In this the xONEx validator is incorrect; the MEL/PER trans con rule changed in August '05.

These days you can only have 1 PER/BME-SYD/BNE/CNS/MEL segment.

SYD-PER-CNB-MEL-AKL-SYD is not good as you are limited to 4 SWP segments and that's Five! You can purchase more (from USD150) but it's less expensive to do this: Book -SYD,CBR-PER-MEL-AKL-SYD- and a separate fare on a one class SYD-CBR flight from AUD111.

Again, if you are into Tier Points, look closely as ADL-AKL for an additional 80 ...

So you're saying I should do this:

MRU-LHR-AUH-MCT-AUH-LHR-MIA-JFK-YVR-DFW-LAS//LAX-ORD-HNL-SYD//CBR-PER-MEL-AKL-SYD-JNB-MRU OR Vice-Versa

Making my own way from LAS to LAX and from SYD to CBR or Vice-Versa.

You can have as many stopovers as you have segments. The only stopover restriction is two in your continent of origin.
I believe you cannot avoid travelling Europe on an xONEx; even if doing ORD/DEL.
Some say AAdvantage is one of the more rewarding oneWORLD frequent Flyer Schemes.

Addressing the questions I can:

1) Then the validator must have a bug. The rule is:
3) Outside the continent of origin (Africa in this case) you can stopover for as long as you want at any point, up to the 12 month validity of the ticket. In the continent of origin you can only have two stopovers, but on your routing that's fine.

4) You can't do a xONEn without including Europe (or at least, without paying for it - you can avoid landing there if you take the AA ORD-DEL flight which is deemed to be transatlantic).

To Clarify, a routing that uses these ORD/DEL flights will be at least an XONE3 unless it touches SA or SWP in which case a minimum xONE4 pricing will apply.

e.g. ORD-DEL-HKG-LAX will be charged as an xONE3 even though only NA & Asia are travelled and ORD-DEL-HKG-SYD-LAX will be an xONE4.

"ORD-DEL-HKG-SYD-LAX will be an xONE4"

Being pedantic, that's not what the rule says. It's ex-North America so the rule says minimum 3 continents, and only 3 continents are touched. I don't see any rule that says this is 4 continents - to the letter of the rules it's an xONE3.

On the other hand, SYD-LAX-ORD-DEL-HKG-SYD would, to the letter of the rules, be an xONE4.

I suspect that's not what they intend, but that is, pretty clearly in my mind, what the rules say.

Fair enough; it's the first time I've really had a close look at that rule and the way it is written and I agree.

Certainly, that's not what is intended; I read it as I believe the intention was, i.e. to have the use of this city pair force a de-facto touching of EUR.

As usual with of this sort of thing the rule is written in a quite confusing manner, possibly deliberately.

Are you planning on stopping in AUH twice? If you fly through to MCT ex LHR or back to LHR from MCT it won't count as two sectors on BA FF programme as it is the same flight number. Unless you stop (i.e. overnight) each way in AUH the two sector flight would only net 180 TPs.

You could always just fly to AUH and stump up the extra for a r/t AUH-MCT in J or F on a separate ticket. This way you would get the extra 360 TPs for doing this short r/t hop.

You could then do another western europe hop if you desired with the two sectors you save.

Yes, you are right, that is a waste.

New Route - Finally Getting there.

MRU-LHR-AUH-LHR-IST-LHR-MIA-JFK-LAX//LAS-ORD-DTW-DFW-HNL-SYD//CBR-PER-MEL-AKL-SYD-JNB-MRU or the other way.

Couple of Q's:

1) Looking at the validator the only two cities that work for the extra European leg are either MAD or IST, are there any others?

2) Is the N.American legs good? Are they mostly first class product and maximum earning potential? Really need LAX, LAS, DTW, MIA and JFK.

Thanks, I am close to firming up my selection

You can add an extra Euro trip to anywhere except the countries listed below

Algeria Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Macedonia, Malta, Morocco, Funchal, Portugal,
Romania, Russia, Tunisia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, the Middle East

Your JFK-LAX will be the only 3 class flight on your domestic route. Although the other flights will still get F tier points as AA domestic have mostly F and Y configured aircraft. Note that it might be tricky getting A class availability on the JFK-LAX.

The JFK-LAX and DFW-HNL are the only two that will earn 180 TPs. The rest are all under 2000 miles and will only garner 60 TPs.

If I were you I would try to work in a JFK-YVR or visa versa on CX rather than the trans con on AA (see my TR link in my sig for my experience).

Also now you have opted to AONE - you do realise that QF don't fly F from HNL to Australia?

If you don't really want to go to HNL you could go via SFO, LAX, JFK on QF

You could go for something like:

MRU-LHR-AUH-LHR-IST-LHR-MIA-JFK-YVR-DFW-DTW-DFW-LAS//LAX-SYD//CBR-PER-MEL-AKL-SYD-JNB-MRU

IMHO YVR is the most beautiful city in the world and well worth spending some time in if you haven't been before. Downside of this plan is having to clear US Immigrations twice (although the experience is generally not than painful in YVR) and you must deal with Canadian Immigrations as well.

Note that QF fly YVR-SYD seasonally, too. So if you're traveling in that timeframe, you could get in two pretty nice F flights - JFK-YVR-SYD, but of course that eliminates Hawaii. Maybe N. Queensland instead?

One other point is that if you mine the AA timetable (also the OW electronic timetable) you can usually find city pairs in the US where one or the other is not on the transcon list, but where a direct/stopping flight with one flight no. gets you over 2000 miles, 180 TP. For example, at the moment, you can fly EWR-RNO (Newark - Reno NV) on AA 399, which stops in DFW but doesn't change flight number, thus earning 180 TP as RNO is 2390 mi. from EWR. RNO is not on the transcon city list, unlike LAS. There are similar flights around, but not all the time and not always round-trips.

OK so this:

MRU-LHR-AUH-LHR-IST-LHR-MIA-JFK-LAX//LAS-ORD-DTW-DFW-HNL-SYD//CBR-PER-MEL-AKL-SYD-JNB-MRU or the other way.

Has now changed to this:

MRU-LHR-AUH-LHR-IST-LHR-MIA-JFK-YVR-SFO-DTW-DFW-LAS//LAX-SYD//CBR-PER-MEL-AKL-SYD-JNB-MRU

Is this looking better? Acording to the validator this routing is 19 Segments, 51795 Miles and 2100 tier points.

I would be starting in June so according to the Oneworld timetable the YVR-SYD is valid til 31 Jan, tomorrow, so I don't think I can take it.

It re-starts in June and runs until the middle of August. Not daily, so check bracketing days. You appear to be assuming you're using it, however, as it's the only eligible flight between YVR and SFO. Most west coast North-South flights shown in the OW timetable are on Alaska Airlines metal, ineligble for the OWE. The YVR-SYD flight stops in SFO without changing flight number. And there is no SFO-DTW flight that I can see.

You had to throw a spanner in the works, lol.

Alternatively, for a bit more miles and requiring only one stopover in Abu Dhabi (which technically could be done as a transit < 24 hours), lhr-mct-AUH-mct-lhr. By my limited understanding of BAEC rules you then get the longhaul tier points for 4 flights, take as long elapsed time as lhr-mct-lhr-ist-lhr but with almost a day in Abu Dhabi (although same tier points it earns less miles).