Planning a DONE4 - any comments on my itn?
 

Hi all,

Mr Falconea and I are planning a DONE4 starting October 2007.

Desired stops are HKG, Germany, FRA, CAI, JFK and IAD. We will be using a Eurail pass in Europe so will just use the Channel Tunnel trains. Before the new open jaw rules we were planning to fly a couple of legs within Europe, such as OSL-HEL-BUD, but we'll either train them or do LCC flights instead.

Naturally we want to earn Qantas Platinum status and as many miles as we can reasonably get. We also want to visit nice lounges and enjoy the flights.

This is what I've put together so far:

MEL-HKG-NRT-SIN-NRT-HKG-LON-KEF-LON-CAI-LHR-SFO-JFK-SJU-WAS-SJU-JFK-SYD-BNE-MEL

I calculate we'll reach Plat on the second trip to SJU and will receive in total 92,823 miles, including all the class of service and status bonuses, and assuming all the internal US flights are in A.

Any suggestions for improving this, or issues such as lack of D onboard?

And should we consider a AONE4 instead? I'm tempted.

It costs us 3,400 miles to fly to Europe from HKG instead of SIN, but I'd rather spend time in HKG in transit than in SIN.

Oh, and Mr Falconea insists on stopping at least overnight everywhere, to see the place at least briefly.

Can we do better in the US? Should we plan it differently? Can we achieve a similar result white avoiding LHR?

Thanks all for any comments!

Audrey

Most of them, if not all, will be in D. Out of all your US flights only SFO-JFK will be in A, and even that is a maybe, as it depends on the flight you choose (3-class 762 in D, the rest in A).

Note that depending on the airline issuing the ticket LHR//LGW will count as one segment.

Assuming you wanted to avoid LHR (and thus its various taxes and duties) but could still access the UK via the Eurostar from Paris, and assuming also that you want sector credits enough that you'd be willing to travel from BWI into the District (not a lot tougher than IAD) then you might look at something like this -

MEL-HKG-NRT-SIN-NRT-HKG-CDG-AMM-MAD-CAI-MAD-ORD-SFO-DFW-BWI-DFW-SFO-JFK-SYD-BNE-MEL

BWI has the advantage of being enough farther from DFW that it bumps you into the next SC tier; and by eliminating the Caribbean routes from your plan it transforms those D sectors into A sectors within the continental US. Also it eliminates any questions about co-terminal cities (NYC, WAS, LON) gobbling up coupons if some YM person decides they're "surface" connections.

It's a lot of time on RJ metal and none on BA, but that's the price for avoiding LHR. Your would-have-been BA LHR-SFO segment becomes a MAD-ORD segment, and for my money the IB J seat is as comfortable if not more so than BA Club on daytime flights.

And, who knows, you may even have your luggage travel with you all the way too.

With your itn, I think an AONE4 is definitely worth it if you can afford it since a good portion of your planned flights would have First class. But only you can decide whether flying in F (and the increased SC accrual) is worth the extra.

I'm booked and ticketed in A for SFO-JFK on my DONE4 but the flight changed from a 2 class 763 to the 3 class AFS 762 service some weeks ago. Advice from another forum suggests that it is unlikely that they'd chuck me back to D but we'll see...

I take it there is still no official confirmation from OW on whether City Airport transfers count as land segments.
I recall a thread stating it was being looked into after a number of complaints

Yup SJU (and all AA caribbean destinations) flights are 2-class with business and economy, not first.

AA RTW desk confirmed this morning that transfers between airports consume a segment. Question in point was LGA/JFK, but I confirmed it would also count for KIX/ITM and LHR/LGW. Sucks but that's the news.

Thanks everyone for your input.

I guess it's back to the drawing board to see what I can do via HEL. (Definitely not interested in MAD or experiencing the delights of IB).

Looks like KEF is a no-goer now, too. :+<

I'll be back....

Thanks again!

Audrey

PS: is there any convenient list anywhere of AA 2 class flights with F and Y? Or any pointers in how to find them? I've had a poke around and found the following aircraft have this config:

A300 (AB6)
737-800 (738)
757-200 (757)
McDon. Doug. Super-80/83 (S80)

I guess it's time to bite the bullet and buy an ExpertFlyer account?

Audrey

Any 2 class US to US flight will have F & WHY.

Any 2 Class US to non US flight or vv will have J & WHY.

Generally 762 & 777 are 3 class; 2 Class are all others (inc 763) except for one class ERD, CR7, ER3, ER4, SF3 etc.

Dest same as Orig ?
 

Hi Audrey.
Happy Friday night.
I have not seen a definitive answer on this since the 20 segment limit was introduced, but, if a final land segment is irrelevant, then:
Finish with SYD-PER-CBR. Lots of options then once you get back to SYD.
Your 2 stopovers in originating continent would be SYD and PER and you would get a few more Q miles. Nice to meet you both in MEL. Regards, John.

Bookings are underway!
 

All,

Thanks again for the help. We've decided on a DONE4:

MEL-HKG-NRT-SIN-NRT-HKG-LHR-IST-LHR-CAI-LHR-SFO-DFW-BWI-DFW-SFO-ORD-JFK-SYD-BNE-MEL, starting 1 Nov 2008 and returning in Feb 2009.

I decided to keep the itinerary free of transcons in the US, just in case we decide to rejuggle it in order to go for a A380 ride.

We visited our local suburban TA and they were fine with booking this on AA stock, and with the concept of booking it at all. Several legs are already booked (MEL-HKG waitlisted - seems odd nearly a year out!).

So, as long as there are no rule changes in the offing we'll be fine, and the TA understands that we might demand ticketing urgently should there be any changes.

Only issue to worry about is having paper tickets in 2009.

Thanks again everyone for your help!

Audrey

Rather than have your first segment waitlisted, have you considered starting in SYD with a simple red e-deal/award flight MEL-SYD to postion.

There is often D availability on QF127 or QF187 where there is none on QF29 the same day. (This is indeed the case Nov 1, D9's against D0)

Serfty,

We have confirmed seats on CX for MEL-HKG, and since we'll have zero status at that point it won't really matter that much if we fly CX instead of QF.

Indeed, should I even keep the waitlisted flight, or just go on CX anyway?

Audrey

With no status it won't make any difference to point earning.

On Qantas you'd get Skybeds. ISTR CX uses their regional J seat MEL/HKG currently. This may change by the time you travel.