hi there,
i've been reading as much as i can in this forum but am starting to suffer from an information overload. i've devised a rtw departing next january using the online booking tool and been given me a quote for the price which i'm more than happy with. so basically after i decide upon a ffp, i'm ready to go ahead and book it. it seems a very straight forward process and the tool says its validated and ready to book but i thought i'd run it by the expert opinions on here just to double check.
i'ts as follows
GOT>MAD (transitting through HEL)>GUA
surface sector
PTY>LGA (transitting through MIA)
JFK>PER (transitting through HKG)
surface sector
DPS>HKG (transitting through OSA)>KTM>GOT(transitting through HKG and HEL)
i'm wondering about a few things in particular:
1.does changing plans without stopping in a destination count as visiting a continent? for example does the JFK>PER flight that goes through HKG count as visiting asia. and if so is it backtracking to return after PER?
2.is it a problem to fly in and out of different airports in the same city? i.e. LGA and JFK.
3.do transit flights count as segments within continents? if so then do i have too many in asia? or is it only stops?
so any comments/help would be appreciated.
also whats the general opinion about booking online as it seems the majority of posters either go through travel agentsor deal with the airlines directly.
cheers

If I userstand correctly using the normal notation you are proposing:

GOT-xHEL-MAD-GUA//PTY-xMIA-LGA//JFK-xHKG-PER//DPS-xKIX-HKG-KTM-xHKG-xHEL-GOT

1. In general yes, but there is an exception to a second entry into Asia which, depending on how you interpret a comma in the rules, may make a transit in HKG between JFK and PER then a later entry to Asia valid. But I'm not aware of any recent reports of success getting such a routing ticketed. If you do then please let us know.

2. No, but if ticketed with specific flights then the LGA-JFK on the ground counts as one of your 16 segments. You may be able to get round this by having the ticket issued open-dated and to/from NYC; again this used to work, but no recent reports of success or failure.

3. Yes. All flights segments count towards your continent limits and both flight and ground segments count towards the overall 16 segment limit. Currently your route appears to have 16 total segments, and only 4 within Asia which is OK.

First, welcome to FT.

Some answers to your questions -

1. The online tool may say it's okay to go JFK-xHKG-PER, and later returning to Asia, but it's not supposed to. The only time you're allowed to transit Asia and then return to the continent is when the transit is between Europe and Australia/NZ, not between N. America (or S. America) and Australia. You could easily substitute JFK-SYD-PER without creating this conflict. If the ticket was issued via the online service showing your proposed route, the odds would be great that at some point it would be invalidated, leaving you with the need to pay for a re-issue using the "legal" routing.

Yes, whenever the wheels touch a continent, it's counted.

2. It's not a problem to use "co-terminals," however every time you do it it costs you a segment (out of a max of 16.) In the case of PTY-xMIA-NYC, there are plenty of flights from Miami to JFK, so if your next flight departs JFK you can save a segment by just setting it up to fly there in the first place. Same goes for LHR and LGW in London, NRT and HND in Tokyo, and similar situations in other cities.

3. If your route is ...DPS-KIX-HKG-KTM-HKG-HEL... you're okay, 4 flights in Asia. Surface segments count against the 16, but not against the per-continent total.

So clear up the JFK-SYD-PER thing and you should be good to go.

The transiting of Asia from North America to SWP has not posed a problem for me. I booked and purchased 2 tickets using the OW tool with a DFW-NRT-PER routing and did my 4 Asia segments on my way back to UK. In the past the AA RTW desk would be a yes/no/yes/whos on 1st base scenerio.

That's excellent news - increases the mileage earning potential significantly and opens up a lot more trans-pacific routings.

Hi trav!
Maybe it's a dumb question but why are you transiting Osaka/KIX when flying from DPS to HKG? You could fly direct on CX and have one more segment in Asia to add somewhere. Or are you avoiding CX because of limited mileage earning in some oneworld programs when flying economy?

Your Asian itinerary may then be sthg like ...DPS-HKG-KTM-HKG-SIN/BKK/NRT-...

trav,

If christep got your itinerary correctly, you might want to consider starting the trip in the UK. The LONE4 fare from the UK is about 270 EUR cheaper than Sweden (1,549 GBP = 1,807 EUR, 21,500 SEK = 2,076 EUR). I'm not sure if taxes or fees change this equation. The big advantage is not savings, if any, since you still need to get from GOT to the UK; however you get two extra segments.

Combine this with gaining a sector by dropping the LGA-JFK sector (as suggested by Gardyloo), and now you have three sector to play around in North America (you are only using two right now). If you can reverse GUA//PTY you could do PTY//GUA-JFK (AA 0928 has one stop, but should count as a single sector).

So your trip will look like:
GOT-LON (not part of RTW)
LHR-MAD-GUA//PTY-xMIA-JFK-(na1)-(na2)-(na3)-xHKG-PER//DPS-xKIX-HKG-KTM-xHKG-LHR
LON-GOT (not part of RTW)

If your na3 is LAX,SFO or HNL you could get to PER via SYD and replace the first xHKG

thanks very much for all the advice, its cleared the uncertainties up. i made the change to JFK-SYD-PER following Gardyloo's suggestion. Judging from some of the other posts it mightv'e been ok the way I had it, but decided I didn't wanna take the risk of it being invalidated later on. It might take a few more hours flying time but i can live with that.
as for the rest I think i'm all set. I appreciate the tips regarding maximising segments and how to get the most flights possible but we're actually restricted by time more than anything else. a wedding in one place on a certain date, a birthday in another etc. so although more sidetrips would be fantastic its just not possible.
but inevitably the next question is, which frequent flyer program would you recommend? considering it'll be an economy trip class fare and i'll be trying to use points towards reward flights. i'm not currently a member of any program, based in sweden so most of my flying is done throughout europe but i also try to return home to australia once a year. any input would be greatly appreciated.

I'd say AA or QF for your itinerary. If you plan to travel to Australia once a year and think about using QF or BA, then probably QF makes more sense (although QF redemption is terrible).

For your itinerary, the situation would be as follows:

Crediting to AA:
100% for AA, AY
70% for JL
50% for QF
30% for IB
nothing for CX

Crediting to QF:
100% for QF, AY, IB
70% for JL
50% for AA, CX

Of course AA would allow you to make a Platinum or Gold Challenge and your PTY-MIA-JFK-SYD booked under AA number would get you to Platinum. This would mean double miles for your JFK-SYD sector and same for the remaining AY legs + lounge access. On the other hand, your yearly hop to Australia would only earn 50% on QF and 25% on BA (if traveling economy of course).