There's definitely something bugged in it with ex-CAI fares including Oceanic stops as I pointed out in my post yesterday. It's interesting that you were able to overcome it, and you might be able to change it after ticketing (with $125 fee) to CAI-DOH-BOS, assuming the pricing bug isn't actually a gremlin in QF's GDS.

I finally gave up on that and just went with GRU on JL codes.

It sounds like CargoHoldFlyer has the right theory. First overwater carrier determines the fare used. QR has higher DONEx fares than BA ex-CAI, so if you choose "...DOH-BOS..." then the QR fare below kicks in. Note that this is separate from the carrier that actually tickets the booking (QF for the majority/all of oneworld.com bookings).
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4c95322e7d.png

But this is also my experience that AA RTW desk can price ex-CAI DONEx fares as well. So, YMMV... and having AA RTW desk handle ex-CAI trips is extremely beneficial to the community instead of QF.
Perhaps the trick is to use a non-AA/non-QR flight as the first overwater segment? If AA requires their metal to do the ticketing, do it for US-Asia or US-SWP.

I guess this depends on your motivation. If you just want to fly a lot of miles and get status flying a long AA segment might suit you. I wanted to get specific flights and not be forced to AA just to have them ticket. As you mentioned YMMV and not everyone in the community will benefit from a long AA leg.

My personal motivation is not having to suffer from terrible customer "service" with QF agents that range from incompetent to liars ("I'll call you back") to somewhere in between. If people are insistent on not having a long-haul AA flight, then that's what other booking channels are for, yes. But the value here is for people to know that there are other options. What's with all this judgment about why people are booking these fares? Irrelevant. :confused:

Zero judgement. I feel you’re judging people who book with QF because they want routings AA won’t ticket. *shrug*

Well, I'm sorry but that's incorrect. I'm judging QF the airline because I had a series of bad experiences with them. The point is solely to let people know that there are other ways of booking DONEx that don't involve QF. As always, YMMV. End of story. Have a nice day.

I'm not sure about that theory to be honest because I just changed mine and dropped RJ. The price went down about AU$250 from lower YQ and taxes going QR to DOH directly. I know QF adamantly reprices everything so if that were the case wouldn't they now be using the QR fare instead if the RJ or QF fare? I do recall the QR fare being at least $200 more than the ones priced in EGP.

If this was your original routing: CAI-AMM-DOH-CGK (RJ, QR, QR), CGK-NRT (JL), HND-BKK (JL), BKK-HND-JFK (JL), JFK-CLT-STL (AA), STL-SEA (AS), SEA-DOH (QR), DOH-NBO (QR), NBO-DOH-CAI (QR)
Then my hunch is that dropping AMM in the beginning and going CAI-DOH-CGK does not change the fare basis that your ticket is priced on.

While not the same, I experienced a dramatic price increase by adding a simple transit. On a DONE4, I originally had ... SYD-BLR-KUL-HKG-CDG ... Changing it to SYD-BLR-xCMB-KUL-HKG-CDG caused the fare to go from AUD6554 to AUD7469.

Since I'm BA silver this might be the way to go. Just call BA and feed them the flights and see what happens because I will start CAI-LHR-USA... on BA.
Regarding several comments about using AA for an overwater segment, I would not avoid using them if they offer a flight to where I want to go. Just look at the other forums here on FT and you will find that all of the airlines have 'bad' service/seats/etc. Just a matter of degree. Remember, this is a great deal and I have been flying RTW from the paper ticket days.

But then why would the base fare drop by several thousand dollars if I switch the final leg from AKL-DOH to AKL-SYD-SIN-DOH, given that they're both QR DONE4s?

There's a QR A segment from AMM-DOH. That could be the bug the tool is battling, but it shouldn't be that way: having the end be AKL-SYD-SIN-DOH as opposed to AKL-DOH shouldn't make it a DONE fare again.

I have no idea what your itinerary is, let alone what fare it's priced on.
This is all speculation and so I cannot answer your question with certainty. Again, YMMV.
I would suggest contacting a travel agent with GDS access to understand why your trip is pricing the way it is.

The itinerary is here. I understand that you can not answer my question with certainty, but this is a thread to discuss Oneworld pricing and is often used to discuss the RTW tool. I've identified what appears to be a significant bug and so I'm trying to discuss it so we can understand it and see if there's any way for us to benefit.

Absolutely! I hope you get an informed answer to your question, because it would be yet another data point in this crazy experience of xONEx booking.

Because QF didn't understand that CAI / DOH / TUN aren't Africa, I ended up changing it quite a bit. I converted from a DONE4 to a DONE5, because it literally cost me $200 and took some flights to South America on a JL code (for the benefit of AAdvantage crap earnings on AA codes) But yes, when I still had the DONE4, changing from CAI-AMM-DOH-CGJK, on RJ and QR to CAI-DOH-CGK on QR alone significantly reduced my YQ. About AUD250 according to my QF agent.

Because there's something broken with Oceanic destinations in the OW tool. Some seem to work, others definitely don't.

I have zero issue with those, have had a fair number of them in my itineraries including the current one. That doesn't cause issues in my own experience. This includes the current ex-CAI I've been working on, and also my currently in progress ex-TYO CX issued.

That's not the easiest thing in the world to do. No one (or very few) on FT are raising their hands willing to book these for fellow FTers. Similarly not many B&M agents are up to speed on them either. Are you one? That would be great for the good of the FT community.

I actually tried to go through an agent the first time I booked one of these but they couldn't get my routing to work when I could 'rig' the OW tool to do it. Much to my dismay that was a QF issued ticket and I learned many lessons along the way.

There are A LOT of QF first timers in this thread now with the ex-CAI fare, but trust me do your research and you'll learn how to manage QF.

I'm with izzik on this.

I priced DONE3 ex-CAI with AA RTW desk. I started with CAI-DOH-HKG all on QR and the base price was close to the image that izzik posted above. I asked AA to replace with CAI-AMM-BKK on RJ as the start and it reduced to the base fare that the Oneworld Explorer tool quoted. Saving some $6000 of my CAD pesos for two of us.

Though this is my first *ONE*. So...

Because AA was using the QR fare vs. the RJ fare to price it. As far as I know only QR and AA have higher ex-CAI fares, I believe all other OW carrier use the EGP base fare.

I’m pleasantly surprised I did not miss out on this despite dragging my feet on it. Finally called in an imperfect itinerary yesterday morning. Made a change this morning. And just paid. Knock on wood I did not just jinx it.

Many thanks to FT community for the inspiration and all the know how.

BA are very willing to toss your reservation to whatever agent you have been working on as long as you know their name they would even message them instantly. One agent also admitted that they have a commission structure. However, the problem my arise later: since they do not seem to have centralized unit to deal with these tickets, it may be difficult to change dates. I ticketed RTW with 18 flights on them which may or may more likely not meet fare rules. They were able to price it and ticketed it immediately. When I called to do a date change, there was a pushback about no fee. Agent read the rules and admitted there should be no fee but said they sent it to another department to review. The following day they requested me to call them back and finalized the date change with no fee.
Booking with American is easier because they have a dedicated unit with just under 20 agents in Dallas and the make sure your itinerary meets all the rules to any product whether DONE4 or DGLOB34, then they send it to pricing. After several hours you are able to retrieve the quote online (click "pricing summary") and call the same dedicated phone number to ticket. Note that for ticketing you can also apply any trip credits you have on American in addition to your credit card. Changing the ticket should be easier with AA as the point of contact would be the dedicated team.
So to summarize, these base fares have been creeping up over the last weeks (DGLOB34 is 2976$ today, up from 2944$ yesterday) but they are very much available.

That's almost certainly due to the EGP exchange rate, which has been modestly strengthening against the USD since the initial devaluation

I do hope things work out with your AA ticket.
Do you mind sharing your final itinerary that you booked? (city codes and airlines, pls!) I think that it's good to have a collection of what is acceptable from a ticketing perspective.

I would agree, it's just that fares in EGP are not available on expertflyer.

Ive been tracking the USD equivalent on EF vs exchange rate. They track well.

Erm... Yes they are available in EGP
Simply choose that currency from the picklist of currencies (down toward the bottom of the screen)
Note that doing this is getting EF to convert the published fare into EGP, presumably at the current IATA exchange rate.
If you want to see the currency in which a particular fare is quoted, you need to click on the routing for the fare (!)

Thought I'd re-share mine as well since I made some changes today, this is likely the final itinerary that I'll actually fly with some date changes later on the final DOH-NBO & NBO-DOH-CAI.

CAI-xDOH-CGK (QR)
CGK-NRT (JL)
HND-BKK (JL)
BKK-xHND-xJFK-GRU (All JL code, AA operated on JFK-GRU)
GRU-xDFW-STL (JL code GRU-DFW, AA)
STL-xSEA-DOH (AS, QR)
DOH-NBO (QR)
NBO-xDOH-CAI (QR)

Ended up being
DONE5 Base fare: EGP 145000.00 / AUD 4680.00
Total paid AUD 7,269.00 / US$ 4,738 (not including the $125 change of ticketed points fee)

Maybe I could have done better on YQ with different carriers, but all in all, it's a good deal since I'm crediting to AAdvantage, and all of the those QR and JL segments have a 150% cabin bonus. But TBH I'm not sure I could have done much better on YQ, when I played around with replacing some flights with MH the YQ went up a good bit (like AUD100-300), I don't think changing JL to AA makes a difference, maybe AA trans Atlantic would save a bit but that doesn't interest me, so I'm happy with this price.

I think you've done very well. A DONE4 I've painstakingly managed to get the tool to quote was AUD6750, with no QR or BA.

Did the tool offer you JL codeshares on AA metal or did you have to ask QF to swap those in?

No, the OW tool never offers codeshares, I had to get QF to do that myself.

My understanding is that alone isn't a ticketed points change and would fall under the same exemption as a date / time change. But I have always done them during other changes so not 100% sure on that. The last time I did it was on my CX ticket, but I was able to do it before ticketing since CX doesn't accept payment in the OW tool, you still have to call in for a payment link. Prior to that was another QF ticket and I had an invol reschedule so got free changes together with that.

This is one of the most frustrating things about RTWs and crediting to programs that calculate by revenue... you have to scratch and dig to put everything possible on codeshares that credit by distance. I've had AAdvantage go both ways on AA coded flights so just won't risk it on long segments. JL used to have a few codeshares to South America in the past, I know I've flown to GIG on one right before COVID started but looks like GRU is the only one remaining. I definitely wouldn't have gone to Brazil if I knew I could get distance credit on AA codes, would much much rather have gone to Argentina... but c'est la vie (I'm quite put off by Brazil's return to visas for US, Canada and Australia citizens, but my old 10 year visa is still valid until October). Haven't been to Florianopolis yet so that's an option at least.

It's funny you mention this -- GRU is the only city in South America (I believe) that JL has codeshares for on AA metal. I ticketed a DONE4 and wanted the JL code (mainly because I'm crediting to JMB) but then I would have to go to Brazil instead of Argentina (which is where I wanted to visit). I'm guessing it's because JAL used to operate a 5th freedom route here, but that was dropped a long time ago.
Also agree re: revenue-based mileage programs -- that in itself is a separate discussion but I am fairly certain that there will always be Oneworld programs that cannot afford to go revenue-based, due to regional competition.

Try to retrieve these through fare information in EGP. They are listed as 0 unlike in other currencies. See screenshots attached.

Yes, that's the only remaining JL code I could find. I'd have been content with a QR code as well but didn't find any since they actually fly their own metal to South America. I didn't think to check AY codes, but that would accomplish the same goal.

The 5th freedom route was because of the large Japanese Brazilian population in Sao Paulo, but I know I've flown to GIG on a JL code in very early March 2020 before the world shut down, and I'd swear I saw JL codes at the time to LIM and EZE as well. (Peru and Ecuador also have a good bit of Japanese / Latin population though I don't think I ever checked for GYE / QIO on JL codes)... I could be wrong about EZE and maybe that's why I went to GIG that time but definitely I've seen them for LIM in the past. In both instances though I was going for the longest distance flown on a JL code so had to choose Brazil, Peru is too short of a flight in comparison and Ecuador even shorter.

So from those who've got experience with the OW RTW tickets, how do AA and BA credit for these?
Are they able to calculate the portion of the ticket price applicable to their sectors or do they fall back to % of mileage?

AA is hit or miss, and seems similar in the AA forum but I get the impression that they're more revenue than distance these days.

The way AA does it (if they credit by revenue) is to calculate the total fare vs. the total miles flown, then assign the revenue to miles flown on their segments. It's absolutely pitiful on these RTW fares.

My last QF ticket that I used in 2022 / 2023, my AA coded segments credited as distance. My more recent CX ticket all AA coded segments credited as revenue which was an absolute pitance, thankfully they weren't very long so didn't sting so bad. My most recent one that I haven't flown yet, I managed to put only one AA segment onto it from DFW-STL so I frankly don't care how they credit that one. I'm sure it'll end up being worth like 100 miles / LPs. :D

I quit crediting to AA partially due to how they credit these tickets. I had one that was changed several times, rerouted, reissued, etc. and yet they still credited via fare and when I asked them what the original fare was and how it was recalculated no one could answer. It just wasn't worth it.

Crediting to AS or BA would be good. If crediting to AS, BA codes would earn 350% for D plus elite bonus and earn 250% EQM. Of course you'd have to pay extra in BA fuel fines. Most other carriers would credit to AS at 225% and 125% EQM, except AA which is 150% and 150% EQM.

AY is also 200% EQM on AS...that's where I've credited and getting to 100K was a piece of cake with these.

I've encountered a new problem trying to change a ticket with CX. I need to change my connection into a stopover and move the connecting flight to a later date, but also need to keep my first flight as it is.

CX is telling me there's no D availability on that flight and I'd have to change it to the earlier one (which isn't going to work). I can pull it up on EF with both Japan and Hong Kong point of sales (It's an ex-TYO ticket) and it's D9 on both POS... (I hate that we can't check POO but I don't think that's the issue... BTW does KVS have POO? I haven't heard anyone talk about KVS for years). They then tell me that availability is different for a reschedule vs. booking a new ticket. I'm calling BS on this. But I can certainly pull it up in the OW tool and make a new booking with that flight on it in business.

Can one of the awesome members here with GDS access check this and see what's going on or if CX is just full of something?
July 16 DUB-DOH on QR18 (15:00)

I got a bit irritated with them and asked what happens if I just no-show the connecting flight then and they said I'd have to pay the no-show fee ($125) and rebook right away. Seems to solve the problem as long as I can go without checked luggage. I really wanted to make another change at the same time which is only D3 on the day I want, so really don't want to wait until July to force this into a stopover by intentionally missing the flight.


**Can disregard, I finally found someone to put it into the OW desk, they called me back about 3 hours later and got it done. Very surprisingly they didn't even charge me the $125 change fee, but I suspect it's because my YR and airport taxes went down more than $125 on the updated itinerary.

I was going to post once I received the tickets. Today is Thursday.
Credit card charge is pending. Original call was Monday. Repriced and paid on Tuesday.
Full itinerary is in aa.com with different booking codes for other airlines.
But I have not received any email from aa.

This is my first xONEx.

Almost embarrassing since I did not think to select for YQ.
Departure in 2025 with everything but the start date off the calendar (just dummy dates).

I am posting the first DONE3 (x2) itinerary that I picked starting with QR and also the change to RJ which brought the base fare back down to 130,000 EGP - since both were legal. We're doing it over five-six months and we'll be adding separate flights in Asia and from ANC, maybe from HNL as well.
Awesome ideas/suggestions welcome.

CAI xDOH QR (changed to CAI xAMM RJ)
xDOH HKT QR (changed to xAMM BKK RJ)

HKT HKG CX (changed to BKK HKG with CX)
HKG DPS CX
DPS KUL MH
KUL NRT JL

NRT HNL JL
HNL ANC AS
ANC LAX AS
LAX SJO AA
SJO DFW AA
DFW SFO AA
SFO MIA AA

MIA DOH QR
DOH AMM QR
AMM CAI RJ

I'm likely crediting to BAEC. Both itineraries earn 1,560 TP. Fare was just under $4,300 USD or lots and lots of CAD.

After submitting the initial QR start and seeing the price, I called back and asked to change to RJ and to submit for a reprice. Agent said that changes like that won't change the ticket price but she obliged anyway since I am so charming.

Lots of fun experimenting and booking.

I'm thinking about another xONEx starting next month since I have travel from Europe to NA in April and then from NA to ME in August. Likely I'll book directly with the OW tool since my dates will all be on the calendar so (hopefully) no need to call the dreaded QF number for changes. And I want to make it a bit crazy. If the base fare is still there, I'll book it up once I've figured it out.
insert maniacal laugh here