BA finally re-priced by more than doubling. Those QR fares look like a bargain now!


Things are changing quickly. As of today (3/25), only MH is showing the lower CAI rtw fares. This is probably your last chance so don't wait...altho TBH if you've waited this long, you probably weren't going to buy it anyway. :P
BA/JL/CX are showing sky-high prices, worse than QR (which is now "cheaper" lol).
RJ/AT/QF/UL/AY/IB/AS aren't showing any prices in EF.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...310bea1543.png

Did you try it already?

Thanks for letting me know about Japan fare. I also tried to get quote for xTYO, but online tool can not issue the ticket due to JAL segment. The approximate overall cost for xDONE$ is $5500 from QF. I called AA to book it we will see AA's price. It looks like xCAI through RJ is only 1000 dollar cheaper.

Speaking of which....

Has anyone experienced using the AA rtw desk to reticket (re-route) after departure without a change in which continents are touched but when a big base far hike has occurred vs the price you paid (such as the current situation in Cairo)? If so, roughly when and how did it go?

Two of the best AA rtw desk staff are telling me given the unusual fare situation ex CAI, they expect reticketing after departure on a a Cathay governed itinerary to include an uplift to reflect the base fare hike.

I know I don't want to fly this itinerary as is (though it's not terrible, mostly I was short on time and only put 14 segments in when on the phone as I expected to reticket later). I'm trying to decide if I need to cancel/refund before flying the first segment...

If you’ve flown the first segment you won’t be refunding - once they refare to determine your refund it might not be worth it.

However, if you change before the first segment you can expect a refare and significant upcharge.

Your post seems to imply all the people calling AA helped bring the CAI situation to their attention. Not that that’s at fault, but we knew this fare wouldn’t last long given the number of tickets apparently being issued.

Glad I got a $3700 routing I love - can’t wait to start it in a month!

Indeed. Hence it's before departure when I can still get a refund for just a 5% deduction that I want to know, or better assess at least, if I'll be able to re-ticket after departure (no change in continents) without paying a massive hike. Waiting till I learn from direct experience will be too late.

One of the agents on the weekend noted "all I've been doing is ex Cairo for a day or two" so lots of people were booking, or trying to anyhow. But the fare the oneworld website by then had already been making it progressively hard to book, and AA rtw desk staff shared how they were trying to streamline helpful in the rules decisions so it seems AA were not the ones to bring this down. After all, they were just ticketing with other airlines as the governing carrier using that carrier's filed prices.

One assumes it's the volume of tickets from any and all channels that was the noteworthy issue.

Enjoy! May I ask what your routing is?

sure:

CAI-xLHR-BER (1 month break)
BER-HEL
HEL-xSEA-DCA (1 month break)
DCA-SFO-ANC
ANC-HNL
HNL-CXI
CXI-NAN-MEL
MEL-ADL
ADL-xKUL-BKK
BKK-xDOH-CAI

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My suspicion it that it's now too late to make any pre-departure changes, so plan to fly what you have, but date changes should still not be a problem. As of now, MH is the only one remaining with the ex-CAI fare, which AA can book with, but if they already used the CX fare to ticket yours I'm not sure it can be changed. (I'm not 100% sure on that, but I know when QF ticketed mine it was either the RJ or QF fare and when I dropped RJ it didn't trigger an increase, which the QR fare would have). Maybe ask them if they can ticket a new one on the MH fare and cancel the one you're unhappy with AFTER the new one issued (since we know AA doesn't ticket immediately, you could loose both if not careful).

I imagine that after the dust settles, the existing tickets will get treated no differently than one issued from any other departure point. AA agents are likely being conservative when setting expectations because there hasn't been a massive fare increase on these for a long time. There's no precedence in the past for re-faring on a change after the first segment is flown. We'll see of course and I've little doubt QF will be the least pleasant to deal with, but fortunately for me, I was quick to make the necessary changes right after ticking as I fully expected this fare to end in its current form and am very happy to fly the ticket I have with the exception of date changes on the last 3 segments.

How is it possible for one airline to ticket on another airline's stock? And if it is possible (say, AA ticket on MH), how would the ticketing airline be able to make changes to it, given it's different paper?

good question for the experts - maybe OW is morning willing but in the Star Alliance land I’m used to good luck with this. United won’t touch a fare basis that’s not their own.

It's still issued on the stock of the ticketing airline (001 for AA), but (this was also new to me) they can use any OW carrier's fare basis. That's how AA was ticketing as they pulled their own ex-CAI fare a long time ago. Maybe one of the travel agents will chime in with more detail on the ins and outs of that.

Can an expert here clarify: why would AA do this? What’s in it for them? They pay for the agents and phone lines and what do they get? Maybe $500 from a super discount fare?

Share some DPs

1. Asked AA to pricing with RJ as first leg for xCAI, the total cost is 7000 for DONE4. xCAI price is gone now.
2. Asked AA to price xTYO DONE4 as well. $6000. If online tool can issue your ticket, QF will only charge 500 dollars less but online tool has some issue to issue JAL segment so I have to use AA to book.

I will probably book xTYO. I used 15 segments and 8 stopovers, I think it is till pretty decent.

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