Currently trying to book a BA/QF fare HKG - Australia - UK/Europe - HKG in C

BA/QF has what they call a triangular fare which does just that, but running into a few glitches with the travel agent the company uses here...we are being told that we will have to pay for add-on sectors in both Australia and Europe based on the itinerary below? Does anyone have experience in this particular fare?

Fare rules state 2 stopovers allowed in Australia and 2 in UK/Europe...(doesn't mention anything about sectors)

HKG qf BNE qf SYD ba LHR / LGW ba MRS ba LGW / LHR ba HKG

Doing minimum transit in London both ways, only stopover in UK/Europe is Marseille. In the Australian portion, main stopover in SYD, but routing through BNE for a quick stop "home" (although only have time for <24hrs in BNE, so technically this is a transit?)

Agent here says they have to add on for LGW-MRS return and BNE-SYD....is this correct??? All help greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance.

My reading of the words of the rules is that it is a "Circle Trip" fare which means that you cant go through the same city twice. On this interpretation your HKG-BNE-SYD bit is OK because you are not backtracking, but your Marseille side trip would be an additional charge.

On the other hand, the route map which accompanies the words doesn't show BNE-SYD as a valid element of the routing, so your TA may be right.

On the third hand ( ) my TA has managed to get BA to be pretty flexible on this type of ticket in the past. For example, the rules seem to say that the only stopover allowed between UK and Aus is Singapore, but she got BA in HKG to ticket:

HKG-LHR-MNL-SYD-HKG

in the days when BA flew to MNL via HKG. The LHR-MNL was a single coupon but I have a feeling I just got off at HKG and got to MNL on another ticket later, which was a bit naughty.

If the routing fits what you need then these tickets are pretty good value in business class particularly.

Thanks for the help.

I can see the point about the going through the same city twice, I guess I was thinking about it differently, as Marseille is the only European stopover we want, just transitting LGW to get there. Would be happy to go MRS-HKG by not going back through LGW, but there really was no option

You mention a route map for this fare - have you got an online link for that? We haven't seen one. Actually, it was a hard fare to find all the information about at all...

Thanks for the encouragement We've pushed on with it to see if we can make it work for this itinerary.

All I have is a paper copy of the BA fare booklet for HK, which is a little dated now. If I had an email address for you I could scan it and send it. My email address is in my profile (use the one in the words, not the one in the "email" box) so if you send me an email I wil reply with the map.

By the way - have you considered a Cathay fare starting in Australia for this itinerary - get your TA to look at that - they have some very good deals to Europe via HKG, which include the sidetrips in Europe.

Thanks very much, you've got mail.

Triangular far shows up on KVS but not expertflyer. Just wanted to know if it was still out there before ringing up BA/QF

The "Circle Trip Explorer" is still a goer.

Here's a summary:

Intercontinental Travel with the oneworld Circle Trip Explorer

It does show up on expertflyer as xCIRWCn

My understanding is that the circle trip explorer is a different fare than the triangular fare offered by QF and BA which has been previously discussed in this thread.

The only references I have found to the fare is this one that lists the fare as having expired as of earlier this year:
http://www.speedbirdclub.com/res/en/...020oct_bsp.pdf
And this one that lists the fare as having been withdrawn in 2008:
http://www.tiglion.com/english/triangle.htm

The problem with the Circle Trip Explorer is that it has to include Africa which, for some of us, means it is of no use (two separate work-related trips to West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria) 20+ years ago cured me of any desire to ever go there again).

This would be a great ticket for those of us who want to go to Europe (UK) and also the US, which could be done as a side-trip as 'extra' legs in the US aren't needed but the legs could be used in Europe and Asia. However, the requirement to include Africa as one of the continents is a deal-killer, at least for me.

Your TA would have contacted QF in HKG, and most likely this is what QF says, then its what it is. Why don't you call QF or BA in HKG (both in sameoffice) to find out if there is such a fare out of HKG.. and then give info to your TA.