Best place to begin a DONE4

[medhead]

Skyring, you could consider flying LHR to Seattle, only (9.5 Hours). It is shorter than LHR-LAX etc. and you fly over Greenland (great views if you are lucky). Then you can fly back to anywhere on East Coast as long as you do it 2 sectors (or more) eg via DFW or ORD. You can then fly directly back to LAX from East coast if you want. Did this last year as part of DONE4 and it adds lots of miles!!

Am planning 2 DONE 4s for 2013 at the moment both ex JNB.

It's been ages since I looked into xONExs. But if travelling east to west I figured you're better off to save your one US transcontinental to fly west to JFK. That then allows you to grab QF108 out of the US and get another transcontinental. So if entering the US into the west coast you have 5 segments to use flying around and then get back on the west coast.

 

[Newk]

Could you share some info on this old Parliament House thingy?

skyring and I chewed the fat over coffee tisal.

 

[pmk]

Having said that, I'm a little concerned about conditions in South Africa. I keep hearing about massive security problems, violence, theft and so on. For those who have recently travelled via JNB, what can I expect on arrival? Should I arrange my onward flight so that it's just a transit and I can cower inside the terminal? Or am I going to have to deal with corrupt officials, criminal taxidrivers, hotel staff who will cheat me etc.?[/QUOTE]

 

[dajop]

The reason I don't want to fly long out of Heathrow is the extra cost! The longer the flight the better, otherwise. FRA-LAX looks pretty good.

If your sector count and miles allow you can do a connecting flight via LHR (<24 hrs) and removes the UK air passenger duty from the equation. Of course the hefty BA fuel surcharges remain.

 

[pmk]

Having said that, I'm a little concerned about conditions in South Africa. I keep hearing about massive security problems, violence, theft and so on. For those who have recently travelled via JNB, what can I expect on arrival? Should I arrange my onward flight so that it's just a transit and I can cower inside the terminal? Or am I going to have to deal with corrupt officials, criminal taxidrivers, hotel staff who will cheat me etc.?

[/QUOTE]


I am sure there are many people with more experience than me who can add more info. We started a DONE5 in JNB trip last June and did not feel unsafe at all - my husband and I are both in our 60's. We certainly did not roam around as we would do in other cities. We booked online a low end 4 day safari tour to Kruger plus3 daysin a suburb of JNB. aWe were collected from airport and stayed in a homely guesthouse which had guards and electric fences etc. We never went into the actual city centre itself which I think is considered more risky.

Certainly the security guards and electric fences everywhere indicate it is not a safe place. We were told that the car would not ever stop en route to Kruger if flagged down although we did stop for lunch at a nice roadstop and I wandered around totally as normal. The trip to Kruger was amazing. We stayed in fairly basic huts .

Obviously we were fairly cosseted for the 7 days but these included day trips to Soweto and Pretoria and we did wander around in both with our guide. We ate in various cafes and looked in shops on the each of the trips. This year we plan to just stay at an airport hotel and use it as transit just because of time constraints but expect no issues at all.
Our arrival and departure had no issues at all. I guess we were slightly nervous first time but will not be this time. I guess you just have to adjust your approach to suit the local conditions. To me it was not unlike the precautions I took when in Manila or Jakarta. Not sure if this helps.

 

[Cynicor]

My parents have a similar story to the post above, both in their 60s and just there to start the AONE5 but had a 4 day safari and JNB holiday first.

They loved it, never felt unsafe, and would be happy to start there again.

 

[Skyring]

If your sector count and miles allow you can do a connecting flight via LHR (<24 hrs) and removes the UK air passenger duty from the equation. Of course the hefty BA fuel surcharges remain.

That's the conclusion I came to after a bit of research. My convention is in Gothenburg, BA does a flight to LHR T5 and the onward flight to SFO (from T5) is within two hours. I think there's an AA codeshare, which will fix the fuel fees?

 

[Skyring]

Update

The usual happy and occasionally frustrating search through airline booking engines to find the right flights. I've done this many times before, at first with the help of travel agents, more recently on my own once I became more familiar with the procedures and the online engines revved up in power. It still amazes me that I can actually do all this. My kids take it all for granted, but for this child of the Fifties, it is pure magic.

I set up a spreadsheet - another slice of magic, and I remember the wonder of Supercalc running on my Osborne 1 on a screen that is about as big as my iPhone's - to make sure that I was going to be in the right places at the right time.

The comments in this thread and others pointed me towards Johannesburg as a starting point. Africa may well turn out to be a significant part of my life from now on, so that's good, but the price for a DONE4 that will get me to WP is too good to pass up. Less than half what it would cost me out of Australia.

Once I assembled my flights, I hopped onto Skype to ring the American Airlines RTW desk on +1 800-247-3247. Skype so that my calling location is not disclosed, otherwise there's a risk that I'll be charged at the Aussie rate.

They keep American business hours, as I discovered on my first attempt, so mornings are going to the best time for Australians to call. A pleasant young man answered, took down the details, corrected me on a couple of points - a flight number had changed, for example - and once it was all set up, asked me for my AAdvantage number. Luckily I had set up membership years and years ago, and even luckier kept the card in my travel wallet along with all the other loyalty cards, so I was able to reel this off to him. He gave me the locator - a six character string in the form ABCDEF - and thanked me for using American. Thank you, RTW desk!

I signed into my AAdvantage account, checked "My trips" and there was my trip. I could even select seats for some flights! What was startling was the price. I was flabberghasted to say the least:

[TABLE="class: aa-trip-dashboard-ipl, width: 209"]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Adult[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]$55,647.00[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TH="bgcolor: #DDE3EB, colspan: 2"]Taxes & Fees[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Adult[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]$5,125.00[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, colspan: 2"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TH="colspan: 2"]Flight Subtotal[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"][/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]$60,772.00[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

OMG! This was turning into an expensive jaunt. Once I picked myself off the ceiling and my jaw off the carpet, I realised that it was priced in ZAR - South African Rand, and not USD or AUD. That works out to $6 650 in Aussie dollars, with a base price of $6 090 for the fare and $560 for the taxes.

Next step was American Airlines' South African office at [email protected] (or +27 21 440 6440). I shot them off the record locator and am now waiting. I can apparently pay over the phone with a credit card. It's Sunday there at the moment, so I'm not expecting any action for a while. The booking is good for another two weeks, anyway.

Thanks to all both in this thread and on the site generally for all the assistance. As ever, AFF is pure gold.

 

[kpc]

Care to share the routing, Skyring? I need to retire ASAP.....work is getting in the way of my travel plans!

 

[Skyring]

Care to share the routing, Skyring? I need to retire ASAP.....work is getting in the way of my travel plans!

Oh, it's hardly optimised. JNB-LHR on BA56, which has turned into an AA codeshare. A weekend in Istanbul, where I plan to hire a car and have a quick shufti at Gallipoli, and then I'm flying out of Gothenburg to make my onward connection at Heathrow, which seems to have successfully avoided the massive premium longhaul tax the UK imposes.

Back to Oz and then I'll resume the trip in June, returning to JNB.

What I'm going to have to do is find a way to replace the AAdvantage number with my QFF number. Not sure I'll get full earning on some of those codeshares, neither.

 

[pmk]

Hi Skyring
I am also in the midst of making a booking. Will be interested in how it goes getting your QF number onto booking. I rang AA in Cape town on Friday night. They told me they no longer did reservations themselves by phone but that I should make the booking online and ring them back for payment.

i already had my trip worked out using the planner and so as a test I proceeded to make the booking online filling in our qff numbers, name etc fully expecting to have to provide my credit card number at which point I would terminate.

However much to my surprise the booking completed, supplied a reservation number and the details all immediately appeared under my bookings on QANTAS. The instruction given was to contact BA in South Africa to make payment by credit card within 96 hours or booking would lapse.

Of course by then AA office in Capetown was closed. So was the BA office in South Africa. Rang AA RTW line in Dallas which expained i could rebook it with them as you have and let the other one lapse. They could see the booking. I decided to hang fire for a few days.

THe cost is under AUD7000 for 16 sectors in 4 continents in business with routing we want (not necess into maximising)

Below is copied from my booking
Flight payment and ticket
123,940.00 ZAR (14,000.26 USD) Total for all travellers ( 2 people)
Payment 123,940.00 ZAR
Ticket E-ticket



So come Monday I will first ring AA in Cape Town to see if I can pay with them as they had told me. If I can't I will try with BA. If not I will follow your route.

If it works I will be delighted to be abe to do almost entire transaction on line. Will keep you all informed of my progress.

Skyring, Remember to ring your bank to say a large African transaction is okay.
if anyone wants the name of the relatively cheap but very satisfactory safari we did am happy to provide. Meet and greet, stay in homely guesthouse in JNB, then 3 days in Kruger and back to airport.


Fyi my routing is (you will note a second holiday in Australia)

JNB-LHRxATH-LHRxOSL-LHRxORD-MIAxMSP-DFWxLAX-MEL-ADL-PER-DRW-SYD-JNB

not sure of convention to indicate transit only, LHRx above means transit only

I am 64 year old female, husband nearly 70. I have no trouble using the RTW planner at all, very easy in fact. Have booked a number online before, ex Oz, ex Hanoi, ex NZ. Last year was first from SA but first of many if price differential remains so high.

 

[Cynicor]

You don't need to give an Aadvantage number when booking, you could use a QFF. I would just call them up on the normal AA number and ask them to change it, once it is all booked and ticketed.

 

[Skyring]

Yesterday I went into my bank, warned them of my upcoming travel and let them know a large transaction would be taking place in South Africa later in the day, when Capetown woke up.

I tried to do everything by email, but they don't roll that way, and I had to ring the Capetown office, which I did when it opened. Using Skype and apparently the connection was reasonably dire with a few dropouts, but we got the job done and I watched as the status changed from On Hold to Ticketed. Woot!

So that's locked in. Next step is to get there to begin.

I looked at Expedia, and they have some flights beginning at $1K or so, but they take me a long way round and leave me with a day to burn up in the terminal, as the initial BA flight doesn't depart until the evening. The cheapest Qantas flight was well over $2K, but had the advantage of earning useful points and credits, arriving only three hours before my London flight, and giving me the opportunity to check my bags through to Heathrow.

Hmmm. Award flights were way out of reach, and poor value anyway. On one browse through to check timings, I noticed that the price had shrunk to less than a thousand. Odd - maybe I'd found some sale price.

Nope, just the return fares. It's actually cheaper to take the same flight as one leg of a return ticket and simply dump the return flight. Maybe I can cancel and get a credit - I'm planning more travel later this year.

At least I can book the QF seat without making any phone calls.

Oh, but it's good to get back in the groove! My wife reckons I'm rubbish at things like getting my tax return done, but when a complex trip comes up, I'm welded to the computer for days on end.

Only problem is that I won't have lounge access in Sydney on my Y ticket. I should come back a WP, at least when my points post, which may take some time, and I'm looking to stay that way for the rest of my traveling life, but this time through Sydney I'll be looking wistfully at the magic doors to Flounge country.

 

[serfty]

...
Only problem is that I won't have lounge access in Sydney on my Y ticket. I should come back a WP, at least when my points post, which may take some time, and I'm looking to stay that way for the rest of my traveling life, but this time through Sydney I'll be looking wistfully at the magic doors to Flounge country.

Post yon date - the stars (or at least a WP) may align ...

 

[Alanslegal]

i already had my trip worked out using the planner and so as a test I proceeded to make the booking online filling in our qff numbers, name etc fully expecting to have to provide my credit card number at which point I would terminate.

However much to my surprise the booking completed, supplied a reservation number and the details all immediately appeared under my bookings on QANTAS. The instruction given was to contact BA in South Africa to make payment by credit card within 96 hours or booking would lapse.

Of course by then AA office in Capetown was closed. So was the BA office in South Africa. Rang AA RTW line in Dallas which expained i could rebook it with them as you have and let the other one lapse. They could see the booking. I decided to hang fire for a few days.

THe cost is under AUD7000 for 16 sectors in 4 continents in business with routing we want (not necess into maximising)

With the online RTW planner, I understand that the first operating carrier will be the airline you ticket with. That's why you can enter your QF number and end up ticketing/paying with BA and was asked to call BA South Africa. When you did call AA and because it was not ticketed with them, they suggested to rebook with them. Cheeky AA

 

[pmk]

With the online RTW planner, I understand that the first operating carrier will be the airline you ticket with. That's why you can enter your QF number and end up ticketing/paying with BA and was asked to call BA South Africa. When you did call AA and because it was not ticketed with them, they suggested to rebook with them. Cheeky AA

I had also thought the first international carrier was the ticketer, i.e. BA. However the South African (SA) AA office when telling me to book online and queried on this fact, told me it was the first carrier over the ocean. They were in fact incorrect as I specifically booked an AA flight across the Atlantic. I rang AA in SA last night and was told to ring BA. I rang BA in SA and duly paid for ticket without a problem. I prob paid a little more than if I had rebooked thru AA in Dallas but at under AUD7000 for business class


JNB-LHRxATH-LHRxOSL-LHRxORD-MIAxMSP-DFWxLAX-MEL-ADL-PER-DRW-SYD-JNB

it was still very cheap. Besides there was already no availability in D from JNB on the 2 dates I wanted 6,7 June so had come back to 5 June. I was keen to get flights finalised. We already have our return trip to JNB courtesy of last year's DONE.

So it ended up a very simple exercise, did all bookings using on-line planner, proceed with booking using planner, then 96 hours to phone BA in SA to pay by credit card. They did ask my address which is Oz but no issues at all. The transaction showed as a debit immediately on my credit card, though obviously details will take a couple of days to come through.

i will try the phone Dallas method next time as it sounds like it will be even cheaper. However this was still a very easy cheap alternative.

 

[serfty]

Any oneworld carrier can 'plate' or 'ticket' any xONEx irrespective of the carrier that operates or markets the first segment.

The online booking tool generally uses the Marketing carrier of the first segment to discern this.

My xONEx's have had the first segments operated and marketed by either CX or QF - they have ALL been plated on AA ticket 'stock' (001-...).

 

[pmk]

Serfy I am still a bit confused. if you ring and book online with AA that is certainly the case. Like you my last year's ticket was issued by AA and booked with AA in SA yet had first flight with BA.

Given SA no longer take bookings I followed AA in SA's instructions to make the booking online (after being told I could book with them this way) using the booking tool, but when I rang them to pay they said they could not issue the ticket as it was a BA booking and to ring BA for payment. As said above the price was still good and flights limited so I went with the BA ticket.

It appears that if you use the RTW planner booking tool online then you are locked into paying with the carrier for your first international flight.

The trick must be to plan with the tool then ring AA in Dallas to actually make the booking then pay AA in SA. I will do that next time. However still worth noting that just using the online tool and then having BA tickets it is still an amazingly cheap fare.

 

[Skyring]

My first DONE4 was about $9K, and that was 2006. This is a good sight cheaper and it's seven years on. It really is an amazing price. I suspect that it is only we frequent flyer folk who would take much advantage, so in the global scheme for oneworld it is probably not a big deal. I thought I detected a trace of amusement in the voice of the young man on the AA RTW desk. Certainly any normal travel agent would have said golly gee quite a lot when my routings went here and there and back again for no good reason!

 

[docjames]

I looked at Expedia, and they have some flights beginning at $1K or so, but they take me a long way round and leave me with a day to burn up in the terminal, as the initial BA flight doesn't depart until the evening. The cheapest Qantas flight was well over $2K, but had the advantage of earning useful points and credits, arriving only three hours before my London flight, and giving me the opportunity to check my bags through to Heathrow.

Hmmm. Award flights were way out of reach, and poor value anyway. On one browse through to check timings, I noticed that the price had shrunk to less than a thousand. Odd - maybe I'd found some sale price.

Nope, just the return fares. It's actually cheaper to take the same flight as one leg of a return ticket and simply dump the return flight. Maybe I can cancel and get a credit - I'm planning more travel later this year.

Would you not book a return date so that when the DONE4 ends in JNB you can head back to Aus? ie. CBR-JNB-DONE4-pause in Aus-JNB (end of DONE) - another DONE end in JNB - use return part of fare.

And if you "burn" it it doesnt matter....