Ex-CAI or ex-LAX?
 

Firstly, I have already searched for and read a wealth of information from the Oneworld forum for which I am very grateful.

Secondly, I wonder does anyone have any comments which might help me address a dilemma. I am due to travel to LAX (from LHR where I am based) in early September and was considering flying in first class with BA (food service permitting). Having some free time available, I have also thought of doing an AONEx trip and am pondering whether these two could be combined. The problem is, however, that I would prefer not to do all of the travel right now.

I am thus considering whether buying an AONEx ex-CAI and flying to LAX (breaking the trip there and returning to LHR on a separate ticket) is more or less optimal than flying to LAX and starting the AONEx trip there (first stop London for a few weeks).

The pros of CAI are that it is cheaper and I am not fussed about only having two stopovers in Europe/Middle East. The cons are that it is more hassle and I have to buy a ticket to CAI.

The pros of LAX are that I dont have to go to Cairo to collect a ticket and presumably it is easier buying a RTW in N America? The cons are that it costs more and I only get two stopovers in the US.

Hope this makes sense - any thoughts?

Hi,

If I understood your "dilemma" correctly you'll have to keep in mind that if you start your AONEx at LAX the price will be the US price no matter where you bought the ticket. So the only way to get the ex-CAI price advantage is to start your trip as CAI-LHR-LAX and then getting a return ticket LAX-LHR-LAX and continuing your AONEx then later at LAX.

The problem here is that LAX-LHR-LAX costs money (doesn't matter if your company buys the ticket) and you might need some explaining to do before an airline will issue you this LAX-LHR-LAX -ticket if you do not have a US passport or working permit. (you're officially only eligible for the "visa waiver" only if you have a dated ticket out of the US.) So in order to manage all this you'll probably have to get your AONEx first before any airline will sell you the LAX-LHR-LAX. Is it worth the hassle? It's up to you.

The trip to Cairo isn't that expensive. Buy whatever discounted roundtrip with a return trip at an odd day/hour and throw away the return part.


/hv

Thanks for your comments. I am aware that the ex-CAI one is cheaper than the ex-LAX option. Problem is, whichever option I choose, I need an LAX return if I want to break up the RTW by coming home. I dont think the visa waiver will be a issue as long as I have flights of some sort ticketed (BA website allows you to buy LAX-LHR-LAX now from UK).

In that case, ex-CAI is your choice as the RTW is significantly cheaper there and usually you can find much better deals in US-Europe-US routes than Europe-US-Europe. The only extra cost is LON-CAI but the price for that is significantly less than what you save for going ex-CAI. When I got my first ex-CAI AONE I had to get to Cairo from Helsinki. One-way was €1400 or something like that, first-glance roundtrip €750 (Lufthansa) and when I changed the return part of the trip to be extremely inconvenient with the Helsinki connection the price dropped to €380. And Helsinki is an expensive point of departure anyway, you'll get it much cheaper there.

/hv