First Time: RTW on OneWorld
 

Gang,

Looks like I will be doing a trip on OneWorld for the first time... and need some help.

I will be getting a RTW business class ticket.

I need to do the following:

March 18 Rochester New York to London England

March 23 London England to Delhi India

March 27 LATE PM Delhi India to Hydrabad India (might be local carrier)

March 30 Hydrabad India to Boston Massachusetts.

I guess I could add a stop or something.... but need to be back by April 2.

Potential add trips to LAS and SAN (if can be done)

Can anyone suggest the right airline routings and share information on the appropriate RTW product and cost for business class?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

First, are you sure OW is better than the other alliances? OW does not have great service within India, just to the gateway cities and from Europe that's mainly BA. Other questions to ponder before any other advice is do you want to maximize miles or save $$. The USA/UK/Ireland are the most expensive places to start a RTW. Yes, you can add LAS/SAN, but they are considered a waste of a flight coupon. A big drawback to starting in the USA is the 7-day advance purchase requirement and you must be away from the USA for at least 10 days. With more info, better advice.

I am being required by my company to fly OneWorld carriers... so not much choice there... and I will be starting from the US... no choice there.

I figure the within India portion may be off this RTW ticket.

Just trying to see how I could maximize this... and keep cost low.

A DONE3 is about $7700++ from the USA.
Generally, ROC-JFK-LHR (AA), then up to 4 flights within Europe, LHR-DEL(BA) or HEL-DEL(AY), DEL/BOM-HKG (CX), 3 more flights in Asia, HKG-JFK(CX). You have 5 more flights in N America. But you are only allowed 2 stopovers and the return to JFK is 1 of your 2 permitted stopovers. Outside of North America, stopovers don't matter except for tax purposes. Adding a rt to LAS or SAN is possible, but only 1.
You could start YYZ-LHR on BA and it may be a few $$ less. If you have AA evips, you can upgrade the AA long haul flights to FC, so the return from Asia could be via NRT or PVG.
A final factor is if your travels are after 1-Apr, you can use JAL, Royal Jordanian, and Malev Hungarian airlines.

If this will be a recurrent, rather than one-time episode, then you're probably better off by flying first to some relatively cheap starting point in Europe, get the RTW ticket there, then use it for the India portions, back to the US, and eventually back to Europe before starting over again.

For example, DONE3s that originate in Sweden are almost $2000 cheaper than those originating in the USA. Buy a cheap (even one-way) ticket to Europe, maybe bum an eVIP or SWU from somebody at Coupon Connection (I suspect you know how) and then start from ARN (or CPH is also pretty affordable.) ARN-LHR-DEL (-HYD-DEL) - HKG-JFK... which would leave you with 6 N. America segments to use over the course of the rest of a year before you'd need to return to Europe (ARN, CPH...) to finish.

Of course you could, time permitting, add additional legs overseas in order to build up miles/status - maybe a middle east run before you finish, etc.

Having used a RTW ticket while employed by corporate America, I know how difficult it would have been to get senior management to understand origination at anywhere other than my home airport. Getting reimbursement for a flight to a cheaper originating point would have been impossible. Non traveling folks simply don't understand that concept. As it is, any creative ticketing gets looked at with a raised eyebrow, and a feeling that the traveler might be doing it for personal convenience and not company benefit.

So I suspect that though the habitues of this forum find that almost impossible to grasp, William is better off originating in the States, so that it makes sense to whoever authorizes his expense reimbursement.

(I remember needing to go to India on business a few years back. The biz class fare at the time was $14K. I could buy a RTW in biz for $8K. I had to fight tooth and toenail to get the RTW issued. The company was happy to pay $14K, and the travel agent we had to use was not familiar with RTWs, and had no motivation to learn.)

I do trips like this all the time for work. Its easy to set up and pretty flexible if your schedule changes. You need to specify an eTicket though so you can change the flight by phone back to AA in the US and not have to go to a local counter.

Where else would you like to go? You are going to need to travel through Asia or Australia on the way home.

Agreed. This is my situation. When I buy a OWE ticket I'm typically trying to avoid pay $15K for point to point business class flights and I'm not that interested in flying to DOH using vacation time to pick up a cheaper ticket.

I placed the "required" dates in my original post.

I appreciate any help or suggestions.

Thanks,

William

Possible itinerary:
ROC-ORD AA
ORD-LHR - AA use a VIP to upgrade to F
(LHR-DXB, DXB-LHR BA if you have time)
LHR-DEL BA
DEL-HKG CX shows J9D0 on the 3/31 arrives HKG 3pm
(HKG-SIN, SIN-HKG CX if you have time)
HKG-NRT CX
NRT-DFW - AA use a VIP to upgrade to F
DFW-BOS AA (1st NA stopover)
BOS-LAX AA (2nd NA stopover)
LAX-DFW AA
DFW-MIA AA
MIA-BOS AA

No D space around his dates on the DEL-HKG segment.

I know, but J9 on 3/31. CX might release a seat if asked nicely.

You can get from HYD to CMB on the 30th, hang out for the afternoon/evening, and take the redeye CX flight to HKG (J9D9 all over the place) that connects to JFK.

Since you have to fly non-OW for the India internal legs, just make the last one HYD-CMB (around $400 in J) instead of trying to fly out of India on CX.

Of course it might be cheaper just to buy two open jaw returns - NY-LHR-BOS, then London - Delhi or an open jaw LON-DEL//BOM-LON or some such.

Even originating in the US you can still get the SAN and LAS trips handled within the rules of a DONE3; you just can't leave the US/Canada once you get back from Asia.

Carol,

You understand my situation fully.... it is simply a business trip from the US to London to India... nothing fancy... just get to use a RTW vehicle to get there....

Since I have never done OneWorld, was really looking to see what the best routing would be... and if there were any extra flights I could add for free. Company has agreed for me to use any extra "miles" or coupons personally... got that in writing... as long as the cost did not go up for them. Nice bonus for me... but have no idea how to maximize it... :)

William

Normally cost will go up when you add flights due to "taxes".