dvs7310

I have to say I'm sad you're abandoning CXI, was looking forward to hearing your experience of it later.

sony2012

I have a newbie question about the ex-CAI pricing. Oneworld recently started this beta tool where you can get the base fare if you enter the origin city. Cairo shows 130K egp for DONE3, which is probably the old price prior to devaluation because when I price it now, the base fare is around 11K AUD or 7300USD on their web plus taxes and fuel charges. Did the oneworld uniformly increase the base fare from Cairo or is it just Qantas that is pricing it substantially higher? If ex-cairo is pricing at 7300USD now it doesn't seem to have the price advantage anymore compared to Oslo or Tokyo...For what is worth, ex-TYO DONE3 has �656,300, ex-OLS has NOK52,398, both cheaper than 7300USD...

dvs7310

Beta tool is wrong, it's the old price and it won't price an itinerary anywhere near that anymore. Most airlines used to price ex-CAI in EGP, QR was an exception and I believe AA too when they had their old fare up (they were USD based on the base fare at some historic currency conversion). That's why in foreign currencies the ex-CAI fare suddenly got cheaper for a short time this year. And yes your observation is correct, ex-CAI is no longer cheap and will likely be more expensive than ex-Japan and ex-OSL for the time being.

If you're wanting ex-Japan, I also wouldn't dawdle, domestic consumers and businesses are really hurting as imports have skyrocketed, so there's been more and more currency intervention talk and big business is calling for a 120-130 JPY / USD target, that's a good 20% spike in fares in foreign currency if it ever happens. Japan can't afford to raise interest rates, but they have other tools available while waiting for the US to drop rates and balance the FX. I expect the USD / EUR cost of the ex-Japan xONEx to go up within this year. The great thing about ex-Japan xONEx is no YQ, only a modest amount of YR, so you have a lot more freedom to schedule on any airline you chose (or codeshare you choose) without the YQ penalty you'd get on an ex-CAI or ex-OSL itinerary with certain carriers.

sony2012

thanks, I bought one ex-Cai for this year so I don't have any room to squeeze another one ex-JP but doesn't YQ not apply only for the first segment, not the entire trip? I thought the rule about YQ only applied to ex-JP departure, I am not sure if it would apply to the entire RTW ticket or just the JP departure only....
Anyway, I am closely watching the USD/JPY rate and alternatively i can hedge by selling my USD now and keeping it on JPY for the time being.

kayzng

Need some advice, I am starting my xCai later this week, here's my itinerary, ticketed through QF
1. CAI - xMAD - VIE (IB) (2 air)
2. VIE - xDOH - KUL (QR) (2 air)
3. KUL - NRT (MH)
4. HND - GMP (JL)
5. INC - KUL (MH)
6. KUL - xHKG - LAX (CX) (2 air)
7. LAX - SFO (AA)
8. SFO - JFK (AA)
9. JFK - DFW (AA)
10. DFW - DOH (QR)

Questions,
a. Am I using 15 of the 16 segments? where 13 of the air, and 2 for surface (NRT-HND), (GMP-INC)
b. Can I still add one segment within Asia? I am assuming that I used up 3, KUL - NRT, HND - GMP, INC - KUL
c. For my VIE - xDOH - KUL, can I change to VIE-xDOH-HKG-KUL? Adding HKG as a stop?

*edited as per Mwenenzi's input"

Mwenenzi

a. I count 13 by air. That is every "-" if a separate flight number
Would only count as 1 segment if, for example VIE - xDOH - KUL was the same flight number VIE-DOH and DOH-KUL. With QR 99.5% sure will be separate flight numbers.

c. Best not to change until you have flown the first segment. Look at the rules.

kayzng

yes, each "-" it's with different flight number.
that would means 13 air + 2 surface. Total 15 then. I will update my thread. Thanks.

My plan is to change/add after first segment, ie calling from Vienna. Thus, try to get some info on whether it's within the rules or not first.

pandaperth

Answering your other two questions:
b. No, you cannot add another flight segment. You have used your four allowed flight segments in Asia: KUL-NRT, HND-GMP, ICN-KUL, KUL-HKG
c. Maybe, depending on the rest of your itinerary in Asia - only four flight segments allowed there.

kayzng

Thanks!
d. If i remain as is, can I still add 1 segment from DOH-CAI to end it in Cairo? I remember the tool somehow doesn't allow me to do so, or need me to upgrade to A.
e. If I optimize my Asia itinerary to remove the surface segment, such as KUL-NRT, NRT-HKG, HKG-KUL (replace HK with Seoul), from my DFW-DOH, can I change to DFW - xDOH - Europe, Europe - CAI
1. CAI - xMAD - VIE (IB) (2 air)
2. VIE - xDOH - KUL (QR) (2 air)
3. KUL - NRT (MH)
4. NRT - HKG (CX)
5. HKG - KUL (CX)
6. KUL - xHKG - LAX (CX) (2 air)
7. LAX - SFO (AA)
8. SFO - JFK (AA)
9. JFK - DFW (AA)
10. DFW - xDOH - ZUR (QR) (2 air)
11. ZUR - xMAD/xDOH - CAI (2 air)

dvs7310

Nope, it's the entire journey. Actually let me rephrase that... I have 2 ex-TYO tickets to reference, one QF issued and one CX issued. The CX one doesn't have a sniff of YQ on it, just a small amount of YR. The QF one has 30,000 JPY of YQ on it and similar YR to the CX ticket. It's nothing like the $1000-3000 YQ you get on ex-CAI or ex-OSL tickets. I'd love to know which carrier the YQ on the QF ticket was attributed to, I'd say quite likely QF itself but even at 30,000 JPY it's miniscule when that itinerary had HND-SYD and SYD-DFW on it as QF codes. My other carriers on that ticket were quite similar to my CX ticket, AA, QR, JL, I think that's it. I always pack a bunch of QR segments onto these, I did have AKL-DFW on a QF code on the CX ticket but they must not charge the QF YQ ex-TYO (again assuming that's the carrier that triggered it on the QF ticket).

dvs7310

I'd add that TYO-SEL can be very cheap with a revenue ticket, a ton of LCCs fly it and it's 1 1/2 hours in the air each way. You can use AV Lifemiles on OZ at a decent price each way (in business) during their very frequent sales, UA miles used to be good for the sector but I don't think anymore. AA miles or BA Avios are decent on the sector as well, though not as good of a deal as AV (depends if you're buying or earning organically I guess, but AV is pretty cheap to buy miles for business class intra-North Asia which amazingly includes the Philippines)

Do you need to get back to CAI at the end of it for another ticket? You might be just as well served hopping off at DOH or AUH depending on where you need to go next. CAI is a pretty unpleasant airport to deal with, and I wouldn't end my ticket there unless you have a good exit plan at a great price (there are still some but not like there used to be). I wouldn't go to CAI just to burn the last segment. AUH, DXB, AMM might serve the same purpose and still count as F on QR giving you Al Safwa access on the transit.

pandaperth

d. Yes.
QR has no business cabin on the DOH-CAI route, only First ('A') and economy and the tool probably cannot handle this exception to the general rule:
e. No.
The itinerary as six flight segments in Europe/Middle East, which is more than the four allowed (CAI-MAD-VIE-DOH and DOH-ZUR-MAD/DOH-CAI)

dvs7310

The tool has no problem at all with intra-Middle East segments on QR being in A. I've now had several of them on itineraries built in the tool and there are loads of other data points for that as well.

kayzng

Thanks a lot! I will try to add one stop in Middle East after DOH

Thanks for pointing that out, my initial thoughts to add additional stop within ME is to try out Al-Salwa, but the tool cant handle for me. I will try go through agent, this is my last leg. Thus no hurry
On Tokyo to Seoul, i should have pick the low cost airlines code share with JL. It shown up in the tool, but I went for true blue JL flight, without realizing I lost out 2 surface segment, because JL flight is departing from HND and landing in GMP.


Thanks to all valuable advice.
I will do the below,
1. For current HND - GMP, I will ask to change to NRT - INC. Not sure if there is any charges, if this can be done, then I can saved 2 surface segments.
With the 2 saved surface segments, I suppose I can either,
2a. Add 3 segments to Australia (my initial was 15 segments), such as KUL - SYD - MEL - KUL
or
2b. Add 2 segments to Australia (KUL - SYD - KUL) and add 1 last segment, DOH-AUH/DXB
or
2c. Add 2 segments within US, any suggestion?

Are these within the rules?

kayzng

If I recall correctly, the xCai price I got from the tool was 10k+ AUD for 2 pax DONE3
when I add CAI as last segment after DOH, it jumps to 17k, which is why I thought it wasn't working.

Now thinking retrospectively, probably it upgraded the whole RTW to A because of last leg?