LONE4 help please??

[andymoo]

Hi all.

I am planning a LONE4 trip for later this year (leaving in November, back in February) and wanted to check to see if there were any other hints for maximising flights/points etc.

Starting in Sydney, buying a separate ticket to AKL... Then:

AKL-LAX-JFK-DFW-SEA-ORD-IAD-LHR-CAI-LHR-BKK-KIX-HKG-SIN-SYD(-AKL)

I will probably use the AA Plat Challenge - will be booking AKL-LAX on the AA code... Will also have a couple of small side trips (LAX-SFO-LAX and LHR-MAN-LHR)

Online engine via QF quotes around $5,600 NZ which is just under $4,000 AU, which I think is pretty good value... Will it be any cheaper booking via AA?

I've scoured old threads etc and can't anything else - any suggestions??

Thanks for your help

 

[Alanslegal]

(I think) Base LONE4 ex-AKL fare is NZD$3,899. If booking via QF is $,5600, then the taxes, fuel charges, etc comes out to be NZD$1,700 (around AUD$1250) and that is in the upper end of taxes! I think you will easily save quite a few hundred dollars booking through AA.

 

[tuapekastar]

Looks pretty reasonable*, just shy of 40K miles. I think there is nearly always opportunity to add some miles, just depends on how badly you want 'em vs. your comfort level.

*There does not appear (as far as I can see) to be any oneworld service ORD-IAD (there are plenty to DCA or BWI), so you may need to use the 16th segment for surface travel between DCA/BWI and IAD). Also, curious why the AKL at the end is in brackets...that would just be the last segment of the LONE4?

I booked a DONE4 last year via phone to AA's ATW desk and the taxes/surcharges were considerably less doing it this way. I can't recall exact figures, but I did a dummy booking vias OW website, and the savings via AA were significant (as Alanslegal suggests, in the hundreds).

PS. Any transit (as opposed to stopover) at LHR will not attract the APD (or whatever it's called), a quite significant tax on departing (international) pax. It varies depending on cabin and distance flown)

PS again: If you're commencing the actual LONE4 in AKL, and are resident in Australia, be aware of this fare rule:

"When travel originates in a country for which a specific local currency fares is published and
the ticket is sold in another country, the fare will be that published for the country of origin
converted to the currency of the country of sale at the bank selling rate. The resultant fare
must not be lower than from the country of sale.
Exception: Not applicable for sales made and/or travel originating in Canada or when BOTH
travel originates and sales are made within the European Common Aviation Area
(ECAA)/Switzerland."

Effectively it is saying if you buy your ex-AKL LONE4 ticket in Australia, you pay the ex-Australia fare (in this case, base fare ex-Oz is AUD3899 versus ex-NZ ~AUD3003 - a considerable difference).

I looked like getting bitten by this, but was lucky enough second time around to the call centre (I politely asked the first agent to do nothing, and called again the next working day) to get an agent who did not question it.

Some people will book using NZ simcards in their phone when they make the call. My argument (quite legitimately IMHO) was going to be, should I have encountered another agent who wanted to charge me the ex-Oz price, that I was ticketing it via the New Zealand AA phone number - never mind that it seems to divert to a call centre in Brisbane - hence I was purchasing it in New Zealand. Fortunately I never needed to have that argument, and have no idea whether it was one I would have won (probably not).