DONE3 or DCIR29SA, What am I missing?
 

I would like to travel from Miami to Montevideo/Buenos Aires, then on to Sydney and eastern Australia, and return in Feb 09.

A simple price search on EF gives me a DONE3 purchased in MIA for $8600. However, if I fly down to CCS to begin my journey there, a DCIR29SA can be purchased in Venezuela (yes, I have access to a TA in CCS) for only $8000 (not including currency discount). It seems like a no brainer, am I missing something?

A simple CCS-MIA-xMVD/EZE-SYD-xBNE-xCNS-xHKG-LAX-MIA routing puts me in at 27.5k miles. a) Is that a valid DCIR29 routing, and b) Would I be required to ticket all the way through to finish in CCS, or do I just have to start there? Yeah, I know I can throw away the last segment, but that puts me up against the 29k limit and no room for additional flights within Oz if I'd like.

For an extra $400, what's the advantage of a DONE4 over the DCIR29?

* Travel must originate and end in the same country, except USA/Canada (which are considered the same country). I haven't done that, but I think even open jaw at the destination is considered a surface segment and will be added to the 29K miles calculation.

* You may need to check on the South America point. I heard it must be Chile or Argentina. So EZE is fine but not MVD.

* DONE4 allows you to travel through Europe (and you must travel through Europe). You are not limited to 29K miles anymore. If you are only transiting in South America, you can consider DONE4 and travel via Europe instead.

xCIRnnxx rules: http://www.oneworld.com/content/libr...rule_sheet.pdf

If you start in MIA and want to go to EZE and SYD then the minimum you are looking at is a DONE5 NA-SA-SWP-Asia or Africa-Europe-NA so a DCIR29 is definitely going to be cheaper