Hello,
We're currently planning a DONE5 trip ex JNB. We've been reading these forums and found heaps of helpful info, but we hoped to have some final comments on our planned route.

So far we have: JNB-HKG (stop and travel around asia, separate economy tickets)-JFK-MIA(stop and travel to cuba, separate tickets)-GYE-SCL-IPC-SCL-GRU(or other exit from SAm?)-LHR-JNB

This is the bones of the trip, so we have 6 more sectors to use. Flying business is a treat so we want to make sure we're on routes that are worthwhile being in business.

Priorities are: Nicest planes/service, then mileage maximisation

1. What would be the best way to get from South America to Europe? We don't have to go through LHR, but from our reading seem to think we should avoid Iberia D class (and hence MAD) What about royal jordanian to AMM? Should we go from S America up through JFK then over, perhaps if nicer planes fly that route?

2. We are happy to pay for some economy flights, where it's not worth using sectors. Other thoughts we had were to go HKG-SIN-HKG, but there are such cheap economy flights around asia so is that a worthwhile use of 2 sectors? also on our wishlist are Egypt, Dubai, Mauritius, Vegas, Cuba, Mexico..

3. Any suggestions doing something tricky like JFK-LAX-MEX to get miles across N America? We can't seem to make it work without using lots of sectors.

4. It seems that the best way to book from south africa is to ring AA RTW desk and then pay through mindpearl. Will this be the cheapest/easiest way?

Appreciate any help!

Hi! I think I may have some suggestion to you on two points:

IMO, BA or LA are the best option in D. IIRC, BA flies daily EZE-GRU-LHR, whereas LA flies from SCL to FRA & MAD. Another option may be LA to North America and then transfer without stopover to BA for the TATL leg, combining so both carriers and adding some more miles (two sectors, though). IB should be the option of last resort (their C-class is indeed poor when compared to BA).

I suggest you fly JFK-YVR-MEX. Both sectors have real long-haul business class since they are "continental" legs of intercon services. JFK-YVR is operated by CX (773) daily with the flight continuing on to HKG. YVR-MEX is JL (744) twice or three times weekly (plane originates in NRT).

From MEX, you can then continue to SCL on LA or LIM on LP. Alternatively, backtrack to MIA or DFW on AA and take advantage of AA's South American network ex-MIA/DFW.

Your itinerary may look sthg like this: JNB-HKG-JFK-YVR-MEX-MIA-GYE-SCL-IPC-SCL-GRU-LHR-JNB (with four more segments to be added somewhere).

Hi and welcome to FT!

In looking for "mileage maximisation" (are you British?) are you wanting maximum mileage for redemption purposes, or for airline FF plan status acquisition, or...? The reason for asking is that different FF plans have different methods for accumulating miles and status, often involving trade-offs (more redeemable miles v. higher status) that could influence your routing and itinerary, and always different methods of calculating your earnings - elite qualifying miles on AA, LA, IB, or tier points on BA, or sector credits on QF, and so on. Plus, some choices of route/carrier can have a big impact on FF earning and status, e.g. choosing between BA and AA for transatlantic travel means you can't (with specific exceptions) earn miles if using the "other" airline vis a vis your FF memberships.

So knowing where you live and where you usually fly, and/or knowing your airline preferences and what you want to achieve with your investment, apart from the sheer joy of traveling to new places... well, more information is needed.

Also, of course, a great deal of personal preference comes into play. I personally think Iberia's business class product is quite good, and I think Madrid airport is a joy to transit compared with (most) transits through Heathrow. Others may disagree.

I would also encourage you to look at Oneworld's continental air pass products, especially the one for South America, which offers excellent value and can allow you to make the most out of your time in SA, where distances are quite long.

One note also is that travel to Cuba might be more easily arranged from Mexico or South America than from Miami. And presumably you're aware of the prohibition of any AA segments on an RTW ticket that includes travel to Cuba (hence keep it out of the conversation with AA.)

But I'd recommend you start by clarifying your FF aims as well as where you'd like to go, given it's a big world and that a business class RTW ticket is a remarkable tool with which to explore it.

Thanks for your quick replies, Gardyloo you have very valid points.
We are currently living in the UK but after this trip will be moving to Australia. We are already Qantas FF members but with no status and low points. We are reading up on FF programs and seem to be deciding between sticking with Qantas or trying AA.
We won't be doing loads of travel once we're back in Aus, although will do some trips back to London and some to Asia. Probably in Economy though, so won't be earning much status wise.
I suppose while status is nice, we might not be able to retain status after the points from our RTW expire, so redemption may be better to focus on.
Our goals would be either using points to fly Australia to Asia, or upgrading flights from Australia to London.

Look forward to more wisdom

Here's a fairly fully utilized itin that covers a fair few of the places you have mentioned: http://slfft.allhyper.com/0.95/award...CT-LHR-MRU-JNB.

Saint Lucia is a fun stop-off on the way from JFK to MIA & is over 2000 miles from JFK. I've also taken the liberty of substituting MCT for DXB. That's only 'coz I think that DXB isn't worth seeing when you compare it with MCT, but DXB would work just as well.

About question 4., I'd be inclined to call the RTW desk, but ask them about queueing it to AA London for ticketing. With the new EU rule, this might save some problems & you should get the same price, converted to GBP. (Might also save a %age currency exchange fee on your credit card .)

Thanks for your reply satprof, good itinerary ideas there, st lucia is something I hadn't thought of.

I've looked through the forum to try and figure out what you mean by the above, what is the new EU rule? I found some posts that refer to it but can't quite get a handle on what it means.

Welcome to Flyer Talk mslise

The EU rule means you can ticket anywhere in EU for origin somewhere else and only get charged the fare of origin (instead of higher of fare of origin and fare of ticketed place).

See xONEx rule sheet.

Maybe I'm expecting too much too quickly, but from what I've been reading I'm hoping that this ban will be lifted very soon. Obama/Clinton has promised a very different approach to Cuba.

Better buy soon; I've heard OWE fares are going up next week ex-JNB (by a lot, the last increase was almost 100%). If necessary reserve just the 1st flight for the correct date -- you cannot change it later -- and leave the other 15 segments open (you can change those later for the USD 125 change fee if necessary). The increase could come as soon as Monday, so it would be wise to have an itin booked within a few hours from now if you want the current low price.

Another suggestion, flights to Cuba aren't cheap (buy it when you get to MEX or CUN), so you could potentially with your plans bypass AA altogether and have HAV on your itinierary, something like JNB-HKG-JFK-YVR-MEX,HAV-SCL-IPC-SCL-GYE-MAD-JNB, and you still have a couple of flights left over you could use in Asia or Europe...

You'd still need a one way ticket to HAV but that might save you something...

My memory must finally have caved in entirely - I don't recall anything like a 100% increase!

I ahve similar comment to the others that stopping in Miami with the intention of visiting Cuba on your own may be cumbersome and expensive, because you will then need to fly roundtrip from Miami most likely to Cancun or Mexico and then Havana and then back to Miami.

The increase in 2002 was about 80% from the price at the time and about 100% from where the price was a number of months before.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/1696747-post29.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/1696749-post31.html
The aone6's from JNB were quite the value at the time.

Ahh, so I haven't gone totally mad: that was not the "last increase". Since then prices have moved down (by 23%) and up gain (first by 5% and then 28%). (Interestingly the price now is only 9% more than it was in 2002 in nominal ZAR terms.)

AONE6 is not a good benchmark for value for RTW tickets IMO. It may have been when you could get 20 segments (or was it more at one time?) but 4 (or maybe 5 continents) seems to get better value with a maximum of 16 segments. So I wonder how many people use them. As evidence I note that when we last grumbled about the fare inceases ex South Africa, the focus was on DONE fares that went up by less than 7.5%. No one mentioned the fact that the AONE6 went up by 28%.

In 2002 I think you could do 31 segments on an AONE6 (5*4, 1*6 + 5 intercontinental)