First time *ONE4 seeks verification and advice
 

Hi,

This will be my and my wife's first RTW ticket. I've studied, read, read, and studied, so hopefully I haven't made any egregious errors. But thought I should check with the experts here before proceeding.

We will be beginning travels from the UK, as soon as 9/1 or so if possible. We are still undecided between LONE4 and DONE4 -- the itinerary below is obviously assuming we go with DONE4 (otherwise, we'll originate in LON and tack on a couple additional segments in NA or Europe).

GIB-xLGW,xLHR-PEK,HKG-DPS-xHKG-KHI-BKK-SYD,AKL-ADL-PER-CNS-MEL,SYD-JFK,WAS-MIA-LAX,SFO-STL,MCI-xLAX-LHR-DXB,MCT-xLHR,xLGW-GIB

KHI is an idea at the moment, and BKK is really just there because it can be -- we were in BKK only 18 months ago so another visit isn't really necessary (xHKG might be the sensible alternative to get a few more miles out of the itinerary). MIA is there mostly for the miles (again we were there only 6 months ago). I'm looking to visit dad in MCI -- went with the odd SFO-STL,MCI-xLAX to maximize mileage, but doing it from the east coast might be more sensible (as I don't know how to get from STL to MCI economically enough to make it worthwhile). DXB/MCT is mostly there for the miles (but it will be neat to visit).

Continent order is somewhat fixed -- want to visit China before it gets chilly, and want to visit NA at the end of the travels. As soon as we reach SWP, we will head to the South Pacific islands via LCCs (we should be able to do this from either SYD or New Zealand, and will return to Christchurch most likely and work back up to AKL before returning to Australia).

If originating in GIB (meaning we splurge on the DONE4), I believe Blands is the way to go (and will thus be on BA stock)? How do folks usually get down to GIB to start -- LCCs? BA? BA using AA miles? Is there a better origination country for this itinerary?

If originating in LON (meaning we go settle for LONE4), is BA a requisite or can we go through AA (or a travel agent that issues on AA stock)?

Thanks in advance!

If you start in LON, and return LAX-LHR then you will not be able to leave the UK at all, because of the one international departure/arrival rule.

Getting from STL to MCI is actually very inexpensive, as it's a route that Southwest Airlines flies. You can do it for less than US$60 per person, inclusive of taxes/fees.

Ahh, right. Another ^ for the DONE4... ;)

Blands knows what they're doing. Actually RT fares to GIB from London are fairly reasonable, including J fares which give good AA benefit. Otherwise you can pick the LCC of your choice to AGP and rent a car one way or probably there's a bus; you'd drop car/bus at La Linea and walk over the runway/border into GIB; taking a car into Gibraltar is madness. Actually getting out is the madness part. :mad:

As for other origin points, depends on your home > Europe access mode. ARN is pretty good for pricing and you could avoid the London shuffle (and BAA baggage mayhem if still extant) by going ARN-HEL-PEK... There also some LCC access to Stockholm too, or CPH and train...

We're a little north of MAN, so we have decent LCC access up here and can fairly easily get to LON for other options.

D availability GIB-LON is quite limited until 5-Sep and I'd like to get going earlier, so we might have to go with ARN. Any comments on differences in J quality between BA LHR-PEK and AY HEL-PEK?

BA J has a flat bed which is great if you are 5' 10" or shorter, less great if you are taller than that (the bed is short and skinny, but flat and horizontal). AY has better food and wine, a very comfortable seat but not a bed (so snoozing rather than sleeping). So tall, hungry and/or thirsty people should fly AY, sleepy ones should be on BA.

Thanks for the tips. I'm tall (6'1"), but skinny (I do curl a bit when sleeping, although I'm guessing there's not enough width for that to matter much). The wife is 5'2" so she would love the lie-flat. However, since this will be our first transcontinental J flight, we may be too excited to want to sleep that much anyway (and we'll be staying with a friend in Beijing so we'll be able to recover nicely at his place). We also don't drink, so we won't appreciate any wine differences.

Via LHR does earn us 3500 more miles, 1550 of which are AA EQM which may be important to maintaining status. But this would be our only longhaul AY opportunity (the rest will be BA, CX, QF, and AA). So it sounds like this will be a tough decision to make (although I will calculate EQMs carefully and if those 1550 are needed, it's of course a no-brainer).

According to http://www.finnair.com/web/finnair/s...?pageid=-12881, AY's MD-11's (which are scheduled for HEL-PEK) feature "Majesty lie-flat seats"...

"lie-flat" is airline code for "not horizontal". It means flat but sloping. For most people who are small enough the BA seats are much better to sleep on.

Having said that, some find the BA layout a bit claustrophobic.

What some people call claustrophobic, my wife relishes as "cozy"... ;)

Search doesn't seem to be working right now, so I'll ask here -- I assume you can upgrade on AA (LAX-LHR) from D to first using 25,000 miles (which would be into A)? Is this a worthwhile investment?

I would say so, yes. The AA Flagship Suite is the best F environment I have flown in. The F&B isn't much (if any) better than J, but for me the seat/space is enough on its own. Obviously this depends on whether 25K miles is a significant number for you.

Also the LAX based FAs are some of the best that AA has. It helps that AA considers LAX-LHR a key route which attracts celebrities and press attention, so AA goes to some trouble to try to make it better than average. I've noticed quite a difference between JFK-LHR F on AA and LAX-LHR F. About half the time I pick AA F instead of BA F on this route -- it is that good. As christep mentioned, AA F food and beverage is substantially the same as AA J (this is by policy, making for economy of scale and also making the J food superior to most other J food) but there are some small differences which do make F better. Plus you always get your choice of food.

I'm not sure what we've been doing for the past 12 days, but I'm just getting to the point of finalizing this travel. I just called the itinerary in to AA's RTW desk (btw, does anyone have a direct non-toll-free phone number for it -- I forgot to ask while I was on with them -- if so, please PM it to me if you don't want to post it here for whatever reason).

It's quite a thrill to see this 20-segment, 25-flight itinerary under My Reservations on AA.com. And to pick seats on BA.com (haven't yet got to CX and QF). One question re: AA.com's itinerary view -- the list of flights has heavy bars grouping the flights. In most cases, a bar appears wherever there is a stopover -- however, there are two cases where a bar appears where there is a transit. Does this mean that it has been coded wrong and that I should call back to correct it before they price it?

All my <24h "connections" where arrival in one day and the connection is the next day have the "heavy" bars between flights.