Itinerary check - done4/aone4
 

Hey folks, another first-time poster. (I've read through the forum with interest but my head still hurts a little thinking through the options.)

I'm considering a RTW ticket starting in Feb and mileage monkey tells me the following route is valid:

lhr-eze-scl-ipc-scl-akl-syd-per-drw-syd-bkk,han-hkg-pek-hkg-pvg-lhr

I am in the U.S. but wanted to try to take advantage of the UK fares if I can, hence the start in LHR.

Any comments/suggestions are welcome, but I had a few specific Qs:

(1) I am torn between D and A class--I could stretch for A but saving money is always nice. I have tried to understand the rules but I'm not completely getting it: if I have an A ticket but there is no first class cabin, would I have to sit in coach, or could I sit in the business class cabin? And does the D class ticket have lounge privileges, in general?

(2) Getting the UK rate. Again, tried to follow the discussion but I must be a little slow. Seems to me I should be calling the AA RTW desk, get a locator/PNR and ask them to price it in Pounds, then actually buy the ticket from a travel agent in the UK or Canada. Is that right? If so, any suggestions on travel agents in Canada/UK that would "get it"?

(3) I am not entirely happy with my routing in S.Am. I plan to travel around Argentina and Chile, but there seems to be no sensible way to incorporate this into the ticket. E.g. I would love to fly from EZE to Patagonia and thence to SCL, but I can't seem to find a routing that would do that without wasting an overland segment. Anyone know something I am missing?

THANK YOU in advance for any advice/info, and sorry if I'm inadvertently rehashing well-worn topics.

(1) If on an AONEn when on a 2-class flight (business but no first) then you sit in business (assuming availability in D). A DONEn gets you business class lounge access, unless you are on legs where you are in economy (either because it's a one-class flight or because you have to book in L because of lack of availability in D).

(2) Correct. AA UK ticketing seem to be on the ball.

(3) Never done S.Am - I'll leave that to someone else who knows it better.

Wow, that was quick, thanks! But I have to ask a noob followup. By "AA UK ticketing" do you mean a separate entity from the RTW desk--i.e., I hang up with the RTW desk, pick up the phone and call AA in London, and ask them to ticket me using the PNR I got from the RTW desk? That would be handy.

Yes. Exactly that. Ask the AA RTW desk to set it up for ticketing through AA UK and then call them to do it.

Excellent. (Said in a C. Montgomery Burns voice while touching fingertips together.)

I don't think your syd-per-drw-syd routing is allowed becuase of the following rule requiring you to have another flight to break up one of the syd-per or drw-syd flights.

Within Australia - only one nonstop/single plane service flight is permitted between the following points:
BNE/CNS/SYD/MEL - PER
MEL/SYD – DRW
MEL/SYD - BME

Thanks, yes, the fare rules for Australia really make you jump through hoops if you want to see Perth! Mileage Monkey said it was okay, it seems that PER-DRW does not count against you (MM could be wrong, but the rule you quote looks consistent with this).

I am considering another tack, which is to go AKL-SYD-CNS-DRW-PER-SIN (MM approves) and then pay my way from Singapore through Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam and pick up again HAN-HKG. Flights in Australia are expensive! If anyone has a view between the two ways of doing it, I'd be interested to hear it . . .

this looks similar to my planned itinerary check - im worried by the lack of aa flights, hope they will take the booking... have you got any aa metal segments?

Erm . . . no. I suppose that could be an issue. One Qantas flight is an AA codeshare, but that may not help.

After looking through the available flights, only 3 in my revised itinerary have first-class cabins, and one is a pretty short flight, so A class hardly seems worth the premium.

I was struck by another thought, spurred by the notion that I might want to take a short hop back to the U.S. mid-trip. That thought was, I'll be in Asia anyway, why not visit S. Korea and get an xone3 and go around the world in the other direction before resuming my itinerary?

I will have to sleep on this, it's possible that all this logistics planning has driven me temporarily insane. Plus I would be essentially living on aircraft for quite a while.

If I were to do this crazy thing, I guess I would also have to figure out how to book a flight ex-ICN. I assume that really does require a travel agent, although I would actually be flying AA metal on this one so I suppose using the RTW desk would be OK. Any leads on what S. Korea travel agent I would use for this kind of thing?

And while I'm at it . . . if an xONE3 goes ICN-NRT-(North America stops)-(Europe stops)-HEL-BKK-HKG-ICN, is that kosher if the stopovers between BKK-HKG and HKG-ICN are each less than 24 hours? I wouldn't plan to use the last two segments in any event. Mileage Monkey says OK, the OneWorld online booking tool gives me a "warning": "You have already used the maximum of two stopovers in your continent of departure. You can only make an extra stop if it is less than 24 hours." So . . . OK?

Are you aware the business/1st class RTW ex-UK are some of the most expensive fares? It is the economy class RTW ex-UK that are the bargains. As for ticketing, as christep has stated, set it up with AA RTW desk. Then take a weekend trip to Toronto and buy the ticket at the AA ticket desk at the airport.

Thanks! Re: going to Toronto, is it really necessary to physically show up, since it's an e-ticket? I was hoping not to have to make a trip!

Re: the economics, thanks for pointing this out. I've been crunching the numbers. The way I figure it, it's all relative, but UK seems to make sense.

DONE5 from the U.S. = $10,400 (I think you have to add the continent, you touch Europe between Asia and N. Am., right? If not, still, DONE4 = $9,100)
DONE4 from South America = $8,400
DONE4 from Europe = ~$7,560
DONE4 from the UK = ~$6,565

I think the current exchange rate between the dollar and the pound makes this a relatively good time to buy from the UK--a $4000 difference is very much worth it! That is, if you are willing to pay the premium for business class in the first place. Some aren't, that's fine.

I am well aware that A&D fares from South Africa and S. Korea are much better. DONE4 ex-ICN is $4857. But I want to start in South America and S. Korea kills that. Plus it's a much longer and more expensive flight from JFK to ICN and back. An extra $1610 for a nonstop RT flight plus 15 hours sitting in coach each way? The S. Korean advantage completely disappears. South Africa is no better.

LHR is easy and cheap to get to from NYC, and a fairly short flight. But if there's some other starting point that is cheap and makes sense I'm all ears!

Unfortunately all the LA flights from Buenos Aires to Patagonia fly out of AEP so if you wanted to go to somewhere like Ushuaia then you'd be looking at LHR-EZE,AEP-USH-SCL-... which would still allow you to visit IPC but the airport change takes up a sector, which is frustrating.

I'm fairly sure that you can book xONEx fares ex-wherever, in the currency of the departure country, using the online booking tool. Just plug your desired routing in, select flights, and the tool will give you a price. When I recently put in an itinerary ex-JNB the quoted price was the one displayed in ZAR on the oneworld website, despite my Australian IP.

Also, for mucking around with routing and destinations I thoroughly recommend getting a copy of AirlineRouteMapper (search for it on Google). I find it invaluable for planning trips .. now all I need is the money to actually go ;)

That should be fine, once you select the flights BKK-HKG-ICN the warning should disappear.

Great stuff! Thank you. The tip about the airport change is good to know, I had not realized this would have to be treated as an overland segment.

I had not even thought to use the tool for booking--I assumed they would require an address/credit card and price you based on that. Shouldn't make assumptions! So long as I don't need open sectors I will likely give that a try, the tool seems relatively friendly except for slightly cryptic warnings at times.

AirlineRouteMapper looks great, can't wait to play with it! I guess I need to start delving into the other forums here, I'm sure there's all sorts of handy info. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction!

The price of a OW ticket is NEVER, EVER based on anything to do with the country of issue or the billing address of your credit card. It is based entirely on the Country of Origin of the ticket, and the Country of Sale (which means the location of the OW office or travel agent selling the ticket to you; in the case of online sales the Country of Sale is set to be the Country of Origin).

That's really good to know, thanks!