chrism

My husband and I are going to go for the 100,000 mile challenge. I checked with AA and got a price of $6,400 for first class, three continents. I called CP and asked for a quote on the same itinerary. I had all the info except for the flight from Toronto to LHR. The girl seemed to be dumbfounded at the thought of anyone attempting something like this and put me on hold while she checked with her supervisor. After about five minutes she came back and said I would have to have dates for all segments and then she would send it to the rate desk for a price. I said since it was a first class ticket she really didn't need to know specific dates. After a go-round she insisted she could not do it without the dates. I hung up, figuring I would call back later and speak to someone more knowledgable.

It took me a day to call back. Life sometimes gets in the way. When I did I swear I got the same girl. Same little voice, same attitude. I went through the whole thing again. She put me on hold. She came back five minutes later and told me to call a travel agent!!! I said, you mean you can't do this at the airline? And she replied, "You're better off with an airline. They're used to this sort of thing."

I can't believe that no one has ever asked for a round the world ticket from CP before. I'm definitely not going there a third time but I'm just greedy enough to want to save some money. My question to all you CP F-T ffs is, do you know of a reliable travel agency anywhere in Canada? One that would handle something like this? I'm sure someone somewhere in Canada must have asked for this. Help me, help me, please.

Thanks in advance. I know someday I'll really laugh at this. As a matter of fact, I already have.

Chris

Ty

Hi Chrism:

I just called Canadian and at first had no luck getting info on the Oneworld explorer fares... But when I gave them the fare code for the 3 zone business class fare (DONEW3) and asked if they could give a price they did come back and tell me that it would be $5561.00 (CAD), and then said that they would fax a brochure but warned that it would be outdated soon (next week with Iberia and Finair I guess!). If you want to try calling again you might try asking for a price for the following farecode AONEW3 - the first class 3 zone. If they still don't help ask them to put you on hold and call their "Oneworld Desk" for help...

I booked the 3 zone in business class earlier this month from Korea through Cathay Pacific and despite the language difficulty I was able to get alot of info from them. They faxed me a 1 page info sheet (with all local prices and basic rules etc.) After I booked my ticket convince the agent to print me off a full copy of the fare rules in effect at the time I booked my ticket.

FYI from Korea the 3 zone in Economy costs 1,715,200 KRW, Business costs 2,786,500 KRW, and First costs 3,718,800 KRW -- ($1.00US = around 1,200 KRW) -- so the First class 3 zone would costs around $3100USD!

I had no problem booking my ticket with open dates but you do have to tell them all the segments that you want and on what airlines.
You can change the routing of your ticket but they will charge you $75USD per transaction.

If you do book an open ticket they will charge you and extra $600.00 (USD) for first, $450.00 for business and $250.00 for economy
Cathay told me that they would refund the surcharge if i brought in all my boarding passes after I finish the trip to prove that I didn't travel between 10 Dec 1999 - 10 Jan 2000.

If I end up getting the fax from Canadian I'll post an update.

Hope this helps...
-Tyler

jamiel

That is the common manner for RTW tickets to be done: give the normal int'l reservationist your date of outbound travel and the cities you want to hit, and you'll get back then a price via a callback from the rates desk. The reason that she may have been confused is that RTW tickets are cheaper on only 2 airlines than on the Global Explorer/Star/etc multi-airline situations. They will try to get you the cheaper rate if your cities fit. For instance, YYZ-LHR-BKK-HKG-YVR-YYZ could be booked as a global explorer, but CP actually has a cheaper combination with Lauda Air that would hit the cities cheaper (obviously, though, not getting your goal of the different 1W airlines).

If you are going to do this, you would be well advised to look for Consumer Reports Travel Letter from about 1 year ago when they exhaustively dealt with RTW tickets.

Also there have been various threads periodically through the recent months (on several different areas) discussing this.

Bon voyage.

jl

Beckles

I think your best bet may be to look for a travel agency that specializes in Round the World tickets ... there's one who sometimes posts FAQ's on the rec.travel.air USENET forum about Round the World tickets I can think of (do a search at http://www.deja.com for Round the World airline tickets and see what comes up).

Obviously these travel agencies that specialize in such fares are probably more knowledgeable than most of the airlines ...

3544quebec

These are the prices for the Oneworld Explorer fare Ex Canada.
Although the first segment must originate in Canada you should be able to buy it from the airline or an agent in the USA at the CAD price as the rule regarding having to pay the fare applicable from the country of purchase if it is higher than the country you commence travel in does not apply for payments made in USA and Canada.

3CON 4CON 5CON 6CON


BUS $C5569 $C6549 $C7699 $C9049


1st $C7499 $C8799 $C10349 $C12149

Celestar340

Your best bet is to go through a travel agent. They have options and the requried knowledge in dealing with this sort of thing. They should not be charging you a fee because you are actually buying a ticket through them, and they can help you with seat request, meals, places to visit, etc. Car rental hire, hotels to name a few.

Any travel agency can help you with this. if they can't, just go to another one.

There are many oneworld fares about. Based on the number of cities and where they are located. That is why they needed you to tellthem where they are going to.

Forget about the CP/Lauda Air option, you wanted the 100K challenge, and you'd need all 5 airlines to be included in the routing to qualify for that.

Bear in mind because of this millenium travel thing, it's because of a surcharge that airlines want you to put your dates on the ticket. If you do NOT put dates in, you will be slapped with a surcharge. If you put dates in that is not during the millenium period, you will not be charged a surcharge but bear in mind that you can only have one change (no matter how many sectors-as long as you do it all at once) without a charge.

Depends on where you routing starts from - you can call Cathay Pacific, American Airlines, British Airways< Qantas other than Canadian. Normal reservations agent are not too familiar with RTW fares (because there are soooo many) so that is why they would rather pass you on to their rate desk.

Be patient, you are embarking on a trip of a lifetime. But remember one thing, you are not allowed to use a fare from Korea and start your journey from the US. Fares are lower in certain countries based on what the local economy can afford! But you can take advantage of the lower Canadian fare by starting your journey from Canada and ending (with still a sidertip back to the Canadian starting point) in the US. You must make your own way to that Canadian starting point first though.



[This message has been edited by Celestar340 (edited 08-26-1999).]

chrism

Hi Celestar -- I did have the destinations and the starting and ending dates when I called CP. I had already checked an itinerary with AA and gotten a price. The reason I was asking about travel agents is because I live in what could be considered a rural area about 1 1/2 to 2 hours out of NYC. People here think a trip to Westchester Co. calls for an overnite. I may try a woman I know who does travel up here and see what she turns up.

Thanks to all for your help. I'm really getting into this whole thing. I know most of you have been traveling like this for years but to me it's all brand new. I really appreciate the patience you have all shown. To make myself a slight bit less of an newbie traveler, I have been to Venezuela 5 times and to Scotland and Ireland several times, also have hit most of the Caribbean islands. We go coast to coast a few times a year and to Vegas two or three times as well. I have just never tried around the world in 30 days before.

Thanks again.

Chris