I've been doing my homework for a while now and soon ready to book my first rtw that'll take place in july. But yet I'd like to hear some experts thoughts if I have any logic here what I'm thinking

So routing is supposed to be like this:

hel-lhr-syd-hkg-nrt-hkg-jfk-bgi-jfk-sfo-ord-anc-ord,
lax-scl-ipc-scl-lax-lhr,
lhr-dxb-lhr-hel

From ORD to LAX I was thinking to buy a separate ticket ord-sfo and then surface to LAX.

Important destinations are IPC, NRT and SYD (actually nz with separate ticket) and the rest are more or less MR. DXB will be a separate holiday later.

This routing shows me 71663 miles and since I'm crediting this to AY points, It'll be about 115253 km. And when I'm flying in first, I'll have triple points. If I got this right, all of these routes have A inventory? So I'll have about 345000 pts and since I'm AY silver, I'll be Gold (ow sapphire) in july and ensure my gold benefits until 7/2010 (unless I hit the plat limit).

I guess there's no way to get significantly more miles (or points) in NA or elsewhere?

Cheers

D only for hel-lhr-hel, jfk-bgi-jfk,scl-ipc-scl.

All the long legs have A available, but some are not on every flight. Fairly close to maximum and any increase is offset by inconvenient or undesirable routings (e.g. SCL-CCS) or lack of A. Rather ironic that you are buying a RTW but not actually flying to your preferred destination (NZ) due to the lack of A service...too bad CX dropped HKG-AKL F service, that was a nice flight. Good luck getting A space into ANC, it is sold out for most of the summer already due to AA marketing A inventory to cruise ships.

Okay, thank you very much number_6! This is whay FT is so great.

Ofcourse I knew HEL-LHR doesn't have first, but didn't see it
But if jfk-bgi doesn't have first, I should change it to something else, since I get 300% points of A-flights compared to 200% of D-flights. And if ord-anc is that hard to get avalability, I'll propably change that too.

So, back to drawing board. Thanks!

duplicate

Wait, here I'd have to disagree with our resident guru number_6, the way I see it, right now, ord-anc-ord is wide open for july/august.

And potentially LAX-SCL. Rollout is scheduled for June, iirc.

Note also that all intra-US F flights (booked in A) on AA (2-class services) will only credit double points into AY's program.

You serious? And I thought I got this figured out already. Well, I like planning this trip anyway. From where do I fly to SCL in first? Jfk, mia?


Bugger, again one reason more to take only DONE5.


I really appreciate your help. Thanks!

Right now from LAX/JFK/MIA. LAN's change from 3-class to 2-class on its USA-SCL routes started last month, and will take more than two years to complete. At present LAN is selling F on the LAX/SCL route for july/aug '06, but you would be well advised to double check. I would not be surprised to hear of "unscheduled" last minute changes on some flights, between now and 2008.

Whoa, I wouldn't volunarily downgrade to a DONE* just for mileage-earning purposes! FYI, in AAdvantage there is little difference between F and J, both earn the same number of elite-qualifying points, but there is a small differential in class-of-service bonus miles (25% in J vs. 50% in F).
The only viable reason to downgrade, IMHO, is because there aren't enough long-haul segments on your routing in F to justify the cost increase. I think you definitely have it covered with lhr-syd, syd-hkg, hkg-nrt-hkg (some flights), hkg-jfk, jfk-sfo (some flights), lax-lhr, and lhr-dxb-lhr, and possibly some of the S.America routes.

For the life of me, I can't find where I saw the rollout schedules. And I am sitting next to someone who doesn't want me looking any more. I will try to find the information later but I *think* it was June for MIA and LAX, and December (?) for New York. In any event, I know New York was the last to switch. Again, I will try to find what I was reading. Realistically, they probably would only have to refit four or six planes to get everything set for LAX and MIA.

Well yeah, I think you're right. Just seems so lame when airlines are dropping off the F service. Who knows if we can even buy AONEx tickets anymore in a few years time, so let's use them while we can

I haven't seen an actual schedule (my contacts in LAN are all out of SCL at present, and when they return I doubt will share that info with me anyway). The information I posted is just basic stuff, and comes straight from lan.com, where they say the change already started in march this year, and will be complete by june 2008.

I have looked again. It's bothering me because I just don't remember where I saw the schedule. I do know it was in conjunction with LAN's sponsorship of the Nasdaq-100 because the company was going to be setting up a display of the premium business class. Whatever I read, there was a schedule laid out indicating the order and time frame that the seats would be rolled out. IIRC, first was Los Angeles, then was Miami, third was Mexico City and Brazil, and last was New York. The article also mentioned F was being kept on the transatlantic and transpacific routes. Maybe some muckety muck caught wind that a marketing guy published the schedule and redacted it after coming to their senses. I have been in SA enough to know that deadlines are often suggestions, but they are marketing this to people to whom deadlines are taken more literally.

I recall LAN expected LAX to be changed in June. MIA, MEX and SAO/RIO were some time after. New York was in December. I didn't pay much mind to it since I am grounded and won't be flying to SA any time soon. The next trip I take to SA will almost certainly be on the new configuration, irrespective of the class.

Incidentally, LAN is also upgrading coach and ordered a few more B767s. Seems that they are trying to make Lan Argentina work, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did a lot of intra-SA rotations in the future, thereby making it even more difficult to predict aircraft. Finally, LAN was scheduled to take delivery on a new, newly-configured 767 in March. If they are able to get an old version reconfigured by June (which doesn't seem unbelievable) then the timetable of the article would be accurate since you only need two planes fto update the LAX route.

Bottom line is, who knows at this point. But what I read indicates you're more likely to get the F class on the NYC route. However, from the increasing reports of recent service cuts in F on the NA routes, I probably wouldn't make getting the F class a huge priority anymore. Just my two pesos.

Now after all that, there is no way I would downgrade to D on the whole journey if you can afford the price difference. Although 11 of your 20 segments are in business or in the same class irrespective of whether you do D or A (assuming the LA segments are in the new configuration), the remaining 9 segments still constitute about 60% of your trip. Although brilliant minds will differ, I felt that there was a fairly significant difference in service between F and J on BA, CX, and QF, and there is a *world* of difference between F and J on AA 777 longhaul. Not so much on the coffins, but especially on the suites.

I randomly ran across what I think I might have seen. I might be a bit slow, and I might forget some things, but I don't think I am crazy (yet). From Lan's website:

Important: First Class in Boeing 767 will be sold only until June 2006 in the routes to and from Miami, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles and Mexico City; and until november 2006 for the route to and from New York.

I also saw something else saying that LA and Miami were June, the others were later, and NY was November or December. I ran across this randomly as I was looking for something so I most certainly won't find where I saw the other schedule any time soon.