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