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.