Booking codeshares on xONEx itineraries
 

Decided against the ex-CAI xONEx, last one was ex-CAI in 2017 when the EGP devalued overnight and I got my ticket 12 hours before AA stopped selling them.

I have a AONE3 ex-TYO (Asia-N.AM-Europe-Asia) currently being priced by AA RTW's tariff's desk starting March 2024. A couple of quirks while the agent was trying to get A class availability.

1-EF shows A class on the BA codeshare ORD-LHR (AA 7003), yet AA does not see it. So I'm booked on the BA flight number. No big deal for me since I'll credit to BA anyways. AA flight numbers would be better I think.

2-EF shows A class on the JL CDG-HND flight, but no codeshare flight, naturally. But the agent said I had to book the AA codeshare. What? She said that AA can't see A class, but D class. Don't know what going on there.

3-Agent said that base fare was $13K, which is not right. I assume that when tariff's does the actual pricing it will be about $7K base fare. Right? I got no push back for not having AA flights crossing the oceans. Odd?

4-I have booked only the 1st 9 flights. I plan to make changes after I start the RTW. That is when I'll add a couple of QR 1st class flights LHR-DOH-LHR. SInce that will be mid-way thru the RTW, any ideas as to what QR YQ/YR would be since it is only 2 flights?

After all this, maybe book via CX since the 1st flight is HND-HKG. Thoughts?

If you book via CX you are far less likely to get pushback on the codeshares. That seems to be an AA thing from everything I've read on here. I don't even see an AA codeshare on the JL flight CDG-HND, that's just weird.

I think you'd need a travel agent to tell you exactly how much the QR surcharges will be, but based on my last ticket with a lot of QR segments on it and another I'm working on, also with a lot of QR segments on it, it shouldn't be too bad since you're also ex-TYO. I'd guess at very worst in the $200-300 range but doubt it's even that. But you'd have UK APD which is quite a chunk unless you're structuring them as a transit in LHR (example DUB(BA)-LHR(QR)-DOH, in the reverse it doesn't matter since APD is only assessed on departures, not arrivals. I believe ex-LON it's ~$230 now.

The trip is now on AA.COM and tariffs switched me to the AA codeshare ORD-LHR, but left the HKG-LAX flight on CX. The price listed is the correct base fare of 1,003,300 JPY, with taxes of 110,290 JPY, and carrier imposed charges of 32,400 JPY. Taxes seem high while carrier charges seem low. No QR flights for now and no longhaul departures from LHR, so a bit puzzled as to why the taxes are so high. The initial Asia flight taxes come to about $160. Have 5 USA flights and just ORD-LHR open segment CDG-HND. I was expecting about 15-20% above base fare and this is close to that.

You can likely build the same itinerary out on the OneWorld tool online and get an idea about your taxes and fees. It "should" price it being that simple. But you might have to change dates to get F availability. One the very last page after you click review flights it'll allow you to see a detail of your taxes and fees. Carrier surcharges will all be lumped together but taxes will all be broken out so you can see where they are (all in IATA code but you can search Google for them).

I just built one out that's similar but can't do exactly the same, for some reason the OneWorld tool wants to force the last segments onto CX if your first segment is with them. I came up with an itinerary that has 91,440 total in taxes and fees, 48,800 in YQ/YR and the rest in tax.

The massive outliers are:
G3RE - 6,270 JPY - I can't find this one but suspect it's one of Hong Kong's since it's in the list between Japan and Hong Kong
US arrival and departure taxes - 6,100 JPY total
French airport solidarity tax - 7,060 JPY
French passenger service charge - 4,730 JPY

All the others are smaller but adding up to about 42,000 JPY in total. I can't imagine your itinerary has all that much more in taxes, but try building it out and see. It doesn't matter if you have to select Business or First just to get a sample to price out, any countries that have a tax on premium cabin I believe are the same between business and first.

I think the most interesting part of this exercise was learning that an AONE3 prices out almost the same as a DONE5... might have to re-think my Winter travel plans and see if I can consolidate a bit or use miles for some of the side flights I was thinking of that push me from a 3 to a 5.

Yes, G3 is HKG airport construction fee.

Wow, that's quite a chunk for a construction fee, LOL. Just looked it up, can't even avoid it for transits, and it's quite a lot more expensive for premium cabins. I think on a regular ticket you wouldn't necessarily notice it since CX tends to price their all-in price quite competitively, but on a xONEx with the first letter being A or D then it's more noticeable.

BTW, do you know of any online source for those codes to decode them? Google gets some of them but certainly not all.

I got it from Sabre, so sorry, not available to general public.

You can purchase from IATA although at the price they charge I'm not that interested.
https://www.iata.org/en/publications...axes-and-fees/

LOL, holy cow!! Yes, that price is well beyond my price to satisfy my curiosity.