sc597

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!!

WhoME

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

Kiwi Flyer

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).

number_6

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).

headinclouds

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.

dsf

^ ^ ^ 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 ). 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!

sc597

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

Viajero

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

ReelChief

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.

milksheikh

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).

sc597

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"?

number_6

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.

Viajero

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.

sc597

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?

Viajero

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.