Me too^

It depends on the airline and the cabin. AA and J is a bit wonky, BA and W doesn’t include T fares. Who knows. I would complain to ExpertFlyer but they just blame the GDS.

Hi all,

I'm trying to get a DONE4 issued by QF but the price I am being quoted is at least 10% higher than the price quoted by the OneWorld booking tool.

The DONE4 is ex-HND and when converted to AUD, comes in at around $9780. However, when I call QF to book, I get quoted around £6500, which is over AUD11000. (I'm calling from the UK but I can just as easily get someone to book from home.) The only difference between the flights selected on the oneworld website and the itinerary I gave QF to quote is that I've asked for AA code on a QR flight, and QF codes on most of the intra-US AA flights. Obviously, I can change the codes after I book online, but I'd prefer to book through QF because of their 24 hour call centre and the fact that, as a Platinum QFF member, I rarely have to hold longer than a minute to get to an agent. If I book online, the ticket will be issued by JL. I also don't have much faith with AA RTW desk because my past DONE4 experience with them has been that they have refused to book me onto QF codes when flights are operated by AA.

Any suggestions?

I'm guessing the difference may be the greater completeness with which QF collect fuel surcharges vs JL.

Hmm so this has to do mainly with the issuing carrier rather than the QF codeshares?

Does anyone have experience dealing with JL?

Perhaps ask AA to price it (using AA codes if they insist), then book using either the online tool or AA. Once ticketed, ask QF (or JL) to change codes, which should be a free change.

Ahh all worked out in the end. I ended up calling QF from an Australian number during business hours so got through to an Australian call centre. They priced it in AUD which ended up being the price I was expecting rather than AUD1000 more!

This is what I did before trying QF again. AA kicked up a massive fuss about not using AA codes. (Oddly, they wouldn't allow me to book an AA coded CX flight because I wasn't connecting to the US but rather to LGW.) A number of other problems I had with AA include: (1) they couldn't seem to find availability on a number of CX flights, which (according to EF) had no availability with US as the POS but was wide open with any other POS; (2) they had to send it away to be priced, whereas QF did it in 15 minutes over the phone; and (3) they would tell me that there was no availability for AAA–xBBB–CCC when it is wide open AAA–BBB–CCC (if that makes sense — I've had a few glasses of wine).

I guess the lesson for me is to call QF when I will get through to an Australian call centre. Once I did get through, it was actually the most painless booking experience for a xONEx I've had! I got no lip or annoyance about codeshares or anything. In fact, the agent was over the moon that I actually had my entire itinerary already planned! And she was profusely apologetic for putting me on hold for 10–15 mins whilst she had the ticket priced and then rechecked!

I am working on my first DONE4 itinerary. I will be in Middle East next week so it is advantageous for me to start it there, probably ex-AMM since it seems to be the cheapest in the area. My primary objectives in order of priority are:

1) Maximize segments/distance that can be credited to AS to maintain MVP Gold 75K (need 69K more EQMs on partner airlines)

2) Credit as much of the rest as possible to AA.

3) Fly new/updated business class as much as possible (QR A350/A380, etc).

After looking at some of the itineraries that people have come up with here and playing the online tool, this is my first approximation:

AMM-ORD-DFW-YVR-DFW-SFO-JFK-HKG-DEL-NRT-CGK-HKG-AKL-SYD-DOH-HEL-DOH

This results in 54,495 flown miles, according to GCMap. I am totally open to changing some of the segments to get me what I want, except the AMM-ORD, which I need to fly on RJ to satisfy their status match conditions. Would appreciate any comments.

Also, is it still possible to use AA to set up the itinerary and then pay via Canadian travel agent or did that go away?

1. Perhaps dropping SWP and adding either Sth America or Africa will get you more miles?

The Canadian exception was removed some years ago, only to come back even better! Now you can purchase the ticket wherever you want. Here's the current rule:

i believe the 2 sectors restriction for LHR-doh/amm/etc has been lifted from the fare rule.
do u know when did they lift it? the airline said the rule is enforced for a fare purchased on dec 16. thanks

A new version of the rules was published on 1-Dec-2016
That version was the first to no longer have the following words
(they had been there in the previous version, dated 4-Aug-2016, and in all earlier versions)So if you purchased your ticket after 1-Dec-2016, then the restrictions was no longer in place

i believe 5 tickets were purchased exactly on Dec 1, 2016

I don't know at what time of day on 1-Dec-2016 the new rules were issued (in which timezone)
And, as you probably know already, the rules do not have a statement such as "These new rules take effect from hh:mm UTC on dd-mmm-yyyy)

However, if it important to you to be able to fly more than one UK-ME/etc flight, then I think you have a reasonable argument that you should be allowed to - can the airline prove what time of day (in which timezone) your tickets were purchased? And how that time compares to the time at which the new rules issued?

Probably, -- Actually, I would be surprised if they couldn't. Whether the airline is willing to expend the necessary effort to do so is a different question, of course.

So do you think it would be more advantageous for me to book with AA desk or QF desk then (I'm in Australia currently)?