Route Check Please
 

Hi, please give me your thoughts on the validity of this route for a LONE4

AKL-SYD-PER-HKG-SEL,HKG-NRT-DFW-LAX-ORD-LAX-LHR-HEL-NRT-PER-ADL

Is the open jaw at the end permissible?
Is it permissible to stop in PER twice if the rest of SWP are transits? How is ADL treated?

Thanks, Paul

You cannot start in AKL and end in ADL.
You are allowed two stopovers in the continent of origin you can use them in the same city if you desire.

Thanks - Am I correct then in thinking that it is impossible to commence an xONEx in NZ and go to Perth twice?

No, just change your original routing to AKL-SYD-PER-HKG-SEL,HKG-NRT-DFW-LAX-ORD-LHR-HEL-NRT-PER-ADL-AKL (unless QF has dropped ADL-AKL service recently in which case I suppose you could have a surface segment ADL-MEL and fly MEL-AKL). And you just might have a flat tire on the way to the airport and miss that flight to AKL.

QF has dropped ADL-AKL not that recently (1 or 2 years ago).

They've definitely dropped the ADL-AKL flights and won't subtstituting in the PER-ADL,MEL-AKL idea breach the 4 segment rule and overall 16 segment rule?

Unless I can't count any more then AKL-SYD-PER-HKG-SEL,HKG-NRT-DFW-LAX-ORD-LHR-HEL-NRT-PER-ADL,MEL-AKL would still only be 16 segments, and the 4 per continent limit is on flight segments, so I think that is OK.

Yep sorry my bad reading I hadn't notice that Jerry had removed my ORD-LAX flight (which works OK for me anyway).

Do others concur with Christep on the 4 flights segments plus a ground leg being OK in SWP?? I'm hoping so as this will be a great solution for me.

The 'ground leg' does not count against your Continental limit - but does count as one of the maximum 16 ticket segments.

Beautiful!

I need to commence this LONE4 next week (Wed). I assume that the rulle allowing booking and ticketing within 7 days is still good?

I want this on AA stock - would the recommended process be to call the AA RTW desk to book and have them send to Australia (mindpearl) for issue and payment in NZ$'s?

Thanks for all the help. (This gets me to SEL to commence a DONE4. Surprisingly difficult to get a reasonable airfare to SEL from Oz so figured that might as well do it via an LONE4) :D

AA have an office in Sydney. Have a look on AFF

To book on AA you can:

1) use the oneworld booking tools have an AA flight number as you first segemnt or

2) look at the following AFF thread: http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/comm...esk-12473.html

To summarize the process and include what I have learned in relation to booking XoNEx's from Oz is to follow this process (Substitue NZ for Oz as appropriate):

1. Prepare a list of each exact flight you wish to book, using seatcounter.com (or other tool) to ensure the availability of L class.
2. Veryify the booking using MileageMonkey (oneworld explorer validator)
3. Call AA Around the World (ATW) booking desk
4. Tell them you wish to book an economy class oneworld Explore fare starting from Australia and wish to pay for it and ticket it in Australia.
5. Advise your segments, they will book them, offer advice and otherwise assist.
6. When complete, they will send it to AA in Ireland for pricing, this may take a day.
7. In any case obtain the AA Sabre booking reference code.
8. Check this booking on AA.com for errors and if there are any, call thr ATW desk to advise and fix.
9. A day later call the ATW desk again, armed with your booking reference, they should by now have this priced in Australian Dollars.
10. Note the amount, thank them and advise you will call AA in Australia to arrange ticketing.
11. Call AA in Australia to arrange ticketing; you will be charged in Australian Dollars.
12. You will be emailed an cc authorization for, you fill this out and fax it to the number specified.
13. Your CC will be billed and the booking ticketed, E-ticket receipts will arrive in the mail soon after.

Thanks serfty. I suspect I may be booking via the AA RTW although will give the online tool a cursory bash.

Interestingly I can't find anything about the AA routes from SEL. SEL is not even listed on AA's pdf timetable and EF shows nothing as well. Only place to see any route seems to be via the Korean aA site??

I paid for 2 LONE4 tickets for myself and Mrs P last October - by providing AA Australia with my cc details over the phone

Is a surface sector considered a stopover? I was hoping to be able to use both stopovers in Perth.
The oneworld booking tool seems to be saying I am having more than 2 stops in continetn of origin.

I believe a surface sector induces one stopover automatically.

Note that stovers are only limited in your continent of origin (2). Since you are commencing in SWP which encompasses Oz and NZ, this is an issue.

I paid for 2 LHONE4 tickets for myself and Mrs serfty last March; they emailed the form.

See the thread on AFF that I linked to.

I guess it's a YMMV on this one ...

Ah - yes. I can't see a way of doing what you want (start in NZ, two stopovers in Perth, one before and one after SEL), assuming you do actually want to go back to NZ to finish. Otherwise you could do: AKL-SYD-PER-HKG-SEL,HKG-NRT-DFW-LAX-ORD-LHR-HEL-NRT-PER,MEL-AKL and either buy a PER-MEL or simply throw away the MEL-AKL.

Thanks Christep an excellent option and dropping out ORD which is not needed buys me another sector. I'm now looking at a slight modification to the effect that I throw an overnight to SEA and back for mileage run while in the US. Looks like this now:

AKL-MEL-PER-HKG-SEL,HKG-NRT-DFW-YVR-DFW-LAX-LHR-HEL-HKG-PER,MEL-AKL

Also changed to HEL-HKG-PER because AY have a code share on the Perth leg and being in the AA program much better earning than the QF or CX flight # options^

TAXES!!??
 

Well managed to book this all fine last night but today they have come back with a price of $4910NZD. Includes taxes of $1078NZD. Does this sound right given that I am in transit for MEL, HKG, NRT, LAX, LHR, HKG. Seems way more than I have ever been charged for an AA xONEx booking. Is SEL incredibly expensive??

Which airline did you price with? Remember QF (and others) have high fuel surcharges that AA does not have.

Everything done with AA, booking, pricing, ticketing etc. Called Aus/NZ AA desk to pay and was informed of the taxes?

My impression is that it does sound about right
I paid approx AUD1,100 in taxes etc on my LLONE4 last October (from memory AUD505 was fuel fines for my AA flights being PER-SIN-NYC and BOS-LHR)
I presume the NZD has fallen against the major currencies about as much as the AUD has which will add extra cost.
Also you are entering the US twice, which is not a cheap exercise
And if your NRT-DFW and LAX-LHR flights are with AA, then you'll have fuel fines for them (~USD300?)

AA in Australia faxed me a breakdown my charges, so if you ask you should be able to get your breakdown.

Spoke to the RTW dek - apparently there is a YQ tax (Fuel levies) of $645NZD on the ticket. This is indeed an alarming development if AA are now adding these and at these levels. Especially since QF just dropped the domestic fuel charges and you'd have to think others would be dropped on international routes soon?

Have asked for Dublin to review and reprice it - will let you know tomorrow.

Do you have any intercontinental flights using AA flight numbers - AA will charge their YQ on such segments - but not on the flight numbers of other carriers.

Assuming the following two flights are AA, then according to itasoft the YQ charges are:

NRT-DFW JPY22,000 (~NZD390)
LAX-LHR USD145 (~NZD240)

OK well that makes sense thanks guys. I'm actually not re-entering the US. I changed YVR to SEA yesterday.

Serfty - the transcontinentals are AA metal from NRT to DFW and AA metal LAX to LHR unfortunately because I want the points earning and the opportunity to use the EVIP's I specifically set it up this way - it's a catch 22 by the looks of things. Thanks for the info nonetheless because I'll remember this for my DONE5 booking in a few weeks as flight numbers and carrier are less important for AAdvantage earning.

Interestingly the AA RTW Agent I spoke to said she's never seen YQ tax (I said it's fuel and she said no, no it isn't!!) or anything like that high in a single tax amount on the calcs?? Never know your luck maybe Dublin will feel sorry for me (of course maybe they'll calculate it higher as well :eek:)

NZD has fallen a lot against USD (not quite as much as AUD) and unfortunately many fuel surcharges are expressed in USD.

QF did not drop fuel surcharge on international routes. Most airlines are being slow to reduce the fuel surcharges - I expect AA is the same. If you want to pay less tax then wait a few months. Of course that may create other issues (like fares going up, rule changes invalidating routing, schedule changes causing problems, etc).

Interestingly - I played around with the OW online booking tool and whilst I couldn't get it to match the itinerary perfectly (it doesn't like the Aus surface sector and I was unable to choose some of the codeshare flight #'s and instead had to use the princiapl carriers flight #'s), I nonetheless got it almost the same (especially the transcons and US flights) and the QF quoted taxes came to $695NZD?

Well it was all going too easily - fell down at point 11 serfty. Dublin priced it all OK but I have spent the last 3 days trying to pay the $4800NZd amount with an Australian credit card. Seems to have all gone pearshaped and ticketing in Sydney are arguing that I can't possibly pay for something in NZ$ with an Australian Amex.

So any advice on what I should do. I'm actually in AKL on Monday and HAVE to leave on this LONE4 on Wed. I can't afford not to be on the plane?

Also if anyone has the toll free number for AA NZ can you let me know - the one I have is disconnected and I keep having to dial via the Aussie one at great cost in NZ no doubt.

Thanks:confused:

Could anyone explain what does the "maximum of 2 stop-overs in the region of origin" entail? Does it anyhow overrule the maximum 4 segments per region?

Tks,

No - they are completely independent. You may only stay more than 24 hours in two places in the region of origin. I don't know any way of explaining that more simply I'm afraid. You may have 4 segments in your region of origin.

For example, my current AONE3 goes:
MNL-xHKG-JFK......LHR-HKG-NRT-xHKG-MNL
where x indicates a transit (stay of less than 24 hours - in fact the first one in HK was overnight). I have two stopovers in Asia (region of origin): the second HKG and the NRT. I have 4 segments: MNL-HKG, HKG-NRT, NRT-HKG, HKG-MNL.

It sounds like they don't know how to enter the currency code for the CC charge (absurd!).

AA has no GSA in NZ, but res number is New Zealand 0800 445 442

AA ticket centers info lists nothing for NZ (but has South Africa and lots of countries AA does not fly to!). https://www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_...ckets/main.jsp

If you cannot pay by CC, consider paying by wire transfer. They should be able to handle that (but it takes 2 days, so have to do it now). Western Union is another alternative to bank transfer. Last resort phone AA RTW desk in US and tell them the problem, they can help you though it is not their job and they are very busy these days (also their best agents have retired). Personally I would pursue bank wire transfer by Monday at latest.

Thanks for the clear explanation.

Rgs,

AA closed their ticket office in AKL :( The 0800 number is probably not available for calls originating outside NZ. I'd call the Australian number back and try again. Your country of issuance of credit card is completely irrelevant.

Apologies, those instructions were cut and pasted from a thread about booking a xONEx commecing in Oz.

At least you have a NZ$ price; other than that I would go the way of the last two posts ... noting that it's now a weekend you have little time.

Thanks for the updates guys. I'll be on the phone to AA first thing tomorrow morning. I tend to think they are having problems entering the CC details and maybe they have a number wrong or something.

I'll keep you updated. The wire transfer is not a good option but I guess it is a last resort if all esle fails.

Honestly it just should not be this hard!!

Update & Outcome
 

Well after much to and fro with the AA office in Australia they simply outright refused to allow me to pay the NZ$ price with a credit card that has an Australian address.

After a quick ring round of kiwi friends it was detemined that no-one had the spare credit limit on their card that I could use at 6hrs notice (the credit crunch hits home:()

So - deciding there was more than one way to skin a cat I decided (and I'm not proud of this ;)) to become a Kiwi for a few days. Well one of my Amex cards did!! I called the card services centre and changed my address to a NZ address of a friend.

Left it about 20 minutes to make sure change had registered in the system and then called AA back and let them know that my Amex "NZ" card with the required NZ address was now found and I would use that to pay. "Fantastic mr paul4471 we'll get into ticketing stright away". I called back 3hrs later on way to PER airport and asked for an update, CSA said not ticketed but she could see it was being worked on and promised to call back 20mins later. 20mins later she called back and said tickets were now issued.

I'm now in AKL and at least 50% confident :p that all will be ok when I check in tomorrow moring for my first flight AA7337 from AKL-MEL. Confidence is based on money coming out of credit card account and AA website now shows ticket status as ticketed. Lack of confidence comes from general experience and the fact that I'm booked under the codeshare number.

Thursday will see a call to Amex and me revoking my temporary honorary kiwi status.

Thanks all for the advice and I wonder if this "changing of address" might be a solution to a lot of the other problems that folks have been experiencing. I can see that in future I may be RSA based or even Sth Korea for credit card billing purposes for at least a short period anyway :D