My First 'Planned' DONE4

[vt01]

After an unplanned DONE4 18 months ago, I finally had the opportunity to plan one. Well, planned and then modified.
Originally I only had 2 stops - New York and Raleigh. I was restricted to QF, AA and BA flights because of my ticket. So the route I originally chose was
SYD-JFK-DFW-RDU-DFW-JFK-LAX-ORD-LHR-MCT-LHR-FCO-LHR-SIN-BNE-PER-DRW-ADL-SYD
Miles - 48910
SC's - 1940 (thanks to some A class US flights)
18 segments

I still need to get from BNE to SYD when I return because I plan to do the 4 SWP segments some time later. How I wished they hadn't changed the rules on these segments in the issuing region . I 'll probably just buy a one way cheapie and then another when I need to return to BNE to continue my last part of the trip.

After taking about a week on the phone with the TA teaching them about what I could and couldn't do with the fare, it was finally booked.

The main problem was from LAX back to BNE was continuous travel. I figured I'd just sleep as much as possible and hope that my luggage would turn up one day!

Only a week after I had finalising all the flights, I had 2 more destinations to add - Tokyo and Zurich. As these were funded separately, I considered booking another DONE4 as it was going to be $1500 cheaper than booking flights point to point. And after all the effort in getting all the flights I wanted, I really didn't want ot go back and start figuring out flights again.

But fortunately I was able to match the timing with my original DONE4 and alter it for the 2 extra stops quite easily. So now it goes

SYD-NRT-JFK-DFW-RDU-DFW-JFK-LAX-ORD-LHR-MCT-LHR-ZRH-LHR-SIN-BNE-PER-DRW-ADL-SYD

Miles - 49740
SC's - 1960
19 segments


This works out quite well as now I have a weeks stopover in Zurich so I end up with 2 long legs
LAX-ORD-LHR-MCT-LHR-ZRH and
ZRH-LHR-SIN-BNE

The best laid plans - always seem to change.. But at least this time, I was able to simply add in the extra flights.
These DONE4 fares really are very useful.

The next thing to plan is the trip report!:shock:

 

[simongr]

Great work and a monster route

And personally I would not class ZRH-LHR-SIN-BNE as a long route

 

[vt01]

Great work and a monster route

And personally I would not class ZRH-LHR-SIN-BNE as a long route

Thx simongr. Your's looks good too! It was your 'behemoth' thread that made me think of posting this.

And personally I would not class ZRH-LHR-SIN-BNE as a long route

true - not as long as it was to start with! In fact they're all pretty good now. I was not looking forward to the LAX-BNE part of the trip at all. More so because of trying to figure out where my baggage may end up. But now it's all simpler

 

[simongr]

HLO - Hand Luggage Only


Thanks for the nod re The BEHEMOTH - the thing is that this website has created for me both opportunities (I am flying mrssimongr round the world in J, staying at premium hotels all for the price of taxes) and experiences. I am not sure I will do another behemoth in terms of flight numbers and complexity for some time. I would rather at this point do a couple of DONE4s rather than 1 BEHEMOTH.

 

[tassiedude]

excuse my ignorrance but what is a DONE4?

 

[straitman]

excuse my ignorrance but what is a DONE4?

tassiedude,

I suggest you read The Ultimate Qantas Guide as it will cover everything and more.

 

[JohnK]

excuse my ignorrance but what is a DONE4?

It is a business class Oneworld Explorer covering 4 continents.

D - Business Class, could also be L - Economy or A - First Class
ONE - Oneworld Explorer
4 - Number of continents, could be 3, 4, 5, 6 but from Australia only 4, 5 or 6 are available

 

[straitman]

It is a business class Oneworld Explorer covering 4 continents.

D - Business Class, could also be L - Economy or A - First Class
ONE - Oneworld Explorer
4 - Number of continents, could be 3, 4, 5, 6 but from Australia only 4, 5 or 6 are available

Thanks JohnK. I was overtired last night and that was too hard to explain.

 

[serfty]

Also, for more detailed information look on FlyerTalk here:

• The oneworld explorer ticket FAQs

 

[vt01]

And yet another change! My TA is going to get so sick of me making changes.. I did this to ensure I could leave on the dates I requested. I had been waitlisted on both the day and day after I wanted to leave.
Now coming home via HKG so
ZRH-LHR-HKG-BNE-PER-DRW-ADL-SYD.

Same SC's but about 300 less miles

He also queried my on the 4 segments at the end saying he didn't think I could that. I explained that it was acceptable but he was still going to check with the fare desk..

 

[vt01]

And the changes keep on coming.

My week in Tokyo was cancelled so I moved back to my original SYD-JFK flight.

Then a week later discovered a course in Raleigh (I was going there any way) the week before. Now I could have just moved all my flights going over forward a week. But then I started thinking.. I still had some segments in Asia I could use going over. So I though of still going over via Tokyo but couldn't get flights up to Tokyo. After a little more investigation with the AA timetable and EF, worked out I could go via SIN and then SIN-JFK on CX using the AA codeshare flight numbers. The flights from SIN are SIN-HKG-JFK. I've never been this way before so it should be an interesting trip (plus an extra 140 SC's)

So now my routing is SYD-SIN-HKG-JFK-DFW-RDU-DFW-LAX-ORD-LHR-MCT-LHR-ZRH-LHR-HKG-BNE-PER-DRW-ADL-SYD

20 segments
2090 SC's
51432 miles

And one long trip report!:shock: