Rami Tamimi

Thanks,I did ask the check in agents to remove the ffp number,and add it back again,but it still showed sapphire.I suspect this is really because RJ is slow in updating its own database,because when I upgraded from Ruby to Sapphire,their systems still showed me as Ruby on their own flights.

CoenW

I hope this is the right place to ask. I've been travelling on a LONE5 the last few months (excellent product) and now need to change a former overland segment to a flight:

Buenos Aires (EZE) to Lima (LIM)

AA RTW desk has quoted me $481 for the change, $125 change costs and $350 in taxes and fuel... With the original surcharges for the complete 16 segment round the world coming in at $1000 this seems steep to me.

What is your experience? I've asked for the pricing to be double checked... Any tips how to deal with this? If I could pay cash I could exploit the black market exchange rate and maybe save 15% but that's the only option I see so far...

bhomburg

This sounds like you're charged the "Argentina Retention income tax" surcharge, which is a tax levied by the cash-strapped Argentinian government from foreigners buying international flights.
Ask the AAgent to give you the fare breakdown and check the fare for a "ZK" component. If present, you have the reason why this is getting so expensive.
Check this thread for more info and a link on how to claim it back.

CoenW

Thanks for your quick response!

From that thread it seems like BA dropped it from redemption tickets, hope that goes for LONE changes too... Praying that it is removed when I call AA again... Will keep you posted (PS I'm Dutch, so no tax claim possible for me).

CoenW

Mmm agent says it's regular taxes to fly out of Buenos Aires and into Lima.. Won't give me written specification but does say it's not the ZK tax.... Seems weird to me... Will go to their office here tomorrow and see if I can pay there... Probably only accept USD credit cards...

bhomburg

Yeah... I ran across this when researching award redemption itineraries myself.
Another alternative would be to fly out of MVD, which is what I ended up booking. No scam taxes on this one.

CoenW

Sadly I don't have any spare segments to do this.. Feels quite bad to stimulate government robbery like this... Although the way Argentina was treated by our banking sector want too nice either.

Update: paying in pesos isn't an option either, this also incurs a 35% extra robbery tax.... Good to hear you at least found a way around it. For me it would be spending half a week in buses to save a hundred bucks... Don't think that that's worth it.

pandaperth

Maybe just leave your LONE5 untouched
and purchase a separate ticket to fill the gap

On itasoftware.com
MVD-LIM is USD278 all in (flying AR via AEP)

(whereas the cheapest BUE-LIM fare on ita is USD561 - travelling from EZE via GRU)

CoenW

That's a great tip! I'd been looking at buying a direct ticket to Europe film other cities, but MVD was not that interesting for that, but for getting to Lima it sure is! The first cheap flight is still two weeks out though, which my schedule does not allow.

I'm gonna suck it up and hope that I've helped rescuing the Argentinian economy, or at least getting a new pair of shoes for Christina :-$.

JohnAx

When considering a change to xONEx (or probably many other reasons) you can look up the taxes and fees using ITA. They're authoritative and list each component. (In a few cases e.g. UK the "departure tax" component is different for stopover vs connection; use multi-city and start with your previous city in that case.)

There's a OneWorld Visit-South-America fare that used to provide quite nice fares to stub off an RTW. Prices have gone up but may still be good, and book into a class that earns 100% qpoints (for the aadvantage folks) and has good availability. You have to fly at least 3 segments, 16 max (more after burn-down). Changes [were] absolutely free. Book through aa rtw desk.

I'm sure Christina would be especially pleased if you paid for her shoes in deutschmarks.

SackOHammers

I'm making my first post about redeeming miles and planning a trip here because it seems like the inviting place to do so. Please let me know if I should make a full thread and where it should be. Thanks for your help in advance.

Right now, all I have are about 105K AA miles that I earned through credit card and a little flying. I'm switching around my mileage earning cards to start earning more. I'm new around here and just started a separate thread over in Miles&Points > Information Desk regarding how to best earn miles through CC purchasing. But now I need some information about what program I should stick with and how I should book a couple upcoming flights in November.

Objective: earn miles to spend on travel
I do like the idea of first checked bag free and lounge access, but primarily interested in earning flights.
I do not fly enough to gain "status". Typically 1-2 international and 2-5 domestic flights a year.
This is almost exclusively leisure travel (less than one business flight per year). Usually to places around Europe or Central American beaches.
My hope is that if I earn more miles, I'll be able to vacation to more places.
In the past, my wife and I shop online for the cheapest fare for our destination and book that flight. That means sometimes I fly American, sometimes Delta, and sometimes United. In the past, before married, my wife typically flew Delta and gets most of he miles there. For me, it's typically been American.
We live in Austin, Texas. Most of our flights take us through DFW or O'Hare, and sometimes Houston.
I think that answers many of the initial questions the other thread suggested I address.

I'm still new here and there is so much to learn. I'm a little overwhelmed, but will get it in time. But my immediate need is booking for booking a flight to Asia. A bunch of us are meeting for lunch tomorrow to firm up our flight plans. About 7 of us are flying out of Austin or Dallas and taking a trip to Asia.

The itinerary will be something like this:
11/28 - Leave Austin/Dallas
11/29 - Arrive HK
12/4 - Leave HK, Arrive Bangkok
12/10 - Leave Bangkok, Arrive Taipei
12/15 - Leave Taipei
12/15 - Arrive Austin

One of my friends sent a link from Expedia and got the flights for pretty close to $2,000 (economy class).
But then he said he had 60K AA miles and could use those on certain legs to get it down to an $800 ticket (economy class).

This is the part where I get on this site and try to figure out how to do all of this in a smarter way. Where magic and voodoo turn into processed logic. With your help, of course.

How do I best approach getting the best deal on this itinerary?
I currently have about 105k AA miles and my wife has about 20k.

Appreciate your help in understanding how to go about maximizing the flight.

Thanks,
Hammers

Moderator note - question was cross-posted to "Information Desk" forum

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

odie11

I'm trying to book an award ticket from JFK to JTR (Santorini) next June. I have found open J class saver awards on JFK-BCN via AA continuing on HG from BCN-VIE where I would have to stay the night. I know HG flies to JTR from VIE but as of now, they do not have those seats loaded yet. I have used BA to to do a dummy award next month (Just to see if seats to JTR are ever available) and they have four seats available just about every day. So my questions are:
1. If I go ahead and book the JFK-BCN-VIE seats now, can I add JTR later to the original booking? or would I have to make it a separate booking using Avios?
2. If I can book an HG flight now to VIE, why would I not be able to book an HG flight from VIE-JTR right now?

Thanks!

jonbohum

Hi all:

I'm new to OW Sapphire (US Air Gold) and am wondering about lounge access when a layover goes past midnight.

I'm currently in the KL airport flying Malaysian Airlines (REP-KUL-DPS). We got to the lounge after our first leg and were told that we could not enter the lounge since our next leg is not until the next day. It took me nearly tearing up but the agent finally let us in. That said, I would still like to know what the official policy is regarding this (she only showed us the 'no arrival lounge' line in the policies) so I plan accordingly in the future.

I've only been able to find this language regarding first class or business passengers, nothing for FF access: "First and Business Class customers connecting on the same day of travel, or before 6am the following day, can access the lounge when travelling between an international long haul (a oneworld international long haul flight is defined as an international flight marketed and operated by any oneworld carrier with a scheduled flight time longer than 5 hours) and an international short haul or domestic flight (and vice-versa)."

Honestly, since it was a single itinerary booked through the their website, and our next flight is in the middle of the night, it didn't even cross my mind that this might happen. Seems a bit ridiculous to me and not a problem I ever faced when flying Star Alliance.

Would love if anyone could share the official policy regarding this!

Thanks

4soup

Hi all

I have the Amex platinum which got me Cathay Gold (for this year anyway) which in turn gives me Oneworld Sapphire. I'm going to be booking YYZ-LAX on AA using my BApoints. How do I access the Sapphire perks that come with Oneworld partner programs? Lounge access, advanced boarding, extra baggage allowance etc: I don't have a cathay gold card but i'm 100% a gold member and at no point am I asked for a Oneworld status number. Those are all big features that I'd like to take advantage of while I still can

Thanks for your help

haasha

Simply add the CX number as your frequent flyer program in the booking and the rest will (more or less) automatically kick in.

If the booking is made by BA, then easiest way is to use Manage my booking on ba.com to do so.