Hi All,

I would like to start a DONE4 ticket from Melbourne Australia but I'll be making the booking from Johannesburg. I have previously learnt the hard way that OneWorld are curious as to where you start from but also where you telephone from.

Would the ticket be priced as if I was departing/calling from Australia or South Africa? Of course South Africa is a lot cheaper than Australia.

xONEx tickets are sold and priced based on the ORIGINATING airport. Although you can buy in Australia and pay the Australian prices, most FT members would question your financial sense in doing so.

If you want the South African prices you must have the first ticket (segment) depart from South Africa. There are a number of cheap/inexpensive ways to get from Australia to South Africa BEFORE you commence the xONEx ticket.

Happy wandering

Fred

To add to what wandering_fred posted (G'Day Fred)
The actual wording of the relevant part of the fare rules is:So the ex-Australia fare is converted from AUD to ZAR.
If the resultant fare is less than the ex-South Africa fare, then the ex-South Africa fare is charged
Otherwise the ex-Australia fare is charged.

Since ex-South Africa fares are significantly lower than ex-Australia fares, you will end up paying the Australian fare. So there would be no saving by purchasing the fare from South Africa.

As Fred suggested, purchasing an ex-South Africa fare is the way to go - especially if you are going to be there anyway - but YMMV depending on your planned itinerary (which may not include Africa at all, and which may not have enough 'spare' segments for the flights out of and back in to Africa).

Edited to add:
So to answer your specific question - the ex-Australia DONE4 base fare is AUD10,499, which converts to about ZAR120,000

Considering how much cheaper a DONE4 is starting in South Africa, it seems very unlikely you are better of starting it in Australia.

Note: AA in particular are pulling a new rouse whereby if you pay with a credit card from somewhere other than where your xONEx starts you will pay the base fare based on your credit card country (*). I know first hand this is happening for xONEx tickets starting in South Africa and I've heard it is also happening for tickets starting in Japan.


*: You can be sure the policy actually charges the higher of the two countries as this is mainly about retaining their ability to price discriminate based on who they are selling to not the product/origin.

They are also doing it for HKG issued xCIRCxx tickets. First hand experience

I am in SA for a few more days then heading to Aus, which is home.

I need to go from Aus to London and back and thought I could do a DONE4 as it is cheaper than a round trip in J.

QF have previously tried to tell me where you call from determines the price.

Definitely not... (at least not to lower the price)

I would almost say throw away your return flight, and buy a DONE4 commencing JNB now (or see if you can push your return out to link with the ticket)

It is happening where one seeks to start from NRT. My JPY 713,000 DONE3 was accepted by the oneworld site and then when American Airlines looked at the ticket request to issue it they determine for my credit card I am not resident in Japan and so they are "pricing department" repriced the ticket for the Hong Kong resident that I am, HKD 79,000, about 40% more. See my post "RTW trick from NRT over". I am presently looking for a Japan travel agent who will work with me on future ticket purchases.

Others at this forum and I have good experience of XONEX ticketing of CX Japan office.
They accept foregin issued credit cards by phone.
And, basically knowledgeable.

Because ex-JPN fare is cheaper than ex-AUS, you can purchase ex-AUS product from CX Japan at ex-AUS price (FX conversion adds some additonal cost, but basically same price).