First-time ATW needs feedback
 

Hi, I'm about to book my first RTW on oneworld.com and would value the feedback of experienced travellers.

I'm booking a LONE3, traveling for 2 months, departure 13-october. My goal is to increase my mileage as much as possible. The itinerary is not flexible, ie all the cities I have chosen are dear to my heart (except DEL). I'm a member of AAdvantage, no status, but i hope to get status after this trip.

Here's the itinerary:
YUL-LGW-KRK--BUD-TLV-AMM-DEL-HKG-HAN-NRT-LAX-DEN-ORD-YUL

Here are my questions:

1.Is there anything I'm missing in terms of ticket fare, ie would it be cheaper for me to buy it in London, or in the USA (and change my departure city accordingly)? Current quoted price is CAD$3515 + $632 taxes = $4147 total. Minest 10% promotion, the total is $3733.

2. When I get the fare quote on oneworld.com (Book Now > Step 3 Review), it doesn't indicate the current 10% offer - will it appear somewhere further in the booking process, eg Step 5 Purchase, or did I miss a special link somewhere?

3. Questions about earning miles

a) Based on my proposed itinerary, how many miles will i accrue? Can you point me to a tool that can calculate this?

b) Which AAdvantage status will I be at the end of this trip?

c) Are there changes I could make to earn more miles by flying on a partner airline going the same destination - i guess smarter use of codeshares?

d) The only flexibility for destination is when i pass through India; if i can earn more miles by going through another city or country (or more than one), I'm happy to do that t maximize my miles. But I can't change TLV or HAN.

4. It's a big purchase for me and I'm slightly worried that this trip is created and managed 100% online/virtually. Any advantages to buy the same ticket via "people", ie are there significants differences to buy the same ticket through an agency or American Airlines directly (eg better customer service, cheaper ticket price)? I guess if i run into problems after the oneworld.com purchase, or throughout my trip, i can contact AA anyways and someone will help me there?

Thanks to all who will take some time to provide feedback!

1. No. And you don't get 10% off the taxes.

2. As I understand it the prices in the OW tool reflect the 10% discount already - you don't get another 10%, so I think you will pay CAD4147.

3 d) AMM-HKG is possible direct - you don't need to go to India at all if you don't want to. But you have 3 spare segments as is, so if you have time you can earn more miles by using them.

I'll leave the rest for others...

Be aware of the low earning rate (25% or 30%) when flying BA or IB and no miles earned when flying RJ CX. Actual mileage for your route is only 21K so that would not earn you any status. And that is before the reduced mileage earned on BA,IB,CX,RJ.

Be aware that you are only allowed 2 stopovers in the continent of origin, so one at least of LAX, DEN, ORD has to be a transit (in other words strictly less than 24hrs between scheduled arrival and scheduled departure)

To maximise AAdvantage RDMs, consider making some AA flights in Nth America at the start of the journey (you are allowed up to 16 flights total of which up to 6 can be in Nth America), and also consider flying AA transatlantic. If you sign up for the challenge (see the sticky on the AA forum) and you can get 10K elite qualifying points on AA flights, then you can quickly achieve AAdvantage Platinum status. That will give you double RDMs on some flights, allows you to check in at business class counters, and best of all IMHO allows you into business class lounges even when flying economy.

A LONEx doesn't earn any AAdvantage miles when flying RJ or CX (and perhaps others), only 25% miles on BA, and IIRC 70% on JL (full details are available on aa.com). So by using a tool such as great circle mapper or mileage monkey, you can do the arithmetic yourself.

ps Welcome to FlyerTalk

Hello & welcome to FT!

LONE3 prices from the departure locations you're considering are (assuming you mean London, UK and not London, Canada): USA US$ 3,510; Canada CA$ 3,510; UK £1,214 = US$ 2,010 - it may therefore be worth considering leaving from LHR.

Nevertheless, note that LHR as a departure point limits you routing possibilities in Europe, since you cannot return to the country of origin and only two of your stops in KRK, BUD, TLV and AMM can be stopovers. An alternative may be leaving from Poland directly (6,120 PLN = roughly 2,200 USD). Then you may fly KRK-BUD-LHR-TLV-AMM-... or KRK-BUD-TLV-AMM-LHR-... and lots of other possibilities. You will find flights from Canada to Poland (or the UK) for less than the 1,300 US$ you are saving. Try to avoid RJ or CX if you want to earn miles on AA.

Of course, even if you leave from Poland only two stopovers in Europe will be allowed. If you really want to visit all four cities, I'd use the LONE segments to TLV and AMM and travel to LON/BUD/KRK using low cost carriers. E.g. fly to BUD from Canada, then go to KRK and finally to LON. Ryanair & easyjet fly between London e Krakow, easyjet between Budapest and London. Budapest to Krakow is a day (or night) by train (about 10 hrs.).

That makes sense. Could the OP then not maximize miles by doing 6 segments (or however many she has left) all on AA in NA prior to returning to Poland then home on seperate ticket?

[QUOTE=WorldLibrarian;12389717]......
I'm booking a LONE3, traveling for 2 months, departure 13-october. My goal is to increase my mileage as much as possible. The itinerary is not flexible, ie all the cities I have chosen are dear to my heart....
Here's the itinerary:
YUL-LGW-KRK--BUD-TLV-AMM-DEL-HKG-HAN-NRT-LAX-DEN-ORD-YUL
/QUOTE]

While each location is important, is the order you visit flexible?

Good idea about buying in UK. Register for DEQM at AA.com. Call AA and register for the Plat challenge ($200). RT Tickets for YUL-JFK-LHR on AA are currently $1,170 for Oct with Dec return.

LHR-DFW-JFK-LAX-DEN-ORD puts you at Plat (until 2/2011), gives you 100% bonus on RDM and gives you access to lounges and preferred check-in. International lounges are a big plus - quiet place to relax, food, drink, showers after a long flight.

Then continue with ORD-NRT-HAN-HKG etc. You'll have over 38,000 RDM with AA when you land in NRT.

Update on first-time RTW
 

^Thanks for all the feedback and ideas, wonderful!

The update is the following:
- I have registered for DEQM
- I have changed my itinerary significantly, to increase miles, use all my segments and fly on airlines that give maximum mileage (eg avoid BA, CX, RJ).
- I will buy from London which will help save significantly.
- I considered changing the order and going westbound, but that won't work. Thanks Njfan07 for the great idea!

Revised Itinerary:
LGW-BUD-TLV-BUD-HEL-HKG-HAN--SGN-NRT-PVG-ORD-SAN-DFW-SJU-MIA-YUL-LHR

Questions:
(1) Is there more mileage possible between ORD and YUL? I'm going to San Diego & Puerto Rico as I have never been but would not mind other cities if it means more miles. I want to earn as much DEQM for all these flights.

(2) When I try to book SAN-SJU via DFW on the Oneworld Itinerary planner, this flight option doesn't come up. However the Oneworld Interactive map & Timetable offers that option. What I am doing wrong? Would it be easier to call AA and book at the LONE3 flights via AA Reservations?

THANKS!

Keep in mind double miles promo ends, I believe, Dec 15, and all your qualifying miles are at the end of your trip (from PVG onward). I'd try to get a transcon in there somewhere, such as ----PVG-ORD-SJU-BOS-SAN-DFW-YUL-LHR. The Airline Route Mapper shows these as all AA flights, although I didn't look on the AA site itself.
Great Circle Mapper shows the PVG onward portion as 19,324 (times two for DEQBM). That, plus your outbound flight to get to London, should get you tantalizingly close to Platinum status at approx 6500 miles with bonus BUT, and it's a big but, AA doesn't fly that route. Could you leave from ORD on your positioning flight? That would add 7890. That would still leave you about 3500 miles short of Plat, and I doubt you could tweak that many miles out of the segments in the US, but, Hallooo, there are far more expert FTers out there who seem to work miracles. Good luck!

ORD-SAN-BOS-SJU-DFW-YUL is 9663 vs 7509 for ORD-SAN-DFW-SJU-MIA-YUL and seems to be possible and valid.

And clearly if mileage maximisation is your goal then don't do SGN-HAN overland - do it via NRT, pay US$150 for the 5th segment in Asia, and drop to 4 segments in NA to keep within the 16 limit.

And can't you get full miles on CX flights if they have (and you book) an AA codeshare?

Something like:
LGW-BUD-TLV-BUD-HEL-PVG-NRT-HAN-NRT-SGN-HKG-JFK-SJU-SAN-DFW-YUL-LHR

Is 37432 vs 31565 flight miles on your original.

Thanks skipaway & christep for your answers, I had not realized i would be so close to Platinum!

I'll definitely use your suggested path for the leg ORD-YUL, unless someone else finds something more rewarding. I should get to Gold status by the time I complete PVG-ORD, and so the miles accrued after that will be 25% more, if I understand everything right?

I wish I could fly the segment HAN-SGN, but the reason I'm going to Vietnam is to trek/bike/train with a friend from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh and volunteer in libraries in between...! Thanks for the idea :)

Good news is that I already have 1,926 YTD EQM on my AAdvantage account so I'm that much closer to Gold/Platinum.

As for flying on CX, I was under the impression that I could not earn miles, based on the fare table on this page (the "L" class does not appear), but maybe I'm not understanding code shares the right way?

You have "it the right way".

AAdvantage members earn no RDM, EQM or EQP's for travel on a CX flight number booked into L class.

I hope you can call in a favor and get an eVIP for something like the PVG-ORD leg! You will surely deserve a break by then!!!!

thanks -- sadly i've never been upgraded in my life... i am a shy librarian!
how would i go about to get an eVIP: when i buy the LONE3? at my PVG check-in? via aa.com? is there a "how-to" on eVIPs?

You can't buy eVIPs (now increasingly referred to as "SWUs" - system-wide upgrades.) They're issued to Executive Platinum members, 8 per qualifying year, and a couple more on crossing certain cumulative mileage thresholds. They can be "gifted" to anyone, and there's a whole forum on FT called "coupon connection" where various scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours transactions occur, including "swaps" of such things. You need to be around FT a while longer (not sure if there's still a minimum no. of posts required) in order to get access to it.

Read the Wiki on the AA board for all sorts of useful knowledge on elite status, use of upgrades, etc.

If your budget can take the hit, I'd seriously try to do a miles and co-pay upgrade on PVG-ORD. Once you ride up front, it's tough to go back.