Any comments on this itinerary would be appreciated. This is for work travel so it's not optimised for distance/points - but still earns well by my standards.

Output from the validator is as follows:

1: MNL-SYD: intercontinental Stopover
2: SYD-PER: 1st of 4 (Southwest Pacific) Stopover
3: PER-DRW: 2nd of 4 (Southwest Pacific) Stopover
4: DRW-ADL: 3rd of 4 (Southwest Pacific) Stopover
Surface segment ADL-MEL
5: MEL-LHR: intercontinental Transit
6: LHR-DXB: 1st of 4 (Europe) Stopover
7: DXB-LHR: 2nd of 4 (Europe) Transit
8: LHR-MXP: 3rd of 4 (Europe) Stopover
9: MXP-LHR: 4th of 4 (Europe) Transit
10: LHR-LAX: intercontinental Stopover (side trip back to OZ)
11: LAX-ORD: 1st of 6 (North America)
12: ORD-MIA: 2nd of 6 (North America) Stopover
13: MIA-BOS: 3rd of 6 (North America) Stopover
14: BOS-DFW: 4th of 6 (North America)
15: DFW-LAX: 5th of 6 (North America) Stopover (side trip back to OZ)
16: LAX-JFK: 1st of 1 (North America Transcon) Stopover
*16: LAX-JFK: 6th of 6 (North America) Stopover
17: JFK-HKG: intercontinental
18: HKG-NRT: 1st of 4 (Asia) Stopover
19: NRT-HKG: 2nd of 4 (Asia)
20: HKG-MNL: 3rd of 4 (Asia)

Following some recent posts, the LHR taxes are quite high, but as I am only transitting will these be levied?

QF allowed me to put a booking into the system, and quoted AUD$700 taxes which seemed OK. I had expected more. First sector is dated - everything else is open dated at this stage.

Comments on ticketing/payment would also be appreciated. My understanding is that the itinerary is sent to QF's office in MNL, and I arrange payment to them, then I plan to pick up the ticket in person about 5 days prior to departure.

This is my first DONE4. I have read the oneworld posts for a few months now, but I'll bet there's something I have overlooked...

Seems fine. Open dated means you are not protected against schedule change, however your routing should not be affected by schedule changes. No LHR taxes for transit, it is only a stopover that now costs almost USD 200.

Are you sure of the details on that? Is the London tax definition the same as OW's? (i.e. 24 hours, not same calendar day) And what about LGW-LHR transits? And how on earth are taxes done on tickets issued as LON?

Best of luck to you dude!!
I know i couldn't do this route without a nice dose of dilaudid.
Other than that looks good

From the UK APD current rules.

APD doesnt vary between airports (except for those exempt), however PSC (Passenger Service Charge) does vary between airports (including between London airports) so not sure how assessed if ticketed as LON.

Thanks for that. And is PSC (which I think is about 20% of the total APD+PSC) exempt on transit as well?

The OP does not have a LGW-LHR transit; however, my understanding is that such a transit is governed by the same rules as a single airport (ie. no difference for a change of airport). The UK tax terms are actually determined by the UK government and not some other body (airline or airport). These are published at the UK govt web site (see below).
To summarise the connection rules -- by the UK govt and as applies to collecting the Air Passenger Duty:
a) intl-to-intl 24 hours -- zero APD due (exception: if the "connecting" flights are from the same country, they are not a connection!)

b)intl-to-UK domestic 6 hours -- zero APD due.

All other cases are always paying the APD, regardless of the conditions.

The interesting aspect of the rules: a connection must be on a single ticket, the departure airport, date and time is specified, and the arrival airport is specified. Not eligible for exemption from APD if this condition is not met (so your LON example would always pay the APD, as would open-dated tickets). This is in section 4.4 of the regulations.
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsP...cument#P17_828

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsP...cument#P17_828

PSC is always collected, as you are deemed to be making use of the airport facilities. The PSC goes directly into the airport coffers (BAA in the case of LHR/LGW).

Thanks for your good wishes tonerman. I had to google dilaudid to find out what it was, and rather intriguingly wikipedia told me that it refers either to "Hydromorphone, trade name Dilaudid�, a drug used to relieve pain" or to " Dilaudid EP, a download-only EP by The Mountain Goats".

The burning question is, to which of these did your comment refer? I haven't listened to the musical dilaudid, but it may in fact be more effective in treating pain and inducing slumber than the chemical type...

Just a thought .

Getting back to the topic, thanks everyone for the detailed discussion on taxes, and for the general scrutiny of the itinerary. I am a little surprised that I didn't make any glaring errors.

Naturally this DONE4 will be spread over the full 12 months, as there's a lot of flying (at least by my standards) contained therein.

Any suggestions as to how to most effectively carry out my side-trips back to OZ from LAX? (LAX-SYD) Buy an economy ticket and use points for an upgrade? I understand that using points for a J class seat may be next to impossible. Perhaps upgrades are too, although I should make QF platinum for one of the side-trips and that may influence may chances.

There used to be relatively cheap flights from OZ to USA via Asia - does that work in reverse?

Early last year there were some sales on QF (N/A web site) for LAX-MEL-LAX for about AUD1600 that suited me suspending my DONE4 in LAX from MAR - JUN. I thought about it one day too long and missed out. In the end I used 96,000 QFF points for WHY awards.

Luckily I ended up with a row of three seats to myself each way.

In retospect, the AUD1600 would have been the better option as I would have earned 90 SC's and over 31000 QFF points (as a QF WP, QF SG gets ~24000).

Until Jan 19th, you can book via the US QF web site LAX-SYD-LAX for travel in MAY/JUNE from about USD1167 (AUD1530) all in.

Just curiously what was the total cost (all in)?

- Brian

USD$6688 for the DONE4 ex MNL, and on the itinerary shown above there were AUD$700 in taxes. That takes it to a total of AUD$9271 or USD$7234 at an exchange rate of 0.7803