Dr. HFH

The online tool continues to be a joke. Today I put in an itinerary which I know to be valid by the rules. The online tool also said that it was valid, i.e., there were no reported errors, and it went on to the pricing step... where it has now been for about 20 minutes.

R2

It's a real pity. I would love to be able to plan and book RTWs online. If oneworld were a business, they'd be out-of-business.

pandaperth

The tool can be used to plan Oneworld Explorer itineraries - but it does still have some old rules implemented (especially with regard to having two visits to Europe/Middle East)

It can still often be used to price up itineraries, though as Dr HFH has pointed out, it does still fail sometimes

And occasionally, just occasionally, you can even pay online!

Calchas

That is simply preposterous.

Dr. HFH

Interesting, I didn't know that. Maybe we should start keeping track of the rules as defined for the tool compared to the current actual rules, for those times when the tool will price and ticket an itinerary and the current rule is less advantageous for someone than the one in the tool. Just thinking out loud....

pandaperth

Have time on my hands and came across this old post of yours @Dr. HFH
And tried it out.
And the tool does not implement the requirement regarding a second to visit to Asia - namely that "Two permitted in Asia when one is for travel between the Southwest Pacific and Europe/Middle East."
The new rule has been in place since Aug-17
(I put in the following itinerary which the tool validated JFK-NRT-SYD-HKG-JNB-LHR-JFK)

Brianek

The important word there is tool. It was obvioulsy developed by one

Dominicus

Has anyone seen "Pricing Error
Sorry, we've noticed that an error has occurred. The fastest way to get a quote is to contact [insert airline of first segment] before

"

R2

The question is has anyone who has used the tool not seen that error?

Dominicus

I'm very late to the party

henry999

Really! The tool has been rebuilt and is now actually useful. So far I've just been playing around but maybe it finally works again?!?

pandaperth

Well the tool was "refreshed" last year - as reported in this thread NEW VERSION - xONEx Online Booking Tool - FlyerTalk Forums, starting at post #16
While the user interface changed, it appears that the backend processing is unchanged - and is still giving errors

I too have been playing with the tool recently, and have been receiving the following well-know error messages:

When pressing the "Choose Flights" button on the first screen, I sometimes get:

• the "Up to 120 seconds" box, and then that box disappears and returns me back to the itinerary-building page without any error message or information as to why it didn't offer me flight options.
• the "Sorry, we've noticed that an error has occurred. The fastest way to get a quote is to contact [insert airline of first segment] "

When specifying two visits to Europe Middle/East (in conjunction with travel to Africa), I'm getting:

• Your itinerary cannot include any flown or surface sector between Europe and the Middle East. Choose another route and update your itinerary.
• One journey to the Middle East must be a transfer without stopover (ie less than 24 hours) between Africa and the previous/next continent. Please select another flight.

And I also got this new one:

• Your trip may include two stopovers over 24 hours in the continent where your journey started. If your itinerary includes both of these in your country of origin, one must be outbound and the other inbound. Additional stopovers under 24 hours are permitted in your itinerary. Please select a different date or flight

henry999

Well, maybe I'm getting old but it seems to me that it was only a month or two ago when, dreaming of the post-corona, I went to the tool to play. (I thought) it had the old-style format, where you specified the entire route, went to 'choose flights' and only then picked the date for each sector. Now, selecting the dates before going to the choose flights screen struck me as new and better. Also, now, it suggests the three shortest possibilities for each segment but you can 'show more'; I remember the 'show more' as being enhanced away back about '16 or '17. Moreover, I didn't remember the 'wait 120 seconds, we're searching and pricing your itinerary', which is a lot better.

Before, when constructing the route, I would often get this error message:

Your trip may include two stopovers over 24 hours in the continent where your journey started. ... Additional stopovers under 24 hours are permitted in your itinerary. Please select a different date or flight

I had to specify a complete trip, back to the starting point, then choose dates such that the first stopover in the continent of origin was less than 24 hours, save the itinerary, then go back out and add the second stopover near the end of the trip. Now that the dates are chosen before the flights, that 'error' is a lot easier and less frustrating to overcome.

pandaperth

Previously, did you access the tool direct from oneworld.com, or did you start on an airline's website?
(I ask because when the new version came out last year, for a while I was still able to access the old version via the qantas.com website)

henry999

Always via the qantas site. So that must be it. (I'm not getting dementic!)

And indeed: https://rtw-qantas.oneworld.com/rtw/?origin=QF still works, going to the old tool.