LONE5 Itenerary: Thoughts, suggestions?
 

ex-MRU
MRU-JNB-VFA-(x)JNB-LHR-DOH,CAI-MAD-(x)SCL-IPC-SCL-AKL-SYD-CNS-NRT-HKG-PEK,DEL-HKG-JNB-MRU

It checks as valid on Mileage Monkey and on OneWorld's desktop tool. It has 20 sectors (which as far as I can tell is used interchangeably with segments by them) and 51,000 miles. Obviously, I can't go everywhere on one trip anyway, but maybe someone has a better idea for what I'm trying to do? I want to start from MRU to save money (although maybe it's not worth it since I'm flying economy? I live in USA by the way). I'd like to go to Easter Island, Qatar, Thailand, Beijing, Hong Kong, Toyko, Singapore, New Zealand, Cairns, Sydney and of course Eurorail once I get somewhere in Europe. (I'm still young enough to get youth pricing! yeahh)

Victoria Falls, Cairo, are not essential but they seem to fit well. Johannesburg and London and Santiago seem to be unavoidable. I ran out of segments so I decided I can provide my own travel arrangements from Beijing to the other parts of Asia that didn't fit in the RTW. Perhaps I can land travel down through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand all the may down to Malaysia and Singapore, then fly from either Singapore or BKK to Delhi and see the Taj Mahal where I pick back up on the RTW. Does that sound feasible? I read somewhere that Beijing to Hanoi and Bankgok to Singapore are popular areas for surface travel.

This is my first international trip (yikes) and the number of both options and restrictions are overwhelming! First I had to prioritize where I wanted to go and second I had to figure out how to get there. I ran into so many speed bumps with the itenerary though that I wonder if I should look more closely at the *A 39k. Please don't scold me for at least wondering about it!

Please let me know what you think of my proposed itenerary and whether or not what I'm trying to do is better suited with *A! Thanks!

Welcome to FT. I would suggest starting from the UK instead of MRU since LONEx fares are usually the cheapest country. Not worth the hassle factor to begin from MRU (unless you want to go there) for an economy class ticket.

LHR-DOH,CAI-MAD-(x)SCL-IPC-SCL-AKL-SYD-CNS-NRT-HKG-PEK,DEL-HKG-JNB-VFA-JNB is only 15 FLIGHT segments giving you 5 more to use. Perhaps in Asia or Africa.

Thank you! I'm glad to be here. There's so much useful information here. I hope to contribute what I can. Your itenerary sounds like a good option. I didn't even notice how close the UK's basic prices are to MRU for economy. Wow. It appears that January through March is BASIC season for the UK which would work out great for me. Am I right? Can someone point me to this "star file" that I've read about (but can't seem to find) that says what the peak and basic seasons are for each country?

Out of curiousity, has anyone ever done the Asian surface segments I described in my first post? Did you enjoy it?

Lastly: New Zealand, Australia, and Sri Lanka all seem to be cheap starting points according to WearyBizTraveler's spreadsheet but no one seems to talk about them anymore. Have the currency exchange rates changed such that neither of these are good choices anymore?

Here are the HIGH season dates; all others are low season: The link to usermark's star file site was down when I just looked; the above is from Expert Flyer - paid service.

The Oz/NZ "L" fares are used extensively by Antipodean folk; for North American or European travelers, the UK seems to be more accessible for RTWs.

Don't forget limitations on stopovers in continent of origin, and very importantly for UK origins, NO transfers through the UK - you can only leave the UK once on an itinerary.

Welcome to FT!

Gardyloo,
Thanks for your information and reminders.

headinclouds,
with that in mind the LHR-DOH,CAI-MAD-(x)SCL-IPC-SCL-AKL-SYD-CNS-NRT-HKG-PEK,DEL-HKG-JNB-VFA-JNB itenerary doesn't work; violates rules for more than 2 flights in origin region. But thanks for the idea. I could change the order of the European/Middle East stuff to make it fit but I'm trying to avoid the wintertime in Europe. Hmmm...

Not sure what error you are referring to. I guess that it is the 2 stopovers in continent of origin. You have a stopover in Europe/ME at DOH and at MAD. The open jaw between DOH and CAI is sometimes construed as 2 stopovers, one at each end when it is just 1 stopover. I believe that is the intrepretation of the 2 stopover rule, but could be wrong. I don't trust the OW and mileage monkey error warnings in these cases.

Oops. Must add a JNB-LHR segment to your trip, so you have only 4 extra segements to use

You're allowed 4 flights in Europe (continent of origin) and two stopovers. LHR-DOH//CAI-MAD would be two stopovers only if you spend more than 24h in MAD before going on to South America, otherwise one. Openjaws are irrelevant to the stopover count in the OWE (different in the GlobEx and most award situations.)

I was under the impression from the error in the OneWorld desktop tool that not only are only 2 stopovers allowed, but also only 3 segments are allowed for the origin region and that surface travel counts as a segment. Please direct me to the authoritative answer on this.

If that's the case then the Mileage Monkey is accurate, whereas the OneWorld desktop tool is not. Can't say I'm all that surprised, just a little skeptical before I leap for joy and resume planning. Of course, you guys have a combined total of over 3500 posts in this forum and you're both telling me essentially the same thing regarding this issue, so that's pretty convincing. I wish there was something in writing about it on the OneWorld website.

The Oneworld tool is a hunkajunk. More bugs than a Finnish campground in August.

LOL

I fully agree, but there are posts here reporting instances of openjaws in the continent of origin been considered two stopovers. IIRC one going through HKG, another going through Spain, possibly more.

Here are three possible iteneraries. The first one is a LONE5, the second two are LONE4 which skips South Africa to save money.

LHR-DOH,CAI-MAD-RIO-SCL-IPC-SCL-AKL-SYD-CNS-PER-NRT-TPE-HKG-PEK,DEL-HKG-JNB-VFA-JNB-CPT-LHR
LHR-DOH,CAI-MAD-ACE-MAD-RIO-SAO-SCL-IPC-SCL-AKL-ZQN-SYD-CNS-PER-NRT-TPE-HKG-PEK,DEL-HKG-LHR
LHR-DOH,CAI-MAD-ACE-HEL-NRT-TPE-HKG-PEK,DEL-HKG-PER-CNS-SYD-ZQN-AKL-SCL-IPC-SCL-RIO-SAO-LHR

Let me know what you think! I'll try to book one of these soon and let you know how it goes (especially since the open jaw thing is somewhat iffy). By the way, both Mileage Monkey and the oneWorld desktop tool state that there is no oneWorld service between the Canary Islands (ACE) and Helsinki but I found some nonstop flights. Any thoughts on this?

Those are AY charters and not scheduled flights. You cannot book them other than as a charter (so not usable on OWE/GE/etc.). Be thankful, they are awful (extra tight seat pitch).

Good luck getting SCL-AKL availability, it used to be hard to get (but LA is up to 4 flights/week now, which should greatly increase availability). If you cannot get SCL-AKL, you might try SCL-SYD (often that is available when SCL-AKL is not; obviously it is the same plane, but LA wants the through traffic). Also sometimes QF codeshare has inventory when LA does not!

Actually it is now 6 flights a week.