Has anyone with an eye on originating OWE ex-Canada taken notice of the precipitous drop in the exchange rate? There seems to be a penny-a-day slide doing on.

I have't checked the real prices, but it "feels" as if, given that there's a cost in getting there, it's almost not worth the trouble for a 4-continent A. (Biting tongue to avoid getting into politics...)

[If I did the lookup/math correctly, the difference between CA and US fares at CAD1.40=US$1.00, assuming you pay by c/c and suffer a 1% forex fee, for AONE3...6 are:
US$537, $732, $405, $463.]

[This message has been edited by JohnAx (edited 05-06-2003).]

Totally demoralizing. Is there any currency against which the USD is appreciating? I'd like to make my ex-CA AOWE3/4 somewhat cheaper, but that's not easy in the face of trends like these. Instead it seems to get more expensive with every passing day... how much longer can this continue?

[This message has been edited by bedelman (edited 05-06-2003).]

You better be quick in whatever you do.
The loonie just up another penny today to almost 0.72 USD. The market rate is around 1 USD for 1.391 CAD at this time but unless you are a major financial institution or a multi-billionaire, you won't get this rate. So as of today, you are looking at a rate of maybe 1.35~1.36 if you charge it on a credit card for a dollar US. To make the matter worse, the majority thinks it's going towards 0.75 USD. If that's the case, you may get as low as 1.2X something on your credit card so be cautious.

I am hesiting as to whether to help you or not here - it seems almost you are asking for financial advice rather than travel tips. I'll do it once only.

Your best bet at this time, if location is not concerned, is buy a RTW fare ex-Taiwan. RTW fare ex-Taiwan is usually even cheaper than ex-Canada, one of the lowest of all countries in the world if not the lowest mainly because the Taiwanese tend to be very price conscious. Under normal cicumstances, this is easy because CX has great connections between TPE to NRT, ICN or HKG so that you can start your trip on a strong note. Another factor is the Taiwan dollar is highly correlated to the USD for the sake of its exports. Almost like Argentina Peso a few years back, the Taiwan dollar usually follow U.S. dollars's up and down. Furthermore, the U.S. for Taiwan dollar exchange rate is at one of its highest in decades at this time at 1 for almost 35. a RTW in First can be have for something around $190,000 NTS [I am not up to date with the numbers, if I made error, please correct me] means it will cost you only $5,000 something U.S. I think that's a very good deal.


[This message has been edited by Guava (edited 05-06-2003).]

Actually, Egypt may currently be the place to buy the least expensive RTW OWE tickets.

At today's exchange rate, an AONE3 ex-TPE would cost about US$5,500 while the same ticket ex-CAI could be had for about US$4,300. A DONE4 ex-TPE is about US$4,900 and ex-CAI is US$4,000. (All prices do not include taxes and fees).

For reference, *A tickets seem to still be bargain priced ex-JNB (although I think they have gone up some recently).

You are right, except ex-CAI, your only possible First Class connection is to LHR - so 2 continents already. Then if the pax wants to come to North America, that's 3. But once in NA, the pax need to do at least one pacific crossing to make it a legal RTW fare and there is no way this can be acheived using only 3 continents.

The ex-CAI thing is good on paper but it is not practical since there is no possbility connect within the African contient for a First Class award.

The airlines do not consider CAI as Africa but as part of Europe and the Middle East. Thus, CAI-LHR involves only one continent, not two. (Scary that airlines are that poor in figuring out geography. ) CAI-LHR-JFK-HKG-LHR-CAI can be done on a three continent OWE.

Indeed, quite impressive! See, I have never been to Egypt but I do know it's one of the cheapest place to buy premium class tickets. For instance, EK (Emirates) First class from CAI to DEL via DXB and return to BEY can be have as low as $1,500 USD something. I have always wanted to visit this region of the world and when I looked up the price, I was plesantly surprised how cheap they are on such a good carrier like Emirates. Of course with the war and everything, the plan would likely be put on hold for a long time.

While we are on the subject of airline being so poor in geography. I also noticed that DL includes Egypt as part of Europe for the purpose of the Skymiles reward travel. In other words, a First Class ticket from North America to CAI on Air France cost only 100,000 miles! So I got all excited when I also heard Air France often offers 2 tickets for the cost of 1 from January to March in the past 2 years, a perfect time to visit this otherwise hot zone. So I imagined that I could claim 2 First Class tickets from Montreal to Cairo for 50,000 miles each with AF...then...guess what, somehow AF classifies Egypt not being part of Europe! How is that possible, this is so cruel! Funny as it may sound, DL members can claim to award on AF to this destination for lower cost than AF members themselves because of this.

The airlines...they sure like to play musical chairs with these destinations!

Thanks. I'm truly only asking for travel advice -- currency speculation is not my thing, at least not as an investment, and I'm interested in this only as it comes up for purposes of buying a cheaper RTW.

My odd situation is that I can and intend to make good use of the US segments to make a series of quick stops within the US, and my timing is such that my options are badly limited. In short, I basically have to start the trip in North America.

One possibility -- arriving in my inbox unsolicited today: 1st-air.net's Oneworld RTW fares don't look so bad given the change in exchange rates plus the overhead of currency conversions. See http://1st-air.com.sg/world/fares_owa.html -- with their email to me reflecting $250 off for confirmation by May 13 and a 2% additional discount available for payments by check or wire transfer. Now, I don't recommend 1st-air.net all that favorably -- they've screwed up badly in the past for me. But the prices may be better than any alternative currently available given my other constraints. Hmm.

How can one supplier quote a lower price on a OWE than another? .

If it wasn't a RTW, as soon as I heard "1st-air.net" I'd be tempted to assume it might be some kind of hidden-city type thing...

In Canada, I know some travel agencies would allow cash backs up to 5% mostly when you use certain premium credit cards - it's a 5% cash back. Then, there is another one which returns in form of travel certificates up to a value of 7.5% in return. Say a 10,000 ticket will really cost you $9,250. However, I don't think this is what the 1st-air.net is doing because the examples I gave above are perks offered by major chartered banks in Canada so it's 100% reliable. In addition, by paying with a CC as opposed to paying in cheque or wires, you delay the payment of your actual tickets up to 2 months of time so the result is you also earn 2 months of interest on this money that you will be paying had you not paid on the spot. And considering the current interest rate in Canada, you can add another 0.5% of saving into that to make it 8%.

I have no idea what the 1st-air.net is but when I click on the page, many of the links are no-functional either contact them, home page, or about the company. I must say I am skeptical.

[This message has been edited by Guava (edited 05-07-2003).]

And you know what, I am even more skeptical now about 1st-air.net. Many of the pages such as offices are not readable but pages on selling stuff like skyteam fares, oneworld fares, singapore specials had no problem. So the site isn't down, otherwise, none of this would have displayed.

Another curious thing: http://1st-air.com.sg/world/fares_sky.html

The photo you see with a man enjoying a meal in black half-moon tray, this is not from any of the Skyteam carriers, this is from Japan Airlines First Class!

I don't know, I don't have a good feeling about this.

1st-air.net is legitimate, many people have used them. There are several threads with satisfied semi- satisfied customers. They have been known to play games with hidden city and other stuff, but they are a legitimate outfit and have been around for a while.

One can understand that they can aggressively work the rules and sell cheap point-to-point tickets (and/or have access to consolidator-priced trips).

But I'd still wonder where they find any edge that lets them "discount" OWE tickets.

Afaik commissions paid by the airlines have gotten to be almost a joke, and credit-card companies aren't known for giving stuff away - you're paying for those miles and rebates one way or another.