AA Challenge - how to make this trip work

[ziggy]

I need to go to Orlando and Johannesburg in May so I thought about trying for the AA challenge. My PA got the following from the stock standard travel request my company uses. We use FCM (Flight Centre Corporate) to book travel:

Qantas One World 5 continent round the world airfare -

Sydney - Johannesburg - London - Los Angeles - Dallas - Orlando - Dallas
- Los Angeles - Sydney

Must stay away for a minimum of 11 days and have to travel via Europe.

From $3669 plus taxes and sector fees.

This is all just to give him an idea of cost and is going to depend on
availability etc.

The return fare to Orlando and back is available at present.
​

Now I haven't made any special requests and I'm wondering if this trip is good for the challenge or should I be asking for something more specific?

 

[simongr]

It will depend on the fare class. If you are on a OW Explorer in economy that earn EQPs at 1/mile (L fare code) if a Global Explorer - I think that is a G fare code. Not sure why they are suggesting a 5 continent fare if going to SWP-Africa-Eur-NAM-SWP- that's only 4 continents isnt it?

Assuming you fly the following segments on AA metal (or codeshare if available):

LHR-LAX-DFW-MCO-DFW-LAX-SYD - that is 17,384 miles (per mileage monkey)

If booking into L that will be fine - but booking into G will be a challenge (to pardon the pun). You will need to find an AA codeshare in the rest of the trip to book into.

 

[serfty]

Here's the Global Explorer booking codes hot off E/F:

BOOKING CODES                 FIRST BUSINESS ECONOMY 

AA/BA/CX/QF/LA/EI/FJ/LP JL/JO   A      D        L 
---------                      ---    ---      --- 
AY/MA/IB/RJ/4M/XL/EG            D      D        L 
---------                      ---    ---      --- 
AY/EI/LA/LP/4M/XL DOMESTIC      Y      Y        L 
AA DOMESTIC FLTS 3000-5599 
---------                      ---    ---      --- 
GF                              A      C        Q 
---------                      ---    ---      --- 
JL DOMESTIC-TO/FROM NRT         J      J        H 
---------                      ---    ---      --- 
JL/NU/JC DOMESTIC-              J      J        Y 
ALL OTHER POINTS 
---------                      ---    ---      --- 
BA - WORLD TRAVELLER PLUS                       T 
---------                      ---    ---      --- 

NOTE - WHEN THE CLASS OR SERVICE FOR THE FARE IS NOT 
OFFERED BOOK IN THE NEXT LOWER CLASS OF SERVICE USING 
THE BOOKING CLASSES ABOVE. EXCEPTION - FOR SERVICES 
WITHIN/BETWEEN THE USA AND CANADA WHERE NO -D- CLASS 
IS OFFERED BUSINESS CLASS PASSENGERS MAY BOOK IN -A- 
CLASS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY. THIS PROVISION DOES 
NOT APPLY ON ANY FLIGHT WHERE A BUSINESS CLASS CABIN 
EXISTS BUT IS UNAVAILABLE FOR BOOKING.

G Class does not come into consideration.

 

[simongr]

My mistake - apologies

 

[NM]

It would be better of you can go the other way aronud. Only AA flight number qualify for the challenge, so using the AA codeshare on the Qantas trans-Pacific flight will get you more than 70% complete. Add in LAX-DFW-MCO on AA and you are 97% complete. So one more domestic AA segment and you are done with the challenge and have lounge access and 100% bonus miles for the rest of the trip.

Going the way you have planned means you don't complete the challenge until the end of the trip.

 

[Tiki]

AA/BA/CX/QF/LA/EI/FJ/LP JL/JO A D L

OMG, I KNEW it!!! JL has reverted to L class for ATW tickets! Now I am really glad I stuck with the QF codeshare for my NRT-BNE.

L class doesn't earn any AA points.