Wow, cool recent experience in xONEx ticketing and seat selection
 

Did a search in vain, nothing except a 2006 thread turned up. So I started this new thread. Mod, welcome to move it if appropriate.

Days ago I put together an ex-HND DONEx, with the first flight is on CX metal. Could not get the entire 16 flight itinerary validated online. First I called AA RTW desk, 26 minutes on hold later, I hung up! This might have been due to the time AA was having system problem (not sure about this)
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So I emailed to CX in Japan.1 day later, received detailed reply from CX, indicating some changes needed to be made (both DFW-ANC-DFW had no D availability, despite EF said there was). So I changed some dates and finally got itinerary validated, and priced by CX. CX quoted the same numbers in JPY as did EF.

The same agent handled all emails except at the end when he/she handed it over to a different department for ticketing. Each time the return email took 1 day which I thought was awesome!Info including taxes & airline surcharges (almost matching EF #s ) was fully itemized.

CX asked for personal data such as: passport #, expiration date, date of birth, issued country; credit card details etc..

I called my CC and gave them the heads-up that a large purchase in JPY is coming up. This step though seems redundant but was necessary based on prior experience.

eTicket was issued hours later (during work day time in Japan). Painless!After I received the eTicket,

I proceeded to get seat selection for each of the 16 flights. I happened to be on the JL site. Casually went over to Manage Flight. Voila, I was ABLE to get seats on ALL 16 flights. In the past, I had to call each airline individually and what a PIA that was!Well, thought I shared this with you guys.

Happy and safe travel.

The times I've used CX Japan to book xONEx's via email, I've never had a problem (other then issues which neither they nor I had control over). You no longer need to get an overseas agent to book from a non local starting point now though since the rule requiring the price to be the higher of country of booking vs country of origin was removed.

Seat selection across airlines on the same ticket is always hit and miss. It helps that JL now uses Amadeus, the same GDS as most of oneworld, which makes the selections more likely to stick across airlines, however it still doesn't always work.

Do you have AA sectors on this ticket? Do the seat selections made through JL/Amadeus show up when logging into AA/Sabre?

I had this same problem a couple of weeks ago planning an xONEx myself. Also with an AA flight. Anyone have any idea what's going on with that? Normally, I find EF's availability display to be pretty accurate, especially on AA.

Yes, you nailed it regarding JL now switched over to Amadeus. Seat selections on all airlines work as I checked on each airline's site.
I have 6 segments on AA. All seats selected on JL web site stick on AA. Cool.

It is possible that D seats were all booked right after I checked on EF (but unlikely, since I saw D7 on EF, but D0 from AA). Besides, I check consecutive dates, sometimes AA showed all D0.
Go figure!

my record time to book an DONE5 took 30 minutes from start to finish. :)

Online tool or telephone? I find the online tool painfully slow to go through the options and selections.

How much were the ariline surcharges? CX is adding surcharges to their flights? Small compared to BA/QR/JL.

real people. ex MPM on August 2.

WOW, this is a record time.
Online tools are helpless now. I only use it to plan itinerary. I email to get it ticketed. Much less pain, but takes days!

Complete itemization of taxes and carrier surcharges/Fees - for my DONE3
 

Below is my effort trying to copy and past from a PDF (sorry for columns don't line up):Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees BreakdownAdultMultiple Carrier Surcharges/Fees 25,600 JPYMultiple Carrier Surcharges/Fees 1,360 JPYHong Kong Air Passenger Departure Tax 1,690 JPYG3RE 5,060 JPYI5SE 1,280 JPYPassenger Service Facilities Charge -Japan 2,570 JPYOISE 100 JPYU.S. Customs Fee 1,260 JPYU.S. International Transportation Tax -Departure 4,040 JPYInternational Arrival Transportation Tax(USA) 4,040 JPYU.S. Animal and Plant Inspection ServiceUsers Fee 880 JPYImmigration and Naturalization Service Fee 1,560 JPYSeptember 11th Security Fee 1,240 JPYCanadian Air Travellers Security Charge 2,210 JPYGoods and Services Tax for Canada 90 JPYAirport Improvement Fee for Canada 1,710 JPYG4AF 2,120 JPYPZAV 120 JPYUK Air Passenger Duty 3,840 JPYUK Passenger Service Charge 2,320 JPYUPAS 1,460 JPYYMDE 1,400 JPYUser Development Fee India 560 JPYIndia Passenger Service Fee 420 JPYPassenger Facility Charges 500 JPY67,430.00 x 2 = 134,860.00 JPYTotal Taxes and Carrier Surcharges/Fees: 134,860.00 JPY

the fare was pulling that day (it was gone the day after) and i had booked 6 tickets ex MPM from the same office and they know me already so they know what DONE fare well enough
after ticketing some 16 sectors RTW a few days before.

my tickete was only 5 sectors that the system can quote, so they just copied the quote and take my money. (there was a long line in the office that day due to typhoon the day before).. both of us wanted to get it done quick so that they can serve other customers.

interesting regarding easy DONEx booking process over email with CX Japan and JAL system seating selection

currently I am also mid ex-Japan on CX metal DONEx, will the CX japan email be able to help with rerouting also?

In previous similar DONEx flights I have only been able to make rerouting by calling CX hk reservations and waiting for someone from rtw team to call me back - this is very painful and costly (not because phone charges but more because the time lag between painfully figuring out the itinerary on the OW RTW tool (the only way i know how to check) and them calling me back (with some occasional phone tag) means sometimes I miss out on flight availability if it is last minute change). I asked the CX-hk rtw persons who called me back for email or phone contact and they said this was the only way.

So if i can email my itin to someone in CX japan or anywhere else and wait for a response - that would be far more ideal, particularly when travelling - what is that particular email address?


On another note - does anyone know the priority of booking classes work on DONEx tickets? In my most recent rerouting I tried to get a particular flight on BA and as implied above it was available when I checked the OW RTW tool but unavailable even with downgrading by the time the CX desk called me back. But if I try to book the flight on British Airways - it shows availability on both Econ and Business, albeit at a pretty expensive price. I've already rerouted but changed a day prior, but I really want to fly on that date - should I be able to ask someone somewhere to get me on the flight on my preferred date? I would have expected that a DONEx fare should get me onto any flight with economy availability if i am willing to downgrade for that sector.

IMO it's this sort of thing that's the reason for having (and probably paying) a good Travel Agent.

I've cleaned up your info to make it readable. With a DONE3 base fare of 656,300 JPY, the fees/taxes of 67,430 (or 10.3% of the base fare) is reasonable. Final question, how many of the long haul segments were on BA/QR/JL? They tend to have higher fuel/carrier surcharges than the other airlines.