moa999

New T&Cs loaded to oneworld site.
http://www.oneworld.com/content/libr...20explorer.doc

1. It is a word doc rather than a PDF
2. It has all the prices at the back - I am presuming everything in Blue has changed (ie over 50% of locations).
Quickly scanning, Australia one of the most expensive points for DONE4 as it was is up circa $200. South Africa appears untouched

New restriction on stopovers introduced
Cat 8 – Minimum 2 stopovers introduced.
Presumably to stop ticket being used instead of point to point?

Discuss

DownUnderFlyer

I just can't believe that they keep on raising prices. Clearly something must be happening in all alliances that airlines want to get rid of the RTW products. Australia was already the most expensive place and went up again. Minimum 2 stopovers is strange, because at this fare level point to point tickets are much cheaper.

Has anyone ever ticketed a xONEx ex New Caledonia? Can AA do this?

IC6A

No more RTW for me.

Think about the YQ charge you are going to face if yuou happen to be booked with BA IB AY or QF...No...no...no...

aaupgrade

This was not unexpected considering *A increased their prices last month to $15,392 and $17,873 for FRTWSTAR1 and 2 respectively. OW still comes out a little ahead price wise, but only for AONE3 and 4, not by much and at a much higher price.

But I agree with others, this will definitely result in further consideration before purchasing. Depending on the impetus for a RTW pruchase, r/t purchases (in J) may be more fiscally responsible. Maybe it means purchased and upgraded J r/t TATL or CirPac F ex-HKG now that RTW F are so high. Kind of bums me out not getting those miles between Asia/SWP and LHR though.

It looks like CirPac prices didn't change, or if they did not by much. Both UA and AA have fairly decent F CirPac prices ex-HKG (when compared to US and other origins).

aaupgrade

duplicate

aaupgrade

If that is true then all of the inexpensive points of origin remain: South Africa and Middle East countries (all are in black). Maybe not a total loss here.

AONE4 ex-South Africa $9929 USD
AONE3 ex-Sudan $7980 USD

Keith009

Am not surprised since the yields are apparently rather low cf discount point-to-point D fares the airlines themselves sell. But yes they are realy pricing RTW fares (and Circle Pacific) above what I'd consider good value, and I have been searching for 'alternative' mini RTWs ex-Aust. I suspect the actual cost inclusive of extra transfers would not be dissimilar to repositioning for a DONE or AONE.

henkybaby

Brrr... Not the happiest place to start one and not the cheapest one to get to...

All in all the decline of the Euro has more impact (on us EU residents) than the new pricing. It is not surprising that the Euro countries have become more expensive. SA may not have changed in ZAR but in Euro it is now 10% more expensive.

MileHigh

After doing the planning for a DONE4 for my son and I over the last couple of months I finally called the AA RTW desk today to reserve the flights (MIA-LHR-DXB-LHR-CPT-JNB-SYD-MEL-LAX-MIA). The agent was apologetic when she informed me that the new fare as of 01 May would be US$10,499 each or about US$2,800 more had I booked prior to 01 May.

All-in-all, I think even the new RTW fares are still a good deal. I'm paying US$8,600 for Business class for MIA-SCL-EZE-GRU-MIA leaving this weekend.

Pickles

I think that they are still a good deal. I just booked a HKG-SFO-SEA-ORD-BOS-JFK-BOS-JFK-LHR-HKG DONE3 for 72K HKD all in. The HKG-BOS-JFK-HKG alone is 84K HKD, so still come out ahead, and have the flexibility to change dates for an entire year without additional expense.

anabolism

Hi QF009, can you explain what you are saying? I'm not sure what you're comparing the costs of. You said: "I suspect the actual cost[1] inclusive of extra transfers would not be dissimilar to repositioning[2] for a DONE or AONE"

[1] Actual cost of what?
[2] What is repositioning?

Thanks for making this more clear.

anabolism

Word instead of PDF is annoying and seems a big step backwards.

Lucky for us that South Africa is unchanged, as we're in the process of booking a DONE5 ex-JNB for 2011, but wanted to get matching award seats booked before booking the RTW.

Unpleasant that ex-U.S. prices are up even more. I thought they were too expensive before.

Gardyloo

I suspect what was meant was that in order to replicate the route you'd create using a RTW or Circle product you'd have to add in some additional costs to transfer between segment end points (maybe, e.g. NRT-HND as a mild case, or LHR-XXX in Europe as a more extreme one.) And "repositioning" I'd take to mean that which many of us do - fly to some "cheap" origination country on our own dime or miles in order to capture the lower RTW/Circle fare applicable from that country. Of course you need to add up those costs (including a nominal equivalent for miles) when doing the math on the benefit/cost of starting in any one spot; e.g. South Africa may be one of the cheaper origination points, but if you have to spend thousands of dollars, or burn off thousands of miles in order to get there (and back) then you need to factor in those costs.

QF009 can correct me if that's in error.

Keith009

What he said.

The repositioning costs to start a xONEx from a cheap origin such as South Africa would involve spending a fair bit on air tickets or burning miles to actually get to said cheap origin. Being risk averse, I avoid same-day transfers across seperate tickets, all the more so on such an itinerary, so I'd have to pay for accomodation in SA before actually commencing the RTW. And unless you're going to be stocking up on back to back RTWs out of SA, you'd need to get yourself back home at the end of the RTW. So all up, the total cost of utilising a seemingly 'cheaper origin' RTW is rather comparable to constructing a RTW trip from home using one of those restrictive mini-RTW fares offered through individual airlines usually in conjunction with 2-3 other partners (I have no idea what's available out of the US, but there are a variety of fairly good values mini-RTWs ex-Oz costing around the $6-7k mark) + any short regional flights you'd have to add on to replicate the full RTW. You also save all the hassle of re-positioning with the latter option.

Sorry for the delayed reply...

c1mth0g

I think JFK-LHR-HKG-JFK is still slightly cheaper on DONE3. Although I suppose DONE3 comes with more restrictions.