Buying a LONE4 from SCL and using upgrades. Suggestions¿
 

My wife and I are currently in Patagonia on the South American part of our AONE5 and are due to fly from SA at the beginning of April to Asia (via JFK) where we will park this ticket and buy a new DONE4 which will bring us back home to YVR from Tokyo. However, due to some personal matters we will need to get home from SCL about March 24. Thus we wil park our current AONE5 in South America and fly back to resume it in September.

Among the options I am considering is buying LONE4s from SCL because the cost is about the same price as a roundtrip economy ticket home (about $3000). Of course we would prefer a DONE4 but that is about $5000 more. However, I figure we can use our AA VIPs to upgrade a number of legs on a LONE5, namely SCL-DFW, DFW-LHR, and NRT-DFW-SCL (and even use BA MFU to upgrade LHR-NRT). Thus pretty much having the effect of a DONE ticket (and so we would cancell the planned DONE4s ex-NRT). We would fill in the intra-continent segments with short haul routes we want to fly in NA, EU, AS, and SA. We might get upgrades on some flights but anyway the economy class shouldnt make that much difference. Does this reasoning sound OK. Any other suggestions. Thanks.

MFU on BA is to WT+ and not to Club, so not really worth doing unless you expect to also get an op-up. You could go SCL-EZE-JFK-YVR (but no chance of op-up for JFK-YVR on CX). Tickets ex-SCL are rather expensive so I'm not surprised that the LONE4 is a similar cost. But I think you are deluding yourself in thinking that this LONE4 is pretty similar to DONE3 ex-NRT.

Thanks, number_6 for the very prompt response. I thought that I had responded several hours ago but my followup messsage seems to have disappeared somewhere in the depths of Patagonia. So here it goes again (sorry for the repeat if the earlier messsage eventually surfaces).

Thanks for ´reminding me about the BA MFU upgrade limitations, ret WT+.

As for the comparison of a DONE ex-NRT and a LONE ex-SCL with upgrades, here is what I was assuming. (1) Even though you can do a 3 continent from NRT I was assuming a DONE4 because I wanted to come back to So.am. again. Hence LONE4 vs DONE4. (2) Re the comparability: I was not taking into account the fact that you can use the VIP to upgrade a D ticket to A (so implicitly assuming no extra value for an A over a D) --dubious perhaps but a possible assumption, (3) If I can upgrade all the long haul flights then the only thing left as L are the intra-continentals. But for the No.Am. flights I should be able to get the "automatic" upgrades for EXPs-- or if not, say for the assurance on the transcontinental, use VIPs. And for the intra-Europe and intra-So.Am., most are short haul and some (e.g., about half of what I am considering) only have economy service anyway. So taking these factors into account is what I meant about LONE4 ex-SCL with upgrades being roughly comparable to a DONE4 ex-NRT-- and a lot cheaper! I hear what you are saying though, and will carefully examine each flight in the itinerary.

I welcome additional comments and challenges. Given the timing deadlines and my forthcoming inaccessibility in the further depths of Patagonia, I especially appreciate any other quick thoughts.

If you buy a LONE in SA, and plan to spend some of the segments within SA, may I suggest you start in EZE: same price as ex-SCL, but much better options for intra SA flights, as the 1 international departure/arrival rule would not apply to LAN's hub in SCL.

Thanks for this suggestion.

I currently have two SCL-DFW-SCL tickets on hold for the date we want, primarily to secure the VIP upgrades for the flight-day for SCL-DFW (presumably we can carry this over if I go for the LONE4). My plan is to phone the No.Am RTW desk tomorrow to book and price (a simplified form of) the itinerary and get the PNR# and then phone the main AA reservation number in Santiago and to arrange to pay for and pick up the ticket when I arrive there on March 14. Does anyone have experience in doing this. Is there a better way.

Is it possible to do this? I have dim memories of trying to reserve a VIP upgrade prior to buying a ticket (non-OWE) and being told that this is impossible, the upgrade must be processed after the ticket is issued and any prior reservations are released; if it goes back to the upgrade inventory pool and you are still first on the list, then you snag the upgrade, but it isn't transferred over. Has this changed (not really a OW question, this is about AA VIP upgrade processing)? I suspect you have to issue the ticket much earlier than Mar 14 if you are doing this, maybe even the same day.

Same here.

I used a VIP to u/g from D to A (NRT-LAX) when I booked a DONE4 ex-NRT; the u/g stayed with the res even though I made several changes to the itinerary prior to paying for the ticket (3 days ago at NRT.) No problem with the u/g even though the ticket hadn't been issued. Plus it was an expiring 2005 eVIP that was used after the end of February, reflecting AA's new (and hopefully permanent) interpretation of eVIP expiration rules.

I don't know if it will be possible to do this but it seemed worth a try because there was only one date out of a whole week in which we could get the upgrades. Similarly, if I follow Viajero's suggestion of starting a LONE4 from EZE instead of SCL, I'll first try to reserve a stand alone ticket for EZE-JFK-EZE and hope that will carry over.
By the way, trying to do all this by Skype is not working from here (Patagonia) the way that Gardyloo had described (in a separate thread). The connections are terrible and you can be on the line almost completing an itinerary and then the call drops out and you try to start all over again.

If calling from Chile you don't want to use Skype. Call the EXP Desk via ATT toll free (800-225-288) and ask them to transfer the call to the ATW desk. @:-)

Could you not upgrade LHR-NRT to WT+ by paying $300 and then MFU to J?

However, I think BA restricts MFUs to tickets bought directly from BA, and then AA restricts upgrades to tickets on AA stock, so unless you were to reissue tickets in between, the BA MFU won't work either.

Thanks for this information, Viajero. I'm currently in Argentina but will follow-up when in Chile at the end of the week. It's very useful to have this number.

In that case try 0-800-555-4288, or 0-800-222-1288.