Sorry. I, too, missed out. I foolishly spent the weekend and yesterday planning the ex-MPM trip, planning to book it today. Had I been smart, I'd have called over the weekend to book a skeleton one, then later paid the $125 reroute fee to fill in the flights I really wanted.

So sorry :( And that's just the kicker...the amount of time put into navigating the rules, that change daily, and the route planning.

We are still trying to figure out if the new price is still a good value...it sounds like it may be.

your knowledge is useful for next good deal. i started learning the details of done last july and august when my sister had one month off in sept and she wanted to bring her infant around the world. i remembered that infant is charged 10% so i suggested that route. we ticketed ex japan. 6500usd. (we ticketed right after yen surged last august and cost me 400 usd more) i used it to finished jal status and aa.exec plat match .

then we liked it and booked 6 done4 and done5 ex jnb. my ticket is cost 4060.

now i ticketed one ex mpm for 3600 in jan 2017

and add one ex mpm for 3000 in july 2017 (5 segments and will pay for routing change to be used to requalify for status in 2018.)

just wait for next deal in 2019 now!

Question: Do availability and booking rules vary between the OW partners?

BA shows very limited availability with some of my dates/flights, but there seemed to be no problem with AA.

BA tells me that I have to start and end in the same place, but I didn't have to do that with AA.

Thank you! So basically, you're saying that these tickets are addictive ;)

Availability is determined by each airline and it's up to the individual carrier to determine how many seats it makes available in L, D and A.

As for the rules, the oneworld Explorer fare is a oneworld product, not airline-specific. As has been indicated, some of the airlines have updated their filed rules for the fare in the past 24 to 48 hours. The others will naturally follow suit, sooner or later.

And finally, interpretation of the rules. Particularly on the section that has been updated by some of the carriers most recently, how one airline reads the rules can be different from another. The oneworld Explorer product is ridiculously complex, so much so some airlines don't even know where to begin. I think pandaperth would attest to this. I referred earlier to QR and JJ really having no clue. In the end I think you need to be prepared to argue how to interpret a rule (as there's at least one or two that are ambiguous, as has been indicate), or go to another carrier. Certainly, int he case of beginning and ending in the same place, that one is quite clear (ie. there are some fairly generous exemptions to this always being the case.

Great point!

Everything I learned back from the ex-JNB and then ex-CAI days makes it so that it's quite a bit easier to get back up-to-speed on new ones that come along, even though a lot has changed. And, initially, figuring out the rules from scratch (for me, the ex-JNB ones I did) was _very_ difficult for me, it will always be a bit easier as a result.

BA will zero out D class on some routes at the drop of a hat whereas AA is more generous with mid-tier business availability. On the other hand AA has recently started zeroing A class on many popular domestic routes to discourage upgrades, notably to/from Hawaii, which is unfortunate for anyone buying international A tickets on a regular basis (AONEx or otherwise). Meanwhile LA and JJ often have only full Y availability on domestic routes but (according to reports on FT) if revenue management find out you're on an LONEx fare then L space will be found for you.

Note that availability may also differ on point of sale. For instance if you phone the BA office in New York you will usually get less access to the cheap fare buckets (I/R/D) than if you phoned Amsterdam, for the same exact flight.

As for BA getting the rules wrong ... unfortunately many BA telephone agents are clueless even at the best of times. Don't believe everything you hear. But some of them are really excellent. Good luck.

Great Info. Thank you! If I am correct, this is the rule that says I do not have to depart and return to the same place, as I would be departing/returning in Africa.
D. Travel may originate at any point for which fares are published and must terminate at the same point, except
that origin-destination surface segments are permitted as follows:
(a) within country of origin
(b) within the Middle East
(c) between USA and Canada
(d) between HKG and China
(e) between Malaysia and SIN
(f) within Africa
(g) between Maldives & Sri Lanka/India

I'm not sure where I called. It was a 1-800 number and the agent was British. If I call CX or QR is there an office location you would recommend?

Thanks all!

It is a whole new frustrating, exhilarating world! But, yes, I have learned SO much this week.

should there a discussion on how to lower yq and yr on xonex and other oneworld fare?

i pick done5 over done4 because i can fly lan and jj across atlantic ocean with no yq, avoid aa as aa limits transcon on a flat bed.

i know ex brazil has no yq but.when i price something with a segment gru doh xxx
i believe yq was charged from the price.

mileage running is addictive. i can get 60k flown miles on a done3 (not a lot more on done5, unfortunately). when it is 3600 usd. it is 6c per flown miles, and 4cpm in aa eqm. it is difficult not to be addicted. i am doing same day turn to easter island (spent 3 nights there a few years ago...)

I got in on a DONE5 ex-MPM apparently within a few hours of it going up. The reservation was put on hold on AA and in my account it showed a total cost of AUD48xx. I've logged into my account now and the price has been increased to AUD9282.

Can AA do this with a reservation on hold?

Yes they can - the price is fixed when it is ticketed. Reservations have no price per se.

So when you put a reservation on hold at a particular rate, the price is not locked in? I thought that was the whole point of the hold.