The next DONE4 planning thread

[simongr]

Its DONE!!!!! CX caved and ticketed the fare

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Finally .

 

[simongr]

I think that there are more than a few people who are bored of hearing about this

 

[Keith009]

Congrats!

Nah not bored.

 

[serfty]

I think that there are more than a few people who are bored of hearing about this

Congrats!

Nah not bored.

Me neither, FWIW it's quite educational.

 

[simongr]

Well my next DOne4 is going to be a lot less of a mileage run - honest. Now look dont give me that look - I am honestly not planning for my trip to the US in Late january to absolutely max the miles to requal before March... honest...

The main lessons learned here are:

1 - Book through AA rtw desk directly
2 - Its actually harder to maxmise mileage than you think

 

[serfty]

... The main lessons learned here are:
...
2 - Its actually harder to maxmise mileage than you think

On a 'short notice' work basis, then that is correct.

If you plan ahead, it's not so hard due to greater availability of discount L, A & D seats.

e.g. My DONE was purchased in Aug 05 for travel in Asia in Oct 05, Oz in Dec 05, Eur in Mar 06 & NA in June 06.

Several of my NA flights had NO A availability for several months before I flew them, so booking 10 months ahead helped immensely.

 

[QF WP]

simongr, some of us are mildly jealous that you have DONE4's in the pipeline . As serfty said, educational and revealing for when (one day hopefully :shock: ), I get to book one of these.

Until then, my boring domestic trips will have to do.

 

[Keith009]

Is it fair to say that some domestic Aussie flights are permanently D0? Was just browsing through EF and noticed very bad availability, some D0 and some others are down to D1, for SYD-PER even though these flights are not till end of March next year! :shock:

Ended up calling AA in a panic and dating flights for my SWP sectors a full 10 months ahead... [MEL-AKL, WLG-xSYD-PER-CBR] The AAgent said that some of the domestic flights in Australia will 'never' have anything in D. Was only planning to date them when I come back from the US in Feb due to what I thought would be the myriad of flights available transtasman and domestically but was told this is not the case and it's similar to booking awards these days.

Should I go into a similar panic mode when the CX MEL-HKG flights are bookable or relax till I'm ready for those? The ones which I've left open dated for now are MEL-HKG-SIN-NRT which won't happen till early July 2008.

simongr - sorry for hijacking ur thread but I thought I'd provoke too much xONEx fatigue if I make another DONE4 planning thread surface to the top...

 

[simongr]

Well it is now ticketed!!!!!!

Tickets should be ariving by FedEx this afternoon.

Now - how do I go back to QF and prove to them that my plan was viable as requested? I am going to send my itinerary to FCM to show them as well.

I would rather not ticket in the US. But with the increase in the value of the A$ I dont think that there is in fact that much difference now in the total costs.

What I would like to try and work out is the taxes by segment - I wouldnt mind working out just how expensive these mileage runs have been..

I would like next time to ticket this through QF as I have a $300 voucher to use...

 

[Keith009]

Congrats on the ticketing !!

 

[simongr]

OK - here we go again...

My boss has confirmed a meeting in NYC to be added to an Asia trip in September so my itinerary is:

syd-hkg-nrt-jfk-lhr-lca-lhr-hkg-syd-mel-syd (32165 miles)

or

syd-hkg-lax-jfk-bgi-lgw-pfo,lca-lhr-hkg-syd-mel-syd (36108 miles)

Or some variations around that. Now given the trouble we had booking this with QF my options are either to book through our Corp TA in the US (I miss out on CC points) or AA RTW desk - but I have to pay on corp Amex (limit of 25k - balance currently 24K). How long can I defer payment with AA for? Are they likely to accept a credit card that isnt mine? I can give them my boss' CC number and that is a US card...

this trip has the potential for some mileage running as I will finish in HKG on the wednesday and dont have to e in NYC until Sunday So I could play some games getting to NYC That might avoid some hotel costs to offset the taxes incurred

I would love to spend the day in LAX so I can get to Shabby Chic for mrssimongr - maybe a late night transcon LAX-JFK followed by a quick ANC MR.... oh dear this is all going a bit pete tong...

syd-hkg-nrt-lax-jfk-dfw-anc-dfw-jfk-bgi-lgw-pfo,lca-lhr-hkg-syd-mel-syd

I promised myself I wouldnt do this again...

 

[garyjohn951]

While the following is after your September trip, below is some alternatives for future trips in 2008. I think BA fly to St Lucia.

American to open two new Caribbean routes from New York: American Airlines, already the leading airline between New York and the Caribbean, is adding a further two new routes to the islands from JFK. It will serve St Kitts and Nevis from 18 November with two Boeing 757s a week, and St Lucia from November with an initial three Boeing 757s a week. Elsewhere, it connect Austin with John Wayne airport at Santa Ana, in California's Orange County from 5 September with daily Boeing MD80s westbound and 737-800s eastbound.

 

[simongr]

Hmm - a little too much time to think this afternoon. I was planning out the rest of my travel for the year and chatting to tscharke at the same time. I have a 1 1/2 to 1 3/5 weeks of work in Hong Kong coming up in September. So I finish there on about the Wednesday Morning or afternoon. I have to be in NY by the following Sunday for a 3 day team meeting/planning/bonding starting on the Monday morning.

So in theory I have almost 5 days to kill including gaining time crossing the dateline. Now I am in new York in July and probably Februray and/or March so I dont have a desire to shop/sight see soooo I am wondering on the sanity of a mega-mileage run...

I can justify the cost based on the fact that I will e saving the cost of hotels and meals during the trip. I will be able to work some of the time in lounges and on board and in reality if I left Hong Kong on Thursday morning I wouldnt get into New York until mid day Friday so am not really missing any work time.

In theory if I could arrange the flights to have a few night flights I could avoid hotels completely and not have to buy a meal for five days. the routing could be something like:

HKG-NRT-SIN-BKK-NRT-JFK-LAX-DFW-ANC-DFW-JFK

I could upgrade the NRT-JFK-LAX with eVIP potentially (I should have some by then) so if those flights worked I could actually get some sleep. I havent checked schedules at all and I will definitely do the NRT-JFK trip so I can get UG to F using eVIP.

Is this a mileage run too far? I would certainly need that tumi bag for that trip

 

[serfty]

Dunno about TUMI, but my "Qantas" collection rollaboard I bought in Harris Scarfe 18 months ago for $89 has quite a few air-miles in it and looks to have many more.

It's "105cm" and 1.25Kg, so is OK for both domestic and international and can expand by about 25% in capacity to use as checked luggage.

 

[simongr]

Dear god - this trip is getting interesting. I have planned my route from the US - that's pretty simple (well for me pretty simple - people are still looking at me shaking their heads when I tell them about it): jgk-bgi-lgw-pfo,lca-lhr-hkg-syd-mel-syd (the syd-mel-syd is just added to the end in case I need it later in the year - or maybe even to start 2008 off earlier than this year

 

[simongr]

I think I have a plan for Son of Behemoth:

Its only 16 segments so I am a little ashamed of myself It might even be an eticket! I also get to sleep in a bed two nights running and have two nights and a whole day in NY to recover - I must be getting old

Son of Behemoth

The routing is SYD-HKG-SIN-NRT-ORD-DFW-ANC-DFW-JFK-BGI-LGW-PFO,LCA-LHR-HKG-SYD-MEL-SYD

Basically with the exception of dfw-anc-dfw my objective was not to transit through the same location more than once - so hopefully baggage issues migth be avoided.

I am thinking that if I check my bags through to DFW from HKG (Is that possible even - hkg-sin-nrt-ord-dfw) I can then find some form of left lugagge storage whilst I do the Anchorage run (reminds me of Han Solo that comment) and then pick u the bags and fly to JFK.

I will book this through AA rtw desk I think.

Does anyone forsee any practical probelms with this? I will be expertflyering the availability this morning and if I have to will kill the anc run.

The only question is which program the points go to

 

[Keith009]

The only question is which program the points go to

C'mon I know you want LT G/PLT on AAdvantage.
Then again the ANC turnaround would get tons of SCs.

Checking bags HKG-DFW should be fine. They have to pop out at DFW for customs anyway so I doubt they'd get checked all the way to ANC/JFK/wherever...

Hmm - why not a Mother of Behomoth?? Only 16 segments...pfft. :shock:

I might include a Carribean island on my 2nd DONE4 - doesn't look like I'd be losing much distance over flying BA to YVR. Never been into island resorts much though, hmmm.

 

[simongr]

Sadly Son of Behemoth has gone a bit pete tong based on availability - hoping to call AA ATW desk in the monring. SOB is only:

(stops in bold)

syd-sin-hkg-sin-nrt-ord-lax-jfk-bgi-lgw-pfo,lca-lhr-hkg-syd-mel-syd

A mere 42,700 and 15 flights . I tried to work DEL into it but its not a happening thing. I get in on the morning of 22 Sep to NYC so have two full days of NYV to enjoy - after a really loooong shower

I could get to ANC but not back unless i had an overnight somewhere. I actually think is a reasonably sensible routing. No major layovers, no tough connections, no unusual returns to origin

 

[Keith009]

Yes I hear it's hard to get D on the A330 flights to NRT.

You have a few more SWP sectors to fit in.
HKG-AKL-SYD-PER-BME-SYD maybe?

And if connections are good:
SYD-BOM-HKG at the start?
Or spend a day in BOM - nice place! The CX flight from BOM departs very early though, IIRC. And you'll need an Indian visa me thinks.