Planning a DONE3
 

Hello all

I´m hoping to start my DONE3 in June from tlv. Couple of questions from the pros before I make the booking.

My routing would be:

tlv-xbud-mad-hel-xjfk-lax-aus-jfk-xdfw-hnl-nrt-del-bkk-hkg-sin-xlhr-tlv

If I use the online booking tool will it let me book the trip starting from tlv with the same price as if I would buy the ticket from Israel (6 200 usd + taxes)? I´m not living in Israel.

Would the ticketing airline be Malev in this case?

I know or at least hope this is a valid ticket as Mileage monkey and the oneworld booking system validates it?

As I´m planning to do three trips with the ticket:
June: tlv-xbud-mad-hel
September: hel-xjfk-lax-aus-jfk
May 2011: jfk-xdfw-hnl-nrt-del-bkk-hkg-sin-xlhr-tlv

As I can not book the right dates for the last part of the trip with the online tool I would need to use dummy dates for the last trip. Could I just inform the ticketing airline to change the dates or would I need to pay them to do so (I think not)? Would there be any problems with the date changes if I would do them in lets say December/January and my dates would be flexible?

Is there any difference on booking the hel-xjfk-lax compered to hel-lax (as there is no straight flight I would need to enter the route so to the online tool as it will not offer me hel-jfk-lax but a connection in Europe where I can not stop because of the 4 stop limit in Europe)? Meaning if I would miss my connection in jfk would I still be able to demand the flying airline to reroute me to a later flight etc. So is the DONE3 ticket looked as one ticket regardless of how you make the routing?

I would not be using the last segment from lhr to tlv as I would fly home from lhr. Would this get me in any kind of troubles?

Thanks for all the help in advance ^

Yes.

Apparently yes - see below for the the Q&A response from Oneworld


Seems fine.

Yes, date changes are fine (if there's availability) and are supposed to be free. However several airlines are now adding service charges for such changes; no idea about Malev. Theoretically any member airline could make the change - I'd contact AY before trying to find someone at MA who knows the product.

In practice I think more troubles with the tool have been reported when one lets the robot make your routing choices.

Theoretically yes but no reports have been lodged of any grief on that front.

I don't know what the fuel surcharges are on Malev but if they are too high for your liking, try booking through AA instead. Of course that won't work online then.

That´s the best part of the ticket (surcharges). All in all the surcharges for the ticket would be 340 usd including taxes etc. and I haven´t seen lower surcharges even with AA when using the online tool ^ If I book the ticket with ib (straight tlv-mad) the surcharges + taxes would be close to 900 usd :confused:

I would still like to clarify the connecting situations. So if I book a seqment, let´s say tlv-bud-mad and bud would only be a transfer point could I demand a rerouting from oneworld (one of the airlines) if the tlv-bud flight is delayed and I can not connect to the bud-mad flight?

About the date changes. If it´s possible to ask from any oneworld airline to change the dates is there a "best" airline to do this?

Thanks for the responces it´s been a big help.

Great taxes and fees. $900 is more common when ticketing with BA, QF etc.

You can not demand a re-routing. If TLV-BUD-MAD is on on ticket then they need to get you to MAD even if you miss your connection. This can be done by putting you on the next flight or possibly by re-routing. In any case, this is the airlines responsibility and you would not be charged for this.

The best way will be to do this with the issuing airline to avoid problems.

I agree.
In my experience, BA and CX charges some fee for simple date change to a ticket issued by other OW carriers.

And the fun you have negotiating with the BA transit ticketing desk at LHR T5 at 6am in the morning about OWE rules...

BA didn't charge me for a date change on a QF issued ticket in 2008, though they did change the flight to their own code. I got changed from QF32 07SEP08 to BA7372 08SEP08.

Following is related with OWE ticket handling.

I forgot one thing.
BA said, they wanted to charge handling fee for BA-issued e-ticket, when I tried to change date of a CX segment.
Because of BA's e-ticket system's limitation, they need to re-issue an e-ticket to change flights other than BA (CX in this case).
So they wanted me to pay e-ticket re-issue handling fee(25 GBP?).

CX charges handling fee for non CX-issued ticket. But, they don't charge date change handling for other airlines' segment when ticket is issued by CX.

At last, because of I needed a routing change, I paid rerouting fee(125USD) and non-CX issued ticket handling fee for CX.