Do regular OWers find uses for *A-RTW?
 

In breaking up an AONE5 ex-MRU ticket (“parking” it in Asia), to get back home I have considered buying a new DONE3 from NRT but am currently leaning toward a STAR1 ticket. With the 29,000 allowable miles (pathetic I know), I can get back to North America and then on to Europe before returning to Asia to resume the AONE5. I see two advantages in the *A ticket. First, I would be able to fly a number of short segments (e.g. 8 or so segments under 1000 miles each) to see places in Europe that either are inaccessible with OW or uneconomic (i.e., a waste of one of the 4 allowed segments). Secondly, it would allow an opportunity to sample SQ business class (with about half of the allowable miles). Comments?

Yup. There are some situations xONEx is better and some where xRWSTARx is. When you consider the rule differences it isnt too hard to think of some examples.

Most mileage flown - xONEx
Surface segments - xONEx (count towards mileage limit on xRWSTARx)
Most flight segments - xRWSTARx
Backtracking between continents - xRWSTARx
Lots of flights on a continent - xRWSTARx
Specific places to go - depends, some better served by OW, some by *A
Multiple trans-continental flights - xRWSTARx
Less non-fuel surcharges for specific flights - xONEx
More non-alliance codeshares - xRWSTARx
etc

SQ J is similar to CX J, but not quite as good (they really focus on their F product). The new J refit on SQ will dramatically improve the J quality, but maybe 10% of the fleet will have that in 2007. Same for CX. The route network in Europe is a lot more convenient, so that is a good reason. But the GE rules are fairly close to the xRWSTARx rules, so it really comes down to city pairs you want to route, in deciding between OW and *A. There are lots of times that *A is a better choice.

A CRWSTAR1 or FRWSTAR1 would also be good for gaining status on a *A airline. There are quite a few programs which will let you get *G with just one CRWSTAR1 if you plan it right.

Reminds me - YRWSTARx books into higher booking classes than LONEx which is very useful.

Then there is the UA/EK RTW fare. Perfect for the next trip that has us going from BKK to FCO to IAD, SFO, SYD and a trip back up to BKK to buy the next xONEx fare (or even *A RTW!).