FlyerTalk Forums - LONE4 ex AKL

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Hi all

I am about to book a LONE4 fare and are looking at booking a separate fare from CBR-SYD-AKL (return) and the LONE4 from AKL.

The CBR - AKL return fare seems to be around $1250 - $1400 for two PAX.

Launching the RTW fare from AKL, it uses the QF booking engine and the price displays in NZD.

Given the strength of the AUD at the moment, I'd be saving around $1000 as opposed to starting the RTW fare from CBR and dropping the CBR-SYD-AKL fare...

Can fellow flyertalk members please confirm that if I book in NZD that QF won't then try to charge me for the higher priced (rip-off EX-Australian fare) for the LONE4??? I would be using an aussie credit card via the Oneworld site.

I would be booking the CBR-SYD-AKL fare first (via QF website) so I can't seen any reason QF could possibly use to justify charging me the higher price 'aussie' price just for starting a RTW in AKL.

Any help would be appreciated.

PS - our RTW is shaping as: (CBR-SYD-AKL separate fare) + AKL-SYD-HNL (for a wedding) - LAX - EWR - LGA - DFW - FLL - MIA - DFW - LHR - BCN - MAD - LHR - SIN - SYD - AKL (AKL-SYD-CBR separate fare).

I understand that flying on economy LONE4, on british airways we will only accrue 25% FF points vs 50% FF points with AA or 100% points with QF....I will try to fly only AA / QF where possible. I assume I will earn SC for all sectors despite the economy fare?

If you book online via the oneworld tool, you will pay the NZD price (which your bank will convert to AUD + any bank fees). If you book via a travel agent in Australia (inculding calling Qantas), you will be charged the higher AUD price.

I booked a DONE3 out of NRT last year. That was before the JL ticket handler changed to AA, so QF handled the ticket. I was billing in JPY even though QF knew I was based in CBR (in fact, QF Tokyo needed to get QF Sydney to call me because of bank issues).

You will get the status credits listed on the QF website as "discount economy". BA operated flights on the BA-QF JSA (Kangaroo route flights) will get 100% points.

You may save even more by booking through AA from NZ.

More here:
http://www.australianfrequentflyer.c...tml#post356598

What Himeno says is true and it is certainly worth considering starting from NZ

I have a few suggestions for you regarding minimising cost and maximising value of the LONE4, and a frequent flyer idea for you

Minimising cost:

Buy two 1-way tickets SYD-AKL to position to AKL; ‘forget’ to take the final SYD-AKL flight on the LONE4 ticket – thus no need for the return from NZ at the end (you’ll be having your NZ holiday at the beginning, right?;))

Book the first flight of the LONE4 with LA, which has a daily, very early morning flight AKL-SYD. LA does not charge ANY fuel surcharges, whereas Qantas charges lots

You are visiting LHR twice; I suggest you make the second visit a transit (less than 24hrs) and that way you’ll avoid the high UK departure tax (called APD and is GBP85 for an economy flight to SIN)

Maximising value:

You have a number of flights and two short surface segments in the US, using up 7 segments: …HNL-LAX-EWR,LGA-DFW-FLL,MIA-DFW…

This seems wasteful of segments to me. Unless you have a real need to visit DFW twice and to have the surface segments. I suggest …HNL-LAX-JFK-DFW-MIA…, saving three segments which can be used elsewhere.
Similarly with your MAD-BCN segment; drop BCN and use surface transport thus saving another segment
Possibilities for the freed up segments:

JFK-BGI-MIA and/or other Caribbean destinations
MAD-AMM-LHR or other European destinations
Break the LONE4 in SIN, fly el cheapo back to Aus, and sometime later fly el cheapo back up to SIN and have an Asian holiday such as SIN-BOM-BKK-NRT-SYD-AKL

Frequent flyer idea:

You won’t earn a heck of a lot of miles from a LONE4, so IMHO they should only be a secondary consideration, but…
If you fly the SYD-HNL on the AA codeshare, you could join American Airlines AAdvantage program and sign up for its Platinum Challenge (there is a thread on this in the AA forum)

It costs ~USD200 to sign up; the challenge is to earn 10,000 elite qualifying points on AA-coded flights in 3 months; a LONE4 accrues 1 EQP for each mile flown, so you would complete the challenge with the SYD-HNL-LAX-NYC flights
From then on you’ll have Platinum status, giving you 100% bonus miles and lounge access amongst other benefits
AA miles are generally better value than QF points, for example 37,500 are needed for a 1-way economy from anywhere in SWP to anywhere in Nth Am and NO fuel surcharges; QF wants 48,000 and $180 in fuel surcharges just for a SYD-LAX 1-way!!

Finally, a good tool to play around with itineraries is the Oneworld Explorer Validator in SLF's Mileage Monkey

Please recheck the FLL-MIA segment logic. Are you able to get this counted as a co-terminal or are you being assessed this segment as a ground segment? If this counts as 1 of your 6 NA segments, it serves no real purpose and could be better used elsewhere to accrue miles.
IIRC FLL-Mia are about 25 miles apart, so easy to fly to just one city from DFW and do whatever you want in the other and return to DFW from the city you arrived at. There is very frequent service DFW-Mia, so would suggest that routing.
Also, not sure why you are routing EWR- LGA-DFW-FLL-MIA-DFW-LHR. Again, you may be assessed a segment for EWR-LGA. Better to find a flite to/from only one NYC location.
Also, why two passes thropugh DFW? May be better to route NYC-MIA-DFW.
Finally, looks like you may have 7 NA segments, but this can be easlly reduced as mentioned above
Sounds like a fun trip. Enjoy!

Rens

Quote:

Originally Posted by rens (Post 16234354)

Please recheck the FLL-MIA segment logic. Are you able to get this counted as a co-terminal.....

No. No such thing as co-terminals on *ONE*

Quote:

Originally Posted by rens (Post 16234354)

Please recheck the FLL-MIA segment logic. ...... are you being assessed this segment as a ground segment?

Yes. FLL-MIA counts as segment

Land/Surface segments (or open Jaw) count towards your 16 segment overall limit, but do not count for your continental limit.

So -HNL-LAX-EWR,LGA-DFW-FLL,MIA-DFW- is quite valid as it only has five NA segments.

Note that this N/A part does use up seven of the sixteen allowable segments; so AKL-SYD-HNL-LAX-EWR,LGA-DFW-FLL,MIA-DFW-LHR-BCN-MAD-LHR-SIN-SYD-AKL uses all of those sixteen segments. (14 flight and 2 surface segments)

Note the distinction in the rules between 'segments ... including surface ...' and 'flight segments', even to the point of the word flight being bolded. (http://www.oneworld.com/content/libr...r.pdf#pageno=3)

Code:

(h)    A minimum of 3 and maximum of 16 segments, including surface

       segments between any 2 airports, are permitted for the entire

       journey. Free flight segments within each continent 

       are limited as follows:



       Africa                4

       Asia                  4

       Europe Middle East    4 ...

       North America         6

       South America         4

       South West Pacific    4

If you don't actually want to go to SIN and don't mind returning to Australia via the US from Europe, you might find it's substantially cheaper to buy this as an Australia / NZ - Europe return via the US. You can divide your itinerary into the following chunks and ticket them separately

- CBR-SYD-AKL (one-way)
- AKL-HNL-LAX-NYC-LAX-SYD (open-jaw Australia-US ticket)
- NYC-FLL (one-way, nonstop, cheap on eg JetBlue)
- MIA-LHR-NYC (open-jaw US-Europe ticket)
- point-to-point LHR-BCN and MAD-LHR (eg cheap one-ways on BA)
- a train trip BCN-MAD

You might be able to combine the Australia-US and US-Europe tickets into an Australia-Europe ticket via the US for further savings.

If you're only visiting the US and Europe and only traveling to major destinations like you are, the LONEx is almost never worth bothering with.

As there are no OW flights AKL-HNL, you would have to go AKL-LAX; QF metal, AA codeshare, and then LAX-HNL on AA. But only one flight to/from HNL allowed, so either pay sidetrip HNL back to LAX, an still count as one segment, or consider AKL-HKG-NRT-HNL-LAX.

With JL flights going down, HNL has become a more difficult destination for XOWE travel.

A realistic alternative is a CirclePacific ticket.