civicmon

I'm a 6'3" XXL guy with Irish heritage which means a fairly large build but fairly light skin that weeks in the tanning bed barely touched. I think it'll be hard for me to fit in there by any natural means

civicmon

I speak enough to get by when I need to but it's by no means any sort of business/native level fluency. I can understand most of what I read and a lot less of what I hear on TV.

Plus, as I described in my reply to his post, there's no way I'd fit in based on the description provided by flyerman770

I'm sorta interested now after blowing my bed time chatting about this... been looking to go to Asia again this summer

Guava

I know what you are saying. But I think you are missing an important detail here. You still need to physically start your trip from CCS every time. Sure, you can try not to leave the airport meaning you could time your arrival flight very close to your departure from Venezuela, I suppose that's possible and is probably very safe - that is provided police won't come and arresst you at the airport on somekind of unknown charges you have never heard of. Call me risk adverse, but I like to plan for all possible contingencies first.

Guava

Oh, I trust you on that. If anyone can make this work, it has to be you. I have been giving this idea a hard time, it doesn't mean I don't support this thing. I haven't made up my mind yet, just trying to collect info and asking some hard questions at the same time. If we just stop talking about it because it's difficult or complicate, then a lot of things would never had happened. So I am in favor of talking about this but at this time, I have my doubts.

flyerman770

NO! You don't have to start the trip from CCS! It can start anywhere All my trips originated in the USA! I flew from JFK, MIA, DTW, ATL, IAH to CCS! One of my family members flew from SYD to CCS and then continued onto the US!

EDIT: I didn't try trips which have no CCS stop whatsoever, I think they work, and that was what my post was about, but I know for a fact that if it has a CCS stop it is obviously going to work. And if you are worried about them worrying just walk out, go thru immigration (you can get a tourist visa on the spot) and fly sometime later.

civicmon

The part you bolded, apparently, is up for debate but I don't have an answer that it's 100% necessary or not. Flyerman770 says NO they do not need to be but then a pax on the airline runs the risk of them thinking something fishy is up. YMMV..... I never have done it.

RTWs are an answer as most can be booked with just a couple day's notice, sometimes w/o major fees for urgent bookings. That being said, if the USD rate for tickets to MIA/ATL/NYC is $300, what's the black market rate? $150? It's not that expensive when looking at it in that way. So, can book a quick return into the US and do a "stopover" at home for weeks or months and off to your final destination.

civicmon

Sounds good.. I'm not too familiar with the business so I'll take your word for it as most everything else you've done here on FT is pretty legit.

I'm still a touched confused as the benefit comes in making the purchase at the black market rate for VEB. If you put USD into an escrow, fine.. you'd pay the same rate (or thereabouts, of course) as you would stateside.

How do you overcome that exchange problem? Travelman770 recommends locals who can pay for the tickets themselves and you/I as a buyer reimburse the purchaser at the VEB rate (plus $$ for their help).

You probably stated it and I missed it... if so, that's fair, just cut/paste the answer

UCBeau

If you find a hot venezuelan gf, see if she's got a hot sister...there's a finders fee in it for you

Guava

I guess the reason why I said from CCS is because many people have RTW in mind, from CCS, since I would bet not many people want to end their trips in CCS unless absolutely necessary...

One way or the other, it seems necessary to have CCS on your ticket. Now, there may be one solution to this if as you said, the flight to CCS can be the last segment by applying throw-away ticketing. That means the indvidual will be forfeting their last one or two segments on a ticket, say a RTW, without having to go to Venezuela... That might work, for a RTW, since the forfeiture is probably small enough to be worth it.

I got my RTW # now, I will post what I find in a moment.

Guava

O.K., here is what I have found. Note, I put this together very quickly and is possible there might be inaccuracies or errors so feel free to shout it out if you notice something that looks wrong to you.

Star Alliance RTW in First Class

Total Distance allowed: 39,000 miles

Published Price (ex-USA): $15,400

Source: http://qsi.cc/users/wbt/RTW%20Fares.xls

Observation: Per the existing sales restrictions governing Star Allaince RTW from BlondeBomer , all countries which do not have a published RTW price in the local currency shall use the price ex-USA as its price. In this case, there is no ex-Venezuela fare therefore, by default the price would be that of an ex-USA RTW, which can probably be purchased locally in CCS if the trip starts and ends in CCS. Note, from the U.S. mainland, there is only one *A flight to CCS and that is via YYZ-POS on Air Canada. Neither United or US Airways flies to CCS, which means an outbound from CCS would most definitely have to be on LH now that Varig is no longer a *A member.

Using the info provided by the OP, the above ex-USA fare, if issued in Venezuela, would probably be adjusted as follows:

1) Travel agency takes the price: $15,400 USD and convert it into BF at an official rate of 2.15 = 33,110 BF = the amount you owe the travel agency

2) 33,110 BF is your liability and can be met cheaper than $15,400 USD if you can get a better buck for your $ on the alledged "black market" referenced by the OP. The OP made reference to this black market rate at about 4.8 BF / $. Howevr, it is clear this is a floating rate and can move higher and lower. Let's assume it is equal to 5 BF / $ for the sake of simplicity. 33,110 / 5 = $6,622

3) In principle, you should be able to pay off the travel agency by spending only $6,622 USD by buying BF from the said "black market". If so, you just got yourself a RTW F ticket at a 57% discount.


Is this a good value? You are the judge.

Personally, even with this discount, I will not pursue this opportunity.

rcs85551

The mileage run moderators have come to the conclusion that this thread will remain permanently closed.

Reasons:
- Some content in this thread was a violation of Flyertalk TOS and has been removed by the moderators
- Changing money on the black market in Venezuela might be illegal or at least pose a significant personal risk, especially with higher amounts of money being involved (apart from the usual limitations on carrying money on international travel and the respective requirements to declare such funds); Flyertalk is not the right place to promote such activities
- It might be a very bad idea to be visibly stealing money from a foreign government (which is essentially what the scheme outlined is advocating) while in that government's jurisdiction, especially when that government is not known for nice prison conditions or friendly relations with your own government. In addition, one might find such actions to be unethical.

Kind Regards


rcs85551
Moderator, Mileage Run forum