I had another play with the oneworld tool, I could not get it to locate the direct flight from AKL-HKG so have gone via Sydney and changed the route slightly.

Here is the route I am looking at now: lhr-doh-per-syd-akl-syd-hkg-bom-kul-nrt-hnl-lax-sjo-lax-jfk-doh-lhr (GCM)

Everything works OK in the planner until I get to JFK, it is not showing up direct QR flights from JFK to DOH and only 1 stop flights (thus adding an additional segment)? Any reason why this might be?
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f6db314370.png

Best guess is that it's favoring BA because of the first segment part, the fact that we can't feed it segment by segment or designate carrier by segment is really frustrating.

With your CX problem, I've had similar issues with it, also on the AKL route oddly enough. The ONLY way I could get it to give me CX segments to AKL was to use CX as my favored carrier in the top right of the tool. But when I did that, it would also insist to route me on CX for other intra-Asia pairs vs. allowing the direct flight (on JL in my case, but have seen it do similar with other pairs).

I assume if I call AA RTW support they will be able to negotiate these issues and book the flights I want (assuming the appropriate class seat is available)? It is truly bizarre that oneworld can not iron out these issues in the online tool...

The AA RTW desk isn't using the tool to book, so don't worry about the idiosyncrasies of the tool. Just worry about availability and the possibility of needing an AA overwater flight.

I ran into multiple issues with the tool very recently when trying to book some QR and CX flights. When I listed BKK-DOH and DOH-MAD separately, it wouldn't show any QR flights for BKK-DOH and instead forced a connection in KUL.. When I listed BBK-MAD it correctly showed the QR flights.

Thanks, I only have two AA flights, one LAX-JFK and HNL-LAX, assume this will be sufficient and the latter will count as an overwater flight?

EDIT: noticed that JFK-DOH on QR702 has an AA code share (AA8116), will that count as an overwater flight for AA?

AA Overwater refers to the flights across continents, so in this case LAX-JFK and HNL-LAX won't count.

However, the AA codeshare will count in this case (my upcoming DONE5 has no AA overwater segments other than codeshared CMN-JFK and DFW-MEL)

Overwater means transpacific and transatlantic. Going North America-South America or Europe-southern Africa crosses continents but is not overwater. AA has direct flights to NRT, ICN, LHR, DOH on AA metal, besides codeshare to many locations, all of which count if asking AA desk to book the flight.

LAX-JFK is a trans continental flight.

Thanks njfan07 , so just to be clear AA8116 JFK-DOH will be considered overwater even though it is QR metal, provided I book through AA?

If I am BA GGL (which I am hoping to be) and on AA8116 then I assume I will have access to the Chelsea lounge at JFK?

Yes and yes.

Yes, I'm doing DFW-DOH, QR metal, using the AA codeshare. Also starting the DONE3 doing HND-JFK, JL metal, using AA codeshare. No trouble with AA RTW.

Important note: Out of the 3 people I spoke to about 3 weeks ago, 2 were very knowledgeable. After AA rate desk approved my itin, I wanted to change it but the 2nd agent saw the first flight was JL metal and said it should be booked with JL. I pointed out the rate desk already approved it and the changes were only later in the itin. . She put me on hold and came back and then made the changes. But when submitting it screwed something up and I had to call 2 days later. The 3rd agent was great like the 1st one, so like maybe the AA RTW also needs HUCA if they tell you something strange.

OK, here's a weird "bug"
The tool priced up the following business class 5-continent itinerary for me:It priced it as a 3-continernt itinerary! Base fare of JPY656,300 instead of JPY895,200

I changed the date of one flight (SYD-NAN), turning the first SYD transit into a stopover, and the base fare jumped to the correct DONE5 base fare.

When you go to pay, a pop-up gives you the choice of ticketing with JL (which requires you to phone to pay) or with QF (which you would pay online, and "Qantas will issue your ticket automatically".

Sadly, the itinerary is not quite what I want (i want to transit DOH to CPT, but the tool fails if I enter that), and also I don't think I'm brave enough to risk ticketing the "error fare". :D

I’ve found that the shambolic code quality of the OW booking engine extends through to the ticketing end. A friend showed me the itinerary email which was squirted (?pooped) out of the end of an on line booking:
- weird routings including a redundant overnight stop with no explanation
- a typo in a standard part of the text: “poviders”
- wrongly formatted times, eg “6:5” for 0605
- but worst of all, when a flight lands on day +1, it doesn’t tell you that!

These are pretty basic errors. Any beginner programmer should be able to put leading zeroes on minutes, or spellcheck. And any beginner agent should have spotted the missing +1day on a transpacific flight, during user acceptance testing.

Further proof that this engine should be avoided if at all possible.

I'm a retired IT business analyst
and I've cringed at the quality of this tool
I really doubt that anyone took the role of End User and specified that person's requirements
And I also doubt that any real user acceptance testing took place.

And don't get me started on the tool's AI interface (or as I call it the AU interface; AU = Artificial Unintelligence)

:D:D:tu: