Going to Africa difficult if starting in UK?
 

Hi there all! I'm based in LAX and need to hit Entebbe, Uganda (EBB), CAI, and NRT this summer and LHR for Christmas. I'm thinking right now (and please correct me if wrong) that the cheapest way to do this would be to get a roundtrip LAX-LHR from June-Dec and a LONE4 that starts in LHR in June, gets the other destinations over the summer, and ends up back in England for the holidays. LONE4's are about $1000 cheaper if bought there.

My problem, though, is that I can't figure out how to get a valid route per the incredible OWE validator that many of you have worked on. This (expensive ex-US fare) works: LAX-LHR-EBB-LHR-CAI-AMM-DXB-HKG-NRT-LAX but this (less expensive, ex-UK fare) doesn't: LHR-EBB-LHR-CAI-AMM-DXB-HKG-NRT-LAX-LHR. I'm presuming it has something to do with the rule saying you can't go back to your home city (or something like that) but I can't figure out exactly why, or if there's any way around it. Any thoughts or observations? And yes, these trips are not mileage-maximised at all, and I will definitely do so before I ticket them :) I just wanted to get the base city pairings figured out first. Thanks in advance!

Adam

There is no way around it; the rule is that you can only leave/enter the country of origin once.

Nuts! So that means all the African destinations only served by BA are off-limits for the British? Unlucky. Thanks so much for the quick response – sorry I wasn't able to figure it out myself.

I suppose I could try to do the same sort of plan ex-Spain or something like that, but not only does that add more bother around Christmas time, but the savings from buying it in Euros is nothing like from buying it in pounds. Looks like I may just have to drop the plan (and CAI!) and buy LAX-BRU-EBB-BRU-LAX-NRT-LAX which comes in around $3000. What a nuisance!

Edit: Or maybe an overland segment could come into play here? Depending on the cost (and I haven't looked into it) maybe an EBB-JNB separate flight could get me back on track, as then I could take IB through MAD and then on to CAI. Or simply EBB-CAI on EgyptAir?

Then you run into another rule, the one that says that a second entry/exit in Europe is allowed only if one of them is a transit without stopover between EBB (other places as well but EBB is the one that counts in your case) and another continent.

Regardless of where you buy it, the LONE4 option doesn't really work for you because of the second of those two rules - (1) no transit through point of origin, and (2) no second entry into continent of origin unless one is a transit without stopover. Even originating in some other country than the UK wouldn't help because of the second rule, even if the first was moot.

However if you buy a Global Explorer ticket somewhere besides the UK, the second entry rule doesn't apply, only the point of origin transit rule does.

As with business-class ONExs, Sweden is relatively cheap for LGLOBx originations. It would make your route ARN-LHR-EBB-LHR-CAI-AMM-DXB-HKG-NRT-LAX-LHR-ARN, which comes in just over 30K miles, so you'd need to look at the LGLOB34 ticket. The price of the LGLOB34 bought in Sweden today is around US$320 more than if bought in the UK (and around $1200 cheaper than if bought in the USA.) Plus, you could work with the AA office in Sweden and possibly avoid some fuel surcharges and nuisance fees levied by BA for tickets sold in the UK.

If you could substitute Vancouver for Los Angeles, ARN-LHR-EBB-LHR-CAI-AMM-DXB-HKG-NRT-YVR-LHR-ARN comes in at under 29K miles, so an LGLOB29 would work, around US$600 cheaper than the 34K mile ticket if bought in Sweden. You could certainly fly separately between Vancouver and LAX and back for less than that.

The Global Explorer would also let you use Gulf Air, so you could go via Bahrain instead of Amman if you chose.

Remember to factor in your access cost (to get to and from ARN for example) into your cost calculations - sometimes the net savings don't warrant the hassle of starting somewhere else.

Edited to add: Disregard; can't backtrack to Europe from Africa on this one either.

Doesn't GE also have a rule against backtracking between regions?

Between regions, yes. Between continents within a region, no. Africa and Europe are in the same region.

Edited to add: Stated confidently but erroneously. See above and below.

I have never purchased a GE so I don't really know, but take a look at "definition of regions" in the starfile. How do you read that, for the purpose of this fare?

Edit: and then look at stopovers... it sure looks like a 'region', for this fare, is a continent, not the 1-2-3 regions we are used to with the OWE. Or am I reading the whole thing wrong?

... and then there is this:

:(

Viajero, you're right. I'm now going to add a note to my previous posts accordingly. I can't believe I missed that. I brain-cramped and must have gotten the *A RTW rules (which do allow backtracking between continents within regions) confused with the GlobEx.

To the OP, sorry for the bad advice.

Actually guys I can't tell you how good the above discussion makes me feel. It's nice to know I'm not the only one in the world who can't figure all these things out on first try. I really appreciate all the research and work you've already put in. Could I ask for just a general recommendation, then, on how to go about this? (To recap: I live in LA; I need to go to EBB in late June, NRT in early July, and in an ideal world CAI between those two; I need to go to London at Christmas.) Unless I hear differently, I suppose I'll probably be stuck with the original, uninteresting plan of getting round-trip tickets between all those locations and LAX. Thanks!

Well if it was my first try I'd agree; unfortunately I fell victim to the too-small-brain-too-much-data trap.

I still think an RTW can be part of the solution; you just need to figure out how to finesse Africa.

I doubt that you can put together a non-RTW plan that comes very close in terms of cost, counting everything. A couple of thoughts (and potentially worth every cent you've paid for them...)

Flying from LA to Africa in June is going to be pricey; getting from Africa to Japan, either via the middle east or not, is going to be way pricey, and getting back to California after Japan is going to be... you guessed it.

One approach might be to buy a RT to the UK, then a 3-continent LONE3 ticket there, routing LHR-CAI-AMM-BKK-NRT-LAX-LHR (enjoying your segments in Asia/N. America while you're at it) ending at London for Christmas. Then buy a separate ticket CAI-EBB-CAI (probably a good deal to be had on Ethiopian) during your CAI stopover (or from AMM or DXB if they're cheaper.) Then use the back half of your LAX-LHR ticket to get home after Christmas. The cost for an LONE3 plus the EBB round trip will probably be a little more than a LONE4, but much easier on the legal system.

Or, start from LAX and then pay for a separate LAX-LHR RT for the holidays. It would be simple math to figure out benefit:cost. Remember 2 stopovers in the continent of origin.

I believe that given the above constraints a Oneworld RTW is probably not an option. (I'm basing the opinion on post #3, where the OP says he can hit his wanted spots for $3K)

As has already been mentioned, anytime you have to visit Africa outside of JNB you're going to find major problems making a complex RTW work. Seems your cheapest option would be:

1) RT LAX-LON which unfortunately won't be cheap Jun-Dec. I found $858 on ITA on BA.

2) LONE4 from LHR for about 1,400 Pounds. Something like:

lhr-cai-bcn-sjo-lax-sju-dfw-anc-dfw-eze-ccs-scl-ipc-scl-jfk-nrt-del-nrt-cgk-nrt-lhr

will get you the major destinations plus is about 72,000 miles for a well optimized MR. Might as well buy the LONE4 for 200 Pounds more and include South America for more miles and interesting destinations.

3) You can buy a seperate RT CAI-EBB for $544 in June on Egypt Air.

Total is about $4,200 not including tax on the RTW and will earn you a boatload of miles between the RTW and two seperate RTs. This also gets you home to LAX for a break partway through your trip at no extra cost.

AJohn, when OneWorld is so complicated, have you looked at a *A option? This might work for you a bit better maybe.