I am considering booking an LONE5 with the following itinerary. I've run it through the Oneworld Itinerary Planner, and I think it comes up fine, but I wanted to get opinions here. I figured the experts on this forum would know of any possible pitfalls.

JFK-EZE//UIO-SCL-IPC-SCL-LIM-xLAX-xHKG-TPE-HKG//JNB-LVI-JNB-CPT-LHR-EWR

I also have the following questions. I've searched here and gotten some guidance, but I haven't found these specific answers:

1) If I am traveling on a LONE5, does Oneworld put any restrictions on purchasing a separate ticket for and traveling on an additional flight on a Oneworld carrier, when that additional flight would not fit into the rules of the RTW ticket?

2) If I leave any segments open-dated, how long before I want to fly would it be advisable to set the flight date for that flight?

3) There are mentions of taxes and fees throughout the board. How can I get an estimate of what those taxes and fees would be on this itinerary?

4) Do you advise I book through the AA RTW desk as opposed to online? I realize that the AA RTW desk can leave segments open dated, while the online system cannot, but is there another advantage?

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Eliza

Eliza,

welcome to Flyertalk!

1. Never a problem to buy other ticket - I usually have 2 or 3 RTWs open at the same time and buy OWs or RTs in between. As long as you follow the rules for each of the tickets (use coupons in sequence, don't leave cupons out - except on the end) you will be fine.

2. It really depends on the route. Some flights sell out quickly in the RTW classes, some are available even on the same day. So it really depends. Since date changes are free i would recommend to issue the ticket open, then a few month book a flight and then change the reservation as often as you want.

3. They depend on the airports and number of stops. A transit is usually cheaper than a stop, also different airlines have different fuel surcharges. I have a great travel agent who does all my tickets and he is usually within 10 % when guessing the amount of taxes. On my last RTW taxes have been around 800 US$, but yours can be very different.

4. If you plan to do multiple changes, change the routing etc i would recommend to use an experienced travel agent. Emailing the agent what you want to have changed is far easier than spending hours with the airlines on the phone when travelling. Since i typically change the routing on an RTW at least once and have numerous date changes i believe it is well worth the fees the agent charges. If you don't plan on changing much around booking online or direct with an airline (AA seems to be good) is cheaper.

Btw, you are wasting HKG-JNB. Lots of miles.

Unterwegs,

Thanks for the information!

I do realize I'm wasting HKG-JNB, but it seemed to be the best way to route the itinerary. HKG to MOW is going to be actually over land, by train, followed by flights to CAI, DAR, and then to JNB. No matter what I tried in the itinerary planner, I couldn't find a way to get into Africa on the RTW itinerary after arriving in Europe over land. Any suggestions for how to reduce the waste?

Thanks,
Eliza

One more question...

If you have a LHR to EWR flight on your itinerary, and you change the date, would an LHR to JFK flight count as just a date change (because EWR and JFK are both considered NYC) or an itinerary change?

Nope - that's a rerouting change these days. Moreover, if you flew into JFK then JFK-EWR ground segment would be one of your 16.

The way to avoid this is to force a paper issue by using open-dating, and get the relevant coupons ticketed to/from NYC. Make separate stand-alone reservations direct with the airline and simply give them the ticket number. (Caveat: this used to work fine, but I haven't had cause to try it for the last few years.)

christep, thanks for the info re: rerouting.

If I change the itinerary to the below, will I be able to book it? It looks to me that it should work, with being charged twice for having too many sectors/segments (one too many sectors in South America, and one more segment than 16), but I may be mistaken. The online tool isn't helpful for this because it just gives me the too many sectors and too many segments error messages.

JFK-EZE-UIO-SCL-IPC-xSCL-LIM-xLAX-NRT-GUM-TPE-HKG//LVI-JNB-CPT-LHR-NYC

Which oneworld airline do you believe flies GUM-TPE? I only see China Airlines flying that twice per week. So you would need to go via Japan, and that takes you over the 16 segments.

You're right. The GUM-TPE should be GUM-xNRT-TPE, which was a key typo. So that takes me over the 17. Will I be able to book, anyway, with paying the extra fee?

No - you can pay extra for the 5th segment in S America, but there is no possibility to exceed 16 segments these days.