Hello All, I have read many of the posts about traveling around the world here and I would love to get some tailored advice on my current plan. I have found this forum a lot more helpful than any of the airlines or travel agents I have talked to!

The stops are planned as follows:
BOS/SJD/SAO/LIM/NAN/SYD/PEK/BKK/DEL/NBO/JNB/TLS/BOS

Planning to leave Jan 2010 and end up in TLS by June 2010 (so 6 months of travel)

SJD is in there because we have a previously planned 1 week trip there

NAN is in there because we want to do a pacific island but we wouldn't mind going to another similar place that makes more sense as far as flight options

DEL is also adjustable as long as we end up somewhere in India

TLS is a family thing so can't change

The other variable we have talked about is switching the order of SYD and PEK (in order to travel in a hard place before relaxing in an easy place like SYD). Any input on the impact of this?

So there you have it, the idea is to hit those major cities and branch out from there on our own with other transportation.

I have tried planning with the online tools at oneworld, staralliance, and airtrek. None of these were able to give me exactly what I was looking for (although airtrek came the closest). I like the idea of being able to have flexible dates so airtrek might not quite fit either.

I would really appreciate any input that you might have on the locations, order of visiting, and booking options (either RTW tickets or Airtrek-style).

Thanks everyone, this is a great forum!

Welcome to Flyer Talk Glycerol

Do you have problems with security with a name like that?

NAN is not served by oneworld and would require either a separate ticket, or use of the global explorer RTW (instead of oneworld explorer).

But your itinerary is rather long and global explorer is mileage based, thus you'd need to drop some segments.

RTW tickets allow 16 flights. You will need to either drop some (or buy extra tickets for side trips) because you cannot fly your draft itinerary in only 16 flights. Most of your stopovers have no direct oneworld flights in between.

There is no intra-Africa flights on oneworld between NBO and JNB (NBO to JNB via LHR is not allowed because it is backtracking between continents). Thus this would need to be a surface sector (ie buy your own ticket) and surface sectors still count towards the maximum of 16 "flights".

As the post above you need to change your initineray. MM is a good starting point together with the Oneworld timetable

Thanks for the quick reply, you gave me a great tool to use! I will come back with a feasible itinerary!

Ok, after messing around a little (I love that interactive map!) I came up with a route that passes the verification:

BOS-DFW-GRU-LIM-SCL-SYD-PVG,HKG-BKK-DEL,JNB-BCN-BOS

We are planning to ride from PVG to HKG by train (for sightseeing) and from DEL to JNB by another carrier since apparently it's impossible to get from India to East Africa!

Unfortunately, when planning it on the oneworld site (with their flash app) I can't find a flight from SCL-SYD (even though it's in their route sheets).

What do you guys think about this new route?

Since the prices are based per continent is it worth trying to fill out my 16 segments? (I think I have 13 now).

Thanks again!

It's normally always worth using up your segments.

Qantas fly SCL-SYD as QF, LAN codeshare on this flight as LA. Note that this segment is very hard to get on an xONEx as L/D/A iavailability is generally minimal.

Have a look at this route for the dates in question using www.seatcounter.com - look for availability in the booking class you are after. (D for Business, A for First and L for economy).

Try SCL-AKL but as still hard to get as above post. A flight in the timetable and getting a flight are very different things. Also some flights are not every day. SCL then to EZE-SYD (on QF) may be easier from South America to Aust. Others have tried & failed to get from South America to Aust on a xONEx.

Try Cathay for HKG to JHB.

Link to your new initinerary here . Please be aware that flights in MM are not allways 100% correct as routes are inputted onto the program manually

Well that's just a kick in the pants then isn't it!?

Thanks for all of the input, I think it's back to the drawing board to find a way around south america...

With airtrek I have managed to put something together. Does anyone know off the top of their head what kind of restrictions they have on date flexibility?

Qantas fly EZE to SYD - use one of your three spare segments to get to EZE and try from there.

A couple of tweaks -

1. If you're traveling in economy class, SCL-SYD can be a hard ticket; however you have enough segments to go to Buenos Aires from either LIM or SCL, then take the nonstop Qantas flight to Sydney, which appears to have more "L" availability than the Lan flights from SCL to AKL or SYD.

2. If Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania is your desired landfall in East Africa, you can utilize the "free" LHR transit from DEL, and still go back to Europe from South Africa, with the surface segment being NBO (or DAR or EBB) to JNB instead of DEL-JNB. Read the Oneworld Explorer rules carefully for this wrinkle.

3. You still have 2 segments left, which could be spent in virtually any continent, including N. America.

For example, BOS-DFW-GRU-LIM-SCL-EZE-SYD-PVG,HKG-BKK-DEL-xLHR-NBO,JNB-BCN-MIA-BOS

There actually is lots of availability from South America to Australia in Business. L class is an issue but if you waitlist this soon there might still be a chance to get this done.

Regarding airtrek: I personally would just go through the AA RTW desk for this itinerary. They are very competent so there is no need for a Travel Agent.

Thanks Gardyloo, I will definitely check out the transfer thing. Does that mean that I would fly to NBO via LHR then? It might be nice to hang out in europe for a night or two after India...

If I use this transfer, can I stay in London for a while or would it have to be just part of the trip to NBO?

I'm still working on South America -> AU, I tried out EZE last night too and I could seem to find a flight (through the online tool). I will try and contact a live person at AA now that I have a more solid itinerary.

I will keep you posted on what I end up with!

You guys are awesome!

Read the rules again. You have to transit (not stop over) at London if you want to fly to Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania (or Nigeria or Ghana) otherwise you'd be entering Europe twice, which is otherwise prohibited. The transfer via London (either going to those countries or coming from) has to be in a direct connection to/from another continent (in your case, Asia.) This rule is due to those countries being connected to the rest of the Oneworld network ONLY through London.

Ok, I'm starting to get my head around this!

I read the rules... a couple of times. I obviously have a lot to learn about the airline industry!

Just a few lingering questions and I think I will be ready to book!

1) I get the LHR transfer thing, no problem. My question is: can I change my itinerary after I have started? Assuming that I stay within the rules, can I shift around my destinations? (I didn't know if "inventory" was the same as itinerary)

2) If I am staying in the same continent, can I backtrack to previous stops? For example, if I fly into SYD, then go up to CNS, but have to go back through SYD to get out to PVG is that ok?

3) Finally, I get that I have to book all of the flights before I fly international for the first time, but after that, if I leave them "open" when do I need to book them? Can I just walk in day-of and take a flight (as long as space is available)? Who will I be booking with? Specific airlines in the airport, a central desk to call, or somewhere on the internet? For example, this EZE-SYD, how often does that run and how soon would I need to book that?

You guys have been extremely helpful in figuring out this (seemingly) unneccisarily complicated product! Thank you so much! I don't know how I would have gotten this information from the official websites...

1.

After completing the first international segment you can change routing. As long as you don't change the continents this will cost USD125 + any service fee that may be applied.

Inventory does not equal itinerary. Inventory in this context represents the availability in the booking class of the type of xONEx you purchase. In the case of xONEx's it's basically A, D and L. This is important, see 3 below.

2.

Absolutely valid. Only limitation is 4 segments in each continent except for Nth America where the limit is 6.

3. You can book open segments with no issue. However you do need to actually book a flight before you travel. The inventory class relating to your booking needs to to be available at the time of doing so. The closer to the time of travel you do this the less chance of it happening. Space available does not come into it!