re: "oneworld" award (140K/280K/420K) Planning - The Definitive Thread
Fastferret, you should read up on the QF T&Cs for OW RTW Awards (you can search for them under the FF section on their website) because that itinerary exceeds the max. 35000 miles by a long way. It is about 42,000 miles by my quick check on great circle mapper (gcmap.com) - but see my comments about ABN, below.
Where you appear to have come unstuck is the fact that surface segments are allowed and don't count towards the sector count but you have to include the distance of the surface segment in the 35K miles calculation.
14.5.4 The following Stopover conditions apply to
oneworld Awards:
(a) up to five free Stopovers are permitted;
(b) additional Stopovers are not permitted;
(c) only one Stopover is permitted in any one city in the Itinerary; and
(d) only two Transfers may be taken at any one city in the Itinerary.
14.5.5 Surface Segments are permitted as part of
oneworld Award Itineraries, but the distance between the disembarkation point and the next embarkation point will be included in the Reward Point zone calculation for that Itinerary.
Some other points to help you:
1. CX may not allow you to book the SYD-HKG-DOH segments together. AFFers seem to have had different experiences on this (I've had this type of combo rejected a few times when I've tried to book them) but you should be prepared for the possibility.
The way around it is to have a stopover in HKG (but you already have 5) or the best option for you might be to try for HKG-DOH on QR.
2 There is a direct flight from TXL - KEF (which would help trim your total mileage) but your itinerary is TXL-LHR-KEF. Is that because of award availability or didn't you
know about the direct option?
3. What's with ABN? Is that code correct because ABN is the code for Albina in Suriname which is north of Brazil and it's not a OW destination from what I can see?
Looks a bit out of place with the rest of your itinerary and might explain your distance problem.
I could be wrong but I don't think that's where you were intending to go - did you mean somewhere in Scotland like Aberdeen (ABZ) (since your next departure point
after that is EDI)?
4. BOS-HKG-SYD - as above, you might have trouble booking both these sectors together on CX
5. Transits are anything less than 24 hrs so your MAD transit would be OK
6. Re: MAD -BOS - the taxes you quoted may refer to a BA flight - IB would be much cheaper