Help... Route check on DONE4
 

After spending far, far too many weeks on this ;) I'm hoping some of you wise wizards could look over my ex-NRT DONE4. I wanna book it asap, before currencies move and prices rise again and again and again...

How's this:
NRT-SIN-SYD-AKL-BNE-CNS-SYD-xHKG-LHR-MCT-AMM-DME-LHR-YVR-MEX-ORD-LAX-JFK-HKG-DEL-NRT

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Is this something you want to do, in preference to SYD-LHR?

The routing seems OK to me and should yield good mileage. Who do you plan to book this with? I suppose CX is the logical airline. If you had AA in mind, I wonder if they would consider it given no long haul AA flights (assuming that you would want CX on JFK-HKG).

Oh, yeah, I should explain that. It's partly just coz I prefer to avoid flights of more than about 15 hours, and partly coz I usually get upgraded on QF metal (thanks to certain friends :D). I'd much rather do two successive daytime flights than to waste the deliciousness of First by being asleep for a large chunk of the trip. SYD-xHKG-LHR was the only QF route I could find between Australia and LHR which has two daytime flights separated by a <24-hr night in asia. That scheduling benefit was worth wasting a sector.

If AA does object the AA codeshare would work just as well for that purpose.

I certainly want CX on JFK-HKG, especially as CX is about to add a third daily flight using their brand spanking new 777-300ERs.

I had intended to ticket with AA and use as many AA flight numbers as possible, crediting points to my AAdvantage account. Hadn't even considered that I might need a long-haul with them. Is that a formal rule, or just a guess? What a hassle.

Maybe I could include an AA transpac at the end and change it to CX when I reroute... :rolleyes:


Thanks Viajero, just saw your post ;)

You are welcome, but try not to use the codeshare, unless pushed into by AA, because it will cost you a transpac fuel surcharge.

eugh, I have so much to learn... I thought AA was the best for fuel fines. Will AA codeshares be cheaper on all my other long-hauls, at least?

But they are the best. No other OW airline that I know limits itself to the collection of fuel surcharges for their own flights only.

AA would book it for you even with no long haul AA segments, but you have to expect some grumbling. The 'at least 1 over water on AA' rule only kicks in if a TA organised the itinerary, according to the ATW desk. There are also rumours that you'd be required to book overwater segments on the issuing carrier, but that's only a rumour at this stage.

This is my personal taste but I always prefer taking LHR to DXB daytime as it is a 747 (as opposed to 777 with MCT) and then buying a cheap ticket (either economy or business) with Swiss down to Muscat and back - as I prefer the Upper Deck with BA when I can get it.

Also DXB to Amm I think is a better choice of times and planes (inc a 340) - (MCT to Amm various early hours in the am, I think).

Having said that, unless the policy changes if you are not a BA Silver, or able to do OLCI it may be difficult to nab upper deck with BA.

Thanks for the tip! As far as I can tell, it looks like BA is getting rid of the 747 to DXB, but the upper deck doesn't bother me either way. (I know it's heresy to many people but I sometimes find the service a little less attentive up there, perhaps because the FAs don't have to walk past you to get anywhere, thereby catching your eye or noticing your empty glass...)

But I took your advice anyway, on the basis of the awful MCT-AMM schedule and the fact that Swissair flies there for nix (who knew?!). Instead of getting up at 3am to make a brutal 5:45am departure out of MCT on a nasty little embraer, I'm now booked on a leisurely 4:55pm flight out of DXB on a tolerable A321.

So... thanks ;)


UPDATE: Just called the AA desk and booked a 16 sector DONE4 without a single AA flight in it. Not even an AA codeshare. CX, JL, QF, BA and RJ flights only. The agent was helpful, knowledgeable and didn't even mention it. So FWIW, AA doesn't care if your OWE is light on their metal.

Sometimes they do care, and make an issue of it.