I'm wondering if an AONE might be a useful (even economical?) solution to premium travel in what might shape up to be a high-travel year. We have some friends in Africa this year, family and friends in the states, and want to take a trip to Oz in 18 months or so. So here's what I'd really like to do:

Go to MRU for a bit of sun in the winter/early spring (say, April 08). I would either cash in miles for that trip or just buy our tickets.

Then, start the AONE: MRU to JNB
JNB to LUN (would have to buy this one, just a one-way on maybe?)
then back home LUN to LHR.

While home in London, have a few trips over several months courtesy of the AONE: Maybe LHR-ATH-LHR, LGW-KEF-LGW.

Then next autumn, back to the states to see some family. LHR-SEA, SEA-ORD-MCI, MCI-ORD-YYZ, YYZ-NYC.

Back home to London on a cheap-ish purchased BA ticket, say JFK-LHR on WT+ maybe, then return to JFK in February/March 2009.

Then resuming the AONE: JFK-LAX, LAX-SYD, SYD-LHR.

I understand that I need to ticket the final leg to someplace like DAR, which should let me "transit" at LHR and just abandon the final leg. (Is that right?)

I've punched it into the planner and it comes up inexplicably as five regions (though I'm counting four: Africa, Europe, NA, SWP). It must be counting Asia even though I'm not stopping there? (And is there any way to avoid that?) Also, it seems like in some variations when I put it in I get an error along the lines of "too many flights to/from the UK"; but I couldn't find reference to a rule about that.

Is there anything else I need to think about about this? Is there anything I'm missing or doing wrong? Any other ways to economise? How do folks get to places like MRU to start the ticket?

Finally, I was thinking of booking AONE vs. DONE primarily because I understand that there's very limited availability of D tix on some routes (esp. to OZ) rather than because we have to travel first (though it would be nice ). Does A book into J allocations for biz class seats if there are no first seats left? The long and short of it is we don't want to be stuck doing these long-hauls in Y.

Any and all advice is very welcome!

Your general concept is sound. Yes, if your intent is for the final legs to be SYD-xLHR-DAR (or NBO or EBB or....) the fuel stop in Asia on the SYD-LHR leg will count Asia as a continent. You can work around this by flying SYD-JNB.

Yes, A books into business when there's no F cabin.

As for the final flights, if you use award tix to get to MRU in the first place, you can probably schedule the return portion of the tickets to mesh with your return to Africa (either from your transit in London or directly from Oz.) If you use paid tickets to MRU you might find out that a >6 mo. return is nearly as pricey as 2 x one-way tickets.

Note that recent changes in the rules require that surface segments (e.g. JNB-LUN or possibly, depending on interpretation, XXX-LHR//LGW-XXX) count against the 20-coupon limit, so watch out for these as you're counting trips.

Probably also worth checking to see how many of your flights would actually offer First. Remember, in North America, D fares book into A seats on US domestic 2-class flights (the majority of yours) and there is very limited F service in Oz/NZ and intra-Europe. One way to economize might be to look at DONEx tickets instead, in which case also check out prices originating in South Africa as well as MRU.

Happy planning!

Just a few comments:
- Keep in mind that the ticket is valid only 1 year after the first flight. And the first flight has to be not later than 1 year after you purchase the ticket.
- SYD-LHR always requires Asia as a continent. You could do North America-Asia (few flights there) - Australia - LHR. Or just stop in Asia for w hile on the way back from Australia without extra cost (except the taxes).
- I usually buy AONE and never had problems finding seats in First on similar routes with one or 2 days flexibility and occasional wait listing.
- Check the rules. I think there is a limit how often you can touch the same city (LHR/LGW) and also a limit how often you can leave a country. I was running into this before.
- You are getting close to the 20 flights limit. Surface also counts. And the return flight to Africa also counts.

As long as you know the risks, and are prepared to assume them, sure.

Wow, thanks for all the pointers everyone!

I was just checking and think I may have enough miles to get us one way VS UC to MRU, which would be nice way to start off. But rather only burn half the miles rather than do a return.

What are the risks that I need to know about? I thought it was just that I asked to pick up bags in LHR due to a 12+ hour layover, picked them up and just didn't get on the onward flight. If it's the last flight of my ticket, doesn't matter that it's invalidated, right?

The risk is that if an audit determines that you did not return to the country of origin, then the airline has the right to charge your credit card for all the flights as the sum of individual one-way fares. Very expensive. Odds are very low, but it is a risk. Many threads about this if you use the right search terms (which I have yet to figure out)

Not quite. By not returning to the point of origin, or another place covered by the rules, you are in breach of the contract, and if found subject to the repricing of the ticket on a point to point basis, for all the segments, a sum just shy of the price of a Ferrari. Some posters claim to do it all the time and be just fine, others are not willing to run the risk and don't even try. I belong to the second group.

Not to mention, doesn't BA allow one-way awards now too? If so, you'd earn enough miles and tier points on the RTW that a return one-way from Africa to London ought to be easy.