Himeno

Heard back from CX. Took them 5 days (over a weekend) to price it. Price is about what I expected. Less taxes then last year, but overall cost is a little higher thanks to the exchange rate drops in the last week.

Asked them to fix the errors while I start moving money around.

OWBlueMoon

Just to close the loop on my original post, I did eventually end up booking an itinerary pretty similar to the one I posted. I did have to work with some restrictions in terms of schedule and locations I need to visit, so I wasn't able to optimize everything as much as possible.

I was unable to book through the online tool with several different versions of the itinerary (with different airlines for the 1st leg). I was able to book and ticket the itinerary through CX Tokyo. They did initially claim that a surface segment counted as 2 stopovers and were claiming the booking was invalid on those grounds. I was able to convince them they were incorrect, and it ended up being irrelevant because availability opened up on another flight which allowed me to eliminate the ground segment and go with my preferred routing.

It seems to me that CX Japan is the way to go for ex-Japan RTW tickets. Other than the minor issue in interpreting the rules, they were very helpful, and they were always quick to respond to my emails and calls.

Thank you to all those who gave their input.

jkuok

Just curious is ex-Japan cheaper or ex- South Africa?

jimig

EF will reveal all but I believe SA is still cheaper. I'm about to pull the trigger on a 50k ex-TYO which comes in at Ł5.8k on a DONE4. Fantastic value.

Gardyloo

These days, "cheaper" has everything to do with your choice of currency. In USD terms, a DONE4 with a base price of US$4424 is the cheapest I've seen in over ten years. But the ZAR-USD exchange has more to do with that than anything else. It hasn't gotten any cheaper at all if you live in Cape Town.

Himeno

It depends. You need to factor in exchange rates and getting to the start point as well.

jkuok

I agree with you guys, can't believe the ZAR drop so much, its 500USD cheaper on my LONE5 that I book 2 months ago, the original price was like 3000 USD...

Guess if i got the Challenge from AA EXP I will need to do another RTW for MR, the worst thing is to get to CPT/JNB from HKG

Dr. HFH

Just booked an AONE4 for this very reason. Something like USD $1,200 less than 90 days ago. Waiting for pricing from the rate desk.


Plan your second itinerary to start exactly when the first one ends. Then you'll already be in JNB and won't have any additional positioning cost.


If any of you is willing, I'd be grateful to have another set of eyes take a look at my itinerary. JNB-HKG-NRT-CGK-NRT-JFK-SFO-DFW-SJU-ORD-SFO-LHR-DOH-CDG-DOH-LHR-JNB. I tried to emphasize AA flight numbers on flights over 3,000 miles even if it means J cabin travel on a few because of the 2015 bonus of 12K miles per flight in F or J on AA flight numbers over 3,000 miles (plus AA nonstops JFK-LAX/SFO) for flights operated by (relevant to me) AA, BA and JL, but not CX (rats!).

allset2travel

Just curious, how many flights offer F in your itin?


DFW-ANC-DFW, each leg is just over 3,000 miles. All on 757 and therefore no F. Note seasonality.

Dr. HFH

Good question. Here's the itin, with flights in F shown in blue. I've also added the carriers in case anyone's interested.

JNB-HKG CX
HKG-NRT CX
NRT-CGK JL
CGK-NRT AA op by JL
NRT-JFK AA op by JL
JFK-SFO AA
SFO-DFW AA
DFW-SJU AA This is the front cabin on a regular 738 but the flight considers it international J.
SJU-ORD AA This is the front cabin on a regular 738 but the flight considers it international J.
ORD-SFO AA
SFO-LHR AA op by BA
LHR-DOH AA op by QR There is F on this route but QR does not make it available in the A fare bucket.
DOH-CDG QR
CDG-DOH QR
DOH-LHR QR There is F on this route but QR does not make it available in the A fare bucket.
LHR-JNB BA



Exactly. That service doesn't operate when I'm flying, November. Actually, that was the first thing I looked at when working on the N.A. portion of the itinerary. But wouldn't it have been domestic F?

Gardyloo

Deleted - dupe

Gardyloo

Yes, but increasingly tough to get as A is also an upgrade bucket with AA and can vanish as quickly as it appears. Unfortunately the only year-round Oneworld service to ANC is from PHX, in US Airways metal with "non-F" first class - wide seat, no IFE, nada. PHX-ANC is 2551 miles, below the magic number. You still might want to do the numbers on swapping DFW-SJU-ORD for PHX-ANC-PHX considering the FC bonus v. J credit for the Caribbean service.

allset2travel

Thanks for the above info.
I noticed that you chose AA codeshare for a couple of JL (op by JL) flights, and 1 BA flight. Wonder if that helps reduce some YQ & other fees? Any sinsight?

I think the QR F should be great on A388. Please report back with your experience.

Dr. HFH

AA is running a promotion until the end of 2015. I'm EXP, so what it means for me is that on either AA metal or AA codeshares op by BA or JL (and others, but these are the relevant ones for me), I get a 12,000 mile bonus on flights over 3,000 miles (or nonstops in either direction JFK-LAX/SFO). Link to promotion details. Way too good to pass up; and that's why I'm doing this trip.

Dr. HFH

Yes, Gardy, I've noticed before that it's tough to get A on that route. The swap you suggested isn't worth it for me as I'm going to visit friends in both ORD and SXM; and the incremental mileage D to A isn't all that much in the bigger picture of this itinerary.