Hi

Only found out on Friday about AONEX from a friend who is fellow FT'er. I am planning to buy an AONE4 later this year from Stockholm, and I had a few questions (I have done most of the research on Flyer Talk and linked sites, which were were great, but a few things unclear). Our planned route is as follows:

Route Originating City Destination City
ARN-LHR Stockholm London
LHR-MCT London Muscat
MCT-LHR Muscat London
LHR-YVR London Vancouver
YVR-NYC Vancouver New York
NYC-DFW New York Dallas
DFW-LAX Dallas Los Angeles
LAX-SYD Los Angeles Melbourne
SYD-MEL Melbourne Perth
PER-AYQ Perth Ayers Rock
AYQ-SYD Ayers Rock Sydney
SYD-HKG Sydney Hong Kong
HKG-CEB Hong Kong Cebu
CEB-HKG Cebu Hong Kong
HKG-SHA Hong Kong Shanghai
SHA-NRT Shanghai Tokyo
NRT-LHR Tokyo London
LHR-ARN London Stockholm


My questions are:

1) You are limited to 2 stop-overs in the continent of origin. Are you able to take one of the stopovers on your return journey (ie would we have to fly from Tokyo to Stockholm, or could we stop in London on the way back and fly to Stockholm later - as we live in London)?

2) We were thinking of alternatively flying LAX-PER on Cathay, but there is a change of flight number. Does that count as entry into the continent?

3) Do you see any other obvious issues with the itinerary?

4) In Sweden, how long do we need to spend on the ground - are we able to organise the ticket beforehand, and can we pick it up at the airport?

We are really looking forward to our trip

Thanks

KBYNOTTINGHILL

1) Yes - no problem, the two stopovers can be whenever you like. Obviously at least one of your trips through London must, therefore, be a transit, and two of them if you want to stop in Muscat.
2) It counts as touching the continent. Some years ago one or two people reportedly succeeded in getting that sort of thing ticketed, but not recently.
3) I assume you meant LAX-SYD-MEL-PER-AYQ-SYD. In which case you have one unused segment (of 20 allowed). The whole thing isn't very mileage-optimised if that's important to you - you could rearrange the cities in a different order for more miles.
4) Can't help on that one - I haven't ticketed ex-ARN.

I did this last year. Paid for ticket months before, then picked up the ticket at the BA/AY ticket counter on arrival at ARN. If you get an e-ticket, then you can even skip this step, but I had AA issue the ticket, so paper was required. We did spend 3 days in Stockholm though, so we had room for error.

See this thread for other experiences ex-ARN.

If you can visit Asia before Southwest Pacific, and pay extra segment charge, you can do as,
ARN-xLHR-MCT-xLHR-YVR-JFK-DFW-LAX-HKG-CEB-HKG-PVG-NRT-HKG-SYD-MEL,PER-AYQ-SYD-LHR-ARN

Alternatively, if you don't mind NRT-SYD flight without first class service,
ARN-xLHR-MCT-xLHR-YVR-JFK-DFW-LAX-HKG-CEB-HKG-PVG-NRT-SYD-MEL,PER-AYQ-SYD-LHR-ARN

Thanks

I have been working on the routing more. Plan is to fly straight from ARN through to DXB (no longer going to Muscat - Dubai instead), and spend 4 days in DXB before returning to London for a stopover. I realise on the way back from Tokyo, will need to transit through London rather than stopover.

Does this work. My friend thought that you may only be able to stopver in a gateway city in the continent of origin.

Thanks

Hopefully, I can organise an e-ticket as the plan at this stage is to fly up to Stockholm in the afternoon on an e-ticket and take the same plane back an hour later. If BA prove problematic, we will fly up beforehand and buy the ticket, then return at a later date to start the AONE4.

Also, can I reserve and confirm the actual flights when I book the trip as looking at Expert Flyer, the A seats are filling up on some of the legs.

Thanks

Visiting family in Australia, so will need holiday in Asia afterwards before returning to Europe.

One minor point, that you're probably already well aware of...

First/Business Class is not offered on PER-AYQ. This flight is operated by QantasLink (Airlink/National Jet) 717-200s which are fitted with an all-economy (115/117Y) configuration. It's not an overly long flight, but it's something to consider

PER-ASP is also operated by QantasLink - so no First/Business.

Rgds

Thanks

Spoke to American Express Platiumum travel this morning. They will do the ticketing, and send to me prior to travel. I plan to set the ticket up with AA RTW - they have been very helpful also.

Thanks for all of your help