xONEx fee question
 

Hi all! Planning out my xONE4 ex-South Africa and slightly confused.

What fees does the "Multiple Carrier Surcharges/Fees" item in the fee list include? Do these fees match up with ones I can find by looking at the flights in ITA Matrix? Why do these fees vary with whether I transit or stopover? (Aren't stopovers supposed to be free?)

Example:
Fee increases if the NRT transit switches to a stopover:
...-LAX AA xNRT AY HEL-... = ZAR14155 in fees (incl. 5593 "carrier-imposed surcharges" and 2262 + 2251 (two separate entries in the fee list) "multiple carrier surcharges/fees")
...-LAX AA NRT AY HEL-... = ZAR15568 in fees (incl. 5593 "carrier-imposed surcharges" and 2262 + 3664 "multiple carrier surcharges/fees")

Fee decreases drastically when I switch flights:
...-LAX JL xNRT AY HEL-... = ZAR13319 in fees (incl. 6795 "carrier-imposed surcharges" and 2262 + 168 "multiple carrier surcharges/fees")
...-LAX JL NRT AY HEL-... = ZAR13319 in fees (incl. 6795 "carrier-imposed surcharges" and 2262 + 168 "multiple carrier surcharges/fees")

The carrier surcharges are quite opaque. Some carriers will vary them depending on stopovers or onward connections. I don't think there is much to say.

davidvc Welcome to FT

Real taxes / airport charges can vary with transit vs stopover
For example
- the UK ADP applies on stopover but not a transit (less than 24hrs?)
- Australia has a departure tax, but if you transit that does apply (as you never formally enter Australia so do not formally depart)

Do not confuse real taxes (& airport charges) with carrrier imposed surcharges (=airline profit)

UK APD is quite complicated (the rule book is about 50 pages long) but in essence an international-international transit under 24 hours will not cause APD to be levied.

Fuel and insurance surcharges will appear in the taxes/fees box on the ticket of course.

But yes, the airline surcharges can vary based on stopover and many other factors. Adding together the YQ/YR fees from individual sectors on ITA will not necessarily be a perfect predictor of the total YQ/YR line on a RTW ticket.

I've been working on my planned ex-CPT *ONE6 for next year
I priced it up in the tool (BA is the first carrier so I can do that)
Then I got the taxes, fees and charges breakdown from ITA Matrix

And what I found was:

• taxes and fees matched exactly except for three taxes which Matrix had and the Tool didn't - they are the US International Arrival and Departure taxes and the Russian International Terminal Use tax
• the BIG difference was in airline charges; the Matrix gave a total of ZAR5664 while the Tool had ZAR11008, so a difference of ZAR5344 (about USD380)

Go figure

First time xONEx questions...
 

Hey everybody! I've learned a lot on this and other threads here as I've been working on booking a LONE4 for leisure travel starting in August and going through the following June. I have some questions I haven't been able to find answers to, so taking it to the experts. If anyone has general advice/comments on the below routing, that would of course be appreciated as well!

Current routing: (which the online tool prices at $3991 + $532 = USD$4523) (great circle map)

1. YYZ
2. GRU (JJ8103, via JFK)
3. EZE (JJ8018)
4. IPC (LA450 xSCL LA833)
5. SCL (LA842)
6. PEK (AA940 xDFW AA263)
7. NRT (JL860)
8. DEL (JL749)
9. HKG (CX694)
10. BKK (CX713)
11. AMM (RJ183)
12. IST (RJ165)
13. MAD (IB3003)
14. LAX (IB6171)
15. OGG (AA271)

My specific questions are:
(1) I am U.S.-based, and would typically depart from the NYC area, but happy to make YYZ my departure point since the online tool prices this itinerary as ~$2000 USD less than one departing from JFK. Will I actually be able to book with this lower price? I know the below is in the fare rules sheet, but I don't really understand its implications.
(2) The online tool errors out when I try to proceed to the payment screen, which from other threads I understand is most likely because I am starting in Canada and ending in the U.S.. Given that, how would I actually book this ticket? Call AA, or would I have to go through TAM since they're the first carrier? If calling AA, how do I actually pay given the YYZ start?(3) Codeshares. I don't have status on any airline and have minimal AA miles, but would assume it makes sense to earn AA miles on this ticket since I do most of my travel in domestic US. Are there any codeshares I should be trying to take advantage of on this itinerary? I admit I don't understand how these can be advantageous...

(4) What are the pros of leaving the out flights open-dated? My travel will be flexible, but it seems like picking random dates out in the future and then just moving them up to when I want them as I go is the same number of calls from the road and protects me more if they change their routes in the meantime, right?

(5) What else am I doing wrong/failing to think about?

Thank you very much - both for any advice here and all the helpful posts I have already read!

Welcome to FlyerTalk VaguelyCynical. I'm astonished no one else has taken that name yet. I think you will fit right in. ;) :)

You need to make the booking at a Canadian travel agent or a Canadian sales office of your preferred airline. The journey will probably be priced in Canadian dollars, so there may be some foreign exchange fee (if your credit levies such a fee) although it isn't strictly necessary to price it in the local currency if the agent/office knows its doing. You are allowed to book it without residing in Canada. You just have to buy it from a Canadian office. (So be aware that the contract would be interpreted according to the local Canadian law, but in all honesty, I doubt that is going to be a big deal.)

AA is probably the best carrier to ask: they can issue the ticket no problem, it's just that the tool picks the first carrier to do the ticketing.

Presumably you will pay with a credit card. ;)

You could probably actually arrange this before they did the ticketing, if you were fast. But you'd need to contact JJ if they were the ticket issuer. In your shoes, I would call AA in Canada, instead of using the tool, and see where it went from there.

Yep, pick as many AA codeshares as you can (for mileage purposes). The tool doesn't show every codeshare, so you can try to investigate this yourself by looking at dummy bookings from an AA hub to points along your route, to try to see what codeshares exist.

The downside is that many agents don't seem to know how to leave the segments open. We had a discussion earlier where some people here thought it was impossible on e-tickets, although an old BA staffer chimed in to say they used to do it. The only flexibility is I think you don't need to worry about no showing or making multiple changes.

It's a long way to travel in Y class ;)

I don't think anything springs to mind—enjoy your trip!

IME the tool shows very few codeshares. Also, don't rely on dummy bookings. Use the electronic timetable. Remember that most distant codeshares require either TPAC or TATL connection on AA metal or AA codeshare.

Have a DONE4 Plan. What's next?
 

New to RTW travel and currently planning my first DONE4 (milestone birthday next year) -- ex-JNB in 2016 --with the following routing:

JNB-SYD-ADL-SYD-SFO-ORD-YUL-xDFW-SFO-MAD-IST-AMM-xDOH-JNB

JNB-SYD-ADL-SYD-SFO (all QF)
SFO-ORD-YUL-xDFW-SFO (all AA)
SFO-MAD (AA)
MAD-IST (IB)
IST-AMM (RJ)
AMM-JNB (QR)

I can't get the OW tool to price the route; I get an error that tells me to call QF customer service. Am I required to book with QF because they're the first carrier, or can I just call AA's RTW the desk to get things going and book the segments?

I've read in the wiki and earlier posts that I'll need an agent in SA to actually issue the ticket. I haven't used a travel agent in years, let alone one in another country! Is there a good resource in SA for this sort of thing?

Any (competent) oneworld airline can issue the ticket.

You may have to call AA's agent in ZA to arrange this at the low price, others have better experience of this than I do.

In the past the way to do it was to phone the AA RTW desk and get the itinerary set up and priced in ZAR (Sth African Rand), then phone AA's GSA in South Africa (Mindpearl) and pay over the phone. BUT there have been recent reports that Mindpearl will not accept payment using non-South African credit cards - see this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...ct-anyone.html

One option is to set up a basic RTW itinerary in the online tool and ticket it. Then later pay the USD125 change fee to tweak it the way you want it. For example this itinerary does price up in the tool - JNB-SYD-ADL-SYD-SFO-MAD-DOH-JNB.

One poster reported above that it is possible to get ticketing done by BA in JNB. You could try setting up your itinerary by phone with BA and then ticket by phone. Back in the Mauritius days I did ticketing this way (but I had to go to the BA office in Mauritius to pick up paper tickets).

BA has a large operation down in South Africa with their Comair franchisee (and LON-JNB is one of their most profitable routes), so the advantage is that you are actually dealing with the airline directly and not some sort of agent.

The online tool has many "issues" and for some reason oneworld doesn't seem interested in fixing them. :(
Any oneworld member can (in theory) issue a ticket for a oneworld product. The "first marketing carrier tickets" is an limitation in the online tool which some agents seem to think is an actually rule rather then a programming shortcut. I've had to quote fare rules to some agents insisting this was a rule and refusing to give a fare quote based on the "rule".

The main issue with payments is there is a rule that says if buying a ticket in another country, the higher fare of the country of sale vs country of origin applies. eg, if I buy an ex-Japan RTW from an agent in Australia, I'd be made to pay the ex-Australia price as it is more expensive then the Japan price, thus I need an agent in Japan to issue that ticket.
The online tool assumes country of sale and country of origin are the same and prices accordingly, however the bugs in the tool often create the need to find agents overseas.
However, due to a misunderstanding of this rule, some agents (such as AA GSA Mindpearl in South Africa) are taking this rule to mean the card used for payment must be local. Whereas the rule just means that an agent in South Africa needs to sell the ticket in order to get the South Africa price.

Maybe CX SA will issue an ex-SA ticket without the problems Mindpearl has been causing lately
http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_A...etails.ZA.html

Have you tried to include the "hidden" segments in your itinerary, in particular the missing SFO-xxx-MAD leg? AA doesn't fly to MAD from SFO, so I assume you're looking at SFO-DFW-MAD or SFO-LAX-MAD or SFO-MIA-MAD or SFO-JFK-MAD, etc? Also is the tool seeing the SYD-SFO service?

With its buggy tool, Oneworld is defaulting to individual airlines and their revenue/tariff departments, and GSAs like Mindpearl, to do the interpretation and brokering on ticket issuance, route verification, etc. As consumers we apparently have no recourse when one of these parties does something counter to the rules; there's no Oneworld policy police to blow the whistle.

I've been trying to find a travel agent in South Africa who could consummate sales of Oneworld RTW tickets but so far I've drawn a blank. I've sent several emails to large-ish TAs in Joburg and Cape Town, and have asked some South African FTers for recommendations, but nothing yet. I will persevere. Meantime, I guess "do your best" and "be patient" are the salient bits of advice.

I also recommend at least trying to use the tool with very limited itineraries, then once the ticket is issued, using the re-issue vehicle, which doesn't have to be handled by the issuing country people, to put it right, even if it costs $125 to do so. (In other words see if you can get the tool to price something like JNB-SYD-LAX-JFK-LHR-JNB, then once issued, populate the rest of the flights through a reissue. Make it easy on the bad robot.)