My DONE4 (oneworld RTW) booking experience

[marki]

Not a paid advertisement!

I have just booked a DONE4 ex-HND using @madrooster's travel agency. It is a great option at the moment as due to the low value of the JPY, my ticket cost me sub-A$9K, which is incredible as you really can't get a return fare to LHR or LAX for that, let alone RTW. I've also got a side trip to DRW as part of it after I get back to Australia.

I just had to make a CR booking to HND one way to start the trip, and I've got the return to HND flights next year which all going well will be where I start my next DONE4. At those prices, going via Japan is completely worth it. (Ex SYD, DONE4 is about A$16K).

And sure, you can still get a great fare booking yourself via the web (and trust me, I haven't used a travel agent since 2008), but I can say going through an agent like MR is definitely worth it - without going into specifics of what he can do.

For those interested here is my trip:
View attachment 398640

Fairly vanilla, an open jaw in Europe (ZHR-CDG), LHR, JFK/LAS then home. Stand alone trip to DRW (using the loophole that BNE/DRW doesn't count as transcon, but SYD/DRW does).

So good

 

[Quickstatus]

@skylabsea
thanks for an informative thread
How far ahead of first sector did you start constructing the Done4?

 

[skylabsea]

@skylabsea
thanks for an informative thread
How far ahead of first sector did you start constructing the Done4?

I started messing around with routes in March 2023, booked the ticket Sep 2023, first sector was March 2024. So took me about a year!

 

[I love to travel]

The thing I am a bit confused about if you start it Japan and your first stop is in Australia, can you then do the other Asia continent flights to get yourself to Europe. So is NRT -BNE (2 month stopover) - SIN - LHR then onto US and home via QF ok? Or if you go from NRT - BNE, your only option this is to go to the US then Europe and finish up in Japan with no more Asia flights?

 

[serfty]

The thing I am a bit confused about if you start it Japan and your first stop is in Australia, can you then do the other Asia continent flights to get yourself to Europe. So is NRT -BNE (2 month stopover) - SIN - LHR then onto US and home via QF ok? Or if you go from NRT - BNE, your only option this is to go to the US then Europe and finish up in Japan with no more Asia flights?

It used to be you could only transit Asia once after beggining there, however the rules have changed and there is more flexibility.

Attached are the current rules ...

Please review them, especially section 4.

 

[oz_boater]

The thing I am a bit confused about if you start it Japan and your first stop is in Australia, can you then do the other Asia continent flights to get yourself to Europe. So is NRT -BNE (2 month stopover) - SIN - LHR then onto US and home via QF ok? Or if you go from NRT - BNE, your only option this is to go to the US then Europe and finish up in Japan with no more Asia flights?

Asia and SWP (oz) is TC3 so are considered "1 block" for moving round the world

1. Only one intercontinental departure and one intercontinental arrival permitted in each continent except as follows: Two permitted in North America.
2. Two permitted in Asia.
3. Two permitted in Europe/Middle East for travel to/from/via Africa.

So it looks like you can start in Asia (Japan), go to Oz, then back to Asia, then the 2 others and back Asia

Note though that you can only have 2 'stopovers' in your starting continent (Asia)

From the rules it looks like you can do NRT -> BNE -> SIN (1st Asia arrival) -> LHR -> US -> OZ -> NRT (2nd Asia Arrival)

You will not be able to stop in BNE a 2nd time though - transit is OK but 2 stopovers in the same city is apparently hard to ticket.

 

[serfty]

Here is a routing optimised for Qantas DSC when living in MEL. Travel can be over up to 365 days and encompass two Qantas membership years - indicated are SC the route would earn:

HND-QF*JL xSIN-QF MEL (One Asian Transit) 105, 125*2 = 355

<Break in MEL>

MEL-xAKL-xBNE-xAKL-xSYD - All QF prime 85*4*2 = 680

<break, other bookings to/from SYD>

SYD-QF xLHR-BA BUD 295x2, 60 = 650
BUD-QR xDOH-QR WAW 80, 80 = 160
WAW-QR DOH 80 = 80
DOH-QR JFK-AA LAX 160, 100 = 260

<break, other bookings to/from LAX>

LAX-AA xORD-AA xDFW-JL HND 100, 60, 140 = 300

Total SC 2485

Without DSC, that'd earn 1725. In reality, without DSC, it would be booked differently. There would be less AKL and More USA travel, bringing it closer to 2000 SC.

 

[I love to travel]

A few more quick questions please if I may. If you depart Japan, do you have to fly in and out the same Tokyo airport or can you fly out of NRT and into HND. Am consious that sometimes airlines do switch locations (as Qantas did I think about a year ago and AA have done too.
Also, if crediting to QF, do you need to be on a codeshare flight if on a partner airline - and what if any implications to how many status credits earned.

 

[serfty]

Q1 can be a different port in Japan. See rules in post 45, section 4 C

Q2 if earning to Qantas frequent flyer, the marketing carrier is generally most important. The operating carrier mainly must be oneworld.

See here

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/frequent-flyer/earn-points/airline-earning-tables/earn-category-tables.html

 

[pyffii]

This was our recent DONE4
HND-HKG-LHR-MAD-LHR-BDS-LHR-JFK-DFW-YVR-DFW-SYD-MEL ( Break for 9 months ) then MEL-SYD-HND.....Now I realise we didnt make full use out of our DONE4 and had an inefficient use of SYD-MEL-SYD but we were time constrained and QI cancelled our DFW-MEL sector so we were forced into the SYD-MEL option....Also there is no flight to Haneda out of Melbourne and we are tired of making a late night ride to Haneda where our next flight departed from and as a side note we prefer to stay at either of the two hotels inside Haneda airport....Hope this helps Cheers

 

[I love to travel]

Thanks all, I think I have it right in my head now. Will do some final modelling over the next few days and will post what I am doing once it has been ticketed ( nothing like being on holiday and planning the next one at the same time!!)

 

[I love to travel]

This is where I think I am landing

Flight No	Date	Flights	COntinent Flight	Qantas status credits obtained
1		NRT to BNE (stopover for about 100 days) on QF	Asia flight one	120
2		BNE to PER (transit) on QF	Australia flight one	80
3		PER to AdL (stopover) on QF	Australia flight two	60
4		ADL to Brisbane (on QF but usually operated by Alliance but this looks ok within the rules) Also will transit for next flight to SIN	Australia flight three	60
5		BNE to SIN on QF	Australia flight four - only transit in Singapore	120
6		SIN to LHR (LHR is transit only)	Asia flight 2 on QF	160
7		LHR to HEL on AY	Europe flight 1	60
8		HEL to DBV on AY	Europe flight 2 on Finnair	60
9		DBV to MAD on IB	Europe flight 3 on Finnair	80
10		MAD to DFW on AA	Europe flight 4 on AA	120
11		DFW to LAX	US flight 1 on AA	100
12		LAX to JFK	US flight 2 on AA	100
13		JFK to HKG (transit on HKG only)	US flight 3 on CX	160
14		HKG to BKK	Asia flight 3 on CX	60
15		BKK to NRT or HND	Asia flight 4 on JL	100

 

[elanshin]

This is where I think I am landing

Flight No	Date	Flights	COntinent Flight	Qantas status credits obtained
1		NRT to BNE (stopover for about 100 days) on QF	Asia flight one	120
2		BNE to PER (transit) on QF	Australia flight one	80
3		PER to AdL (stopover) on QF	Australia flight two	60
4		ADL to Brisbane (on QF but usually operated by Alliance but this looks ok within the rules) Also will transit for next flight to SIN	Australia flight three	60
5		BNE to SIN on QF	Australia flight four - only transit in Singapore	120
6		SIN to LHR (LHR is transit only)	Asia flight 2 on QF	160
7		LHR to HEL on AY	Europe flight 1	60
8		HEL to DBV on AY	Europe flight 2 on Finnair	60
9		DBV to MAD on IB	Europe flight 3 on Finnair	80
10		MAD to DFW on AA	Europe flight 4 on AA	120
11		DFW to LAX	US flight 1 on AA	100
12		LAX to JFK	US flight 2 on AA	100
13		JFK to HKG (transit on HKG only)	US flight 3 on CX	160
14		HKG to BKK	Asia flight 3 on CX	60
15		BKK to NRT or HND	Asia flight 4 on JL	100

Do you have a burning desire to goto PER /ADL? If its just for SC, AKL might be a better choice.

 

[I love to travel]

Do you have a burning desire to goto PER /ADL? If its just for SC, AKL might be a better choice.

Yes to Adl so that is how Perth loops in. Otherwise would need to do more flying in the US

 

[RooFlyer]

This is where I think I am landing

I don't know if the flights exist, but Europe to the US west coast, the head east, then US eastern port to Asia will earn more SCs (if needed).

 

[moa999]

If transiting BNE on route to LHR might be better going to SYD and then taking single flight number SYD-LHR.
Would also enable you to add say ADL-AKL (on QR) then AKL-SYD for example.

Who are you looking to book this through?

 

[pyffii]

If transiting BNE on route to LHR might be better going to SYD and then taking single flight number SYD-LHR.
Would also enable you to add say ADL-AKL (on QR) then AKL-SYD for example.

Who are you looking to book this through?

Best too book with the AA RTW as the yen conversion is fantastic

 

[I love to travel]

If transiting BNE on route to LHR might be better going to SYD and then taking single flight number SYD-LHR.
Would also enable you to add say ADL-AKL (on QR) then AKL-SYD for example.

Who are you looking to book this through?

A TA suggested by a kind member on AFF is who I will make the booking with. Even if you go on QF 1 SYD to SIN to LHR - still counts as 2 flights under the rules. - 1 ex Asia 1 ex Sth Pacific as I understand it.

 

[Mwenenzi]

This is where I think I am landing

Flight No	Date	Flights	COntinent Flight	Qantas status credits obtained
1		NRT to BNE (stopover for about 100 days) on QF	Asia flight one	120
2		BNE to PER (transit) on QF	Australia flight one	80
3		PER to AdL (stopover) on QF	Australia flight two	60
4		ADL to Brisbane (on QF but usually operated by Alliance but this looks ok within the rules) Also will transit for next flight to SIN	Australia flight three	60
5		BNE to SIN on QF	Australia flight four - only transit in Singapore	120
6		SIN to LHR (LHR is transit only)	Asia flight 2 on QF	160
7		LHR to HEL on AY	Europe flight 1	60
8		HEL to DBV on AY	Europe flight 2 on Finnair	60
9		DBV to MAD on IB	Europe flight 3 on Finnair	80
10		MAD to DFW on AA	Europe flight 4 on AA	120
11		DFW to LAX	US flight 1 on AA	100
12		LAX to JFK	US flight 2 on AA	100
13		JFK to HKG (transit on HKG only)	US flight 3 on CX	160
14		HKG to BKK	Asia flight 3 on CX	60
15		BKK to NRT or HND	Asia flight 4 on JL	100

Flight "1 NRT to BNE (stopover for about 100 days) on QF Asia flight one 120" is not counted as a continent flight (~Asia).
It is intercontinental and not counted in the 4 allowed for Asia. Only allowed 2 stopovers in the starting continent. Same for other intercontinental flights.

 

[Mwenenzi]

A TA suggested by a kind member on AFF is who I will make the booking with. Even if you go on QF 1 SYD to SIN to LHR - still counts as 2 flights under the rules. - 1 ex Asia 1 ex Sth Pacific as I understand it.

No. it does not count as 2 flights. It is 1 segment (1 flight number). SYD-LHR
Flying over Asia (or transit) counts as a continent, even if not visiting~stop over Asia.
Just as Qatar QR flight DOH-AKL includes "Asia" as a continent. DONE3 ---> DONE4.
Have you downloaded the rules (pdf) from the OW web site?
Can have 16 segments, including ground segments.