DONE4 ex-ICN, first flight as surface segment?
 

Hello all,

Am looking to book a DONE4 ex-ICN and am wondering whether I can have the first segment ICN-HKG or ICN-NRT as a surface segment, and avoid having to actually fly into ICN and overnight it prior to starting the DONE4?

Cheers,

ACN

I'm going to guess not, but it's an interesting and creative idea, and I'll be very interested to see what others, more informed than I, have to say.

Computer says no ......

If you try it in the online tool, it'll tell you that "Your itinerary must start with a flight segment".

FWIW the MileageMonkey lets you use a surface sector on the last sector, but not on the first. I believe the origin of the XONEX is defined as the country of departure of the first flight.

I'd love to hear that it is possible though, that would be very interesting.

The oneworld rules state that your first segment can not be a surface segment.

Nice try ;)

Well...it was worth a try!
 

Guess the good folks at OW figured out that game. Ahh well...guess overnighting in Seoul won't be so bad.

You can do HKG-ICN-HKG in one day, even in F on some days of the week.

If you want to save on accommodation you could always take the red-eye in to ICN from HKG.

As we (potentially) have the same issue, I'd started to look at this - it appears that (like Changi in Singapore) there is a transit hotel inside security at ICN, which should make it a lot easier.

ICN Transit Hotel

I have to get the HKG portion lined up with future biz travel as I'm based out of SYD. Although I do have a planned trip towards the middle/end of May, with corporate travel budgets squeezed, I might have to fly asiana on the direct from SYD to ICN...which means overnighting it as the flight would arrive at 18:45.

Awesome. Thanks for the heads-up. I might just take up a night in this hotel.

Or the Hyatt outside which is very nice. And QF codeshare on the OZ flights and has the right hand side of the plane normally.

But can the last segment be a surface segment?

i.e. Can I end up anywhere within my continent of origin (Europe/ME) and as long as I have only used 15 segments take my 16th as a surface segment to get back to my country of origin? Could be useful...

You must end you travel at any oneworld serviced airport in your contry of origin. There are exceptions:

Of Course you can just no-show for your last sector.

I did that a couple of times when flying PEK-LHRx-AUH on the old OneWorld AAward rules. This routing always meant an overnight at LHR so having bag checked to LHR instead of AUH was never disputed.

The benefit used to be, AAwards only charged the PEK-AUH Mileage..sadly that loophole was changed 1 Sept 2008:(

The hotel appears to be airside, making it quite convenient for people with a few hours layover.

I'm working on an ex-ICN DONE4, and separate positioning flights to get to ICN, which don't work as a connection, so we'll have to overnight in Seoul. I assume we'd have to check bags only to ICN for the positioning flights. So, when we get to ICN, I guess we clear immigration, collect the bags, clear customs, but then how do we get to the hotel? Being the night before, it's likely too early to check in for the DONE4.

This looks much closer than either Hilton, thanks.

Are OZ-operated flights permitted on xONEx, even with a QF flight number? I thought all xONEx flights needed to be operated by one of the carriers explicitly listed, that codeshares don't matter.

Either it has to be carry-on only or else you'll have to get them to check the bags through to your 'final' destination. That may/shouldn't be a problem, but it probably depends on who you're flying and from where to where.

The OP is SYD based and needs to get to ICN before he starts the DONE4. So SYD-ICN would not be on a DONE4 so therefore can be booked as a QF codeshare. It is just a positioning flight.

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We'll be flying san-lax-nrt-icn (on aa/jal) for the positioning flight. I think we get to icn two days later due to the date line. After the overnight in Seoul we fly cx icn-hkg. Would checking bags through be possible in san?

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Oh! That makes sense--sorry for being dense.

Possible - yes, I would think so. Certain - maybe not.

I think it depends on two things -
1. The airport's ability to handle 'overnight' bags
2. The airline's willingness to tag it all the way through for you.

Some airports can certainly handle 'overnight' bags - NRT for example. ICN - I don't know though the comments in this thread would certainly suggest they can. In it, the poster (flying OZ) says "A folder has already been pre-printed with my boarding pass, bag tags (all the way to HKG despite an overnight layover at ICN),..."

The second part is convincing the airline that you're checking in with that it's ok to check the bag all the way through. If you're checking in with AA and you're EXP, then it ought not to be any issue convincing them that it's ok to check the bag through. Show them the itinerary and, if all else fails, assuming it's got some AA legs in it and/or you know the PNR, they can pull it up and see it. The issue for them is probably just whether it's 'ok' to check bags through on to flights that aren't on the itinerary they're checking you in for.

Let us know how it goes - some of us have a vested interest in the answer! I hope you don't find out the hard way that it can't be done but I suspect it's not an issue.

[Edited to add]
You get the feeling from their transfer information that they're pretty organized and the bags shouldn't be an issue. As I was looking at this, the 'light bulb' went on as I realized that any airport that has a transit hotel inside security must be able to handle overnight bags. It really wouldn't make much sense to have a hotel inside security if having to collect your bags was required.

Thanks for that idea I may just use that one, however, is there any issues with doing this? I guess you would check in online before leaving HKG and then on arrival to ICN, you would just transit back to departures???

[QUOTE=anabolism;11445705]This looks much closer than either Hilton, thanks.

Stayed at the Hyatt many times, very nice and convinient, shuttle takes less than 5 minutes and goes every 15minutes. I usually get a better rate by calling them then than online, not sure why.

Shuttle pickup is all the way to the left on the bottom floor (arrivals). Stand #1 I believe.