creampuff

Hi everybody.

I'm planning a 6-month family vacation next year. 2 adults, 2 young children.

I think my itinery is more suited to Star Alliance as I'd like to go to Africa (where there is limited One World service) but I like OW airlines, so I'd like to try to price it out before I eliminate One World.

I'm also having a lot of trouble with a Sydney->Port Moresby leg on the OW Explorer booking tool, which is preventing me from pricing up anything.

As far as I can see it is a 5-continent fare. Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia, North America

Start in London.
Stops in:
Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
Cape Town
Colombo - optional
Hong Kong
Manila
Yangoon (already worked out I'll need to buy a one-way Yangoon-KL ticket on Air Asia to keep my Asia segments within fare rules).
Perth
Melbourne
Sydney
Port Moresby (I can't get the booking tool go give me any Australia->Papua New Guinea flights at all even though Qantas/Jetstar fly this route)
Los Angeles
Cozumel/Cancun (want to look at Chetzen Itza)
New York (optional)
Marrakesh
London

QUESTIONS/HELP NEEDED:
1. Can't get any Sydney->Port Moresby flights to come up on the Explorer booking tool, so I really can't research anything until I can get that happening.

2. Would consider sacrificing either Cape Town or Addis Ababa if it makes it possible to do this on One World

3. If I ditch Africa and make this a 4-continent I could just buy a separate ticket to either Cape Town or Addis Ababa if required or if this is cheaper.

4. How much does this ticket cost? (see point 1 - I can't get the Syd->Port Moresby flight happening, so I can't price anything)

5. I'm open to Economy, Premium Economy or Business class, depending on how much the ticket costs. How does premium economy prices compare to standard economy and business for 5-continents.

6. I know the price depends on the taxes, which depend on my flights, but I can't get any idea at all now because of the Sydney-Port Moresbey flight problem above. Anyway approximate prices for each fare class would be fine.

7. I've read reports the United Kingdom is relatively expensive for buying One World Explorer tickets and that others have started their journey from Israel, Istanbul or Jordan in order to reduce the cost. I'm open to just buying a ticket to one of these places and starting the RTW journey there. Who knows if I'd end up "missing" the last sector from London to Israel/Istanbul/Jordan to complete the RTW.

8. Am I just better off doing this with Star Alliance?


THANKS!

jerry a. laska

Are you sure there are direct flights SYD-POM? I see an awful lot of routings with one or more connections (BNE, CNS).

It seems to me that you have more than 16 segments as your routing will require additional connecting flights to get where you want to go.

creampuff

The connecting flight isn't a problem; I have connecting flights elsewhere in the itinerary. I can massage the itinerary if required to achieve 16 segments. However getting the OW Explorer booking system to book anything to Port Moresby is a problem.

Gardyloo

With all the travel around Australia, I don't agree that Star Alliance's products would be a better fit, but I DO know that you'd be in real trouble keeping within their mileage limits given your itinerary.

I'd recommend reading the Oneworld Explorer FAQ at the top of this forum; it will help address a lot of your concerns. Or, if you're a comparative newbie to the whole field of RTWs, you might want to look at a thread I posted on TripAdvisor that covers the field more generally.

One of the big considerations in planning and purchasing RTWs is the fact that prices vary hugely depending on where you buy and start/finish the RTW. This is especially significant if you're planning to fly in premium classes, where the difference in price between purchase locations can be as much as 100% or even more.

Regarding your specific plans, I wouldn't worry about POM causing the tool to balk; it's very buggy in the first place. Just leave POM out of a "trial" booking and the price you'll get will be very close to the price with POM included. You may need to purchase a ticket without POM, then add it back with a real human doing the changes. This would require the ticket to be re-issued (US$125) but it would speed things up tremendously.

Including ADD and CPT in one RTW is difficult, so doing ADD by itself might be the best option.

You might look at starting your trip in South Africa, as prices there are among the lowest for Oneworld RTW products. Obviously you'd need to factor in the cost of getting to SA in the first place, but especially in business class, RTWs originating in SA can be cheap enough to justify the "access" costs in the first place. If you DID start in SA, you can finish anywhere else in Africa, so you could get to ADD (from DOH) to end the trip.

creampuff

Thanks for that info. I think starting the trip in London makes business class unaffodable. Starting in South Africa may be ok.

Is there anywhere else other than South Africa and which is accessible by a reasonably priced return ticket from London which I could be looking at for starting this RTW?

jerry a. laska

CAI. AMM less so.

vecta

Regarding the SYD-POM you are right there's no direct QF metal on this route, neither BNE-POM. Only CNS-POM vv is possible on QF metal.

QF codeshares available on BNE-POM vv and SYD-POM vv flying PX metal which I'm not sure helps the OP?

hot2trot

I was not able to figure out how to book or price a RTW fare either. I ended up using a company that specialises in Oneworld trips, they did all the work! Try contacting them:

airtreks.com (deleted) I have been VERY happy with them and their service!

creampuff

Thanks vecta; I thought it was QF metal from Sydney to Port Moresby. I'll have to look into travelling ex-Cairns, but I think doing Port Moresby on this RTW ticket may be off as it will eat up both my Australia segments and my total segments. I'll either have to buy a separate return ticket or do it another time.

STAR ALLIANCE:
I've worked out that starting ex-South Africa or ex-Cairo makes a OW RTW in business class sort of affordable.

I now need to compare my OW options with Star Alliance options.

While I'm still on this thread, does anybody know any cheap trip starting locations for Star Alliance?

Gardyloo

Check out Japan, Korea, and also South Africa. I think your biggest problem, however, will be to stay within the mileage limits (39K miles max) of the *A product, as well as poor coverage in Australia. In general *A RTWs are more expensive than OW both on a cost/segment and cost/mile basis.

creampuff

I'll look into *A. I know about the Australia problem with *A, but with OW I have an Ethiopia problem!

I'll look into which one is more cost effective overall; I think neither of them will take me to every destination on a single RTW ticket. I'm going to have to buy a return or one-way with either option.

creampuff

If I end up with a OW Explorer fare, I'm thinking I may start it off in Cairo for the purpose of making the whole RTW in business class cost about £5000 instead of about £8000 ex-London. As I need to buy 3.5 tickets any saving helps a lot.

I've checked out getting to Cairo and this also solves my problem of getting to Addis Ababa. I can go on a separate ticket LHR->ADD->CAI one way (with about 10 days stopover) for about £580pp in economy.

creampuff

I've now eliminated Star Alliance. Very difficult to get to work with less than 39,000 miles.

But also there are a number of things which have rubbed me up the wrong way with Star Alliance:

- There is no child discount for Biz class. 2-11yo pays 100%, vs 75% on OW.
- Singapore Airlines think their business class is so special, that you need to pay a surcharge of between US$300 and $600 per person, per flight, over and above the normal cost of the RTW ticket, to go it. Seriously SQ, this is taking the mick. Bbzzzzztttttt!