Originally Posted by
busman7
Oh well all's well that ends well & Qantas only ripped me off for $1034 to get out of this expensive hell hole & I have learned the lesson that a One World ticket isn't worth the paper it's written on & I surely shall never return & avoid Qantas like the plague from now on.
It's extremely unpleasant to find that an airline has restricted inventory to the extent that, for all practical purposes, it's unobtainable. The advise that I would offer to other RTW travellers is to ensure that they familiarize themselves and adopt tools that alert them to when such rare inventory becomes available for booking.
It's reassurring to note that numerous competitors have recently entered into the US - Australia market, severely reducing both QF's pricing power and its monopoly stranglehold in general. This increased competition, however, does not help one on a xONEx RTW ticket, as none of the current competitors are members of OW.
That all said, the part of your experience that I find most concerning / upsetting is where you refer to SYD as an "expensive hell hole". While it undoubtedly can be expensive, I've never before heard SYD referred to as a hell hole. I've only visited Sydney 4 times, but each time I've thought it among the most pleasant, beautiful cities in the world ---- someplace that my wife and I would be happy to move to in retirement. Hopefully your comment was made in regard to a specific event (i.e. dealing with an unsympathetic Qantas CS rep) and not to the overall SYD experience. If not, I hope that you do some day give SYD another visit (even if travelling there on a different airline) to revisit, and enjoy, one of the world's greatest treasures.