DONE4 Pricing (I am an idiot)

[Rae]

I've booked 2 x DONE4 in the last 12 months. The first was work related with 16 sectors (quite a few added as a SC run) in May 07. The next one is a genuine 16 day holiday starting this Saturday and therefore just 8 sectors.

Anyway, both of these were booked via Qantas and I paid over $11K each time. Am I the only person doing this? It seems the smarter people on this board are buying their DONEs & AONEs out of Asia or South Africa.

A few questions for the travel-smart people here:
a) What are the big savings?
b) How do you book a complex itin? A local office or an o/s phone call?
c) What are the pros and cons when not booking via Qantas (points, SCs, recognition etc)

Thanks in antipication of your worldly advice and knowledge.

 

[serfty]

• The savings come from 2 facits:
  • Buying overseas at a cheaper base cost (offest by cost of getting to international port of origin)
  • Booking via AA can save significantly in the +++ department when compared with the same route booked with QF/CX/BA etc.
  Note, the the fist part is true for Business/First Class fares. Ex Oz in Economy is significantly less expensive than most other countries.
  
  Please look at the following spreadsheet from WearyBizTrvlr of FT. The prices are ½ a year out of date, but you can get a good idea.
  • RTW fare spreadsheet
• Emails have worked well for me with CX in COlumbo Sri Lanka. A recent booking using a $10 phonecard and the AA ATW desk was quite painless (I've still $8 left ). QF009 here has some interesting recent anecdotes about overseas purchases.
  
• IME, NONE! You QFF number goes into the booking and your Emerald Status seems well regarded. Points/SC's are earned the same as if booked via QF.

Other than that, there is some very good information on the FlyerTalk oneworld Forum. Especially within this thread:

• The oneworld explorer ticket FAQs - FlyerTalk Forums

 

[Keith009]

a) I shaved about $3k off the DONE4 by starting ex-NRT. I used an OW80C to get to NRT. It's up to you to decide whether the 80k miles are worth the savings but to me that's the purpose of miles - to get to me to places to start RTWs or take advantage of mistake fares. Either way when I rinse and repeat by starting another ex-Asia ticket (MNL this time) when the current ticket brings me back to NRT I'd have more than made up for the expense incurred (the 80k miles) getting there in the first place, as I do save ~ 3k off the ex-Oz fare each time. I also intend to make real holidays out of TYO and MNL so I do not consider the expenses I'd incur for my stays at both cities (eg accomodation, transfers etc) to be expenses incurred in picking up the DONE4 (ie I'd have visited those places one way or another anyway).

What's more starting overseas means I can break up my ticket into several holidays. I just came back from a nice weekend in WLG using the DONE4. In June the ticket will take me to AKL, HKG, SIN and TYO before I use a bmi award (for which I didn't do anything to earn - 9k promo + 2500 survey miles = more than plenty for zone7-8 C+M SQ J award ) to get me to MNL.

b) I book everything via AA. The flights are booked via the AA ATW desk in Dallas. I then liaise with the issuing location to pay and make arrangements to pick up the ticket. AA MNL is willing to courier overseas. ^

c) The pros of booking via AA are the savings you gain in incurring significantly less fuel fines, and much more competent reservations staff in general. Can't think of any cons except some AAgents will try their hardest to get you on to AA codeshares on those QF transpacific flights (which of course cannot be upgraded using QFF points), and some do grumble with the lack of AA content. Though I've discovered that I'd much rather book AA J, then snag an EVIP from a kind EXP and fly in comfort on AA F - seats are much much nicer than BA or JL J.

 

[Keith009]

Oh and in regard to b), I use Engin VOIP on Dave Noble's recommendation. Free calls to the USA, UK and a dozen other places.

In general I find that the AA locations I've dealt with (NRT, MNL, SGN, CMB) are more than happy to deal with an overseas customer. They're all happy to do remote payment - CC over the phone, or in the case of MNL - wire transfers. Some will only do etickets over the phone (NRT, SGN) whilst others have very competent arrangements in place for issuing of paper tickets without the need for your physical presence.