Done3 Need help max the tier/miles
 

Hi
I am booking a Done3 and need help maximising the tier and miles. I am BA EC Silver.
I was thinking of doing it this way.
ARN-1-LHR-2-NRT-3-SIN-4-HKG-5-SIN-6-NRT-7-HNL-8-XXX-9-XXX-10-XXX-11-XXX-12-XXX-13-LHR-14-DXB-15-LHR-16-ARN

In North America i need to go to PTY in some of the XXX.
Also how is JL SIN-NRT service? Ba prefix so miles and tier or?
The NRT-HNL is for extra 120 tierpoints on Jalways?? How is that?

Tord

I'm no expert on maximising your tier points, this might help for maximising the miles: 46,245 over three continents seems quite decent to me.

ARN-LHR-NRT-SIN-HKG-SIN-NRT-HNL-MIA-PTY-MIA-UVF-LAX-LHR-DXB-LHR-ARN

UVF is St Lucia if that tempts you... :)

Hope it helps.

Be aware that Hawaii - US Mainland books in L class on a DONEx, so the extra tier points gained on NRT-HNL will be (partially) lost on the next leg, in addition to having to ride in the back, unless you have AA miles for upgrading.

Eh? I don't see anything to that effect in the fare rules.

I can't find a HNL-MIA route in the AA network so I think you are out of luck on that one.

Have you had a play with Mileage Monkey?

You could do something like this to score a couple of 180 TP flights within the US sectors.

http://slfft.allhyper.com/0.95/award...HR-DXB-LHR-ARN


Neither can I :confused:

"FOR SERVICES WITHIN THE USA WHERE NO BUSINESS CLASS IS OFFERED BUSINESS CLASS PASSENGERS MAY BOOK AND TRAVEL IN FIRST CLASS /BOOKING CODE A"

Unless it has changed very recently, "within the USA" does not include Hawaii...

The current oneworld timetable (Feb 20 - Mar 20) lists HNL-MIA and says it's AA162 daily with a 757.

Obviously going via MIA instead of DFW en route to PTY maximises the miles.

Maybe the HNL-MIA flight is seasonal though? It's something I'm planning on doing early next year so if you know it's not permanent then please say.

Ah you are right. Must be seasonal as it does not show up later in the year on EF.

It shows as a stop in LAX on the way. 10 plus hours on a 757 - not for me thanks. ;)

Hawaii has been fully part of the USA since 1959. I can find no evidence in the rule sheets that flights to/from Hawaii are any different from any other US domestic flight on a xONEn ticket, except in that only one such flight is allowed.

What is your evidence for your assertion?

Right, but then again "so what"? As I am sure you know, for the purpose of airline rules Mexico City may or may not be in North America, the US and Canada are sometimes one country, and so on...

This is information I got from a couple of different travel agents as recent as last year (all other info I got was correct so I had no good reason to doubt this particular piece). But they may have been wrong (I ended up booking itineraries not including any US mainland - Hawaii flights). Actually, that would be good news to me...

The rule sheet point 4(k) says "Within the US/Canada only one nonstop or single plane service transcontinental flight permitted" and it lists the destinations on East and West coasts between which a flight is counted as "transcontinental". Hawaii isn't in this list, although intriguingly Puerto Rico is.

Evidently HNL-MIA is "transcontinental" and "within the US/Canada" (from a political perspective at least)

Maybe Hawaii isn't on the list because there is the separate rule in 4(b) saying you can't backtrack from there to the "continental" US / Canada; or it could be because Hawaii isn't counted as "within the USA" for the airlines' purposes. Don't know for sure. Just a possible interpretation.

The TAs are in error. I have flown in A on HNL segments in DONExs recently.

Edited to add: SIN-NRT on JL is fine. One never knows what seat/plane configuration one will get on JL; the older J seats are comfortable enough if old fashioned; the service is always excellent.

Can't comment on JALways - reviews have said they use older 743s with no individual IFE; however the schedule shows 744s on NRT-HNL, but as mentioned JAL has a bunch of different configurations of 744s so don't know if the plane is the same but service diminished, or what. JALways is JL's budget subsidiary, used for high-density tourist routes.

If your intent is to make BAEC Gold, then IIRC any routing that gets you to 1500+ TP will do the trick. Don't forget that D tickets book into A on AA 2-class domestic flights in the USA, so HNL-LAX/DFW/SFO would earn 180 TP, as would any 2-class US transcon (SFO-MIA, LAX-MIA etc.) There's no first class on Caribbean, Canadian or Latin America routes, so only D TPs on those.

By comparison, ARN-LHR-HKG-NRT-SIN-NRT-DFW-ANC-DFW-MIA-PTY-MIA-LAX-LHR-DXB-LHR-ARN earns 1640 TP, provided you're traveling during the seasonal Alaska service.

OK. Glad to be wrong. Thanks!