Rapid currency changes creating new opportunities
 

Was wondering if people could post cheap oneworld fare opportunities here:

I've found DONE 3/4 4300/5000 USD South Korea
DONE 4 5000 USD South Africa

Has anyone ticketed from South Korea?

Have not ticketed but spoken to them.
Agent is slow to respond to email.

They do not accept credit card payments apart from in person.
Money transfer to Korea is typically also difficult.

They set currency exchange a week in advance in USD according to my latest exchange with them, before I decided to ticket with Pakistan (also has its problems) ...
Current rate which is valid till 13th October is 1USD = KRW 1284.40

JPY rose rapidly. so ex-NRT getting unattractive.
So as a Japan resident, ex-KR is getting attractive price.

exKR AONE3/4 702,487/798,752 JPY
exJP AONE3/4 955,500/1,126,100 JPY

Don't forget that you can have only 2 stopovers in the continent of origin!
As I definitely want to take 4 stopovers in Asia, it rules out the Asia origin for me.
2 stopovers in SWP are a nuisance, but I could probably live with that.
2 stopovers in EUR are perfectly OK, as that is where I live.
2 stopovers in Africa are perfectly OK, as I don't want to stop there at all.

For me, it looks like starting in London or JNB for LONEx or DONEx/AONEx is still the best.

This is a good point.


Also, as of my posting yesterday SK has further dropped another 5% (!) and RSA similar drop...

Holy Currency Rates, Batman!!!

AONE3 ex South Korea KRW 8,881,400 = US$6,370
AONE4 ex South Africa ZAR 66,500 = US$7,234

Which agent did you use? AA's? CX is generally easy to work with, although I haven't tried Korea yet... And of course CX can be more expensive with taxes...

Yes, was referring to AA.

Daejoo Air Agencies Co., Ltd.
9th Floor, Hansung Building, 47-2, Seosomun-Dong,
Chung-Ku, Seoul, Korea, 100-813
Phone: (+82-2) 319 3401
Email: Sel.Sales@<airlinetwodigitcode>.com
(note email has been a 2-3 day turnaroud for my communications, and was down for a 7 day period earlier this month)

haven't digged in on all the currency calculations....but perhaps you could buy the xONEx out of South Korea or JNB from AA Canada with the exception rule and still get a decent deal based on exchange rate? (They take credit cards remotely i think....:confused:)

Actually unlike the STAR ALLIANCE RTW fares the Canada option I do not think applies.. However as above posters have said the RTW options really are getting much cheaper.. Actually the D class circle pacific from AKL now looks great at about 5000 USD for a 22K trip using AA VIPOW to upgrade to A class on several segments

One of the helpful travel agents on FT says IATA exchange rates are set and uploaded every Wednesday (at what time and it which time zone, I do not know).

The Canada exception for purchase of xonex's was added back in last December.

Thanks so much for setting me straight... time to call a Canadian TA!...

Watch their fees ... purchasing via AA in Canada may be better!

Unfortunately AA does not have a separate Canadian reservations center....

or maybe they have a ticketing desk in a canadian airport......don't know if that's more convenient at all for you

The South African Rand (ZAR) is really suffering at the moment. It's almost at a mid-rate of 11 Rand to the USD. If you use a rate of 10.8, a S African-based DONE4 is less than US$4,200 & an AONE5 just under US$7,100! (This excludes taxes/fuel fines, etc. but 8-12% should cover these, even with some UK stopovers.)

I foresee lots of work for Cindy @ Mindpearl.

Just a mention on a Canadian LONEx. I ticketed 3 tickets last May ex LHR paid in Canada. AA's number in Canada bounces you back to the US and I had to really stand my ground to get the ticket done. Big time lags on getting it priced and then repriced and then repriced again because of the lack of knowledge on their own rules. It became exasperating. Also I found that the L tickets had a change fee of $150 which added up while a AONEx ticket purchased ex LHR but in the US did not incur any change fees. It appeared that the business class ticket ex LHR was not a big savings like the L ticket ex LHR. I do have a Canadian credit card and address to use and was always questioned on this point once they had decided to read their own rules. On that note it seemed that notes in my file were always debated with me and never accepted by the next agent who dealt with my reservation. One point is that it was my first time adventuring in so I was not as seamless as I would be a second time. It was truly the FT machine that prompted me to persevere. The result was a fantastic trip and a rather sad obsession with FT. Now things have changed since I did this ticket so perhaps my experience would not happen in the same way.

I've been following the rand as well and it looks like it's time to get an itinerary together. I just wonder how much further it can fall. I also wonder if they will change the pricing to USD if it falls any more.

Just ticketed a AONE5 from Mindpearl.. Cant say for sure, but there may be a very significant price hike in the VERY near future due to currency changes in SA.....

Interesting. Using xe.com for conversions, it was around US$6,080 for an AONE4 ex-SA about 30 minutes ago, but right now US$6,151. Looks like it may be a bumpy ride for a bit. But at these prices, down substantially from a few months ago, I may try to buy my next one or two tix today. (I usually use four per year.) Ex-MRU still much higher, and a little over US$6,500 for AONE3 ex-South Korea.

Can you elaborate on that?

Also, how much in taxes did you have to pay?

The Canada advantage
 

Did you need a Canadian credit card and/or address because you did not ticket in person at a Canadian airport?

I live in NH, so could I drive to Montreal and pay using a US credit card at the AA ticket counter?

Yes I can elaborate. A very close friend is suggesting that due to the rapid fall of the Rand.. there will be very significant rises in round the world airfare over the next two weeks....

That makes sense. Someone posted here that IATA only updates fares on wednesdays so if it's not done today people should have another week at least.

Looks like you might have ticketed a day to early! Another 10% drop... unbelievable.

What kind of taxes did you have to pay on that itinerary?

I do have the distinct impression that the Can. credit card was important as I was theoretically calling from Canada. They were very clear that they wanted a Can. credit card. Now I can see no way that they can refute you purchasing a ticket in Canada with a US credit card but as I said they are very difficult with this issue and it would be hard to confirm it unless you actually gave it a shot. I felt it was important to have the rules from oneworld that reference this anomaly in front of you everytime you speak to someone. I had to reference it more then a few times.

I did some re-computing using current rates, and noted that Korea has improved greatly as a starting point for USD customers, especially if you don't want/need to schlep to South Africa, or just need a 3-continent ticket.

Wow, Gardy. AONE4 ex-SA US$5,643 and AONE3 ex-South Korea US$6,265. Both incredibly cheap. I'll still do the CPT start due to the cost and inconvenience of getting to South Korea (much easier for me to get to S.A.), but they're both excellent. Just submitted one to Dublin for overnight faring, and will try to get the next one in process later this afternoon. I don't see these lasting at these prices, but I also don't see that they can get it together quickly enough to increase fares in the next, say, 24-48 hours. Next week might be a different story, however.

In 2001 - another period of massive risk aversion - the ZAR blew out to 13 to the $. I don't think the alliances made sudden changes to their fares then, did they? Of course, the speed of FT arbitrage may mean they have to be more nimble these days. ;)

Also worth remembering that that blow out corrected pretty quickly. My guess is that could happen again. Yeah I know, wishful thinking. But if I'm right, the lesson for the alliances will be no need to do panic repricing and the lesson for FTers is make hay while the sun shines.

Maybe Hungary as well
 

I've consulted my crystal ball and predict that Hungary is the first central european economy to face difficulties as they're already running emergency measures there to defend the forint.

If the currency collapses, it will be the place to go until they can increase the prices. It's not yet very attractive but if the currency slips another 25%, which in my opinion is a likely scenario, it will knock AONE3 down to 5500€ or so. Not as cheap as RSA or Korea but still a bargain compared to eurozone prices, Egypt or even Jordania.

/hv

For your information... My contact in JNB tells me that the OWE prices will be going up VERY shortly.. I will keep everyone informed as I am informed...

Could you be a little more specific about how shortly? Is that in a week(or on Nov 1), come Monday, in a month...?

I'm looking at booking a ticket but would like to take care of some details first before I finalize the plans(need to know if certain people will be around at some of the destinations when I might be there) so would just like to know how time pressed I should feel.

Yeah.. I'm hoping to submit a DONE4/DONE5 itin ex-JNB tomorrow.

You can bet that BA is monitoring these boards !

The last currency decreases caused a spike of nearly 80%. But when the currency levelled off did the price come down? No.

So expect the same to happen anytime soon..

Except that the SA govt must approve the change in fare and last time (circa 2002?) they delayed the increase for a year. For local (SA citizen) purchase the Rand price is already high, so the government isn't too sympathetic to such increases. Who knows how long it will take this time? More likely BA will limit A and D inventory to eliminate sales. QF already severely limits A/D availability on their route to JNB.

One of the great advantages of the xONEx products is their incredible flexibility once you have taken at least your first international flight. The whole thing can be replanned for a measly US$125. If you know the route but not the dates, just go for Open dates & you don't even pay the $125. Even if prices rise after your ticket has been issued, you retain the right to fly 16 segments according to the rules originally in place and for the price you originally paid. IMHO, at the current prices, it's well worth getting yourself a ticket now if you can commence at some point in the next 12 months (& are willing to position in S Africa by some means or other, such as a mileage award).

NB: A re-issue can involve costs other than the $125 fee, such as revised taxes, but this doesn't really change the concept.

D - yes, although sometimes available at short notice if they can't sell the seats.

A - disagree; there is normally availability for all dates, though First itself isn't always offered. (It's a bit seasonal, IIRC.)

Thanks for the tip and further info. Actually its not a matter of repositioning, I live in Korea and would like to take advantage of the sudden fall of the won. Bought a round the world ticket last year - business class - and it was about $6000, which I considered a pretty good deal at the time. With the fall of the won, its now about $4500 and I definitely don't want to miss that price, so I'll book now and if need be change later. Its nice to be paid in $ when it strengthens like this(though the last few years haven't exactly been kind).

Am sitting in the BA lounge at JNB..(great lounge actually ), and have talked to friends down here...Here is an update. There WILL be a very significant change in OWE fares ( especially first class) in a very short time... My contact down here clearly said that MINDPEARL has been overwhelmed with OWE requests... To my friends at FT.. get the JNB NOW while they last.. My contact especially states that the AONE fares will increase dramatically.....

Your contact wouldn't happen to be on commission?

(Sorry - the cynic in me has to ask...)