help with routing
 

I am interested in doing the following route on a OW Business award

TLV-PEK, HKG-SEA, SEA-NYC, NYC-MAN, MAN-TLV

1. My calculation put this at between 16-17K miles which would be a 130K mile award. Am I right?

2. The rules say that you can't use BA for non stop flights across the Atlantic. Is SEA-MAN with a connection in LHR considered an OK flight?

3. Which airlines are the best for this route?
I assume SEA-NYC would be AA, NYC-MAN, AA/BA connection & MAN-TLV, BA.
What would be best for TLV-PEK and HKK-SEA

I thank you all in advance for any input

Nope. LHR-MAN is ok but SEA-LHR is not.

I am not flying to LHR but to MAN. SEA-LHR is nonstop therefore not ok, but SEA-MAN is not non stop as you change planes in LHR and it is a different flight number, so it should be OK

No, it is not OK.

First, the rule reads transatlantic flights, with no mention of the number of stops:
and second, there is no SEA-MAN flight as such; there is a SEA-LHR flight (not OK) which connects with a different LHR-MAN flight (OK).

You can't use AA miles for a BA metal flight from the US to the UK. Canada and Mexico will work though. You can earn AA miles on one BA route (JFK-MAN) only if you book it as the AA codeshare.

We are talking here about a OW award using AA miles not an AA partner award
If you look at Section 2 of the sticky on this (OW) board you will see that it specifically states NONSTOP BA flights from the US to the UK are not allowed

As I do not know of any BA flights from the US that stop on the way to LHR in the Atlantic Ocean, then the resulting logic must be that NO flights on BA are allowed, which is not logical as they would have said that, or connecting flights ARE allowed through the first gateway in the UK (LHR in this case) as there are no direct flights to anywhere in the UK direct from the US except LHR or MAN

Correct. No BA award flights are allowed from the US to the UK using AA miles no matter what the connection is. If its a BA plane crossing the ocean then you can't take it.

With stopovers at PEK, HKG (counted due to openjaw) SEA, JFK and MAN, the miles would be computed as TLV-PEK//HKG-SEA-JFK-MAN-TLV, which GCM says is a tad over 19K miles, i.e. a OW130J award.

Assuming this is after RJ starts its HKG service, I'd imagine the actual flying route to be something like be TLV RJ xAMM RJ xHKG CX PEK//HKG CX xNRT AA xORD AA SEA AA JFK AA xLHR BA MAN BA xLHR BA TLV.

I don't think AA will let pax use the AA codeshare on BA's JFK-MAN but I could be wrong. They might backtrack you to ORD for the AA metal ORD-MAN flight though.

If this is before RJ starts serving HKG they might send you TLV RJ xAMM RJ xBKK CX xHKG CX PEK. I'd be skeptical that they'd start by going TLV BA xLHR BA PEK although it's also possible.

If you don't mind making your way to/from Seattle with a separately-purchesed AS ticket (or a slightly longer airport shuttle service), you could cut out three transits by using Vancouver instead:

TLV RJ xAMM RJ xHKG CX PEK//HKG CX YVR BA xLHR BA MAN BA xLHR BA TLV.

Should save you a bundle of time.

You are correct. They won't.

They will do whatever you want, but there are a couple of issues with going through LHR to PEK, not the least of which is the restriction on two cnxns and one stopover per city. The Manchester shuffle will cost him two connections in London right there assuming that he takes AA transatlantic and BA back to Tel Aviv.

The other issue that may come up, and I say may because I just cannot recall how it's treated, but if the trip is measured stop to stop, and an open jaw is considered a stop on both ends, they might count the miles of the open jaw. If so, you bump above 20k. Again, I cannot recall if this is an issue on AA, but I know it is on other FF programs with this award.

I thank you all for your advice and insight but I realize that there is one issue that I failed to address as this would be the first time that I would be going to the East not on LY
I would prefer for obvious reasons not to fly with a carrier that flies over certain mid east countries in the remote chance of unscheduled landings
I am not sure if any of the OW carriers live up to this but maybe BA goes to the East over the Northern route and not Eastward ( I really have no idea) and this could definately be a deciding factor in choice of carrrier even if I have to add a long Westward flight to get to the East

If you want to avoid ME carriers/area you could go TLV-xBUD-xHEL-PEK

They'll do whatever you want provided there is availability. IME LHR-TLV or v.v. is a tough award seat in J. If he goes ORD-MAN over the water, LHR wouldn't be an issue; otherwise, yes.

I don't think they count surface miles, but an open jaw is a stopover.

From recent experience, most of BA's routes seem tough in J. RJ had a lot more availability and AY had the most.

With BA and AY that is generally true. Fly LHR-NRT if you want to be certain. Its hard to avoid the ME if you want to fly between Europe and most of Asia.

The chance of an unscheduled landing is very, very remote and even if it was required often the plane will turn back to a airport and not just jump down to a local trouble spot.