probably the requirement for a xONEx to have 3 "ocean" segments for the financial divvy up as described by number_6 in this recent thread: Airline compensation for one world explorer.

Did not seem that full.. I still could see some empty seats.

One sign of caution for check in, AA and Air India flights use same line to X-Ray check-in luggage and there are 3/4 AI flights around the same time so the X-Ray line could get really long...

Light meal (Sandwich or Wrap and dessert) right after take off.

Meal approx. 8 hrs later ( Indian meal option, prawns)

Breakfast approx. hour before landing.

Hope this helps.

If you are flying in Business class, they usually let you cut the line. Show your boarding pass to the employees organizing the line, and they will usher you up to the front.

Thank you. I am back there in couple of weeks, I will try that.

Being geographically challenged I ddn't realize how close to the north pole the circle went until I looked. I wonder if they have the same concerns that Cathay does with their far-north routes - I think the crews are very limited in the number of trips they're allowed on those routes.

heads it's trans-atlantic, tails it's trans-pacific
 

As of today the AA RTW desk has been instructed to treat the ORD-DEL flight as trans-atlantic. Even though you skip Europe, you still pay for the continent. So pay for 3, get 2 etc. The agents at AA are really miffed about this.