Suggestions re RTW itinerary

[Justin2906]

I am planning a RTW trip for my wife and I starting in March. I have read a lot of the really useful ideas in these forums, but am wondering whether anyone has any additional suggestions that I might have missed.

We are considering either the One World Explorer or Global Explorer in business class. We want to visit the Grand Canyon and do some sightseeing in the US before stopping off in S Africa on the way back to Oz.

Using the Oneworld trip planner, our proposed itinerary at the moment is:

CBR-SYD-LAX; LAX-ORD; ORD-PHX; PHX-ORD-JFK; JFK-BOS; BOS (land)IAD; IAD-LHR-MRU; MRU-JNB-WDH; WDH-JNB; JNB-SYD-CBR.

I am not sure about the standard annotations, but I have used ; for stopovers.

I am currently QC bronze (my wife is Gold though). Unfortunately, my anniversary is while we are stopped over in Chicago (ORD) for 3 months, early in the trip, so the status points from SYD-LAX won't accrue in the same year as the other long legs, so I won't accrue gold.

We will aim to select a BA flight from the US to LHR, since from the AA web site, AA doesn't offer sleeper seats across teh Atlantic, but BA does? Is this correct?

Does anyone have any suggestions re slight changes to the itinerary that I should consider to get either more SC or where we are more likely to get good seats etc. eg Is there any merit in departing Australia from Brisbane or Melbourne relative to Sydney?

Also, from what I can see on the AA web site, there aren't any business class seats on domestic US flights. What happens to business class RTW ticket holders, do we just get economy seats and SP? Are there any US routes that offer business class?

Also, I have seen suggestions that RTW tickets should be booked with AA rather than Qantas. If I do this, will I get teh US$ price quoted on teh OneWorld web site, or is the currency determined by which country the trip starts in? I have also read that AA offers lower taxes than Qantas. Is there any point me trying my local travel agent to get them to quote on AA ticketing, or should I call AA direct?

Thanks in advance.

Justin

[littl_flier]

A couple of quick suggestions on selecting flights for cabin comfort.

For the LAX-ORD segment, try and pick AA88 as it's scheduled on a 763. There is a very good chance that this will be in the New Generation Business Class (which is a sleeper seat) as opposed to the other flights which are either 757's or MD8X's which will be in a standard seat.

For the IAD-LHR sector, try and pick up BA216 which is scheduled on a 744. BA are also reconfiguring their aircraft with NGBC but at this stage (and by the time you travel) the 777's haven't been started on. Of course, there's no guarantee that it will be NGBC but it might be worth a try. On a side note, some may debate whether NGBC is any better than the current business class but I'll leave that to others.

And an obvious note, try and pick the QF jet services for the CBR-SYD-CBR services so you have Business Class and will be entitled to your additional baggage allowances.

Also, I would try and start holding D avaialability as soon as possible with a departure in March because it may be hard to get D seats on the SYD-LAX sectors on the day you are looking to travel.

[Evan]

The country of departure determines the price you will pay, so you can for instance buy a ticket in Au from Qantas or AA, the base fare is the same $AUD fare on the oneworld website but the +++ will be different since AA changes less fuel surcharges.

Also to visit South Africa i think it will end up being a 5 continent ticket which will add costs over a 4. (Don;t quote me on this i only know for it must be 4 for anywhere south, like Africa, Au, South America, so i assume to add 2 of them it would have to be a xONE5)

Look at booking soon or else D class will be difficult to find on the dates you are after.

E

[littl_flier]

Also to visit South Africa i think it will end up being a 5 continent ticket which will add costs over a 4. (Don;t quote me on this i only know for it must be 4 for anywhere south, like Africa, Au, South America, so i assume to add 2 of them it would have to be a xONE5)

I think because the OP avoids ASIA that he should be able to get away with a DONE4. Ie. OZ/NA/EUROPE/AFRICA.

Also, I have seen suggestions that RTW tickets should be booked with AA rather than Qantas. If I do this, will I get teh US$ price quoted on teh OneWorld web site, or is the currency determined by which country the trip starts in? I have also read that AA offers lower taxes than Qantas. Is there any point me trying my local travel agent to get them to quote on AA ticketing, or should I call AA direct?

Definitely, AA don't charge fuel fines for all the sectors except for the trans pac and trans atlantic whereas QF will hit you for all of them. As Evan mentions, as long as the ticket is ticketed in Oz, then you will pay the Oz price which is about $10,500 + taxes at the moment.

Also, from what I can see on the AA web site, there aren't any business class seats on domestic US flights. What happens to business class RTW ticket holders, do we just get economy seats and SP? Are there any US routes that offer business class?

Acutally, it's even better. On the flights where only Economy and First are offered within North America, you will be seated in First Class and will earn First Class points and SC's. The problems with your itinerary is that one of the flights is on American Eagle which are all economy flights so you will be stuck in Economy. IIRC, JFK-BOS is an AA Eagle flights


Also, from the itinerary would I be right in saying that you're not overally concerned about maxxing out the routing and taking unnecessary flights? You could think about flying back to LAX from IAD and then onto LHR for a few extra miles and SC's and still keep it at 16 segments which is an eticket.

[Evan]

I think because the OP avoids ASIA that he should be able to get away with a DONE4. Ie. OZ/NA/EUROPE/AFRICA.

Very good point was not paying that much attention to the actual routeing, thats not so easy to avoid Asia.

Of course buying tickets Ex-Japan etc is cheaper but then you will include Asia so a DONE5. (Also Ex Japan DONE5 is not as good value as DONE4 i dont think) Only other option would be ex Muritias, but then you would want to fly F rather than J since the J fare ex Muritias is not as good value. And you need to get too and from there which is not such an easy task and means you need to do Aust-JNB twice.

E

[Dave Noble]

We will aim to select a BA flight from the US to LHR, since from the AA web site, AA doesn't offer sleeper seats across teh Atlantic, but BA does? Is this correct?

No it isn't quite correct. All 763s of AA are equipped with sleeper seats plus some of the 777s have been converted; personally for the transatlantic flight , if your itinerary has some flexibility, arrange it so that you take one of AA day services ex ORD,BOS or JFK and avoid the overnight altogether.

Rather than not get status at all, I would suggest that the AA Platinum challenge might be a good choice since this will get you Sapphire status and a decent mileage earning with 100% bonus miles on most flights; do SYD-LAX on the AA flight number and that flight on its own will complete the challenge for you

Also, from what I can see on the AA web site, there aren't any business class seats on domestic US flights. What happens to business class RTW ticket holders, do we just get economy seats and SP? Are there any US routes that offer business class?

There are a few 3 class services such a LAX-JFK ; on the 2 class services , you can book in 1st class (A) on domestic 2 class services

Also, I have seen suggestions that RTW tickets should be booked with AA rather than Qantas. If I do this, will I get teh US$ price quoted on teh OneWorld web site, or is the currency determined by which country the trip starts in? I have also read that AA offers lower taxes than Qantas. Is there any point me trying my local travel agent to get them to quote on AA ticketing, or should I call AA direct?

The "taxes" will be a fair bit lower if you book through AA since the AA fuel surcharges are significantly lower than QFs so you will save a few hundred $ booking through AA. You will still have to pay the Australia price for the ticket

To book, I recommend calling the AA ATW desk rather than using an agent

Dave

[serfty]

... Unfortunately, my anniversary is while we are stopped over in Chicago (ORD) for 3 months, early in the trip, so the status points from SYD-LAX won't accrue in the same year as the other long legs, so I won't accrue gold. ...

Maybe not WP, but you'll certainly accrue SG.

It's a DONE4 as there are no Asian segments. The journey could be worth up to 1410 SC's (the AA segments get booked into First Class (A) on 2 class flights) and of those, 260 SCs are earned CBR-SYD-LAX-ORD.

You could go IAD-LAX-LHR rather than IAD-LHR to earn another 150 SC's making it 1560. That leaves you another 100 SC's to get in the year to earn WP.

[littl_flier]

And you need to get too and from there which is not such an easy task and means you need to do Aust-JNB twice.

Actually, while we're there. What's the policy on not flying the last segment of an xONEx? For example, if a DONE4 was purchased ex. NRT and the last segment was SYD-NRT, could one just not fly that sector (because of the cost of returning) or would there be all sorts of issues?

[Dave Noble]

Actually, while we're there. What's the policy on not flying the last segment of an xONEx? For example, if a DONE4 was purchased ex. NRT and the last segment was SYD-NRT, could one just not fly that sector (because of the cost of returning) or would there be all sorts of issues?

A throwaway ticket isn't likely to cause much problem

Dave

[serfty]

... You could go IAD-LAX-LHR rather than IAD-LHR to earn another 150 SC's making it 1560. That leaves you another 100 SC's to get in the year to earn WP.

You could earn these by doing SYD-PER-ADL-CBR rather than SYD-CBR at the end of the trip.