Done 4 help..How do I arrange to P/U at CMB?
 

Hello:

I have done three DONE 4's in the last two years always purchasing them out of Bangkok. I note that as of this April 06 the Done J is $6400 from BKK and $5000 from CMB.

I can easily catch a flight from BKK to CMB and would like to just pick up this ticket at SMB and fly right out. It is worth it to me for the savings.

I have always used either American Airlines in the USA or Bangkok or Cathay in BKK to book these fares and struggle with the itineraries, schedule changes etc......How do I arrange this this time as I am picking up in CMB? Where do I pick up the ticket and who do I book with?

Thank you in advance.

Book with Cathay directly, in CMB. They're very responsive to email. Tickets will be hand to you at the airport when you arrive, although the CTO charges the equiv of about USD21 to courier the tix to the airport (per group, not per each, if there's more than one of you). C/C payment is okay, although if yo do that you can't ticket more than 10 days ahead of time per some Cathay rule - they want a signed c/c slip by then. Wire transfer works too, apparently. Check you PM for the email contact.

Echoing the previous poster. Set it up by e-mail with CX and pick the ticket up when you transit CMB.

You can also book with AA's GSA - but seeing that CX are so competent and it's so easy there's not really much sense in doing that.

I know you have reasons to avoid AA but apart from that, what is the situation regarding taxes/fees (CX vs AA) ex CMB? If it runs into the hundreds of $ it could make a difference.

Cathay charged me 3% for using my credit card last summer; factor that into your price.

No telling why that happened, but I specifically asked Cathay/CMB about it and they specifically told me they didn't surcharge and never had done so. That has also been my personal experience - no surcharge last August, no surcharge applied this time.

Visa/MC both impose a 1% forex charge, and many snotty banks add another 2% for no good reason except it feels good to them, but iirc that was not the 3% you were talking about. Were you in fact doing business with Cathay directly (then it would have been Dhanya)?

In any case, today it is absolutely, certainly, no c/c surcharge.

As noted above, they do have the slightly annoying requirement that they won't issue the tickets until 10 days before you plan to show up to sign the c/c slip. I tried to get them to Fedex the thing for signature, but didn't get too far, thus although I've got the bookings I need and they are being held for the requisite length of time, I'm not protected against price increases. Wire transfer is available to deal with that, but it's a real PITA for Americans without a good business banking connection.

Yes, I purchased directly from Cathay. In fact, they came to my hotel with the ticket and their credit card machine. I bought a CMB-HKG-LAX-SAN RT in biz in July 2005.

None of their correspondance had mentioned the credit card fee, but they told me that they had begun applying it in April 2005. It's good news that you did not incur it.

Does anyone have the address for the AA GSA in CMB? I will be in CMB in two weeks, and would like to meet them so that I have a contact for a future ticket.

Cathay/CMB has a lot going for them - they respond quickly to email, seem to be very knowledgeable about the OWE product, provide pricing in a day or two (likely done in CMB since they're called the Fares Group), can machine print 20-segment tickets, neatly glue an appropriately-reduced printed image of the tax calc into the box on each coupon, and hand you the tickets at the airport.

The negatives are that they won't Fedex the tickets ahead of time, want about USD20 to courier tickets to the airport from their downtown office, and won't ticket until 10 days before you're going to pop up and sign the c/c, adding exposure to price changes.

I have no idea how the Aagent compares on any of those details. Should he be willing to do a c/c payment and Fedex tickets, and does all the other stuff as well as Cathay, that might be the better choice. I actually didn't even know there was an AA GSA in CMB, able to ticket OWE's.

As far as saving money on fuel surcharges, it's been reported here that AA charges them too now, although perhaps they are a few dollars cheaper per segment. And if they've come up with a way to show on the ticket what surcharges have been paid, Cathay will add-collect when you check in anyway. (American is quite anal about that with taxes already, and obviously flog their agents to scrutinize the fare calc line very carefully at check-in. I've been grabbed at CUN and SAL so far. That's very annoying because I suspect I already paid the taxes, but don't know how to point it out in the calc line, so am at their mercy.)

AA seems to have one. A quick google resulted in this url. Looks like they may be able to help in some Indian cities too.

Thanks, Gardyloo. My google skills weren't up to snuff this morning.

kanebear just ran the ex-CMB xONEx pricing for me, and converted the AONEx fares to USD:

107N SRI LANKA

108N ----------

109N .

110N CURRENCY - LKR

111N CONTINENT - ASIA ¥

112N . ¥

113N ------------------------------------------------------

114N I FARE I SEASO I THREE I FOUR C I FIVE CO I SIX CON I

115N I BAS I N I CONTIN I ONTINE I NTINENT I TINENTS I

116N I IS I I ENTS I NTS I S I I

117N ------------------------------------------------------

118N I AONE I ALL I 769400 I 821100 I 944300 I 1085600 I

119N I * I YEAR I I I I I

120N ------------------------------------------------------

121N I DONE I ALL I 458900 I 523200 I 601600 I 685150 I

122N I * I YEAR I I I I I

123N ------------------------------------------------------

124N I LONE I ALL I 223400 I 268000 I 308400 I 354500 I

125N I * I YEAR I I I I I

126N ------------------------------------------------------



AONE3 = $7424.85

AONE4 = $7923.76

AONE5 = $9112.67

AONE6 = $10476.24

Please let us have your impressions, when you can.

FWIW, here's the url for AA's list of all overseas ticketing contacts -

http://www.aa.com/content/aboutUs/wh...ets/main.jhtml

Last year I sent email to the AA GSA. No response. Tried the phone number on the AA com web page, but it was wrong. I googled the TA and found a Sri Lankan based web site with the phone numbers. Again no response after 2 weeks so I gave up. If anyone is going to be in CMB for more than a quick turn around, they should try to go to the GSA in person for the best info.

With that background, why would anyone bother? From previous posts in this thread I had the impression this was someone like Emeco that people had used successfully.

Is it a specific aversion to Cathay, or is there still hope that AA won't impose fuel surcharges and Cathay won't notice?

If I had a buck for every TA I've dug out of airline web sites as their GSA in some cheap OW city, or dug up from web pages, that I've emailed and faxed repeatedly with nary a reply, I'd have at least enough for a ...

There is also a TA who will ticket on QF (and I assume BA) stock if that is more in line with the routing of your ticket.
At least as of May 2005. PM me if appropriate

Happy wandering

Fred