Hi,

I'm looking at doing another RTW trip, and using the new booking tool it's coming out significantly cheaper going West than going East.

For going west, I have BOG-LIM-SCL-AKL-HKG-BKK-HKG-FCO-MAD-BOG, which the OW tool estimates at US$8334.78 (for 2 tickets.)

For going east, I have BOG-MAD-FCO-HKG-BKK-HKG-AKL-SCL-LIM-BOG, which the OW tool estimates at 17.140.940COP (also for 2 tickets), which is US$9461.80 at today's visa exchange rate.

Does anyone know why there's such a big discrepency? I don't understand why it'd be an extra grand a ticket to go in the other direction? Do I have any hope of getting the east-bound trip at the west-bound trip's price? The only explanation I can think of is that going west, the first leg is on LAN, while going east it's on Iberia, but certainly it can't make that big of a difference?

Thanks for any ideas!

I expect the difference is due to the fact that your first flight determines which airline will ticket the whole itinerary, and some airlines add fuel surcharges while others don't.
Your westbound (cheaper) itin starts with an LA flight which, I think, will be ticketed by AA, and they do not add fuel surcharges.
Your eastbound (expensive) itin starts with an IB flight which, I think, will be ticketed by IB, and they do add fuel surcharges.

You can check the exact taxes, fees, and surcharges, by clicking on the + sign beside the final price, after you have been transferred to the ticketing site, and before you enter your credit card info.

Be aware that there is a bug in the system at the final stage after you enter your credit card info. You may get an error message (15012) especially when ticketing with AA. It is not easy to resolve that error as even the oneworld IT department doesn't know what causes it.

Good luck!

Ah, hadn't realized I could get a complete breakdown if I went a little further into the process. Indeed, looks like the difference is "Surcharge" and "Multiple Surcharges" on the eastbound route, to the tune of USD$530/ticket. Paying the fares in COP with Visa would actually wind up being cheaper if it wasn't for those (bummer!) Thanks for the pointers!

Of course, you can have the routing you want AND avoid the extra surcharges simply by ticketing these directly with AA.

To do this: call the RTW desk to set up the ticket the old-fashioned way, and then call AA's local Colombian reservation line (or use an airport ticket desk) to pay for & issue the tickets.

Wow, I wish I'd known that about 4 hours ago .. :-( I wound up booking West. Hope somebody else in a similar situation stumbles across this in a search, thanks!