MegatopLover

I live in ATL and I'm trying to do London, Hong Kong, and Bangkok at Christmas this year. (I plan ahead.) I'll also be meeting my partner in London who will do parts of the same routing in reverse order, but that's another story altogether. I've pretty much decided that I will just buy a ticket on Cathay or Emirates between HKG and BKK, so we can leave that aside for now. I need a ticket or tickets ATL-LON and LON-HKG. (This is all in coach; I like to travel, but I'm not made of $$$ and I'd rather spend it on nice hotels.)

DL's service to LGW while others primarily use LHR makes this especially tricky because my homebound ticket will involve a same-day (hopefully matter of hours) connection in London. I can get DL ATL-LGW for about $500 roundtrip. I can get BA or VS LHR-HKG for about $1000. VS at least gets me SkyMiles, but BA gets me nothing. I've looked at Emirates to get the SkyMiles and see DXB, but that adds a transit stop and EK really squeezes 'em in in Camel Class (10 across on B777). I'd strongly prefer to do the whole thing on SkyTeam to get MQM's and my Gold Medallion bonus miles. I'm willing to pay a little extra $$$ for that, but not several hundred dollars more.

To eliminate hoofing it between LHR and LGW on the return, I could go in and out of LHR for my transatlantic flights on AF or KL, which adds a transit stop but is worth it to avoid changing airports. That means I could buy an AF or KL ticket from ATL-CDG/AMS-LHR for the transatlantic travel, then another AF or KL ticket LHR-CDG/AMS-HKG for the Eurasian travel. QUESTION: Can I do that in a single ticket, especially one that would elimate the jump back and forth to LHR on the return, so my homebound route is HKG-CDG/AMS-ATL? What about doing some of it on Delta? Most importantly, whom do I call?

What would really make the most sense is a RTW routing: ATL-LON, LHR-CDG/AMS/ICN-HKG, HKG-ICN-ATL. If I do go transpacific on the return, I suppose I could even do NW or CO (nonstop HKG-EWR!). Do I have a prayer of buying a RTW ticket for less than $2000? Whom do I call to make such a booking? Delta?

graraps

Ex-US fares in Eco shouldn't be much higher than $2000. You need to call the airline that'll be operating the first intercontinental segment.
But if I were you, I'd try calling AF and asking whether they (or any consolidator they work with, as I can't seem to be able to see anything published) offer a through ATL-HKG fare that allows stopovers in CDG. Then the only thing you'd have to do is buy an el-cheapo CDG-LHR return on AF.

MegatopLover

A through-fare on AF or KL ATL-HKG with a stopover in CDG or AMS outbound to enable a little dash to London is a great idea. I guess the London jump would be nested and is not improper, right?

If I could get an ex-US RTW ticket on SkyTeam for not much more than $1500, that would be the way to go, I guess.

I have a feeling calling Delta (as the first inter-continental carrier) for this ticket would not yield the best results. You want to do WHAT???

Good tips, thanks graraps. Anyone else have more?

dspringer28

Going from LHR and LGW really is not bad. I do it all the time because I use the two airports for diffrent needs. It only takes 90 min and $30. From inside LHR security to inside security at LGW can be done in <2 hrs.