Suggestions on how to improve a DONE4
 

Any suggestions on how to improve this trip? I have included other flights we plan to buy versus including them in the OneWorld itn.

1: SFO-ORD: 1st of 6 (North America)
2: ORD-PVG: 1st of 1 (intercontinental entry to Asia without immediate transit & departure)
3: PVG-ICN: surface [PVG-XMN-PEK-ICN]
4: ICN-HKG: 1st of 4 (Asia)
5: HKG-DEL: 2nd of 4 (Asia)
6: DEL-HKG: 3rd of 4 (Asia)
7: HKG-JNB: intercontinental
8: JNB-WDH: 1st of 4 (Africa)
9: WDH-JNB: surface [WDH-MUB-JNB]
10: JNB-MRU: 2nd of 4 (Africa)
11: MRU-JNB: 3rd of 4 (Africa)
12: JNB-CPT: surface [JNB-CPT]
13: CPT-LHR: intercontinental
14: LHR-CAI: 1st of 4 (Europe)
15: CAI-MIKONOS: surface [CAI-AMM-ATH-Other Greek Island-JMK]
16: MIKONOS-LGW: 2nd of 4 (Europe) [LGW-INV-LGW]
17: LGW-KEF: 3rd of 4 (Europe) [RKV-KUS-RKV]
18: KEF-LGW: 4th of 4 (Europe)
19: LGW-LHR: surface
20: LHR-ORD: intercontinental

With taxes this priced out at USD$8850 for a DONE4—so it seems like we are not paying for any extra segments. Also for some reasons MilageMonkey would not recognize JMK as valid.

I wanted an additional N. America segment, but with the new land segment rules that seems impossible.

The new surface segments rules have devaluated the OneWorld product. I used up 4 surface segments that I needed in North America. Now I will have to buy those.

It seems such a shame to waste a segment on LGW//LHR. How about flying to a US gateway from LGW and from there to ORD?

Are we absolutely sure that moving between co-terminals counts as a surface segment? That really seems very odd. How would that work if ticketed to the city code rather than the individual airport code?

This problem has been discussed before and I had a long discussion with a Qantas person yesterday who assured me categorically that LGW//LHR is not a segment. That is of course not as good as actually having the ticket and completing the journey - but its as good advice as I can get.

I called AA today. The AAgent seemed to be new.

Eventually she quoted some internal document dated July 9th stating specifically that LGW/LHR would be counted as one of the segments of the 20.

She said this was British Airlines 'fault' and that other partners (i.e. Qantas) might have different rules.

Again, she seemed like a new AAgent, but it was clear that she was reading something in ref to July 9th.

So from AA's perspective LGW/LHR are a segment.

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OT
The AAgent also stated that all printed tickets (i.e. more than 16 segments) were on hold until Oct 16 (hand writer was on vacation). If I bought it now I would have to go to the airport to get them printed.

That sounds conclusive. Did you ask about the possibility christep mentioned about coding the ticket to LON?

Said they would 'catch' it later...however, I think there might be a chance.

Interestingly, she mentioned (but did not quote) that LGA/JFK were NOT land segments which makes even less sense to me.

Catch how/what? There's nothing inherently *wrong* with the use of LON, so what's there to "catch"?. And that bit about London being a surface segment but New York not sounds so weird it is impossible to believe.

Maybe a junior agent making things up?

Yes, other than she really was reading something related to LGW/LHR.

If I booked LON she stated that whenever you actually requested a specific flight (i.e. LON/ORD) then they would re-count the segments.

But since reservations and ticketing are separate things, if I make a reservation for, say LHR-EWR and then turn up at check-in with an open-dated OWE coupon for LON-NYC who exactly is going to recount segments? I have a ticket coupon which is valid payment for the reservation which I have. End of story as far as the check-in counter is concerned.

As far as I can see the agent was just making it up as she went along, or she was referring to a document written by someone completely clueless which will have no impact in the real world.

I have to say that this sort of thing just add more weight to my continuing preference for paper tickets.