UA Excursionist Fare
 

I'm hoping to book a trip to NZ with UA miles in Star Alliance. I'm looking at their Excursionist Perk . I will be leaving form IAD. As I understand it the only place I could add a stop is in either NZ or Australia. I was hoping to add a stop someplace in Asia, but that appears not to be allowed. Is that correct?
I know it's very difficult to book award flights to NZ. Does anyone have any suggestions for succeeding with a FF mile booking to & from NZ? Thanks!

Anyone?

The only luck we've had using UA awards is when we booked from Singapore to NZ and from Australia/NZ to the US. Seems almost impossible to get FF seats coming from the US. I don't even try anymore.

I much prefer Air NZ to UA anyway. If you've got lots of time before your trip I suggest you sign up for Air NZ email promotions. We got a fabulous deal from Denver to Queenstown and back from Christchurch last May - in Air NZ Premium Economy - which was very nice. Even a NZ agent seemed surprised at how good a deal it was.

Thanks! I'm not real optimistic about getting FF seats, but I'll try. I understand using ANA website offers more possibilities. Thanks for suggesting I sign up for AirNZ, I'll do that.

Availability of FF seats to and from Oz/NZ has everything to do with timing. Remember that the northern winter is the southern summer, so trying to get to or from those places during school breaks (Christmas and summer in general) can be very difficult because of demands of people originating in Oz/NZ to travel the other way across the Pacific.

If you're planning to travel during a high-demand period, then getting any FF seats, never mind trying to fit in some "excursionist perk" stopover, can be challenging.

If you're using United miles, asking ANA to help you find seats is fairly pointless; you'll still need to book through UA when it comes down to it, and if United doesn't show availability, that's that.

When are you traveling?

Yes, thanks, I know that getting FF seats is very difficult to NZ during NA winter. We would be traveling in late January 2020 and returning in March. Completely flexible on dates and routes, At this point I am just trying to understand the lay of the land so to speak. What I have read is that ANa shows the availability of all Star Alliance possibilities better than UA website does. I also noticed on the UA website they don’t show the availability a month at a time like it used tO. Am I missing something. With that

when we went to Australia a UA agent routed us thru Asia with a stopover in Hong Kong. There was a fair amount of availability and I would be open to an option like that. I also thought of flying to and from Australia and flying to NZ from Australia if that would yield us seats on the long haul. Like I wrote, at this stage just trying to figure out what options might be available.

Well obviously you won't be able to see availability for January 2020 for several months yet. But permit me to do a little math.

Assuming you're flying in economy, a round trip from IAD to AKL this coming January has a cash price hovering around $1400, give or take, depending on when you're traveling.

Using miles, United charges 40,000 miles one way, so 80K round trip. Ignoring taxes and fees that you'd have to pay on top of the miles (but which are included in the cash price) that equates to a cash value of under 2c per mile. That value will be less once you add in the fees and taxes you'd pay on top of the miles.

Now this is a purely judgement call and people have different standards, but as one who plays the mileage game a lot, in my view 2c per mile or less is poor value. I generally don't use miles unless the cash-equivalent value is greater than 2.5c per mile. And in travel to places like Australia or NZ, the availability issue, where you might find yourself having to take flights on days you'd rather not, or with long layovers, or multiple flights, or weird routes where January weather might pose risks of weather delays, etc.... well, it's up to you. What ELSE could you use those miles for?

Or maybe you fly for cash to someplace in Asia, which can be quite inexpensive in January, then use United miles on a separate itinerary down to Oz/NZ. This coming January you can fly to Hong Kong for less than $1000, in some cases way less, then United charges 25K miles one way to Auckland.

I guess what I'm saying is that since you have plenty of time, run the numbers using all kinds of options. I'd also look at a couple of boards on Flyertalk, the "mileage run" and United boards, https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/ and https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...leageplus-681/ - where obsessive FTers find cheap fares and offer advice on how best to use FF programs respectively. Worth the effort, trust me.

Thanks! Thought provoking ideas! We want to fly business not economy. Biz fares to NZ run 7k upwards which puts the mileage value up. But the thought of doing a roundtrip to SEAsia might be interesting to explore. Every time I go on Flyertalk my head spins! But you are correct, they are helpful. I thought I would start more gently with Fodors. And as you said, I have lots of time to figure this out.

Ah, well that changes things.

I don't want to be a pessimist, but you probably already know that business class award trips to Australia/New Zealand are among the hardest seats to obtain in the whole business. I won't say "impossible," because nothing is, and you'll find plenty of people who will say they've gotten award space in the peak season, but these are real rarities; I imagine the vast - vast - majority have simply given up the quest without a peep. Part of the problem is that the two main airlines serving the US < > Australia/NZ route, Qantas and Air New Zealand, (I'm sure about Qantas and pretty sure about Air NZ) make award seats available to their frequent flyer members a month earlier than other Star Alliance (Air NZ) or Oneworld (Qantas) members do for the same dates, and this extends to non-alliance partners (like, for example, Alaska Airlines for Qantas.) And while both Qantas and Air NZ behave similarly to other airlines in using very sophisticated "revenue management" algorithms that release seats into award inventory on a rolling basis, the simple fact remains that there are plenty of people on both sides of the Pacific, as well as Europe and Asia, that are willing to shell out big bucks for business class chairs to Oz/NZ, so there's no incentive for the airlines to make too many available for mileage redemption, and getting two seats on any given flight verges on the impossible.

So what are some work-arounds? Well, I've already mentioned the option of paying to get someplace where award seats might be easier to obtain, but again, wanting business class hampers this plan. It might be easier, if you're traveling in January, to use miles to get somewhere that's easier to access in the winter, then pay cash, but less of it, to go the rest of the way. Candidates for this option would include places in Asia, like Japan or Hong Kong, or even in Europe, which I know is a bit counter-intuitive, but which can reveal some interesting options. For example, using fares for this coming January (since January 2020 is too far out) you can fly a round trip from Oslo or Stockholm to Auckland for around US$3000, compared to $5-6K or more from the US. (Also always check departing from Canada as the markets are different and business class fares are frequently $1000 - $2000 less than from the US on the same dates, a big savings even if you have to pay for separate tickets to/from say, Toronto.) Or use miles to get to Tokyo, from which round trips on Cathay Pacific to Auckland via Hong Kong in January (2019) are available for $2266.

The final thought is one on which I'm a broken record, but I'm obliged to throw it out anyway. If you travel frequently and prefer business class (and who doesn't?) then I'll just mention various round-the-world or "circle" ticket products that might merit investigation. I can go on to ridiculous lengths about these things, but I'll just try to throw out some ideas as "teasers" for the time being.

Round-the-world (RTW) tickets are sold by the members of the three big alliances (Star Alliance, Oneworld and Skyteam) and allow you to include up to 16 flights on one ticket. You have to cross the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the same direction, and end in the same country where you began, with a couple of exceptions (e.g. US and Canada, Singapore and Malaysia, etc.) You can zigzag and "double back" within continents and countries, but not over oceans. Subject to specific rules, you can stop over anywhere along the route, and you have 12 months from the first flight to complete the trip. Changes to dates are free, changes to the itinerary cost a flat fee of $125. The Star Alliance and Skyteam RTW products, and one of the two Oneworld ones, limit the total flown mileage to certain "tiers" (for example up to 29,000 miles in one tier, up to 34,000 in the next tier etc.) Baggage is included and you'll earn full frequent flyer miles, which in business class can be quite a harvest. You might qualify for elite status in your FF program of choice.

But one BIG feature of these tickets is that they carry vastly different prices depending on where you begin and end the circle. For example, a Oneworld RTW in business class covering four continents (say, Asia, Australia/NZ, Europe and North America) starting in Japan or Norway costs around US$6900; the same ticket started in the US, with the same stops but in a slightly different order, is $11,000, or if started in Canada, $8200.

These are big numbers of course, but here's how it might work if you travel someplace far away every year or so. Let me give you an example, using the Oneworld Explorer RTW ticket, which IMO is the most useful, tends to be the cheapest, and which offers the greatest flexibility. Let's imagine you want to visit someplace in Europe or the Middle East (which is counted as Europe by the airlines) next spring before you visit New Zealand the following January. I'll just guess that you'd like to visit Israel around Pesach or Easter. So here's what you do.

Fly on miles to Paris, spend a couple of days in the City of Lights, then hop a cheapo flight to Oslo. Start a 4-continent (unlimited miles) RTW ticket there, one you've already purchased before leaving home. If you want to explore Norway for a few days before taking off, fine, but when the time comes, fly from Oslo to Helsinki, change planes, and then fly down to Tel Aviv for your exploration of Israel. Spend as much time as you want, then fly to London and change planes, then home to DC.

Over the next ten months or so, use the ticket to travel around North America, which includes Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. Using the Oneworld Explorer, you're allowed six flight segments within this region, only one of which can be a transcontinental nonstop flight, e.g. Washington to LAX or SFO. Maybe an Alaska cruise? Easy. Yosemite waterfalls in the late spring, or fall colors in the Rockies? Okay. Hang out on some Caribbean or Central American beach? No sweat. When you're done with these trips, come home and recuperate before heading off the next time. Remember, you've got a whole year.

Anyway, come January, it's off to New Zealand. You could fly straight from the west coast, or go via Australia, leaving from New York, Dallas or Los Angeles. Enjoy your days in the Antipodes, then when it's time to continue west, you'd have a couple of choices. One, you could return to winter and travel via Asia. You could gobble the best food in the world in Singapore or Bangkok, go skiing in Hokkaido, hit the beach on Bali, or walk along the Great Wall. Your pick.

OR, you could bypass Asia and fly from Sydney across the bottom of the world to Johannesburg. Go on safari around Kruger National Park or visit Addo Elephant National Park and drive down the Garden Route to Cape Town... what's your pleasure?

Then, either from Joburg, Cape Town, or any number of Asian cities, fly back to London and ultimately back to Oslo, where the ticket ends. Use miles again (including some of the many thousand you've earned on the trip) to get home. Or just buy another RTW ticket and plan the next year's travel - maybe South America this time, or India or Central Asia... ?

Here's an imaginary route, one of a bazillion possible. https://tinyurl.com/yb3avgz2

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...3bc9888dbc.jpg

What this does is leverage one (big) investment in airfare into two, three or even four separate vacations, traveling all the time in the pointy end of the plane, on flat beds on many routes. When you count the miles earned, you can turn 16 flights up front into even more. When my wife and I were doing these things, we'd pay for RTW tickets in year 1, use them to travel around the world, then in year 2 scale back our travels to one or two trips using the miles (Europe, South America, whatever) then repeat the process starting in year 3. When you add everything up, it's tremendous value.

So that's the spiel, and maybe it's not something that interests you, but the devil made me do it regardless. Might be worth considering.

Another thought, which probably won't work in January (Southern Hemisphere high season) is Air NZ's One Up program - purchasing Economy or Premium Economy and then making a bid for the next class of service. Caveat - you don't know until a week or so before your flight if your bid was accepted, so quite likely that you will end up with whatever class of service you purchased. And FWIW IME Air NZ's economy is awfully squishy. Their Premium Economy is wonderful though and a good compromise between cattle class and Business.

I've had good luck with my One Up bids, but this was when I was flying between Australia and NZ and once when flying from Australia-Auckland-US, but not in reverse.

I believe you also have to sign up for Air NZ's FF program to make a bid, but can't swear to that.

And further to Gardyloo's Asia suggestion, we had good luck flying from Singapore to New Zealand via Melbourne and Singapore to Christchurch via Auckland one year using UA points. Much easier than flying from the US directly to Australia and NZ.

Wow! Thanks for all th great info. Wonderful ideas for NZ.

I have thought about the RTW, but have never dug deeply into it. One problem for us is that we like to be away for ~4-6 weeks generally and then return home. I don't know that we would enjoy being away for such a long period of time that the RTW would require. I realize we could stay shorter times in locations & be gone a short period of time, but we don't tend to do that much anymore. But it's all thought provking and I certainly will keep it in mind for future use. In the meantime your ideas for getting to NZ are very helpful. Aggain, thanks os much for taking the time to write all this out.

Fodor's threw me out before I could respond to you, Melnq8. There is o way we could fly that far in economy and I know the risk of trying to get an upgrade. I don't even have status anymore on UA because I dropped them as my preferred airline. I used to get upgraded all the time when I had status on UA. What did you think of Singapore? That would be a possibility.

Singapore Airlines or Singapore?

Love Singapore Airlines. Hate Singapore's climate:). Spent a lot of time in Singapore when we lived in Indonesia.

When I get all wordy on these threads (commonplace) sometimes an important part gets buried. Let me address this question by putting together a very simple imaginary calendar for the trip I described above. Remember, this is one of an infinity of route options, timing, etc.

RTW starting and ending in Norway, 2019 - 2020.

- Sometime between January and April 2019 - Purchase the RTW ticket.

- April 2019 - Fly to Europe using miles or a cheap one-way ticket (these actually exist, using the likes of Turkish, Icelandair, TAP Portugal, or some others.) Or use miles for a one-way award flight. Visit someplace before flying to Oslo.

- April 2019 - Start the RTW ticket in Oslo and fly to Israel. (Could be Spain, Jordan, the Canary islands, Greek islands, you name it.) Spend, say, 10 days touring around Israel or whatever other place you want to go.

- April 2019 - Fly home using the RTW ticket and go back to work or whatever. For months.

- Sometime between April 2019 and January 2020 (8 months) - use the ticket to travel around North America, the Caribbean, Central America, whatever. A weekend in San Francisco? A week's cruise to Alaska? A week or ten days in Costa Rica or leaf peeping in Quebec? Whatever. Then back home again.

- January 2020 - Off to Australia and/or New Zealand. Three weeks?

- February 2020 - Fly up to Asia or over to Africa. Singapore? Sri Lanka? Vietnam? China? Up to you. Or over to Joburg and down to Cape Town? Or Victoria Falls, or Kruger National Park? Up to you. Two weeks? Three? Up to you.

- February 2020 - Fly to Europe (from Asia or Africa) and back to Norway. If you want to stop someplace en route - maybe Barcelona? - fine, but just be back at Oslo by the 365th day after your first flight. Then use miles or pay for a ticket home, and work on your trip reports.

So in this scenario you're gone from home for 4-6 weeks at the most at one time, but you could fit a couple of "big" trips and one or two "little" trips during the 12 months that the ticket is valid. You make your home a long "stopover" between the European and New Zealand/Asia/Africa phases of the RTW trip, as well as between the "small" trips in North America.

Like I say, imaginary, but totally doable.

Singapore the city. Although would love to fly on the airlines as I've heard it quite nice.
Gardyloo - I am going to have to mull all this info you are providing. We have 12 months to use the ticket following the rules,, right?. It sounds really great. Like I said I need to think this thru on how we could do it say starting in the summer or fall 2019. And then I have to explain it to my husband and see if he agrees, but it sound too good to be true! Are you on PM? I will be back on this.

Well, "too good to be true" is always flirting with quicksand, and the rules can get complicated for sure. But yeah, it's a useful means of seeing some interesting places, some of which are very difficult or expensive to reach.

What I recommended, back when I was a part-time travel consultant shortly after retiring (and still recommend) is that people work up a 3 - 5 year travel "master plan" that lists the places in the world you'd like to visit (or re-visit) along with the time of year you'd most like to visit them. My example of this is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Visiting in the summer (December - April) puts you into high heat and humidity on land, and the presence of dangerous (even deadly) jellyfish in the water makes for a very unrewarding visit. In the southern winter, however, it's spectacular. But in those same months, combining Queensland with, say, the South Island of New Zealand, means you'll be moving from warm nights to snowstorms in the Southern Alps. So timing is everything, right?

Anyway, a travel master plan takes those kind of things into account, sort of like a bucket list on steroids. Not only do you list the places, you work through the order you'd like to see them, whether they can be combined in the same trip with someplace else you want to see, and from that start working on the logistics. By using a 3 or 4 year timeline, you can put together a logical plan that addresses both priorities and practicalities. Of course these plans need to be flexible and make allowance for spur-of-the-moment trips, or trips taken out of necessity - a sick relative, somebody gifts you Superbowl tickets (as if) or things like that.

RTW tickets can be one, but by no means the only, way to flesh out the logistics of such a plan. You start by deciding where you'd like to go, and tools like RTW tickets (or frequent flyer miles) can be surprisingly liberating. Think about places where you wouldn't otherwise be able to get to - the Galapagos Islands or Easter Island in the Pacific? Sri Lanka or Mauritius? Lapland? Patagonia or Namibia? Nepal? With the only limitation being where the planes fly, you've got the whole world at your beck and call. Think big.

Thanks you, Gardyloo, this is just the push I need to get organized for such a multi year plan!

Alright, using your example -- I don't understand how I can go to Israel and then fly home. Travel wherever in NA from my home. Then fly to NZ This seems that I am violating the rule of going in one direction. What am I missing?

The "one direction" thing can be confusing. Here's how it works.

Long ago the airlines divided the world into three "zones," cleverly named TC (Travel Conference) 1, TC2 and TC3. TC1 comprises the Americas, TC2 Europe (as far as the Urals) the Middle East (as far as the Persian Gulf) and all of Africa, and TC3 contains Asia and the "Southwest Pacific," meaning Australia, New Zealand, and the western Pacific (but not Hawaii.)

For RTW tickets, the "one direction" thing only counts between those zones, so for example you can go TC2 (Europe) - TC1 (N. America) - TC3 (Asia) - TC2 (Europe) or vice versa, but not where you cross, say, the Atlantic westbound but the Pacific eastbound. Within those zones you can zigzag or double back to your heart's content, provided you stay within the mileage limits or within specific route restrictions (such as the prohibition by Oneworld of two nonstop transcontinental flights in North America.) But, in my example, starting in western Europe, then flying east to the Middle East, then west to North America, then north and south and east and west within North America, or back and forth between Australia and New Zealand... those are all fine.

>>Within those zones you can zigzag or double back to your heart's content, <<

That was the big thing that always confused me about RTW tickets. Once I figured that out (probably from one of Gardlyloo's tutorials) it became clear . . . not crystal clear but at least much clearer :)

I should clarify that there are restrictions (which differ slightly from one ticket type to another) on "doubling back" between continents that might happen to be within the same region. Thus with Oneworld, for example, you can't double back between Africa and Europe (with a couple of very specific exceptions) or more than once between North and South America. But this won't be an issue in most itineraries.

Thanks again, Gardyloo -- I have to think about this. Very confusing for me, though I get what you are explaining. Have to see if I can put it in practice.

Wow, this is fascinating stuff! I don't know if I'll ever be able to realistically take advantage of it, but it definitely gives me a lot to think about as I'm about to retire and have travel on the brain for the next few years.

It's not really the way we travel as we like to go to one area and stay for 4 weeks or so (e.g. Morocco). However, like you, I find this fascinating and we are going to try to figure out a plan for a year from now. Our main goal is to get a biz class seat to NZ for Jan/Feb 2020. I can see adding some additional places that are far away that we would like to see at some point & putting together a plan as gardyloo suggests. In any case, it will give us some conversations for our GTG.:)

Question: do you plan to go anywhere overseas during 2019? If so, where and when?

For 2019 in the Spring we have already planned and paid airfare for a trip to Croatia. What we're looking to do with this RTW fare would start it at the end of the summer Aug or Sept. No specific plans at this point. We're generally very flexible as to time and when we go & where even. We were originally thinking about back to Italy for a month in September, but with this RTW we would do something else. I was thinking of starting with a week in Switzerland and then go from there. I like the idea of Israel & visiting Jordan. We'd like to stay away about 1 month before returning home. Other places far that we'd like to visit are Bali, Japan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia & maybe S.India.

I know it's really complicated but Gardyloo, your examples have made it a little clearer. I'm wondering if this would be an allowable itinerary for OW Explorer (would be doing biz) starting in mid October 2019?
Get to Oslo and start there.
OSL - Berlin - Japan (early Nov) - BKK (mid-late Nov)- WAS (home in late Nov/early Dec) - Caribbean (mid December) - WAS (late April) - Tanzania (mid September) - Italy (late Sept/early Oct) - OSL (mid Oct). I was wondering if that side trip to the Caribbean and back to WAS is allowable?

Subject to some specific route restrictions regarding travel from North America to Africa via Europe or the Middle East, it would be fine. The side trip to the Caribbean would be allowed.

Rather than complicating one person's thread with another's concerns, I've posted a sort of "FAQ" thread on RTWs that would probably be a better place for specific questions. Here it is: https://www.fodors.com/community/air...fares-1660486/

Sorry, of course I should not have hijacked yestravel's thread but somehow, since we are neighbors, I thought it would be ok...LOL However, the link didn't work for me, tried a few times.

OK, I found it without the link...thanks so much!

I just clicked on it - worked fine. What do you get when you click on it?

Oh - we were posting at the same time . . .

We've been playing around with itin on the OneWorld website. Here's an itin that seems doable. Not sure though.
As gardyloo suggested we'd get ourselves to Europe and start

Oslo in the fall and go to Tel-Aviv (visit Jordan overland).
Tel Aviv to London
London to IAD

Home in DC for a couple months

IAD to Auckland
ACK to Bali
Bali to Kuala Lumpur
KUL to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka to Oslo

We'd get ourselves home from somewhere in Europe

Does that make sense logistically in terms of using OneWorld? Any thoughts or improvements? As I stated when I started this thread, we want to get to NZ in biz class in our winter (Dec thru Feb time frame for a month or so). Except for London, the others are places we'd like to visit that we haven't been.

Another question - does it make sense to use an agency to optimize all this? I read they are sometimes less, but don't know if that is true.

It's a completely legitimate itinerary for a Oneworld RTW. Here's a map showing the basic route - https://tinyurl.com/y8l5cwzr .

This is using only 12 segments out of a maximum of 16, so you could add a side trip in Australia or one (or even two) in North America in the course of the year. You wouldn't even need to make a decision on this at the outset; you can modify an existing ticket for $125, so if, for example, you got back to Washington after Israel, and a month or two later wanted to add a side trip to, say, the Caribbean or to Central America, you could do so by simply having the ticket "re-issued" with the new flights added. (This is as long as the revised route still fits into the rules regarding stopovers, etc.) Here's another map showing the addition of a side trip to Costa Rica, for example - https://tinyurl.com/ya2axbyp .

If you don't want to buy the ticket until sometime next year (in order to fit the NZ/Asia part into the 12 month lifespan of the ticket) then you have plenty of time to decide on a route. It's also possible that Oslo stops being the cheapest place to start business class RTW tickets in the meantime.

Not sure what you mean about "optimizing." If you mean making the route as easy as possible, the one I'm showing above is about as easy at it will get (owing to routes flown by Oneworld member airlines.) But again, you'd have plenty of time to do the tweaking.

To buy the ticket you could try to use Oneworld's online ticketing tool, but it's so buggy that I really wouldn't recommend it. Instead, American Airlines has a dedicated RTW desk at 1-800-247-3247 where they can do the whole thing. I'd recommend ticketing through AA instead of another member airline, because the AA RTW people know the rules and have more experience than the others combined. It can make changes and problem-solving much easier. I'd also avoid long-haul flights using British Airways if you can avoid it, as well as long haul flights following stopovers in the UK. BA adds very high surcharges on flights they operate, and departures in premium cabins from the UK carry high departure taxes (air passenger duty) that can be avoided if one simply changes planes in the UK rather than stopping over (24h or more.)

Gardyloo: Quick question . . . I'm probably going to purchase a RTW sometime in the first quarter of 2019 to fit my travel plans into early 2020. Were can I find where the cheapest country of origination is at that time? Flyer Talk? AA's RTW desk? Or ??? (or just ask you ;) )

Just ask me, or check out this thread on FT - https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onew...periences.html

Because various countries (including the US and EU) prohibit advertising airfares unless all taxes and fees are included, and because this is impossible with RTW products since each itinerary will include different taxes (airport, departure, etc.) as well as different airline fees, the alliances pulled fare information from the web some years ago. You can still get base fares through subscription services like Expert Flyer - https://www.expertflyer.com/ (which is also useful in finding award seats) but otherwise FT is probably your best free source. (You can also go through the rigmarole of using the online tools for Oneworld or Star Alliance, but it's PITA and you'd have to explore one country at a time.)

Remember the cheapest place (in USD) for business class is going to be different for economy class, and don't forget to add in "positioning" costs before and after, be they cash tickets, miles, or whatever. For the time being, for business class, the cheapest Oneworld origination points are Norway, Japan and Sri Lanka, but other places in Europe or the Middle East (e.g. Sweden, Israel) are not terribly far off. Aside from base fare, the most important variable is the taxes and fees element of the final cost. As I mentioned above, using BA or London stopovers, as well as some other carriers, in particular Qantas and Qatar, can have a big impact on the final price due to taxes and especially carrier-imposed fees. American Airlines tends to have much lower fees, so using AA metal as much as possible, especially on transoceanic routes, is a big advantage. You still need to mentally add something like 15% - 30% to the base fare when estimating the final price, and compare that to flying on conventional tickets where those fees are buried in the final price.

Thanks for all the advice! I was also going to ask about how to determine where the lowest fare for origination. The airlines you cite as adding fees are several that show up when looking at flights on the OneWorld site. I guess we should skip stopping in London as it just seemed like an easy thing to do. On the ONeWorld site it gives me a final purchase price. I assume that includes taxes and service charges?

I wouldn't skip London necessarily, just try not to fly longhaul routes FROM London, especially using British Airways. The cost of the departure tax (Air Passenger Duty) goes WAY up for business class (also premium economy and first class) departures on flights over 2000 miles in length; shorter (e.g. intra-Europe) flights don't cost as much. So if you're going from, say, London to New York, flying London - Paris - New York can be cheaper because you're only charged the APD on the London - Paris flight.

The Oneworld online booking tool will show you the base price and taxes and fees. You can click through on the website to see an itemized listing of the extra charges, although these may have arcane codes, like "YQ fees," (meaning fuel surcharges, a fee for which BA got sued in federal court because there was no correlation between the price of fuel and how much they charged.) TAXES come with the route, FEES come with the airline.

I went back and tried to eliminate the long haul from London. Instead of going to London, I went from Tel Aviv to Paris. All the flights seemed to go thru Jordan. When I did this I got the message "You have too many sectors within Europe Middle East region. Check the flight allowances and adjust your itinerary." Not sure how I can get back from Sri Lanka to Oslo without violating this.

Here's an itinerary that avoids both BA and Heathrow - https://tinyurl.com/y9ma39t9 .

Part of the problem is that Washington is a United/Star Alliance hub (almost a "fortress" hub like Atlanta for Delta) and the only Oneworld transatlantic service to Dulles is via British Airways. So the revised flight plan sends you from Tel Aviv to Amman (a very short flight) but then to New York on Royal Jordanian Airlines, then down to DCA on American from JFK. (Switching airports even in the same city, e.g. Dulles to National or JFK to La Guardia, consumes one of the 16 available segments, thanks to archaic e-ticketing software.) You could also fly from Tel Aviv back to Helsinki and take Finnair to JFK, or to Madrid and take Iberia, but as Iberia and BA are the same company, you'll still get hit with surcharges.

You're only allowed four flights within each continent (six in North America) so if you start in Oslo and go to Helsinki, then to Tel Aviv and back to London, then Doha to Oslo at the end, that's four. Adding an Amman-Paris-London flight in order to ride BA to Dulles adds one too many Europe segments (five) to the itinerary. Hope that makes sense.