Why, oh why, do I have to go to KRK?
 

I had a nice little RTW planned out for June that was pushed off to August (thereby missing out on AADER :( ).

Now, we've added KRK onto the schedule. So, instead of ORK and AMS as EU stops, ORK is out and KRK is in. Next seg after KRK? DEL and a whirlwind of SE Asia.

The killer is, it's impossible to stay on OW and not have a 14 hour layover in LHR... even the Flagship Lounge can't keep me happy for 14 hours (if it was open).

Has anyone here been to KRK on OW and then on to Asia? Right now, I'm JFK - <HEL> - KRK; and KRK - <HEL> - <LHR> - DEL. From DEL on is very easy, but the KRK segment is killing me. I guess I could try the KRK - LGW; LHR - DEL run, but that's quite a gamble getting across London...

Cheers,

-Andrew

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How many Polish miles does it take to....

JFK-HEL-KRK is the fastest, though if the dayflight is an option, then JFK-LHR dayflight, overnight, LGW-KRK would get you into KRK by late morning and probably more refreshed than redeying to HEL.

Alternatively, LO flies JFK-KRK nonstop on Mondays, and you can start your RTW from KRK. Oneway C fares on LO are pretty cheap, I see the August Mondays for $1830 a/i. You could then put off flying the last few coupons to KRK for a year; if you fly to LHR or HEL a lot, you could just throw away the KRK part and get a useful oneway out of it.

LO is *A, though, right? Malev looked to be an option but that fell apart when I dug throught OW timetable.


I've debated an overnight in LHR, since we have an office ther and I can rack up a few thousand Marriott points. Plus, this is an 18-segs/6 cities in 15 days, so the respite may help keep from going insane.

However, I'll probably go via HEL since I've never done Finnair.

I'm trying to stay on OW due to the RTW ticket - I've maxed out the segments, and have about 31k base miles (fare will be ticketed in J/34k Explorer ticket, so 1.5 EQM), plus 2k base on 9W. This trip, plus other travel puts me at 75k... Which I'm trying to reach, of course.

I have 4 hours to go from LGW to LHR, which has to icnlude the 45 mile limo ride, clearing customs, and fetching my bag. Am I insane for even considering this?

Thanks for the idea.

Cheers,

-Andrew

Sorry, I forgot my the second half of the suggestion, which was to open a BD Diamond Club account. Between the 9k sign up bonus and the 5000+ BIS miles in C (200% earning on those) you would have enough for a oneway C+M award ticket in a premium cabin to almost anywhere in the world ex-JFK. That's a pretty good deal from 1 flight.

I would value a daylight flight with a night in a hotel room over trying AY in J...but I also despise most flights to Europe being a West Coaster. Other than the late AA and BA to LHR, and a late SFO-MUC on LH and LAX-ZRH on LX, the arrival times are horrible. And don't get me started on taking a connection - I'll arrive in Europe before I normally would even go to bed, and that's just asking for disaster. But I digress. I would recommend against a LHR-LGW transfer when you can either overnight in London, or connect from the same airport in Helsinki:D

How do book 18 segments on the RTW ticket. The maximum is 16 segments according to oneworld website and their online itinerary planner.

Flights and stopovers

* You are allowed to take two stopovers in total within your continent of origin in order to get to or from a gateway to begin or return from your international travel.
* After departing from your continent of origin, you are allowed to take up to four flights to explore each of the other continents (six flights in North America).
* You can book up to two additional flights per continent, at a set rate.
* You can fly up to 16 flight segments on your trip. Travel between two airsurface transportation will count as one flight segment.
http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...world-explorer


btw I like the interactive map provided on the oneworld site , it show you all the possible option between 2 cities.
http://www.innovata-llc.com/onw/default.asp?show=MAP


if BOM is an option you could try
11:30 KRK 14:30 HEL AY 0748
20:00 HEL 06:10 BOM AY 0029

It's actually 20 segs. 2 segs are off the RTW on 9W, since you cannot ticket 9W on RTW at this time. DEL-BLR-DEL.

Then, I have paid a fixed $400 payment to extend the ticket to hit NRT or SYD before I return to the states. I'm angling for a SYD routing, which is 32k EQM.

Thansk for the BOM suggestion... I had completely overlooked that. Has anyone ever done BOM on AY?

Cheers,

-Andrew

The point pltwannab is making is that you cannot book a 18-segment OW explorer (am I right, pltwannab?).

Since June 1, OW changed the rules and allows a maximum of 16 segments only on a xONEx ticket (surface segments included). If you wanted to have 18 segments, you'd have needed to ticket before June 1. Now it's not possible anymore.

The 16-segment limit applies to Global Explorer fares, too (from your previous post, I assume you're planning to book a DGLOB34, since you talk about a J/34k explorer fare).

Wow. My travel agent was totally wrong. I just got off the phone with AA RTW to verify, and sure enough, I can't buy up segments any more. Thanks pltwannab and SwissexLUG, you just saved me heartache with my agent.

My KRK problem stands, now I just have a boatload of segments to work out.

Cheers,

-Andrew

Although it would require an overnight at HEL due to arrival times, AY also has a daily n/s to DEL. So you could easily save a segment by going KRK-HEL-DEL.

(I recommend the Hilton attached to HEL. Very nice, sleek hotel, and not badly priced.)

Pricing for a GlobEx 34K J ticket is generally the same as a 4-continent Oneworld Explorer, so unless you need the added carriers, you might find it easier to use the OWE rather than the GlobEx. With 4 continents you could easily include SYD or some such on your route. Alternatively, you could stay with a DONE3 and save considerable costs compared to the GlobEx 34K product.

What's your planned itinerary?

A layover in HEL might be nice. The back half of the trip will happen over 7 days and the more rest, the better!

The OWE is much easier to use, but my agent had been basing things off of the 34/J fare. All of the airlines are OW (CX, JL, BA, AA), and side-trips (e.g. in-country India) are ticketed separately. That would hold true if I had to stop at ORK, as well. (Although there are AA flight codes in there...). Since I'm still new to the dark art of ticket and fare construction, I rely on them pretty heavily.

My (proposed) routing is:

JFK-(potential AMS, ORK stil)-KRK-(potential DEL)-BLR-KUL-MNL-(potential PVG, NRT, SYD)-return.

KUL and MNL on CX mean 2 segs each (connect in HKG). I am biased towards SYD because of the miles; but NRT is the most likely.

Cheers,

-Andrew

If you're flying in business class, ORK seems a waste of precious RTW segments as EI only offer flights to ORK in Y (and of course EI is ineligible for the Oneworld Explorer but is still okay for the GlobEx.) You might be better off conserving flights and just buy ORK tickets separately.

One thing to note with the GlobEx is that Gulf serves BLR directly from BAH, so if you could get from KRK to one of GF's European gateways you could use the RTW to get there more directly, again possibly saving a RTW coupon.

Oh, and a 34K mi DGLOB is presently around $100 more than a DONE4 if purchased in the USA, so another data point.

The Hilton from HEL. Nice one! :D