Getting to cheapest origin for OWE?
 

I realize that starting from MRU or Sri Lanka will allow me to purchase an AONEx or DONEx for the lowest price. I live in New York, so the problem is getting to MRU or Sri Lanka. Getting there seems to be more expensive than the amount I'd save compared to buying a ticket in the US.

For example, the RTW spreadsheet shows I can buy a DONE4 for about $3,500 less in MRU than in North America, but it would cost over $3,500 to get to MRU in biz, let alone to fly round trip JFK-MRU. It would be cheaper just to ticket from here.

Am I missing something obvious?

Apologies if I missed a FAQ or other post on this.

Some people go to MRU on an award, or on economy on a nested LONEx, or have to go to somewhere in Africa anyway, or are doing back-to-back OWEs ex MRU, or wish to experience FC travel at a price they can afford, or wish to visit MRU, and a long etc. What I'm trying to say is that ex-MRU doesn't mean the same to all, and it makes a lot of sense for some, less sense for others. In my case I would not start there at any price (well, almost), so I guess that if after all that you still do not see the advantage of an ex.MRY OWE, that makes two of us.

And until CX resumes the CMB service or another oneworld carrier commences a service to CMB, you won't be able to ticket ex-Sri Lanka anyway. :(

For me I will be getting to my cheap origin using an award ticket. I anticipate that in future I'd just be doing back to back DONEs.

I'd thought of coach or award flights, but that does not seem appealing.

9,000 miles is a long distance to fly and takes lots of time, even to save about $1,800 ($3,500 less the $1,700 cost of the coach ticket, according to Orbitz; it's about 24 hours of flying). 150k miles (AA North America - Africa) and a day or so of flying is not a very good use of miles, IMO.

If I was in the neighborhood of one of the cheap origins on business or otherwise, ticketing ex-MRU or some such might be more attractive.

At least $8,300 for a RTW ticket is cheaper than this: http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/486.html

As I've mentioned otherwise, MRU is not the perfect starting place for everybody. You might want to look at the cheaper places in Europe.

Remember that besides ticket-cost savings, the advantage of starting outside NA is that when you get back here you'll be half-way around, with 6 (or 8) segments to spend as you like, roaming between Central America and Alaska, The west coast and the Caribbean. If you start here, you get only two stopovers in-continent.

Paid business class to everywhere I've looked exceeds the cost saving from buying a cheaper OWE ticket. Paid economy to Europe could end up saving about $1,000, but with a fair amount of extra flying. Business award travel could save about $1,900 at the cost of 90,000 miles, which is not that great a savings.

Good point about more stopovers in the neighborhood (Central America and Alaska, the west coast and the Caribbean). If I wanted the additional stopovers, starting in Europe, etc. could be an attractive option.

It really starts with you deciding where you want your RTW to take you. If you're not going to Africa anyway, then the marginal cost of MRU (or South Africa for DONExs) is not only excessive, but may well bump you into more continents than you would have planned in the first place.

A DONE4 starting in Japan, for example, will be around US$900 more than one starting in MRU. On the other hand, NRT can be done as a turnaround from N. America (even no hotel required if you can sleep on planes) so the all in cost (positioning ticket, ground logistics, etc.) may well be less. Same goes for Sweden ($400 more than Japan but maybe cheaper to get to than NRT.)

If elite qualifying segments/points are not your principal aim, and if your itinerary fits, there are other products that can get you around the world comfortably and more cheaply - the United/Emirates North Pacific fare ex-USA is $4850; the El Al/Qantas RTW is $4969 (plus $300 if via Africa)... and there are others.

Here's what I did.

I bought a RT Y ticket from BOS to LHR for US$700 and then used 75,000 miles for a J class award to MRU (later upgraded to an F award for 100K miles).

Also a lot of people are doing RTWs on a constant basis.
In that case you have to get to your starting point only once - then keep circling the planet.....
RTWs are very flexible (except getting to from the starting point). So you can change the routing (for a fee) or dates (free). Ideal for a lot of people who travel a lot. I know some people who have 3 or 4 RTWs open at the same time.

For me I wanted to visit Tokyo anyway (it would've been a stop on my originally planned exCMB routing) so it was just nice as a RTW starting point. Got a 80 000 miles OW J award MEL-NRT via HKG on QF/CX.

If exCMB still exists - it's not too hard to get to from MEL - 70 000 miles J award and I get to check out Sri Lanka as a bonus.

Pulling the DONE apart and viewing it as a few seperate trips - it's quite literally only US$2000ish per trip in J! Plus a few repositioning awards of course which to me is an effective use of miles.

MRU would pose a problem as I'd have to get an AONE5 and it wastes as at least 2 segments since I don't have any business to be in Africa. I'm only looking for a cheap but comfy way to travel so the higher cost of an AONE5 (plus staying in somewhere i dont want to be etc) compared with the DONE4 exNRT is not really worth it. Could get a DONE5 exMRU but that'd defeat the purpose. Thin service means my stay in MRU can't be quick, and from reading what other people have posted about MRU - the whole thing seems pretty daunting. Maybe one day when I visit Africa but for now I'm happy with DONEs exAsia. :)

I think this is the people for which it makes the most sense. As long as you keep using RTW tickets, then the hassle to get to the starting is only once, but the savings continue on. It also works when you travel between two cities constantly and the fare ex. your destination city is cheaper than the origin city.

In my case:

YYZ-KHI Air Canada Biz ~C$7,000
KHI-YYZ Air Canada Biz ~C$4,000

the one-way Toronto - Karachi ticket cost me almost C$2K on its own in Business (on PIA - I would never fly PIA normally,) but I fly to Karachi every summer and have been buying these tickets for a good seven years.

Cost: C$2,000 (once) Saving: C$3,000 x 7 = C$21,000 (and there are five of us!)

Cheers,

EK/UA RTW ex-USA is $4510 in J; taxes extra.

As long as you do a 360 at least once a year as others have said getting to the oiunt of origin is only a problem once.

My next AONE end/pickup I am taking a safari in Botswana (on horseback!), last time I did CPT, MRU itself is great for a day in the sun/windsurfing.

For me the best thing about taking ONE's away from where you live is to get the extra segments where you are based in the middle of the ticket.

I've also got used to A class and the next cheapest place doesn't come close does it? - where is it these days?

Also really important for e is baggage allowance and when in F (with the exception of AA) I have never been charged with stupid amounts of luggage including skis etc that saves both hassle and money.

OT, but to keep anyone from salivating too much, note that EK doesn't allow this fare to use any of their fancy new aircraft.

ex CMB
 

It looks to me as if RJ provides an exit from CMB to AMM (on RJ195 Thursdays & Saturdays). However, this sets you up going westward on your xONEx. If you then want to go into Africa, you seem to only be able to go to Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda. Kenya or Tanzania. Otherwise you may not be allowed to re-enter Europe to travel transatlantic. One emulation I've tried says this is not allowed, but the OW timetable RTW applet allows it. (I tried CMB - AMM - LHR - CPT - DEN (via LHR) & it was happy.)

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Russ

The problem is how to get back to CMB from 'the other side' since you aren't going to be going back to CMB from Europe. Unless Sri Lanka is considered the same country as another country with more service, under Star File origin/destination exceptions? Don't have star file with me now but I don't recall Sri Lanka being in that list...

The OW applet is full of bugs. One or two people have reproted getting something like your suggestion ticketed, but many more have reported failure.

Cathay still officially serves CMB from Asia, no? It doesn't seem too far-fetched to assume that (someone) will issue a ticket with HKG-CMB open, and Cathay will generously drop the pax on their heads in Bangkok as they're doing with existing tickets.

It would seem that the big deal will be getting someone to ticket eastbound out of CMB. I'd hate to be among the first hundred people to approach RJ with the thought of an xONEx in mind. But AA seems super-friendly about allowing its far-flung GSAs to use its stock for such things, so maybe the AA GSA in CMB would be a good place to start.

I can't specifically speak from NYC, but from the west coast, the cost of flying the EVA codeshare flights to TPE and starting from there is still pretty attractive (it's about $1,300 for a one way SFO/LAX-TPE in J).

NRT looks even better and might work if you can find a one way that routes you through NRT on the way to TPE (and then skip the NRT-TPE leg). Especially if, as now postulated, AA Japan will ticket 16 segment (e-ticketable) xONEx's over the phone now.

Steve

I can confirm that AA NRT will e-ticket OWEs over the phone (for 16 segments or less). I had an AONE4 ticketed over the phone earlier this year.

As for the OP's question of getting to the origin of a cheap location, I've generally used redemption tickets to get there, or just continued on the next RTW trip when I finished one.

AONE4 DONE etc, how can you find a NRT fare from US location? Also same with EU start?

US location is not relevant. The xONEx's can be booking from any oneworld port to start from any oneworld port. The higher of the base fares between the booked and start locations will apply.

The trick is to use email/phone to book, pay and start from the cheaper location. e.g. When CMB was in the loop I communicated with a Cathay Pacific Agent in Sri Lanka via EMail. I 'wired' the fare to them and collected the tickets at CMB airport from where commenced my DONE4.

Unless I'm rolling RTW tickets (which seems a popular choice) or don't want to use the RTW ticket for a chunk of the globe (end the RTW in NYC rather than NRT), I'd need a round-trip to NRT rather than a one-way. The spread between buying a DONE4 in NA and in Japan is about $2,200.

I really should plan an itinerary. I'd pay a bit more for elite qualifying points, but not a lot.

It looks as if CX are looking at restoring the CMB service:

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_0...1132127SL.html

That'd be awesome. If only there was more certainty in doing an exCMB DONE. I'm sticking with NRT for now to avoid having to deal with unnecessary stress.

I think the poster was questioning whether one could telephone the airline office in NRT from the USA, book and pay for an eticketed xONEx, and expect to pay ex-Japan prices.

Chances are high that they'll find out the awful truth and charge NA prices. If they're kindly, they'll find a way to complete the payment in Japan, and call that good enough for Japanese prices.

There used to be a line in the star file apparently designed to stop foreigners like us showing up in a cheap country, plunking our c/c on the counter, and walking away with cheap tickets, pretty much against the spirit of SITI pricing. It said that the price would also be adjusted to a higher location based on the paying currency. Pay in USD, enjoy the North American rate. Absolutely no one ever enforced that provision, afaik, the excuse being that the transaction was being done in the selling country's currency.

I guess the poster will have to tell us what he originally meant but others (Gardyloo as an example) haven't had any trouble doing this.

Why not? Why should it make a difference where one telephones from? See post #20 of this same thread.

Only for e-ticketable (16 segment) itineraries. 16+/paper tix and they want you there. But they'll hold them and the whole process takes ~15 minutes.

:confused: I'm sure I'm not the only FTer to pay in local currency calling from anywhere. Even with the small cost of exchange still come out a long way ahead of more expensive origins.

As Viajero mentioned in his reply, I was able to do just this, and if memory serves so have others been able to (Gardyloo?). I set up the 16-segment ex-NRT AONE4 using the AA RTW desk, then called AA in Tokyo who took my credit card number and issued the ticket a few minutes later. Completely painless.

Amazing! AA has certainly become the most xONEx-friendly airline. Everyone else wants faxed c/c images, signed releases, and a FedEx'ed DNA sample.

For those of us without US credit cards, AA still wants faxed c/c images and signed releases. Thankfully no DNA sample required.

I pay with my Spanish credit card, no fax, no signed release.

Varied for me, on two similarly priced bookings, once was an over the 'phone quote and the other required signoff. The former was USD760, the latter USD740.

I don't know about AA, but with CX in Tokyo you can book 20-segment paper tickets as painlessly. They will send the tickets to NRT CX desk and you can walk away to your next flight in a couple of minutes. I got my tickets issued after dealing with them only by e-mail (the first contact made by fax).

Well, our tickets are 16-segment DONE3 but paper tickets anyway because interline open HKG-SGN segment.

What's the difference in fuel fines between CX and AA?

Might just go with CX NRT in future if I really have to get valid ticket numbers prior to arrival. I understand CX's fuel fines aren't as bad as BA, QF and the like?