If you can start from Egypt, then ex-CAI prices are EUR1940/5065/10390 for Economy/Business/First Class

I'm at the early stages of planning a RTW. I'm assuming ex-JNB is still the best way to obtain the lowest value J ticket? If so, I understand you can start and end anywhere in Africa. Where do the consider Melilla (MLN) to be? Starting in JNB and ending in MLN would be preferable considering I'd have to get myself back to LHR.

Not talking to myself honestly. :p just an update.

We turned up at the LAN office in downtown Punta Arenas on 11.2 and was told a pile of stuff I know to be untrue by a deeply unhelpful staff member. Caught our PUQ MPN flight on 13.2 and returned on 20.2 after a terrific week on the islands.

Flying back into PUQ I thought we would be stuck in PA for the duration but after retrieving bags and clearing customs & immigration went back to tkt sales and a super helpful lady spent 20 mins grappling with LANs reservation system and getting us on LAN 90 later that night for the red eye special to SCL. Result!

I had checked on availability but there seemed nothing in L despite loads of space in economy. LAN can now try to some more revenue on 3.3 rather than flying empty seats over the weekend. A win-win.

LAN staffer in downtown PA office initially insisted not possible to change dates on this tkt, then concedes change is possible at a hefty price (it's a LONE4) . Get distinct impression I'm causing all sorts of problems to smooth running of her day and why don't I go and jump in the Magellan Straight and drown myself a mere 500 metres from the office.

I try to be super pleasant and helpful when asking for things like date changes. "Good afternoon, I was wondering if you could possibly assist me in this matter...that's most kind of you, I really appreciate...." It goes a long way. This Rosa Klebb lookalike was not having it.

But the LAN desk at PUQ late last Saturday night couldn't have been nicer. Super helpful and as a result we have spent a pleasant day in Mediterranean sunshine here in Santiago rather than another day in chilly Chile. Next stop: AUK.

A key rule of business: a useless member of staff can cost you a fortune in lost future sales. If I hadn't had a positive subsequent experience at PUQ I'd probably be forever slagging off LAN in person and via Internet.

There are bad eggs everywhere unfortunately, when I find someone is grumpy (not just finding it a bit difficult but actually being deliberately unhelpful) for me I just hang-up-and-try-again. I'm glad you got what you needed at the airport ^

Also worth noting that the people at the airport have a lot more power than the people on the help desks. They can do pretty much anything to the ticket if the circumstances require it.

Doesn't someone host/post a spreadsheet for updated AONE fares by country?

What are best origination points for lowest AONE's? With weak Canadian Dollar, how about YYZ vs NA?

Also, I read somewhere that ex-TYO is great...but EUR anfd GBP are low...

There are no current spreadsheets to my knowledge. The problem with fare tables (if they existed) is that taxes and fees can be so variable depending on the precise route and choice of carriers that the base fares really aren't all that predictive in coming up with the "best" price. A cheap base fare from, say, South Africa, could easily end up costing more than a more expensive base fare from, say, Japan, once all the extras are added in, never mind the cost of accessing the origin/terminus points to capture the "cheap" fare.

This variation in prices because of add-ons is why the fares aren't listed nor advertised by booking sites. Most countries and the EU require that airfare be displayed with prices inclusive of fees and taxes. Because these multi-stop/multi-airline fares are all different, they can't be advertised as inclusive, hence they vanished from Oneworld's site.

For the time being, in USD terms South Africa and Namibia still have the cheapest premium cabin prices - DONEx and AONEx. Other origin points with lower-base-cost premium fares are Egypt and Japan, with Norway a surprise arrival in the "lower tier" origin points. For Circle Pacific tickets, Hong Kong is a surprise entry.

In North America, the weak Loonie has resulted in prices that are from 20% to 30% less than ex-USA prices depending on the product.

But again, these are all very dependent on currency fluctuations, and the taxes and fees can have a profound impact on the bottom line.

The UK and Europe will never be good places. Doesn't matter what the local currencies are doing; the willingness to pay of the local population is very high and that keeps the price high.

Let's ignore taxes and fees, and i can rule out ex-CAI and ex-South Africa.

Intrigued by ex-YYZ and ex-Japan, ex-HKG or ex-China, and ex-Norway.

If ex-YYZ, are there any issues buying a ticket from CX for example ex YYZ from the US by credit card...do I have to fly to YYZ or YUL and back to buy the ticket?

What is ex-North America currently?

Base fares are easily seen using Expert Flyer or KVS.

That doesn't help me right now.

If pointing out that you can find out what you want for $10 (*) by re-subscribing to expert flyer doesn't help, then you're basically asking someone with an expert flyer subscription to take time to look it up for you so you don't have to pay / take the time to do so. Not many, or any, will know current pricing by heart with confidence for your precise cities of interest.

I'd probably have done it if my subscription was active. You might consider asking more politely if you want others to be so willing.


*: given your response I assume you have subscribed before and there can't sign up for a free trial.

There used to be a spreadsheet listing base xONEx prices from every country. This was populated by a table on the oneworld website which listed these prices.
During a website update a few years ago, this table was removed, presumably because it listed base prices without taxes etc, which is illegal in many/most markets.
When the table was removed, the spreadsheet stopped working.

Currently, the only ways to get a price are to use the planning tool and hope it gets through to a quote, or to use sites like expertflyer to look for prices on a per port basis.

Hi everyone..
Totally new to buying Rtw tickets. My experience is more with buying ex eu fares. Point to point. Can anyone point me to info on where in europe is the better places to start a rtw. Do these fares even exsist?? Many thxs everyone..happy travels

You are going to have to go further afield. Look at South Africa, Japan, Egypt. Sign up for expertflyer and you can look up the prices for any starting point yourself.
See for example this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...ing-point.html

Ex-Europe prices are generally not among the price leaders in premium cabins, however they're quite competitive in economy. While places like Egypt are much cheaper than western Europe, for whatever reason Norway is (maybe temporarily) the cheapest (in USD terms anyway) business-class origin point on the continent, up to fourteen hundred quid less than comparable UK departures. But Expert Flyer or the top tier on KVS is your guide, or you can toil away at the Oneworld online booking tool, which will give you actual pricing, including fees and taxes. You can save a "dummy" itinerary then re-open it, change the origin/destination cities, and see what it does to the bottom line.

No problems within the defined rules, although occasionally ticket sellers do not know them so well as we do. :) The ticketing must be completed in the country of origin, but that is just where the seller's office is located, not the purchaser's domicile nor the country of registration of her credit card.

Try using http://rtw.oneworld.com to get an idea of pricing, but please note that the website does not show all possible flights and will insist that you must ticket with the first carrier.

Ex-Canada AONE Fares?
 

It seems that ex-Canada AONE3 fares are about $10K in USD vs $14K USD for originating in the US (BOS).

What issues, constraints etc are there with originating in YUL or YYZ and then connecting w JL in ORD to NRT?

I could also fly from YUL to NY or BOS and then to NRT or HKG on JL or CX?

Can I ticket an itinerary online or w AA RTW that originates in Canada? Can I Ticket it now ex_YUL and then fly to Canada in 4 months and originate there?

You shouldn't have difficulties originating in Canada and connecting through the USA to Asia. You're only allowed two stopovers in the continent of origin so bear that in mind when contemplating an itinerary. Note that CX flies nonstop from YYZ to HKG, although I don't know if they have first class on that route. They do from YVR to HKG.

Try using the online tool at https://rtw.oneworld.com/rtw/ which hopefully will get you to the payment screens so you can finalize ticketing online. Note this tool is horribly buggy so don't get your hopes up.

If that doesn't work, come back here for troubleshooting and help with work-arounds.

I reacted in similar fashion. If he wants help, at least ask in a polite manner. I DO have an active EF subscription, but don't feel inclined to waste my time for someone with this attitude.

From http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...l#post26321208
This is the 3rd(?) place that this AA policy has been noted :td: :(

Maybe it is time to start to question VISA/MC/AMEX about their policies regarding the acceptance of credit cards worldwide - independently of the home location of the card holder.

Second alternative has been mentioned a number of times - where an alternative billing address is able to be added. Perhaps c/o AMEX Johannesburg would be acceptable to both the holder and AMEX - though perhaps not to AA.

Final question - what would AA do if they were told VISA/MC/AMEX would no longer work with them unless they accepted cards no matter where the billing address was located.

Happy wandering

Fred

There is nothing in the fare rules, or the credit card policies (as far as I am aware), that would permit AA to do this.

If I show up at the AA ticket counter in NRT with my AU issued card, will they charge me the AU price?

You can complain to Amex at least, they do not like to hear a member merchant has declined their card for no good reason.

I suspect the other payment networks have a similar view.

It is worth noting that actually AA is very clear in the agreement it makes with travel agents, "The agent must accept all credit cards that AA accepts" [or words to that effect], so really Mindpearl is probably in breach of their agreement with AA and in breach of their agreement with the payment networks in declining foreign cards.

Yes, if you asked to buy an itinerary originating in Australia. If you asked to buy an itinerary originating in Japan, then you would be charged the local price.

The place of registration of your credit card doesn't come into it. Credit cards are not the only way to buy an airplane ticket.

After blowing off $100k on a 7 month long DONE6 RTW trip last year, I can't afford $100 for an EF subscription ;) How do the Namibia DONEx prices compare with South Africa DONEx prices?

It varies with the daily exchange, but right now a DONE4 ex-WDH is a little under US$200 more than ex-JNB/CPT.

Mozambique is actually several hundred dollars cheaper than JNB (hence wins the prize) but since QR is the only Oneworld airline serving MPM, and we know how impossible it is to get Qatar to issue xONExs, it's probably academic. I guess that's another grail quest in the offing.

You don't need QR to issue it, any oneworld carrier can issue any oneworld ticket product.

Calchas, I wonder if you have been successful at booking and ticketing a xONEx in this manner, where the carrier that issued the ticket was not the first carrier in the itinerary? My attempts to do so with CX, AA, and BA were all unsuccessful. I realize that they probably could do it, but those carriers did not want to do it when I tried... So it seems, they really try to avoid doing that if indeed they are not the first carrier.

There is nothing in the fare rules that requires first carrier ticketing. The online tool does so only because of a techical limitation.
If a carrier tries to claim otherwise, start quoting fare rules.

But you'd have to have someone in Mozambique actually sell the ticket. Maybe there's a TA there that could do so or maybe the QR people in Maputo would be able to do it, but it seems like a recipe for struggle.

Interesting, I've never had a problem doing it. My xONEx itineraries have all started in JNB or, in the old days, MRU. First flights have always been BA to LHR except for the one this past December, when first flight was CX to HKG, and one or two ex-MRU itineraries, when the first flight was BA to JNB. Didn't use online tool. I usually call the AA RTW desk to book and fare. Never a problem, never even a question. Ex-MRU, I used BA MRU office because they misunderstood a part of the rules which gave me much more flexibility.

Seems like a good project for someone to try out, along with (if my memory is correct), Air Berlin still being the only OW carrier for which EF will quote for RTW flights out of Karthoum ;)

Anyone know how much the circle-Pacific fares are exHKG?

AB pulled that fare.

You might be able to get someone like Amex Travel to do it, or find a local agent in MPT.

AS = circle Asia and Southwest Pacific (13 k or 17 k miles)
CIR = circle Pacific Explorer (22 k or 26 k miles)
CIR29SA = circle Pacific Explorer + South America (29 k miles)

As far as I can tell, EF seems to be showing the same prices for purchases in London and Hong Kong. This seems strange. Does anyone know if CX or BA in Hong Kong will issue this ticket with a non-HK credit card? In the past, I got circle ex-HKG fares from the AA office in HK, but I assume that doesn't work anymore.

That's right. This "don't sell the fare cheaper" rule is not implemented in the GDS system. The airline could publish each tariff separately by city but it's probably not worth it for the small volume of sales they make. Remember the rule is "sell at the local rate only if the local rate is more expensive than the fare in the originating city" ... it's not that easy to do.


Yes, BA will even accept cash if you want ;)

I am thinking of taking UL flight with the route PVG - CMB - BKK as part of my round the world ticket. In order to get to PVG i would need to fly on separate ticket with JL. UL has only 1 flight per day and my connection time in PVG will be 2 hours 20 min, just shy of MCT of 2 hours. If I miss the UL flight due to delay on my previous flight and would need to reroute my flight to BKK via different connecting city (say, KUL or hKG) will this be treated as route change & ticket reissuance and incurring fee? Will the staff at the airport knowledgeable enough to do this whole thing? Just afraid as this would be midnight and PVG is not known as the most punctual airport...