Another Done4 itn to critic
 

Hi

Second Done4, seems I am getting hooked on them I was looking at the following

jnb-mru-lhr-cai-lhr-hel-lhr-sfo-ord-lax-dfw-yvr-jfk-hkg-dps-hkg-jnb

Now firstly when I priced this itn the taxes came to around $2000 AUD does this seem right, would AA ticket an itn like this from south africa to try to lower the taxes.

Now can I use any of the double entries to get more use out of africa as really i am only using one segment. LAX not really necessary to go to just wanted to use an extra segment. In NA want to keep SFO,ORD YVR,JFK in Asia only really want to get to a wedding in DPS. CAI in europe is the only must.

If anyone could had some interesting additions or perhaps I missed something and can be bothered

I guess main issue for me is seat quality and services ie fully flat.

kind regards

You should look at the fare construction provided by the online booking tool to see what portion of the "taxes" is actually fuel surcharges (typically "YQ" on the table.) Because your first segment (JNB-MRU) is operated by BA (okay, Comair but no matter) the tool will default to BA as the issuing airline, thereby invoking BA fuel surcharges for the whole itinerary.

AA in CPT might be willing to issue the ticket, but in my experience they're reluctant to do so unless one over-water segment carries an AA code. LHR-SFO is BA, so they might play ball if you book JFK-HKG with an AA code on the CX flight, but that might be stretching it. Are you booking miles to QF, AA, BA...?

You might check pricing - the Rand has strengthened greatly in the past few months. If SA is not mandatory, you might find it's cheaper to start a DONE3 in Asia someplace.

good points
 

I am currently qantas platinum but really i am not that fussy I have been tempted by the better redemption levels of AA and dont really no alot about the BA program although currently I am london based

I have downloaded a spreadsheet regarding the pricing of Done3/4, and apart from South Africa I was tempted by Pakistan ( a little dangerous perhaps), Jordan with a oneworld airline so good connections or perhaps even Uk (but problems with using london to transit etc)

Well I guess I could fly AA to Lax from LHR or perhaps instead of JFK-HKG
I could give JFK-NRT on AA a chance that would give one overwater and probably get a better price.

I thought going BA would result in higher fuel fines I tried pricing with CX but no change from the BA price

thankyou once again

Might I recommend looking at Poland or Sweden as a start point for a DONE3/4? With the current 10% fare sale, prices ex-WAW are cheaper (in USD equivalent, not sure about GBP) than ex-JNB, and clearly easier to access from London. ARN is not much different. AA also has excellent GSA representation in both WAW and ARN - Tal Aviation, so if you used the AA RTW desk to ticket the itinerary, it could be issued by Tal in Poland or Sweden, you'd probably save quite a lot on fuel fines, and end up significant money ahead.

Just a thought.

BA, CX, QF etc are all high on fuel surcharges. AA really is the one which stands out from the crowd. If you credit to QF, make sure you are booked on the AA code on CX anyway as you will get your status bonus points this way.

I too am toying with the idea of doing a OneWorld RTW in J sometime in the middle of next year. Here's the itinerary as it stands in my head right now.

ICN-xHKG-JFK-ORD-PDX-DFW-YVR-LHR-DXB-LHR-HEL-LHR-BOM-SYD-PER-xHKG-ICN

Mileage Monkey verifes this as a valid itin provided the 2nd intercontinental entry in Asia is under 24 hours. I did have a few hops around Asia in mind. Can anyone clarify if, e.g. ICN-xHKG-JFK is classed as 2 segments, with ICN-HKG counting as 1 of 4 asian segments?

The only cities where I won't be in transit (i.e staying more than 23:59 are NYC, ORD, PDX and BOM.

Also, is the maximum number of segments still 16 or has it been upped to 20? I remember reading so somewhere but can't recall what the exact discussion was!

Cheers

That only works if you are in BOM less than 24 hours, so that's not valid if you stop over in BOM.

You can only have the second entry to Asia if one is a single plane service or transit without stopover between Europe & SWP.

Maximum flight segments is 16 (where every flight with a different flight number is a new segment).

so if I find a way to go ICN-USA, the itin would be valid?

No. If you start & finish in Asia then the only stopovers in Asia may be at the beginning or end of the itinerary. The rules are reasonably clear on entries to continents - only one, except:Some managed years ago to get that interpreted to mean you could go SWP-N America in transit via Asia for a non-Asia originated ticket, but even that not recently; there's no chance of you doing what you wish to do.

Guess in that case it might be easier to spend time in Bombay first and then use that as a positioning trip to CMB or Lahore (two of the cheapest places to pick up a DONE4 in) and pick up a cheap DONE4 from there. Something like -

CMB/LHE - HKG-BKK-SIN-NRT-SYD-LAX-DFW-PDX-DFW-LHR-HEL-LHR-DXB-LHR-BOM-CMB/LHE (The last one being a surface sector to pick up another DONE4 - I hear these are addictive :P )

Yes, although that isn't valid because you can only have 4 segments in Asia (and can't buy any more when it's the continent of origin), and you can't finish (in general) with an international surface sector. And you could do much, much better for miles in N America.

another go
 

Okay had another play around with some cheaper countries to price came in at around 7600 AUD with first over water on AA so they should be able to ticket and sin-lhr get to go on the A380 .

waw-lhr-cai-lhr-lax-ord- sfo-dfw-yvr-jfk-hkg-dps-hkg-bom-sin-lhr-waw

with the europe stopovers being london and Cairo

Perhaps I could earn some more points in asia with trips from nrt instead of hkg but so far this is what i have come up with

QF SCs? BA TPs? AA EQP? Otherwise it looks good, but a question - what time of year?

Those are very different itineraries. Where do you actually want to go and do you want to optimise for QFF status purposes?

By dropping SIN and changing BOM for HKG you can make the second itinerary a valid one.

Why not look at ICN-HKG-BOM-HKG-JFK-DFW-ANC-DFW-PDX-DFW-LAX-LHR-MCT-LHR-HEL-HKG-ICN?

If you credit to QF, do you want to maximise points or status credits. If it is status credits than YVR is a bad destination as US-CDN flights are business class and not first class. So you lose a significant amount of SCs. Almost better to fly into SEA and take the bus or car. Of course you will the miss out on the CX YVR-JFK flight (but get more QFF points and SCs for SEA-JFK).