Two DONE3s and other misc *ONE* advice
 

Hello everyone. Thanks so much for your interesting comments and advice, I've spent many enjoyable hours reading and am sure I could spend many more. I'm sure a slightly geeky nature is required for full enjoyment though, maybe that's why I feel at home!

Anyway, I've recently been made redundant with a payoff, so thought I'd use the opportunity to satisfy my travel bug. My plan is to use a OWE ticket to head from London to South America, across Pacific, through Oz/NZ, up through Asia and then home.

Provisional route is: LHR - EZE - LIM - SCL - IPC - PPT - [swim] - AKL - MEL - SYD - NRT - NGO - HKG - [haven't worked out the last bit!] - LHR

Questions:
1. In travelling from SCL to AKL, I would ideally like to go via IPC and PPT. I see LAN fly up to PPT, then Air Tahiti Nui, who seem to codeshare with Qantas, fly from PPT onwards to NZ. Can I use these flights with a OWE ticket? I'm presuming probably not.

2. From what I understand, if one travels within a continent, land segments do not count as one of your four flights, but multi-leg flights, even if just changing planes, do count as two flights of your allowance?

3. JAL can be used only with Global Explorer not OWE?

4. There is much talk about who to buy tickets from and where to start. I am based in London, and I have to say having called BA several times, they are clueless with regard to OWE, and unfortunately one cannot speak directly to the all-knowing fares department! So.. If I were to buy the ticket in London - who would you recommend buying it from? I have seen Qantas suggested here. Secondly, in terms of European hops to save money - Stockholm or Copenhagen seem to be recommended? And would I buy it from the OneWorld office in that country?

5. I have seem some suggestions on this board that it sometimes makes sense to run two OWE tickets in parallel. This is interesting for me because it allows me to break my trip, and potentially do North America. Which continents are cheapest around the world to buy the second ticket?

6. Final question - there seems to be a lot of talk of routes getting booked up very early in particular classes on certain routes. I was hoping to fly in Business, setting off at the end of October. Is a month not enough? To be honest I'm fairly flexible with exact dates, but feel slightly nervous from the talk on this board where people are planning 2008 travel!!

And finally, thanks again for all of your advice and time - It certainly explains many things that one could not hope to discover by speaking to BA Reservations!!

First welcome to FlyerTalk with a very good (and well informed) first post! I'll take a crack at the easy questions and leave the hard ones for the real experts

You can fly SCL-IPC-PPT with LA, but then you're stuck since, as you presume, you can't use TN on a OWE.

Multi-segment flights (i.e. different flight numbers) certainly count each segment toward your limit. Not sure about ground segments, though...

Correct although this will presumably change when they join OW next year, but too late for you.

The canonical advice is NOT to start in London since that will severely limit your options in Europe; it's hard to get around Europe without going through LON. If you start there, once you return, you'd be restricted to domestic UK flights only. Better to start somewhere like AMS where you can get a cheap one way flight (or train) to get there in the first place. Then you can return to LON, hang out as long as you want, and use the tail end of your ticket for your European travels.

Good luck,

Michael

Welcome to Flyer Talk sc597 :)

Well done on the research to date. First up your RTW would be a DONE4 not a DONE3 - every continent touched counts (so Europe, South America, South-West Pacific, and Asia makes 4).

If you want to visit PPT, consider a Global Explorer (mileage based RTW) instead - the QF codeshare on TN is allowed on that. Alternatively you might want to use a separate ticket (perhaps an award) to get between south america and PPT and back.

Land segments don't count towards your 20 allowed flights, but both ends count towards stopovers.

Multi-leg flights that involve changes in flight number are counted separately. If it has only one flight number, and you aren't stopping over at the transit point, then it counts as only one segment. Eg SYD to LHR on BA16 is one flight segment, unless you stop over in SIN for a day or more, in which case it will be 2 flight segments.

JAL is joining OW in 2007. Once it has joined then may include on xONEx. Otherwise not allowed, even code shares.

You can buy a xONEx from any OW airline or any travel agent. If done via a travel agent they will pass the itinerary on to one of the airlines for pricing and confirmation it meets all the rules.

If you are intending a lot of travel and want to return home part-way through the year then 2 RTWs may make sense. Best to find a cheap country (not continent) to issue the 2nd one from - eg Sri Lanka and Thailand are popular amongst FTers. However you can still break the trip up by other means, eg an award or cheap paid ticket nested within the RTW.

On most flights discounted business/first class should be available 1 month or more ahead. However, some routes sell out of discounted classes a long way in advance. SCL-AKL is one such route where availability can be tough, especially in first (or even in business). Best to be flexible with dates. If your RTW included north america (would need to be DONE5) then you could consider travelling between south america and Australia/NZ via US (either as first visit to north america or by taking advantage of the south america transit exception).

The fare spreadsheets, with fairly up to date fares (but not exact as it is a volunteer effort), is linked to by the sticky at the top of this forum. You might notice that originating in Stockholm would save you several thousand pounds (similarly for GIB). The prices vary widely by product and country (the cheapest for DONE4 is often not the cheapest for DONE5, for example, or for AONE4). The key restriction to keep in mind is 2 stopovers in the continent of origin. Often people use an award ticket to position to the start of the RTW. Sri Lanka was one of the cheapest places to start, and that limits your 2 stopovers to Asia (instead of Europe); so it all depends on your plans. Unfortunately there was a fare increase Sept. 1, and not sure where the fares are right now for each country, you will have to check for the countries of interest to you. Chances are CMB is no longer so attractive on the fare, but still cheaper than the UK.

Surface segments never count as a segment, but do make each endpoint a stopover (of significance only in the country of origin, as the fare allows unlimited stopovers in all other continents). As for breaking up a RTW, generally you can easily create 3 separate trips out of the one ticket, with the 3rd being a LHR-DXB-LHR loop at the end (something you cannot do if your ticket originates in the UK, instead of STO, GIB, etc).

Another welcome to FT. The only additions to Kiwi Flyer's excellent response is that you have some flights that can be purchased cheaply outside of the ONEx ticket such as MEL-SYD and NRT-NGO. This will give you more segments to use which would otherwise be expensive. As for where to buy the ticket, another possibility is GIB. The agency there (Bland's travel I think) are well versed in ONEx and dealing with BA.

Minor edit to number_6's post. It is 2 stopovers in continent of origin, not country.

^ ^ ^ to this. Thanks to all the great advice I received here I bought an ex-GIB DONE4 with a ticket purchased through Bland's (I actually started the trip last Friday :cool: ). They were and continue to be extremely helpful and really know what they're doing. I really liked being able to organise everything except payment over email too!

Thanks for your responses, guys! And wow, having looked through WearyBizTrvlr's spreadsheet I am shocked at the price differential depending on where one buys the ticket! Strange also that there's little consistency - for example UK seems to be one of the cheapest places for economy, yet most expensive for business. Now I just need to work out how to get to Mauritius!

In terms of my itinery, I've seen a lot of Europe already, so am not worried about having spare legs left over when returning. Your comments about buying it in Sri Lanka then losing the ability to take extra flights in Asia are definitely valid for me.. I'll guess I'll need to have a think about how nice the First experience would be and make a call as to whether I can really "afford" it! :) I did once fly First with BA out to Mexico City (friend's air miles) and have to say it was a wonderful experience end-to-end. AA back via DFW was no comparison!

In terms of the two DONE3 - I was thinking of flying back to UK from Oz, I presume the "stop" in Bangkok would not count as hitting that continent (sure I saw a post about this a long time ago but can't find it!)..

Either that or I'm now thinking make it an AONE5 starting in Mauritius. Am currently researching how to buy the ticket in Mauritius... I have the BA Travel Shop phone number, but if anyone happens to know whether it can be done through email, that would help!

Thanks! - Sam

It does count. To visit SWP, SA or Africa you need a xONE4 or better.

As someone else who is new to both the RTW game and flying First, here are several other things to keep in mind.

If you are thinking of buying an AONE ticket, then check to see if real first class is offered where you are planning to go. For example, with a few exceptions, it will not be useful in South America or Australia/New Zealand. In North America, while you can get First class credit for US domestic flights, they will generally be on 2 cabin planes. However, if your itinerary can be worked out to take advantage of flying real First class, then the Mauritius fare is terrific. I am in the final stages of booking AONE5 tickets for myself and my wife and 13 of our 19 segment are in First on 3 cabin planes. The whole itinerary has a total mileage of over 70,000—and most of the choices are places we want to go.

Re, arranging the ticket in Mauritius. I have mentioned elsewhere about some difficulties of booking there (e.g. them inventing constraints that don’t exist) but the main problem has been having them confirm flights in which there seems to be adequate “A” inventory but they can’t confirm the flight. Paradoxically it seems to occur mostly on BA flights, usually (but not exclusively) on BA 122 to LHR- your only way out of MRU at this time!!. After several abortive efforts in setting up an itinerary, I suggest the following strategy: check Expert Flyer or some other source and select several dates for BA122 that show adequate “A” inventory. Give them those dates and ask which ones they can book. Based on my experience (and that of at least two other FTers), you will find that they cannot book most of those dates. If they can reserve one, grab it and build your itinerary around it.

Despite frustrations about the booking process, the BA-MRU office is extremely good about responding to e-mails within a day. Sam, I have PMed you with an e-mail contact.

I just began a DONE4 starting from Stockholm that was quite painless -- only a couple (hopefully) minor glitches that could be avoided with the proper checks and reminders. Reserved it via AA (called their US number using Skype) and then had TAL Aviation ticket it. I imagine you could email your itinerary to TAL and have them do the booking part as well.

The big advantage to ARN over GIB is TAL is AA's GSA for Sweden so they ticket with AA -- which should result in significantly lower fuel surcharges.

We flew RyanAir from Luton to Stockholm's VST airport, found our way over to ARN, and picked up the tickets at the airport (I can advise on all that if you want to economize on that flight -- we paid about 37 GBP p.p. all-in from Central London to ARN).

Viajero - regarding your comment that it does count - just to confirm, if I were to fly Sydney to London, that would have to include Asia even if I only do the "get off plane and stretch legs" thing at wherever they refuel? And I guess the same applies if you were to transit from South America heading to Asia via the US, without a "stopover"?

Yes; it even applies if you don't get off the plane to stretch your legs (same plane service LHR-SYD); and most recently, even if the plane does not actually land on that continent (the AA ORD-DEL flight which is non-stop, but is deemed to include Europe even though it never lands in Europe). There is no way around the "must include a continent in the fare" rules on these tickets.

Yes, what number_6 said.

Remember, if an itinerary includes SWP, SA or Africa it cannot be a xONE3, it must be a xONE4 or better.

Thanks guys. So I'm hoping to do a AONE5 or DONE5, starting in Mauritius (home is London), then back to London, on to South America, OZ/NZ, Asia and back. Now as I understand it, I can terminate anywhere in Africa? What would people recommend for the easiest (cheapest) place to terminate to get back to UK? I was hoping for Morocco but looking at the OneWorld Planner Tool, that seems to be a "European" destination! I guess South Africa would be interesting too.

I presume as I'll be coming from Asia, probably India or Pakistan, the only OneWorld way to get to Africa would be via London, which I will already have visited. Is this okay?

It is allowed, but as an exception, and only in the case of a transit without stopover on route to one of these: GHANA/NIGERIA/KENYA/UGANDA/TANZANIA.

Edited to add: otherwise you can get to JNB from HKG, or from Australia.

If you weren't particuarly interested in heading back to Africa for the last leg, you could also ensure that your transit through London was such that it was possible to "accidently" miss the last leg (being ticketed to fly into Gatwick and then out of Heathrow works well, as there's no risk of your bags being checked through). Of course there's the risk that they'll then charge you extra for not taking the flight, but it's not something I've heard of happening to anyone in the past when they've taken this course of action.

Ok gurus! Finalised the plan.. see if you think this makes sense: Am first going to fly one way economy (although looks like it's the same price as return on the website) with BA to Mauritius towards end of October. Stay a couple of days, then start an AONE5.

MRU -> LHR -> AMM (Jordan) ->land-> CAI -> LHR -> EZE (Buenos Aires) -> LIM

Then I'm leaving the following sectors open dated:
Lima -> Rio -> Santiago -> Easter Island -> Papeete -> Auckland [not with OW sadly] -> Melbourne -> Sydney -> Tokyo -> Hong Kong -> Karachi -> Bangkok -> Hong Kong -> Johannesburg -> Cape Town -> Finish!!

I can't wait to start now, have completely bored all of my colleagues sitting around me talking about it. I am also considering getting a LAN Explorer pass as I'm going to need more flights in South America - am hoping to pop about between treks without wasting too much time - do you think this is better than just paying for flights as and when you need them? I'm guessing in Asia this will be easier to do with low-cost carriers like Air Asia (shortest miniskirts I've ever seen air-hostesses wear, heh).

One other question - would the BA Travel Shop in Mauritius be able to ticket my flight from UK to Mauritius? I checked online and it's substantially cheaper if you "claim" to be in Mauritius.

Thanks for all your help everyone..

You do realize that your routing cleverly avoids all the routes that offer the higher-quality F service and you only have 2 real F sectors (LHR-EZE and HKG-JNB). DONE5 would be almost the same travel experience as AONE5 as most of your flights either don't have F or have a stripped down F (CAI-LHR, SYD-NRT).
The lower country prices are typically only for travel originating there, and not for SOTO or SOTI. I doubt that you can use that cheaper MRU fare for travel LHR-MRU (but I haven't checked the fare).

SYD-NRT has F?

You are right, Number_6, but to be honest the route was more structured around where I would like to go in the world rather than maximising time in F. Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to the experience, but I guess to do the best F I'd basically have to be long-hauling it between carrier hub sites, and places like DFW aren't really my current focus :)

Plus if the prices in WearyBizTrvlr's spreadsheet are ballpark correct, there's hardly much point in shaving less than £500 off the fare to drop to J. Presumably taxes and surcharges are the same for either class too.

Here's hoping I have a nice snooze on LHR to EZE in proper F ;) And who knows, maybe one day BA will have upgraded their IFE so that I will have something better than a couple of battered old video cassettes to enjoy en route with my afternoon tea :D

If you are planning to do a AONE or DONE starting in Mauritius, don't get your hopes up until you can pin down the first segment. I, and at least 3 other FTers, have had problems booking the MRU-LHR. More than a month ago, I wanted to start via MRU in late October but could not book a single date and had to rearrange (several times) my travel plans. So you'll be lucky if you can start in late October, or early November, or... As a guide, check on Expert Flyer for A inventory on the dates you are considering but don't count on it-- BA-MRU doesn't seem to find availability even if it is showing on EF. While they are prompt in answering e-mails, it seems to take at least a week or more to see if a waitlist clears.

Thanks Reelchief. Expertflyer implies that there is no availability in any class on that day now, although I notice I now have a Mauritian trip in ManageMyBooking on the BA site.. I did tell TravelShop that I am very flexible with dates so hopefully something will come up.

RTW ex MRU
 

Hi Reelchief

Your RTW ex MRU sounds interesting. Would you be willing to share itinerary. I too like to travel in true F. Cannot beleive the availability displays sometime. Once spoke to BA LON re SYD-AKL sector in A on LA where A9 was showing. Despite this when I try to book two seats it put me automatically on the waitlist. Why show 9 when only 5 seats in the cabin anyway.

Regards

Colin

Issues with that LA service not being "visible" for booking apparently are different from BA's apparent regional-sales-restrictions for A seats. l tried to book AKL-SYD using Cathay res, and was waitlisted. Eventually I telephoned LAN res and the agent couldn't even pull up the flight on her screen. When I insisted that they actually flew an airplane through that airspace on a regular basis, and sold seats to people called "passengers", she eventually relented and asked a supervisor. But it took a full 30 minutes on the phone for her to find the flight and give us the A seats. No problem issuing the seats, once she knew how. So no wonder Cathay and BA computers can't do it.

(I never flew the hard-won segment - the FT people who know these things convinced me that Qantas D service on that segment was just as good, and would allow me to sleep in until a normal hour.)

No it doesn't!

Been long operated by Qantas 747-300s in a 2-class configuration (Dreamtime J and Economy). From tomorrow (Oct 2) all SYD-NRT-SYD and MEL-NRT-MEL services will be operated by Qantas' A330-300s featuring Skybed J seats and AVOD.

Regards

Colin, I'd be happy to list my itinerary but I won't start it until mid-October with the MRU-LHR hard-won flight. Until I actually get the ticket in my hand, I'm reluctant to post an itinerary that may not happen. If you remind me then, I'll gladly list my itinerary. As a precursor to that, I'll note that they do seem to accept flying through LHR on the way to and from MRU-- a matter that has been questioned in the past. Thus one can (apparently) do MRU-LHR-DXB-LHR at the beginning and HKG-LHR-MRU at the end (or vice versa) thus boosting both the real First segments as well as the mileage total.

Has anyone actually had luck ticketing this?

Hi Reelchief, I seem to have a confirmed First reservation from MRU back to LHR towards the end of October. Hasn't been priced yet, so I'm also feeling a bit vulnerable! Gimme my ticket!! Plus the tickets to get out there are horrendously busy, so I'm probably gonna take Emirates to get out there.