Kiwi Flyer

I wouldn't attempt it.

A year or so ago I was routed ADD-KRT-LHR with transit in KRT and I was denied the opportunity to disembark in KRT. Indeed the airline wanted to through me off the aircraft in ADD but by being stubborn and persuasive I managed to convince them to reroute me.

3544quebec

Please explain

With apologies to whomever posted this in another thread a few days ago, but here seems equally appropriate

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hilario...9242/lightbox/

chewy3

3.1 to 1 USD is the correct IATA exchange rate and all published fares are based on that rate at the moment. It should be possible to get that rate on an AONEx. Not sure why AA's online booking engine uses a different rate since SABRE is using 3.1 to 1.

BrewerSEA

I love that FT just discovered that image, which has been around on the Internet for many many years

3544quebec

Its not just AA's booking engine that has this quirk with the USD/Sudanese pound exchange rate
An AONE6 priced in $AU on Expertflyer returns $AU8080 which at the current Rate of Exchange is $US8600. But if you price the fare in $US on Expertflyer it returns a fare of $US9870

I'll ask on the EF master thread what is the reason behind this anomaly.


And BrewerSEA that image has been blocked in Australia up until now by the National Feral Rabbit Eradication Board as pro-cute/cuddly rabbit propaganda so its not my fault that I am so behind the times

ExpertFlyer Voice

There isn't any anomaly, the GDS is pricing the fare properly based on the currency selected and the exchange rate used.

To start, if you look at the Routing Rules, you'll see the base fare of AONE6 ex-KRT is SDG 26500.00

Next, you look at the conversion rates the GDS is using (part of the meta data returned to us):

"RATE USED IS BSR 1 SDG - 0.3724395 USD"
Which means 1USD = 2.685 SDG, which means the price in USD should be shown as USD $9870, which as you noted it is, so the USD price is correct.

Now if you request the fare in AUD you get:

"RATE USED IS ICH 1 SDG - 0.3048967 AUD"
Which means 1AUD = 3.28 SDG, which means the price in AUD should be AUD $8080, which it is, so that is correct as well.

It looks like the GDS is using the SDG->USD Bankers Selling Rate spot price (BSR) for showing the fare in USD (like AA is). However when requested in AUD, it is using the IATA Clearing House (ICH) rate for SDG->USD then converts USD->AUD since it couldn't determine a BSR for SDG->AUD directly.

If you Google "ICH BSR exchange rate" you'll find some documents that explain how the GDS tries one then the other when converting fares. As per chewy3's note, it looks like Sabre just uses the ICH rate across the board, which is more consistent but less accurate (as per AA's results).

boar

Are there any similarly priced countries in the region to commence a AONE4?

Gardyloo

Israel, USD10,000 (denominated in USD)
Jordan, USD 10,022 (denominated in JOD, conversion from EF)
Egypt, USD 10,376 (denominated in EGP, conversion from EF)
Qatar, USD 10,299 (from EF)
Saudi Arabia, USD 9091 (from EF)

...Maybe one or two more. Except for Jordan, you can actually ride in first class on the first segment from all those cities, rather than having a short J flight to AMM as your initial segment. More bang for the AONEX buck/dinar/pound.

pandaperth

IMHO, the 'quirk' is that the booking engine quotes a price in USD
The ex-Sudan fare is quoted in SGD, not USD. Imagine if you were in Khartoum and used the booking engine to buy a ticket - why should you have to pay in USD and likely be up for your credit card provider's fees for converting the USD charge back in to SGD?

A secondary issue is then, given that the booking engine converts the fare into USD, what exchange rate is used. Seems to that using the current bank rate is reasonable.

deepbluesky

When they are paying attention, the AMM RJ staff are indeed fairly vigilant about these things. I went to Libya recently and there was much checking of the rules, phoning back and forth to various offices, and so on. Finally they let me go after I signed an indemnity form stating that I was responsible for any problems.

Then again, I also traveled to Saudi Arabia without a visa of any kind from AMM a while back, much to the consternation of the local authorities in RUH. So it does indeed depend a great deal on how carefully they are checking things on any given day.

I don't think the strategy of buying an additional (unused) ticket would work, since part of what you are hoping for is to be checked in for both flights in AMM. If I was set on beginning the RTW from KRT, I'd either a) arrive from a different airport (i.e., not a turnaround flight), or b) attempt to get a visa in advance.

Of course, YMMV and good luck!

hillrider

I'm joining this thread a bit late and got curious about the BSR/ICH rates and just in general whether there's a currency arbitrage here.

I tried to dig a "current" USD rate for SDG:

• Oanda says 2.64.
• I looked at VISA to see what they would exchange it at, and came up empty. Same with MasterCard. AmEx cards use Oanda and builds in its commission, giving a 2.71 rate.
• The Wall Street Journal does not list the SDG on its daily charts, which probably implies that it's not traded in NYC. On its weekly chart, it shows 2.68 for 17 June.
• Bloomgerg.com (the website) does not list SDG amongst the trove of currencies it has data for.
• I couldn't find any exchange rate on the Financial Times.

Conclusion: it appears that the actual exchange rate is around 2.60/2.70, but the currency is not really traded. So it seems that 3.10 is what some of the GDSs are using and it's what we most likely end up having to pay for tickets issued on that GDS.

hillrider

You are, as usual, spot on. The rate used by Sabre is as follows:
Notice the "ICH" in the "RATE" column.
Compare the same entry with the EUR:
As far as I can tell, Sabre uses only one rate, which turns out is either a BSR or the ICH.

Further, the AUD rate is calculated as follows by Sabre:
What GDS you got your rates from? I presume Amadeus. Wouldn't the trick to have the ticket issued on a carrier/agent that uses that GDS?

hotpot1

Did you ever figure out a solution to this?

I was thinking of doing something similar. I'd be in Egypt anyway, and would either fly from Cairo to Khartoum, and maybe hang out a few days and look around, or do something more adventurous like take the ferry from Aswan Egypt to Wadi Halfa, Sudan then a train to KRT. But with a US Passport, getting a Sudanese tourist visa... not so easy.

I don't want to chance it, buying a one-way ticket on Egypt Air hoping for a TWOV, then not being allowed to disembark (or even embark in Cairo...) and messing up my whole itinerary.

Any luck finding a tourist visa? Read about a guesthouse Bougainvilla in KRT that can arrange sponsorship letters, but iffy on whether they can get a letter from the Sudan Ministry of Whatever that the embassy in DC needs to issue a tourist visa.

Though with the KRT departure tax of like $250usd in business, plus the $100 for Sudan visa, probably another $150+ in fees to get the visa, $350 flight from Cairo, and the stress/hassle, maybe just better to pay the extra and start in Amman or Cairo. Probably Amman...

Also... how were you going to book this? I've never done an xONEx (only OWEs) -- read that in order to pay the lower fare in a foreign country we'd have to go thru a travel agency there?

pandaperth

An xONEx IS a Oneworld Explorer

first 'x' is the class (A=first; D=business; L=economy)
the second is the number of continents (3, 4, 5 or 6)

So to book it and get the price of the originating country
- use the on-line tool
- buy in Canada
- find a travel agent in the country of origin that will book it for you

hotpot1

Ah right, sorry, I meant Oneworld RTW Award thru AA.