new to xone4. Help!!
 

i've spent a couple of hours trawling through past posts here and I feel much more confident about the explorer.
But its still quite tricky. I would be grateful for any advice.
I want to go to New Zealand for a month next christmas ( 2007).
I want to fly in first or club. And there's me and my wife and two children ( +2, -11 )
My route ( from the one world site ) looks to be LHR - HKG - AKL - PPT - PPT - LAX - LHR.
I'd appreciate any comments/suggestions about:-
i. Routing;
ii. Best country to start;
iii. How to achieve what I want with the least cost!!
Many thanks in advance.
Dominic

On a one world explorer, Tahiti is only accessed through SCL and requires a surface segment since Tahiti is in south pacific and SCL is in south america (thus SCL-PPT-SCL is backtracking).

There is a QF codeshare on Air Tahiti Nui SYD-PPT but that is not allowed on one world explorer (but is on global explorer).

No one world first class service to NZ, except for LAN SCL-AKL-SYD. Subject to other constraints you could fly first to Australia and business for the 3 hour flight trans-tasman.

Simple Return
 

If least cost is the main criteria a simple return on Air NZ, Qantas, Singapore or Emirates or other airline may be less than a DONE4 or AONE4. Note Christmas is peak time to Aust & NZ with very high demand for seats. Getting 4 x DONE4 or AONE4 on the same flight will be hard.

I am including SWP between Asia and USA as follows on an AONE5.

NRT - PER - BNE - MEL -> surface to SYD - SYD - AKL - SYD - JFK

Is the LAN flight the only F class in this region ?

QF has F SYD-LAX/JFK & SYD/MEL-LHR.

And SYD-SFO/YVR (seasonal). And CX has F between HKG and SYD/MEL. And BA/QF from SIN/BKK to SYD/MEL.

As posted above, it is New Zealand that has limited F service, not SWP

Unfortunately on xONEx tickets, PPT is a dead end, and you can only get there from SCL. If you are only interested in visiting NZ then a return LHR-xHKG-AKL (in J) or LHR-xSYD-AKL (in F to SYD) would most likely be the cheapest. If not, some options are:

1. Do your routing as above, but on an xGLOB34 ticket. Pricing for the D and A products are roughly the same as for an xONE4, which makes it good value if you have some more inaccessible places like PPT in mind for your trip. This ticket gives you 34,000 miles to play with; since LHR-HKG-AKL-PPT-LAX-LHR comes in at just under 24,000 miles you could very easily add an additional European/Middle East trip to your ticket later in the year for just the cost of the taxes. Perhaps a long weekend in Dubai for you and your wife? (see caveat below)
2. If you are still keen on the xONEx idea, the only way to do something similar would be to go via South America. Something like LHR-HKG-AKL-xSCL-IPC-xSCL-LAX-LHR would work, although it is a long way round and would cost more than the xGLOB34 .. and of course you can only get to IPC, not PPT.

If you are not fussed about the idea of an additional European side trip then LHR is probably as good a place as any to start. If you are, you would be unable to start from LHR because of fare rules which only allow you to re-enter your country of origin once. Starting in FRA would allow, for example, FRA-HKG-AKL-PPT-LAX-LHR-DXB-LHR-FRA on an xGLOB34.

thanks for the responses. The route is not set in stone part from getting to NZ. PPT is I have now realised not an option as we definately do not want to back track ( well my wife doesn't ).
The problem I have encountered is that you can't get any info from airline websites for travel +12months!
I think I may need professional help with this. Do you agree?
Its me and not a company picking up the tab so I want to make sure I get what I want in the most efficient way.
If any travel agent is out there please feel free to pm me. ( am I allowed to do that?)
Thanks anyway guys
Dom

airline schedules aren't published more than 12 months out (and can change much earlier than that of course) so going via TA won't provide any extra info

But you can make educated guesses. Airlines don't like major changes to profitable routes unless there is a specific need. So if for example your flights are 14 months away, you can get an idea of the schedule by looking 2 months out (ie 1 year earlier). It isnt foolproof, particularly around major events where extra flights may be scheduled, and worth checking (eg by reading/posting on FT) if the route is being dropped or new route starting that may help you. Most of the time it works well.