Cheapest starting points for XONEX
 

Hi All, long time since I have ventured onto flyertalk (my bad) - am trying to find out where I can find the cheapest starting points for an XONEX. I have tried the www.wandre.me/RTW but see that it no longer has fares displayed. Have spent the last hour trying to find information and used the search but cannot find anything recent. Can anyone point me in the right direction.

Thanks

W

ExpertFlyer.com provides the base fares although one time I was caught out because the AA fares hadn't caught up with a recent increase. Just enter candidate cities you're willing to travel to, remembering to specify the purchasing city to match the starting and ending airports. (Be sure starting and ending airports are the same - that triggers the RTW price lookup.)

Note that 'best starting point' depends on the class of travel you select and usually to a lesser extent the number of continents.

Here are a few:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20967855-post10.html

It seems to me that the fact of the matter is that nobody knows any longer what "the cheapest starting points for an XONEX" are. Isn't that why oneworld removed the relevant data from its website in the first place? I am not a computer expert, but it seems to me that the data entry format on experflyer.com is too complicated for large scale data gathering, although it can be used to check specific starting points. Some of the old favorites, i.e. JNB, remain good candidates. Beyond that, I would be pleasantly surprised to hear about a reliable source of information.

ajnaro,

There is no single source anymore. ExpertFlyer is probably the best one.

In the last few years a number of the cheapest points including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa and Sudan have increased substantially, I suspect in part due to publication on this forum.

But it is all relative. The cheapest xONEx is a combination of
- the cost of the xONEx, your cost to get there, restrictions introduced by starting point (eg country of origin) based on your routing, the cost and difficulty in making the booking.

And most importantly the airline you choose to issue the ticket (usally the airline of the first flight) Some airlines like BA, QF & MH? will add on significant fuel surcharges

No. The most likely reason the data was pulled off the oneworld site is a legal one. The fares shown on the site were base fares without taxes etc. Displaying prices in such a manner is illegal in many parts of the world. (eg, If a shop in Australia tried the "marked price + tax" as is done in the US, it would be viewed as misleading advertising and the ACCC would get involved). Oneworld would have been legally required in many places to display the full price charged. As that can't be done without knowing the routing and class, the raw base prices were taken down.

expert flyer pulls the data from a GDS. A xONEx look up tool would just need access to a GDS to pull the prices. formatting is simple.

Japan and Korea are some of the cheapest in Asia.
India and Sri Lanka are quite cheap with the base fares, but the taxes added for departing from there (especially in D or A) makes it not worth it.
New Zealand is quite cheap for LONEx's.

Thanks all for your input.

I can't get ExpertFlyer to pull up any DONE3 fares. There are DONE6s, DONEWC3s etc. but not DONE3s.

I never understood that argument.

As an Australian, I can access a foreign website and get a price on a good or service that is pre-tax. The US is obviously the perfect example, where taxes are added last. I can never work out why the oneworld website was so different. Furthermore, if for some reason it did have to display an all inclusive price, surely the site could have quoted a basic itinerary, noted such and stated 'From AUDx'.

I can. Where are you trying from? DONE3's cannot be issued in all regions as the minimum is DONE4.

Ahhh, yes. I'd forgotten about the minimums. However, I still can't get it to show a DONE3 from a number of northern hemisphere cities, I still can't get it to list. For example, here's what I see (alphabetically) for DXB: http://imgur.com/wnsnulp

I'm sure it's something simple. I've only had the premium EF service for a couple of days and I'm still finding my way.

What departure points are you trying to search for? xONE3's are not available from the southern hemisphere.



Mail ordering something from overseas doesn't include tax unless the total value is over the customs import limit, at which time customs will charge tax before releasing the item.
The oneworld booking tool was able to sell tickets out of Australia. As such, taxes are required to be shown in the price.
The tool does show the total price - once a route and class has been chosen.

DONE3 will show
but the way you've framed your query results in many many results (all airlines, all fares - including Star Alliance and SkyTeam)

Reduce the number of results by specifying just one Oneworld Airline in the Airline(s) field and enter D in the class code field

Edited to add: just tried the search with no parameters - lots of fares returned, and you're right DONE3s do not show - neither do DONE4s and DONE5s; perhaps there's a restriction on the number of fares returned? (I'm a newb to expertflyer too

Search DXB-DXB with AA as the airline. DONE3 shows as 7454 USD.

Yep, narrowing the parameters worked.