Requesting tips to reduce cost of a LONE3 ex LHR
 

All,

I'd be very appreciative of any tips to reduce the cost of a LONE3 itinerary starting in LHR, as below. The 'via HKG' to get from RGN to BKK is at my girlfriend's request to keep to 'safer' airlines (read avoid Air Asia, etc.).

Thanks! Henry.

Cabin Class : ECONOMY
Adult Passengers: 2
Child Passengers: 0
Number of Continents: 3
Number of Segments : 11
Number of Stopovers : 8


Fare Component: 3,614.00 GBP
Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees: 867.82 GBP
Service Charge: 0.00 GBP
Total: 4,481.82 GBP

Sector 1. LON AMS 01/May/2015
LON AMS BA430 0820 1040 (operated by British Airways)

Sector 2. AMS HKG 04/May/2015 + 1 day
AMS HKG CX270 1310 0620 (operated by Cathay Pacific Airways)

Sector 3. HKG RGN 12/May/2015
HKG RGN KA250 2145 2330 (operated by Dragonair)

Sector 4. RGN HKG 20/May/2015
RGN HKG KA251 0110 0545 (operated by Dragonair)

Sector 5. HKG BKK 20/May/2015
HKG BKK CX705 0815 1005 (operated by Cathay Pacific Airways)

Sector 6. BKK SGN Other means of transportation selected

Sector 7. SGN TYO 03/Jun/2015
SGN TYO JL750 0840 1620 (operated by JAL)

Sector 8. TYO HNL 15/Jun/2015
TYO HNL JL784 2105 0945 (operated by JAL)

Sector 9. HNL LAX 22/Jun/2015
HNL LAX AA162 1230 2100 (operated by American Airlines)

Sector 10. LAX NYC 26/Jun/2015
LAX NYC AA2 0900 1755 (operated by American Airlines)

Sector 11. NYC LON 01/Jul/2015
NYC LON BA178 0805 1955 (operated by British Airways)

If its in Economy, it's an LONE3, not a DONE3.

The only way I can think of that could reduce the cost on that itinerary would be if the 2 BA flights can be changed to a non BA codeshare.

Thanks Himeno, I've updated the post accordingly and will see if I can drop the BA flights.

Starting in Amsterdam, the base price will be around £250 cheaper per person than starting in London, plus you'll catch a break on UK departure tax (air passenger duty.) You can undoubtedly get to AMS and back from the UK for less than £250. Tickets will be even cheaper if you were to start and end in Norway - around £320 pp cheaper than the UK. I can see return trips from London to Oslo bracketing your dates for under £100.

For example, this itinerary would be easy within the rules of an LONE3 - OSL-HEL-HKG-RGN-BKK,SGN-NRT-HNL-LAX-JFK-LHR-FCO-HEL-OSL. You'd fly to Oslo on your own, then start the RTW by flying to Helsinki, then on Finnair to Hong Kong, and so on. Coming back to Europe, you could stop over (for months if you want) back in the UK, before returning to Oslo - maybe by a separate holiday in Rome (or Spain, or the Middle East...)

You'd also be able to include more segments within North America with no addition to the price (except some additional taxes) for example this route would be perfectly legitimate - OSL-HEL-HKG-RGN-BKK,SGN-NRT-HNL-DFW-ANC-DFW-SFO-LAX-JFK-LHR-DOH-OSL - adds Alaska and San Francisco but could be many alternates too - Central America, the Caribbean...

Henry Bruce Welcome to FT

Do not buy from BA (=fuel surcharges) Try Cathay
Don't start in LHR. Buy a seperate LHR-AMS and start in AMS.
Many here on FT start DONE* in AMS or DUB to avoid BA surcharges and/or UK Air Pasenger duty

You may get a better deal using point to point instead of LONE3. Look at TA web sites; Trailfinders or equal

MM LHR-AMS-HKG-RGN-HKG-BKK,SGN-NRT-HNL-LAX-JFK-LHR

[all costs per person]

+ As others mentioned: starting Amsterdam (or elsewhere that's even cheaper) with save you ~240 on the base fare (£1800 for LONE3 ex-LHR vs ~£1562 ex-AMS) and if you fly NYC-AMS (with no stopover) at the end then it will also save you ~£43 in taxes (for LHR-AMS in economy). If you instead do NYC-LON and then later LON-AMS as your final segment then of course you'll still pay this ~£43 tax and only save £240. That's still plenty enough for one or two trips between london and amsterdam.

+ If you wait till April 1st to ticket you'll save ~£50 on the JAL segments as fuel surcharges will drop. See: https://www.jal.co.jp/en/inter/fuel/detail_world.html [NOTE: you may need to wait till slightly after April 1st if ticketing via a different airline as I'm not convinced this reductions are picked up instantly]

+ I don't know the details for sure but as has been mentioned I believe ticketing on BA means paying higher fuel surcharges for segments by other airlines. I just always ticket on AA so avoid needing to know the specifics.

+ Do you value earning miles on any airlines? Clearly this itin does not maximise that. I value a mile at 1p and like seeing the odd new place just for fun if only for 8 hours so will generally add stops if I've got all the necessary cities in already. Beware taxes/fuel charges though of course.

All, many thanks for your help, we've managed to get a good deal on an ex-AMS itinerary priced by Cathay. However, I was surprised to see such a variation between the ticket when priced by CX Amsterdam ~$2889 (€2665) vs. CX North America: $4,360.41. Even allowing for Visa/Mastercard's foreign exchange rate variation and with no restriction on usage of foreign cards, I'm not sure what Cathay's business model is, other than to take advantage of unsuspecting foreigners!

Base fares are different depending on which country you start in. (check any airline, you'll find that most charge more for flights out of Australia then for the same route to Australia) CX don't decide the base fares for oneworld products.

Why do so many of us always assume initially that the motives are sinister, eschewing all other possible explanations. We FTers are an interesting lot.

The reason for the higher fare quoted by CX Nth America is this ticket rule:The base fare for a LONE4 ex-US is USD5696
And ex-Holland is EUR2500 (approx. USD2796)
If you buy in the US for an itinerary starting in Holland, you pay the higher of the two