Maybe via DOH with QR.

I hadn't thought of that. I'll keep it in mind.

But QR uses their 330 on that route which don't have lie-flat seats.

Of course there is a thread in the QR forum saying they are starting to put the 787 seats on the 330s.

And I hadn't thought of that, either. I'm not flying until November so I have time to see what plays out. Ideally I'd like to stay on CX so hopefully the rejig of their Middle East network will offer some good options.

xONEx taxes with AA
 

Hoping someone can advise on the latest with AA taxes for xONEx tickets.

I have booked several of these in the past and found it very beneficial to book though AA to avoid higher taxes and fuel charges. I recall last year that this changed as AA started to collect surcharges on all carriers. This was quickly removed for award tickets, but does this still apply for rtw tickets?

It would be good to hear definitively on this! If they are, which is now the "best" carrier to try to ticket on in order to keep such charges down? Thanks.

Real taxes are the same for all carriers.
Never confuse real taxes and carrier imposed surcharges (= profit)

The YQ/YR collection from AA for other carriers does apply to RTW tickets. The biggest addition was with MH; they have crazy high fuel surcharges.

As does QF

I believe you best bet is still AA. Certainly I'm getting charged plenty less on top of the base fare for an ex South Africa itin compared with the online tool (which I imagine was ticketing via BA).

TO find out actual taxes AA will charge I think you'll just need to call the RTW desk and get it priced.

So when ticketing with AA it's BA, MH and QF that impose substantial surcharges that AA will need to add/collect? Any others?

Aside, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to book an IB code share for MRU-LGW and thus avoid surcharges despite it being a BA flight.

[off topic] AA collecting surcharges

As far as I aware AA does not collect surcharges for an AA award or an AA issued xONEx on a QF flight.
AA do charge surcharges for AA awards on BA/IB flights as often discussed on the AA forum.
This is one reason why AA is generally a better FFP than QF & BA.

[/off topic]

I've been able to save large amounts on surcharges over the last few years by using IB and MH codes on BA and AY flights in Europe.

IB code on JNB-LHR is a good money saver, too.

Regardless of which option I take, will I be permitted to make the intermediate point (eg. DOH if I go HKG-DOH-JED) a stopover, or will I be restricted to making that point strictly a transit only?

CX's responsibility is to protect you from its schedule change, by getting you from HKG to JED. Had you chosen to stopover in DXB, then its responsibility would be to get you from DXB to JED.
So CX could (rightly) refuse to allow a stopover at the intermediate point. But it is free to allow it, if it chooses to be nice to you.

A factor in its decision might be whether you've had your two allowed stopovers in Europe/Middle East (which is your 'continent of origin' right?).

Interesting, thank you.

I'm travelling SSH-AMM-DME-xDOH-IAH . . .

I received an automated revised itinerary from CX a few days ago. I had been re-routed HKG-xDOH-JED on QR. I was booked into Y on the last segment, a two-class flight, which is pathetic as the oneworld Explorer rules clearly dictate First in these circumstances.

I got straight on the phone to CX and got an agent who (a) couldn't pronounce "Doha" and (b) didn't know what the abbreviation "QR" represented. His naivety turned out being helpful. I asked to be routed HKG-xLHR-JED instead - and succeeded.

The ticket has been reissued. I'll wait and see if it sticks.

Hi, sorry if this has been covered elsewhere.

I have booked 3 x DONE4 routing LON - HKG - AKL - LAX - LON. Two of my colleagues are travelling after me. I am travelling ahead of them to explore HKG and NZ. I have paid for all three tickets on 2 separate bookings. The page after payment says that while the card holder needn't travel, the card needs to be presented. As when my colleagues leave a week after me, I will already be in NZ, how do I cover this? Do i give their booking reference when I check in?

Secondly, when does the issuing airline actually take payment and issue etickets? I have had confirmations for both bookings, but can't see etickets for them.

Thanks in advance

Edited to add detail - First booking for my colleagues was made 3rd Feb, mine was booked today.

You'll need to contact the first airline as to what their requirements are in respect of sighting the payment credit card. You may have to visit their London office before you travel to get the other 2 tickets vetted.

As for ticketing this can take a few days. Did you provide your email address or the passengers' email address?

Thanks.

I called Cathay who have forced through the ticketing as it was still in the queue. They processed mine first which made my colleagues' tickets get declined on the credit card due to my credit card putting a security block on. Will have to sort out on Monday.

As far as the credit card is concerned, they have told me to print off the etickets for my colleagues and present them when I check in along with my credit card. The other option was filling in a form and sending it back - suspect the former will be the easiest way.

Thanks again.

I've had xONEx's issued by CX, AA and QF in the past. Only CX has asked to see the card when checking in for the first flight.
Of the 2 issued by CX, one was ex-ICN. They asked for the card. The other was ex-HND. Although the website had a notice to show the card at check in, when I got to the desk, they never asked for it.

Backtracking between Hawaii and other points in North America is not permitted
 

I've known about this rule for some time, but in planning our next xONEx I ran into an unexpected problem. I wonder what the opinions of the gurus are on this.

Snippet of our proposed itinerary is...

...DOH-DFW-ANC-DFW-HNL,DFW-GIG...

So we're flying DFW-HNL and have a surface segment HNL back to DFW
The online tools will not allow this; it gives the error:
I always thought the rule meant one couldn't fly both to and from Hawaii.

What do people think? Is the tool correctly interpreting the rule do you think?

After flying to Hawaii from US mainland you then resume flying from US mainland. That seems like backtracking to me even though you have a surface sector.

I've always read that rule to mean that once you've traveled mainland NA-Hawaii, you can then only travel on to Asia or SWP.

Pretty sure that it's backtracking even if it's a surface sector. I looked for ways around this when doing my RTW last year and wasn't able to find any.

Thanks for your comments
Looks like it's back to the drawing board for me

(but it does mean that an itinerary such as mine AFR-->EUR-->NAM-->SAM-->SWP-->AFR cannot include Hawaii, which is a bummer:td:)

Can't you utilise the 2nd entry to NAM exception and do something like the following?

JNB-LHR-xJFK-GIG-MIA-LAX-HNL-NRT-HKG-JNB

Yes that would work
But it's changing the order of the continents (SAM before NAM - ignoring the initial transit)
For various reasons, we need to do NAM before SAM, so I guess we'll have to skip Hawaii this trip :(

Just got a few different options for a LONE4 priced up with AA and I am seeing massive differences over what they were around 1 year ago! For a 16 segment mixed carrier (AA/BA/RJ/MH/CX) ticket I am getting taxes and fess almost the same as the ticket price! This is crazy, when previously you could get total charges less than 500 gbp.

So, that brings the question, how to get around this?!

I see from comments here that people still agree AA is better than other carriers for ticketing, as have I. No-one has better experience, perhaps with the new OW members?

Regarding specific airlines, it seems that MH and AA intercon are bad. Has anyone worked out which others have high charges for short or for long haul? No matter which carriers I choose, these seem to remain now.

The culprit is almost always BA; even if AA tickets the trip, they're happy to pass through BA fuel fines, particularly when BA is the first carrier. However without a detailed itinerary from you, all we can do is guess.

My recent experiences with AA RTW desk have been very mixed. One might guess that some experienced hands have retired and for the rest perhaps the transition to US Air ownership has brought with it some low-level turbulence.

If you know how to use the ITA tool you can enter your trip into the multi-city page and see what fuel fines and taxes are being imposed for each segment. I think 6 segments are the most allowed so you'll need to do several pieces and have to be careful not to invoke a departure tax for a city that in your real trip would be a transit. (The OW on-line tool may give you that too, but I haven't used it.)

The only time I've used the desk, before the Canadian Exemption was removed, they tried to charge me for an AONE3 when I was booking a DONE3.

US Airways on DONE4 & DGLOB34
 

Does anyone know if you can book the US Airways Express flights operated by Skywest & Mesa in A class? Or can you book the AA codeshares in A class? Or do you need to travel in Economy? The fare sheets are not very clear and have different rules for each fare.

Yes in first, subject to availability.

For flights within North America, a business class oneworld fares book into A when business class is not offered.
If business class is offered, but not available, you downgrade to L.
If business class is not offered, and A is not available/offered, you downgrade to L.

I have a DONE3, the last two sectors of which are HKG-LHR-JED on CX and BA.

Originally, at the time of ticketing, LHR was just a transit of a few hours. I have since turned it into a stopover. CX is charging me GBP183 as "we need to collect UK departure tax". By my calculation I should only be charged GBP134 which is I understand to be the APD appropriate to my journey.

Does this sound right? Is CX trying to get more out of me?

According to ITA, a premium departure from LHR to JED will include £138 for APD and £39.75 for PSC. Subtract what you've already paid for the connection.

US should be added to the list of eligible airlines, correct? At least until the merger/operating certificate is complete.

The FAQ's in the first and second posts haven't been updated in the last few years. US was added to the rules by OW last month.
See also:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22627741-post142.html

New to RTW, and Need Help
 

Hi All,

I'm planning what I think is a relatively straightforward RTW trip via OneWorld Explorer, but I'm running into a few issues.

My intended itinerary is NYC-LAX-SYD-MEL-TLV-WAW-OSL-NYC.

For some reason, I keep getting the "230: you have too many sectors" error message. Any ideas as to what the issue is?

In case it helps, NYC-LAX is one flight. LAX-SYD is one flight. SYD-MEL is one flight. MEL-TLV is three flights. TLV-WAW is two flights. WAW-OSL is two flights. And OSL-NYC is two flights. I could make SYD-MEL and WAW-OSL both surface sectors, but when I tried that, I still got the error message.

Many thanks in advance for any help,

Benjamin