I'm checking out doing a DONE4 next year and would appreciate your sensibilities on my plan/assumptions. Pls don't do too much legwork on this-- I 've got a lot of homework to do for myself and much to firm up before I'm ready for the expert breakdown.

1. I am ex-CHI.

2. I want to do a DONE4. This would be my first, so I'll save AONE for another time.

3. Part of the justification is to make AA EXP.

4.Seems good pricing options are CMB, KHI, or NRT. CMB and KHI seem hard to get to. KHI might get me noticed by Homeland Security. I know Japan very well, but that's it in Asia. So NRT is fine but more expensive (but cheaper/easier to get to).
Q: Does purchasing in NRT limit the miles I travel in Asia given routing rules?

5. My goal is to do ASIA-NA-SA-EUR-ASIA in that order. Planes fly faster going east. I like being on planes (or maybe more that I like putting down miles in plans), but time off from work is looking tightish.

6. The plan would be to use (probably) an award to get to Asia, fly around Asia, come back to NA in a long weekend (or more). Then fly around NA on a long weekend. Then fly to SA for a short vacation. Then Europe back to Asia and home in another short vacation.
Q: Anyone have a short answer on the deal with open-return cash tickets on AA or OW carriers?

7. I'm hoping to get a lot of travel in on long weekends or vacation days attached to long weekends.
Q: Is this reasonable thinking?

8. A bit more specific then. I want to leave on a Friday (1/12) to go to Asia. NRT arrives on the next day. CMB and KIH arrives two days forward.
Q: Can I get xDONx ticketed on a Sunday?

9. Then I want to fly around Asia. That's a following question. But first-- I need to be back in NA in ACA the following Wednesday night (1/17). I'd slightly prefer to stop in Chicago to change bags and maybe take a shower, but it's only a slight preference.
Q: Am I nuts? Can I max or close to max my Asia flying in that time such to depart Asia to arrive back in Chicago on 1/17 or to go straight to ACA on 1/17?

10. So I'm going to ACA. It would save me money or miles to make this part of my xONEx.
Q: Should I use some of my NA segments to do this? (It's allowed, right?)
Q: Am I better off not returning to Chicago until I absolutely have to? Thus go Asia-ACA-CHI-rest for a while?

11. So in between I want to fly around Asia as much as I can, racking up as many qpoints as possible and spending as many sleeping hours on airplanes as I can. I don't need to spend a ton of time anywhere-- it'll all be new to me ex-Japan. This section would be tour by air basically. If I get nights in a city, long stops, etc. that's fine too, even if they are at 2am local time.
Q: Where should I start?
Q: What routes should I be looking at to get the max?


Ok. That's more than I thought. Thanks for any info or for pointing me in the right direction. I know I need to go read the rules closely and I'll get on that. As a starting point I'd feel better knowing that what I'm conceiving is possible or reasonable.

Thanks!

It's doable, with an overnight stop in CHI thrown in.

As for the rest, it is also doable, but be aware that if you stopover in NA after Asia you cannot stopover again in NA after SA.

Three thoughts come to mind. First, it's probably doable; as far as collecting the tickets at NRT I can't speak re Sundays, but it ought to be possible for you to have them held at the AA or CX desks there.

Second, almost everything intra-Asia from NRT goes through HKG, so you're really asking about longish-haul options from HKG in a short time frame. One possibility might be NRT-HKG-BOM-HKG, with a turnaround (wee hours) at BOM, returning to HKG in time to connect to a CX flight to LAX (this would be the 15th departing BOM & HKG and arriving LAX.) Many hours in tubes. BOM is one of the longer segments from HKG (stops at BKK but same flight no. so one coupon.) That would give you two days to get to ORD and then ACA. Whether that's a good use of your coupons is your call.

However the third thought is that before you're likely to finish your RTW, JAL may well be in the alliance and bookable on OWEs, so a re-issue might increase your mileage yield substantially, since JAL has several very long intra-Asia segments (NRT- DEL/DPS/SIN for example.) That might be my first choice - go to NRT, pick up your ticket, fly straight back to ORD, and save the Asia segments for later, when they might go farther due to JAL's joining. Easier on the system, too - no need to worry about resetting your clock.

Past posts on this subject indicate that conditions, including ellegible airlines, are set at first issue (do not change on re-issue). If so, JAL would not be an option.

Thanks for the good advice and info everyone. I had not thought about the no stopover twice part. Ergh. That may require me to rethink splitting the trip into 3 parts. Or maybe I can insert a cash/award ticket in somewhere to get home, though that will require more advanc planning.

One more general question then:
If I'm going to insert a cash or award ticket in here to get myself the extra stopover at home, am I better to do it ex-Asia or ex-SA?

Scenario 1: Open jaw myself to Asia, get ticket, start xONEx, fly around Asia, take end leg of open jaw home to NA. At some future date fly to Asia open return or something, take transcon to SA via NA no stop, fly around SA, fly to NA and stop. Then last leg Europe/Asia and home on back leg of open return. End.

Scenario 2: Open return myself to Asia. Get ticket, start xONEx, fly around Asia, take transcon home. Stop in NA. At some future date fly around NA. At some yet future date fly to SA. Fly around SA. Then get myself an open return SA to NA to get home. Future date take the return leg to SA, then transcon to EUR via NA. On to Asia. And home on the back leg.


Oy. I think I would prefer #2 b/c it would let me use flight coupons to get to and from ACA for a vacation, or buy extra flight coupons to do so (ORD-ACA looking in the $350-$600 range right now). I'm assuming that is a smart/economical way to go-- more research to do there.

Thoughts?

Many thanks...

Thanks - I found the post where this was discussed. Shucks.

ayamaguc, Sure option 2 will work if you want to split up the RTW into several smaller chunks.

RT tickets with the return portion months after the outbound tend to be quite pricey, sometimes even in the realm of two one-ways, so if you exercise any scenario where you're breaking the RTW and using paid tickets to get home for a time, just be careful that you're not getting whacked on the paid tickets.