I have just bought my first *RTW, but had to give the agent my total itinerary back to airport of departure. Now, sales can calculate the cost of my ticket INCLUDING taxes. Then she said "of course you only really need to have the first flight fixed, you can change the rest as long as you stay within the miles and direction of travel".

First Question is "how are the taxes collected if I add different airports and stopovers?"

Second question " will I get a whole bunch of tickets or one?"

Third question "is a check kept along the way to ensure I am within the mileage limit"

Good questions.

1. You will get a very large stack of cardboard. It is a "conjoint" ticket which means that there are separate tickets that are linked together. The tkt is written by a single airline, with all the different coupons in order.
2. You are correct in that each of the subsequent coupons are flexible (given availability). I believe that coupons can be as "open".
3. If you change cities, you will have to have the ticket REISSUED, at which time they will recalculate mileage and assess any overage. They charge btwn $25 and $50 to do it. Therefore, save up all those changes and have them done at once.

I had my RTW reissued in Kuala Lumpur last July--I had booked UA and TG in biz class ($US3700). Decided that instead of going KUL-BKK-HKG (all on TG) then HKG-NRT on UA, that I wanted to go KUL-BKK-NRT (all on TG). They had to rewrite the ticket. I don't think I would have had to get rewritten if I had done something like not changing airlines.

I visited the TG office in KUL--it took about 2 hours (dropped ticket off and came back later to pick it up).
Enjoy--it is fun!

as jamiel has correctly stated you will receive a big stack of flight coupons. If you choose to unstaple them to make them more manageable just make sure you put them in order to avoid any mistakes i know of this b/c i made just such a mistake once but anyways ....

as far as taxes are concerned - when you reissue your ticket (only if you make a routing change) your mileage and taxes will be recalculated - one imp note is that if the new routing has LESS taxes don't expect a refund - and you usually will be charged the difference. I say usually b/c i've found *A (esp UA) sometimes just reissue the tix and ignore the tax portion.

The 'taxes' are effectively just the user fees. Each time you reissue, the system will recalculate the appropriate fees for the itinerary and levy them.

Sales taxes, transportation taxes, etc. are generally levied only in the country where the ticket is issued. This can be a way of saving money on taxes.

For example, if I buy a YYZ-HKG, but I have it ticketed here in NYC, I do NOT pay GST or Canadian Transportation Tax on the tkt, even though the point of origin is YYZ. Since the sale takes place outside of Canada, it is not leviable. Similarly, since the tkt does not originate in the USA, I do not pay US transportation taxes or segment charges.

(It is a cute trick I discovered when AC was selling seat sales on YYZ-HKG, but not NYC-HKG).

When I move to YVR in the summer, I think I may find a travel agent in Bellingham with whom to do business!

Tresy, the taxes on your RTW will be initially calculated on the intinerary you choose to travel. If you do any routing changes, the taxes would be recalculated when the ticket is reissued as Jamiel has explained.

If taxes that were charged on the original routing are no longer applicable for the new routing, they will be refunded or applied towards the new taxes that you may incur for your new routing. They may also be used towards payment of a reissue fee, if applicable.

AC*SE...just as an addendum, there is no longer a Canadian Transportation Tax for international travel, and GST does not apply on tickets for travel from Canada to international destinations. Only for travel to Canada and the USA (except HNL).

very kgood and correct informations above. In add YES, everytime you change your rtw-itinerary they will also recalculate the mileage and controle the mileage limits (this can be dangerous if you just are at the limit, as different airlines calculate different miles for same flight segments: I know of differences of more than 100 miles comparing LH- and UA-miles-calculation for the same segments with the same carriers. Example: LH calculates all flights to New York-area-airports with the same miles, UA claclulates the miles to the individual airports).

In response to what AC*SE wrote.....how much money did you save by having the ticket issued in a different country than you departed. Also, which country do you think would be better...US, Canada, India or SEL?

Thanks,

Chris Moss

US Taxes are at least 10%, which can be saved by buying ticket outside the US

Chris L. Not sure which taxes you are referring to that are 10%. International travel is USD 12.50 for departure and same for arrival. There are also customs, immigration and aphis fees that are USD 6/5/3 respectively.

For travel within the USA and the 250 mile buffer zone in Canada and Mexico, the US tax is 7.5%. If you were to buy a ticket YVR-YYZ in the US, you would pay the 7% GST and the 7.5% US domestic tax. If the same ticket is purchased in Canada, you only pay the GST.

There are times it is advantagous to have tickets issued in one country or the other, but it also depends on your point of departure as well.

As for ChrisMoss, what kind of ticket are you looking for? Are you just wanting to purchase a domestic or international ticket, and what type of itinerary? If it is a Oneworld RTW, and your origin was the same no matter where you purchased it, it would make no difference. If you are wanting to start in a different country, then usually SEL/BKK or India are best. Won't be back to work until later this week, but will gladly check for you.

I am using the 1W 6 Continent RTW in First. I am planning on departing out of SEL($5,632 is with taxes for my route), but because the SEL prices are going up 15% on May 1(I read that somewhere on this board), I have seriously been looking into departing from BKK or MUM. Which one do you think would have the least tax. Saving $50 isn't worth that much but if the tax rate is 15% compared to 5% then it would be worth getting to the cheaper location-which isn't a problem. I can either pick up or pay for (does that make a difference?) the ticket in US, Canada, SEL or my departure city. Which one do you think would save the most?

Thanks for the help.

Chris Moss

I will check this @ work tomorrow. It really should only be the base fare you should be concerned about. The taxes that apply to the ticket are local airport taxes. If you have booked with a tvl agt and have at least 1 CP segment, you can have them send it to CP for pricing.

If agent is on Sabre, have them send it to QCP10/4 and if they are on Apollo, have them send it to QEF/1. Have them note :Attention agent TUK. I don't recall any taxes (like GST) that would apply for international travel originating in Korea, Thailand or India, but will verify this to be certain.

Thanks, CPYVR. I guess the only thing really to avoid is like you said earlier.....don't depart and issue from the same country. Thanks again.

Chris Moss

Chris, the lowest price I have found is definitely departing from Korea. The fare before taxes for a 6 continent Oneworld is KRW5901800 (approx USD 5323.00). The next lowest is South Africa at ZAR37800 (USD 5613.00). India is INR264240 (USD 6054.00) and Thailand is THB286760 (USD7551.00).

As far as taxes go, none of the above countries have a value added tax that is charged to you based on fare paid. The only taxes incurred will be the ones you encounter in each city you travel through.

I do recomment purchasing your ticket in either the USA or Canada or the country of origin (depending on exchange rates). There is a rule that tickets purchased in US or Canada do not have to be raised to the minimum fare of the country of purchase. This is not so for other countries.

Hope this helps you. And have a wonderful trip.

Thank you very much. I will have to remember that tax tip for other tickets though. Very helpful.

CMoss