chrism

Hi, I'm trying to book RTW on Oneworld with plans to pick up at least 3 if not 4 100k bonuses. My problem is I can save over US$1000 per ticket if I can get them in Canada but no one at Canadian seems to understand what I'm trying to do. They are all very nice but just a little slow on understanding that there is a reason for all those legs and it ain't cause I love to sit in an airplane.

Does anyone out there have a Canadian travel agent I could talk this over with. I even tried to get Canadian to give me a fax number so I could send the itinerary and save them having to write everything down. No fax available I was told. So a very nice guy wrote down every leg as I dictated them. He kept saying to me, "You don't really need to do that connection. You can go direct." And I kept saying, "Just let me do my thing, please. Believe it or not, there is method to my madness." And madness it is! See the lengths I'll go to for those miles. I can't believe how greedy I've suddenly become.

Help, please!! I put a lot of time into this thing and I'd hate to see it go to waste. And I'd sure hate to pay more than I have to for the tickets.

Thanks all. (Remember you guys out there created the mileage monster I have become. In the normal course of my newly retired life I wouldn't have even known about 100K on all those airlines.)

Shareholder

With all the commission caps imposed by the airlines, I'm not sure any travel agent would want to take the time your itinerary would involve. But you might try David Smith in Vancouver (604) 947-9753. Don't tell him I sent you, or he may never take another booking from me again!

I've also found that American Express will transfer a booking to be ticketed out of their US office to qualify for the Platinum card 2-for-the-price-of-1 J-class tickets on certain international carriers. If you call them in the US, they could do the same thing, or pass you on to one of their Canadian offices.

RichLond

There is no need to ticket this in Canada. Any One World RTW fare priced and bought in the USA will cost the same amount as if purchased in the country of origin for the first segment.

In my case I used a US travel agent who sold me a RTW ticket based on prices from the Netherlands. Obviously the proce was converted from Dutch Guilders to USD.

My suggestion is to call Americans Round the World desk and ticket through them. If you still have problems I can e-mail you my travel agent name and number who would be happy to help.

rich

indogulf

RichLond - as noted in another thread regarding RTW fares please note that the higher of the originating and ticketing country's fares will apply. i.e. if you book a RTW ticket starting in India but have it ticketed in the US you will pay the US fare (which in this case is $2000 more.

So chrism will indeed save some money having it ticketed in Canada. of course for many European originating fares the US is cheaper. In this case they convert the local currency fare to USD but you still pay the higher fare.

If you have worked out a way to get around this I would love to know!

RichLond

indogulf,

you are right that there is a rule that states the higher fare of the country ticketed or originated applies. However there is 1 exception that allows a purchaser in the USA to obtain the lower priced fare from the country of origin.

As i said in the note, I purchased a 4Continent Business Class fare in the USA for $4100 which equated to the 8400 Guilder fare I would have had if i had purchased it in my originating city of Amsterdam.

rich

Markie

What I did was to get my UK travel agent to reserve the flights (34 sectors) and then have him set it up as a Ticket on departure with American Airlines in Vancouver.

All working Ok and I'm Auckland now on the way back - only 12 more sectors to go.

I paid the canadian price for the 5 continents ticket.

chrism

Thanks so much everyone.

Shareholder: I've found an Amex agent who specializes in RTW fares. He's getting back to me tomorrow. I'll save your travel agent as a last resort. I don't want to mess things up for you.

RichLond: I called AA RTW desk and I was told that there was no way I could get the Canadian price for a ticket. There's a big difference. First class RTW originating in the US is $6,400. Same ticket originating in Canada is US$5080. It's worth the ticket to Canada to get that kind of savings.

Markie: I may try your method if all else fails. My biggest problem is where I live. Here a big trip is going to Florida for the winter (usually by car). I spent an hour trying to explain things to a local travel agent. She really wanted to send me on a cruise to Alaska. And this is only about an hour and a half north of New York City! Nice trip you're taking. I'm only going for 3 continents. We want to save something for next year!!

Thanks to all again. I know with this input I should be able to work something out. Hopefully the next time I post it will be to say all is well and my tickets are in hand or close to.

Chrism

Celestar340

Chrism - there is a way ....

You can get CP for example in USA to book your flights. Then tell them you will pay for and pick the ticket up in Canada. They will then quote you the Canadian fare.

But you would physically need to be there in Canada to pick up the ticket. Or else as was mentioned here - get Amex travel in Canada to issue the ticket for you and to courier it to you in the US. You must however, still start from Canada.

ChrisMoss7

So where is the best place to start a RTW trip on OneWorld?

indogulf

CM7 - depends cheapest or closest??

For cheapest I think the current options are Thailand or Korea (as far as I can see from everyone's comments)

Closest - i think starting in Canada will save you some money.

chrism

Hello all!!

Success at last. I now hold two RTW tickets on Oneworld 100k challenge flying out of Canada on 11/6/99. It was really simple after all. I checked the American Express site and they had Mark Hoyer listed as their RTW expert. Mark is based in Houston, TX and was the corporate contact at Amex for Exxon. He specialized in sending oil people around the world. Anyway, he said, "No problem" and he went to work and I have my tickets.

We will be picking up three 100k bonuses as well as completing the Platinum challenge on AA. The bonuses are on AA, CP and BA. The itinerary follows:

11/6 AA SWF--ORD AA
11/6 AA ORD--YYZ CP
11/6 CP YYZ--YVR AA
11/7 CX YVR--HKG AA
11/11 CX HKG--SIN CP
11/15 CX SIN--BKK BA
11/18 QF BKK--LHR AA
11/18 BA LHR--FCO AA
11/22 IB FCO--MAD BA
11/22 IB MAD--ATH CP
11/25 BA ATH--LHR CP
11/25 BA LHR--EDI BA
11/27 BA EDI--LHR AA
11/27 AA LHR--ORD AA
11/27 CP ORD--YUL CP
11/29 CP YUL--YYZ BA
11/30 AA YYZ--ORD BA
11/30 AA ORD--SWF AA

I hope I typed all this right. God knows I've certainly worked on it enough. I had thought originally to go for four 100k bonuses but this is the start of my retirement and I want to enjoy some of this trip.

There are some extra AA segments in there but what the heck. They were unavoidable and the credit is for a good cause (cause I want to travel first class forever). We also get a 10,000 mile AA bonus on the YVR--HKG flight and I'm looking into the Miles for Me promo from CX for 2000 miles. It's worded very confusingly but it seems to say, pay in US dollars (I did even thought I paid the Canadian price), fly from any North American gateway city (JFK, LAX, SFO,YYZ or YVR). The sticking point is originate in US. I am, but not on the same ticket. I don't know how strictly that will be enforced. I'm going to try. All they can say is no.

So on Friday morning Bill and I are headed RTW in first class for the sum of US$5,213.85 including all taxes and airport fees. The same flight according to the AA RTW desk was $6,400 from the US without taxes and airport fees which could only be figured with a complete itinerary.

I wanted to let everyone know everything worked out but the Webflyer server was down for what seemed like an eternity. Thanks to all for your suggestions and to Shareholder a big thank you for the tip on Amex. It worked out great.

Chris

Shareholder

Glad to hear you got it all arranged, and at a fare that sounds quite good in either currency. Enjoy the travels and we'll be looking for some flight reports through the month.

johna

I realize this is late enough to be moot, but couldn't you have made the following changes:
11/27 BA EDI--LHR xx
11/30 CP YYZ--ORD xx
11/30 AA ORD--SWF xx
where xx is another OneWorld frequent flyer program, and thereby gotten 325k total (plus flight miles)? Still, $5,200 for well over 300 miles is quite a deal, and first class to boot!