Thanks for that.

Leaves the question of a straight LONEx --> DONEx conversion with no flight changes before the first flight is taken.

Happy wandering

Fred

Why not book a LONE4 at todays rate, about $1200? Fly the 1st segment as Y, then do the upgrade. Before the 1st flight I would call to see if this was OK with the RTW desk. If not, then the cancellation fee of 10% on a economy ticket is small enough gamble.

2 questions for changes during the XONEX fares:
if I change the routing and the new route has more legs/more taxes/surcharges, I guess I have to pay for it? (if not I'd just book the shortest possible XONEX and then add legs after the purchase, so my guess is you do have to pay)
and assuming I do have to pay, do I pay at the original exchange rate at the date of the ticket purchase or the actual FX rate at the date of the change?

thx in advance,

Yes, taxes and surcharges will be recalculated when rerouting and difference need to be paid. However, it's also possible to get money back, if the taxes are cheaper on new routing.

Usually taxes are calculated in the currency paid to the airline, not the fare currency.

thx thois,
thinking about it, it makes sense they charge in the currency they collect the taxes separately to the currency of the base fare. cheers

If you by ex-CAI then you are buying "in" Egypt and everything is paid for in Egyptian Pounds. Even the taxes/surcharges. It's just that the underlying price for various parts of the total fare are in different currencies which are each converted to Egyptian Pounds on the day you pay. So:

Base fare ex-CAI: priced in EGP
Taxes: priced in relevant local currency, so GBP for luxury tax for flight out of London Heathrow, HKD for airport tax for flight out of Hong Kong etc.
Fuel Surcharges: I wonder actually, probably the airline's "home" currency.

But when you pay you pay a singe fare in EGP (for ex-CAI) which is calculated by adding up all those components, based on the exchange rate on the day for non EGP priced items.


FWIW, it's same for buy ex-USA. You pay one fare in USD but the amount you to cover the airport taxes all around the world on your fare are all converted from their home currency to USD within it so for the same route the final USD price will vary from week to week as USD varies.

And then after this the airline or travel agent converts it to their selling currency at the IATA daily exchange rate. For instance if I buy an ex-CAI itinerary from the BA sales desk at LHR, the fare may be denominated in EGP but they price it in GBP. Some airlines and TAs are happy to work in arbitrary currencies. :)

to make sure i understand it correctly:
lets say I buy a ticket today, 9.nov 2016, exchange rate is: 17:1 EGP:USD.

i start my trip whenever, and on Jan 1st 2017, I decide for my 2nd leg i want to change my flight lhr-mad-gru to smth like lhr-jfk-gru. I have to pay 100$ difference in airport fees/taxes/surcharges.

exchange rate at that date is 1:14.

do i have to pay 1700EGP or 1400EGP?

from what i understand from the quote I'd say 1400EGP, which is actually much cheaper than 100USD just because i "locked in" FX rate at the date of the purchase?? tbh seems to be good to be true, but what do i know, base LONE4 fare for less than 1000USD is to good to be true :)

In the hypothetical you have set up the EGP actually increases in value from the date of purchase and the date of making the change. Assuming the USD100 is based on fees, etc stated in dollars (and not calculated from some other currency) you need fewer EGP to make up the 100USD.
Note that in the example given you did not lock in the original rate, but rather are paying using the assumed January rate.
Note that your assumption that the EGP will strengthen by that amount by January is very questionable at best.
Also, the conclusion that the January transaction becomes much cheaper really depends on what currency you are holding If you hold dollars the 100USD fee costs 100USD both on initial purchase and January change, If holding EGP you will need fewer pounds to make the 100USD
In sum, there may be two faulty assumptions in your analysis: 1) that the EGP will strengthen 2) that the changed fees will be calculated using the January exchange rate. A previous post seemed to suggest the November rate will be used.

1) it's a hypothesis, not an assumption.
2) that exactly was my question if that is really the case. there seem to be conflicting information about that in the above posts, that is why i asked.

the way i read the posts, thois is stating that everything will be collected in the currency the airport/airlines charges the tax/surcharges. if that is the case, 2) is irrelevant.

zombee and calchas seem to agree that everything you pay will be priced in EGP. Then the question then is, if you have a fee occur on another date than the date of the purchase, which FX rate will be used. The FX rate of the date i bought the ticket or the FX rate of that specific date when I do get charged because I request a change in my itinerary. It is completely irrelevant if the rate goes up or down or which currency i hold

Airlines do not remember past FX rates. Whenever something is priced it uses current FX rates. I.e., the later: "specific date when I do get charged because I request a change in my itinerary".

Can I originate in Egypt and terminate in Qatar?

Qantas says no, Egypt is in Africa!

deleted

Yes.

Qantas is mistaken. See the Rule Application and Other Conditions category.

I'm having a hell of a time convincing them of the rules, even though they can see it in the GDS, that Egypt is in the Middle East. The agent keeps saying "But it's actually in Africa".

So I changed the itinerary to start and end in Egypt:

CAI-DOH-MAD-HEL-DOH-South America-North America-SYD-DOH-CAI

And it priced - but as a DONE5 - "Because Egypt is in Africa". The agent went away for another 20 minutes and eventually came back to say it was a DONE5 because the SYD-DOH is considered South Pacific-Asia-Europe/Middle East. I thought the rule only applied on QF's through services from Australia to London via DXB. So I couldn't argue with that rule. Mind you, it was the third rule she'd quoted me as the reason my itinerary wasn't pricing. The other two I got over but this one caught me.