Chances are that the Oneworld carriers will insist that you pay with a creditcard.

Thanks Guy Betsy for your words on the timing of fare revisions. Your word of discretion is also most appropriate. I have been having discussions with CX and as you said previously, they are most helpful.

Do you really believe that oneworld is not able to figure out in which country they sell AONE's for USD5095 if they wanted to? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

If you guys wanted to keep this "secret" you should not be discussing the topic at all in a opublic forum.

India, Thailand and Singapore all look reasonable after the CAI price increase.

Which is frustrating for those of us that live in Asia and want to buy the tickets somewhere else so as to be able to get full use of the side-trips in Asia. (Two stopover in continent of origin limitation)

From the point of view of someone who is UK-based, GIB looks like a reasonable bet. Granted it's nowhere near as good as the old CAI price, but after taking into account the cost of getting there from the UK, there should still be a worthwhile saving on (say) an AONE4 compared to ex-UK.

Any views on this?

I'm confused - currently GIB is showing at GIP4160 for an AONE3, which is US$7646, vs US$5700 or so for CAI. As far as I can see, CAI is still the cheapest in E/ME (at least for AONE3 which is what I tend to do). Do you see it differently?

[This message has been edited by christep (edited Jan 18, 2004).]

My son in law who is from Venezuela and was just there with the family over xmas clearly remembers a traveler paying Bs at the AA counter for a Miami ticket.

There are some pretty strict currency requirements about the purchase of USD and they can only be for specific needs and he did not recall that travel was one of them. Another point is that Venezuelean credit cards are not valid outside of Venezuela. One of the reasons the unofficial exchange rate is so high is that travelers need a currency other than Bs for travel outside the country but are restricted from acquiring officially.

He is going to email the question to his sister who lives in Venezuela and ask the question of whether an rtw can be purchased with Bs or if a credit card must be used.

[This message has been edited by magic111 (edited Jan 18, 2004).]

Sorry, christep.

I was basing my thinking on increasing the cost of the AONE4 I bought last summer by 40%. This brings it sufficiently close to the ex-GIB fare (imho) that many people might question the extra effort involved in getting to CAI.

What I seem to have missed is that the EGP / GBP exchange rate has moved since last summer!

But now I'm confused. If CAI is still in with a shout, despite the increase, why the search for somewhere else? Are we being far too hasty in appearing to consign CAI to "RTW history"? After all, CAI-LHR and LHR-CAI are not bad starting and finishing sectors, with F available on the route.

Maybe I should just concentrate on enjoying my current ticket instead of worrying about the next one http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Right on. The cost of an OWE is not the selling price converted to your favorite currency, it's that plus the cost (in money and other personal factors) in getting to the required starting place. For whatever reason, they've done a decent job of keeping CAI competitive for many of us.

Is there any way to get in touch with you out of band to verify that my perception of the other place is the same as yours?

If you happen to be based in the UK, then the CAI fare still seems pretty good - especially if you already have a ticket to CAI...

The BA Amex card I use converts all foreign transactions via USD whether you like it or not. My last AONE3 in October 2003 was billed by BA as USD 4,493 and converted accross to sterling as GBP 2,693. However, I also had to get to Egypt in the first place, so I bought a BA economy return which I recall costing circa GBP 300. So the whole thing cost crica GBP 2,993.

Since then the dollar has continued to fall from roughly GBP1=USD1.65 to GBP1=USD1.82 today, so the raw (pre-airport taxes) price of of an AONE3 as it would appear on my Amex bill would be approximately GBP 3,151. The whole thing would probably be circa GBP 3,300 with taxes, based on a similar routing. And on this occasion, I can use the stub ticket off my previous RTW and return to CAI in comfort in F at zero additional cost.

An increase of approximately 10% overall certainly doesn't kill CAI as a RTW starting point for me. Particularly when you consider the egregious price of RTWs ex-UK - approximately double the cost of the ex-CAI fare.

I also quite like hanging out in CAI!

[edited for arithmetic]

[This message has been edited by J-Class (edited Jan 20, 2004).]

Enough of OWE and Star Alliances for now. My next RTW will be VS. Basically something like a 4 Cont, for something like US $2800 in Business Class.

Who do they partner with?

OK, I'll ask it -- how do you get across the Pacific on VS? If on partners, which ones are usable on this fare and is this based on a US (or Canadian) origination? Inquiring minds need details on this deal.