anabolism

By "reviewed" you mean "raised?"

Nasenrudel

NDFan/andreiz
I think the "pricing problem" is caused by not ending your trip in KRT. If you end it in AMM you seem to get the AMM price. Although ending the itinerary in a different "middle east" country is technically legal it does change the price......
Try that and let us know if that makes a difference (yes, it is annoying to loose a segment but a saving of 7000USD is probably worth it:-)

joepubli

I don't think that not ending in KRTis the problem but yes ending in Amman seems to be problem and the price increases massively - if I go on to KRT its back to normal. I have an itinerary ending in dubai and that comes in at the normal price.

JohnAx

Great information! I've been worrying about those French maids I always travel with. (even further OT: I once got upgraded to a posh apartment at the Dubai Taj that included several simple servants' rooms. Alas, had left the French maids at home that time.)

TopGunner

Today I priced out this AONE4? itinerary using the online tool:

KRT-xAMM-xFRA-SYD-MEL-SIN-HND-HKG-JFK-YVR-DFW-LAX-SFO-LHR-AMM-KRT

Fare $3,868 + Taxes $1,972 (Fuel fine of $692, SDEM tax of 386, ADP of 212)

Is this pricing correctly?
Would I call into AA RTW desk and then try to get it Canadian issued to minimize costs?

Finally, any suggestions for improving? Would have loved to traverse NA more, but kept running into transcon limitation, and a trip to carribean/mexico would have been nice.

The timing of flights and limited flights to KRT really put a crimp on European options especially when you want to fly first class NA-EMEA.

3544quebec

FRA-SYD is not flown in 1st class and come May 2013 won't be flown at all.
Unless you have good reason to transit FRA you would be better doing AMM-xLHR-SYD for 24hrs in an A380 1st class suite rather than a 744 J class seat.

NDFan

There seems to be a quirk in the online tool such that if you start in KRT and end in certain places in Middle East, the base price more than doubles. This happens if you end in AMM or MCT - possibly others.
However, you can end in some other places with no effect on the price: AUH and DOH are OK; I think DXB also but not 100% sure.

Happy Travels.

NDFan

Yes I believe so. I just priced an AONE3 for US$3380 + US$1649.85


Yes; see my next post for more details.

Instead of YVR you could do JFK-SJU-DFW or JFK-SJO-DFW. About 200 to 550 less mileage; not sure if you are trying to maximise miles or not, but they will give you Caribbean or near-to-Caribbean experience.

Yes, the timing of that sole AMM-KRT-AMM flight really sucks.

Happy Travels.

NDFan

Firstly, thanks to all the others who have posted useful information in this thread. Having just successfully booked a couple of RTWs ex-KRT, I thought I would share my recent experience.

I created my itinerary using the online tool; note that if you try to end the itinerary somewhere other than KRT, it may give you a price more than double what you expect. This happens when you try to end in AMM and MCT, possibly others. Ending in AUH or DOH is fine and gives you the same price as ending in KRT. Also note that the open-jaw created by ending somewhere other than KRT, counts as a segment, so you end up with only 15 useable flights.

However, the online tool still fails (as it did last year - there's another thread on this) after inputting my credit card info. So I called the AA RTW office and read off my itinerary to them and told them that it would be ticketed in Canada and should be priced in Canadian Dollars. They then have to send it out for pricing, now done in Dallas since the tariff office in Dublin closed a few months ago; they say it usually takes one day, but it came back a few hours later. Surprisingly, their price, after converting to US$, was about US$200 less than what the online tool was quoting.

I then emailed the record locator and my credit card info to Naeem Thaver at Gala Travels in Ontario. A few hours later it was ticketed and he sent me a confirmation email, and of course you can view it on aa.com. Their fee is CAD75 + tax but it's well worth it for what you save. I booked a DONE4 starting in Khartoum in December this year, but I was so thrilled at the price (US$3512 incl all taxes and fees) that I decided to book an AONE3 to start at the end of the DONE4 in April 2013!

I did NOT try to do a less-than-6 hours turn at KRT in order to avoid getting a visa. Instead, I booked a flight from DXB on FlyDubai for US$122 one-way.
After all, if I'm going all the way to Khartoum, I might as well see a bit of the country. I contacted a travel agent in Khartoum who say they can arrange an "airport entry permit" which they will email to me to print out and show to the airline to allow me to land at KRT. At KRT there is apparently a special counter where you show the entry permit and you get a visa on arrival for a fee of US$150. And yes, the travel agent also charges US$150 to get the entry permit; not cheap for a visa, but better than the hassle of mailing your passport to a Sudanese embassy and waiting, and waiting, for a response.

I'll try to remember to report back at the end of the year, assuming it all works!

Another useful pointer when you have multiple flights on non-AA airlines, as you do with RTWs, is that if you ask AA (regular phone agents or RTW office) to email you the itinerary, it arrives in a different format from the regular ticketing email. This format includes the following additional info for each segment:
- the type of aircraft
- the flying time
- the terminal that the flight operates to/from
- the booking reference on partner carriers, if it is not the same as the AA Record Locator

This information is helpful so this is the document that I print and carry with me. However, note that it does NOT include the ticket number so you need to either make a note of it on this document, or carry the E-Ticket Confirmation email also.

Happy Travels.

TopGunner

Thanks, I was trying to avoid the BA and London fines in fuel and taxes. I am now considering maybe going to Asia first and then Down Under in their fall/winter.

Thanks NDFan, really really helpful. I don't want to cut out YVR completely. I guess I am struggling with leveraging connections to go East-West-East-West in North America, plus maybe dip south. I also realize that Central Am. and Carribean can be had for a song in Y on AA plus SWUs, so maybe not a good use of an AONE*.

Will have to look into avoiding a KRT return at the end, DOH or AUH would be great as I can leverage multiple alliances for home flight. Unless of course I am starting another AONE* .

3544quebec

If you fly RJ AMM-LHR and QF LHR-SYD with less than 24hrs in LHR then you avoid the BA fuel fines and the most onerous of the UK taxes anyway

JohnAx

If you have something useful to do with another segment, LAX-SFO-LAX separately is just $118 a/i at the moment.

moa999

NDFan,
Are you able to post details of your KRT travel agent

NDFan

Yes, it's Waleed at Lendi Travel in Khartoum:
[email protected]
He replied promptly to my email, with detailed information on how the airport entry permit process works.

Happy Travels.

ajnaro

When you have been there, could you post your experiences from the point of view of hotel and tourism? Thanks in advance.