Hi all,

I'm planning is RTW trip on a LONE4 ticket, which i'll buy in the UK. It's been pretty tricky getting the information I require out of travel agents - which seems to be the norm judging by this forum. Anyway, I've downloaded the OneWorld planner tool, and come up with this...

Departing 20th November ish....

LHR - NRT
NRT - HKG
HKG - BKK - Bangkok, Thailand (Bangkok)
BKK // SIN
SIN - PER
PER - ASP
ASP - SYD
SYD - CHC
CHC // AKL
AKL - SCL
SCL - IPC (start of June-ish...)
IPC - SCL
SCL // LIM
LIM - EZE
EZE - BCN (be nice to stop in barca for a week maybe....)
BCN - LHR (end of sept 2007)

Now the points where I'm confused are:

* Can I stop in barcelona for a week on the way back? Travel agent says no, route planner doesn't complain....indeed most flights back go via BCN or MAD anyway according to planner.

* It seems my land segment SCL - LIM has effectively cost me a 'free' flight....is that true? (planner says I've used all South American segments). How can I maximise South America flights wise?... for instance I'd have liked to have flown to Rio from Lima and gone overland to Buenos Airies, which would still only be 4 south american flights....

* Any further refinements anyone can spot (or suggested alternatives)? i.e. Australia - any better suggestions? I'm definetely going to fly into perth, but where would people suggest going rather than ASP before sydney?

* Which segments should i definitely book dates for? I.e. AKL - SCL, SCL <-> IPC could be busy etc from what i've read...

* A provisional quote (not inc BCN) came to �1829 inc taxes. Seems very good but, any way i could do better?

* I'm not a member of any FF programs, should i join up to one with this itinerary? If so, which one would you all suggest?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Ray

Yes.

No, surface segments do not count.

All, IMO. (except, of course, those that fall beyond the current 12 month window).

Brilliant. I thought so. Now i see it's just a bug in the planner tool. Confirmed it by selecting a bundle of land segments, such that no flights were used at all within a continent. Free flight to rio ahoy then.... To tweak it then, which is a better place to fly back to europe from, buenos aires or rio?

Yep, I'll do that. Happy to really.

Thanks very much for the quick response sir!

Ray

Take your pick, not much difference between the two.

One possible SA routing: ...SCL-IPC-SCL//LIM-EZE-GRU//GIG...

In the most recent version(s) there is a button on the left hand side marked 'Add land segment', you can use this to specify that a segment is not being flown and should not count towards your continent allocation.

In regards to Australia, I'd recommend PER-AYQ-SYD over PER-ASP-SYD. Uluru is spectacular and not to be missed, and given there's direct flights from PER and to SYD from AYQ, it's worth stopping there. ASP on the other hand doesn't really have so much to offer - it's a regional town in the middle of nowhere, and whilst there's some alright attractions in the local vicinity, none of them come close to Uluru (and the Olgas as well while you're out there).

Depending on your interests it might be worth continuing on from AYQ to CNS before SYD as well (again, there's direct flights from AYQ-CNS). While Cairns itself isn't *that* amazing (but pleasant enough), the surrounding areas are great, out on the reef, up to the Daintree and Port Douglas and even taking the train or skyrail up to Kurranda is enjoyable too. You seem to have a free segment left in the South Pacific, so certainly worthwhile using it while you're down here.

In South America there's flights available on Lan Peru from LIM-GRU now as well, if you're wanting to get from Lima to Brazil before heading down to Argentina, but unfortunately nothing that carries all the way through to Rio.

Keep in mind also that the rules now let you travel through the point of origin as part of the RTW ticket (though you're only able to leave the country once). So if you had a domestic UK destination you wanted to include as a second stopover in the continent of origin to enjoy at a later date, you can do that as well.

Brilliant - thanks so much - that's exactly the sort of suggestion i needed. Suitably amended my Australian trip with both suggestions.

South America, well with a bit of fiddling about I reckon this works well....

SCL - IPC - SCL // LIM - SCL - GIG // EZE.

this way I get two excellent sounding overland segements, and can take in Sao Paulo on the way. Should get quite used to Santiago too.

Yeah - the land segment button on the Route Planner messes up btw - try adding 4 land segments

i.e. SCL // LIM // GIG // GRU // EZE

and no flights - it'll tell you you've used up your allocation, despite the fact you could have just gone straight from SCL // EZE.

Thanks again - all sorted! It's telling me EZE - BCN is a 2 segment thing, but I looks like a direct flight, so I'm sure its OK. Now to book....

Ray

Yikes! For the love of Pete and Frequent Flyer miles, Yes!!! Sign up for something! There are many folks well educated on the various programs that could advise you what might work best. I'm not well versed so I'll leave that to others.

Since it looks like you're UK-based I'm sure the BA board would have tons of info for you. I don't know if they have 'challenges' like the AAdvantage program has or not (which allow you to qualify for a higher status level than normal by flying X miles during the 'challenge' period) but you should look into that as well. By all means, sign up an make for certain that your member ID is on the reservation from day one! Otherwise, you might spend the next year trying to get credit for all of those flights!

And BTW, Welcome to FT!

There's a table in the FAQ sticky that shows what L class bookings earn with various program/airline flown combinations.