OneWorld Explorer 4 continent itinerary -- Advice?
 

Hello Forums,

Newbie poster here. I've spent much of this year reading your posts and planning a RTW trip, and now things are getting real and I'm close to booking the ticket. I would love any advice or suggestions from your experience!

Although actual start/end point is San Francisco, we have family in Buenos Aires and are making that home base for the trip, so we get to visit there twice this year. Would like to maximize AAdvantage miles earned, but not at the cost of any destinations.

We are two people flying economy and the price I see is $3703 fare + $1017 taxes each. Any ideas to reduce the taxes would be appreciated!

Here's the proposed itinerary/ *local travel:
Buenos Aires
EZE - SCL LA2429
Santiago
SCL - SYD LA807 (Operated by Qantas)
Sydney
SYD - AKL QF141 (Operated by JETCONNECT)
Auckland
AKL - MEL QF136 (Operated by JETCONNECT), MEL - DPS QF267 (Operated by Jetstar Airways)
Bali
DPS - HKG CX784
Hong Kong
HKG - KUL CX729
Kuala Lumpur
KUL - BKK RJ181
Bangkok *Phuket
BKK - LHR BA10
London
LHR - VIE BA700
Vienna *Budapest, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris
VIE - FCO HG8466
Rome *Venice
(Overland segment - budget carrier)
Athens
ATH - MAD IB3151
Madrid *Barcelona, Ibiza
MAD - LIM IB7759 (Operated by LAN)
Lima *Machu Pichu
LIM - EZE LA4641 (Operated by LAN Argentina)
Buenos Aires

We have 15 segments so could add one more in Asia or SWP, or leave it open in case we need it later for unexpected changes. We'll be hostelling, with a timeframe of about 6 months.

Help/ideas?

Thank you!!

The more airports/segments the more taxes creep up.
You have minimised UK APD by only doing a LHR-VIE stop... To reduce it totally you could do a transit through LHR and then go back by Eurostar but I suspect that would end up costing more.

Depending on when travelling (MH Malaysian is due to join oneworld shortly which would open up KUL-LHR on this ticket on MH A380). This is likely to happen in December and the oneworld fare rules will then enable MH booking.

KUL/SIN have a wealth of LCCs (Air Asia, Tiger, Jetstar) which makes it very cheap to jet around SEAsia.
If wanting to ad segments I would consider in Australia (eg Ayers Rock, Great Barrier Reef)

Thanks for your reply moa.

In SE Asia and Australia/SWP, if you could add, say, 3 destinations not currently on our list, what would they be?

We've never been to that part of the world before and really looking forward to it!

Welcome to FT ahsleyydiego

I presume you have some other way of getting yourselves from SFO to EZE at the start and back home again at the end

The SCL-SYD segment is notoriously difficult to get Economy seats on (in the 'L' booking class that the Oneworld Explorer ticket uses). So you will need to be flexible on that one.
Also, in addition to the Qantas SCL-SYD flight, LAN flies SCL-AKL-SYD. If you could snag seats on SCL-AKL then you could re-jig your South West Pacific visit (NZ first then OZ) and maybe gain an extra segment. Depending on the time of year, Queensland (in the Jun-Sep timeframe) or Western Australia (in the Nov-Mar timeframe) would be good additions

Have you considered breaking the trip in two? Up it to a 5-continent ticket and fly MAD-LAX-LIM; have a break at home before going back to Sth America. You have one year to complete the ticket - from the date of the first flight.

If you use the on-line tool to book, then it will be ticketed by LAN (the first carrier: EZE-SCL). I believe that will result in lower fuel surcharges than booking with other airlines (Qantas is one of the worst)

Earning on AA;:
on QF flights - only 50%
on CX flights 0%
I think 100% on your other main carriers (LA, BA, IB)
Don't know about HG

Happy Planning:D

PandaPerth, thanks!

Yes, we are using miles to fly SFO - EZE.

I've actually been trying desperately to get on SCL-AKL, but the first available date is about 3 weeks off from the date we want to go :(. Seems like SCL-SYD is more available when we're going in January. I'll update the thread if that does become available.

I assume you recommend Perth? ;)
Any other highly suggested destinations?

I'll try to avoid CX where possible then.

Thanks again for info!

If you want to start your journey in Buenos Aires, I suggest that maybe you buy a ticket to Brazil and start from Rio or Sao Paolo.

From Brazil you have ZERO YQ / fuel surcharge on all flights and don't pay the Argentina Ticket Tax which is 5% of the ticket price. Seriously, this could save nearly $1000. The price for Brazil / Arg is otherwise the same ($3699 for LONE4).

VERY interesting, Reality_Czech. Thanks for the info.

I'm going to check out the cost and hassle of getting a Brazil visa for one and traveling there from Buenos Aires for two and the difference in taxes and fees on the ticket. I'll post later with the conclusion!

Update -- it looks like flights from Buenos Aires to major airports in Brazil for two are $1000+, and I would have to pay $160 for a Brazilian visa. So although traveling from Brazil as opposed to Argentina brings the taxes down to about $550 per ticket, saving us about $950, it's not going to really save us to go there.

Good idea though -- for someone wanting to start from South America without a preference for which country, Brazil would be the way to go!

Just a thought for you...

Probably quite cheap to fly the domestic leg BUE-IGR (Iguassu Falls on the Argentinian side)
walk across to Brazil and fly out of IGU
LAN has a flight IGU-LIM

Yes, you're right, a bus from Buenos Aires to Iguazu would be quite cheap to save the RTW taxes -- unfortunately it looks like no OneWorld carriers fly out of Iguazu on the Brazilian side :(

The only other close option is Montevideo and taxes in Uruguay are the same as Argentina.

LAN peru flies IGU-LIM four times a week

But I believe that's IGU on the Argentina side, no? Only Iguazu (AR) is coming up on the planner tool for me.

From the lan.com website

IGU - CATARATAS - Iguazu Falls Brazil
IGR - Iguazu - Iguazu Argentina

as I said LAN Peru flies from IGU (i.e. the Brazilian side) to Lima four times a
week

The IGU-LIM segment should therefore appear in the online tool

Hmm.. in the online tool it's only showing IGR, on the Argentine side. Has there ever been an experience where an airport/flight was available but didn't show up in the tool? I will try calling them about it.

I was able to talk to an agent at the AA RTW desk this morning who confirmed that the LAN IGU-LIM flight exists and said he didn't know why IGU wasn't there in the online booking tool. He said that no seats on that flight were available for the OneWorld Explorer fare within two weeks of the date I planned to go.

I asked him to confirm/deny if there are EVER seats on that flight available to the OneWorld Explorer and he said he thought there were but I couldn't get a definitive answer.

Perhaps for me this is too much hassle as my start date is not that flexible.

Any other ideas?

Dear forums,

Tried booking using the online tool tonight and got an error at the very last step, error 9015. Seems that other people have been pretty stumped on this one so I hope things work out smoothly.

I'll call the AA RTW desk in the morning and hopefully get some help there.

Any advice welcomed!

Good luck with the AA RTW desk

Your original itinerary (in the first post of this thread) has no AA segments at all - and so AA might well decline to book it (as has been reported here a number of times)

(as I understand it, while any oneworld airline can make the booking, only the airline that has the first segment is obliged to make the booking)

Anyone oneworld airline can book any of the oneworld products. Some (like AA) don't like to do so if they don't have one of the long haul flights on the ticket under their own code.

The only way that the 'first segment' comes into it is due to a limitation of the online booking tool.

I got into this with CX last year when looking for a DAS13 quote. They said "go talk to QF", I replied quoting the fare rules. They replied with a quote.

Thanks for the community support!

I called AA RTW this morning 3 times looking for a helpful agent (also tried LAN once, that was a disaster). Once I got one, I spent about an hour on the phone with her getting the itinerary into the system. She never asked if we had AA segments, just was happy to help me. Score!

She emailed me the itinerary we laid out but said it takes them 24 hours to generate fare quotes. So I'm to call the AA RTW desk back tomorrow (hopefully their total number is not higher than what the tool gave me) and actually book the fare. I guess when working with an agent over the phone you actually have the booking on hold for several weeks before having to buy it.

She said that we can ask that they waive the $50 phone booking fee since the online tool gave me an error multiple times.

The agent did give me the choice to book and pay from the US or Argentina, and she said she thought the taxes and fees would be higher from Argentina. I'm hoping I'll hear both quotes tomorrow and I'll report back to you all.

Update to help people doing this in the future --

The AA RTW agents did have the itinerary priced the next morning when I called (overnight but less than 24 hours). The "US price" was significantly higher than what the online planner tool had given me, so I asked them to reprice it at the "Argentina price". This took another day. This time the price was what I saw in the planner. So the online tool is probably giving the price as if the ticket is bought in the country where the trip starts.

I'm now working to purchase the ticket in Argentina with a travel agent there.

Congrats Ashleyydiego

The main takeawy for me from your experience is that you managed to get AA to ticket an itinerary that has no AA segments

I tried to get them to ticket an itinerary that had single AA segment - but only a short-haul one (YUL-JFK). The agent insisted on an 'overwater segment'. So I changed one long-haul segment to AA and all went OK from there on.

Perhaps later I'll change it back to the way I really want it - I'll need to make another change too so I'll be up for the USD125 change anyway

Hey PandaPerth,

Yeah, getting AA to ticket it was a big deal since other airlines seemed pretty clueless about RTW fares. I just approached it with the attitude that I would be happy to call back as many times as needed until I reached someone in a good mood to help me get what I needed done, and that worked well.

Good luck making your change! :)

Thanks:D

If you have trouble finding an Argentinian travel agent, you could always get the ticket re-priced in Canadian dollars (the ex-Argentina price, converted to CAD) and pay through a Canadian travel agent - see the last few posts in this thread aone4-khartoum
This is how I've paid for our ex-KRT DONE4 tickets (and getting the great ex-KRT price;))

Cool, thanks for the tip!

Actually, my sister-in-law is a travel agent in Argentina so we'll have no problem getting the tickets going through her.

She speaks English and Spanish and will have booked this once before -- so if anyone in the future needs help from South America, search for Let's Go Viajes.

Remember, though, that you are not protected from a price increase while on hold. So if you leave it on hold for an extended period, you have exposure there. The RTW desk used to be very good at advising of upcoming price increases, -- they used to find out a couple of days in advance and let you know informally. (They always told me that they were not allowed to tell pax about upcoming increases, but they always seemed to try to help me out.) I haven't bought one since the faring desk moved out of Dublin, though, so I can't speak with authority on the current practice.