Originally Posted by
TopGunner
I am considering finally splurging on DONEX ex-JNB to bridge an existing gap between two tickets and cover my travel next year. My first segments is JNB-MAD, but after that I really don't have a set itinerary. I was wondering could I do dummy segments to fill out my itinerary, then later on do more than just date changes but also re-route per my plans and only incur the up to $125 change fee with no repricing etc?
Example (after JNB-MAD, assuming OW flights actu)
Go from MAD-DXB/DOH-LHR-LAX to MAD-HEL-LHR-SFO
Go from LAX-DFW-JFK-YVR-ORD-DCA-JFK-HKG to DFW-YVR-JFK-SJU-DFW-HKG
and so on.
I am thinking of initially putting in some basic segments to route Africa-Europe/ME-North America-Asia-Africa. Then later making changes as I plan to visit each continent, meaning 3 major routing changes. Is this a viable plan or am I expecting too much flexibility and should rather choose my destination points now and stick to the date/time changes only?
Thanks in advance.
No idea of statistics, but I suspect the majority of xONEx tickets are changed at least once during their lifespan, maybe more. I certainly know I do.
A note on "repricing." If you keep the same number of continents, all that happens when you make changes is the taxes and fees are re-computed, e.g. if a transit turns into a stopover (airport/departure taxes) or if you add flights with fuel surcharges that replace those that don't have them. FWIW I've never had a re-issue where there wasn't an additional taxes and fees hit, on top of the $125. Some airlines (BA, Qantas) also charge service fees for changes, usually in the US$50 - $150 range.
Iberia no longer flies JNB-MAD. Your options for South Africa > Europe are BA via LHR or QR via Doha.
Just a thought, but looking at your initial plans (yes, I know they're likely to change) I wonder if you need to go to South Africa for the start. Granted, I love South Africa, and if it's on your bucket list, by all means go for it, but if you don't especially need to go there, the current strength of the dollar makes both Egypt and Japan fairly attractive for start points. Instead of a 4-continent ticket ex-South Africa (and one that would in all likelihood include a ton of BA fuel surcharges added to the price) you might want to look at Japan, where a DONE3 is just over $6000, vs. $5900 for a DONE3 from CAI or a DONE4 for $5300 from JNB or CPT. That $700 difference could very easily get eaten in fuel surcharges, not to mention the additional cost - in miles or money - to get to and from SA before and after.
Using AA to issue the ticket (either through their GSAs in CAI or CPT, or directly in Japan) would tend to lower the total cost since AA doesn't always pass through other airlines' fuel fines. The "extras" can easily amount to 15% - 20% or more of the base price.
Use the online booking tool to experiment with total costs (including fees and taxes) from various start points (JNB/CPT, CAI, NRT, AMM) to get a sense of the additional expenses that would apply to given itineraries, then compute your "positioning" costs. You might be surprised at the results.