DONE4 Questions and Advice

[Durin's Bane]

Hi guys,

My wife and I were planning a trip around the world at the end of the year. I was seeking some advice on choice of airline, plane and cabin hard-product, and potential for status runs using unused DONE4 sectors.

My intention is to redeem 560K worth of points for two DONE4 tickets. If unsuccessful in obtaining two redeemed D class (J class) seats I will purchase one DONE4 ($12K) and redeem points for one Business Class ticket (280K). That is what we did for our RTW honeymoon in late 2009. I’m currently Platinum (and she'll be Partner Gold if I can get 320 SCs in the next two months), so the purchased ticket will be in my name to maximise points/SCs earning capacity.

We’ve utilised the ‘Oneworld Itinerary Planner’ to plan the following trip over three weeks beginning 17 December 2011 (flight numbers)[aircraft type]:

a. 17/12/11 Perth to New York VIA Hong Kong (CX170 and CX830) [A330 and 777-300]

b. 23/12/11 New York to Paris VIA London (BA176 and BA306) [747-400 and A319]

c. 28/12/11 Paris to Madrid (IB3405) [A321]

d. 01/01/12 Madrid to Sapporo VIA London and Tokyo (BA7060*, JL402 and JL3047*) [A320, 777-300 and 737-800]

e. 07/01/12 Sapporo to Perth VIA Hong Kong (CX581 and CX137) [747-400 and A330]


My questions are:

1. What are the minimum transfer times we should allow between flights where we are in transit? The smallest we have is about 80 minutes.

2. As I am the one travelling on the paid DONE4 (with 16 stops allowable) I was thinking of utilising the remaining five sectors I have as a long single day status run in the USA. But if I can use the sectors available later in my trip (see below) I could go for a KUPP or YUPP in the USA whilst I am there.

3. I have a few trips planned to Sydney this year before the RTW trip, perhaps I could "start" my itinerary with SYD to PER leg in J? Could the return Sydney leg be used next year after the RTW trip?

4. Mindful of the two above points, do you have any tips for making use of the DONE4 sectors available to me for any other status runs?

5. Did you guys have any other suggestions or improvements on the itinerary above? Are there any routes, aircraft or airlines in J that I need to change?

6. My wife is also expecting in June this year, so our trip will be with a bub. Do you foresee any issues on any of the sectors with respect to travelling with a baby?

Thanks guys,
DB.

 

[moa999]

Firstly you can't use points for a DONE ticket.
With Qantas points you can get a Qantas oneworld award which is different to the DONE.

Key differences
- In US, DONE books into A (First), the J award goes into Y
- oneworld award is mileage restricted, max 5 stopovers, DONE is segment restricted, restriction on stopovers in some continents only
- oneworld award does not earn FF points, the DONE does

 

[moa999]

On qns

1. 80min should be fine, apart from LHR depending on if you need to change terminals. You should both be protected if on one ticket
2. US is very good due to flights booking into A and high frequency in/out of hubs
3. Yes - much more useful if PER is not the start point
4. To add raw mileage fly NRT-JFK-LAX-LHR - ie maximising long sectors
5. You have picked the best airlines where multiple combinations. Only suggn would be to build in a QF A380 leg - maybe LHR-SIN-NRT
6. hopefully someone else can answer this. I suspect as long as attached to the paid person will be ok

 

[Durin's Bane]

Firstly you can't use points for a DONE ticket.
With Qantas points you can get a Qantas oneworld award which is different to the DONE.

Key differences
- In US, DONE books into A (First), the J award goes into Y
- oneworld award is mileage restricted, max 5 stopovers, DONE is segment restricted, restriction on stopovers in some continents only
- oneworld award does not earn FF points, the DONE does

Thanks for your feedback moa999.

I agree with what you've said above, but perhaps I should have used different terminology in my orginal post i.e. Oneworld Award instead of DONE4.

 

[Durin's Bane]

On qns

1. 80min should be fine, apart from LHR depending on if you need to change terminals. You should both be protected if on one ticket
2. US is very good due to flights booking into A and high frequency in/out of hubs
3. Yes - much more useful if PER is not the start point
4. To add raw mileage fly NRT-JFK-LAX-LHR - ie maximising long sectors
5. You have picked the best airlines where multiple combinations. Only suggn would be to build in a QF A380 leg - maybe LHR-SIN-NRT
6. hopefully someone else can answer this. I suspect as long as attached to the paid person will be ok

Thanks again moa999. Responses:

1. No worries.
2. I will investigate potential status runs on the itinerary planner.
3. I will check out potential Sydney starts using the planner.
4. I was looking at some of these however did not want to travel on American Airlines (I've selected BA where possible over AA, even if there is a transfer), does anyone have further comment on this?
5. I'd like to do this, but my wife doesn't want to change planes three times to get from Madrid to Sapporo. I will look at it however.
6. Our bub will be in my name.

 

[drron]

On the JFK-LHR sector quite frankly I would prefer AA.they use their 777s on this route which are quite good as far as hard product goes.I prefer it to BA's J when travelling as a couple.As well the AA service can be a lot better-they do have some outstanding crews but it is the luck of the draw.
Flying AA JFK-GDG would save on taxes but is the 763 or 757 which definitely are not as good and I would avoid.Also consider using the AA codeshare on BA which may save a little in charges but not sadly the LHR departure extortion-though the LHR-CDG sector would have much less of a charge than LHR-NRT.So you could consider AY-CDG-HEL-NRT.Same SC earn,I enjoyed the AY J product and again better service than BA and probably now JAL whose service certainly isn't up to previous standards though still better than BA.

 

[docjames]

5. Is there availability on BA 2 JFK-lcy? I'd go for that, operated with a A318 with all J seating (?24seats), bit like private jet apparently! Might be just something "different". I'm reasonably sure (without looking at timetables) you can do lcy-cdg.



Unsure if BA make BA 1/2 available to DONE or redemptions.

 

[NM]

Also consider using the AA codeshare on BA which may save a little in charges ...

While that may work for the paid DONE4, codeshares are not available for award tickets. So the award ticket will need to use the flight number of the operating airline.

 

[Durin's Bane]

Thank you drron, docjames, and NM for your advice.

Unfortunately my itinerary has been somewhat locked due to redeemable seating availability. This year it has been even tougher to get many seats compared to 2009 when I last booked a redeemable OneWorld Award ticket. There were no redeemable J seats left on any AA metal on the days we wanted other that which I booked. There were also simply no redeemable seats on AY either.

BTW, it was interesting that the feedback and advice I received from the various consultants at Qantas premium travel differed greatly. The first woman I spoke to was very abrasive and sounded like helping me was a chore. In the end I gave up as in her esteemed opinion almost every award seat was gone globally. I decided to wait until the next day to speak with someone else and I couldn't believe it when I called that she answered again. I ended the conversation as quickly as possible, called again immediately, and got hold of a guy who was extremely helpful and contradicted almost everything she said.

 

[Durin's Bane]

Hi guys,

Here is the final itinerary for my wife's RTW award ticket, all in Business Class bar the short flight from Sapporo to Tokyo. Sometime in the next few weeks I will also purchase my DONE4 to match, and also add additional sectors to accrue SC's and points. I won't use the DONE4 to book the economy-only Tokyo to Sapporo return flights - I'll book these separately.

a. 17/12/11 Perth to New York VIA Singapore and Hong Kong (QF77, CX636 and CX888)
b. 23/12/11 New York to Paris (AA44)
c. 29/12/11 Paris to Madrid (IB3405)
d. 01/01/12 Madrid to Tokyo VIA London (IB3162, BA5) - I will have to purchase a single Tokyo to Sapporo flight for my wife as there were no award seats)
e. 07/01/12 Sapporo to Perth VIA Tokyo and Singapore (JL528,JL35 and QF72)

I have to travel to Sydney from Perth in July and October this year. Does anyone have any recommendations on adding to the front (and back end if needed) of the itinerary above to accommodate this in some form? I was thinking of adding a SYD-ADL-PER at the front end, and a PER-SYD at the back end (however this may potentially contravene the DONE4 rules?). Alternatively could I undertake a mileage run in the USA such that I fly JFK-PDX-DFW-JFK?

I was thinking a final itinerary could look like this:
SYD-ADL-PER-SIN-HKG-JFK-CDG/ORY-MAD-LHR-NRT/HND-SIN-PER-ADL-SYD
or this:
PER-SIN-HKG-JFK-PDX-DFW-JFK-CDG/ORY-MAD-LHR-NRT/HND-SIN-PER

Looking forward to any suggestions.

Thanks,
DB.

 

[Durin's Bane]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone had any feedback on my planned itinerary?

BTW, I am finding I cannot book any NRT-CTS flights - do they not have these fares so far in advance? Two travel agents I called couldn't assist either.

Thanks,
DB.