I'm looking for help with a *ONE5. My desired stops are SYD - AKL - BKK - SGN (actually wanted HAN but they said it wasn't possible) - TPE - ATH - MAD - NBO - SFO - SYD.

The actual routing I got from calling the AA RTW Desk is below (bold represents cities where I am stopping for 24+ hours; non-bold representing cities I have to fly through to get to the bold cities):

1. SYD - AKL (1 of 4: SWP)
2. AKL - HKG (intercontinental)
3. HKG - BKK (1 of 4: Asia)
4. BKK - HKG (2 of 4: Asia)
5. HKG - SGN (3 of 4: Asia)
6. SGN - HKG (4 of 4: Asia)
7. HKG - TPE (extra segment: Asia)
8. TPE - HKG (extra segment: Asia)
9. HKG - LHR (intercontinental)
10. LHR - ATH (1 of 4: Europe)
11. ATH - MAD (2 of 4: Europe)
12. MAD - LHR (3 of 4: Europe)
13. LHR - NBO (intercontinental)
14. NBO - LHR (intercontinental)
15. LHR - LAX (intercontinental)
16. LAX - SFO (1 of 6: N. America)
17. SFO - SYD (intercontinental)

So, my questions are:

1) Is there a better order for my itinerary? Any way to avoid so many stops (i.e. HKG and LHR)? Also, by switching the order around in Asia, is there any way I can avoid the two extra segments? They are costing $150 USD apiece.

2) I actually live in SFO, but want to purchase my tix in SYD for the savings. I have a friend there who can help me, but what does it mean to "purchase my tickets in Australia?" Does that just mean that my tickets have to be mailed to an address in Australia? Or does the credit card billing address have to be in Australia? Or both?

3) If my friend in SYD ends up purchasing the tix on his credit card (and then I pay him back), would I still be able to take out travel insurance on the tickets?

Thanks for any advice. I was searching endlessly on the web for RTW ticket advice and this forum is a gold mine!

Welcome to Flyer Talk 20schwarz

1) Not easy avoiding HKG intra-asia or LHR intra-europe, especially for the places you want to visit. I you (re)ticket once JL joins then some different routing options open up within asia, but still would be 6 segments. The only way to get it down to 4 would be to purchase a separate ticket (eg BKK-HAN-SGN) - not sure if that will be cheaper or not than the surcharge (probably if you fly economy).

2) You need to ticket with an australian-based TA, or with a OW airline's australian ticket office. Up to the TA whether or not they are willing to mail tickets to you in SFO. If you want to reduce costs further you could buy it from AKL (rearrange the order AKL-SYD-BKK saving one asian sector and finish with SFO-SYD-AKL or SFO-LAX-AKL).

You can tell this was set up by AA - why not do LHR-SFO on BA instead of LHR-xLAX-SFO?

You could get a separate HKG-BKK-HKG ticket for a lot less that US$300+taxes (probably under $200 if you take Orient Thai or someone).

You would still have 4 free segments to use in Africa or NA - perhaps two round trips from SFO to somewhere.

Good point about HKG-BKK-HKG. That would leave 5 of your 20 segments still.

e.g. Use the 3 SWP sectors you have left, eg Do -SYD-PER-ADL-SYD.

Perhaps 20schwarz wants to credit the flights to an AAdvantage account. That rules out BA from LHR-SFO.

Or maybe s/he wants to use an eVIP or upgrade with AAdvantage miles from LHR to LAX.

You can do surface sectors.
One method of avoiding the two extra segments is to buy a cheap one way BKK-SGN or BKK-Hanoi-SGN. So for the RTW BKK-SGN would be surface.
You then have only 15 segments and you could add a few more flights - Alaska or Puerto Rico in the US.
You could also do HKG-FRA, then buy an inexpensive Spanair ticket to MAD - which leaves you two sectors for Dubai.

Thanks for all the help thus far! In response to some of the comments/questions:

- My understanding of the rules is that even if I were to do BKK-(HAN)-SGN overland, that would still count as a segment. Did I misread that somewhere? Even still, I guess doing BKK-SGN overland would bring me down to only one extra segment. Otherwise, a cheap HKG-BKK-HKG seems like a good way to avoid the extra segments altogether.

By the way, in case anyone is wondering, there is an AKL-xSYD-BKK flight, but I was told I couldn't return to my point of origin (i.e. SYD).

- Yes, I'm doing LHR-xLAX-SFO on AA for the AAdvantage credit.

- I appreciate the additional ideas for maximizing my 20 segment allowance!

- I called the AA RTW Desk again today to inquire about "purchasing tickets in Australia" and was told that both the credit card billing address and physical mailing address for paper tickets have to be in Australia. I appreciate the suggestion to start in AKL rather than SYD (I would actually prefer to do this as it might fix some of my routing issues), but unfortunately I don't have any friends on the ground in NZ who can help me.

Well, strictly you can return to your point of origin, but once you have re-entered your country of origin you can't leave it again.
Well for maximum miles wouldn't you be better off doing LHR-MEX-ORD-SFO or something?[/quote]The above plus two roundtrips to anywhere in North America.
This is just plain wrong (and quite surprising from the AA RTW desk, who are usually pretty good). The tickets just have to be bought from an entity in Australia. I have bought many AONE3s from Egypt, France, Taiwan, and (imminently) Qatar using a HK-based credit card and having tickets either e-ticketed or pick-up at the airport on departure.

Surface segments do not count towards your flight counts and limits. They do however count both cities as having a stopover (although only 1 stopover to the stopover tally).

Re returning to point of origin. Not quite - you aren't allowed to leave country of origin more than once. You are however allowed to travel around Australia once you return at the end (subject to 4 SWP flights, 2 stopovers in continent of origin, and restrictions on PER/DRW/BME flights). Starting in AKL would solve the problem anyway.

Hmmmm... looks like I should try calling back tomorrow to see if I get a different agent! The only I talked to today was adamant that I would either have to pay with a credit card with an AU billing address OR physically show up with cash at an AU ticket counter.

By the way, I would be getting paper tickets as I was told if I have 17+ segments, I can't do e-tickets (unless she was wrong about that too? quite possible).

More than 16 segments does generally mean paper tickets, yes. So that means finding a way of getting them mailed, or arranging a pickup at the departure airport (I have done the latter many times at CAI, once at TPE and once at CDG without any problems).

The alternative - particularly if you know you are going to need to reroute later anyway - is to issue a much simpler ticket to get you through the first few segments and then reissue somewhere convenient later. That way you can normally get e-tickets both times if that is what you want. You would also need to split the reservation so that you keep the later flights that don't have a corresponding ticket coupon at the first issue (but there should be no problem doing this since reservations & ticketing are separate things).

Not totally wrong. AA (US) can only accept credit cards/billing addresses from certain countries over the phone. If I call AA (US) from MAD to purchase a ticket they take all my details, and process the booking without a problem, but right at the end, when the time comes for taking my Spanish credit card, they transfer the call to a European (Dublin) agent, who then enters the card number in the system and finalizes the transaction. Sounds pretty weird, but that's the way it is. There used to be a time when the US could do the lot, credit card included, but not now.

For an xONEx originating outside North America? You do surprise me...

I didn't go through with it at the time, so I cannot confirm it from personal experience, but if memory serves this was allowed (for AA elites only IIRC) during a brief period of a few months in early 2005.

I'm about to lose my mind...

Can anyone recommend a travel agent in AU (preferably SYD) or give me a phone number for a helpful/knowledgable OW airline desk in AU? I'm still seeking help with purchasing a xONE5 at the AU fare using a US credit card.

I found the number for the AA ticket sales center in AU (1 800 673 486), but I can't dial it from the US. Neither AA in the US nor QF in AU were able to give me a phone number for an AA ticket office in AU that I could dial from outside AU.

So, I tried calling QF's AU number (+61 2 9691 3636) instead...

Agent #1 said that because I am located in the US, I have to pay the US fare, regardless of the fact that I am starting/ending in SYD.

I hung up and called back to get a different agent...

Agent #2 said that there were "governmental restrictions" that prevented me from purchasing a ticket at AU fare if I am located in the US, and said that the only way to do it was "on the internet."

Once again, I hung up and called back to get a different agent...

Agent #3 - Said that she would not be able to look up my itinerary because I have an AA record locator number. She recommended that I call QF in the US and build my itinerary all over again and then call her back. (Even though I sensed it would be a dead end, I did call QF in the US... just for kicks. After explaining my situation, they told me they couldn't help me but to try calling back "after hours" because I would then be transferred over to the call center in AU. Of course, I explained that I had just called QF in AU and that they had told me to call QF in the US...).

At this point, I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone... can anyone give me another phone number to try, whether a travel agent or OW airline desk in AU?

By the way, for those that care, this is the current state of my itinerary:

1. SYD - AKL (1 of 4: SWP)
2. AKL - CHC (2 of 4: SWP)
3. CHC - AKL (3 of 4: SWP)
4. AKL - xHKG (intercontinental)
5. xHKG - BKK (1 of 4: Asia)
*. BKK - SGN (overland)
6. SGN - xHKG (2 of 4: Asia)
7. xHKG - TPE (3 of 4: Asia)
8. TPE - xHKG (4 of 4: Asia)
9. xHKG - LHR (intercontinental)
10. LHR - ATH (1 of 4: Europe)
11. ATH - MAD (2 of 4: Europe)
12. MAD - TGL (3 of 4: Europe)
13. TGL - xLHR (4 of 4: Europe)
14. xLHR - NBO (intercontinental)
15. NBO - xLHR (intercontinental)
16. xLHR - JFK (intercontinental)
17. JFK- SFO (1 of 6: N. America)
18. SFO - undecided (2 of 6: N. America)
19. undecided - SFO (3 of 6: N. America)
20. SFO - SYD (intercontinental)