DONE3 / DONE4 / DONE5 - what to do?

[Rae]

We want to take one of these combinations (DONE3>DONE5) as a holiday, to cities beginning with the letter B. Crazy I know - but it DOES ensure we visit cities we might not have otherwise discovered.

Anyway.... Here's my problem.

Usually, we try take these trips with me paying for my flight, and putting my husband's flight on points, thus the need to book via Qantas.

Considering we want to visit Bejing, Brussels, Budapest, Baton Rouge, Buenos Aires etc we're looking at a DONE5 from Australia, which option is the better to consider

a) DONE5 - my paying for mine and ensuring only 5 stopovers for my husband
b) Booking a DONE4 or DONE3 from another destination, perhaps because it's cheaper we pay for both tickets and use the points to get to said destination.

FINAL 2 questions (sorry)
1. I know that on a FF ticket, we're limited to 5 stopovers of more than 24 hours. Does the same apply to a paid ticket?
2. On the interactive one world planner, we're now limited to 16 flights - is this correct regardless of whether it's DONE3 or DONE5? Is 20 sectors still a possibility?

Thanks - I look forward to your thoughts...

 

[Rae]

Apologies - just realised I posted this in the wrong place.

 

[v8Statesman]

We want to take one of these combinations (DONE3>DONE5) as a holiday, to cities beginning with the letter B.

Love the idea! I may use it in the future

 

[v8Statesman]

We want to take one of these combinations (DONE3>DONE5) as a holiday, to cities beginning with the letter B. Crazy I know - but it DOES ensure we visit cities we might not have otherwise discovered.

Anyway.... Here's my problem.

Usually, we try take these trips with me paying for my flight, and putting my husband's flight on points, thus the need to book via Qantas.

Considering we want to visit Bejing, Brussels, Budapest, Baton Rouge, Buenos Aires etc we're looking at a DONE5 from Australia, which option is the better to consider

a) DONE5 - my paying for mine and ensuring only 5 stopovers for my husband
b) Booking a DONE4 or DONE3 from another destination, perhaps because it's cheaper we pay for both tickets and use the points to get to said destination.

FINAL 2 questions (sorry)
1. I know that on a FF ticket, we're limited to 5 stopovers of more than 24 hours. Does the same apply to a paid ticket?
2. On the interactive one world planner, we're now limited to 16 flights - is this correct regardless of whether it's DONE3 or DONE5? Is 20 sectors still a possibility?

Thanks - I look forward to your thoughts...

OK
I would go option B. Much easier to get flights. PLus you both will the earn Status with QF. Look at this for price ideas.

On paid tickets you can have 2 stopovers in Area of origin, 4 stop overs in each other area (6 in NA).

Xone3, Xone4, Xone5 are all limited to 16 sectors.

 

[Rae]

I spent two weekends mapping out a completely different plan, going to cities on the top of our list, but on thinking more about it, realised that if we see all the top cities within the first few trips, where to from there?

It WILL be hard passing Vienna from Budapest on the way to Brussels, or Prague on the way from Berlin to Budapest but it's definite motivation to continue seeing the world!

Cities we wouldn't have included but are now looking at visiting include Baton Rogue, Barranquilla, Belize City, Bermuda, Bridgetown, Basel, Belgrade, Bilbao, Beijing and more - along with the original cities we had on the planner (Berlin, Budapest, Barcelona)

Now to figure out how to see as many of the appealing ones as possible with the sector limitations!

 

[Rae]

OK
I would go option B. Much easier to get flights. PLus you both will the earn Status with QF. Look at this for price ideas.

On paid tickets you can have 2 stopovers in Area of origin, 4 stop overs in each other area (6 in NA).

Xone3, Xone4, Xone5 are all limited to 16 sectors.

Ahhh okay - that's almost limitless then isn't it. Seems like that's the best option. I'll get onto investigating it over the next few weekends and will report back once I've locked it all in.

 

[medhead]

It WILL be hard passing Vienna from Budapest on the way to Brussels, or Prague on the way from Berlin to Budapest but it's definite motivation to continue seeing the world!

I spent a little bit of time around Vienna and Budapest a few years back. My Brother who lives in Munich travelled with me at that time. Based on the experience and also talking to him about his couple of trips to Prague. I suggest if you have to make a choice go for Budapest.

I'm not saying that Budapest is better, in fact it seems both cities are quite different and equally worth visiting. But my suggestion is based on Prague being a bit of a destination for buck's weekends (including my brother) and hence seems to be more advanced on the tourist destination path, whereas Budapest is a bit more down to earth (and cheaper?). Having said all that I will be visiting Prague one day.

The other thing I would suggest for that part of the world is the trains. Budapest and Vienna are only about 3 hours apart by train and there are many services. I also believe that Prague is just as close to Vienna. So you could consider a couple of side trip.

There is also daily hydrofoil service between Budapest and Vienna, I did this trip and I'd recommend it for a good day trip to do at least in one direction. Not both ways because it's about 6 hours or so (longer than the train). You could also stop off and visit another worthwhile city in the area, Bratislava, which is on the danube as well

 

[Rae]

Having done some book research I must agree that Budapest looks like an exciting destination and is definitely in our top 5 must-sees. We're going to deliberately skip Prague and Vienna (even though they're not far) due to time constraints - they'll have to wait until we do our P or V city holidays

 

[simongr]

I would also concur with the concept points to cheaper destination. Trying to book a DONE5 style award will be incredibly hard to do and teh level of stress is probably not worth it.

 

[Rae]

At the moment I'm looking at: Tokyo-Beijing-Hong Kong-Bangkok-London

Trains London-Brussels-Brugge-Berlin-Basel-Bern-Zurich-Budapest

Budapest-London-Barcelona-Bermuda-Miami-Belize City-Miami-New Orleans
(bus 90 mins New Orleans to Baton Rouge)
-Dallas Fort Worth-Tokyo

 

[medhead]

Having done some book research I must agree that Budapest looks like an exciting destination and is definitely in our top 5 must-sees. We're going to deliberately skip Prague and Vienna (even though they're not far) due to time constraints - they'll have to wait until we do our P or V city holidays

Ahhh, ok. I guess I got a bit carried away and off topic, mostly due to finding Budapest to be an exciting and interesting city to visit. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

on topic I'd agree that option B is better. Trying to book for a group using award and paid is a hassle for domestic, it's hard to imagine trying to do that for multiple flights across the globe.

OT again: I'd recommend Hotel Victoria in budapest, FWIW
Hotel Budapest: Hotel Victoria **** Budapest - Hungary - Hotel Budapest