Originally Posted by
ajnaro
It seems to me that the fact of the matter is that nobody knows any longer what "the cheapest starting points for an XONEX" are. Isn't that why oneworld removed the relevant data from its website in the first place?
No. The most likely reason the data was pulled off the oneworld site is a legal one. The fares shown on the site were base fares without taxes etc. Displaying prices in such a manner is illegal in many parts of the world. (eg, If a shop in Australia tried the "marked price + tax" as is done in the US, it would be viewed as misleading advertising and the ACCC would get involved). Oneworld would have been legally required in many places to display the full price charged. As that can't be done without knowing the routing and class, the raw base prices were taken down.
I am not a computer expert, but it seems to me that the data entry format on experflyer.com is too complicated for large scale data gathering, although it can be used to check specific starting points.
expert flyer pulls the data from a GDS. A xONEx look up tool would just need access to a GDS to pull the prices. formatting is simple.
Some of the old favorites, i.e. JNB, remain good candidates. Beyond that, I would be pleasantly surprised to hear about a reliable source of information.
Japan and Korea are some of the cheapest in Asia.
India and Sri Lanka are quite cheap with the base fares, but the taxes added for departing from there (especially in D or A) makes it not worth it.
New Zealand is quite cheap for LONEx's.