Hello folks, apologies for the
very long post. Parts might be useful for a newbie (I first/last looked at RTWs some 10+ years back, never booked). I'm certain that a well sliced & diced version posted between the two threads would make more sense…
Just putting down my experience in planning/booking a
DONE3 exJP with CX after some of the other carriers had hiked their fares.
Background: we (2A2C) are based ~NYC (with annual-ish travel needs to India/SIN/SFO/DFW) and were going to be in Asia during the summer (‘24). No ticket back, and probably wanted to 1) be back in Asia over XMas (‘24), 2) have a couple of short breaks around the Caribbean in Q1/2 ‘25, 3) have a longer Europe break late summer 2025, 4) Get the Kids on the QSuite (long story - kiddos, while spoilt viz flights & needing a healthy dose of reality, do have a lot of interest in planes/airlines- by design), 5) be back in Asia end 2025.
Objective: get a sensible (for us) cost rather than ‘maximising’. With generally decentish exJP fares, we planned to get to Japan end Summer '24 (hello cheaper-than-SQ redemptions via AC on SQ), get a r/t to the US to be back in Japan in December ‘24 (CTS) and start our DONE3. Just managed to get the first 2 parts booked in time
Started going through this and the Explorer guide threads - many thanks to the regulars! (Sane, warm & helpful threads are getting rarer- atleast in the forums I frequent). Given my comfort in dealing with CX and the possible optionality of using my ‘bookable upgrades’ (a CX instrument), I wanted to ticket with CX.
dvs7310 was very helpful (starting with explaining how the tool worked viz CX ticketing- that it doesn’t ticket straightway, very useful info). Got as far as a short-of-ideal booking done online by late July- but then, a laziness, fx moves, stingy CX availability with Point Of Origin Japan (more, below) & a busier than expected period kept delaying things. Fallback had always been to sleep with the enemy and book yet another India-NYC SQ fare. Then, the price updates woke me right up.
Ended up with: CTS-HKG-ORD//JFK-CUN-JFK-PUJ-JFK-SFO-DFW-DOH-MAD-CDG-HKG-BOM-HKG-HND
Pretty much at our needed dates till getting to MAD- rest to be changed when we know better. CTS-HKG and JFK-CUN are in coach. NGO/FUK-HKG were available in D (with a close to costless CTS-NGO/FUK Jl redemption) but with 2 kids in tow, boss lady overruled plans to pick up a few more status points- will try using miles or something at the airport- & will see about CUN in case AA opens up some.
Online tool experience- The max 34K max miles error was always because of something else for me- either a flight selection adding a surface segment, or, lack of availability (on the first page, that would show up differently at times)
- I will pay decent money to be able to be able to search with PoO. CX showed lots of availability with a Japan PoS on expertflyer for our ideal dates, but none in reality (I would search using ITA matrix with a JP-HKG-ORD/BOS/JFK-JP to determine actual availability..JFK never came available, BOS once, but I was inflight and it was gone by the time I landed, and then ORD became available for one of our preferred dates literally sometime October 03.
- Both CX and AA seemed to have aggressive PoO restrictions- CX more than AA (an early iteration had JFK-CDG on AA and both that, and DFW-MAD had availability issues on a few dates when expertflyer showed D available)
- Many a time, the first page (where one enters the cities) would give an invalid itinerary error even if things were kosher. Clicking to add a segment (I could, since I only had 15 flights, after HND, no need to input any destination), deleting it and immediately clicking (the now not grayed/out) ‘Choose flights’ button would take the tool to the next page
- Unless you enjoy playing with fares/availability/quirks (I do), paying a reasonable fee to a TA would be totally worth it
Other: CX seems to have an all-or nothing approach to PoO restrictions. With expertflyer D9 dates, if with PoO Japan had 1 seat available, it had 4- else, nothing (this while checking with SFO/LAX as well). Almost never any availability with ef <D9.
Fare/Surcharges/Taxes- Paid JPY 816.8K total: 656.3K (Adult/CX fare) / 63K YR + 4.7K YR (yes, both listed as YR)/ 92.8K taxes
- The online version (HKG-JFK instead of HKG/ORD, and, DFW-(AA)-xBCN-MAD) had JPY958.04 total: 787.6K/ 63K ‘Multiple Carrier Surcharges &Fees’, not marked as YQ or YR (so, lower) / 107.44Ktaxes
Splitting hairs but FWIW, I think the online tool gets the taxes wrong. Its tricky to minutely compare between the the ticketed version & the online version - happy to share the breakdowns in case anyone is interested- (JPY ~2%weaker between online booking & ticketing, so the non-JP taxes should generally be higher, in JPY), but was the opposite). Online had a child HK departure tax of 3090 vs an adult’s of 2250 (CX doesn’t have, for the Child, which is correct and the correct ~HKD120 for the adults). Total taxes online were 103.88k, vs 89.22k per child (post fx inflation, on the eticket).
Stuff to be done later, subject to availability etc:
- switch HKG-ORD to HKG-JFK, free up a sector, and ideally on a flight where I can use my upgrades (long long shot), maybe switch DFW-DOH to an AA code (but really? doubt any YR savings worth a call)
- Possibly switch CDG to LHR (we’ll see how travel plans shape up, remote possibility of using my upgrades on LHR-HKG), and possibly switch BOM to DEL+ potentially DEL-HND to free up a sector
Am I correct in thinking that if I don’t touch the first sector, the changes can be done without a fare change, pre first departure as well?
PS: BA,CX,MH,QR fares are still good.