Lufthansa/Star RTW fares back again from OZ - $A1599 ($US1040) + tax
Jun 30, 2005, 2:00 am
#62
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
Programs: QF Platinum One (LTG), UA Plat IHG Plat
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For the main version of the economy fare it's H class, so it's all good:
For the TG/LH combination fare, which is cheaper it's in Q class.
I can't find the TG/LH/UA combo anymore.. perhaps it's gone (!)
The Business class version books in D on both, and the F version books in A.
LH: H* Class
SQ: H Class
TG: Q Class
QF: Q Class
AC: H Class
UA: H Class
OZ: M Class
SQ: H Class
TG: Q Class
QF: Q Class
AC: H Class
UA: H Class
OZ: M Class
I can't find the TG/LH/UA combo anymore.. perhaps it's gone (!)
The Business class version books in D on both, and the F version books in A.
Jul 4, 2005, 6:48 pm
#64
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: SYD, Australia......Hotels: HHon LT Diamond, Hyatt LT Glob, Marriott AMB (LT Gold), IHG AMB (20 years of SCC and RoyAMB dropped 2024)...Airlines: BA GGL (OW Emerald), LH FTL (*S), QF Plat (LT Gold), VA, UA Silver (*S), SQ Silver (*S)
Posts: 2,101
Originally Posted by kawoh
RichardMel - sounds familiar re travel agents who can't read the fare rules!!
As Richard said - LH do ticket this fare - and you can even collect the tickets from the LH office or have them post them to you. They are a little pricier than bestflights (by about $100). There is a 1% surcharge or so for credit card payments when booking through LH.
As Richard said - LH do ticket this fare - and you can even collect the tickets from the LH office or have them post them to you. They are a little pricier than bestflights (by about $100). There is a 1% surcharge or so for credit card payments when booking through LH.
I have booked this fare about five times over the past two years with LH. They never charged me a surcharge for cc payment. They are about $100 more than going through bestflights, but then I could always change my flighs without charge once I departed OZ. Does anyone know whether Bestflights would charge you a fee for changing these flights?
Also, two months ago I bought the special W fare from LH. I never ever do this again. I was told it was exactly the same fare, just cheaper...I should have read the rules because I wasn't able to upgrade any sector using miles/e-vouchers. What a pain.
So far I can't complain about LH service. Ticket gets send in mail w/o charge, I can always change flights, they hold reservation until about 2 weeks prior to departure without deposit. For me, the flexibility is worth it. That said, I'm just about to book a D RTW with them and found a price online (wasn't bestflights, but another online site) and they are about $300 cheaper than LH direct. I'm paying out of my own pocket, so I'm tempted to book elsewhere for the savings...$300 could go towards a really nice hotel during the trip...The site I found is called Fab fares ...has anyone used these guys in the past? Are they any good?
Jul 5, 2005, 12:22 am
#65
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
Programs: QF Platinum One (LTG), UA Plat IHG Plat
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mmm $4937+tax for the D class version of this fare with UA/LH/TG. That's better than I paid ($4973+tax).
I don't know who this mob is apart from the somewhat shoddy website (though seems to use the same general engine as bestflights, for whatever that's worth). I'd be careful to check on things like CC surcharge and the like.
When I priced out this fare at several chains and places it wildly varied from the $4973 I paid up to $5300 (!) - and the big chains (eg: fright centre, harvey world) were $5100+
It does pay to shop around. Either way this is a good deal.
I don't know who this mob is apart from the somewhat shoddy website (though seems to use the same general engine as bestflights, for whatever that's worth). I'd be careful to check on things like CC surcharge and the like.
When I priced out this fare at several chains and places it wildly varied from the $4973 I paid up to $5300 (!) - and the big chains (eg: fright centre, harvey world) were $5100+
It does pay to shop around. Either way this is a good deal.
Jul 5, 2005, 5:40 am
#66
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: SYD, Australia......Hotels: HHon LT Diamond, Hyatt LT Glob, Marriott AMB (LT Gold), IHG AMB (20 years of SCC and RoyAMB dropped 2024)...Airlines: BA GGL (OW Emerald), LH FTL (*S), QF Plat (LT Gold), VA, UA Silver (*S), SQ Silver (*S)
Posts: 2,101
Yeah, I know the website looks kind of dodgy, doesn't it. But hey, if price and service are right, I don't really care. I had one flight centre near George Street offering me a price of $5800 for the same fare! Amazing...
Jul 5, 2005, 11:01 pm
#68
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: IHG Diamond, HH Diamond, BW Diamond Select, Accor Silver, Marriott Gold
Posts: 4,228
Originally Posted by kawoh
They are a little pricier than bestflights (by about $100). There is a 1% surcharge or so for credit card payments when booking through LH.
When comparing these offers, it would be nice to know:
A) Exactly who does and doesn't charge what surcharge.
B) What the total including taxes is, in case there's any overcharging.
When I booked one of these for $4979 through travel.com.au, they didn't charge me a credit card surcharge. However, when I got the ticket receipt (giving much higher ticket costs than the price actually paid), the taxes were lower than what t.c.a had charged me. When I queried this, they refunded the difference, but they would never reply to my queries about why they had overcharged in the first place.
However, the C fare no longer appears on t.c.a's web site, and I'm not impressed with their incompetence and overcharging on taxes, so I'm looking for a better alternative next time.
Jul 6, 2005, 6:22 am
#69
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
Programs: QF Platinum One (LTG), UA Plat IHG Plat
Posts: 5,836
And t.c.a charged ME a CC fee (Visa) on the same fare!
clueless gits. (clueless in other ways, but I won't go through it here).
$5800?? that's insane. When I queried FC they quoted $5216 which was way too much, but was at least within a cooee of the others.
I would have taken the printout from one of these online places and asked them to match, even though I know they have a 1% (or is it 2%) CC fee....
clueless gits. (clueless in other ways, but I won't go through it here).
$5800?? that's insane. When I queried FC they quoted $5216 which was way too much, but was at least within a cooee of the others.
I would have taken the printout from one of these online places and asked them to match, even though I know they have a 1% (or is it 2%) CC fee....
Jul 9, 2005, 1:08 am
#70
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Originally Posted by Sydfly
I have booked this fare about five times over the past two years with LH. They never charged me a surcharge for cc payment. They are about $100 more than going through bestflights, but then I could always change my flights without charge once I departed OZ. Does anyone know whether Bestflights would charge you a fee for changing these flights?
Also, two months ago I bought the special W fare from LH. I never ever do this again. I was told it was exactly the same fare, just cheaper...I should have read the rules because I wasn't able to upgrade any sector using miles/e-vouchers. What a pain.
So far I can't complain about LH service. Ticket gets send in mail w/o charge, I can always change flights, they hold reservation until about 2 weeks prior to departure without deposit. For me, the flexibility is worth it.
Best Flights quotes only $A1958 + tax - via USA both ways I assume is OK on that fare.
http://www.bestflights.com.au/web/co...e_search.shtml
As even from Frankfurt to TLV fares are running about $IUS900 on LH, clearly this is a good deal for us.
A few questions:
1. Will we get double UA Elite miles on the OZ-USA-FRA legs even if booked ex LH? (I assume FRA-TLV does not get double miles, but if on same ticket, who knows!)
2. Do LH INSIST in all cases you fly the US West Coast to Europe on LH? I'll be using UA SWU's to USA, so would dearly love to be upgraded all the way to NYC or BOS, and then take LH. Anyone found they make exceptions?
3. As you can see from fare rule link above:
UPGRADE - BUSINESS CLASS UPGRADES ARE AVAIALBLE ON SOME
LH SECTORS. REFER TO LH FOR DETAILS
Anyone got a rough idea on what kind of cost LH quotes on this?
Jul 9, 2005, 2:54 am
#71
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: SYD
Posts: 2,903
I'll try to answer your questions, to the best of my knowledge. First of all is that fare quote accurate? Have fares gone up, without the bestflights page http://www.bestflights.com.au/cgi-bi...indetails=2017 being updated?
You will get double elite mile on all UA legs, as well as transatlantic LH legs.
To answer your second question, LH doesn't insist you fly LH from the US west coast. You can pick up LH anywhere in the USA, but you will have to pay your own way from LAX/SFO to that US city. I did a similar thing back in February. I open jawed from LAX, picked up LH in JFK, and had to pay for my own ticket LAX-JFK.
Can't answer your upgrade question though
cheers
goodo
You will get double elite mile on all UA legs, as well as transatlantic LH legs.
To answer your second question, LH doesn't insist you fly LH from the US west coast. You can pick up LH anywhere in the USA, but you will have to pay your own way from LAX/SFO to that US city. I did a similar thing back in February. I open jawed from LAX, picked up LH in JFK, and had to pay for my own ticket LAX-JFK.
Can't answer your upgrade question though
cheers
goodo
Jul 10, 2005, 5:22 am
#72
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: SYD, Australia......Hotels: HHon LT Diamond, Hyatt LT Glob, Marriott AMB (LT Gold), IHG AMB (20 years of SCC and RoyAMB dropped 2024)...Airlines: BA GGL (OW Emerald), LH FTL (*S), QF Plat (LT Gold), VA, UA Silver (*S), SQ Silver (*S)
Posts: 2,101
I think Ozstamps must be departing prior to the 12th of November where according to the bestflights site the price is $1649 plus tax. However, because he is flying to TLV the fare is always higher to destination outside Europe (in this case around $300 more). So, the fare they quoted you is correct.
However, also keep in mind that if you want to fly via the US in both directions they will charge you an extra $70 on top of the airfare (at least that's what I had to pay for my previous two bookings using LH directly). It's some sort of transatlantic surcharge, but if you're UA Prem Ex it's worth the extra money for the double miles
I can also confirm that you do get 100% bonus on both UA and the LH transatlantic flights as Prem Ex. The intra Europe flights are just credited with normal miles.
I have never asked LH how much upgrades with cash would be. But you are booking the H class fare, so at least you can upgrade using miles/vouchers etc. I would think that they might want to do the whole calculation based on the full fare difference to C, so it might not be worth it. But this is just a guess as I said.
However, also keep in mind that if you want to fly via the US in both directions they will charge you an extra $70 on top of the airfare (at least that's what I had to pay for my previous two bookings using LH directly). It's some sort of transatlantic surcharge, but if you're UA Prem Ex it's worth the extra money for the double miles
I can also confirm that you do get 100% bonus on both UA and the LH transatlantic flights as Prem Ex. The intra Europe flights are just credited with normal miles.
I have never asked LH how much upgrades with cash would be. But you are booking the H class fare, so at least you can upgrade using miles/vouchers etc. I would think that they might want to do the whole calculation based on the full fare difference to C, so it might not be worth it. But this is just a guess as I said.
Last edited by Sydfly; Jul 10, 2005 at 5:31 am Reason: Finally found the fare that was mentioned
Jul 10, 2005, 5:33 am
#73
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Sydfly ... thanks for info. ^
Like you I ASSUMED Tel Aviv (TLV) wold be $500 more but I think I plugged in Nov 1 out and Nov 10 back or something and got the price I quote!
Try it and see! I'd be curious what you get quoted.
Middle East is SUPPOSED to cost more, but sometimes TLV is not middle East when Egypt is etc. Heck if Athens is part of this deal and Istanbul, no real flying distance difference as far as I can see
Like you I ASSUMED Tel Aviv (TLV) wold be $500 more but I think I plugged in Nov 1 out and Nov 10 back or something and got the price I quote!
Try it and see! I'd be curious what you get quoted.
Middle East is SUPPOSED to cost more, but sometimes TLV is not middle East when Egypt is etc. Heck if Athens is part of this deal and Istanbul, no real flying distance difference as far as I can see
Jul 10, 2005, 5:57 am
#75
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Originally Posted by goodo
I tried Nov 1-10 dates, TLV price is ~1958, and if I try LHR, the price is 1632. A great deal. I just hope I have a chance to use my LH voucher before it expires.
goodo
TLV is an incredibly expensive destination I have found, from ANY point in Europe served by a Star carrier.
HOWEVER the fare rules waffle on about "extra coupons" being used for Middle East. Not sure whether they are extras you can BUY on top of getting to TLV for $1958, or if you NEED to buy them in order to get there.
Maybe have a peek at fare rules and see if it makes sense to you!