Possibly the easiest DCIR26 Q
 

Please feel free to flame and insult me for asking this, but I poked around and didnt find an answer. I could totally have missed it. Oh, and flame me after you answer :D

I'm looking to buy a few DCIR26's. I can find a decent reason to buy them in Singapore (well, I can find a reason to get work to ship me off there for a couple days, and then buy them while I'm there). Starting and ending the DCIR's in SIN doesn't bother me, in fact it may make life simple on some aspects, and I'll burn some miles to get there/back for that. If I rock into a ticketing office there, am I able to buy the ticket without a sin based address? Or will I be kindly told to go home and buy them? AA has a ticketing office, if I book thru them, am I likely to save on fuel surcharges, v hitting up QF?

Many thanks!


and props for all amusing insults ;)

Residential address should not be an issue.

Many oz residents use the generally less expensive SIN as the origin for many types of tickets.

By all means purchase via AA if possible; I saved ~$800 pp purchasing a LONE4 from them rather than Qantas.

I've done exactly what you're speaking of two weeks ago in Hong Kong. I can't speak for Singapore of course, but it was quite easy in HKG. I considered going thru SIN, especially since the Saturday office hours at the AA office sync'd with my schedule a bit more. In the end, I decided on HKG, since I wanted to use my 26k miles in North America, rather then getting in & out of Singapore.

The DCIR26 reservations were setup and priced through the AA RTW Desk in the US (+1 800 247 3247), who I'm quite loyal to. Then, on a stopover from the US, stopped in to the AA HKG office, and had 2 DCIR26 tickets issued 10 minutes later.

I live in Australia, and my credit card was issued in the States, but the ticketing staff didn't ask. 8 hours later I on a plane to Australia.

Pricing ex-HKG is better than ex-SIN, but it obviously depends on where you can get to, in order to have it ticketed. I've only done DCIR22s and do those ex-U.S. Whereas we do DONE4s ex-NRT and would like to do DCIRx ex-HKG, the problem for me with HKG for a DCIR22 is that it's too far west, so if you're trying to get to the east coast U.S., you run out of miles before you can get all the way round .... I guess I should do a DCIR26 (rather than a DCIR22) given that a DCIR26 ex-HKG (US$5,275) is slightly cheaper than a DCIR22 ex-US ($5,500).

Current pricing (before taxes) for DCIR26 -

Hong Kong: HK$41,160 = US$5,275
Japan: Y704,600 - US$6,681
Singapore: S$8,203 - US$6,024
Australia: A$9,099 - US$8,702
U.S.: $6,600

Sorry to be a bit dull witted and slow, but I've spent the day cleaning and while my mood is elevated from the bleach, I'm quite sure I've killed off the few remaining brain cells I had.

When you rang up the AA desk in the US, they price it based on where you intend on having the ticket issued, ie in your case HKG, or is it priced on the US prices, being where they physically are?

I'm sure it's all clear, but I'm taking care of this for someone else, and I'll be written out of the will (again ;)) if I get this wrong.

many thanks!!

The AA RTW desk will just set up and kosher the itin; you then contact the local office -SIN or HKG - with the PNR locater and have them queue the reservation to the AA rates department, who will perform their black arts and send the price back to the selling office.

I've always had the ATW desk queue the PNR to tariffs - they'd simply ask where I intend to purchase the ticket and remark in the PNR accordingly, and the rates desk (usually Dublin) will price the itinerary at the price of the selling office. Much easier to resolve potential pricing errors with the ATW desk than the local station IME, particularly if language barriers are involved with the foreign location (should be fine in SIN/HKG). The price quote will only be valid for 7 days so best to call ATW desk to repeat the process if you're ticketing more than 7 days after your PNR last got priced.

Ditto, they usually get the rate back in less than 24 hours. Just call, set up your itin, tell them where you are purchasing then call back 24 hrs. later for your rate. Call or drop in on a AA ticketing agency, pay and you are away.

It sounds rather difficult but in actual fact it is very easy.

Yes, that has been my experience too, but to avoid delays you should specifically request that this be done, and then follow-up to make sure it has happened. When I went to pick up my DONE4 in YVR last week, that had not heard about it in advance and it ended up taking a long time.

In the end they were very nice and are going to mail me the paper ticket, but the point is that it is better if the AA desk sends it over in advance. In this case, they told me it had been done, but obviously something didn't connect somewhere.