Another DONE4 Validation - improvements welcome
 

Thanks a lot to everyone who is following my journey to every country in the world. I'm in Seattle now, but will be back out on the road in about two weeks.

Before we all start getting screwed over on the loss of 20-segment RTWs, I decided I should probably do some forward planning and ticket another one before June 1. Ideally I'll end up getting more than one, but we'll leave that discussion ("Bankruptcy vs. RTW?") for later.

Okay, here's what I'm looking at:

JNB-MRU-LHR-LCA-BUD-KBP-LHR-MIA-PTY-MIA-BZE-DFW-SEA-JFK-HKG-PNH-HKG-KTM-HKG-JNB

(19 segments so far; I may need at least one overland segment depending on how we structure it)

My criteria are 1) I need to go places I haven't been before, as much as possible with a consideration for out-of-the-way places, and after that, 2) mileage maximization on AA.

A few considerations:

*I'll combine this trip with some overland or additional ticketed travel-- for example, I'll go to Bhutan from KTM and Moldova from the Ukraine.

*In the validator PNH does not show up as a valid destination, but I believe DragonAir flies there, so I chose "ignore errors" for that one.

*I'd like to work a couple of the first segments into visiting Windhoek, Namibia-- but it seems that would not be possible due to the need to transit back through JNB. Correct?

*I know I could switch the PNH to Dhaka or Columbo, but I need to get to Cambodia and Laos sometime, so I may save one of the longer flights for later.

How can we make this better? On my first one, which I'm currently traveling on, you guys helped a lot with improved routings, increased mileage, and overall good tips.

Thanks in advance for checking it out!

Difficult to give you any recommendation since you have optimized quite a bit and because we don't know to which places you need to go.

But, here is one thought:

If you replace KBP with another city which can be reached from BUD and MAD, you can fly to Madrid instead of London so you can avoid LHR and you can take a direct flight to PTY from MAD. And then maybe PTY-DFW-BZE-DFW-ANC-DFW-JFK which gives you more miles than your itinerary.

Ooops, deleted for bad advice. Too many EUR segments.

Yes, true. I have learned a lot from everyone here since routing the first one.

I like the idea of skipping LHR whenever possible, so I'll look at the IB routes-- thanks for that. As for ANC, I'd love to throw it in sometime, but I can't do so at the expense of my SEA stopover (my home city that I incorporate in all RTW and Awards trips) or losing segments to get to other countries.

I'll keep working on it. If anyone else has advice, please feel free to share.

The MAD-PTY flight is via GUA - which gives another stopover option. Note that IB flies GUA-PTY but not v.v.

Another way of doing this might be a surface segment. So MAD-PTY surface to BZE-DFW-ANC-DFW-SEA-JFK.

This "surface" segment can also be used to do a few flights on COPA which have their hub in PTY. They have flights which stop in one country after the other so you can hop through central America and tick a few countries off your list.

Both good comments-- thanks!

It seems there may be some more optimization I can do using IB, so I'm looking through their Eastern Europe options and comparing them to BA and Malev. I seem to recall that BA used to have a lot more flights that way, and to Africa and Central Asia too, but perhaps I'm remembering wrong.

Is that GUA-PTY IB routing bookable? It does not come up in searches for several random dates I plugged in, although the MAD-GUA and MAD-PTY flights appear.

I also see that IB has a flight to Malabo-- there's no chance I could get that in, right? I don't completely understand the return-to-Africa for one flight rule.

Lastly, I might look at going up to HEL and taking the train to St. Petersburg if I can get a Russian visa before leaving on the trip. Unfortunately it looks like one of the St. Petersburg flights is a non-OW codeshare, so I can't use it as a stop between two hubs... unless I'm missing something.

Let's put it this way: IB has traffic rights GUA-PTY so it can be sold. I have never booked it on an OWE though.

The rule is:
Equatorial Guinea is not on the above list of countries, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.
How about MAD-SSG surface segment to LOS-xMAD-somewhere outside Europe? Will take three segments to do it -but you can tick off another country or two.

Why EQ? Want to check out Simon Mann in Black Beach jail?

I'm wondering how do you think it would be possible? Except for one report two or so years ago I haven't heard of anyone being able to use the second transit in EUR for other than to the listed countries. And the mistake was "noticed" when the person reticketed in the middle of the aonex.

This isn't possible under the rules. When deepbluesky returns to Africa he cannot leave again. If he has available segments at the end of the trip he could route from HKG(LHR)ACC/NBO/EBB or somewhere similar legally under the rules (although some have had trouble ticketing the 2nd EUR transit w/o stopover to the select African countries).

No you don't. BMED used to be a BA franchise and is now part of Star Alliance via BMI. Luckily comair has renewed their BA franchise for another 11 years otherwise your trip to MRU wouldn't work anymore.

There are AY operated flights between St Petersburg and Helsinki every day plus some codeshare, so you should be fine.

BTW the flight to SSG is not on the oneworld map yet, so good find. Hopefully it will be updated soon.

Will be interesting to see whether the OP can make this work. The only chance I can see is that the rule says

So after with a surface segment to LOS you are traveling via.

To me your example means you are traveling to LOS but via SSG. Traveling via someplace usually means that it is an intermediate point on your trip to somewhere else. In any event the entire rule says:
To me the rule still requires the transfer to be between the select countries and another continent, I'm not sure how via can be read as allowing travel between any other country in Africa and then surface to those countries.

Oh, I agree with you that chances are slim. I am just saying that the only hope of achieving this might be to argue, that the OP would be traveling from SSG to the US via LOS and MAD.

It appears to be on the oneworld interactive map here. Type in MAD and it shows up.