DONE5 questions
 

OK, I've done lots of research and I'm planning a DONE5 taking the full year to complete it. I have a tentative itinerary but neither the ONEworld timetable nor the Mileage Monkey seem to like it. So, anybody mind giving it a look?

LAX-GRU//SCL-LPB//LIM-EZE-jfk-HKG-SIN//HKG-DPS-HKG-PEK-SYD//MEL-PER-ADL//MEL-AKL-SYD-LHR//DBV-lgw-ATH//MAD-SJO-JFK-LAX

"jfk" and "lgw" would be transits all the rest would be stopovers. Now, my questions.

1) Is it a valid routing?

2) Can I have as many overland routes as I want? I currently have 7

3) When given the choice between airlines on the intercontinental legs, which should I choose? For example, LA vs. AA to/from South America. Or, QF vs. BA for SYD to LHR. Is there really that big of a difference between the carriers in business class? As it stands now I could take intercontinentals on 6 of the 8 carriers. Might as well compare right?

Thanks for any help.

(1) No: PEK-SYD:- QF or other any OneWorld airlines does not fly this route. Have you checked that all the segments you list are actually flown by a OneWorld airlines ? The OneWorld timetable & the Mileage Monkey may not like it because you may looking for flights that do not exist. You cannot use codeshare’s. Must be OneWorld metal (see the list of allowable carriers)

(2) Yes, subject to only 2 stopover in continent of origin

(3) Carrier:-. Your first problem is find a D class seat on or close to date you want. Then chose a carrier if you have a choice. LA & BA for me, but others have different opinion’s.

QF flies SYD-PEK. I dont know when it started, but not too long ago. Looks like the rest of the flights are valid, just taking a cursory look. Just check on the Australian flights since I don't know off hand what the restrictions are. Otherwise, looks fine.

It looks OK to me too. PEK-SYD is QF192 which flies MWF.

You could also do most of this trip as a DONE4 originating in Europe ... which would cut the fare by a lot (circa 30% from the right city, I haven't bothered to check exact pricing). The routing would be in a different sequence but the only stopover you give up is SJO. Europe-South America-Australia-Asia-Europe (either eastbound or westbound).

As for your questions,
1) valid
2) unlimited surface sectors on OWE (unlike most other RTW fares), however it makes ticketing difficult for most systems and might require the ticket to be handwritten.
3) the choice of airline varies by route, date and equipment type. LA is introducing a new J which is far better than their old J, for example -- so you should pick AA over LA old J but LA new J over AA, for example. There have been big improvements in LA/IB/AY in the past few months, making them more competitive with QF/BA/CX/AA.

Looking at WearyBizTraveller's spreadsheet, a DONE4 ex-GIB would be $6100, compared to $9200 for an ex-USA DONE5. You'd have to factor in your cost to get to GIB in the first place (closest intl airport would be MAD) and the cost of getting home (maybe from London and just 'chuck away' the final LON-GIB coupon) and then determine whether that saving is worthwhile, i'd imagine you'll save a minimum of $1500 - providing you fly economy USA-MAD/LON and back again (you can always use miles to fly home, or even to MAD if you have enough already). $1500 for me personally would be a worthwhile saving.

In terms of how this would leave you for the EZE-jfk-HKG leg, i'm not 100% sure of the transit rules so someone else would need to clarify that for you...I'd imagine that not having North America on your ticket would wipe that option out and instead you'd need to be going SCL-AKL/SYD.

Points to note; LPB-SCL is a Y only service, so not the best use of your ticket, best to splash $150 or so to get from LPB-LIM with LanPeru and then fly from LIM-SCL in J.

With your ATH/DBV flights i'd look at changing them to LGW-DBV//ATH-LHR or vice versa, DBV & ATH are less than 500 miles apart and i'm sure there's a train/bus service that would allow you to get to Athens easily enough. Failing that there should be pretty cheap flights between the two of them.

Also, with regards to your Oz Transcon if you can, get on one of the 767/332 flights, as they'll be far more spacious, i flew MEL-DRW on a 734 and whilst it was a very pleasant flight it felt very, very cramped after being in there for close to 4 hours!

The choice of carrier for intercontinental flights will come down to personal preference and it's certainly worth trying out as many as you can. I'd imagine you'll find big difference between some airlines, particually between AA and the other partners when it comes down to seating.

Personally, my preference is BA for overnight flights and QF/CX for daytime flights. BA has the advantage of having a true flatbed which I find I can easily get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep on when I flew LHR-NRT, the angled seats just don't yield as much sleep for me, and i'm the kind of person who can (and will) sleep just about anywhere - I flew QF SYD-lax-JFK, and had plenty of power naps, but couldn't get to sleep properly just 2 or 3 hours at a time max.

QF/CX win it on daytime flights for what has been consistently better service on flights that i've been on, better catering and of course AVOD - albeit QF's is a bit hit and miss.

I'm not too sure whether you're timing your trip to co-incide with preferable seasons or not as you don't mention a departure time but a routing something along the lines of;

GIB-LHR-EZE-GRU-LIM-(LPB-LIM)SCL-SYD-PER-ADL//MEL-AKL-SYD-PEK-HKG-DPS-HKG-SIN-LHR-ATH//DBV-LGW-GIB.

Of course you could take out flights as you need in order to free up the chance to travel overland between them. The itinerary above is 19 segments, with 1 spare in South America and 1 spare in Europe that you could use as a final segment.

Finally, regarding NZ are you just going to AKL or are you going to travel around? If the latter, then why not look at doing a open-jaw and say, flying into AKL from MEL and then fly CHC/ZQN-SYD?

Correct, in that scenario you cannot touch NA.

Also, I don't think MAD is an option to get to GIB by air.

Thanks for all the information! A couple more quick questions. The rules say you have 12 months to complete travel but, when does that 12 months start? From the time its ticketed or the first flight?

12 months from first flight.

And the first flight must be within 12 months of the ticket issue date (or 24 months maximum ticket validity). Sometimes useful to buy these tickets in advance if expecting a price increase or a rule change (I used to buy them 3 at a time).