So basically, as long as I pay $125 and fuel/tax differences, I have a lot of flexibility of changing the routes and end/start points as long as I am within the stopover and max distance rules after the first leg? I didn't realize i had so much flexibility...

I may have missed it somewhere but where's your starting point? If not CAI then yes you can change basically anything you'd like + tax and fuel differences (except the point of origin) since the base fares haven't changed on the others. (I'm also assuming you haven't flown the first segment). You still have to maintain the rules within continents of course.

It's $125 per transaction, so no matter how many changes you make at one time, it's a single transaction. Date changes alone are free, but changing airports or stopover to connection and v.v. are not.

I also didn't catch if you're on a DONEx or DGLBOE34? On a DONEx distance doesn't matter, just number of continents, total segments, and segments / stopovers per continent. There are a number of examples of 45k-55k BIS itineraries in the pricing and booking thread on DONE4s and DONE5s,

Yes. For simplicity, let's imagine you're flying CAI-LHR-JFK-LAX-SYD-TYO-DOH-CAI. And let's say you've already flown CAI-LHR.

If you decided you wanted to add stopovers in SFO, HNL, and SIN, you could do that and change your trip to fly CAI-LHR-JFK-SFO-LAX-HNL-SYD-TYO-SIN-DOH-CAI. If you did that in one fell swoop, you would be charged $125 plus fuel/tax differences.

Having flown CAI-LHR in that example is the key, since then it's based on the original fare, not the current one.

ex-TYO, ex-OSL, ex-anywhere else basically wouldn't matter since the fare hasn't changed. Only ex-CAI has increased so dramatically, so even a full refare on an ex-TYO, ex-OSL wouldn't matter if done before the first segment is flown where ex-CAI it's now essential to fly the first segment before big changes.

Are there no OW Chinese carriers?

Seems strange to leave out such a big market...

With CX now but cant earn status flying direct to China from within Asia.

Nope, there were a lot of rumors that CZ would join after leaving Skyteam but it never materialized. I'm not sure CX really wants another member right in their backyard. I think if any ever do it'll be one of the minor players with a hub in a second or third tier city. CA and MU are already quite entrenched in their respective alliances and I don't see any reason for ZH or MF to go anywhere. HU could make sense for it's PEK hub, 3U has quite a decent route map as well, but hubs are too far west to be relevant for intra-Asia traffic.

But I think for anyone who flies a lot on shorter routes, you have to prioritize status vs. convenience of a non-stop. It's not always possible to get both.

Far better for RTW *ONE* - *GLOB* questions and answers to be in one of the dedicated threads

I don't know what ticket I bought but I assume it is DONEx from CAI. So bascially, the ticket is CAI-LON, FRA-MAD-BOG-MIA-JFK-TYO-BKK-HKG, TYO-(HKG)-LON, BCN-LHR-CAI. The system kept flagging me for an error exceeding 34K if I added one more flight onto this but that was when I was trying to book online, maybe it is a glitch if I bought DONEx and if I am allowed to fly more than 34K miles.
If I change the date of CAI-LON only, this should trigger repricing, correct? And it should be free because it is a date change? It is QF ticket bought directly on OW website.

The error you were getting was from something else, not because of exceeding 34k miles, 34k miles is only for DGLOB34 but the tool is very poorly designed and gives that popup even on itineraries that are clearly xONEx, it would actually be really nice if there was a manual override for that to select Global Explorer vs. oneworld Explorer as an advanced feature. The segment you tried to add was likely breaking a different rule. Hard to say without knowing full details including the full itinerary and the failed segment addition.

My best guess is likely too many segments / stopovers on a continent, but could have been one segment was booking into economy which it also doesn't like sometimes, maybe it was auto selecting flights for further segments and one was departing before an arrival and hadn't been fixed yet, etc. There are lots of things that come up in the tool that sometimes resolve by walking all the way through the itinerary before giving up. Like a 'too many segments per continent' if it was trying to put you on a connection that wasn't necessary but the non-stop was a time it considered less convenient, I've seen that a million times.

BTW, you can see what fare you're on on your e-ticket, I forget if it shows on the QF one, but definitely does on the AY one (same PNR number as you have from QF, left side click Passenger information and it'll give you an option to email your e-ticket to the email on the reservation).

In theory your date change 'shouldn't' trigger a re-price, but you never know with QF, they're unpredictable at best and most phone agents are 100% incompetent. Since it's the first segment that's a risk you'll have to take, you may be forced to fly to LHR as as is before making any changes.

But as Mwenenzi mentioned, these questions are best in the dedicated threads for RTW tickets. There's one for Pricing and Booking, another for User guide and related questions, and another for bugs in the tool. This kind of question is probably best in the pricing and booking thread. In other forums the mods tend to move blocks that are off topic for the thread, but here I don't think it happens.

Hi all - not wanting to mislead a colleague of mine - - she is AA PLT who recently earned BA Gold/OW Emerald status. On an upcoming flight - previously booked with AA and with her desire to earn AA miles on this particular trip, I presume there's no way for her to take advantage of her new OW Emerald benefits via BA as it won't be reflected on her boarding passes. From what I gather from FT guidance, simply showing her BA Gold/OW Emerald card (on her phone) at the lounge, for example, won't guarantee entrance (and could cause complications). Correct?

Pretty much correct, but as a Plat she's very unlikely to get an upgrade to first anyway (I'm assuming a domestic flight) and BA Gold gets free MCE seating, should also have the same or better luggage benefits, so there's no harm in putting the BA number on the reservation until she leaves the lounge and then changing it in the app or a kiosk (not sure they still exist airside anywhere) before boarding.

I don't recommend trying to do a ff account switch on day of departure. Have heard of several stories where the number was switched but mileage still credited to the original account, despite new number showing on boarding pass. Getting the airline to undo the crediting is a total pain.

If it's just lounge access, she's fine to show the ba credentials for access. It won't change the number on the boarding pass..

Super, izzik and dvs7310, much appreciated!

Data point: I'm on a DONE3. This past Sunday, my first two flights were to be AA metal, AA marketed, NRT-DFW-BOS. Entire itinerary is credited to QRPC. Multi-hour delay of the inbound aircraft at NRT resulted in AA spontaneously rerouting me NRT-BOS on JL metal, AA flight number. When I was entering the Sakura Lounge, I asked the receptionist to check to see if my FFNO was in the record, since it didn't appear on my BP. It wasn't, so she added it. (AA apparently had created a separate, one-flight PNR for NRT-BOS without my FFNO.) After the flight, I checked, and it had credited correctly.

I did it a number of times exactly like Abidjan's colleague wants to. Back when AB had a status match from *A, I would put my AB number on the res, check in, use the lounge and change it to my BA or AA number before boarding. Never had an issue, though there's always a risk that it doesn't work and miles go the wrong place.