Circle Pacific from Manila for lower fare?
 

Hi folks, I've been looking at the Circle Pacific fares and it appears that the business class fare is US$6600 starting in the US, but only US$4320 starting from the Philippines (Manila). Is it a reasonable strategy to use FF miles to get to Manila and then circle from there to save $2300 on the fare?

It has the further advantage of allowing the Circle to be divided into two trips with a break at home in between:
1) Manila -> SE Asia stops -> LAX
Downtime at home for a month
2) LAX -> South Pacific stops -> Manila

My only concern is that the Circle Pacific Rule Sheet says something about how the fare in the county or origin must not be lower than from the country of sale - not sure exactly what that means or if there is some way to get around it.

Thanks for any insights/suggestions.
-J.R.

Welcome to Flyer Talk jrtozer :)

Some FTers do just like you propose. It isn't for everyone (depends on whether you think it is worth using your points to and from Manila to save that much money).

The fare rule just means you cannot ticket in USA and get that price. You need to use an airline or TA based in Philippines.

It's definitely worth it to me to use the ff miles to get to MNL because it would involve a stop in Palau, which I don't believe is possible on the OneWorld Circle. Also, a break between SE Asia and South Pac would be welcome.

So you're saying I can get the lower MNL fare if I ticket thru an airline in the Philippines - does anyone know which Oneworld airline tickets in the Philippines? Or can you recommend a Philippine travel agent?

Thanks, -J.R.

This thread may have some relevance:

• Help with booking ex MNL

Start by checking if CX has a ticket office in MNL. Use the CX web site to do this.

CX are good at setting up an itinerary through email correspondence. Then just turn up at a ticket office and pay up.

For first class circle pacific... I bought ticket from TPE and it was USD $5300 in FIRST. Routing is TPE-NRT-LAX-SYD-SIN-TPE using SQ, UA and NH.. Great deal...

I have been working these out of TPE lately. The CX office there is great. Slightly higher right now than MNL (by a few hundred).

I didn't realize that ex-USA xCIRx's went up again. Last year, the 22's were $5100, now they are $5500.

The Philippines seem to be the new low price leader for DCIR's now, surpassing Indonesia and Taiwan.