I'm looking at BOS-EZE-IPC-SYD-HNL-LAX-BOS for this coming winter and with stopovers in each city. Routing to BA doesn't matter, whether by NYC, MIA (even though most everyone here says don't) or DFW, or even on LAN via Lima or Santiago de Chile from JFK or Miami as we wouldn't want to stop over anywhere except maybe Lima to see Machu Picchu.

Easter Island's the kicker and absent an award we'd never go there, but it seems we can. But then what? I see flights shown on QF's route map from Papeete to SYD via AKL (but as a codeshare on Air Tahiti Nui) and the LAN flight to Easter Island continues to Papeete as well. Can I route IPC on LAN to PPT then QF PPT-AKL-SYD? Is Air Tahiti Nui a OW partner? - it's an AAdvantage partner but I can't tell if that matters for OW award purposes. Or is having a QF codeshare number sufficient? It doesn't - far as I can see - show up as a QF "affiliate" on the OW page.

Otherwise it's back to SCL and change planes there for LAN/QF service to Australia via Auckland. Do they count the miles used flying back to Santiago toward the award mileage limit? And would southbound routing via Lima (and hence Santiago en route to BA on LAN) put us over the limit on transfers at SCL? - as we'd be there, transiting - three times in that scenario

Never done this, finally made EXP, and now looking to burn up some miles while I am/can. Any advice would be appreciated.

IPC-SYD can only be done by backtracking via SCL (transit only); the mileage will be calculated IPC-SYD direct, not IPC-SCL-SYD. Routing via LIM is valid, as you can transit a city twice and stopover once; the best point to stopover would be EZE-SCL-IPC, as it would not increase the mileage by much, if at all.

No, no, and no.

In my experience, you cannot book a codeshare even if both airlines are in OneWorld. You can only book on the actual flight number with the actual carrier.

The measured distance is between point of departure, stopovers, and destination.

Per Viajero: "IPC-SYD can only be done by backtracking via SCL (transit only); the mileage will be calculated IPC-SYD direct, not IPC-SCL-SYD.

Per rrgg: "The measured distance is between point of departure, stopovers, and destination"

Do these two statements mean the same thing, in that there's a stopover on Easter Island - probably for two - three days (anyone: is there more to do there than look at the big heads, and more time needed to do it?) and then the return to Santiago and onward flights to Australia count as a transfer assuming they can be booked to leave no later than 24 hrs after (re)arrival in SCL?

It matters as NOT counting the backtracked leg keeps it under the 25K miles flown award (via Webflyer's mileage calculator, so maybe not exact but there's a decent - 1K or so - cushion) but counting that segment would mean bumping up to a higher award level thus using up more miles.

Right. It looks like IPC-SCL arrives at 17:30 then SCL-AKL/SYD leaves at 22:55, so a clean transfer. the IPC-SCL leg miles wouldn't count.

Unless you are an anthropologist, or similar deep thinking creature, spending longer than 2-3 days in IPC will run the risk of ending up looking like one of them moais.

If you're in the mood for complete quiet and there's good weather, you could easily kill a week on Easter Island. Particularly if you like hiking, or want to laze on the beach. I spent the recommended three-day stopover there in January 2004, and certainly that wasn't long enough for me; but I love hiking, and IPC is a particularly cool place to do it (volcanic formations, lava tubes, moai scattered around, a beach or two, an airport runway to watch 767s flying in ...). You can also go diving if you're into that. Of course, if you want more 'cultural' action, then Easter Island will drive you mad within 48 hours. It's a sleepy place a long way from anywhere.

AA says no award seats - biz or coach - on any dates in February and getting into March. I had 'em stop around the 10th or 12th I think.

Everything else; to EZE, from BA to SCL to AKL and AKL to SYD, even SYD home (creatively, a la via HNL or YVR or AKL or BNE) was available in first or business as long as we'd shift flights a day or two either way. So I'm sorta stumped.

When you all here plan one of these, is there a method to the madness or do you hold out for all the dates you want, or to and from, or just "we wanna spend five days in Buenos Aires then X days here and then Y days here" and let the AA people figure it out, or just - more or less - let them tell you "how can we do this in, say, a month"? Or go in with - and try to stick to - a set itinerary and dates? The process seemed a bit daunting - I spent at least 40 minutes on the phone, to no avail - even though the phone rep was very helpful.

I'm tempted to consider the same trip but at a different time: we've been to (and liked - and want to go back to) all the other cities listed except Easter Island. And the back of beyond for a little while is no big deal: we went to the Falklands for a week and loved it despite the 18 hours on a Tri-Star. Lots of books and lots of Stoli works for me.

But we want to go somewhere this winter and they're all warm places, which is good when you start and end here.

Which segment(s) is/are not available? IPC-PPT? If you don't already realize this, you can come up with a roundabout way to your stop since mileage is not counted at connections. (It might not be worth it, depending on your free time.)

The way the phone rep was talking it was BOS then either MIA or DFW or JFK to EZE (and he said it didn't matter as they calculated it by the BOS-EZE mileage; as if we had non-stops...???) all of which were available then LAN from EZE to SCL but nothing from SCL to IPC or back for the 40 or so days he looked at.

Are you saying go to Papeete from Santiago then turn around, come back, and stopover on Isla de Pascua then back to Santiago? That's legal? Or am I getting ahead of myself? AA rep definitely said there's no way on a OW award to go PPT to NZ or Oz

I might go for it; I suspect my better half might not - thinks I'm crazy as it is. Also thinks we can only sit in the front of the plane, too, but that's another story...and an extra 12 hours or so to get there, and the ground time in PPT...dunno...

I had no problems getting IPC as part of my OW award last March.

TPA-mia-gru-GIG/open jaw/GRU-EZE-SCL-IPC-scl-LIM-scl-mia-TPA

I do realize that the info does not help you, but I'm surprised that there was no availibility for 40 days???

I had to adjust my IPC trip by a day or 2 at most.

This is a long shot, but is it possible the agent was only checking certain days of the week? That flight is scheduled for 3 or 4 times a week only. Maybe you told the agent that you want to travel on Wednesday or something similar and that's the only days of the week s/he checked? When I was booking my trip I ran into a similar situation. I didn't care about dates, I cared about certain days of the week. At first the EXP agent was not finding anything until we figured out why. I wanted to go there on the wrong day of the week. It's a long shot, but who knows?

I also agree that 3 nights is about enough for IPC. I had a great time, loved the island and met some great people, but the island is 15 x 10 miles TOTAL!
The one thing that did surprise me about it was the fact that it is a big diving destination. I suppose if you are a diver then a longer stay maybe be worth it. I'm not and after 2 full days of driving the rented dunne buggy around, hiking and seeing every possible corner of the island, I was ready to go back.

Anyways, good luck with the award and have a great trip!

andrzej

Thanks: reading about your trip made me think of doing this one now.

But "no", the AA phone rep articulated the "not-every-day-ness" of the flight schedule SCL-IPC although it appears that either there are multiple flights some days or that it does not depart and arrive at the same time each day that it is operated. He did suggest one could buy coach ($585 pp o/w) or biz ($870 pp o/w) tix for that leg. As the $2500-$3500 that would cost would cover a nice week at the Westin in Sydney or the Park Tower in BA, I'm disinclined to spend money if I can get there with miles, having more of the latter these days or so it seems.

It gets back to what I asked originally - given that we want to go to these places my only instructions to him were "we're totally flexible so let's start looking at this trip for four or five weeks total; start in late January or early February; we don't even care if we go to Australia first then come back via South America, etc." - is it perhaps best to nail down the IPC flights first and work back - and forward too - from them or try to build a linear (i.e. "first we leave here and go there, then we leave there and go here, etc.") itinerary.

Any experience that one method is better than another in getting (more or less) what you want?

Again, thanks.

I was just saying there may be an unusual route available. What you described is legal, provided that OW carriers fly those routes. You're permitted to connect through a city twice and stopover once.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=433366

One thing you could do is to sign up for LANPASS, that way you can check award availability on lan.com.

Thank you Viajero: I did and they do. But AA still says "no". Before raising my bp more and calling around til I get the answer I like, any idea why?

BTW: LAN shows 2 Biz award seats on multiple day sets in February that would allow for 2-3 days on the island for 180,000 km. and taxes of about $36 USD.

Is the bucket for LAN awards the same as that for OW awards?