CMB AONE5 Mini Report
 

I just purchased an AONE5 in Colombo and thought I'd share my experience there. In Colombo I stayed at the Hilton, which is very close to the CX ticket office. I made a trip to that office to drop off my itinerary on Sri Lanka's New Year's Eve. They were closed on New Year's Day but promised to get back to me with pricing and ticketing the day after.

I proactively contacted them on that day and was told a fax would come through shortly with my pricing (including taxes). It did, and I went back to their office to purchase. It took them about 1.5 hours to finish the ticketing process. The staff is friendly, well-informed, and I feel that they did a fine job.

As a side note, and I hope not inappropriate for this forum, I encourage everyone who has been contemplating purchasing an xONEx in Sri Lanka to please do so and make some time to spend in this remarkable country. The tsunami has had only a very minimal effect on the tourist infrastucture, and no tourist is unwanted. Rather than being a disruption, you will be cherished. For a very small country, Sri Lanka has a wealth of fascinating and beautiful places: superb beaches, cool highlands, cultural activities, and warm and genuine people.

May I ask what the total price was in USD?

I'm new to RTW tickets and am contemplating booking one, ideally a DONE*

Per the RTW fare excell file I downloaded an ex-Sri Lanka AONE4 should be $7600.

Everyone mentioned that RTW ex-Columbo or ex-BKK is super cheap, but the spreadsheet does not make it seem that cheap, so am just curious if I'm missing something here...

CMB, as far as I can tell, does not add excess (local) taxes. The fare prior to normal taxes is $8500 US, $9200 all in, as compared to in excess of $13,000 US all in if purchased ex-US. I think it's a bargain. Ex-BKK is about $500 US more than Sri Lanka.

Last August, CX/CMB was happy enough to do all the dealings by email, and accept a faxed C/C (and passport iirc). They paged us when the inbound arrived from BKK and handed over the tix (with appropriate verification, of course.)

Agreed that it was the most professional OWE ticketing I've ever enjoyed.

OTOH I found nothing in Sri Lanka to appreciate, at least during a 3-day stop. Kandi may have been interesting, but after the tedious drive from the airport area to the city, I'd had enough of their roads. I suppose I should exclude the people in my condemnation - afaik they're lovely.

The best way to get to Kandy (or the surrounding area), IMO, has got to be the train. I always find that a great way to get a feel for a country, and far more comfortable (albeit a little slower) than than the drive. We enjoyed Sri Lanka very much a couple of years ago, and I'm hoping to be back there in the not too distant future. But I agree that it isn't the place for "big sight, quick fix" tourism if that's what you are looking for).

I copied this from another site:

Regionals' lowest fares comparison for Oneworld Explorer, all in USD, rounded up to nearest $, all other asian places not mentioned here are more expensive that what is shown, ie India, Indonesia, Phillippines:

--------MALAYSIA--------PAKISTAN--------SRILANKA----TAIWAN----THAILAND-----EGYPT....HKG(SAR)
AONE3---6919............6631.................6362......... ...6944............6777............6098.......7275
DONE3---4892............4345.................4169......... ...5203............4756............4702.......5425

AONE4---8068............7805.................7494......... ...8333............8133............7031........840 7
DONE4---5870............5214.................5002......... ...6244............5707............5224........612 2

AONE5---9279............8976.................8619......... ...9582............9353............7970
DONE5---6752............5997.................5752......... ...7181............6563............5745

AONE6--10,360..........10,020................9909........ ...11,020..........10,756.........8908
DONE6---7765............6897..................6615........ ....8258............7548...........6269

I wish I could say "been there, done that, didn't bother with the tee shirt" but my disappointment with Sri Lanka is based on almost total ignorance - fairly detailed review of two or three guidebooks and various internet resources, knowing we had an opportunity to explore, and three days in the Colombo region.

Nothing I read seemed compelling. The things I'm aware of - relaxing in the Kandi area, looking at elephants in one or more parks quite far from CMB, perhaps some beach activities and other things I missed - are each bettered elsewhere. I don't know if it's meaningful that there's comparatively little tourist infrastructure in the country, Perhaps the boom is yet to come, perhaps there really is no compelling reason to fly there from London or Frankfurt to holiday.

Just as a caveat, the AONE3 and DONE3 prices you quote are lower than what's in my spreadsheet, so they may have missed the latest price hike there. The xONE4/5/6 prices are the virtually the same.

Exactly - for me that is one of the great attractions of the place: you are seeing a country as it really is, not in the sanitized, jazzed up, made-for-tourists version. I guess people look for different things from a holiday (and this is no bad thing - chacun à son goût).

Emaila & CX/CMB for xONEx
 

Hi JohnAx,

I'm planning to setup a DONE4 itinery ex Sri-anka for next year. My intention is to collect the ticket from CX/CMB in late October and I would appreciate it if you could answer some questions:

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Any information you can give would greatly assist me (and probably plenty more who follow) in plannings.

I initially called Cathay at their North American 800 number and booked the first two segments (CMB-HKG-LAX) and probably laid out the rest of the trip and got a PNR, but the Colombo staff was so easy to communicate with and so helpful it would have been just as easy to deal with them via email.

We arrived at CMB on the Cathay inbound from BKK. It arrives around midnight; I don't remember what day of the week it was, but it wouldn't matter. We were indeed paged - actually recognized and approached - and signed a c/c slip in exchange for the tickets. (c/c was faxed and verified ahead of time). The process took five minutes. If you arrive on a different carrier Cathay may not have airport staffing and you'll probably need to make your way to the CTO during normal business hours.

At any rate, it was a piece of cake. Cathay staff speaks excellent English the world around - take *that*, Singapore - and they were their usual very knowledgeable selves regarding the OWE rules.

I'll pm you the email address.

Thanks JohnAx,

Received your PM. ^

At this stage I will be arriving on CX from HKG (prob the one via via BKK) so that part is looking very good.

I've already booked my MEL-HKG journey using miles (The QF miles needed increase by 20% in 2½ weeks) and will be connecting directly (albeit with a 6 hour transit) to CX703 (HKG-BKK-CMB). It's an AUD 810 return HKG-CMB and I get to stay a couple of days to look around. So all is looking good. :)

p.s. I also checked coming from SIN/BKK to CMB rather than HKG. Turned out to be AUD190 more expensive (same flight goes HKG-BKK/SIN-CMB).

JohnAx,

Could you PM or email me the email address for CX CMB? Thanks.