Originally Posted by
rens
jgold
Thanks for the very comprehensive reply to the points raised. It is very useful to have actual experiences and situations to validate the options possible. Your effort in relating your experiences to date is very informative.
My only point of disagreement is with the ease of having a Canadian travel agent "take over" the booking. I have done exactly that (book in US through RTW desk and ticket by a Canadian travel agent) with absolutely no problem. Perhaps the agent may have technically canceled and rebooked, but all that was transparent to me. I received exactly what I had booked. Perhaps it was something unique to your situation that prompted the suggestion of difficulty.
Do I take it that your final decision is to purchase the ticket in Canada?, hence the visit to niagra Falls?
Could you update us as to how this works out, in terms of ease, time, etc. May be a good moneysaver.
Sounds like a wonderful trip. Really like the idea of seeing the world's great falls in one journey.
Regards
Rens
I'll let you know how it goes. The itinerary has been set, and I've cleared my waitlists for EZE-MIA on AA (which means I can qualify for Platinum early on in the trip via the challenge), and the ticket's been rated at 8,500 CDS, which is (sadly) about $8,500 USD. My originally planned routing for the DONE5, when it began in the U.S., was pricing at around $11,000, so it's a pretty big savings (although it was a slightly different itinerary).
Right now, I'm seeing if I can persuade my wife to go to Niagra Falls for a night in the next month...
One point I'll just note is that AA is very flexible with its reward tickets (which we're using to start off/finish the trip). AA permits free date/time (but not carrier) changes, and also permits an upgrade from coach to business without paying a monetary fee, notwithstanding that the carrier, routing and airports may change (e.g., starting in JFK rather than EWR). Unfortunately, for reasons I don't know, LAN doesn't seem to have any award availability from NYC or MIA to SCL in January 2009. I was hoping to set an alert with ExpertFlyer in case award availability opened up on that LAN route, but that doesn't seem to be an option (whereas I was able to set up an alert with AA). Does KVS permit award alerts for LAN? Thanks again to everyone.