The pre TR report - the trials and tribulations of booking a RTW

[jhm]

Over time, I've learnt to re-read KeithMEL's posts a few minutes after I read them for the first time as 9 times out of 10, there are some material edits.

There is no rule (for now) against having no major AA content in the itinerary unless a TA organised the itinerary

I don't understand this point about a TA ?

BTW, your itinerary looks great. The only bits which make me go are the mentions of LAX, LHR (three times no less with two transits!), FCO (from what I've read - never been there) and US Airways.

[KeithMEL]

Surely just Australian charm and humour ?

The poms were no better...
*ducks*

[jhm]

No I was booked on an entirely different flight operated by QF. The 2 airlines will share the same PNR (along with IB if you have any flights with them). I was very tempted to keep the QF flight but ultimately decided upon BA due to better punctuality stats of the BA12 turnaround.

AA has the same COS bonus for every airline - 25%. You get 100% extra if you're PLT/EXP, with the exception of JL flights.

Ah, thanks! Not the same with BAEC where I only got a 50% COS bonus for my BA F flight on a QF flight number rather than 75% if the BA flight number (presumably to take account of BA WT+, i.e. WT+ is 25% and CW is 50%).

Having availability on the same flight but a different flight number is very annoying, e.g. last year, there was availability in D (the *A bucket for a CRW) on the SQ flight with a LH flight number but not on the exact same flight with a SQ flight number (which meant no PPS sectors).

the fact that QF was so rude to me on the phone

Surely just Australian charm and humour ?

[KeithMEL]

Do you mean book the QF codeshare, i.e. you switched to the same flight but under a BA flight number ? For a different class of service bonus on AA perhaps ?

No I was booked on an entirely different flight operated by QF. Even the QF codeshares on the BA flights were zeroed out. The 2 airlines will share the same PNR (along with IB if you have any flights with them) as they're all hosted by Amadeus. I was very tempted to keep the QF flight but ultimately decided upon BA due to better punctuality stats of the BA12 turnaround.

AA has the same COS bonus for every airline - 25% for J, 50% for F. You get 100% extra on all airlines if you're PLT/EXP, with the exception of JL flights.

Also - if you're accruing to FFPs with a min segment rule, beware that the AA ATW desk will try to pressure you into booking the overwater segments on AA metal/codes. There is no rule (for now) against having no major AA content in the itinerary unless a TA organised the itinerary, but you do have to expect some grumbling. I was happy to ticket JFK-SYD as the AA7366 codeshare instead of QF108 as I felt that I should give some revenue back for all their excellent work (and the fact that QF was so rude to me on the phone). It diminishes op up chances but that flight will be full of QF Plats anyway.

[jhm]

So what I did was booked on to QF for SINLHR, called up BA UK and supplied them the BA/QF PNR and had them switch over to the BA flight for me.

Do you mean book the QF codeshare, i.e. you switched to the same flight but under a BA flight number ? For a different class of service bonus on AA perhaps ?

You mentioned above the Great Circle Mapper (a free service; even more useful for *A RTWs with their mileage limitations) and also ExpertFlyer. For the sake of completeness and others reading, I should also mention the KVS Availability Tool which does much of the same as ExpertFlyer but they each have their different strengths. I have both and have used EF more and the other less. IMO, EF and/or KVS are well worth signing up for if contemplating a RTW - they're both inexpensive and very useful.

Finally, just to mention that (good) enhancements are planned for the Great Circle Mapper. From an e-mail I received from Karl Swartz:

I have been putting a lot of effort into improving the Great Circle Mapper. The US Government pulled the plug on public access to DAFIF last autumn, eliminating the best source of data for non-US airports, so finding alternate data sources has been a high priority. That is an ongoing project, but I've made some good progress, the latest being official data for Canada and Bolivia which should be on the site soon.

The bigger project is a complete rewrite of the map drawing part of the site, the first major change to that software since the site debuted on the Web in September 1996. I was hoping to complete that in time for the site's 11th anniversary but it will probably be later in the year.

[...]

(To whet your appetite, the new site will have many of the features which users have wanted for a long time, like larger maps and maps that scale to smaller areas where appropriate. It will also be MUCH faster.)

[KeithMEL]

It depends on the rules of the FFP of course but if the oneworld explorer was a *A product, it would be somewhat useless for PPS sector maximisation (under the existing rules), e.g. I flew SQ metal FRA-SIN-xCGK-xSIN-SGN-xSIN-PEK ... KIX-BKK-NRT-LAX - somewhat more than 4 segments in Asia!

True. Each RTW product has their pros and cons. So best to pick one that suits. They're all pretty fun to plan and execute though.

Did you have any problems gettting RTW availability for any of your flights ? Do they book into D or I ?

They book into L/D/A for Economy/Business/First respectively.

I only had problems with BA, which practises point of sale discrimination (and also CX according to TOF but I don't have many CX segments). I couldn't get SIN-LHR, it was showing D0 for most origins other than exLHR customers. And BA doesn't allow waitlisting other than the full fare buckets. So what I did was booked on to QF for SINLHR, called up BA UK and supplied them the BA/QF PNR and had them switch over to the BA flight for me. A friend did something similar at the BA ticketing counter in LHR for LHR-JFK.

Try doing a search on BA MRU on TOF and you'll find that most people doing the exMRU (First is cheap exMRU) fare have great difficulty in getting MRU-LHR flights cleared even though the flight may be wide open.

Also - there;d also be blackouts on certain dates or entire flights for D or A so do try to be flexible with dates. Once upon a time getting the CX HKG-JFK non stop in D or A was almost like an urban legend.

The other issue was CX returning a 2 week ticketing deadline for their segments into the PNR once the reservation has been made. I originally had CMB-HKG-LHR. There's no way getting round this as CX was the only carrier out of CMB, and the first intercontinental and any preceding flights can't be left open dated. In that situation you need to discuss payment with the issuing office and get them to extend the CX ticketing deadline. AA CMB was able to talk to CX CMB to extend the auto cancellation deadline once I satisfied them that I was actually intending to pay for the ticket. This might not be an issue if the xONEx was organised via CX though, or on less busy routes.

[jhm]

Did you have any problems gettting RTW availability for any of your flights ? Do they book into D or I ?

[jhm]

It depends on the rules of the FFP of course but if the oneworld explorer was a *A product, it would be somewhat useless for PPS sector maximisation (under the existing rules), e.g. I flew SQ metal FRA-SIN-xCGK-xSIN-SGN-xSIN-PEK ... KIX-BKK-NRT-LAX - somewhat more than 4 segments in Asia!

[KeithMEL]

How much did you end up paying for this (not including the trips to Japan to start the RTW)?

I notice you also have LHR several times - I thought that RTW tickets either have to be clockwise or anti-clockwise?

I am planning for a RTW trip later this year, so still have lots to learn

A$8500 in total inclusive of taxes. Add another A$1000 extra for fuel if you choose to issue via the fuel finers, ie JL/CX/BA/QF.

You can backtrack as much as you like so long as it's not between continents, and you've not returned to country of origin.

One thing I forgot to mention was to beware of currency fluctuation if you choose to issue a ticket in another location (as with RWSTARs). Had I issued a week earlier I'd have saved nearly A$400, but then the A$ crashed spectacularly thanks to stock market uncertainty and the yen surged a week later and I ended up saving A$800 by issuing when I did. Can't win it all I guess.

Generally the rules of the oneworld explorer (as distinct from the global explorer - another OW RTW product):
- 20 segments including flown/surface
- No mileage limitation
- 4 segments per continent, 6 in Nth America
- You can purchase 2 additional segments per continent at a set rate (excluding continent of origin) but both free + purchased segments cannot exceed the limit of 20. It's generally uneconomical to purchase additional segments on the fare though.
- No more than 2 UK-Middle East/certain East Europe cities segments
- No more than 1 transcon in the US
- No more than 1 flight to ANC, no more than 1 flight from ANC
- No more than 1 flight between mainland USA and HNL
- No more than 1 transcon in Australia
- No limit on backtracking
- Unlimited stopovers, 2 in continent of origin
- The continents are : North America, South America, South West Pacific, Asia, Europe&Middle East, Africa
- 2 entries/exits to Asia permitted as long as one of the entries/exits is a transit between South West Pacific and Europe&Middle East (eg SYD-xHKG-LHR or SYD-LHR through flight)
- 2 entries/exits to Europe permitted as long as one of the entries/exits is a transit between <insert random African countries that I now cannot recall> and another continent.
- If commencing in Africa or South West Pacific, an xONE4 is the minimum you can ticket due to hub limitations. [single numbered QF/BA through flights from Australia to Europe are viewed as touching 3 continents - SWP, Asia, Europe]
- Where class of service is unavailable, you'll be booked into the lower class of service with no comp. Exception: If on a business fare, you'll be booked into F on 2 class domestic services in the US.

That's all I can think of for now... refer to the fare rules on oneworld.com (or expertflyer) for more details.

Paging a RWSTAR guru to come along with RWSTAR rules...

3 As well as the fun of choosing the places you want to visit and/or airlines you want to fly, an enjoyable part for me (a *A RTW) was maximising the FFP status/miles achievable from the RTW. I assume it was the same for yours ?

Yeah fully - and I only need 10 000 flown miles after this trip (the first bit of my next DONE4 hopefully) to get EXP status.

Hence some unnecessary flights like NRT-xSIN-xLHR-DXB, or entering the US from LHR at the west coast, and exiting over at the east coast for Australia.

Since you're accruing to BAEC, LHR-DXB/MCT/BAH etc-LHR and the seasonal DFW-ANC-DFW come to mind, and the latter books into A if you're on a DONEx.

[KeithMEL]

Fare rules and relevant fares for each origin are readily available on the oneworld website: http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...world-explorer

Yes - know the fare rules from back to front before ringing up the airline or TA because even res agents or TAs can get fare rules muddled up themselves. For eg, Qantas agents will insist that the fare ends at the point of origin, when in fact you're allowed to make side trips with any remaining segments so long as it's within country of origin.

Fares are increasing Sept 1st ex-HKG, and maybe it's an across the board increase according to rumours. This is what I meant by ticketing early.

[jhm]

Excellent pre TR report, KeithMEL - very informative for a OW RTW virgin like myself! Some additional points perhaps:

1 How you find the prices of the RTWs from the various origins.

2 Perhaps mention (if it's not obvious ?) that you should acquire a workikng knowledge of the relevant fare rules.

3 As well as the fun of choosing the places you want to visit and/or airlines you want to fly, an enjoyable part for me (a *A RTW) was maximising the FFP status/miles achievable from the RTW. I assume it was the same for yours ?

[andySYD]

How much did you end up paying for this (not including the trips to Japan to start the RTW)?

I notice you also have LHR several times - I thought that RTW tickets either have to be clockwise or anti-clockwise?

I am planning for a RTW trip later this year, so still have lots to learn

[KeithMEL]

oOo
well its a shame that you stoped flying with SQ.

I think the reasons have been hashed out both above and in another thread.

But hey - still an excellent airline service-wise. Just less incentive putting my money there over its competitors.

[singaporeairlinesboi]

Oh i still do - just cause i've stopped flying them (other than when I've enough LH miles to burn) doesn't mean that I've stopped liking them.

oOo
well its a shame that you stoped flying with SQ.

[KeithMEL]

so you dont like SQ no more? cuzz u said you abandon them..

Oh i still do - just cause i've stopped flying them (other than when I've enough LH miles to burn) doesn't mean that I've stopped liking them.