IAN-UK

I guess the deal is only attractive to those who wish to get to Paraguay, or to use Asuncion as a jumping off point for other destinations in South America. If they are in or near Egypt, or don't mind spending time and money to get there, then even with those additional positioning costs the fare can represent a bargain. There will be a few who are happy to make the trip simply to have the chance to sit in Qatar's Q-suites for two very long flights.

But as a generator of miles or status in OneWorld, or elsewhere, the deal is pretty hopeless.

heliot2009

Agree about making status here but you can stil get 20+ k avios in QR (with fast and easy transfer to BA or to BA->IB if needed) for the round-trip. So it's not like there are no miles at all.

Perisai

Last year it did post QPoints with Qatar for the QR operated legs; 55 indeed für each leg.
Not sure if anything has changed since, but worth checking.

dvs7310

Holy cow! Only 20k? I forget the CAI-ASU price but it wasn't really that cheap. I'm getting 160k AAdvantage miles from the DONE5 I booked during the availability period from CAI. It's not gone yet, but has become much harder to book. That's 8x the miles for less than 4x the price..............

Paraguay is a quite decent country but a bit boring. And ASU is s terrible jumping off point to other points in South America, no flights are cheap from there. But you can get to Brazil or Argentina for about $20 on a 'first class' bus, albeit in about 4-6hours.

135pilot

You said you are still able to see some discounted around the world fares right now out of cairo? Im looking to try to keep my finnair status for the year.

dvs7310

At least as of today AA and BA were still booking them, but the OW tool is now blocking all ex-CAI RTWs. You have to call for AA or BA, no online booking. Current base fares are 141,000 EGP for DONE4 and 145,000 EGP for DONE5, so you might as well do a 5. If you have a decent travel agent, then they can book on any currently available fare, but for AY status, I don't believe AA or BA ticketing is a penalty like it is for myself (AAdvantage crediting). Actual ticketed prices, if you can get it done before a re-price happens, seem to fall between $3800-4800 USD.

You can ticket literally anything right now just to get it in, but you need to fly the first segment if a re-price happens before making drastic changes. They're incredibly flexible tickets, just fly the first segment before doing much to it.

For the tiny price difference though I'd definitely do a DONE5 vs a 4 at the moment, but I couldn't get Oceana to work on mine, only South America and Africa as the 4th and 5th.

I don't know AY's program at all, so you'll need to route to optimize for that, where I routed to optimize for AA credit (basically I'm on nearly all QR and JL codes, I only have 2 short domestic flights that aren't on QR or JL codes on the entire ticket since BA and IB codes became garbage earlier this year)

LilZeppelin

AA ticketed me with a nonAA frequent flier number. There is no requirement to credit to AA if they ticket your RTW

dvs7310

That's not what I meant, but a good data point. Not too long ago, they were only booking ex-CAI's for high status members. (I think EXP and CK only).

For myself "if" I book with AA they require me to ticket with at least one overwater segment as AA. That's a huge disadvantage to AA members because it's then 5-11x revenue vs. distance.... on a RTW ticket you'll never even remotely come out ahead on a revenue base even at 11x for EXP. I think on my most recent RTW on a CX stock, for DFW-SAL-DFW I got about 1/5 of what I would have gotten if it were distance based. Maybe less actually, it's pretty pathetic. So in my RTW calculations, I just zero out any AA coded segments and treat it as a slight bonus.

135pilot

Thank you!

IAN-UK

It's boringness can be an attraction after the fireworks of mainstream South American cities And OK, visiting the Jesuit reductions might be boring for many, but Asuncion is something of a charmer (in parts), while bus, car or a short fight will get you to Ciudad del Este with access to the borders with Brasil and Argentina, the Iguacu Falls and the much less visited Monday Falls.

Connections within the continent are certainly awkward, but I think we paid less than £100 for flights to Jorge Newbery in B.As

oops! I'm almost talking myself into making the trip !

civilizer

Initially, I booked CAI-DOH-GRU-ASU for $889 RT but then realized I could do CAI-MVD for $921 on QR/LATAM when booked directly through LATAM. Montevideo seemed to be a much more interesting city and it’s only a ~2.5hr ferry or 55min $50 flight away from Buenos Aires. Planning to spend a day or two in MVD and the rest in BS. Now just trying to figure out the best way to reposition to CAI from NYC.

zahir2020

Is the fare expired? Can't see anymore

cruser1

The QR fare and Star Alliance around the world fare have been deleted / modified. The oneworld around the world ticket hasn't been changed. A few airlines from China and Ethiopian still haven't repriced or have barely repriced so you can still find bargains.

dvs7310

I did take the bus over to Ciudad del Este. There's also one that goes to Foz do Iguaçu directly but the timing wasn't as good. The bus is quite cheap, even for the premium one. I think the flight isn't daily and didn't work with my schedule. The falls were pretty impressive, I only had time to see them from the Brazil side but would recommend doing both if time allows.

Yeah, there's a lot more to do in Montevideo, I really enjoyed it there. Would be worth while to go to Punta del Este too. The ferry over to Buenos Aries is quite nice, I remember the first class ticket wasn't terribly expensive and I felt it was worth the upcharge.

izzik

Actually, most of the Oneworld xONEx fares have been modified to be much higher. The ex CAI rtw party is pretty much over.