These rules can be confusing! I booked a OWE and decided insted of spending a quiet weekend in my hotel in HKG, I would fly upt o NRT on Satruday and back on Sunday, just to add the miles. Since I had a "stop" left in Asia, I thought it would be no problem. Well, it was not a problem but not for the reason I thought. Since I was staying less than 24 hours it didn't count! This according to AA. No if AA tarriffs agreed, I'll be set.

As a side note, the agent I spoke to said they are getting quite a few calls from BUD from people issuing/changing their tickets!

I guess we all appreciate a bargain.

pppsssstttttttt........ Don't tell the airlines about our secrets. They may try to close the loop-holes.

I would like to know if the recent price increases in Korea were caused by the number of tickets issued from that location (i.e. higher demand yields higher prices). If so, who bought those extra tickets, Koreans or non-Koreans?

I would also like to know whether or not the things that we take advantage of for the miles will be changed soon. How much of a loss do the airlines incur from people like us? If you did the maximum mileage route, would the airlines still make a profit. If I had to guess, I would say no. Consider a FC 6 Cont. RTW for $7000 US. 36 segs makes it $194 per seg. If you were to get 100k base miles, that would be 250k after 100% bonus from AA for Elite and 50% bonus for First Class. Per 1,000 miles earned, that would be $28. With the average length of each seg being 2777 miles, I have a feeling it cost the airlines more than $194 to wine, dine and fly me to my destination.

Compared to a mileage limit RTW like all other airlines, if you were to max out the mileage for a 1W RTW, it doesn't compare. I would think that the rules would change to come in line with the other RTWs. But I hope not.

It's been incredibly helpful reading all the discussion on this thread. I have a few questions I couldn't find a clear answer in previous posts:

A) Does someone know if OWE prices ex-BUD are to increase as of Nov. 1st?

B) If I book and buy (so have it ticketed and paid for) a OWE ticket now, how long is it valid, when do I last have to start my trip?

C) Can I really book my ticket/itinerary elsewhere in Europe (with BA) and go pick it up in BUD?

I'd really appreciate if someone who knows could comment, thanks.

salt wrote:
salt, buying tickets over the phone with your credit card and having them sent over by mail comply with SITI rules. However, it is a seperate question if the particular travel agent would provide you the service.

Guy Betsy wrote:
Well I know at least one 'eastern' Europe country that allows you to do so. Never hurts to ask... Let's just say Hungary has pretty much established business standards.

Chris, sorry for being particular, but I felt one of your postings may not have been as agreeable with some or many of us OWE flyers...

Some people do in fact "take advantage of for the miles" and use the Oneworld Explorer solely for racking up the miles and status. This itself, I have no opinion. I personally don't do mileage runs, and am not really interested in participating in the "most miles with OWE contest." Meanwhile, I do understand that some people indeed "fly to fly," and I have no intention to interfere with their travel planning.

However, not all of us consider the Oneworld Explorer fare as a mileage run product.

I would appreciate if you can take into consideration that many of us use this fare simply to "go" to places. The Oneworld Explorer fare is a round the world fare that allows travelers maximum flexibility for visiting multiple destinations making best use of the Oneworld alliance network. For us, the lenient routing rules are in our advantage for taking us to exotic places which we would otherwise never visit being far and expensive to visit.

Thanks for listening, and best regards.

silver

[This message has been edited by silver (edited 10-15-2000).]