Help with LONE4 please!

[rooboy68]

Hi All

I am new to this forum and hope you can help.

I want to book a LONE4 with QF as below:

BNE-MEL-BNE-SIN-LHR-MAD-DUB-LGW,LHR-JFK-LAX-SAN-DFW-IAH-DFW-LAX-BNE-MEL-BNE

This is a combo leisure/business trip with Mrs Rooboy68 and 18mth old mini-roo. I am trying to maximise my time on QF metal so I can upgrade to business where possible.

I just called QF reservations to book and was told the routing is not valid as "you cannot backtrack into your city of departure". I was sure this was not the case and I asked them to double check with a supervisor and the answer was the same.

I have entered the itenarary into the OneWorld planner and it seems to be OK, I also flew a similar DONE4 a couple of years ago and I'm sure I flew back into BNE and stopped before later flying out on the first international segment, but the rules may have changed since...

Anyone had any experience any the above? (or should I call back and hope for another agent )

Also want to fly on QF108 from JFK-LAX (once again, upgrade op!), but was told I couldn't do that as "you must connect with an outbound QF flight to use QF108". I am stopping in LA for a week before heading home and had been told be another QF agent that you can use QF108 for transit or stopover.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Platy]

QF are basically a bunch of idiots and won't let you see the full terms and conditions - they seem to think the customer is too stupid to understand the full terms. I tried 4 times to extract the rules from them recently and they flatly refused - I had to bypass the system and hassle a senior manager to intervene.

HOWEVER, you CAN print off the fare rules from the OneWorld site:

oneworld - oneworld Explorer

Look towards the bottom of the page for the link to a pdf document under the section on Fare Rules.

Having studied the rules (two stops in country of origin may be your problem) may I HIGHLY RECOMMEND (from bitter experience) that you then forget booking through QF (even if it means cancelling your booking and starting fresh)!!! Why? Well:

1. their own sales supervisors don't know the product (as you have already found)
2. You will end up paying $1500 plus per ticket in taxes and fuel surcharges
3. at some point AFTER BOOKING QF may ring you up and tell you the trip is invalid after all or try to get more cash out of you

Ring up the American Airlines round the world specialist booking line and book direct with them over the phone. You will have to transfer the booking to the local Australian office to make payment. You will be charged far less for the surcharges since they do not levy anything like the same gross amount of fuel surcharges as QF do for each sector. They are unlikely to come back and tell you your booking is invalid or wrongly priced after helping you with the initial booking.

This does NOT stop you going on QF metal, getting upgrades etc.

AA RTW desk (US hours) dial international code for US and then 1800 247 3247 (you will get a recorded message telling you that the call is being charged at international rate). You'll then need to contact AA Sydney at 1800 673 486 to make payment using the booking reference code the rtw desk provide you with.

Consider only booking 16 sectors initially to avoid a paper ticket - add more later ($125 fee) if you really have to!!!

Give AA your QF frequent flyer number at initial booking.

Does anyone disagree with the above advice?!

Personally, the above advice I SHOULD have follwed myself and didn't to my extreme regret - QF subsequently screwed up a business class round the world trip two days before departure. QF sales are USELESS for these rtw bookings!!!

 

[Mwenenzi]

Your are allowed to go through your departure city . There was a rule to that effect but it was deleted several years ago. QF are wrong again. Look at this thread on FT.

From post 16 on the FT thread (POO = point of orgin):
A few hours later, he called back, saying he had some good news. He and a supervisor had eventually spoken to QF "Industry Sales", who after some discussion confirmed that POO stopovers are indeed allowed on a OWE itinerary, so I could go ahead and make my additional sector bookings.

 

[Hawkeye]

Remember also that you can only have 2 stopovers in Australia - I'm not sure which of the segments are stopovers v transits as you haven't elaborated.

You can return to the point-of-origin and continue on. I am sick of arguing with TA's/QF about this, so I now organise my xONEx's so that this "non-rule" becomes irrelevant.

And, yes I know that I could get around this problem (and save money) by ticketing with AA, but I prefer the convenience of dealing with it locally.

 

[rooboy68]

I'll give the AA RTW desk a try... thanks.

My itinerary with (transfers) is this:

BNE-MEL-BNE-SIN-LHR(transfer)MAD-DUB-LGW,LHR-JFK-LAX(transfer)SAN-DFW(transfer)IAH-DFW(transfer)LAX-BNE-MEL-BNE

If the point of origin issue continues I could just start the DONE4 in MEL instead I suppose.

As for the QF108 flight, I've noticed that BA fly direct from London to Houston (LGW-IAH), so might just pay for a WT+ seat, rather than mucking around with JFK and LAX just to use QF108 for a points upgrade.

 

[Keith009]

You have one too many stopovers in the South West Pacific. You're only allowed two stopovers in your continent of origin.

 

[Hawkeye]

You have one too many stopovers in the South West Pacific. You're only allowed two stopovers in your continent of origin.

Aren't there 4 stopovers?

BNE-MEL (1)
MEL-BNE (2)
LAX-BNE (3)
BNE-MEL (4)

The point at which you arrive from an intercontinental still counts as a stopover, doesn't it?

 

[Keith009]

Aren't there 4 stopovers?

BNE-MEL (1)
MEL-BNE (2)
LAX-BNE (3)
BNE-MEL (4)

The point at which you arrive from an intercontinental still counts as a stopover, doesn't it?

Yes there are 4 stopovers.

 

[rooboy68]

I did a DONE4 that started in AKL last year.

It began like this:

AKL-MEL for less than 24 hours (trans)-ADL(stop)-BNE(stop)-LAX etc

and ended coming in from HKG to BNE (stop) then on the AKL a few months later.

So that would be 3 stops in South West Pacific.

As I can now see that the rules clearly state 2 stops, I wonder when they changed??

 

[Hawkeye]

Eliminate one of the BNE-MEL-BNE trips and you'll be fine.

As to the other issue, as I understand it (and it is often debated) as long as your international flight to Australia is to be on QF, and on the same itinerary/ticket, then you may use QF108 JFK-LAX.

There are many wiser people here who will be able to confirm or dispute that.

 

[NM]

As I can now see that the rules clearly state 2 stops, I wonder when they changed??

That rule has been in the place with xONEx fares for as long as I have been using them (at least 6 years now). So you were very lucky to have it issued since it was an invalid routing.

 

[serfty]

... The point at which you arrive from an intercontinental still counts as a stopover, doesn't it?

No.

For the purposes of oneworld explorer and similar products, A stopover occurs within an itinerary:

• when a passenger is scheduled to arrive at an intermediate point and is not scheduled to depart within 24 hours of arrival.
• When a surface segment occurs.