dashman

with a bit of a trip on the horizon I have heard something some may be able to shed light on:

will points entitlement for QFF'ers be reduced to 0.25 per mile on BA and AA as of Jan 01 2004? I heard this would be the case for discount fares (as reported in the Financial review a couple of weeks ago), but Cathay sectors would still give 1 point per mile according to my friendly qantas agent. Perhaps the biz fare (is this referred to as J class?) might be different???, I hope so as I’d like to try and chase some points on an upcoming 4 continent business class OWE. I've decided to take this route as I need to be in Rome for a few days and a return business fare to Rome is pretty much the same as the explorer. Does anyone have thoughts on (reasonably) maxing mileage for this two to three week jaunt in June, I’ll be out of ABX (yep, the metropolis of Albury NSW) and need to be in Rome between 11 and 16 June, after that pretty relaxed but need a few days in YVR on the way home, I’d pretty much assumed going back home via LAX to get a comfy o/n long haul?

Regards,

Dave Noble

There have been reductions in the economy earning on AA and BA. For travel in business class there is no change

Dave

Mwenenzi

From your question it looks as if ABX-FCO-YVR-LAX-ABX are places you need / want to go and all other places on the itinerary are open for discussion.
Is LAX a place you must go or do you consider that no other option is available ?

When constructing a RTW you need to establish
(a) the places you must go
(b) the places you would go to if the opportunity arose
(c) the places you do not want to go (been there:- done that, visa problems, can't eat the food, they don't like me-I don't like them, no speaka the lingo etc etc)
(d) do you want to stay overnight in hotels or are you prepared to spend over 24 - 48 - 72 hours in aircraft and airports just to max points & status credit's
(e) the anniversary date of you joining QFF
(f) the reason for chosing a OW carrier be it loyalty, service, flight timetable, freq flyer points, status bonus, cabin bonus
(g) what frequent flyer program or programs you want the status credits and miles credited to
(h) other reasons

Status credits are important. On a business OWE explorer (DONE4) you can accumulate a lot. With status at the anniversary of your QF enrolment your status drops to zero. So the starting date of the ticket, the anniversary of your QF enrolment and how many status credits you have before starting are important. Not good to see 690 SC go to zero, when 700 SC at your anniversary date would get to QFF Gold for example

Selecting routes to maximise miles and credits is an option. Segments over 1001 miles, 2701 miles and 5001 miles get more status credits than a similar flight just 1 mile shorter. For example NRT-MEL is 5060 miles so gets you 40 SC. NRT-SYD is 4845 miles and only 25 SC

To maximise miles go from the extreme east of one region to the west of the next region. eg FRA-LAX (central Europe to US west coast), instead of LHR-JFK (western edge of Europe to east of USA

As a QF FF you get a points status bonus on QF, BA & AA but not on any other OW carrier

You have a maximum of 20 segments on a OWE. It allows 20 segments in total with up to 4 in South West Pacific (Aust - NZ etc), 6 in North America, 4 in Europe and 4 in Asia. Once ticketed you can change dates at no cost. A destination change costs USD$100. You can get an open dated Onewworld explorer RTW ticket (apart from the first sector).

One of the nice things with a OneWorld Explorer RTW ticket is that you get 4 segment’s and 2 stopover’s in your country of origin (but there are rules limiting Oz flight destinations). These 4 segments can be at the start or the end of the trip. With a little planing (to comply with all the rules) you can get flights to somewhere in Oz that you would normally not go, like Broom, Alice, Darwin or some like place that can cost more than going overseas. You must avoid returning to original departure point, as the RTW ticket is considered complete, once you return to the departure point. You have 12 months to complete the RTW, so you could go to Rome and say 9 months later go to Broom for a few weeks as an example. With the RTW starting in SYD, your first OZ stopover would be MEL ( ABX), (for 9 months), the second Broome for 2 weeks with the ticket ending in CBR,

This is good discussion on RTW
QF WP's off to USA: trip planning questions

This post One World Distances has a list of some direct flights that exist (or did exist at that time it was done). These are flights with a single flight number. They may go via several airports. Some even require a change of aircraft, like, MIA-NRT on AA (via ORD) and CUN-ANC (via STL), but they are a single flight number, which is the important thing. Flights between destinations are being changed every day so you need to check direct the airline web sites.

A few suggestion's
abx-syd-lhr-fco-lhr-yvr-lax-syd-abx
8 segments & 26259 base accrual miles

abx-syd-lhr-fco-lhr-yvr-ord-mel-abx
8 segments & 28967 base accrual miles

abx-syd-akl-hkg-fco-lhr-yvr-ord-mel-abx
9 segments & 30306 base accrual miles

abx-syd-hkg-fco-lhr-yvr-ord-dfw-nrt-mel-bme-per-cbr
12 segments & 35222 base accrual miles

syd-akl-hkg-fco-lhr-yvr-ord-dfw-nrt-mel-bme-per-syd
12 segments & 37495 base accrual miles

Transit at HKG for akl-hkg-fco (under 24 hours).
Return to Aust is MEL and land or separate ticket to ABX for a "stopover"
Remember you have 20 segments so plenty of other opportunities.

QFF on a business fare will be 1.25 times base rate (cabin bonus) plus status bonus if applicable, subject to minium earn on short flights. Not 100% sure if the 25% cabin bonus is for all OW carriers

You can easily take more hours to maximise the RTW DONE4 ticket than the actual flying hours if you are so inclined

(spelling corrected)


[This message has been edited by Mwenenzi (edited Jan 10, 2004).]

dashman

[what a great post; invaluable help for my DONE planning - my sincere thanks to you!. Based on your comment I'm going to drop the ticketed return SYD-ABX, then later in the year after my october QFF census date (by which time should be plat) I'll clock a few extra miles and SCs- thinking SYD-CNS-PER-MEL???. current ticket is ABX-SYD-SIN-LHR-CPH-LHR-ROM-LHR-JKF-MIA-MEX-DFW-YVR-DFW-LAX-SYD-ABX. should be a good earner...

og

You might consider BA LHR-LAX (or SFO) instead of LHR-JFK. That's over 5000 miles (and 160 SCs). It also lets you get some better sleep on the longer flight if on BA. THEN head on down to MEX via various places. For your return to Oz, I suggest you go JFK-SYD. That is max SCs (220 in J) and only one flight segment on QF108. Seems like backtracking, but quite legal. I can give you a few hints for MEX if desired - Mrs og and I have just done that part of your trip.

Edited for typos.

[This message has been edited by og (edited Jan 17, 2004).]

NM

If you can include LHR-SFO-BOS then you have a good little earner. Especially as LHR-SFO is over 5000 miles and SFO-BOS is over 2700 miles (just) and operated by two-class AA service, meaning a DONE4 is ticketed in A (first) class and earns QF's first class SC's and cabin bonus on the miles.

Also consider MEL-NRT (also just over 5000 miles). So returning from USA to Australia could be something like JFK-NRT-MEL. Another good return points/SC earner, and using CX instead of AA trans-pac which is generally considered an advantage, is JFK-HKG-AKL. Also get to try out the CX lounges in HKG which are worth the effort. Both of these options must only be transit in NRT or HKG.