Sydney to Cleveland (and beyond) on OneWorld?
 

My father-in-law (F-I-L) has just won a long service award with his company and has been asked if he and the mother-in-law would like to fly from Sydney to Cleveland to the company's HQ in August to receive it.

The company are paying for business class flights SYD-LAX-CLE-LAX-SYD with the trans-Pac legs on QF and the US legs on Continental. A total return fare of AU$8,000 for both pax has been quoted.

Now this doesnt seem that bad a deal but whilst they are in the US, the in-laws would like to head over to New York and up to Boston and then Canada and perhaps finish off in San Francisco before heading back down to LAX for the trip home. His company have told him that they wont entertain such an itinerary (because they think it will be very expensive).

Can any of the OneWorld gurs advise here? Are there any appropriate circle fares that meet the requirements and would come in at or around the same cost (within approx AU$1,000)? If such a fare can be found then I am sure his company would be happy to look at it or the F-I-L could make up the difference.

The other alternative is to use QF miles (F-I-L has over 500,000) but as they are planning to travel at the end of August I feel that there isnt enough time to get availability on such an itinerary.

All suggestions most welcome.

Try looking at a OneWorld Global Explorer ticket. There are mileage based (unlike the OneWorld Explorer tickets, which are continent-based). From Australia, a business class Global Explorer gives you 34,000 miles for (I think) $9,169. Because it's mileage-based, you can zigzag in any direction without having to worry about backtracking etc. Depending on the time available, perhaps they might want to come back via Tokyo/Hong Kong/Singapore etc. etc rather than straight back LAX-SYD?

A OneWorld CirclePacific fare comes in either 22,000, 26,000 or 29,000 mile versions. Current prices ex Australia are (I think) $6,759, $8,249 or $9,689. With these, there are limits on the number of stopovers allowed (though you can purchase more) and you generally have to go in a circle e.g, out via the south pacific, back via the north pacific.

Best bet would be to decide all the places they (a) want/must go (CLE, New York, Boston, Canada, SF) and (b) would like to go (Japan? Hong Kong? etc.). Once you figure that out, you can determine the miles involved ... and then try to see what ticket best fits....

If the ticket SYD-LAX-CLE and back is $4,000 each, obviously these OneWorld tickets are a bit more expensive. You may also want to talk to QF and see what other 'round-the-world' type tickets they have that may fit the itinerary.

You can find copies of the so-called STAR files on these OneWorld tickets here -
http://www.hardlink.com/~markdu/OWFiles/

When trying to detemine mileage, use the Great Circle Mapper, found here -
http://gc.kls2.com/

OneWorld Explofrer is generally much more flexible in business class than the Global Explorer fare. On the OWE fare, you can back-track as much as you like within a continent and are not limited to 34,000 miles. The exact same back-tracking rules apply for Global Explorer and OWE - ie no backtracking between continents.

The 34,000 mile Business Class Global Explorer and the Business Class OneWorld Explorer cost exactly the same. But, they will have to return to Australia via Europe and Asia or South Africa, which will take longer and mean more flying.

You can just get to NewYork from Sydney on a 22,000 mile Circle Pacific fare. But cannot include SFO and must return across the north Pacific on AA via NRT. The 26,000 mile Circle Pacific fare will get them to them to where they want to be, and is going to cost similar to the quoted QF/CO fare.

So you think that the AU$4k per person is a valid fare? I couldnt believe it when the F-I-L told me - across the pond and back in J for four big ones! I thought there must be some error.

No, I had interpreted your original post as being A$8000 for each passenger. I can't see how A$4K each can be right. That would be more like a B class WHY fare, not J.

The cheapest I have heard of for J SYD-LAX is a bit over A$6000, and that is only as far as LAX. Of course, a DCIR22 is not much more than that!

I thought Martyn said $4K each ($8K total) as well... If it's $4K each, I can't quite see it, but there's a lot I don't know about the industry. I wonder whether it's some special corporate discount deal or even an economy fare upgraded with miles or something...

I am with the others. If FIL's company can get them both there in J for $4000 a pop there is no way to come even close to that doing more, let alone the same thing, with published fares.

So that leaves options like add-on sectors or FF miles. I agree that availability for end of August may be tough right now for FF miles, but the bigger problem is that you have just described something akin to "I'd like to see Perth, Darwin, Broome, Norfolk Island and walk some of Tassie." NYC and Boston are easy and close together, SFO is a great city for a couple of days but is 4,000 kms from NYC, and Canada is absolutely massive so they may be well advised to choose either BC or Tronno/Montral/Quebec City. They could take the train across but that is a whole other trip in itself. The best option in my view would be to (a) take the company deal and run like hell since it is so good, and then (b) look at the AA route map, work out what is a non-stop flight from what and, buy the visit north america passes. See this page if you have no idea what I am talking about. They cost US$80-US$300 per sector depending on distance and can be very useful so your mother and FIL could probably see two or three other cities using those passes for your A$1,000 budget (each?).

As suspected by all, FIL stuffed up! The fares he was quoted were per person.

Consequently I now have them on a DCIRC26 SYD-LAX-ORD-CLE-LGA-SFO-HKG-SYD for AU$8,269 +US$75 for an additional US stopover + taxes. They are also going to take a NYC-BOS-Canada-NYC 10 day coach trip

FIL thinks I am a genius and even the MIL is smiling!

Thanks for all the comments and assistance. Feels somewhat bizzare that the first major trip I have planned with help from FT isnt even for myself!

Try a visit USA add on if stuck
 

Hi,

I have not studied the fare basis argument for the 4,000 dollar question. When that is clarified then I can comment on Global Ex against circles and DONE 3/4 arguments.

However, do not forget that there are some "voosa" fares VUSA Visit USA fares that you can buy from outside the country much cheaper than from within. There is an AA add on ticket that falls into this category and most of the other carriers have them for tourists as well. UA may be worth a look and for Cleveland then CO have a big base there.

If you need to know more, come back and I will dig..

The tickets seem to have been bought so the issue may be moot, but I think those AA add-ons are still around although you need to ask. Last time I used one (1999? 2000?) they were a flat $129/sector so you really nailed it going trans-con non-stop, but kind of got taken if you were doing something short compared with the Visit NA passes referenced above. It pays to be either very clued in or to have a great TA who knows this stuff. Either one really comes into its own when you want to do open jaws which would otherwise end up pricing out as one-ways.

As eamus stated the tickest have now been purchased. FIL first of all told me that the two return tickets he was getting from his work were a total of AU$8k. Instead it transpired, as we all thought, that this was the price per ticket. When AU$400 was then added on for the LAX-CLE component, the Circle 26 fare made a freat deal more sense.

Just need to find them some reasonable priced accommodation in NYC and San Fran now. All suggestions most welcome

Priceline?

Between US$50-100 per night. Somewhere clean and comfortable, close to major tourist spots or safe public transport. Not adverse to homestays, B&B or boutique guesthouse type accommodation.

Err, Priceline is a travel-bidding site... See the appropriate forum here and www.priceline.com... :) (I don't know whether the US site will work with an Aus credit card, but various sites around here will tell you which version of Priceline will accept foreign credit cards.)

I managed to find 4* in Manhattan for USD$55 per night. It was the midtown Hilton on 6th Ave, easy access to tourist spots, subways, etc...

I've also found another 4* in midtown Manhattan for $60 per night. It was in the mid 50s Sts between 5th and 6th. That was a 'boutique' hotel - about 2 blocks from Central Park.

Or have I misundertood you?

Wow - I really must give PriceLine a try one of these days.....

The Hilton is usually around $250 or something of that order of magnitude. How far in advance did you book this? I can only assume that it was not very far in advance and they were desperate to unload the inventory?

Ordinarily, you won't find anything in Manhattan under $100 that you'd want to stay in. If you want something "nice", you're looking at $200+ unless you can get the Priceline route to work.