Questions about a One World award ticket
 

I know AAFrequentFlyer has lots of experience with this and I welcome anyone's response.
I currently have about 250,000 AA miles. Since I'm now traveling alone and plan to do a little more pleasure traveling, I'm thinking next summer might be a good time to work on my "bucket list". I really want to get to Russia and to China/Vietnam/Thailand; and I'd love to get to Africa for some sort of safari as well as hitting South Africa. I could also visit my "big three" in South America -- Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Rio, as well as seeing Machu Picchu. And I really wouldn't mind getting back to Australia.

I'm sure happy with BusinessClass instead of First. I'm having a bit of difficulty planning, as you need to have an itinerary before finding how many miles it will take. And it sounds like you can't change any aspect of the itinerary after you book -- right? Or I can change the dates without changing the order of the itinerary? Since I will want to hook up with a couple of land tours (like the Safari and perhaps a tour in China and/or Russia), it's kind of impossible to come up with exact dates when some of those may not even book -- especially for a single -- until fairly close to the time. Will I have a lot of trouble getting seats for major routes in Business? Would they be easier to get if I used more miles and got First Class instead of Business?

I'm looking at taking several months -- maybe even 5 or 6 -- to do this. Not looking for expensive luxury travel at my destinations, much more laid back and hopefully fairly inexpensive, including renting a small apartment for a week in many of the major cities.

I'm pretty sure AAFF and Gardyloo (who has done many RTW trips) can answer your question in more detail.

for the time being, you may want to read the FIRST post of this thread (if you haven't done so already). It is updated just last week:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...nes-miles.html

Since you're doing this trip all in one swoop, it will make it easier to plan.

AA just recently changed one rule, a very significant rule. Before the change ONLY the "as crow flies" distances between departure and destination counted towards the total miles. Unfortunately now it's the distance between any connection city. For example, Fort Myers-Mia-Los Angeles would have been Fort-Myers-Los Angeles. Not any more. It is RSW-MIA-LAX now.

With that in mind, there are couple of rules that limit the ability to plan exactly as you want.

You can only have 1 stopover plus 2 connections in any one city.

You are allowed to change dates but not the cities once you ticket.

That said, the mileage rule change made the award somewhat less desirable, but like I said, since you want to do this in one swoop, it may still be a very nice award.

Post the desired routing and I'll try to help you with getting the most out of it. I assume you want to start in RSW and end there, but if you could tell me which way you want to go, which destinations are more important, etc. Post as much detailed routing as you can at the moment.

Business class should be available, especially if you are traveling alone.

AAFF has probably done more Oneworld award trips than I have, but in working with friends who've done similarly ambitious itineraries, I'd only comment that the more stops you string together the more difficult it seems to become to make everything work as smoothly as you'd like. You can easily run into domino problems, as one segment gets re-scheduled making for a mis-connect, leading to a busted hotel or safari reservation, etc. The key is flexibility and learning how to work the system to your advantage. You should start with some planning aids:

For example, the invaluable Great Circle Mapper - http://gc.kls2.com/ - coupled with the Oneworld .pdf timetable - http://www.trvlink.com/download/oneworld/oneworld.pdf - and the desktop planner - http://www.trvlink.com/download/onew...rlddesktop.exe - will give you a good start on route planning and mileage estimates. 250K miles can be good for up to 50K flown miles, but the 16-segment limit and stopover rules can become a pain, as Oneworld is very "hubby" especially in Europe (London) and Asia (Hong Kong and Tokyo.)

The real crux, though, will be getting the flights you want on the days you want. Availability in premium classes is indeed a problem on some routes, e.g. most famously Cathay Pacific over the Pacific, or Qantas from N. America to Oz, or Qantas from Sydney to Joburg, etc. NOT "impossible" as many say, just difficult, requiring persistence and flexibility.

If you love a challenge, it's great, and the rewards are obvious.

For example... (use the Great Circle Mapper, copy and paste): MIA-LIM-SCL-EZE-GRU-GIG-LHR-DME-LHR-CPT-JNB-SYD-HKG-SGN-HKG-PVG-ORD - 42K miles, 220,000 AA miles in business class.

Have fun - you deserve some.

OK. Thanks for the help so far. I'm still a little confused about some of this "stopover" information, including a double talk thing on that first link where I can't figure out if just going through a city is a stopover and/or if it adds a segment. For example, I sure don't have to start and end in Ft. Myers, if a beginning RSW to MIA and MIA to RSW takes up two segments. Just as easy for me to start and end in Miami and save those two segments for better use.

I also got a little lost about it counting for a segment even when you are doing land travel. For example MIA to SFO, then LAX to HKG counts as three segments, because they count you getting from SFO to LAX on your own as an actual segment, but now NOT counting miles? Did I read that right?

Right now I'm working on routes that will work best (hopefully non-stops) between major cities in South America and Africa (it looks like I may have to go through London?), or alternately between South America and Australia, hopefully without going through LAX or somewhere. Also between Hong Kong or other China Cities and either Africa or Australia.

Since I'm thinking of doing this over next summer (2010) and wouldn't be returning until sometime in fall of 2010, I guess I have at least 10 months from now to plan. I'm assuming I can't book until about 11 months from my final flight?

Gardyloo, when I clicked on the downloading of OneWorld Timetables, I got a "4267 pages" or so icon. Is that right? I don't see a need to download 4000 pages of a current timetable. Is there an easier, more brief way? I have to play with the Great Circle Mapper. I didn't quite figure it out yet, but will.

Stopover - any time you stay longer than 24 hours and also you can't have a stopover in the starting or final destination points. So if you do fly out of or into RSW, you can't have a stopover there.

Connection - Ultimately AA wants you to connect within (I believe) 6 hours BUT if the only available(available meaning that's the ONLY flight, not seat availability) flight to your next destination is 23:59 minutes later it will still be considered a connection.

With that in mind, 1 stopover and 2 connections in any one city. London Heathrow and London Gatwick is 1 city just as JFK and LGA is one city.

You can stay in London for few days, weeks, months but you can only connect through London 2 more times.

Few years back I flew into Sydney in afternoon but the next flight to Auckland was not until next morning, so although I got to stay in Sydney overnight it was still considered a connection, not a stopover.

Hope that helps.

Have fun playing with the itn.

My last OW itn (before the mileage rule change) To be honest I'm not even sure it's totally correct but close...:-)

SRQ-MIA-LHR(stop)-CAI(stop)-LHR/LGW-DVB(stop)-LGW-MAN-ORD-TPA(stop)

Few months later

TPA-ORD-MIA(stop) (bought a R/T ticket MIA-SRQ)

Few months later

MIA-POS-MIA-SRQ(end) (originally it was suppose to be MIA-SJU-POS-MIA-SRQ) but since the ticket was about 9 months old at that time and there was a drastic schedule change, I got away with changing it to MIA-POS-MIA. Nobody questioned it but they could have)

<i>Gardyloo, when I clicked on the downloading of OneWorld Timetables, I got a "4267 pages" or so icon. Is that right?</i>

The link will open a .pdf (Acrobat) file in your browser (assuming you have Adobe Acrobat already on your computer - if not, it's free all over the place.) It's 4000 pages only in the language of Acrobat - the actual file is around 5 megs, but it's very easy to use. Just "save a copy" when it launches, then you can just re-open the file (oneworld.pdf) when you want to play with it.

The stopover rules are pretty complicated. Basically, you can stop over (defined in most cases as over 24 hrs unless there's a connecting flight within 6 hours of arrival, in which case anything after 6 hrs is a stopover.) The distinction is only important when you're hitting the same city more than once, e.g. Chicago - London (connection to) Moscow (stopover) - London (stopover) - Madrid (stopover) - London (connection) - Cape Town. In this case, you'd be maxed out on the number of times your wheels could touch London - two connections and one stopover. In your case, Hong Kong could be a problem, because if you want to go to 2 or more countries only served via HKG e.g., Vietnam plus Thailand plus Sri Lanka (say) then you'd be connecting through HKG too many times. Usually there are work-arounds, but they can be time consuming and costly in terms of miles burned to travel a short distance (e.g. HKG-SGN-HKG-BKK-HKG in order to get from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok, since Oneworld doesn't have any direct service between the two.) Hope that doesn't muddy things too much.

As for open-jaws (e.g. London-Moscow, overland to St Petersburg - London) you're allowed one per trip, which can also be at the beginning/end (e.g. start in Miami, end in Chicago.)

To solve the connection-point and open-jaw limitations, what most people do on RTW itineraries, whether they're award or purchased, is treat the 16 segments as a backbone, and look for inexpensive ways to do "spur" trips from hubs. So for example, fly into Bangkok and use the cheap regional low cost airlines to get to Vietnam or Cambodia and back, then continue the "backbone" to the next hub (maybe Hong Kong) from which take the train to Beijing/Xi'an etc., then back to HKG to resume the RTW. Europe, Southeast Asia and South America are great places to try this, using local cheap carriers, trains, or the various "air pass" products offered by Oneworld (especially the Visit South America Air Pass - see the Oneworld.com site.)

You're right - Oneworld has no direct S. America < > Africa routes, so you have to go via Europe or Australia. (Lan flies from Santiago to Auckland/Sydney, Qantas goes from Buenos Aires to Sydney.)

You're right about timing. 330 days out, so you have time.

OK, I have a better understanding of stopover, but I'm still confused. If you fly JNB to LHR, then LHR to SVO (within 3 or 4 hours) it still counts as two segments against your 16 right, even though it's not a stopover?

And while I have no reason to want a stopover in Ft. Myers, are you still saying that RSW- MIA - EZE for example would be two segments against my 16 and not just 1, even without a "stopover" but just a connection in MIA? I'm more concerned about the total segments than I am about stopovers.

OK, here's a very basic idea for 16 segments (if they are really non-stops and don't count as two segments):

MIA-RIO-GRU-SCL-EZE-SYD-MEL-PER-JNB-HKG-BKK-PVG-PEK-SVO-LED-LHR-MIA

Of course, I could easily reduce those stops in South America and fly locally, and I could easily give up a stopover in London -- unless connecting there still counts as an extra segment. I haven't included any open jaws here, which I'd probably do (like going from Johannesburg to Capetown, for example). Am I on the right track? I checked something similar to this routing and was pushing the 50,000 miles total.

I was a little surprised to see the non stop from SYD to PVG and flights from PEK to Moscow, for example without going through Hong Kong. But now I'm thinking the Australia to South Africa and THEN the Far East followed by Russia, London and home kind of makes as much sense as Australia to Far East, then Russia, then to South Africa, where I seem to have to go up to London to get back to Miami.

Well, it's a start. But all I see is dollar signs flashing in front of my eyes (not for the flights -- just for the destinations).

Some of the segments are not possible (although I can be wrong), I just don't have the time right now to look at OW schedules.

PER-JNB?
JNB-HKG ( I know CX served this route, but I'm not sure it does anymore)
BKK-PVG (pretty sure that won't work)
PEK-SVO (again, no OW airline serving that route, AFAIK)
SVO-LED?

Any segment counts towards the 16 segment limit.

All segments count and always did. It's just that the miles between connection points are now all counted against the limits, while previously you only "paid" the miles between stopover points.

Your route fails because there are no Oneworld direct flights between JNB-PER or BKK-PEK, or PEK-SVO, or SVO-LED. Sometimes those flights turn up in the various timetables that are actually codeshares (e.g. PER-JNB operated by South African but carrying a Qantas code.) Codeshares on non-Oneworld airlines are not permitted. BKK-PEK would have to be BKK-HKG-PEK or BKK-NRT-PEK, etc. The only Asia to Moscow direct route is on JAL from NRT, otherwise you go via London, Amman, or Helsinki (or Madrid, but that burns another segment and a lot of miles.)

PS - JNB-HKG still flies; I did it a couple months ago in the new CX J coffins. Bleh. 3-class part of the year, 2-class the rest.

Yes, I did see the Cathay flight from JNG-HKG non stop.
And I missed that the PER-JNB flight was a code share, but there IS a Qantas -- flight 63 -- SYD-JNB, which is just as good. I'm not hung up on going back to Perth.

What I saw for PEK-SVO was FinnAir -- but it does go through Helsinki, so would be two segments. And now I see that one of those flights is code share with Aeroflot -- but FinnAir does do PEK-LED (through Helsinki). So that could work and then fly LED to LHR (doing my own roundtrip travel within Russia?

When all is said and done, I could easily forget Russia as part of this (easy to do from home with London anyway), if it starts getting too complicated connecting from China.

And BKK isn't really an issue either. I could fly from South Africa to Hong Kong and do my own thing as Gardyloo mentioned above for SE Asia, then fly Hong Kong to PVG and then PEK to Russia -- or wherever. And frankly, I might even look at an "adventure-type-tour" of SE Asia which starts and ends in HongKong anyway.

SYD-JNB and v.v. on QF 63/64 might possibly be the hardest award seat to score in business class in all of Oneworld. It's even hard to book in business class using paid RTWs; it's actually easier to get in first class using either scenario; however that adds (a lot) to the dollar or mileage cost.

I'd definitely plan on routing Africa > Asia > Oz > S. America (or the reverse) which saves miles, too.

Interesting -- why was I thinking the other way saved miles? No problem with that order, Gardyloo -- although I somehow picture it in the reverse as you say.

OK, here's a new go-round. This one is only 14 segments (but I'm sure I could come up with two more to add) and is a total of 41,837 miles. Only open jaw is getting from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Actually, I might even opt to do a train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg too, taking away another flying segment I could add elsewhere. I am right, aren't I, that the land segment doesn't count as a segment?

Any problems you see with this?
I'm using city names rather than codes to make a few of them easier to follow:

Miami - Rio - Santiago - Buenos Aires - Sydney - Melbourne - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Beijing - Helsinki - St. Petersburg - (land to Moscow) - Madrid - Johannesburg - London - Miami

I should mention that I would plan to do some travel within Africa, but I'm not finding one-world options within Africa, so I'm assuming that would all be land or smaller airlines on my own. I'm NOT going to fly to London to get from Capetown to Nairobi, for example!

And I do want to do some other travel within Southeast Asia. A stop in Jakarta coming from Australia is a possibility for another segment. Trying not to hit Hong Kong too much probably means land travel to VietNam and Thailand and Cambodia with a return to Hong Kong.
And I'm still not opposed to dropping Australia out completely, especially since it would be in the middle of the winter there. That would mean flying from South America to Asia and I haven't even looked at those possibilities.

Ooops. And yet another question. Is it true that I must use Sao Paulo (GRU) for Rio? I can't seem to find nonstops from RIO or GIG to Santiago or to Buenos Aires on One World. Seems odd to me that even LanChile wouldn't do that? I'm assuming that SaoPaulo isn't all that difficult to use for Rio anyway?

Couple of comments -

You have two open-jaws, Shanghai-Beijing and St Petersburg - Moscow. The PVG-PEK flight in the timetable is a China Eastern codeshare, ineligible. So you could go PVG-HKG-PEK or PVG-NRT-HKG instead, or else go SYD-PEK-NRT-PVG-HKG-HEL. Whichever, you'll be using up one or two of the "extra" segments.

Flying LED-HEL-MOW-MAD is complicated because Finnair flies into Sheremetyevo airport (SVO) while Iberia flies out of Domodedovo airport (DME). There have been reports that just crossing Moscow may count as a segment, even if it doesn't count as an open-jaw. If it were me I'd fly the Asian route and save my one open-jaw for Russia - <i>although</i> frankly given that the Finnair hops are so short, I'd probably just do the whole Russia thing - HEL-LED-M0W... on the train and save my flight award segments for something that delivers more punch - MIA-LIM-GIG for example, or SYD-CNS-SYD, to visit the Great Barrier Reef during the winter, when there aren't killer jellyfish in the water and it's not boiling hot/humid. But that's just me.

The JNB-LHR-NBO thing is indeed an awful lot of miles, but you should check out the cost of local flights within Africa before ruling it out altogether.

Regardless, you're well over the 35K mile threshold for the OW220C award but well under the 50K mi max, so you can keep playing.

You could fly Comair within Africa as part of your award but their network is pretty much limited to southern Africa so wouldn't work if you wanted to go to Nairobi.

Don't know why you're not seeing them - Lan has one or two daily nonstops between GIG and SCL daily; however AFAIK Lan Argentina hasn't started service between EZE and GIG, so you'd have to route through GRU, or else follow the path you've identified, MIA-GIG-SCL-EZE...

Just noticed a typo above - to get from Shanghai to Beijing you could use either HKG or NRT as a connection point.

Wow. This gets so confusing. I could swear that I found a non-stop PVG to PEK that qualified when looking on the AA site with one world checked. But now I don't. So that is an issue, although I'm not opposed to the the train between the two -- of course that creates another open jaw.

And yes, I read conflicting reports about whether in and out of two different airports in the same city counts as a segment or not. No one seems to know for sure. I can easily see doing just flying to Helsinki and out of Helsinki and doing all of Russia from there on my own. Or just saving that for another time.

In Africa, I'd really kind of like to incorporate Cairo or somewhere north, but I'm not seeing that at all. But, Patty, I don't think I'd use up segments doing Comair within South Africa. Those seem pretty cheap on their own.

Like I said above, think of the award as a backbone and look for cheap/easy spur trips on your own dime.

Look also at the Oneworld regional air passes - Europe, S. America, Asia... http://www.oneworld.com/ow/air-trave...ntinent-fares; the Europe product also includes some North African and Middle East countries, like Algeria, Morocco, and Israel. The prices for the South America airpass are very favorable, and could save you award segments in SA.

I'm still confused. On the AA site, and even on the LanChile site, all I find for flights from GIG to SCL are through Sao Paulo. What am I missing?

I'm thinking of another trip to Lima and Equador -- which is often very cheap from Miami, so not looking to do that as part of this trip.

Here's a thought:
Put Toyko (or maybe better yet Osaka, since I've not been there) between Shanghai and Beijing. Then fly
PEK to HEL, then do St. Petersburg and Moscow on my own, removing the open jaw, by returning to HEL. Then HEL to Cairo (Finnair). Then on my own to South Africa. And then JNB (or Capetown) to LHR, and home.
There are my 16 segments, only open jaw being in Africa.

I also see that I could cut out Russia on this trip and fly from PEK to HKG, and then Cathay HKG to JNB direct. That cuts out a whole lot.

I misspoke - Lan's flights from GIG to SCL and v.v. (LA 750,751,756,757) are direct, not nonstop flights - they stop at GRU. However for ticketing purposes (including awards) the GIG-SCL flight counts as one segment (two sectors) if you don't get on/off at GRU. Same thing goes with one of their SCL-JFK flights (the one I took last month) - stops in Lima, but only one flight coupon for through pax.

As for your amended route, I don't think Finnair has direct service to Cairo, but this route - MIA-GIG-SCL-EZE-SYD-MEL-HKG-PVG-NGO-PEK-HEL-LHR-CAI-MAD-JNB-LHR-MIA - would fit within your parameters. No openjaws, but you'd have to roar around SE Asia and Mother Russia on your own.

OH. I thought that even the stop made it two segments, but this is good news. Although, should I also do Sao Paulo anyway? Friends who lived there for two years always tell me NOT to bother.

And oops -- I think I was looking at Helsinki to Madrid, then Madrid to Cairo. But now looking at Cairo to South Africa flights on my own -- I think I'd forget that --$$$$.

In any case, I'm starting to get the hang of this, and I'm thinking yes -- I should go back to Cairns while in Australia, and that works fine because I can fly from MEL to there, then nonstop from Cairns to Hong Kong. And I'm thinking maybe after China, I really should do Hong Kong to Mombai for more bang for my buck (dropping the whole Russia idea), then Mombai to London and then to Africa. I don't see a logical better way from Mombai to South Africa.

Now here's the new situation. I've been thinking of doing this westbound, but maybe eastbound works better. I'm thinking mid May to mid October for the whole trip. Either direction would put me in Asia in June/July/August. But which of the following sounds better (weather wise in particular)?

Westbound: Rio, Santiago, Buenos Aires -- late May, early June /// Australia--June to early July /// Africa --Sept to early October

OR
Eastbound: Africa -- late May and June // Australia -- late August to Sept. // Rio, Santiago, BA -- late Sept to mid October.

Mombai? Make that Mumbai.

By the way, if I don't use up my open jaw elsewhere, I can always do one between JNB and Capetown, which I'd like to do anyway (in fact I've looked at an interesting overland small group adventure trip that does that, along with Krueger and elsewhere -- about 18 days worth!

Wow, what alot of great advice from AAFrequent Flyer and Gardyloo. I too have alot of AA miles and I would like to use them for RTW tickets sooner or later.

Sorry, NeoPatrick, I can't be of much help to you. I have a few comments. If you travel eastbound you will lose time because of the time zones, when travelling westbound, you gain time, except for when you cross the International Date Line. One way flights from Cape Town to JNB are very reasonable, I'm not sure if this is a good use of your open jaw.

Interesting new thought. Open jaw land travel from Hong Kong after China -- working my way through Viet Nam and Thailand, then take the train from Bangkok down to Singapore (friends loved doing that and it's cheaper than dirt). So maybe my open jaw would be land from Hong Kong to Singapore. You can get off for a couple days at Penang, and a couple more at Kuala Lumpur, then spend some time in Singapore, which I love. Then I can do Qantas from Singapore to Mombai.

Now I do understand correctly that the land segment is NOT counted as one of my segments, right?

I think Scarlet has convinced me that May to June is likely to be much nicer in Buenos Aires than Sept to Oct. And yes, I do like the idea of going west timewise. I seem to be able to do fewer overnight flights -- which is good.

OK, a new development. Part of what I want to do is a 30 day OAT trip in Thailand and VietNam. They don't do that in July or early August (and I understand why), but that fits my time in Asia the way I've been looking at it.

It was mentioned that the Perth to JNB is nearly impossible to book in Business class. What about SYD-JNB? If I'm booking this nearly a year ahead and am flexible with dates up to a week in either direction, shouldn't I be able to get a single ticket on one of those Qantas flights or the other? Whether I flew from CNS or MEL to either PER or SYD, wouldn't make any real difference either.

Surprisingly when I look at going from South America to Australia and THEN do Africa -- it puts me in "safari" country in late June or July, which I think is fine, then to LHR, BOM, and then to Asia where I could do China in August and Thailand in September/Oct. Then return to the States from Hong Kong. I think I've worked out a good 16 segments that are doable and a total of 47,000 miles, about what I had the other way. I do understand that you don't have to continue on around the world like you used to have to do, right? This way, I'd never be crossing the Atlantic, but rather circling South America, Australia, Europe, Asia.

<i>I do understand that you don't have to continue on around the world like you used to have to do, right?</i>

You never HAD to go around the world and you still don't. I have done OW awards in South America only, South Pacific and Asia, Asia only, and so on and so on....I also broke up the ticket into 2-3 completely separate trips.

Seems like you are doing well with the ticket, but remember, once you are ready to call to book you may have to be flexible with dates on some of the segments. It's not always possible to book an award segment just on the date you need or want.

Good luck!

Yes, I'm aware of that and most major cities I stop in I'll also want to stay a week or so -- which gives me a fair amount of flexibility. But is this like other AA awards? Can I book or rather put on hold the first segments 11 months out and add the others as they become available. Or do I have to book the entire thing at one time? That could be more of a problem as traveling from mid May to mid October, I wouldn't be able to book even the May flights until mid or late November -- and I'm thinking those may be pretty scarce then? You can change dates, but not itinerary, so perhaps the whole itinerary could be "booked" about June or July with the flights just a few days apart after that and then as the dates pass, try to get the appropriate dates? I've done that numerous times with multi stays in Europe. Like I'll book round trip MIA-LHR-CDG in May as if I'm coming back in a week, and then months later when the flights I really want become available I change the connecting and return tickets to those dates.

Regarding going around the world, I thought I looked at some AA related "round the world pass" about 10 years ago where you had to continue in the same basic direction and couldn't "backtrack" -- in fact I thought I even saw a reference to that "no longer being the case" in the full rules for the OneWorld pass? But no matter, since it isn't an issue anyway.

<i>It was mentioned that the Perth to JNB is nearly impossible to book in Business class.</i>

It was SYD-JNB. There's no Oneworld PER-JNB.

<i>Gardyloo on Apr 3, 09 at 02:13 PM

SYD-JNB and v.v. on QF 63/64 might possibly be the hardest award seat to score in business class in all of Oneworld.</i>

You'll have to book the entire ticket at once. The dates are changeable, but it's always a risk of not getting the desired date once you book the ticket. If you book the tickets with dates that you don't really want then you have to hope the dates you do want open up. Very risky, so I always suggest that you book the segment dates as close as possible to what you really want, or at the very least adjust your trip accordingly with what you can get.

OW passes, round the world products are nothing like AA OW award ticket. Totally different rules. AA controls the AA OW award rules, OW controls the passes, RTW tickets rules.

So bottom line, how likely am I to get much of what I want (within several days either way) booking a May to October trip at the end of November? With AA, I've generally booked the exact maximum days out from date of travel with no problems, but if I have to wait up to 5 months after the seats are released for booking before I'm allowed to book them. . .
And do all the OneWorld airlines make the flights bookable that approx. 11

drat, hit a buttom by accident.

Do all the OneWorld airlines make their flights available that approximately 11 months ahead of flight date? Or are some earlier and/or later than that?

The only thing I can tell you is that I never booked an AA OW award ticket 11 months out. I always booked it 2-3 months before the first flight and it never was too much trouble getting the dates I wanted. An adjustment of a day or 2, here and there, but generally speaking I was able to book exactly what I wanted.

If you want to book the entire trip 11 months out, then your <u>last</u> segment would have to be 11 months out and thus that's were the date change problems may come into play when you want to adjust later.

Oh, that sounds like good news. Yes, I always do my regular ones 11 months out. Still kind of waiting to hear what people think my chances are on the Perth to Johannesburg or Sydney to Johannesburg segment -- booking about 7 months out.
And AAFF, were you doing one ticket or two? The only times I ever had a problem with exact selection on regular awards they always told me they had one but not two seats. I keep thinking one should be a lot easier.

<I>Still kind of waiting to hear what people think my chances are on the Perth to Johannesburg or Sydney to Johannesburg segment -- booking about 7 months out.</I>

You can't fly PER-JNB on a Oneworld award - it's operated by South African Airlines with a Qantas code.

I just looked at SYD-JNB availability for the rest of this year - May through December, using Qantas' own award availability site. Nothing in business class on QF 63 - not one business class chair. Plenty on the SAA codeshare, which Qantas flyers can access as partner awards, but off limits to AA flyers on redemption tickets.

So, I'd say your chances are... low.

You might consider making use of a couple of AA's "long thin" routes to begin and end. Start with a visit to Russia, Cairo and South Africa, then continue from Europe through South America, over to the Antipodes, then finish with your swing through Asia and back home. You'd need to start and end at Chicago to save segments and get in under the mileage limit, but the following hits your places (as I understand them.) Not sure about seasonal timing, but Russia and Egypt in the autumn followed by South Africa, South America and Oz in the spring, then finish in Asia in the relatively cool season… works for me.

ORD-DME-AMM-CAI-MAD-JNB-MAD-GIG-GRU-EZE-SCL-SYD-HKG-PEK-NRT-PVG-ORD

http://tinyurl.com/cyxrgh