RTW using a multi-city QF booking

[Verde]

Hi.

Planning a trip in June and thought I'd pick the wisdom of the AFF brains-trust.

Basically my plan is to go MEL-SIN, SIN-LHR, LHR-JFK, seperate booking of JFK-EAR or GRI return and then JFK-(LAX)-MEL (and this is all in Y).

I'm keen to fly on my WP status since I'm likely to lose it at the end of this membership year and when AirAustralia killed my BNE-HNL trip in July I decided to drop Hawaii and expand to see some of the UK/Europe with some long service leave rather than annual (I try to get to the USA each year to visit a sibling over there, hence wanting to fly to an obscure place like EAR).

When I put in the multi-city booking above on the Qantas website, it gives me a fare of about $2888 and lists it as "sale". So I'm wondering what (if anything) that is tied to - specifically so I know if it is a reasonable deal or not (it certainly seems cheap compared to an actual RTW booking). Does anyone know if it is tied to MEL-LHR or is it tied to something totally different? Dropping the Singapore stop (I'll only stay there two or three nights since I've only ever transferred through it before) seemed to make no difference to fare.

My second question is whether phoning Qantas or trying a travel agent (I just like to organise trips myself so haven't thus far) would enable me to add the leg JFK-EAR/GRI (or even OMA as a last resort) as part of the fare/booking or if they're as restricted as I am with the website. I can book a normal return flight from MEL to OMA but the multi-city booking spits the dummy if I throw it in there.

The third question I am fairly confident of, but thought I'd just throw in here since I'm already posting. The normal visa-entry rules for getting into the Singapore/UK/Europe (since I'll go to France/Germany etc for about two weeks from LHR, probably on a Trafalgar tour)/USA would apply and be no trouble (beyond doing the ETSA in advance like usual), right? Qantas's visa/medical/travel tool seems to show everything is fine, but it is always nicer to have things confirmed by someone who has done it (though I did a similar course about a dozen years ago except in reverse, I went to the USA first).

Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated. I keep being torn about whether to fly return New York-GRI with AA for status/points or whether to just go New York-EAR-LAX on United to save a bit of time (or even to just forget about New York and go LHR-DEN and go DEN-EAR on Great Lakes Aviation).

I'm very keen to hear advice/ideas/past experiences with similar setups.

 

[drmikki]

That's a pretty good deal - dummy booking on the OneWorld RTW booking engine was charging 4800 AUD - including $997 taxes and fees, so I'd jump in and book. Do you actually want to go to New York? If not, you might save a little going through DFW (ie MEL-SIN-LHR-DFW-MEL) as it seems that flights into GRI are from DFW, or alternatively you could book to ORD. Omaha appears on the booking engine but annoyingly it comes up with an error message about choosing a different route, so I gave up! AA/AE go to OMA from ORD and DFW but even using those as separate segments it had the error, so not sure what else to try...

Sadly DFW-GRI is Y only, so no SC run for that segment If you do fly from JFK then it routes via DFW (at least on AA) so you might be able to do a small SC run there - pricey though!

Another handy thing with the multi-city booking if looking for SCs is the "alternatives" for each flight, which gives you the alternative flight choices and price for a leg - i.e. for $17 extra you can go MEL-ADL-SIN instead of direct. I imagine most people aren't looking for extra time on a plane, but if you are it's very convenient! Also it can tell you which flights are upgradable on points - even though this is a sale fare they are upgradable if marked (I rang up before making my booking to check, as the T&Cs for sale fare still say non-upgradable).

I would check with a TA and see what price they can do with the GRI added in - its no obligation to buy it if its sky-high! Just remember of course that the Multi-city is quoting a 'sale fare' so the sale could end... I'm presuming its the "USA sale" ending 29 Feb, but can't be sure. That sale fare changes for dates in mid-June, so maybe play around with dates and see if you can get it any cheaper?

I'm not 100% sure what you are asking regarding visas, but your access to USA and Schengen/UK will be the same as if you came direct - ie if you are eligible for entry it doesn't matter where you flew from, so as long as you have a valid ESTA it doesn't matter if you came from the UK or from Australia. If you are an Aussie citizen with no criminal record etc you should have no problem getting into Singapore, Europe, UK and USA (with valid ESTA).

Have fun - let us know whether you decide in favour of SCs etc with AA or go via DEN etc