Do 6 continent OWE trips make sense?
 

The common wisdom on this forum seems to be that 6 continent OWEs are a waste because without the 20 segment constraint you could fly 32 segments, so in effect you are leaving 12 (6+5*4+1*6) segments on the table when the 20 segment constraint is imposed. (For the same reason, 5 continent trips may seem wasteful (but not as much so) in that 7 segments cannot be used.)

I’d like to challenge this thinking. A recent posting by Bobie about a plan for an AONE6 caused me to re-evaluate possible advantages of 6 continent trips.

The important consideration should be what you get, not what is foregone. With a 6 continent trip you have the possibility for a greater trip length, more long haul segments, more segments with true first class, and obviously a base in every continent to buy separate short-haul tickets to interesting destinations.

Consider the following example of typical 3,4, 5, and 6 continent trips (using good but not necessarily maximum segments). First, just the intercontinental segments:
3 continent (EU,NA,AS): LHR-LAX, JFK-HKG-LHR: 19517 miles
4 continent (adding AF): LHR-LAX, JFK-HKG-JNB-LHR: 25775 miles
5 continent (adding SW): LHR-LA,JFK-SYD-HKG-JNB-LHR: 32236 miles
6 continent (adding SA): LHR-LAX-SCL-JFK-SYD-HKG-JNB-LHR: 42932 miles

Thus note that considering just the intercontinental segments, 6 continent trips can be more that twice as long. Now let’s add to each type of trip, good long haul intra-continental segments. For the three base continents, that could be LHR-DXB-LHR, DFW-ANC-DFW, and HKG-DEL-HKG. This brings the total miles to 37823, 44081, 50545 and 61238, respectively. Suppose the rest of the segments are filled out by intra-continental trips of 1200 miles each.

Then the overall total miles are: 47423 for 3 continents, 56081 for 4 continents, 61345 for 5 continents and 69638 for 6 continents. (Note that the number of segments is 20 for the 4, 5, and 6 continent trips but only 17 (3+2*4+1*6) for the 3 continent trip). Using different assumptions about flights included could change these figures but presumably not to the disadvantage of the 6 continent trip.

To calculate cost per mile, I used current D class fares (pre tax) from CMB and find that the fares for all 4 types of trips are approximately US$.10 plus or minus less than a third of a cent). So 6 continent fares are not wasteful in this sense. Using fares from other origins could change this conclusion so you would need to check it for the origin you are considering (and with taxes included).

Note also that for FF programs (such as BAEC) that reward long haul relatively more, the 6 continent trip has an average length of 3482 miles with 13 of 20 segments being long haul (>2000 miles) while the seemingly efficient 4 continent trip has an average length of 2804 with only 10 of 20 long haul segments.

Hence, my overall conclusion is that 6 continent trips are not necessarily inefficient and are worth considering.

It looks like Africa is the 'bad' continent.
When adding Australia or South Am you add two long flights for each of the continents.
When adding Africa you add only one long flight.
So a 5 continent trip (without Africa) would give you (using your examples) around 37000 miles - and would likely ending up as the best 'value'.

If you want to rack up miles then you want to maximise the number of intra-continent legs. You can do this by adding continents. You can also do this by taking advantage of transit rules.

E.g. I believe you can do this: ??->EU->Africa->EU->?? as long as one of the two EUs is a transit. Likewise US->South America->US (which is what all my ONE4s have done).

That's an impressive analysis.

With LAN's elimination of F between the US and South America, I no longer find South America to be a good addition on AONEx tickets.

Only if the transit is to or from ACC, LOS, ABV, NBO, EBB, or DAR.

Funny thing is, even though you're 100% right, I actually went out of my way to ticket LA on SCL-JFK on the ex-MRU AONE6 that I'm ticketing today, as countersensical as that would be to most (if not all.) Just wanted to try their new J and I always enjoy flying LA (did almost 50K on them last year.)

And, of course, soon enough on future tickets you'll be able to fly JL to/from South America.

I also chose LHR-YVR (BA) -YVR-JFK (CX) as opposed to LHR-LAX-JFK (AA) -- so I do care about quality :eek: :)

2 substitutions on LAN flights with old config
 

Taking this OT for a moment....

We've just returned from Argentina, flying LAN. We were to have the new config on both outbound and return. We ended up with old planes both directions.

1) LAX-SCL - plane we should have been on landed in San Diego, due to fog at LAX. Plane was being ferried up too late for our flight. A LAN Peru plane was substituted, with the old config. We were in row 2, and looked enviously at those in row 1.

2) SCL-LAX - sat at gate, watched FAs and pilots board. Watched FAs and pilots return to terminal. There was a door on the plane that they couldn't close. Ultimately left at 3am, instead of 10:30pm, on a different plane and with a completely different crew. This plane was also an old config. Fortunately, we had seats assigned in row 1.

The moral of my story is to get row 1 seats on LAN because you just never know.

Excellent cautionary advice-- thanks very much!

And, thanks to all here who both directly (and, mostly, indirectly) helped me get my ex-MRU ticket issued. The info and members in this particular forum are unbelievable. ^^

At the SCL lounge NOW waiting for SCL-LIM-JFK as part of a DONE5. Aircraft swapped from New Premium Business to 3-class plane so we came to the airport early (we thought 4 hours was early... 4/5 seats were open right before we left the hotel) to find out that they only had one seat in row one (we could not get any in advance) and they could not give the one seat to either one of us. By the time we got to the lounge, they were all taken. I asked the agent to check to see if we could at least get row 1 LIM-JFK. She pulls the seat map and says no, when I could see that 1AC was available. I got on my PC right away and ExpertFlyer showed 1AC available as well, so I went back to complain. There was a Premium Services agent there and she said she could NOT assign seats on LIM-JFK, but that she would block them and send a message to Premium Services in Lima to give them to us.

I don't really think it will happen, but I guess we'll see...

We did get to try the seats SCL-IPC and they were NICE. The TV screen was bigger than my 14" laptop! On the way back we got the old 2-class planes (not that nice) and it's very disappointing that they wouldn't give SCL-JFK preference over other less premium routes.

Uh-oh.
I don't wanna' trot out the tired old list of mutually exclusive words/ famous oxymorons-- but having dealt with LA in Lima-- I'd definietly throw that one on the top of the list..

Best of luck and hope it works out for ya'. Safe flights, etc.

Could not agree more. I got incredibly frustrated with LIM staff and finally gave up asking for anything "reasonable". :rolleyes:

The really important consideration should be what you want! Few people do a xONEx as a pure mileage run where cost per mile is king, so for me at least the fact that I've got bugger all interest in visiting Africa makes an xONEx a bit of a stupid proposition.

On FT at least, people look to stretch the miles - but it still tends to tie in with wanting to go to certain places/regions. If you are trying to tie in an xONEx with maximum miles the problem is that options become rather more limited - start going where you want and the miles drop considerably.

The very reason why I don't even look at a "6".

Well, I kept my expectations low, and they came through! The flight purser had flown my previous SCL-IPC flight and she was very nice and attentive, so I talked to her about our situation. When we arrived in Lima, she went out of the plane and came back a few minutes later with boarding passes for 1A and 1C!

Very happy to hear it!

On the original topic; another factor (besides a love of South Africa which I certainly have and many certainly share,) is, if that region will perpetually have cheap(er) or cheapish origination fares for these tickets. No reason to think/assume so-- although there is some history to it (MRU now, S. Africa previously, other places in Africa at various times, etc.)

If (and that's a big IF) that is the case, then having a ticket that takes you right back to that place (or anywhere in Africa) saves you considerably on your next AONE6.